Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its plot/characters.
Sasuke had been walking for around three hours. He had intended on going to the former akatsuki hide out and see if he could find any trace of Madara, but he had apparently gotten lost along the way. Sasuke didn't know how that was possible, since he had the sharingan and due to the fact there were no more akatsuki members walking among the living to protect the hide out in any way. Sasuke had made sure of that.
Bending his knees slightly, Sasuke hopped up onto the tallest tree he could find. Stumbling near the top, Sasuke cursed himself for letting himself go these past couple of months. The drinking, going for a week without a shower, it had to stop. At the top, Sasuke surveyed his surroundings.
The sun cast a cold, lifeless glow across the forest Sasuke had immersed himself in. The wind was bitter, and smelled quite like tree sap, which was to be expected. The pea green leaves swayed in the soft breeze, dew drops rolling off them. The cerulean sky was shrouded by the grey clouds that were rolling in from the west. The clouds seemed to swell, presumably teeming with water.
Sasuke sighed. 'At least I get to have that shower I've been looking for,' he thought. Looking around some more to see if there was any shelter nearby, Sasuke spotted a tea house. He jumped off of the tree, and raced towards the tea house.
Within five minutes, he had reached the petite tea house hidden behind some flower shrubs and a tree that had a swing on it. Getting closer, Sasuke could see the exterior of the tea house. He pulled back the flaps that acted as doors, and then removed his shoes once inside. While doing so, he began to hear the faint pitter -patter of rain droplets hitting the wooden house. Thunder could also be heard from about a mile away. Sitting himself down at a table, he ordered some tea, then pulled a map from the stand next to the table.
Opening it up, his eyes widened slightly, not understanding how he could've allowed himself to go there, of all places. His feet had carried him to the out skirts of Konoha; to where she was. Outraged by his blunder and sudden desire for her touch, he got up and went outside into the rain without paying for his tea, causing the old woman who had served him to get up and waddle after him, waving her cane at him at the door. Eventually, she gave up. Out of breath, she sat back down on her stool and sipped some tea, immediately forgetting the whole ordeal she had went through and smiled, thinking about when her husband will come home from the shops. It's all she ever really thought about for four years now. Unknown to her, the person she had just served had killed him in the fourth great shinobi war.
Sasuke's hair was drooping, becoming heavy on his head, just like his shoulders were heavy with guilt. Sasuke shivered, even though he wasn't cold. This time, Sasuke knew he was going in the right direction for the akatsuki hideout. This time, he had a map!
Sakura lunged at Karin. For the people watching, it had happened all too fast. When her fist made contact made contact with Karin's face, a repulsive crack could be heard, and the force not only sent Karin's glasses flying, but also sent Karin crashing through the wall directly behind her. Sakura's eyes were filled with rage, her white fists painted with an auburn coloured liquid. Karin was lying on the ground, struggling to get up. When she managed to sit up without causing herself any pain, Karin opened her mouth, allowing blood and a broken tooth to stream out of her mouth.
That is of course, was what Sakura wanted. She had her fist raised, inches away from Karin's face. Sakura was so tempted to crush that misshapen smirk that had spread across Karin's face, mocking her, trying to say that she was weak, pathetic, useless. Any shinobi at the scene would have told you how bitter and lifeless her aura felt, how they knew she was certain to rip away the skin from the red head; and this would have happened, if it weren't for Lady Tsunade's intervention.
"Sakura." She spoke through gritted teeth. Her eyebrows created a trench across her forehead. Pushing her blonde bangs away from her bronze eyes, she cast a look filled with malice at anyone who had stopped to look at the spectacle. "I am sure you all have better things to be doing right now." Tsunade's voice bellowed around the still and seemingly deserted market place. All that could be heard was the distant cries of a baby and the laughter of drunken old shinobi in the eve of the afternoon.
The crowd of civilians and shinobi alike that had formed the moment his name was mentioned, dispersed, busying themselves with their normal routine.
"So, will anyone tell me how your day has been? I mean, nothing could possibly be wrong two days before the Seijin No Hi festival, could it?" sarcasm whitewashed Tsunade's question, though Sakura and Ino thought it to be more of a comment than anything else.
"Well…" Shikamaru, being the only person present who can reason with the Godaime, began to portray the situation, hoping to get everyone, including himself, out of trouble; and if he was bothered, maybe even Karin.
The whispering pitter patter of the minute droplets of water rolled off of Sasuke's brow. His shirt was glued to his masculine torso, showing off his toned upper-body. This caused him to groan inwardly. It wasn't exactly the best time to be having his muscles being shown off. The city he was walking through was rotten. Drug dealers were hiding behind the over flowing dumpsters and women and men were selling their love to low lives and nothingness. Something that was familiar to anyone in this city, including Sasuke. No matter where they would go, nothingness would await them… mu.
While walking through the city, Sasuke looked around and pondered as to how people with any humanity left in them, could live like this. He looked at the young children stealing from a weary samurai whose face, was beginning to lose all life, beginning to sag, but the samurai still smiled while patting his ever-so-loyal dog. Its breed was obscured by the amount of dirt that clung to its long, thick coat.
He looked at women crying, not denying the fact that she was impure and was sure to go to hell, but she suddenly brightened a tad when she saw four children around the same age run and embrace her.
The young and the old have nothing, they're wasting away in this epitome of hell, yet they seem somewhat happy… why? Sasuke questioned himself. He pressed his brain to figure out the answer, but all it said was to look within one's self. Pulling a face at the answer given to him, Sasuke stepped into a nearby tavern for a toilet break.
When he walked into the toilet, he screwed up his face, trying desperately to erase the image, taste… everything his sensations picked up upon entering the toilet. There was a large hole in one of the walls that made it possible for people to look in. Screwing his face up even more, he picked his path carefully, avoiding leavings and god knows what. When he finished his business, he decided not to wash his hands, fearing to cause them to become dirtier.
Before he walked out of the tavern, he saw a calendar with the date January 8th circled. That was the date of the Seijin No Hi festival, wasn't it?
"If I'm not mistaken, it's the 6th today… and I'm only a couple days away…" Sasuke spoke silently, but stopped speaking when he heard the bartender say something of interest.
"I served three shinobi once, I think a month ago… anyway. The blonde was having an argument with some guy in a belly top, when the pink haired girl hauled them into the toilets and punched them through my wall! I would have complained but, I was scared. Not every day you see a teenage girl have the strength of ten men…"
"Boy!" that was all that could come out of the man conversing with the bartender.
Sasuke was stiff. He swallowed hard as he remembered the last time he saw Sakura. He'd tried to kill her. But then again, she had tried to kill him to.
Casting his obsidian eyes down to the ground, he walked out of the tavern while whispering, "Sakura," ever so softly.
Looking up once more at the moon, he had made his mind up. Before he could even think his idea, a low, shallow voice could be heard from on top of the roof tops. "Sasuke."
Sasuke turned around, and shot the source of the voice an ominous look, his sharingan activated. "You!"
A/N: Well, that's the third chapter. Enjoy, because there may not be another one for a while… oh, guess who was on the roof tops!