Chapter 2

Ambition's New Face

Tsunade was in a bad mood tonight. She had been forced to work late and the paperwork responsible was some of the most monotonous she had done in a while. It almost made her long for the days of Akatsuki, when she usually had at least a few interesting things on her desk every day…

But that was a bad thought. She couldn't get like that, she was the Hokage; she wasn't allowed to be depressed. She was making steady progress against the ever-present pile and there wasn't a large amount left. She would be out of here within the hour and then she could get the sleep she so desperately needed.

But she'd have to put that plan on hold; she was interrupted when a whoosh of air alerted her to someone appearing at her window. Tsunade muttered in irritation, but turned a face as impassive as she could manage toward her visitor. Without a sound, he dropped from the windowsill to the floor before walking in front of Tsunade's desk and taking his mask off.

Sasuke hadn't changed an incredible amount in the last twelve years. No major physical change had befallen him at least. He had a noticeable scar on his shoulder where his arm had been reattached by Katsuyu, but besides that he was the same Uchiha. Still, there was a new sense of… acceptance he hadn't had before his best friend's death. Tsunade might have even called it maturity, loath as she was to give the man any sort of compliment.

"Hello, Hokage-sama." The Slug Sannin nodded in greeting. "Hello, Dragon. I trust you encountered few difficulties?" He nodded. "Kemonokaze Lee is dead. There were no witnesses and as few remains as I can manage in my current state. I soaked the corpse in oil and set it on fire. There should be minimal chakra left on his person considering the seal you gave me. I doubt his forces include anyone with the abilities to detect what's left." Tsunade turned back to her paperwork. "Yes, I expected nothing less. You'll receive your payment tomorrow. You're dismissed."

But Sasuke didn't leave. Instead, he looked away awkwardly, as though gathering his thoughts.

"Senju-sama, as you know I've wanted to more fully assimilate back into the village for some time. To that end, I'd like to take one of this year's Genin Squads." Tsunade's expression shifted ever so slightly deeper into the frown that she'd been wearing already. "No. That would cause me problems I really don't want to deal with. I don't think parents would like having their kids under the supervision of a former missing-nin."

Sasuke nodded tiredly. "Yes, but if I can get through this and produce a decently functioning team, I might gain some respect, if only among the village's other shinobi. I won't pretend that it will be easy, but I think that this is a good step back into the public. I know you don't like the idea of putting me in charge of children any more than the parents will, but we're a bit lacking in really powerful shinobi these days; if I were on official service I could be a good deterrent to any hostilities. The way I see it, this would kill two birds with one stone."

Tsunade's expression was somewhat contemplative, though still doubtful. She didn't like the idea, but after hearing him out, she had to admit it had upsides. She had other ANBU operatives who could pull off his jobs and Tenzo wouldn't have to stop overseeing him. At first, she had dismissed the idea out of hand, but now…

Sasuke sighed and looked Tsunade directly in the eyes, deciding to be completely frank. "Look, you know my goal is the Hokage position and I can't get to that unless the village becomes used to me again. The facts are, you're not getting any younger and Kakashi's enigmatic at best these days what with his ongoing trip. I'm not even going to delve into what his mental state might be. Someday you're either going to die or abdicate and we both know that if I didn't have this seal on me, I'd be the strongest shinobi in this village. It may be asking a lot for you to trust my intentions, but if you give me this chance to prove myself, I won't let you down." With a respectful bow, he stepped towards the window. With a last glance, he said, "I'll expect your response by tomorrow night." and shunshined away into the darkness.

Tsuade brow furrowed contemplatively. Sasuke was still something of an enigma. After the war, she had been in no shape to judge him herself but even by the time she had gotten out of her coma, he'd been in a bad place. He'd been messed up badly by Naruto's death on top of the shit he'd had to deal with throughout his life; he hadn't exactly been a model for mental stability. Thankfully, he'd eventually gotten his mind straight, due in large part to Yamanaka Ino's mental treatments.

Just recently, she'd decided to give him some covert missions, all effectively solo and all befitting his skill level. Still, she had made him keep his seal. Tsunade didn't care how trustworthy he acted, Sasuke with the Mangekyou was a near-unstoppable force, if only because of his Susano'o. There was no way in frozen Hell she was going to deal with that. Unless she decided to execute him, she could only hope he wouldn't turn around someday and stab them all in the back.

With a resigned sigh, she turned back to her paperwork. Her night was far from over and she had a lot to think about.

-G

Omoide sat in his usual place at the right-most front desk of his Academy class that day, with his usual book in front of him and his best friend on his left. Hiruzen was napping in his seat, his head resting on his forearms and his green winter coat draped around his shoulders like a blanket. Yamanaka Hiro, who was glaring at the board as though it had done him a grievous wrong, filled the final seat.

"You know, there's this new thing called sleeping at night. You should try it some time. It can do wonders for you." Hiruzen grunted in response to Omoide's sarcastic comment. "And you should invest in something other than books. Someday, you're going to try to read one too many and your brain is going to run out of space." Omoide raised an eyebrow and scratched the whisker marks on his face, eyes still trained on his reading material. "That'll happen the day you come up with decent smack-talk."

At that moment, Tenten walked into the room, prompting almost immediate silence from the class. They all knew how scary she could be when someone pissed her off.

"Good morning class. Sorry I'm late, my oven broke and I had to wait for the repair guy to turn up and charge me for the information that it was unfixable." 'Translation: she's already pissed off.' Omoide decided at that moment to preemptively put his book away. There was no sense in provoking the fire-breathing dragon that was their sensei when she got angry.

"Alright, as you all know, tomorrow is your graduation exam. In light of that, I'm giving you today to practice whatever you think you most need to work on. Ninjutsu and taijutsu will be practicing outside, theory and history will be meeting in here. Split off and please make the most of your last day; you're going to need it."

The class took their sensei's advice, with about half deciding to head outside. Omoide and Hiruzen were too lazy or tired respectively to practice taijutsu in the slowly-disipating cold and both of them had the Academy ninjutsu down, so they elected to stay where they were and pretend to pay attention.

Not much happened after that and Omoide quickly realized that without his book, he was becoming bored out of his mind. Hiruzen did his best to stay awake and by the end of class, Omoide felt like pulling his blue-black hair out, but altogether, it was an uneventful day.

-G

"You should really play shogi more often. Queen A8 to A2; checkmate." Omoide frowned, "Eh, I'm too busy reading. I just forgot my book at the Academy and I'm not about to run out in the rain to get it back." A roar of thunder boomed as though to punctuate the young Uzumaki's statement. The rain had been coming down in sheets since mid-afternoon and showed no sign of slowing down. Omoide and Hiruzen had decided to go to the former's house and gotten there just ahead of the downpour. Luckily for them, Hiruzen's Shogi set had come with it's own sealing scroll and he made a point of keeping it with him as often as possible. Omoide had spent the following hour or two relentlessly bashing his head against the metaphorical brick wall that was his friend's Shogi skills.

"No, I'm serious. Shikamaru says it exercises the brain in a way most things don't, helps you plan better, predict your opponent's moves." Omoide grunted and began to reset the pieces. His mother was off at a friend's house; he hadn't bothered to ask which one's. She'd probably be back after the rain stopped. "Alright, pawn D2 to D4." Hiruzen smirked and moved his own piece. Both boys quickly became lost in the game, even if it was largely one-sided. Omoide's defense wasn't that bad, but his offense left far too much to be desired and he was too impulsive to work out any big overarching strategy. Within five minutes, they were drawing toward a conclusion again. Needless to say, it was not looking good for Omoide.

The sound of the door being opened and closed signaled the arrival of Hinata. With a start, both boys realized that the rain had stopped, probably a while ago from the lack of large clouds in the sky. With the downpour over, it was looking to be a remarkably pleasant evening.

Omoide's door creaked open and Hinata's troubled gaze fell on the two boys. "Hiruzen, it's good to see you. Your mother wants you home. She has something she needs to talk to you about." The boy nodded, clearly catching the seriousness behind the Hyuga's pleasant tone. "Alright, I just need to pick up my stuff." Quickly, he gathered up all the pieces of his shogi set and resealed them in their scroll before walking to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Omoide." The boy in question nodded back and turned a questioning look on his mother. "What's happened? You look like you've seen a ghost or something." Hinata shook her head and tried to put on a smile. "It's nothing, the Naras just found some troubling residual chakra in their forest. It's probably nothing."

Omoide didn't miss the repetition in her statement, and guessed she was trying to convince herself as much as him. "It doesn't sound like nothing. Why would that involve Hiruzen?" Hinata shook her head again, as though she were trying to rid herself of whatever was worrying her. "That's for him to tell you if he feels like it. I'm going to get started on dinner, do you want to help?" Omoide thought for a moment and nodded. He clearly wasn't getting anything else from his mom and he wasn't going to start another book until he finished his current one. Besides, he needed the distraction, otherwise he'd just get nervous about the test tomorrow.

"Sure, sounds good. I can work on my project afterwards. So, what're we making?" Hinata's expression was less troubled now that she had something to focus on. "I was thinking katsudon for the test tomorrow." Omoide smiled at the mention of his favorite dish. "Sounds good!"

-G

Sasuke made a point of ignoring the glares he received as he walked home from Ichiraku Ramen. Teuchi and Ayame hadn't liked serving him at first, but they had warmed to him after they realized just how much he'd been affected by Naruto's death. He smirked a bit under his hooded jacket; they seemed to have a habit of serving people the village had a dislike for.

Feeling the cool mid-spring wind on his face, Sasuke allowed his thoughts to take him away for the last few blocks of his walk, not really letting his guard down, but allowing his instinctual state of high alert to fade. Finally, he arrived at his apartment building and walked through the door.

The doorman on duty gave him a bored nod, likely not even recognizing him under his jacket. The last Uchiha returned it curtly and walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. A stroll down a hallway and a turn of a lock later, he was finally back in his apartment.

It wasn't anything special, a simple two-room affair. He had decided to save the considerable money he received for his missions in an attempt to build up some sort of clan fortune, unlikely as there ever being a real clan looked at the moment. Besides, he was used to Spartan living conditions; he had no qualms about living in the small space and few friends to worry about it.

A tapping on the glass of his window alerted him to an ANBU's presence on his balcony. Tenzo was holding a small bundle of money in his left hand while his right was raised to knock on the glass again. Sasuke was quickly across the room and opening the window. "Hello Sasuke. Nice night, huh?" The man in question raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, absolutely beautiful, is that my paycheck?" Tenzo held it up and passed it to his… Well, not his partner, but charge sounded weird in the mokuton user's mind.

"The Hokage said she had a message for you as well. Apparently you've been 'cleared for the requested duties,' whatever that means. I'm to continue surveillance duty on you, something about making sure you hadn't picked up any of her old teammate's worse qualities. You mind telling me what she meant?"

Sasuke smiled to himself. "It means I'm being given a Genin team and you're going to make sure I don't try to steal their bodies or something. Thanks for the message Tenzo, I'll probably see you tomorrow." With a wave of his hand, his supervisor disappeared into the night. As he took off his coat and prepared for bed, Sasuke couldn't help thinking that maybe things were finally starting to look up.

Okay, hello again people! Not much to say except that the warm-up phase of this story is well underway and will hopefully soon be concluded! WOOHOO!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Review please!

Scavenger