Who Needs a Princess, When You Can Have a Queen?
Silver's Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. In this chapter, we jump several years into the future. Unless otherwise indicated in a flashback, four years have passed since the last chapter. Oh and yes for those of you wondering , the Uchihas will display more of their cannon abilities and some new ones as we go along. Anyway, we hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Notation: Sasuke learned Chidori during the timeskip. Even without Kakashi, we believe that his natural lightning affinity would have manifested itself either way and it's not improbable that he would have come up with the name. As for the nature of any fights, the Uchihas have lived in Earthland for several years and hopefully, that will explain any differences in abilities you see. Remember, even the most powerful ninja can be knocked down if they're...distracted. Happy reading!
Chapter 4
Itachi sighs, glancing warily at his little brother. Four years. Four years and some months since that day they walked into Blue Pegasus with Master Bob. Only for everything to nearly explode in their faces less than three months later, when Sasuke found out the truth, that they were never going home.
It wasn't the easiest thing that Itachi had ever done, but he was settling in well to life as part of Blue Pegasus. He and Shisui were working long hours on the weekends, while they alternated going out during the week to take small jobs. The jobs were easy enough, or at least, they weren't risky, but some definitely required rather creative solutions. Ones that didn't involve fighting, but rather, a gentler touch.
But it was when Itachi had come back from a job to find his little brother sitting in the guild hall waiting for him, that he knew something was wrong. Sasuke was being quiet, too quiet. Not that Sasuke was the loudest person in the guild, far from it. But something just seemed…off with his rambunctious little brother.
So, Itachi strides towards the bar, his traveling pack slung over his shoulder. "Sasuke? Is something wrong?" He really shouldn't have asked that question.
Sasuke looked up at him with ruby red eyes and an expression that Itachi had never seen on his little brother before. Fury. "You lied to me! You both did!" His words were full of anger, but it almost seemed as if Sasuke was too stunned to get up. "They're dead. Aren't they?" The now eight year old's words were practically dripping with venom. "That's why you and Shisui are trying to buy a house. If we were going back, if they were ALIVE, you wouldn't need to buy a house!"
Shit. How did Sasuke even KNOW about those plans? They wouldn't be able to pull it off for another five or six years, at least, even if they took some of the higher paying jobs. But Itachi had been so sure that they kept their financial records and calculations under wraps.
And then there were those eyes…red eyes. Itachi saw them, and honestly, he wanted to cry. Sasuke wasn't supposed to have red eyes. He was NEVER supposed to know the pain, the sadness that came with those eyes. "Sasuke, what are you talking about? We don't have the money to buy a house." Even the place they were renting wasn't cheap, a hundred and fifty thousand jewel a month for a place to fit all three of them. Not that they weren't planning on upgrading eventually, but still, buying a house was a prospect far on the horizon.
"Not yet." Sasuke stumbled to his feet. "But you're saving for one." He looked at Itachi as though he wasn't sure what he wanted to do next. Uncertainty and anger filled those eyes though it was obvious that something else had filled them not long ago. "If you're only staying in a place for a couple months, there's no reason to save for a house." He looks at Itachi. "I'm not you. I'm not Shisui, but I was at the top of my class. I know that much!"
His little brother wasn't stupid, Itachi knew that much. So, he held out his hand to Sasuke, ignoring all of the stares directed their way. "Come on, let's talk about this outside."
He should have been happy. Sasuke had the Sharingan now. He could feel the difference, but his mind felt like a stormy sea. Waves upon waves of emotions were crashing down on him all at once. "Don't lie to me! They're dead!" He barely had time to decipher one from the next before he was hit with another. Anger, shock, sadness, and sometimes...just for blissful moment or two, he felt completely numb. "There's no point in lying anymore." Sasuke takes his hand. "Jenny asked me how the saving was going." That's how he found out about the house.
Dammit, that explained everything. The girl was amazingly sweet, but she couldn't keep a secret to save her life. "It's…complicated, Sasuke." Itachi sighed as he led his little brother outside to the small garden and orchard just beyond the training field. "And…I don't know. I don't know if they're alive or not. But it's true that Shisui and I have begun saving up money. At the rate we're going…we might be able to buy a place in ten or twelve years…but maybe half that, once you're older." Once they could take the harder jobs without worrying about leaving Sasuke alone for longer periods of time.
"Why are we here then?" If they didn't know, what were they doing here?! "We should go back! If we don't know, we need to go back and help them. Help them with..." Well actually, Sasuke wasn't sure why they were really here in the first place. "With whatever is wrong!" Apparently, this was not a regular mission. Something must have happened in the Leaf. Something horrible.
Itachi sighed and leaned back against a tree, sinking down until he sat in the soft grass. "Sasuke…come here." He patted the ground next to him, waving Sasuke down.
He sits down, mostly because somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he didn't really have another choice. "Why did we run?" That's what they had really been doing. Running form something or someone, he decides. "What scared you and Shisui so badly, that you grabbed me and left our clan behind?" He had never imagined something could scare either of them, but it must have. Why else would they be here?
Sighing, Itachi places his hand on Sasuke's head, ruffling the spiky locks as he leans Sasuke's head on his shoulder. "Because when people are afraid, they do terrible things. And someone was so afraid of our clan that they were going to do something terrible. Shisui found out, and I already knew that the situation between our clan and the rest of the village was getting worse. But until Shisui suggested this plan, I hadn't truly realized just how bad."
His fingers twitch, and he closes his eyes. "We hoped…that if Shisui and I left, that they wouldn't see our clan as a threat anymore. There would be no need to go to war with the Leaf if the Uchiha Clan lost it's two greatest prodigies…but there was always the chance it wouldn't work. And Shisui decided that the only way I would go with him was if we took you with us. Because…the only other way to protect you, would have been for me to massacre our entire clan myself…and plead for mercy for you, to spare you…"
Itachi swallows thickly. "To protect you, and me, Shisui decided that the best plan was to take us and run to another world entirely. And we left behind instructions for Father, just in case the worst didn't happen…in case some of the clan survived."
"I thought...he was just Flickering us somewhere." Shisui was sometimes called Shisui of the Body Flicker. As far as Sasuke knew, he was the best at that technique. "We're not even in our WORLD anymore?" He felt as if he had been slapped.
Sasuke didn't know how to process any of that. "I thought that we were important to the village. That we were in charge of the military police force and they needed us." Why would they want their Clan wiped out? He didn't understand. "There's a chance though? That they might follow?" How would they even find them, if they did though. Sasuke could only assume this was a big world. The odds they were going to be dropped into this guild seemed...depressingly low.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke…" Itachi sighs, stroking his brother's hair comfortingly. "Yes, they might follow us, maybe. Shisui set the jutsu so that they would appear in this world, if they used the tablets as we did. But whether or not they come…it could be that our plan failed, and that our clan has been attacked anyway. What matters…is that you are safe."
"Mother and Father aren't though." Sasuke could feel the tears stinging his cheeks again. "Neither is the rest of the Clan!" They were probably dead or if they weren't, it would be a miracle if they found it. "Why me? Why did you take me instead of one of them?" Almost anyone would have been a better choice. Father was stronger than him. Their mother was skilled at genjutsu. "I'll only slow you two down." Their grandparents were wise. So why him? It didn't make any sense.
Sasuke wasn't the only one in tears, but Itachi's were far quieter. "Because…foolish little brother, you are the one I love most."
But it had been a long time since then, and Sasuke had long since stopped obsessing over not going home. But since then, he had gone into intense training, studying everything that Itachi and Shisui could teach him about hand to hand combat, weapons, and even the occasional delving into elemental manipulation. Things worked…differently in this world, the magic in the air made their ninjutsu much easier to use, though harder to control. It was a fine line that they walked, and even Itachi found himself being thrown off a bit at times.
Now was not one of those times, because at seventeen, he was working hard as a host for Blue Pegasus' club. And honestly, the salary was secondary to the tips. The tips were everything with an elite clientele. All one had to do was be charming and 'pretty', and you could make more in tips in one weekend than a whole month's salary.
Not that he only worked weekends. The weekdays were for him and Shisui to leave the city on harder and better-paying jobs, having grown more comfortable with leaving Sasuke at home to take on small jobs in the city, or work part-time at the club. Their savings were growing, though they continued to be frugal about spending. After all, they had a goal to reach in a few years, and dropping fifteen to twenty million jewel on a house wasn't something that one could do without preparation.
Which is why it really shouldn't have surprised him to see Sasuke waiting for him at the bar, a flyer sitting on the counter in front of him. Itachi sighs, shaking his head as his last shift of the weekend ends. "Have you found yourself another job dealing with a small infestation of those pesky goblins again?" He remembered the last time Sasuke had sought revenge on the little monsters. He had come back to the guild battered and bruised, but with a not so small reward of seventy thousand jewel to show for it.
"I'd be a Genin back home." Sasuke shakes his head as he shows Itachi the flyer. "I can handle more than goblins." And he knew it. "I've been training with you, Shisui, and some of the others for years." He'd at least tried to dabble in what seemed to be dozens of kinds of magic. Though lightning and fire came most naturally to him. That and Taijutsu. "They aren't even wizards. They're just thieves." He reasons, figuring that Itachi would fight him on this. "And it's worth four hundred and fifty thousand jewel."
Itachi pauses, glancing down at the flyer. There had to be a catch. There was no way that just a bunch of thieves would be worth that high a bounty. "I will admit that you have gotten quite a lot stronger, but don't you think that maybe you should go into the two to three hundred thousand range before jumping up to nearly half a million? You're still learning." That, and it was far enough away that it worried Itachi. "And you would have to take a magic-mobile to get there, you would be on it for the better part of a day."
"I can't help as much because I'm too young to host." Sasuke glances at Itachi. "It seems like the least I can do and it really isn't anything more difficult than I would have been doing on a squad. It's quite a bit of money, if you're that concerned you could come with me." He shrugs and adds an afterthought. "Bring Shisui if you want, but he'll probably be too busy flirting with any of the female thieves to be much help or trying to look up their skirts." Sasuke smirks.
He was mostly joking. Sasuke wasn't entirely sure what other Guilds were like. Anything he heard about them was secondhand, but he was pretty damn sure that Blue Pegasus had a pretty liberal view on all things sensual in nature and well, his cousin seemed to rather enjoy that philosophy.
"Bob will probably give it to me, if I ask." It wasn't that Sasuke couldn't recognize a pretty girl when he saw one. He was twelve and he did have eyes, but he was different than Shisui or even Itachi. "Do you really think petty thieves are going to stand up to my fireballs or Chidori?" It was more that he remembered what his father had said.
There were three things that could bring about the downfall of any male ninja. Gambling, alcohol, and women. Sasuke didn't gamble and he didn't drink. So he was pretty careful about the last one.
Itachi frowns at the flyer. While it was certainly a job that he would take on his own, having Sasuke along, or rather, tagging along with Sasuke in this case, made him nervous. "Are you sure that you can handle a job this difficult? You'll likely need to track down the thieves, before even attempting to fight them." Though he certainly couldn't argue regarding Shisui's…love of the opposite sex. He was even more open an individual here than he was in their old world.
"I'm sure." Sasuke nods determinedly. "Besides, they're are twelve of them. It's hard to hide a group that large no matter how stealthy they are, they aren't ninjas." He and Itachi had the advantage as far as he was concerned.
Itachi scrutinizes the flyer once more, before turning to see the determined look on his little brother's face. "And you waited until the end of my shift because you knew that I would disapprove of you taking the job by yourself, waiting until I was available to go with you in order to silence my complaints, is that it?"
He smiles at him charmingly, like he had seen Hibiki do to some people when he wanted something. "Exactly." And if that didn't work, he WOULD release the Bubble Eyes Jutsu!
The elder brother narrows his eyes slightly. "You've been taking lessons from Hibiki, haven't you?" And after he'd warned that playboy not to teach his little brother anything to make him even MORE foolish. "…Very well, go and collect you traveling pack, and fill it with enough food for four days."
"Only about how to win arguments." Sasuke beams at him. "Nothing...about other stuff." And with that, he dashes off to get his stuff.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Itachi reaches behind the bar to find his own pack, with a spare change of clothes inside for after his shift. After all, while Hibiki, Ren, and Eve might be perfectly content to go on jobs while wearing the dressy uniform, Itachi was not. And, as his shift was over, and Shisui's as well, he has no compunction about calling for the idiot across the guild hall. "Shisui, get changed, we're leaving!"
"What?" He blinks as he darts inside the changing room to change. "Why? Where are we going?" Shisui calls out a few minutes later as he walks over to join them.
Changed out of his uniform as well, Itachi shakes his head at his little brother. "Because it seems that Sasuke wants to try his luck with one of the higher-paying jobs. And since I would rather not having him sneak off in the middle of the night just to prove that he can 'contribute', we are going with him." Honestly, it was fine if Sasuke wanted to earn pocket money, but he was far too young to be worrying about household expenses. That was Itachi's job.
Shisui chuckles at that and shakes his head. "This coming from someone who was an ANBU Captain before they even got their first kiss." It was only natural Sasuke would want to prove himself a capable fighter in a family of overachievers. "Alright. Let's give it a go then."
Itachi rolls his eyes. "I suppose you're one to talk, Shisui." Itachi tucks away his uniform and trades it for another bag behind the bar. "And just how many kisses have you stolen this month?"
"It's not stealing, if they're freely given." He winks at Sasuke. "Remember that, always ask first." Sasuke just shakes his head at their antics.
"Of course not." There were some days when Itachi wondered if all of Shisui's freely given affection would come back to bite him in the ass. Yet, somehow, all of the women easily forgave him for flirting with others. It was a phenomenon that occurred only around Shisui, because Itachi had witnessed how women would fight over Hibiki, and it was never pretty. "And do try to resist looking up the skirts of any women among the thieves. It seems that is one of Sasuke's concerns."
Shisui blinks at that. "Well I guess he's an early bloomer after all." The eldest Uchiha snickers slightly. "It wouldn't be a concern for him, if he hadn't thought about it first."
Sasuke could swear that his face was burning hotter than any flames Itachi could produce. "T-That is not what I meant!" He would have flailed, if such actions weren't beneath him. He did have a reputation to protect!
Groaning softly, Itachi pinches the bridge of his nose. "Let's just…go. We have thieves to catch, and almost a half million jewel to collect." And hopefully, by the end of this job, he would still have hid sanity. And his dignity.
They had been tracking the thieves for the better part of a week. Sasuke had lived in Earthland (as this place was apparently called) for a few years now and thus, he knew the geography well enough to realize that they were slowly getting closer to the forests surrounding the town of Magnolia. That meant that they were getting closer to the Fairy Tail Guild, though that didn't bother Sasuke much.
While they had a reputation for destroying a lot of public and private property, the Fairy Tail Guild wasn't a Dark Guild. They were even allied with Blue Pegasus in something of an informal alliance of guilds. A trio with Lamia Scale. That and honesty, the name. "They're definitely here. There's been a string of reports of wealthy merchants getting hit from the Woodsea, all the way through Onibas. They've got to be holed up in here now." It just made it rather hard for Sasuke to view them as a threat. Maybe, that was on purpose though.
Maybe they were really evil masterminds and they chose the least threatening name they could think of to lower everyone's guard? "I'm going to disguise myself using the Transformation Jutsu and they'll attack me. You two can strike them while they're trying to rob me." His plan was simple. Simple, but effective.
He'd take the form of a wealthy merchant traveling on his own. Easy pickings for a group like that and then, they would bite off more than they could chew. These were skilled fighters by thief standards, but they weren't trained in the same way the three of them were and if they really gave Sasuke any trouble, he'd just try out some experimental variations of his newly trademarked technique. The Chidori.
It was a good plan, and one that Itachi could certainly see working. The one part he didn't like was using Sasuke as the bait. Not that he expected a bunch of thieves to be able to get the drop on his little brother, but it was the principle of the thing, really. "And you remember how to substitute yourself, in case things go wrong?" Always with a backup plan.
"Yes, Itachi." Sasuke shakes his head. "I'm not a child anymore." He loved Itachi and idolized him. Sasuke just wished that sometimes his brother would acknowledge that he was perfectly capable of standing on his own two feet now.
Sighing, Itachi places his hand on top of Sasuke's head and presses their foreheads together. "I know, Sasuke, I know… But I am your big brother, and it's my job to worry about you." Even if Sasuke was growing incredibly quickly, both physically, and in his abilities, Itachi still worried like a mother hen. Someone had to. "Just be careful. Shisui and I will be in the trees watching everything."
He shakes his head at that. "Do you have any idea how wrong that sounds?" Sasuke smirks as he does the Transformation Jutsu and gets into position.
"They grow up so fast." Shisui chuckles at Sasuke's subtle dirty joke as he watches him like a hawk. "You don't need to worry about him as much. We trained him ourselves."
"It's a futile battle, I know…" Itachi climbs into the trees with Shisui at his heels. "But he will always be my baby brother, even if he is picking up your bad habit of making dirty jokes." Which Itachi would have to beat out of Shisui at a later time.
"That one was funny and tasteful." Shisui clicks his tongue at Itachi disapprovingly. "Sad day when a twelve year old is more advanced than you, Itachi."
"Just because I choose not to engage in the telling of dirty jokes, does not mean that he is more 'advanced' than I am." Honestly, the nerve of his cousin. Itachi was not nearly the flirt that Shisui was, be he was more than capable of charming a woman if he felt like it. And there were no dirty jokes required.
While there was simmering annoyance high above in the trees, on the ground, it was an entirely different story. The appearance of a wealthy looking young man had shadows in the trees tittering with excitement. They had made a stretch of nearly a thousand miles their victims, attacking merchants, nobles, and other wealthy marks along the northwest to southeast trade routes. And now, there was a fool traveling through the dangerous East Forest with no protection, and no idea that he was going to be the next victim of the Vulcans, taking their name from the monsters who roamed the mountains and forests of Fiore.
Unbeknownst to them, Sasuke knew they were there. He could hear them. He feigned ignorance though. "Damn it." His voice just loud enough to get their attention without being too out of place as he pretends to trip over an imaginary root. Not that it was difficult, there were roots everywhere in this place.
If they were the sort of thieves that the flyer indicated they were, this is when they were most likely to strike. They outnumbered him and his guard was down. His back was exposed. They'd be idiots not to (or have morals, which in their line of work would be rather counterproductive).
A vile smirk crosses the leader's face as he swipes his hand through the air, signaling his comrades to fly down on the 'unsuspecting' man below. It was time to strike, and even if his men couldn't make it big in a mercenary guild or as treasure hunters, they were certainly doing well for themselves as thieves. And he found it much more profitable than being in a dumb wizard's guild. All he had to do was lead them, stay out of sight, and use his magic in a subtle manner, and no one ever knew he was there.
Twelve thieves drop from the trees, all armed to the teeth, and half still hidden in the shadows of the trunks flitting in and out of sight as the other half of the company approach the poor, dumb idiot who thought that taking a walk in the woods was a good idea.
A tall blond one with a sword slung over his shoulder approaches the young man standing alone. "You're pretty far from home, ain't cha? You know, rich brats like you don't do well in forests like this. They're dangerous."
"You know, quiet thieves tend to have far more successful careers than those who never know when to shut up." Sasuke shrugs as he slams his foot into the man's chest with enough force that it stopped just short of being bone crushing. "NOW!" He knew that Itachi and Shisui would come running.
As predicted, Shisui Flickers behind one of the men and strikes him to the back of the head. "You really shouldn't attack a man while he's down." He tsks. "Is there no honor amongst thieves these days?" His Sharingan activates as he looks for the best way to neutralize the other ten.
But ten there were not, as three of them already lay on the ground, bleeding from wounds caused by Itachi's tanto. He saw no reason to be too gentle with them, after all, the client had said that many of those who had been robbed had been badly injured, and a few nearly killed. A second pair of red eyes turns on the remaining seven, cold anger evident within them.
But the three of them were not the only ones watching the less than competent thieves. The true thief lay in wait in the trees, eyebrow raised at the sight of the child who had once been transformed into a man, and the two who greatly resembled him. They were strong. Mercenaries? Or perhaps…guild wizards?
This could be quite fun.
The others were understandably less than pleased that several of their comrades had been knocked out with ease and rushed at the three of them. "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is! Chidori!" Sasuke radiates the blue lightning around his body, shocking the two who had lunged at him off of him and dazing them just enough that he was able to Lion's Barrage them.
"Ahh!" One of the thieves had taken advantage of Shisui's lack of attention as the oldest Uchiha was watching the youngest fight and stabbed him in the back. Literally. "Coward!" Shisui whirls around and slams him into the tree.
"Shisui!" Sasuke rushes over to help him and notes with some relief that it looked liek his cousin had already yanked the knife out. It hadn't sunk in too deeply then. That's when another of the thieves slammed into Sasuke and knocked him into the ground. "Sneaky son of a bitch, Sasuke slams his knee into the man's ribs, knocking the wind out of him as he manages to pin him and knock him out. "Shisui, are you okay?!"
"He'll be fine, now watch yourself!" Itachi's short-sword whirls around as he makes signs with one hand, a blast of energy racing out in a circle around them and knocking the few remaining thieves back several meters. He hadn't been idle these last few years, there was always something more to learn, and a few basic spells here and there were something Itachi was glad to add to his repertoire.
What it didn't do was nullify the earthen storm that appeared out of nowhere, dust swirling around them, its tiny, razor-sharp particles cutting into Itachi's hand and forcing him to pull back towards his brother and cousin to evaluate the situation. "It seems that you were wrong, Sasuke. There is a wizard in their ranks."
"Well he wasn't listed on the flyer." Sasuke scowls. "That doesn't matter though." Earth magic that hit with some sort of cutting attack. Did they have anything to counter that?
Itachi frowns as the whirlwind of sharp earth, likely pieces of slate, or another rocky shrapnel, closes in on them. He had an affinity for water back in their old world, but there was no abundance of water here, and this was clearly not the work of an amateur.
Little tricks were not going to work. Silently incanting the same spell, it manages to force the localized storm back a little, but giving no great amount of headway. "I do not know if our fire would be wise, from what I can tell, this is some kind of barrier magic, and I would rather not find out if it can turn our abilities back on us." It also made illusions completely useless. "Shisui, do you think you can flicker outside of it?"
Shisui nods as he grabs them. "I can." The eldest Uchiha proceeds to do exactly that, landing them a ways outside of the barrier. Though that wasn't much help when it came to locating him, the wizard was still well out of sight, and none of them were particularly experienced at sensing others. It just wasn't their specialty.
The ground throughout the forest begins to rumble, groaning in protest against the magic forcing it to move. Cracks form around the roots of the trees, weakening their support structure, and making them unsteady. Something that did not escape Itachi's eyes. "Careful, the trees could come down at any moment."
"Got it." Sasuke nods his eyes on full alert. "I have no idea where this guy came from. He wasn't listed." How had he managed to travel with them unnoticed for so long?
"Well, it hardly matters now." It may have been outside the parameters of their job, but circumstances often changed, whether you were a ninja or a wizard. Itachi knew that for a fact. "Stay together and try to feel him out. He'll likely stay hidden, attacking from the shadows. Keep an eye on the trees." He eyes a few trees off to the far left, already starting to fall over. "He'll aim to crush us under them."
The best course of action would be to remain calm and use his crows to seek out their attacker. And he prepares to do exactly that as dark birds begin to materialize out of thin air, swirling around him, before spreading out in search of their foe.
Sasuke and Shisui also begin their own explorations. Sasuke throwing kunai at the most likely hiding spots. While he didn't expect them to hit him, he'd likely go to dodge and the movement would be enough to find his real location.
Shisui on the other hand was searching for his chakra signature. "I'm looking." Which while magic and chakra seemed to be fundamentally the same thing, there were differences. Differences that made sensory type tactics more difficult than they were in the Leaf.
Chakra was more stable. More solid. Its state was almost fixed. While it could change, a person fundamentally had a primary type they were born with. Magic on the other hand was more natural. It could come from just the general surroundings of a wizard themselves or inside them. Which made it difficult to distinguish sometimes between the natural environment and a wizard's 'chakra' so to speak. They just didn't have the experience to feel him out in such a fashion.
