Disclaimer: I do not own these characters they belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Masashi Kishimoto.
"No." Sasuke sneered, blunt in his reply. "I would never bring my son here, not near you."
"You insolent boy!" Homura barked. "How dare you insult me! You will never be released from duty until you bring forth this 'son' of yours." He sneered at the Uchiha.
Sasuke glared, angry. "Do you think that you can stop me, old fool?" His sharingan flared with his temper, the tri-commas spinning rapidly. He clenched his teeth in irritation when the old ninja laughed.
"You wouldn't get very far, boy. There is only one of you and dozens of Konoha ninja who would chase a rogue Uchiha." Homura smirked and intertwined his knobby fingers.
"That is enough!" Tsunade raged, infuriated at the man. How dare he! "You are not the one who declares rogue ninjas! We have been through this once already, Homura!" Her brown eyes sparkled with fury.
"And you, Tsunade-hime, cannot protect him! If he leaves without our permission, it will not matter if he is officially rogue! Many will still see him as such!" Koharu intervened, clucking her tongue at the younger woman.
The fifth Hokage stormed up to the two elders and slammed her hands onto the high table in front of them. "Listen to me very closely." She whispered, her tone deadly. "I am the Hokage, both of you are not. Would it not be easy for me to say that you had committed mutiny? That Sasuke was on a long mission? I could easily assign the brat a mission conveniently located near his son." She smirked, "Do not cause me to use force, Elder-san. You would lose."
Koharu's eyes widened and she stuttered, her wrinkled face crinkled in astonishment and fear.
"Lady Tsunade?" Sasuke spoke, his voice even and calm. "Do not put yourself on the line for me. I will bring Sukayu."
"Brat!" The blonde snapped, whipping around quickly. "Stay out of this!"
But Sasuke shook his head. "I will do it. It seems as if it would be much easier than this."
"Ha! See, Tsunade-hime, he does have sense after all!" Homura chuckled, thoroughly pleased with himself.
"I will do it, Elder-san, on one condition." Sasuke smiled, a dangerous, feral thing, and his eye lids fell to half-mast over the tri-commas of his swirling sharingan. "You allow the mother to come as well."
"Fine, fine." The elder waved his wrinkled hand in dismissal. "Do as you wish, just bring forth this so called Sukayu." He stood from his chair, an air of arrogance surrounding him. "Come, let us leave Koharu. Our work is done for the day." He led the way out of the room and shut the door behind them.
Sasuke caught a glimpse of gravity-defying silver hair before the doors closed completely and narrowed his eyes. 'You sneaky old bastard.' He snarled in his mind, 'Just how long were you listening?"
"Uchiha!" Tsunade called, breaking his train of thought. He focused his attention on the blonde Hokage and waited for his instructions.
"Why did you do that?" She glared at him, her lips pursed into a thin line. "Now, what will you do when you bring back the child and they still will not let you leave? If what you say is true, if your son is real, then they will never let you, or him, go."
Sasuke laughed darkly. "Lady Tsunade, I mean no disrespect, but I will never be forced to stay here by those damned old fools."
Tsunade's brown eyes widened slightly, then softened. Did he hate the village so much? The council perhaps? Or was this son truly real,? Was there a family that waited on the Uchiha to return?
"So be it, then. You will leave within the hour and return as soon as possible." She fell easily into her role as Hokage. She stressed the ending and increased the authority in her voice, knowing well enough that the Uchiha would be able to understand.
"Yes, Lady Hokage." The Uchiha nodded, time was of the essence after all.
-scene change-
"…and then Akamaru tackled him!" Kiba finished, grinning widely and stroking the large dog's head.
"I can't believe that!" Naruto roared with laughter, his whole body shaking with the force of each chuckle. His right arm grasped his waist, -attempting to stop the shaking- while the other clutched desperately onto the table -to stop himself from falling.
"It's true! I swear!" Kiba was lost in a fit of amusement as well. He waved his arms around above his head for a moment, as if that would make the blonde believe him.
The others around the table looked on, only slightly amused by the tale. They were all currently seated around a large low table in the local barbeque shop. In the center of the table was medium-sized charcoal pit, where a fire slowly roasted a various assortment of skewered meat.
"Yo!" Kakashi greeted as he pushed aside one of the dangling green flaps in front of the restaurant. His mask wrinkled as he smiled at the gathered group and took a spot between Yamato (a fairly new addition to their meetings) and Kurenai.
The teams tried to meet at least once a month, usually at a shop or restaurant, but, every now and then, they would meet at a training ground for a spare or two. It gave them a sense of togetherness, of still being teams. Even though they were generally separated on different missions and various village duties.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cheered, grinning at the older ninja. "Did you just get back from your mission?"
The silver haired man nodded, "Yes." His gloved hand reached forward and grabbed a skewer of barbequed beef. He slowly bit into the tender meat and turned to the older members of the group.
"There's something else as well." His tone was serious, enough so that the ones near straightened and listened with rapt attention.
"Kakashi?" Kurenai leaned closer, "Is something wrong?"
"No." The silver haired man shook his head. "No, I don't think so. It's more suspicious than anything else."
"Perhaps we should speak of it later? In private?" Asuma glanced around, noticing the sideways glances of the younger ninja as well as passers-by.
He glanced around as well and nodded slightly, nearly undistinguishable to those who weren't paying close attention. "Ah." He put down the-now clean- skewer and rubbed his stomach. "That was very delicious." His mask crinkled again.
Several people around him snorted- or shrugged slightly- and returned to previous conversations, though it seemed as if they were not nearly as loud as before.
-scene change-
"What is this about, Kakashi?" Kurenai confronted him again, once they were safely tucked away in one of the interrogation rooms of the Hokage Tower.
"Sasuke is resigning." The silver-haired nin was blunt and to the point. He took a seat in one of the various chairs surrounding a low-table. "And the elders are not happy. They are using all of their power to force him to stay."
"Resigning? How is that possible? He's not nearly old enough to resign. Does he have some form of injury he's kept hidden?" Yamato questioned, taking a seat across from Kakashi.
"Indeed the Uchiha has far too much youth and power for such a thing to happen!" Guy burst in from his spot near the end of the room. He was currently bending to his left and right, stretching out his calves and thighs.
Kakashi shook his head. "No. From what I could make out, Sasuke is attempting to use the obligation clause."
"The obligation clause?" Asuma leaned against the door frame, a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. "What sort of obligation are we talking about?"
Again, Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know. I had to leave for a while when a few of the ANBU guards nearly detected me. When I finally got back, the only thing I heard was Homura telling Sasuke to bring forth a person he called 'Sukayu'."
"Well, this is quite the incident." Asuma took a slow drag from his cigarette and released the nicotine filled smoke slowly.
"Indeed." Yamato and Kurenai agreed. "Correct!" Guy remarked, finished now with his leg exercises as he proceeded to his arms.
"What are we to do then? We all know that the Council will never let him go, at least not without a fight." Yamato said, facing Kakashi once more.
He sighed and nodded. "You're right, they won't just let him go, but I doubt there is much we can do. They have the upper hand here. We don't know who this person is or what sort of connection he has with Sasuke. All we can do is prepare for the worst.
The others agreed, knowing that the Council had far too much pride to all their last Uchiha to escape them.