Beyond War
By Om0cha.
Chapter 2: The Better Man
The Land of Whirlpools was a small island of hills and valleys, permanently shrouded in humid fog and well out of the way of any routes to surrounding countries. According to the maps kept under trap, lock and key within the Hokage's personal library, it could be located at roughly three days journey by boat from the Fire Country's Southern border. The island itself was entirely covered with seals that had weakened over the years but which were still active based on the accounts of a few daring and outlandish fishermen, speaking loudly and without humility of their escapades. As a result of these seals, the island was hidden from all except those who specifically sought it out.
Even knowing all of this, it had still been notoriously difficult to find.
Ragged-edged shadows were visible through the haze from the shoreline and it was towards these that Tsunade walked, leaving her small, wooden boat to roost on the pebbled beach behind her. The fog was thicker on the shores of the island than in its centre and the further onwards she walked, the more clear everything became, glowing eerily where the sunlight brokenly filtered through. After a small, sparse forest she reached the urban area.
Collapsed buildings, fallen lines and huge masses of other construction debris scattered what had once been a wide main street. As she stepped her way down a small, winding path that was at least partly debris-free, her gaze rolled across the faded, twisted signs that stuck out stiffly like needles from the remnants, some spattered with dried blood that had turned brown with age. The bodies that the blood had been shed from were long gone, whether through nature's course or taken by some other human, Tsunade wouldn't know.
The horizon in front of her was flat and it was plain to see that not a single building had been left standing in the city. She felt a delayed grief set in at this. To think that this was all that was left of her grandmother's birthplace. She had come here only once before in her childhood, sitting proudly on her grandfather's shoulders as they walked down the street and her grandmother showed her off to her people. That memory was of delight and fascination, a disbelieving adoration for the city of glowing tiles and azure pools that was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.
Her high heels clacked loudly on the now shattered tiles, the sound only accompanied by the perpetual trickling of water that seemed to flow everywhere in this place. It snaked under the rubble, into pits and down slopes, ending in small pools that swirled like mini whirlpools upon themselves. The city was slowly being reclaimed by nature.
Tsunade stayed wary but doubted that she would actually run into any threats here. The once legendary Land of Whirlpools was like no-man's-land, not to be tampered with lightly. As a descendant bearing one of the seals of the clan upon her forehead, she knew that she had at least some level of protection from any of the warning seals that the long dead clan may have left behind.
It took her awhile, but at the very edge of a blooming forest and next to a pool of water that was miraculously still crystal clear, she found the rubble of the tower that had once housed the country's diplomatic leaders. The shattered spiral that had adorned the front of the building lay cracked in half towards the front of the wreckage. She scanned for a place to start in the huge pile in front of her.
She paused and did a double take when she noticed that some metres into the centre of the mass there was an indenture, the wood around it piled higher than the surrounding area further out. Stumbling slightly over a few uneven hills, she made her way through the debris to that spot and could now clearly make out a hole that had been dug several metres down and into the solid ground beneath.
Someone had been there before her.
She leapt into the carved out space and landed neatly near the edge, steadying herself with one hand on the wall of twisted wood behind her. Crouching down so that she wouldn't block the dim light from illuminating the ground, she examined the surface carefully. Several small lines of troughs in the dirt caught her attention.
She bent over the middle to brush away some of the dirt to the side with the back of her fingers and a little of it seemed to fall in on itself and downwards instead, deepening the troughs on the surface. The ground beneath her was hollow and she quickly continued moving the dirt away with both palms, excited at what she may have discovered yet edgy with a growing trepidation at who may have found it before her. A few more wide sweeps later and she was hastily fanning away the small dust cloud that had been stirred up, a wooden plank door inset with a small ring handle now revealed in the earth. The metal of the handle in the door was as shiny as the day that it had been cast, a special quality of the Whirlpool Country's resources so as to stop rust from forming in the humid climate.
She ran her fingers along the smooth, metal ring and tugged at it experimentally. The door jerked without opening and a loud, magnified sound similar to that of sand in an hourglass suddenly came from below her, stopping when all the particles loosened by her action came to rest. The door remained harmless looking. The layer of dirt above it had been fairly thick and whoever the previous visitor had been they had come here a long time ago.
As she was pondering her next move, a sudden loud poof sounded from above her and brilliant, white smoke began wafting in copious quantities into the hole, making her withdraw her hand and look dubiously at the slowly flooding air around her.
"Tsunade-sama!"
Recognising the familiar voice with some surprise, she stood up and cranked her neck to look upwards, shielding her eyes with her hand against some bright sunlight that had sneaked through the haze. Perched precariously on a plank of wood hanging over the edge of the hole that she was in, a mini version of Katsuya was waving her antennae down at her, a small scroll stuck to her back.
"Katsuya," she exclaimed.
"I have a message from Konoha!" Katsuya called down to her, and the slug's body constricted as she prepared to jump into the hole. Tsunade hastily stopped her with a raised hand.
"Hold on a moment! I'll come up there instead."
She jumped back out easily to land behind her summon. Reaching down, she deftly plucked the scroll from the slime that Katsuya had used to bind it to herself, making sure to also move the slug away from the tilting wood. Straightening with the slightly damp scroll in hand, she felt a trickle of anxiety as she undid the seal on it and began unknotting the red string that kept it shut. Katsuya slowly rotated with several small backwards and forwards squelches until she was facing Tsunade.
"Did something happen in Konoha?" Tsunade asked. Sakura rarely used Katsuya to send messages. Her last contact with Konoha had been almost a year ago.
As the scroll's contents were revealed she was surprised to see not Sakura's neat writing, but the calligraphy-like script of Kakashi.
"Hokage-sama requested for Sakura to send this," Katsuya explained as Tsunade began reading. "It concerns Naruto-kun." Tsunade's manicured fingers gripped tightly onto the parchment as she read to the end of the short script.
"How certain are they about this information?" she demanded. She reread the message and the short excerpt from Gaara that Kakashi had included word for word, trying to ascertain just how much value she should place on this news.
"The Kazekage is already acting as we speak," Katsuya chirped, "but he sent a message to Konoha just in case something should happen. Tokoyo is very close to where Itachi Uchiha's edo-tensei was destroyed."
"I'm aware of Itachi's sealing," Tsunade murmured, frowning and lowering the scroll. She gave Katsuya a look that asked for confirmation from the slug. "I've heard a lot of rumours saying that Sasuke did it."
"There have been rumours like that in Konoha as well," Katsuya replied. "Sakura is already making preparations to depart for Tokoyo herself."
"I don't approve of that." Tsunade said swiftly. "Make sure that she doesn't go." She flexed her wrist and the scroll began to burn in her hands. The parchment withered away and the miniscule charred pieces that remained were allowed to fly from her fingers and into the debris.
"But…"
"Sakura should know that Madara is keeping her under close surveillance," Tsunade said as she lowered her hand. "If she suddenly leaves the village then it would be exactly the kind of thing that would put him on full alert. That's the last thing we want if by some miracle those two brats really are in Tokoyo."
"I understand. I will stop her."
The thought that Itachi had been destroyed by Sasuke was a definite possibility and Tsunade could quite understand her pupil's desperate need to investigate things for herself. She had once felt the same desire to chase after Orochimaru and Jiraiya respectively. However, she was having a great degree of difficulty believing that the young Uchiha would take such a risk near – if that was indeed the case –the place where he and Naruto were hiding. To be honest, she was a bit huffed that Gaara and Kakashi were placing so much weight on this without giving her a good reason. Kids. Couldn't they do things properly and without leaving potholes everywhere for her to fill in after them?
"The Hokage and Kazekage both think that this is the best lead we have," Katsuya said, correctly interpreting the silence and furrowed lines on Tsunade's face. "They want to get there and have a look around before Madara does the same thing."
Tsunade sighed. She had heard that line many times in the past few years. Needless to say, the many fruitless trips to all corners of the world had made her rather sceptical. The next time she saw Kakashi she would have to teach him something about using his extra eyes and ears well. At this rate he would end up with a mutiny in his office.
Though she was slightly mollified by the sure thought that at least Madara would be feeling equally if not more frustrated. The man had already waited a century after all, and she could empathise with old age. She couldn't help a smirk and shook her head to herself. The eyes on the top of Katsuya's antennae blinked concernedly at the deliberating woman that only waved her hand flippantly in reply.
"Tell Kakashi that I will meet with Gaara and look into it. But," she intonated sternly, "go back and make sure that he gets a proper report on this to me before I reach Tokoyo. If he is wrong again, I will not be happy."
Katsuya clearly interpreted that to mean that Kakashi would end up with a very livid woman in his office, and it would be a significantly scarier version of Sakura. Regular visitors to the Hokage Tower bemoaned the day that Sakura had been made assistant to the Hokage. What with the combination of an obsessively strict assistant and overly relaxed Lord, peace in the place was even less than when Naruto and Tsunade had terrorised it in combo. Katsuya quivered at the time that she had been summoned by Tsunade, only to be thrown over the table and at the other screeching blonde.
"Understood."
"I will see you soon, then. Thank you Katsuya." Tsunade nodded curtly, glint in eye. She trusted that Katsuya would get that report to her, even if the slug had to beat Sakura into going to beat up Kakashi for it.
Katsuya waved her antennae lazily again. "Take care Tsunade-sama." She disappeared with a distinctly wet pop and another large plume of wafting smoke.
After she had gone, Tsunade set her sights back on the trapdoor as the smoke blew past her on a light breeze. The dark wood and metal glinted mysteriously up at her from through the white. At least this particular voyage might yield something and with a deep breath, she braced herself to get past what she was almost sure would be a mini obstacle course underneath that door.
Well, grandmother. You always did want me to learn more of your jutsu.
Sasuke could feel the urge for bloodshed clawing like a starved animal in the back of his mind, turning his eyes crimson whenever the creature won a little bit over rationality. The Zetsu that he had massacred earlier were like a warm-up, giving him a taste of what more he might receive now. Better yet, it was the Kazekage standing before him, who at the very least should provide him with a chance for some proper training, if not act as a decent opponent. With difficulty, he fought down the animalistic urges and forced his fingers away from where they had edged to halfway towards his Kusanagi's handle.
When he felt uncertain of things it was an impulsive instinct of his to annihilate and just get rid of the problem. Normally it worked, too, and there was no evidence a quick fireball could not erase afterwards. Something told him however, that if the Kazekage wound up missing (and presumably dead) and his last known direction was towards a small town in the very corner of the shinobi nations, there would be at least some repercussions to follow. It didn't really matter anyway. This was his territory, not the sandy deserts of Suna, nor the battlefields where shinobi called Gaara 'general'. He could afford to shelve his bloodlust for a little while longer if necessary.
Keeping his eyes trained on the other, Sasuke allowed himself to inwardly marvel at how much Gaara changed each time they met. First the unstable assassin, then the altruistic Kage, and now as something in between the two – because Sasuke was sure that the other would not be so lenient to him again. War tended to do that to a person, he had seen it enough to know. No matter how strong the personality had been before, the grime of war would taint and obscure it until every person was the same, battle-hardened drone. Gaara and everyone else couldn't hold a candle to his own stubborn personality though, which had been on the extremely antagonistic side of the spectrum every time, fuelled not by war but by his near lifelong ambition for revenge, a taxing strain to have had since he was a child. However, whether it be by ignorance or foolish bravery, Gaara pertinently disregarded this and stood calmly across from him as the wind began to pick up amongst the leaves.
"You have always been very irrational when it comes to your brother," Gaara said passively to him, picking deliberately at the seams that had only very recently been mended. "Very predictable. You can be sure that I will be only the first of many people coming here to investigate in the next few weeks."
Sasuke thought nothing of the jibe and instead measured the distance between them. He may have been arrogant but he planned well given the necessity and rarely underestimated his enemies. Sarcasm belied his response as with satisfaction, he marked their distance as being such that he could easily move into a short or long range degree at a whim.
"When did you and I reach such a level of understanding?"
Gaara lips curved up very slightly at the edges. Sasuke's eyes darted up to observe the movement, pondering how foreign the expression was on the other, and not only because he hadn't seen him in 7 years. Like himself, Gaara had matured well. The Kazekage that had once been even shorter than Naruto was now of a very solid height and masculine stature, perhaps even taller than Sasuke.
"Even now, you labour under the belief that you are so different to everyone else," Gaara said. Sasuke bristled and grit his back teeth at the words that he had once heard in a different lifetime from Kakashi."I once told you that we are the same," Gaara continued without notice. "We've both seen the darkness in this world, but I saw that sliver of light…once."
"Naruto, huh?"
Gaara didn't try to avoid Sasuke's oddly unblinking eyes and if there was a genjutsu then he was already in it.
"We are similar in that respect as well," he said.
"You say that we are similiar. I assume then that you know what I am thinking right now."
"I would safely wager that you are considering killing me," Gaara answered calmly.
Sasuke regarded him wordlessly for a moment. Gaara's infuriatingly blank expression was somehow even worse than the first time he'd seen it, when Gaara had still been an uncontained murderer.
"Am I right?"
Sasuke's eyes flashed. The red tint took over and the air around him crackled with lightning.
"Are you that eager to die?" he asked lowly, slowly releasing and letting his chakra have more rein than he'd allowed it for a month.
"You don't scare me, Uchiha."
Gaara's sand had instinctively responded to the threat with no thought of his own and it was now floating in sluggish sheets around his body. "This mission is far too important for me to walk away from empty handed."
Sasuke stretched out his own arms in front of himself. For anyone else it would be an almost fatal move that left his chest area exposed and his hands far from any weapons or each other to form a seal with. He actually saw Gaara briefly consider what opening could be made out of his stance. Useless.
"I suppose you expect me to just hand Naruto over to you?" he asked sardonically. The words brought Gaara's attention back up to his face. He saw the first taint of some unknown emotion enter teal eyes as he continued goading him.
"Give me one good reason why I should allow you of all people to the Kyuubi? I'm sure that whatever you could offer me, Madara would give tenfold."
Gaara had recollected whatever it was that had surfaced and he did not show it if Sasuke's callous suggestions of his old teammate's worth disturbed him. "Perhaps you are right," he said instead. "I should be thankful that you aren't willing to give him up so easily or else Madara would have already executed his plan. But given what has happened recently, I believe that Naruto would be safer with the alliance. He should come back to us."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously so that the red glowed, slit-like.
"You have some nerve saying that," he growled. He hadn't only been hiding from Madara. He had been just as determined to keep a single blonde hair from being glimpsed by anyone in the shinobi army. He was sure that Gaara knew this too, otherwise Sasuke would have easily contacted any of them in the past seven years.
"We can give him the best protection," Gaara insisted. "We have been preparing for his return."
"So you believe that your jutsu exceed my own." Sasuke flexed one hand in the other and scowled darkly. "It seems that I have been underestimated."
"Far from it."
Gaara took a step forward and held one hand out to Sasuke, a peaceful action. With it, Sasuke was reminded of how much Naruto had impacted upon this man's life, taking him from a solitary existence. If it weren't for Naruto then no one alive would have a care for Sasuke's own wellbeing, either. As it was, it wasn't a genuine concern that these people held for him and so he similarly felt nothing as he looked at that outstretched hand.
"We want you to come back as well," Gaara said. Slick agreeability cloaked a personal desire, practised many times on disagreeable daimyos and councilmen. "I don't know what deal you had with Naruto but you will still be able to keep it. The alliance will welcome the both of you."
"Where have I heard that before?" Sasuke asked sarcastically, throwing the hand a contemptuous look. "I don't think that you are telling me the entire truth, Kazekage. I am sure that the Raikage for one, would not let me off so easily."
"This isn't the time for pettiness. The both of you are in danger right now. The Raikage knows that and we hope that you can understand as well. If you come back quietly then you have my guarantee as the Kazekage that you won't be threatened."
"I would have never thought it before, but diplomacy suits you. However," tired of the tattle, Sasuke flicked his fingers near his ear and Gaara watched the action inquisitively, "you should be careful when speaking with someone that has better bargaining power than you."
The wind around them blew into a gust and the clouds in the sky grew dark within seconds, moving much too fast over them to be considered natural. Gaara looked up and appraised the spectacle, impressed by the eerie atmosphere that Sasuke had effortlessly created.
"Like Naruto used to say," he commented offhandedly, "you never fail to show off."
A bolt of blue lightning abruptly zigzagged a path down the air and struck a tree not too far from them. There was a multitude of cracks and screeches before the smell of burning wood reached them soon after. The unstable glow of Sasuke's eyes was more obvious in the darkness now that the sunlight had been blotted out.
"My jutsu aren't only for show."
Gaara took his eyes from the sky raging above them and his expression turned stony, regrettable.
"It is the Kages' sincere wish that both you and Naruto return unharmed," he said. "But like I said before, I don't fear you, Sasuke." Gaara's hand twitched by his side. "If you refuse to cooperate then I will be forced to do what is best for my people. Even if it means destroying you to take Naruto back."
A rush of hot fury suddenly raced up Sasuke's body and his blank expression darkened, something thunderous lining it.
Gaara tensed at the change in the Uchiha's demeanour and moved to lift his hand. The next thing he knew, something decidedly strong had connected with his stomach and he went crashing through the trees behind him, his sand trailing belatedly after. He landed with a grunt and a loud crash in a crater of dirt and fallen wood, coughing a few times as the dust from the impact cleared and his sand danced around him in a weak appearance of trying to comfort him. A shadow growing in size on the ground made him sharply raise his left hand instinctively. Sand went whipping past him and up to meet the Uchiha as the raven fell towards him, katana held out and ready to strike by his side.
"If you are so confident," Sasuke hissed, "then show me how you would defend yourself against the Sharingan."
The plug of the gourd on Gaara's back flew off and his speciality sand began leaking out, scouting out the source of the threat.
"Do not force my hand, Sasuke."
Sasuke sneered in his mind as he watched Gaara retaliate with predominantly his sand. A shinobi may have a so called ultimate technique but it would never last. That had been what Itachi had taught him. At some point a crack in either its execution, positioning or very nature would be exposed and then the entire world would know and manipulate the weakness to their advantage. To survive, a shinobi must be mutable. And unfortunately for Gaara, Sasuke had already cracked his ultimate defense during the Chuunin exams all those years past.
"I see nothing that I haven't seen before," he said dismissively, rising slowly from the crouch that he had landed in after a particularly large mountain of explosive sand had attempted to –almost successfully – smother him. "Show me how much you've improved these past seven years," he commanded.
He could not help but be only a bit impressed when not long later, Gaara eased the mundane repetitiveness of the fight by sending a glittering blue constellation of a dragon at him, the creature large enough to easily swallow him whole. It was a wind element jutsu however and although his chidori would have been snuffed out like a candle, his clan were almost as renowned for their fire jutsu as they were for their eyes. Naruto had thoroughly belted it into him that wind only strengthened fire.
At first it seemed like the fireball he expelled would be overwhelmed. It was so much smaller than Gaara's jutsu. Then he grinned maliciously when two fiery tails of flame burst forth, becoming wings as another flare rose to form the phoenix's neck and head, bright orbs glowing where the eyes should be. If only his father could see him now; that lake that they used to practise on would not even exist anymore. The two roaring jutsu met head on and Gaara was forced to jump from his platform before his own countered jutsu could hit him.
"Susanoo." The godlike creature instantly materialised at his command, coming up from the ground to envelop him in its purple glow.
Gaara could only hold his arms in front of himself in a brace when Susanoo's huge hand came swinging out from the remnants of his failed jutsu to strike him. He was flung up into the air and when he removed his arms, his eyes widened at the sight of Sasuke appearing above him, black hair hanging just in his vision. He recognised the move and it was easy to see that Sasuke was mocking him with attacks that had been developed when he was 12.
His ultimate defence was able to block the first blow of the Shishi Rendan but Sasuke's speed had only improved exponentially since the Chuunin exams. The Uchiha twisted 180 degrees in the air and Gaara felt the kick beneath him nearly shatter his spine. The second landed on his navel and as air whistled past his ears, he knew that he had been knocked a long way. It was no longer forest flying beneath him but rows of houses and streets which were getting gradually closer. Before he could be allowed to twist and land on his feet however, Sasuke tracked him and sent another perfectly aimed kick at the base of his neck. Caught unaware, he crashed straight down into the centre of Tokoyo.
"Your stamina has gotten better." Sasuke leered as Gaara groaned and slowly extracted himself from the end of a long track they'd made in the street. Sasuke had landed lightly on the edge of a nearby rooftop, his katana retrieved and back in its sheath from when Gaara's sand had managed to yank it out of his grasp.
Gaara spat out a mouthful of blood, stumbling a few times as he felt and tested the several cracks that Sasuke had made in a few of his bones. His eyes slid to both sides of the street to see villagers standing all around them, all of them watching the fight with oddly vacant expressions. He turned back to Sasuke whose own lips were curled smugly at the edges. The black tomoes in his eyes had transformed into pinwheels that Gaara was sure Sasuke hadn't had during the fight at the Kage Summit.
"That Sharingan," he said, his right arm clutching the joint between his neck and left shoulder, "To think that you could do something like this without the Juubi."
"So you noticed. You are a fool for entering Tokoyo while knowing that, Gaara," Sasuke replied, tilting his chin down at him from the rooftop. "This entire town is under my genjutsu. You have no chance in my world." More people were appearing in the streets around Gaara from every corner.
"How?"
"Madara's plan intended to use the moon to project his genjutsu over the world." Sasuke turned his head casually to the right and Gaara followed his gaze to see the slopes of the large mountain range that they had been on before. He understood instantly as Sasuke uttered, "These mountains are perfect for projecting a smaller scale genjutsu."
Turning back to the Kazekage, Sasuke tilted his head to the side. Despite the mocking stature Gaara saw nothing in Sasuke's eyes at all. Like everything was just passing before the Uchiha, but not important enough to make a blemish on his thoughts.
"Not that any of this will matter to you," Sasuke said derisively. He turned his cold look upon the villagers, all standing still like puppets waiting for the strings that would bring them to life. The red in his eyes flickered and glowed.
The shinobi standing among the villagers sprang forth and ran towards Gaara. The Kazekage lifted his sand shield to block the kunai that were flung from the dozen or so attackers. The weapons sank uselessly into the sand before sliding slowly to the ground. The Tokoyo shinobi were much slower than Sasuke and none of the attacks were able to get past. Gaara gradually encased himself until he was surrounded by a sphere, and was about to levitate it when the familiar sound of screaming birds reached his ears.
Through it, he could still hear the throng of Tokoyo shinobi milling close around him and trying to penetrate the sand wall with kunai and katana. The sound of chirping grew closer yet the villagers never moved away. His eyes widened and he tried to levitate the sand as quickly as he could with the weight of all the shinobi upon it.
He didn't move fast enough and there were several sickening crunches followed by the heavy splatters of some thick and viscous liquid dripping down upon the ground. He stared in abject horror at the sand in front of him, watching as some of it fell down in chunks from the force of the chidori. He covered one of his own eyes with two fingers as he activated his sand eye outside of the barrier. Slowly, vision came to him.
"You…"
He swallowed, feeling fury for the first time directed at Sasuke. It was not even remotely at Madara or at the twisted circumstances that had led to everything going wrong in the first place. This was all purely because of Sasuke.
"If Naruto could see you now, he'd never have tried so hard to save you," he spat.
Through his sand eye, he watched with a chill as Sasuke pulled his bloody hand from a body that had been in the way of his chidori reaching him. Uncaring of the blood dripping down his arm –nauseatingly red up to his elbow –Sasuke stepped closer to the sand sphere and the floating eye, almost level with it. Despite himself, Gaara moved back from the wall in front of him.
The next thing he knew, he was standing outside the sphere in the place where his sand eye had been. Confusion marred his mind but he quickly displaced it when he saw Sasuke recklessly charging his chidori current again, this time along the length of his kusanagi. Sasuke wasn't looking at him.
"You are a better man than me," Sasuke said hollowly, inspecting his own jutsu with great interest as it grew in size. His eyes darted to the right and sharply bringing his hand up, his elongated kusanagi grew even longer and stabbed through a woman standing some metres away, the smell of her sizzling flesh instantly flooding Gaara's nostrils. She collapsed with a gurgle as the current sent her blood flow haphazardly in the opposite direction, a large amount of it leaving her body through her mouth.
Gaara tried to send his sand to protect the next person that Sasuke aimed for, an older man that was only a civilian. For some reason it refused to heed his command and he watched helplessly as blood spurted from a deep slice across the man's throat, which crackled intermittently as some lightning continued to course through him.
"How can you protect anyone, when you are so weak?"
This was a genjutsu, Gaara knew that much. There was no other explanation for why his body felt so weightless, why he could see and vaguely comprehend yet be unable to find and execute the right path of action that should follow.
For however long it was, he could only watch as Sasuke slaughtered strategically, demonstrating a wide variety of ways that he could use his katana and chidori combination to end a life. There was a guilt welling up in Gaara because the nauseousness rising in his throat wasn't so much from grief, but from the selfishness that he identified in himself when he thought of how helpless he was under the present circumstances. Sasuke could do anything at all in this world of his.
He was taken out of it and jerked roughly back to reality when a sharp pain blossomed in his chest, and he craned his neck downwards to see a katana tip going through him. All the blood and bodies around him disappeared, leaving only the red liquid dripping down from the point of the blade through his right lung.
Sasuke watched from behind as Gaara slumped forwards, going out like a baby. He stood stiffly without moving for a moment to confirm that he really was unconscious and then roughly pulled his katana out. Without the blade to anchor his body, Gaara slumped forward a bit more and a small puddle of blood began pooling on the ground beneath his motionless form. Perhaps he had overdone it a bit.
Gaara should just be thankful he was alive.
Sighing, he had a few of the shinobi approach the redhead while he himself went to find Naruto, who would doubtless make him think more carefully about what had just transpired. The village shinobi would heal Gaara for him and after he had implanted a different set of memories in his mind, the Kazekage would be on his way back to Suna, and hopefully out of their lives.
Shishou,
Gaara never ended up sending the code that he said he would. Something has happened and I'm certain that Sasuke and Naruto are in Tokoyo.
Please be careful. I don't know what Sasuke is capable of anymore.
Sakura.
Sasuke may have been horribly cruel at times but he was still doubtlessly human, albeit a significantly more hardened individual than most. Personally, he felt that he was justified.
Sometimes, he would acknowledge his humanity with a great regret. He had once tried to turn himself into a weapon. That dark ploy had been cracked open and filled instead by the cathartic, raging forces that were his older brother and best friend. Since then he had resigned himself to the fact that attachment to certain things was unavoidable and almost sure to come with time, but just because they might come didn't mean that he would embrace them with open arms.
He had once forced himself to lock away the memory that he might still, somewhere, have felt love for Itachi, a successful feat up until their final battle brought forth the fleeting image of Itachi's tears behind the blockade in his mind. He had, several times, downright tried to kill Naruto when their relationship threatened his other ambitions, and just look where they were now. And then he had attempted to destroy Konoha, with the result that he vowed never to swear his allegiance to a village ever again.
It wasn't an easy realisation for Sasuke when he asked himself why, against all rational thought, he and Naruto were still in Tokoyo a day after his clash with Gaara.
True to Gaara's words, many more shinobi came to Tokoyo over the next few days. The majority of them were weak however, and Sasuke continued to move freely around under the large genjutsu that had been woven like a dome over the populace. Most of the unwelcome visitors were either nobodies of the shinobi alliance or bounty hunters from the rebel forces, both groups the same as far as Sasuke was concerned and seeking only fame or money for self-gain. Sasuke told himself that the strength of the genjutsu on Gaara would be more than enough to make the Kazekage act in his favour and that soon enough, all of these annoyances would start heading off to some other region that would be breathed lightly from Gaara's lips, almost like an accident.
The first nick in his speculations came with the arrival of a person that he had known only briefly before he left Konoha, but who he was aware that Naruto held a great deal of affection for. The ex-fifth-Hokage and slug princess, Tsunade, wandered into Tokoyo some three days after Gaara had been loaded off and Sasuke retreated into the forest after that, waiting for her to leave Tokoyo when she found nothing. Instead and to his chagrin, she took up quarters at a small inn with no indication that she would be departing anytime soon.
News of the worst kind finally came a few more days after that, when the single Tokoyo shinobi bearing it found Sasuke while he was meditating near the stream at midday. Sasuke sat on the rock and listened listlessly to the report of a sudden increase in the number of Zetsu in the 20 kilometre radius surrounding the town over the past hour, the abominations neither attacking nor moving around but rather, loitering where they had appeared. He only really set the gears of his mind into action after dismissing the man with a careless wave of his hand. He made his decision within minutes and returned to the cave.
"We have to leave. Madara will be arriving soon."
Sasuke lightly touched Naruto's cheek with his fingertips as if seeking permission, lingering there for a scant moment before he moved away and set about making preparations for their departure.
"We're really leaving? What about the villagers?"
The youngest Naruto tugged with a pout on the jacket sleeve of the teenage version, who cast a serious look down at him. The two apparitions watched in silence as Sasuke began collecting the several items that had been scattered around the cave, sealing them one by one into a scroll. Some brushes and ink, a book, some candles and his spare cloak were just a variety of the random collection that he hadn't bothered to put away normally because he used them on an almost daily basis. They were all quickly sealed one by one into successive areas of the long parchment, vanishing with small poofs of smoke between his hands each time.
"There's nothing I can do for them," Sasuke said bluntly when he was finished. He rolled up the filled scroll and pulled the knot tight with his teeth before pushing it carelessly into the back pocket of the black travelling pants that he had changed into. "Madara will see through any genjutsu that I cast over this place."
"Then at least let them know he's coming! They can still escape," the youngest Naruto exclaimed, breaking away from the hand on his shoulder. He spun on the spot to keep his eyes on Sasuke as he swept past him to Naruto's body. "Or better yet, use that sharingan of yours and make them escape right now."
Sasuke sighed impatiently, deftly fastening the sandal buckles around Naruto's ankles before moving back up and lifting the blonde's upper body so that he could pull a long, hooded cloak around him. "That won't work," he replied dismissively, his fingers tugging the two sides of the cloak front together and flicking the clasp at the neck. "The moment they all start to scatter from here my control over them will weaken. I'll lose control altogether not too long after that and when they come to their senses they'll just return here."
"There has to be something we can do! We can't just let them die!"
"Give it up, Naruto. It's either you or them, and you know what my decision is."
"I'd prefer you save them," Naruto retorted stubbornly.
Sasuke now glared at the 8 year old, mid-reach in gathering the blonde's body up. "Are you telling me," he said in a low voice, "that you would prefer to be captured so that Madara can destroy not only this village, but every other wretched country that he sets his sights on?" He ignored the orange clad blonde that spluttered in protest and focused on the cloaked blonde instead.
He raised the hood up to hide Naruto's bright, blonde hair and then lifted the dormant male completely from the ground, pleasantly surprised that the other was slightly heavier than he had been the last time he carried him. He stood up and went down the steps, letting Naruto's head loll laxly on his own chest so as to avoid possible strain on the neck area. Naruto may have healed quickly in the past but with his chakra sealed, Sasuke had a great suspicion that his current healing ability would be close to nil.
It was at the thought of healing ninjutsu that a person's name suddenly darted across his mind. He hurriedly quashed it but was unable to help the drop in his stomach that told him he was too late and that the damage had been done.
With Naruto's weight comfortable in his arms, he walked past the two apparitions and was prepared to leave when the 12 year old Naruto stiffened suddenly. Sasuke felt the movement behind him and he too, tensed up and regarded him warily.
"Tsunade-baachan…?" Naruto asked curiously, his voice hushed. He turned his head to the cave wall on his right.
Sasuke frowned deeply and knew that the other was concentrating on where Tsunade's chakra signature currently was, pulsing gently in the inn near the residential area at the base of the mountains. He grit his teeth as the young Naruto smiled.
"It is Baachan!"
The ghostly blonde looked at Sasuke with excited, blue eyes that hadn't been seen ever since this whole apparition thing started. Sasuke found himself momentarily caught up in them and his grip on the real Naruto was loosening beneath that gaze. Until the blonde's high pitched voice informed him yet again with unnecessary eagerness, "The old hag's here!"
Indeed she was, and with his eardrums ringing Sasuke gave a growl of frustration at her chakra signature, which was leaving the inn and exploring just a bit too close for comfort. They really did have to leave right now. He would just have to sneak them out without her noticing, and he kept on walking stolidly towards the cave entrance.
"Oh, no you don't bastard!"
The youngest Naruto had disappeared again, leaving only the 12 year old that now stood with a fierce glower between Sasuke and the entrance to the antechamber. Sasuke merely shifted Naruto's body in his arms and returned the other's expression with a displeased one of his own.
"You are not leaving Baachan here to die," the young Naruto hissed at him, his arms held up horizontally next to him to block the entrance.
"Don't be ridiculous. You have no power to stop me in that form," Sasuke scoffed and he made to move around, or if necessary, through the other.
"I will never forgive you if you do!"
The Uchiha halted on the upper step, right next to the blonde spectre that had lowered his arms and was now torturing him with something of a desperate plea in his large eyes. The apparition's hands were wringing themselves like he was longing to grab onto Sasuke instead. Faint disbelief mixed with the annoyance on Sasuke's face.
"Do you know what you're saying? Madara is making his way here now."
The 12 year old snapped in reply. "I know what I said. I said that I won't forgive you if you don't save Baachan. But more importantly," he jerked his head in a small motion at the still one in Sasuke's hold, "he will never forgive you."
Sasuke looked down at Naruto's face, staring at the calm features that were in stark contrast to the enraged figure beside him. Then after a long moment he snarled and took long strides back to the steps at the rear of the cave. He managed to put Naruto back down on the stone gently before again stalking like an angry storm to the antechamber.
"Half an hour," he snapped as he walked past the young Naruto. "We are leaving then, whether she leaves or not." Naruto's loud voice echoed after him.
"Then you had better do a darn great job of convincing her bastard!" it called.
Sasuke travelled quickly down the mountainside, encouraged by the extremely unflattering feeling of not knowing exactly how close Madara was to them. Tsunade had left the inn and was also similarly getting closer to him, albeit at a slower pace and with several tangents into other streets along the way. Impatient, Sasuke sent out a small blast of chakra and as expected, her movement froze for a second before she began racing rapidly towards him.
They met somewhere at the base of the mountains. The first visual sign of the woman came when Sasuke was forced to drop from the branch that he had been intending to land on and instead twist in the air to land on the sloping ground below. He looked up just in time to see a yellow and green flash flicker past the space that he had been in and go crashing into the tree upstream, splitting the trunk with a huge crack and sending wood chips and dust into the air. The air whistled and glowed green through the haze with the force behind the fifth Hokage's punch and if it weren't for his reflexes, Sasuke was sure that the blow would have incapacitated him for months, if not permanently. The woman jumped from her own branch and landed across from Sasuke, her back to him.
"Uchiha…" Tsunade turned around slowly, the green glow receding from her hands as she pinned Sasuke with a pair of furious amber eyes. "What the fuck do you think you're doing here?" she barked out.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the unexpected greeting. He had been expecting something demanding from the woman but it had been more along the lines of what Gaara had wanted from him. He always had had a sneaking suspicion that the blonde woman was slightly strange.
"We," he uttered slowly and carefully, lifting his hand magnanimously, "were leaving."
"Leaving, he says," the woman muttered under her breath, running a hand through her hair as she looked up at the tree tops with exasperation. "For God's sake, they say you're a genius. I never thought that you would be this stupid. It must be Naruto's doing."
Sasuke remained silent as he processed the rather surreal circumstances that had led to his long abandoned Hokage insulting him like a displeased teacher with an infamous delinquent. He concluded that it was Naruto's fault for not letting them just get out of there. He knew that the blonde idiot attracted people like an addiction. If it had been anyone other than Tsunade, whom Sasuke figured Naruto viewed as something of a motherly figure, he would have just ignored the guilt-tripping Naruto's and been out of there already.
"You're really here in Tokoyo."
The woman had continued ranting during Sasuke's temporary lapse to scold Naruto in his mind and in that time, she had left a sizeable dent in the ground from her relentless pacing. It was rather impressive that she could keep her chakra flowing so effortlessly and without care for its waste. He was getting sidetracked and he tuned back into her lecturing only to hear, "You really sealed Itachi mere miles away from your hiding place?"
He rolled his eyes and the woman exploded.
"Why didn't you leave straightaway! You fool! Madara is on his way here for Naruto right now!" Her eyes darted to Sasuke's side and behind him, as if noticing Naruto's absence for the first time. "Where is Naruto?" she demanded.
"Look," Sasuke snapped, his patience worn thin. He had never taken well to criticism, another thing that he'd have to thank Itachi and his father for. "I have managed to keep Naruto away from Madara for the past 7 years. I intend to continue doing just that. I don't know what it is you're expecting, but I have no reason to trust you or listen to anything you have to say. We wouldn't even be having this nice little chat if it wasn't for Naruto."
"What?"
"Naruto refuses to leave unless he knows you're safe," he grunted begrudgingly, not wanting her to labour under the disillusion that he personally had any care for her safety at all. Tsunade appeared confused.
"He's unsealed?"
"…No." Sasuke rubbed his brow with his fingers, not wanting to go into an explanation of his less than sightly habits when it came to Naruto. "He's still sealed."
Tsunade looked concerned and Sasuke was sure that as a medical ninja, she was already shrewdly considering the possibility that he might not be completely sane.
"I'm not going to waste anymore time talking to you," he exhaled bluntly as her mouth opened and he dropped his hand from his face. "I only came to tell you this. I want you out of this town, now. If you value your life then you'll leave. There's no point in you staying here anyhow, since you know that me and Naruto won't be here for much longer." He turned around, cloaking his chakra so that she wouldn't be able to follow him.
"Wait!" Tsunade stepped forward quickly. "Take me to Naruto," she said.
"The two of us will leave alone," Sasuke said instantly. He turned his head and looked at her warningly, daring her to try and follow. "I don't trust you."
"Just…" Tsunade sighed. "Sasuke, let me see him. Please?" Sasuke would not be convinced.
"The alliance wants the Kyuubi as their own," he accused. "You may not be the Hokage anymore but your loyalties lie with your village, as they always have." Tsunade winced at the veiled reference to her decision to kill Naruto rather than let Madara gain control, and Sasuke relished sadistically in the guilt that he inflicted.
"I'm not giving your people another chance," he said coldly, and his eyes took on an unstable glint. "Everyone important to me has been destroyed by Konoha. I would never raise a finger to help them, even if they begged me."
"Sasuke, if I knew that there was another option I would have leapt on it," Tsuande said, trying to console him. "As things are, I regret allowing the order back then." She gestured around them. "If I had trusted Naruto more, perhaps the world wouldn't be where it is today."
"And now? Now that there's no going back, I suppose you're just going to continue with the original plan?" Sasuke's voice slowly raised in volume with his anger at what they had almost done. They had almost sentenced Naruto to the same punishment that Konoha had bequeathed upon his entire clan. "You'll just lock him up somewhere and kill him if Madara ever gets too close again! All for the so called 'greater good!'" he sneered.
"You know nothing about—"
"I don't want to hear it," he snarled. "Accept the reality that no one else can keep Naruto safe like I can. Not a single one of your people would be willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives for him like I can. Only I can do that," his lips twisted deprecatingly, "because I don't care about the greater good like the rest of you."
Tsunade lashed out suddenly in retaliation. "You don't know what I felt when I heard that Naruto had disappeared! Uchiha, you are not the only person who cares about him, although I would have once thought that you would be the last!" she spat. Realising her loss of composure, she took several deep breaths to calm herself as Sasuke remained unperturbed.
She shook her head and looked at Sasuke with a grimace, her own amber gaze suddenly desperate as she tried to plead her sincerity. "The moment Inoichi told me that you and Naruto were gone, I knew that I was no longer fit to be Hokage. I was on your side ever since you took Naruto away. I can no longer serve the interests of the alliance. Sasuke, please. I'm only asking to see him, nothing more."
Sasuke's better judgement told him that the woman was speaking the truth. However, absolutely nothing would convince him to let anyone travel with him and Naruto. In his eyes she was a potential liability and he voiced these thoughts cruelly to her. For a moment, Tsunade looked shattered at the accusation that she was of absolutely no use in protecting one of her most precious people and she appeared ready to argue. But beneath Sasuke's resolute, hardened glare and the urgency that called for the other two to leave Tokoyo immediately, she resigned their silent battle in disappointment.
"Then go," she said tiredly. As Sasuke made to open his mouth she interrupted, "I'll be leaving soon too, now that there's nothing left for me here. Just keep that brat safe. But," she took a scroll from the small pack that she wore around her waist and held it out to Sasuke, "at least take this. I found it in the Whirlpool country."
Sasuke tensed and she continued, "I know that you were there before me, don't try telling me otherwise. You've probably already figured out how to unseal Naruto." She lifted the scroll, a very old one with curled, browning edges. "This scroll contains some jutsu that I found while I was there," she explained. "I used a specific one to get here from Whirlpool. It is similar to the fourth Hokage's Thunder God technique and will allow you two to escape quickly."
"…Thank you." Sasuke took the scroll, neglecting to tell her that most of the jutsus from the Whirlpool country were only workable by people of the Uzumaki bloodline. Tsunade nodded, hand lowering back to her side.
"I don't care what you say," she said defiantly, "but the next time we meet, you will let me see Naruto." She took a step back, letting him go, and Sasuke knew that only the threat of Madara appearing at any moment was making her so agreeable.
He smirked and shook his head at the ground before he jumped backwards and up into the trees. "Perhaps," he called back mockingly. He gave her one last arrogant glance before he disappeared.
Tsunade stared wistfully at the branch that he had been on before she turned and walked back into the town.
Only you can save me and Toto from the Wicked Witch of the East! Please! Drop reviews on her head!
Until next time :)