Once upon a time, there was a prince.
He was the second son of the king and queen of the Sun Kingdom. The king and queen were of the famous Uchiha clan, known for their Sharingan, a powerful eye-technique for perfect mimicry and memory. With that same bloodline limit, they lead the Sun Kingdom into a glorious new generation, for they had all the world's jutsus at their disposal.
The prince grew to be a happy child who adored his older brother, the crown prince. He dreamed of being a ninja or samurai or both to help his big brother protect the kingdom. Together, they would continue the reign of peace.
The prince's childhood was not without strife, however. No matter how hard the little prince worked, the king was never impressed.
"Look, Father!" The young prince could already make flame dance on his open palm at the tender age of four. But his older brother had done at age three.
"Look, Father!" The young prince could already use chakra to leap high into the air, and hit three targets with kunai without even peeking. But his older brother had achieved it at a younger age, and had done it higher, and hit more targets.
The prince was but the diluted sequel to a perfect first-born - he was merely second-born and second-best.
The prince was naive, but never stupid. When he realized that his efforts would never be good enough, he began to act out. He terrorized the staff, he threw tantrums with his tutors, and he lashed out at everyone around him: anything, anything at all to garner the attention of the king.
"What a spoiled little prince," the servants would whisper.
"What an arrogant brat," the council would mutter.
The king only looked coldly down this second son of his when he had to scold him.
And so, the prince knew he was expendable.
Prey for the Hunted
By Airyo
Chapter 21
The woman beneath him writhed in pleasure.
Sasuke looked away from her contorted face and then closed his eyes. He grunted his climax. As soon as he was finished, he withdrew and rolled away from her. The bed was wide enough so he didn't have to keep touching her.
"Leave."
"But Prince Sasuke -"
"I'm not a prince," he said coldly.
"Sorry, Sasuke." She scooted closer and gave him a flirtatious smile as she walked her fingers up along his bicep. "Let me make it up to you, m'kay?" She leaned close enough to brush her lips against his ear, to whisper just what he could do to her. Her long, dark hair tickled his arm.
Sasuke shoved her away. He sat up, twisting so his feet hit the cold ground and his back was to her. He leaned his elbows on his knees, almost curling into himself just to get away from her.
"Leave," he said again. He didn't wait for her to reply and walked to the bathroom without attempting to cover himself. The stone basin of water formed a calm mirror that reflected the black void of the ceiling. Sasuke grabbed the small pail on the floor and dunked it into the water. He upended the contents over himself, clenching his teeth against the frigid shock. Heating jutsus were just a waste of effort, and the icy temperature helped clear his head.
Distantly, he heard the girl slam the door behind her. Sasuke relaxed minutely, bracing one hand against the edges of the basin and letting the residual cold water run down his body. Droplets from his jaw and bangs gave a warped reflection of his features.
He knew her name, but he never thought of her as that. 'Kin' belonged to a different, better woman. Not the silly thing that warmed his bed as a distraction.
Sasuke frowned. It's been a while since he'd had to think of her, and he disliked the resulting ill feeling in his abdomen.
He roughly filled another bucket of that dark, cold water and poured it over himself. The punishing shock scattered the thoughts like a flock of birds. Sasuke continued until he felt both clean and numb. His feet were pale, almost ghastly, against the darkened stone tile. He curled his toes, fascinated by their movement that didn't feel like his own.
It was then that Sasuke realized that he was shivering violently. He turned back to the bedroom without bothering to dry himself off. Water dripped from the long spikes of his hair as he walked back into his bedroom, forming spots around his drying footprints on the gray floor.
Orochimaru's hideout was deep underground. This was necessary due to the blistering temperatures the desert offered during the day, but that meant it was damp and cold all the time. Many of the other inhabitants hated it, but Sasuke preferred this darkness to revealing brightness.
"You know they have a saying that idiots don't catch colds."
Sasuke glanced up at Kisame as he pulled on a pair of dark pants. The man was leaning against the doorframe.
"What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly, refusing to play the game that Kisame tried to draw him into. Banter was reserved for a better crowd, not the company he was forced to keep here.
"Apparently getting a show," the blue man muttered. Sasuke ignored him as he continued to dress - loose white robe, with a cloak secured by a large purple rope belt at the waist to conceal his weapons, and dark leather boots. He was beginning to regain feeling in his limbs again. "Orochimaru wants to see you."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Who let you in?" This was considered Orochimaru's hideout for his experiments, and the other Akatsuki members rarely ventured out here due to the inconvenient location. Even then, only Orochimaru's most trusted followers knew the access pattern. Kisame was hardly here just to deliver a message that a mere snake summon could carry.
Kisame bared his sharp teeth in a mockery of an innocent grin. It made him look more like a piranha than a shark - silly in appearance, yet no less dangerous.
"Guess you caught me," the tall missing-nin said with a shrug. "That Snake has a special delivery he wants guarded."
Sasuke lifted the other eyebrow. "Why tell me? I was uninformed of a new mission."
Kisame chuckled and smiled even wider. His teeth gleamed in the dim cave light. "I'm informing you now, ain't I?"
The ex-prince gave the other man a curious look. One S-class missing-nin doing a delivery was rare enough. One that required two was downright excessive. What kind of package required this level of skill?
Regardless, it was related to the Snake and Sasuke was always willing to discover more information on his activities. Sasuke grabbed his favored chokuto and secured it in his belt with a snap.
"Details," he demanded curtly. While Orochimaru was technically part of the Akatsuki mercenaries, Sasuke was not and was only on loan twice for the more difficult retrieval missions. Both times, he'd been teamed with Hoshigaki Kisame.
Sasuke walked with Kisame to the supply room as the other filled him in. One of Orochimaru's recent breakthroughs needed to be moved safely to the main hideout. Akatsuki had become more and more involved in retrievals, and less and less with assassinations. The leader's current mission seemed to center on creating some tool to destroy the world or something like that.
Kisame slowed to a halt when they reached the entrance to the wing where the prisoners/experiments were kept. Sasuke gave him a curious glance when the mercenary bared his teeth in an innocent smile.
"This is where we part, dear comrade. I was supposed to do this myself, but something came up. That Snake told me to just hand this off to whichever Akatsuki was available, but why bother them when Orochimaru's favorite little minion is open to help?" The large man flashed him a literally-toothy grin and swept down the main hall. "Subject is in 12C, west wing. I'll have time to meet you at the Moon-side checkpoint in a week for handover."
Sasuke almost rolled his eyes in irritation as he continued to the mentioned area alone. That lazy fish. He just didn't want to track down another Akatsuki member. He turned into a dark, unlit tunnel and continued walking without breaking his pace. One side was a seemingly endless expanse of dull slate, while the other was a crowded gauntlet of cells. Only half were occupied with broken shells of experiments who cowered away from him. The cobbled stone was slick and uneven under the soles of his boots.
After the light from the main hall faded, the tunnel was completely bereft of light save for the glow of chakra from his hand. It was a waste of resources to use lamps when these wretched beings were so lost to the world.
The cell numbers started in the two-hundreds, scripted on rotting wood plaques that hung at eye level next to the bars of each cell. They descended as he ventured further into the dungeon wing. The floor sloped down slightly, leading him deeper into what seemed to be the bowels of the earth. Sasuke could feel the decay seep into his skin and hair as he counted down the number plaques.
156D...156C...156B...
The darkness secluded him, trapping him with his thoughts. It was easier when he was around others, or entangled in a difficult mission, but the prisoners down here could hardly be considered people. The sounds of suffering they made were more animalistic than human.
He was alone, and that meant he couldn't escape her.
How long has it been?
Five years...
Orochimaru was still no closer to achieving his promise, claiming that he needed a part of the body. Sasuke had searched at first, but as Itachi's death warrant had demanded, Hinata had disappeared completely from the face of the earth. The only single clue he'd found was a disturbance regarding a Moon princess in Yue, but even that hope had shattered when it turned out to be a false alarm.
It took him months of endless toil to find her. To everyone but a select few, she wasn't even supposed to be alive. The princess was locked away in a high tower, connected to the world only by the thin hairs of rumors.
And it wasn't even Hinata.
The Hyuuga girl looked as if she were asleep, hands clasped over her stomach, and chest rising and falling slowly. But even in peaceful slumber there was a hard edge to her features, emphasized further by the lines of the seal on her forehead. This was not Hinata. This was a shadow of her, a tragic maybe had the events of her life been different.
And a copy, a shadow of her - it wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
Sasuke stared down at the sleeping princess, caught between bewilderment and relief. The gray light of the sunset cast the tiny cell in a surreal hue, making her skin seem even more deathly pale. A cold wind filled the corners of the room and her sleek dark hair shifted like fabric.
This was the end of every lead, every clue.
What was he to do now?
Sasuke stepped forward, hand hovering over the girl's throat. He could see the slow pulse in her pale, bird-like neck. It would be so easy to erase this copy. A thread of anger curled in his stomach, taut and fragile and all the emotion that tied him back to humanity. How dare the Hyuuga trick him?! How dare she not be Hinata?! She deserved the death she mimicked so perfectly.
The memory of Hinata halted him. Her pale eyes seemed so sad, further amplified by the accusing gazes of his teammates - blue, green, mismatched red.
Sasuke shook his head, disgusted with his indecisiveness. Distantly, he knew he was slipping further into a dark, unforgivable mindset, but it was getting easier to ignore that cognizance. For years, he'd tried to live by Itachi's view of what was right. And all it got for him was a comatose girl who had the functionality of a rock.
But regardless of what he wanted to do, he'd spent too long contemplating her future and ran out of time. They will notice the lack of movement of the guard shifts soon. Sasuke withdrew and leaped out the window. For a moment, his silhouette hung against the golden face of the rising moon, full and swollen of an autumn night. Then the breeze rushed up to him as he fell. Chakra cushioned his landing and like a shadow, he darted away from the waning light.
The final embers of a fighting spirit in the ex-prince quieted. He'd hoped so fervently that Itachi had been lying.
Except Itachi never lied.
Sasuke had stopped caring after that. He rarely even thought of her any more as when he went about his usual business. The Snake Sannin kept him busy with missions to collect some rare jutsu or another, and it was interesting enough that Sasuke could distract himself. It was a kind of peace he hadn't been able to find back in the Sun Kingdom.
13B...13A...12B...12A
Sasuke backtracked so he stood between 12B and 13A.
"Damn piranha," he snarled to himself. Kisame's joke was distinctly not funny. The Uchiha contemplated the effort in walking the length of all 400-something cells to make himself some fish fry courtesy of the Chidori.
"Piranha, pie-ranna, Pie NIRVANA."
Sasuke stiffened as giggles ricocheted along the hall, echoing like an unwanted ghost. There were only the fading chakras of the experiments. They pressed in on him like the annoying buzz of flies, and he'd been pushing his awareness of them to the very back of his mind. Sasuke opened his senses, slowly peeling back the needless sounds to reveal the source.
He turned. A blank wall faced the spot where 12C would theoretically be placed.
"Who's there?" he asked as he stared at the spot where his subject was being kept. Even with his Sharingan, he couldn't find the signs of a door.
"Me!" was the helpful reply. It was a woman. A rather deranged one, at that.
"Insufficient answer," Sasuke dismissed.
"Too bad." He got the sense that subject 12C was sticking her tongue out at him. Of all absurdities. He had no patience to deal with such childishness, especially from some pathetic prisoner.
"Fine," he snarled as he turned to leave. He heard her incoherent murmurs of protest - one word gave him pause. A memory nudged him, prying open the iron gates to past feelings. He couldn't leave and whirled around. "Repeat what you just said," Sasuke demanded.
"I asked: What happened to Kinky?"
The nickname hit him with the force of one of Sakura's punches. Hinata had told him about the strange woman who'd help keep her alive that treacherous night in the Sun dungeons. And the name "Mattress Dango" had called her.
It's been five years. He shouldn't be feeling faint over hearing such a stupid nickname. But years of repressed hurt flooded back too easily, and Sasuke had to actively stop himself from leaning against the wall.
"Who's Kinky?" he asked steadily.
"Forgotten so quickly, huh, Uchiha?" Dango muttered. It was a well-deserved accusation, as he hadn't thought about her in months. Sasuke ignored the jab.
"And what makes you so sure I am an Uchiha?"
"Are you not Uchiha Sasuke? Everyone here knows who you are."
Sasuke shook his head. It was clear that Dango was so utterly convinced that he was Uchiha, and nothing would persuade her otherwise. Though it was strange that she was able to determine his identity just by the sound of his voice - perhaps this was why the Akatsuki was interested in her?
"My identity is not of importance. I am here to move you."
A sniff.
"Then move away, you traitor." Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but before he could demand her cooperation, Dango continued. "You don't know how to open the door anyways, idiot that you are, or else you would have already "moved" me. And you've yet to move me." There was a snort at her own little pun. "And I shan't tell you until you tell what's happened to Kinky."
"She's dead," Sasuke spat harshly.
The shocked silence from the other side of the wall wasn't nearly as satisfying as it should be. Then Dango gave a plaintive wail like a lost child.
"Why did you kill her? Why?"
"I didn't," Sasuke replied with gritted teeth. He was beginning to consider failing this mission, no matter how much the Akatsuki wanted Dango. The memories that Dango forcibly dug back up was irritating.
"You're here, aren't you?" was the snarled reply. "You mus thave abandoned her when you came here. Did that Snake tell you that you can bring Kinky back? Because he's just using you to-"
"That's not-"
"Then tell me, Uchiha," Dango pressed on, her voice suddenly harsh. "He hasn't been making you train with that Kaguya? That creepy medic-nin his hasn't been studying your eyes, monitoring your Sharingan to make sure you don't hurt yourself? What do you think they want if they don't want you as that Snake's next vessel? To pamper you just because you're so pretty?"
Sasuke had no answer to her questions, because those were the same unresolved questions that were shoved back to the dusty corner of his mind.
"He's played you like a fool!" Dango laughed and laughed, her shrill voice surrounding him like enemy soldiers on all sides. "A fool who's spitting on Kinky's memory!"
"Shut up!" Sasuke roared. Chidori already was singing in his hand and he slammed it against the wall. The tunnel shook as the stone around Sasuke's hand broke.
The dust settled to reveal a tiny cell, and the flickering torches from behind Sasuke shed light on the wretched scene the prison contained: a dirty, emaciated woman was in the corner, curled up in her nest of old blankets. She looked up and recoiled from him, from the light. How long had she been imprisoned in darkness and isolation? Matted hair obscured her face, but the paleness of her skin and the sharp angle of her nose spoke of classic Sun Kingdom features.
"Mitarashi Anko." It wasn't a question - this was the girl who'd disappeared years ago, that so many believed had followed her teacher, Orochimaru. He stared down at this miserable creature and he saw all he needed to see.
Sasuke made a decision right then, though there was really no alternative. He studied her for a moment, and then spoke urgently, but clearly, in a tone that refused disobedience. "Count to 3000 seconds before you leave. Left, down this hall, and then keep to your right for the next three turns. First room is supply. As much water as you can and something to keep the sun off you. Food and weapons are secondary - dagger or kunai will suffice. Do not linger. Do not think. After that, keep to the largest hallway - that will lead you to the exit."
Sasuke turned and left before Anko gave any sign she understood. He didn't have time to nurse a broken woman back to health. He hurried back towards his room, unfeeling heart pumping far too quickly to be comfortable.
He remembered his history lessons well. The Mitarashi clan had distinctive features: dark hair, pale skin, brown-gray eyes...
Even by the pale glow of his chakra light, Sasuke could recognize the Byakugan. One of Anko's eyes was silvery white and fully functional judging by the chakra veins around it.
She had called him a fool. But he was worse than a fool. After abandoning his friends, he was also worse than trash. For the first time in a long while, it was a fact that Sasuke couldn't tolerate.
The signs were there, as Anko had so bluntly listed out. He just never wanted to see them, to accept them. It was easier to reject the truth.
They wanted his eyes. The rest of him was...disposable.
Trash.
His pride would never accept such a term, even if it was Sasuke himself who said it.
There was very little to keep from his room. The ex-prince grabbed his pack by the door. It was just like leaving for another mission, though he had no intention of returning this time. Not after what he had planned.
Kabuto was first.
The medic-nin wasn't the most powerful and despite his intimate knowledge of Orochimaru's experiments, he didn't stand out. Sasuke had learned his lesson from watching Hinata - she could become her background, but it was by no means an indication of her actual ability. Next to the Snake Sannin, the medic was the next best source of information.
Sasuke strode to the medic's office and pushed his way in without bothering to knock.
"Kabuto." The medic turned around and smiled. His round glasses glinted in a way that made the hair on the back of Sasuke's neck stand on end.
"Your highness, good evening," Kabuto greeted.
"Not a prince," Sasuke corrected more on habit. He never bothered to wait for an invitation to enter before, and so he simply stepped in and seated himself on a nearby stool. "My eyes have been hurting me."
He had been abusing his Sharingan in training, recently. Lying to liars was an exercise in futility, so Sasuke decided to follow a page in Itachi's book instead. He can play this game too.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Kabuto sympathized. He approached and reached for Sasuke's face. The rough pads of his fingers rested on the ex-prince's temples and he could feel the slippery chakra probe at his eyeballs. Though Sasuke was accustomed to such intrusion after teaming with Sakura, Kabuto's examinations always set him on edge. Despite the perfect visage of caring, Sasuke always got the sense that the creepy medic wanted him in good health for the dissection table.
Thankfully, Kabuto withdrew his chakra after a few moments. "You have been overtaxing them, Sasuke," he chided in a sickening mockery of caring. He clucked his tongue. Sasuke repressed the fleeting urge to rip said muscle out. The medic's gaze flickered to the worn pack at his hip. "I don't recommend another mission right now. I can't keep healing you - your vision might deteriorate if you push too hard. Right now, the chakra veins feeding your eyes are inflamed."
Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, trying to pinpoint the specific sensation. Failure prompted him to reopen his eyes.
"I guess that's because my Mangekyou is active," Sasuke concluded. He looked back at Kabuto and smirked as he dispelled the illusion hiding the crimson pattern of his pupils.
"Now die."
Katana blades enclosed Kabuto's form.
Sasuke stood up in time to cup the falling medic's face with his hands. He snapped the man's neck, and let him continue his trajectory down. Kabuto's corpse hit the ground with a dull thud.
Too easy. The Uchiha stepped over the body and began to riffle through the medic's files. He knew he wouldn't find much, but he only needed to find enough. Kabuto was too cunning to simply disappear and he would cause problems even without Orochimaru's guidance.
It was taking him too long. He pulled a blank scroll and a series of seals had the entirety of Kabuto's files, locked or not, safely stored away. He tucked it into his hip pouch and exited. There was no need to waste chakra on trying to disillusion the now-empty room or the body on the ground. He won't be staying long.
Orochimaru was not difficult to find. The Sannin was in his main lab, coolly observing desert mice as harsh seals manipulated their tiny bodies.
"My prince," the Snake said smoothly as Sasuke walked into the room. He had his back to the doorway and didn't bother to turn to acknowledge his visitor. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Sasuke watched with fascinated revulsion as one mouse that clearly had its neck broken shuddered and then staggered to its feet. The triumph of that miniscule feat was immediately shattered when Orochimaru plucked it up by its tail and tossed it aside. A snake that was coiled in the corner snapped up its head and caught it in its mouth. There was a soft squeak, and then the mouse was no more.
Sasuke turned his attention back to Orochimaru, hating how unsettling a simple act of nature was whenever the Sannin was involved.
"Not a prince," he reminded. Orochimaru turned with a thin smile curling his lips.
"Of course." He crossed his arms and tilted his head as he observed the young Uchiha. He leaned back against the counter. "My time is yours," he said with a bow of his head.
Sasuke stared back at the cage of mice on the table, and the Sannin followed his gaze.
"You haven't asked my progress for a long time now," the Snake commented. "Why the sudden interest again? I've told you that without some of her blood or even hair, I can't reliably complete the technique." He spoke as if he were scolding a very dumb child and the tone made Sasuke grind his teeth.
But he refused to rise to the bait, as always. The ex-prince turned his attention to the cages in the room. Neat rows covered the walls. Thankfully, all the subjects in this room were not human. In contrast to the rest of the hideout, Orochimaru's labs were well-lit with chakra lamps, almost to the point of a ridiculous sort of cheeriness. The shine of the metal in this room seemed to be laughing at him.
Sasuke met Orochimaru's eyes. The Sannin smiled a little wider, so his slitted eyes were half-lidded.
"If not that...so you're here to kill me?"
Sasuke dropped the genjutsu covering his Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Your perspicacity astounds," he said flatly. The Sannin gave a hissing laughter.
"Silly little Sasuke," Orochimaru tutted. "You are overconfident."
"Kuchiyose no Justu!" Smoke filled the room. Moments afterwards, Manda's enormous body tore through the narrow space of Orochimaru's lab. Sasuke barely managed to form Susanoo and lock his feet onto Manda's scales with chakra. The violet guardian protected Sasuke from the worst of the onslaught as they ripped through the screech of breaking rock.
Moments later, they were above ground, in an endless field of red sand with the arid breeze of the desert stealing away their breaths.
"How dare you call me here!" Manda hissed.
"I will make 200 sacrifices to you after this," Orochimaru offered with a smirk from his spot on Manda's head. He watched as Sasuke leaped away, Susanoo still active to face the summon.
"Acceptable," the snake king snapped. He whipped his head towards Sasuke, fangs bared. The Uchiha turned, letting the momentum of Manda's mass carry the snake past him. His eyes widened when the summon's tail came whipping around and slammed into him. He flew back, back arched. Susanoo fizzled out of existence from the shock.
Sasuke dispersed into a flock of ravens.
The real Sasuke reformed behind Manda with his eyes closed. His eyes snapped open, Mangekyou spinning. Purple chakra burst out over his head, burning the tall, horned silhouette of his Susanoo against the stark sky.
Then Susanoo discarded his weapons and caught Manda by the tail with both arms. The enormous serpent hissed and spat a stream of venom at the smaller manifestation, but the guardian did not waver. With a powerful flick of his arms, Susanoo snapped Manda's length out like a wet towel. Sasuke watched with not a small amount of satisfaction as the move rippled through the snake's body, resulting in Manda's head smacking the ground with a thunderous thud. The earth shook from the force of it.
Sasuke laughed, loudly and in sharp bursts. Susanoo completed the move a second time, ending with Manda eating dirt on the other side.
The snake hissed a string of expletives at the insult of being used like a child's toy. Far faster than his size suggested, the summon coiled around Susanoo and Sasuke.
"I will crusssh you, puny mortal!" it roared. Manda began to squeeze, but in the blink of an eye, Sasuke vanished Susanoo and easily leaped free of the thick coils. He left a trail of black fire behind as he dashed up along the violet scales of the summon's body, charging for Orochimaru. Manda writhed to avoid Amaterasu, forcing the ex-prince to flip high into the air. He was left vulnerable as he fell, and the Sannin took advantage.
Orochimaru sent a barrage of poison at him. The Sharingan revealed the hidden chains that would wrap around him, regardless of how he twisted. Sasuke flashed through handseals, and blew a stream of fire to meet the poison. As expected, a spectacular explosion occurred, rendering all witnesses half-blind. Sasuke let himself be thrown back by the blast, safely out of the reach of the chains.
Snakes suddenly burst from the shadows of the chains, and Sasuke inwardly cursed.
His Sharingan spun furiously, until it was impossible to tell the black from the red.
"Kuchiyose no Justu." A flock of ravens surrounded him, redirecting his trajectory. Sasuke landed back on Manda's body with a neat tuck and roll, and then he was already bolting forward to the head where Orochimaru waited. The summon caught on quickly, and twisted, doing something to his scales so it made it impossible for Sasuke to keep his footing with chakra. Manda's tail snapped out and he barely managed to sidestep. The slippery scales were his downfall, and Sasuke fell backwards.
Orochimaru attacked. Earth rose to batter Sasuke's limp body. Air whipped in blades to cut him. Even fire seared him. Sasuke gritted his teeth and flickered through the complicated handseals. He pulled wind around himself, forcing it to his will so he was safely in the eye of the tornado.
Orochimaru jumped, fingers a blur. Abruptly, a thousand smaller snakes inundated Sasuke from above, directly over the center. With no leverage to turn, he couldn't avoid them all. They twisted around him, trapping his right hand from summoning more ravens to break from his own prison.
He was still falling.
The ex-prince suppressed a smirk. He'd been waiting for Orochimaru to venture away from Manda's head, where both the summon and his summoner would be far too aware of everything.
His Mangekyou spun.
Sasuke pulled out his chokuto with his free hand and the ex-prince channeled a Chidori into the metal. At the last moment, he negated the tornado and slammed his sword into Manda's side, letting the momentum of his fall swing him back around with the blade as a pivot point. He released at the last moment, and landed on the handle of his sword with one-chakra charged foot.
Manda lashed out in pain, only to meet Susanoo's sword as the guardian reformed. The summon hissed and spat. Sasuke equipped the guardian's sword with black fire, and Susanoo sliced expertly at Manda's form, sure to include striking for the snake's head.
The repeated insults were not worth the two hundred sacrifices, and Manda dispelled himself with a vindictive hiss. Smoke surrounded them as they fell down to the desert ground. Sasuke wasted no time pinpointing Orochimaru.
He darted over the jagged rocks, sword blazing and chakra flaring.
The Snake Sannin had made preparations of his own in the time Manda earned him, however. He flickered through the final set of hauntingly familiar seals - resurrection - and slammed his palm to the ground.
There was a pause, where even the air around them seemed to hold its breath. Then the hard earth between Orochimaru and Sasuke shifted with an awful sound.
A coffin burst out from the ground. But it wasn't the crude wooden boxes Sasuke was accustomed to. Instead, it was an elaborately carved masterpiece, laid in profile for the ex-prince's view.
The lid lifted.
Hinata sat up.
She slowed her ride, pausing in her patrol route to rehydrate and readjust her cloak. Her leather chestplate kept it in place well enough, but the deep hood still tended to fall back and expose her pale face to the harsh sun. She glanced at the scene before her, eyes naturally pulled by the sloping lines of the sand dunes. For as far as her normal vision - and Byakugan vision as well - could see, there was nothing but sky and sand.
While Hinata would never tell, she hated these solo patrols. Logically, it made sense. It was more effective to split up the experienced members of a patrol to cover more ground, and a leadership role did not give her the right to foist off the more distasteful tasks.
But Hinata actually found patrol to be one of the most difficult duties. It required a high level of alertness for long periods of time, and inevitably, all guards succumbed to boredom. Boredom was the greatest ally or enemy. The ambushing party only needed one moment of inattention in the target party's guard. But that also required the ambushing party to wait, and often it became a competition of who can hold off boredom longer.
Before, it was a constant battle against mind-numbing inaction, but now that Hinata had developed an especially sharp sense of her surroundings, her thoughts were free to wander.
And they always circled back to him.
Hinata stared up at the sky, squinting against the brilliant, citrine sunset. The hues of fire reminded her of a distant past, of a dark-eyed prince and his kisses by the window. It was another lifetime ago.
The huntress shook her head with a sad yet amused smile. The people who knew her now would not believe that she of all people would be daydreaming like this. But she thought of him every day, in those little breaths between her duties. How was he doing? Where is he now? Was he taking good care of himself?
Was he happy?
When she'd received news of his defection those years ago, she didn't know what to think.
Hinata stared at the note from the scout. The lamp in her tent flickered erratically, like her heartbeat, as she traced the lines of one word.
Defected.
The implications of this single word shook her and Hinata shivered even though she wore several layers to combat the unforgiving nights in the desert. Hinata hugged herself, daring to wonder, daring to hope. Were the conditions that Itachi imposed no longer valid? If Sasuke was not a part of the Sun Kingdom anymore, then his ties to a Hyuuga would also be benign?
Hinata tensed, unsure if her body was preparing for or fighting the urge to rush out this very instant to search for him, to let him know that her heart was still alive and beating for him. 'Sasuke! Where are you? I'm not dead - I'll explain everything. Sasuke!'
Then the pale, determined face of her little sister flashed before her eyes, and Hinata hugged herself tighter. Hanabi was a hard, horrible lesson in the consequences of thinking too lightly of her position. The Moon Kingdom had long announced the tragic death of the Crown Princess Hyuuga Hanabi. While Hinata could never find true confirmation on a body, she knew there was very little chance. Most logically, the secrecy surrounding the whole incident was due to her escape. Hanabi was collateral. Hinata couldn't let herself hope like that anymore.
A strange shadow swept over the fabric of her wall, cast by the faint light of the other tents. Hinata frowned slightly and gracefully rose to her feet. The scouts should have issued an alert, as that movement was not characteristic of any wildlife.
Hinata looked around her, checking the shadows of the tents around her. The night air was heavy and cold on her flushed cheeks. No one else had noticed anything. Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the area. She could see a shadowy presence at the edge of her sight. Hinata focused her vision, nearly sitting down on the ground in shock.
A raven flew in lazy circles in the night sky, a single mote of dust against the moon. Utterly, completely out of character. As if it knew that she saw it, the bird flew away after another lap. Hinata stared listlessly at the marbled moon, unable to focus on it despite how it gleamed like a gold coin against dark velvet.
Itachi.
He was still monitoring her. The conditions were still place.
Berating herself for foolishly jumping to conclusions, Hinata stepped back into her tent.
An anomaly in the vast desert scene before her pulled her out of her musings. There was a black speck on the horizon. It was a bird, most likely a scavenger, but the unusual pattern of flight drew her attention. It was flying straight towards her. Normal birds indigenous to the area flew in lazy circles (during the day) or hovered near one spot to take full advantage of the warm currents of air. The harsh heat of the Sky Kingdom's desert necessitated all conservation of energy possible.
It was most likely some sort of scout. Those were not welcome here.
With a deft move, Hinata had an arrow loaded and locked on the suspicious bird. She aimed, waiting for it to approach even closer.
"Don't shoot me, you idiot!"
Hinata's eyes widened in recognition even as she released. She snapped her pointed wrist to the side, barely managing to redirect the direction of her arrow. The bolt disappeared into the endless horizon to her left.
Mozou flapped down and Hinata offered her forearm. The summon fell, more than landed, on her arm. He was clearly exhausted. She wondered why he had been manually searching.
Hinata cradled him in the crook of her elbow and offered him water. He just shook his head.
"No time. Save him. Please."
Sasuke recoiled when Hinata turned towards him.
"Hello, Sasuke," she whispered. Sasuke could see the hint of the shy smile on her lips.
What was left of them, anyways.
A cold voice in the back of Sasuke's mind commented that of course she would look like this - Orochimaru's resurrection technique preserved the injuries at the time the sample was taken, so if someone had cruelly slashed her across the face when she was...
Hinata climbed down, steadying herself with a slim hand on the gleaming side of her coffin. Thankfully, her signature dual-toned cloak concealed any further injuries.
Then she placed both feet on the ground. One was twisted towards an inhuman direction. She took a step, and stumbled. Sasuke spasmed, almost dashing to her to help.
"I've missed you," she said. Her eyes were gray and sharp against her black sclera, making her gaze seem that much more accusing. "It's only been a few months but -"
"Five years." It took Sasuke a moment to realize that he was the one who'd corrected her with a snarl. His jaw hurt from how hard he gritted his teeth.
She looked at him with a wounded expression, and Sasuke couldn't tear his eyes away. Only distantly, he was aware that Susanoo still sapped his chakra, protecting him from Orochimaru's attacks.
"I've been dead for a while," she reminded him. Hinata reached back for her naginata, and her cloak parted. Her clothes hid the worst of it, but it he could see flashes of her injuries between the dark tatters. Sasuke swallowed back the bile rising in the back of his throat, like an Academy student seeing gore for the first time. His Sharingan spun, straining to unravel the genjutsu that weighed so heavily on his limbs.
If only it were a genjutsu, and not the cruel hands of memory clawing out his weaknesses.
"You know," she whispered sadly. "You were supposed to figure it out." She flicked her naginata free and twirled it. She dropped into a ready position, scorpion, with the blade over her back. "I was waiting for you."
She leaped forward. Susanoo parried her back. She snarled, and attacked again.
"Why didn't you come for me?!" she screamed. Her voice was high and thin, not meant to scream in pain. Hinata attacked again and again, not even trying to aim for the vital areas. Repeatedly, Susanoo gently pushed her back, reminiscent of a jounin deflecting the attacks of a kitten. "I waited for so long. I trusted you. I loved you!"
Hinata stopped and dropped to her knees. Tears streamed down her disfigured face. "Did you hear me, you monster," she murmured. "I loved you. I left for you. And I died for you."
Sasuke physically shivered, as all the repressed emotions of five years overwhelmed him.
She staggered to her feet and spun her naginata in an arc around her body. She lunged for him.
This time, Sasuke let her get close. He stepped back, letting her arm pass harmlessly by his head. Her sleeve fell back, trailing in the wind. The ex-prince grabbed the fabric and pulled, unbalancing her. Susanoo faded so Sasuke could trap Hinata in his arms without distraction, for he needed every ounce of his strength.
"Goodbye," he said flatly. Then Sasuke reached around and pulled out the kunai holding the seal to the back of her neck. The Hyuuga who looked so much like her crumbled to ash in his arms, leaving the corpse of an unknown woman. He let her fall to the ground.
She didn't have the star-shaped scar on her left forearm. This wasn't Hinata. He would have found her if there was anything left to find. Hunter-nin did not do their jobs half-heartedly, after all.
"You will never do her justice," he muttered.
"She didn't need to."
Sasuke's eyes widened at Orochimaru's voice behind him. He couldn't turn in time.
There was sickening sound of something ripping through him, sinew and flesh and bone breaking.
Sasuke stared down at the blade that protruded from his chest. He opened his mouth to scream, but only blood dribbled out. Stupid, so stupid. He'd forgotten himself, distracted by a false Hinata like a lovesick fool. Orochimaru had been waiting for this all along.
Sasuke let a gurgling hiss of pain, but his lungs were already failing, filling with blood. Then the rest of his body followed, one by one. Sasuke sagged, until only Orochimaru's sword kept him upright. The most battered organ held on the longest. His heart shuddered, and then also stopped, too broken to struggle on. He was drowning, dying, ceding to the shadows that encroached on his field of vision.
The ex-prince let his eyes fall close.
"Izanagi," he whispered, a curse and a prayer together in one word of power to tether him back to reality.
Sasuke's body dissolved into dark wisps of smoke from around Orochimaru's blade, only to coalesce, uninjured, next to the Sannin.
Orochimaru sputtered, truly shocked. "When did you le-"
Sasuke drove his sword into Orochimaru's gut as Amaterasu fanned out around him. But Sasuke's triumph only lasted a brief moment. Orochimaru convulsed. Then his skin seemed to melt and rip. A white thing burst out of him like a parasite.
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he took in the true form of Orochimaru. The man's face remained the same, but his body was a snake with white, crystalline scales. It was a grotesque sight, especially with the previous host's skin still dangling like fabric from his mouth.
Yet somehow, the ex-prince wasn't surprised that the Sannin himself had turned into a monster.
Orochimaru lashed forward, lightning fast. He was much more agile than Manda, but Sasuke was accustomed to lightning. He leaped, twisting in mid-air to avoid Orochimaru's mouth. The ex-prince was well aware of the Sannin's intention to possess him. As long as he -
Sasuke's eyes widened when his legs gave out and he fell to the ground. A thin line of red welled into existence on the pale skin of his arm. Belatedly, he realized that Orochimaru's fangs gleamed in a strangely oily way - the snake had used the remnants of the previous host to hide the fact.
Without hesitation, Orochimaru lunged forward again, burying his fangs into Sasuke's side this time, injecting him with even more venom. The prince's limbs were becoming too heavy for him to fight.
"What are you going to do, little Prince?" Orochimaru taunted. "You only have one eye left." The creature laughed and opened his maw to swallow Sasuke whole.
Sasuke stared up him with mismatched eyes - one black and useless and weeping blood, sacrificed for the power to twist time, and the other, a lone berserker red that seemed to glow from between the shadows of his bangs.
His Mangekyou was the red of the fallen who had nothing else left to lose, who had already gambled everything. Orochimaru had accounted for Izanagi's power, but he forgot about Sasuke's determination.
So one was already enough. The blades of his pupil spun.
The Sasuke lying in front of Orochimaru dispersed into a thousand ravens. Sharp beaks and talons rained down on the creature, blocking his view. Though they couldn't hurt him, he couldn't hurt them either. The Sannin snarled in frustration and battered them away.
A moment's distraction was all it took.
Sasuke attacked from behind. Orochimaru snapped at him, only to end up with another mouthful of feathers. The ex-prince reappeared a second time and slammed his chokuto through Orochimaru's belly with both hands. The Chidori igniting his blade helped penetrate the scales, and the thing was pinned firmly to the ground.
Sasuke forced the last of his chakra into his remaining eye.
Black flames ignited inside Orochimaru's mouth, searing the most tender tissues.
It was over too quickly. Bereft of all his defences, the creature that was Orochimaru shrieked in pain as flame consumed his unnatural form.
Then it was silent, and only the sound of memories ringing in his ears, punctuated by his harsh pants. He knelt, using the sword to steady his shaking limbs.
Sasuke squinted his eyes in agony, trying to ignore the feeling of warm blood trickling down his face. The vision in his right eye was filling with alarming spots of light and shadows. But even his dying eye could see that Orochimaru was dead. All that remained was the Sannin's discarded skin - a fragile, pile of scales. Those were scorched to pale ash, and a soft gust of air was enough to scatter them.
He watched the wind take the final pieces of Orochimaru in a sick mockery of flower petals on a spring breeze.
The ex-prince huffed in amusement. All this time, and he ended up achieving vengeance for a completely different offense. The Sun King must be laughing.
He realized that for the first time in years, rather than the hollow, screaming sort of silence that threatened to collapse into itself, his mind was simply quiet. Still. Even the steadily bleeding wound from Orochimaru's fangs seemed only a distant twinge. Maybe it was the poison, but he could describe this frame of mind as 'peaceful'.
He only felt tired.
It was like preparing for bed after a long, long day.
Maybe he'll see her now.
With a faint smile on his lips, the ex-prince closed his mostly sightless eyes.
He let himself fall into nothingness.
Sasuke.
Just his name was still enough to make the desert heat feel like a winter night.
"What about him?" Hinata whispered. She almost didn't want Mozou to answer.
The raven looked up. "You're the only one that could possibly get to him in time. The king knows he's asking a terrible thing of you, but he begs you to help Sasuke."
It was a terrible thing of Itachi to ask her, but she knew that the king wouldn't ask unless it was dire. Even when Sasuke had defected, the elder Uchiha hadn't contacted her directly.
"Do you know where?"
Mozou hopped onto her shoulder. "Dunno the names, but I can direct you."
She nodded and snapped the reins of her horse.
She could see Sasuke again.
Her blood sang even as worry seeped into the very marrow of her bones, even as she remembered that she won't be able to meet his eyes. That didn't matter.
She could see him again.
It was less than an hour's ride before Mozou navigated her to a rocky part of the desert. The earth was hard and uneven, with hidden crevices waiting to snap an ankle. No sane person would wander here.
Hinata dismounted and tied down her ride to continue on foot. She didn't have to proceed far to come about the ruins of a great battle. Deep slashes marred the terrain and the color of the rubble indicated it was only recently shattered or moved. Much of the area was blackened by fire. Hinata recalled Itachi's black fire with a shiver, and she absently reached for the faint scars that remained from that day.
"What happened here?" she asked Mozou. The summon seemed to droop.
"He was fighting Orochimaru."
Hinata swallowed hard. "So he won?" Even as she asked, she cast her chakra out in a wide, reckless net. There was nothing. The land was barren of life, of anything. She pinned his summon with a worried look.
"Do I look like a damn oracle? He's not dead," Mozou replied gruffly. "I don't know the details. Slant left."
Hinata obeyed and leaped up onto the tallest boulder so she could see over the rubble. It was almost anticlimactic how quickly she found him.
There he was. Sasuke. He was lying face down, with crimson coating the rocks around him. A melted sword impaled the ground next to him.
Hinata stumbled down the rest of the way and rushed to him, nearly tripping several times. With trembling hands, she carefully turned him on his back. Dark lines red-brown traced from his eyelashes and down his face, but the most worrying was the still fresh blood seeping from his side.
She laid two fingers in the soft hollow where his jaw met his neck. His pulse fluttered her fingers like the wings of a butterfly, weak and soft. But wonderful, because it meant he was alive.
"Oh Sasuke..." she breathed. Her vision blurred with tears.
Five years. Five long, lonely years.
She paused only to press her lips to his dusty hair. Then Hinata got to work. She deftly cut away the ruined parts of his robe so she could apply a salve to hinder the blood flow The metallic scent of blood was strong and biting. She was racing against time.
As she was tying the final knot in the bandages around Sasuke's torso, Mozou hopped forward and nudged at Sasuke's hip pouch. When the snap unfastened, the raven plunged its head inside and rustled around. Then with a triumphant flick of his tailfeathers, Mozou reemerged with a large scroll grasped in his beak. He dragged it out to the ground and hopped on top it.
"None of your business," Mozou squawked harshly when Hinata gave him a curious look. "Make sure that idiot doesn't die." He took to the air with that scroll clutched in his talons, and disappeared mid-air with a cloud of smoke.
Hinata only shook her head. She gave no further thought to the summon's strange actions. She didn't have the time to worry. Already, red was blooming against the white of the bandages.
With a soft grunt of effort, she scooped Sasuke's long frame into her arms. She staggered to an upright position, andran.
He woke to nothing but pain. Everything hurt, and it was as if he could even taste and hear the agony of his broken body.
And it was so dark that all his senses were acute to the point of discomfort. He could feel the chakras of so many people around him, pressing in on him. Only one was near him, but it was still suffocating after years of living underground. The stone had muffled the crowd of chakra.
But where was he? This wasn't one of Orochimaru's hideouts. Why was it so dark if there were so many people moving around as if it were day? His eyes throbbed in protest as he tried to use them. Wincing, Sasuke reached up to investigate, and his fingers encountered thick layers of bandages. His head was foggy, he realized. He'd been drugged. Alarm overtook the pain, and he tried to sit up.
"Be calm, young man. You are safe here and you are very badly injured," a woman's voice chided him as a gentle hand on his chest pressed him back. He hadn't felt her presence until she spoke. Sasuke was so surprised he obeyed. The woman tending to him had no ill-intent in her aura, and he let himself relax slightly. Even in his state, he could probably still snap her neck before she could realize what happened. "You are in the nomad town of Seidou. One of our scouts found you unconscious and brought you back. Do you remember what happened? Who you are?"
Sasuke had never heard of Seidou before, though it brought up pangs of memories of another town that was similarly named. Ruthlessly, he forced those thoughts back to their dusty corner. A nomad town meant he was still deep in the desert area. Seidou was likely the vestiges of an old Sky Kingdom town.
There was no fear nor agitation in her chakra, and Sasuke concluded that they really didn't know who he was. It had been a while since he'd had to introduce himself. He paused before answering.
"Sousuke," he replied. That should be similar enough that he won't slip up. "My family name is...I...I can't remember anything else. Kami...why can't I remember anything?" He let his raw throat falter and crack, as if he were truly perturbed by this loss of identity. "What happened?" He clutched his head, a genuine reaction to his headache, but it was helpful if the woman believed him to be harmless and weak.
"Well, Sousuke, welcome to Seidou. Please don't worry. We'll take care of you until you are healed and have regained your memories."
"Thank you," he rasped. He was safe for now, judging by what he could sense around him. He was badly injured and he needed rest. This was good enough for now.
Already, he felt his eyelids droop and his body gave in to the much-needed sleep.
Someone prodded him awake after what felt like only minutes. Fatigue made the ex-prince cranky and he growled.
"What?"
"Who are you?" a childish voice asked.
"At the moment, call me annoyed," Sasuke snapped.
"More like 'rude'," the child corrected him with a little huff. "I asked a question."
"And I gave you an answer," the ex-prince sneered. There was pause as he wondered why he was so short with a mere brat. He blamed whatever drugs those Seidou people were putting in him. He could also feel an oncoming migraine.
"It's a stupid answer," was the retort. Sasuke felt a dysfunctional eye twitch. Had Naruto spawned sometime in the past five years and sent the result to irritate him? The memory of his teammates blunted the rising annoyance and Sasuke simply felt tired again.
"What are you doing here?" the woman from before said sharply as she entered the tent. He really should learn her name.
Sasuke smirked slightly. Fatigue was also why he had neglected to warn the brat when he felt the woman's angry aura approaching.
"Gathering information like a ninja? Like you taught me?" the child offered cheekily.
"Oushou!" the woman snapped out, outraged.
What an arrogant name. 'Oushou' was the term for the 'King' piece of the Shikamaru's beloved board game. It was fortunate for the brat that he lived in Seidou instead of Ganpon.
"Sorry, sorry," Oushou said unapologetically. "I wuv you!" There was a rustle, and Sasuke assumed that the brat had hugged her.
A manipulative brat, at that. Sasuke found himself reluctantly impressed.
"That's not working on me," the woman said, though she was already melting like hot wax. "Let's go. You need to finish your kata and then eat dinner."
"Yes, Mother," Oushou said in a singsong tone.
"You-" she started. A high, little laugh, and then tiny, pattering feet signaled his exit. The woman sighed.
"I'm sorry about that. That child just doesn't understand boundaries."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted. Fortunately, she got the message and turned to leave. The tent flap fell shut after her.
Then there was only blessed silence.
Sasuke drifted back to sleep.
Hinata was waiting outside the tent.
"How is he?" she asked anxiously. "I know he has severe chakra exhaustion and his eyes are a bleeding mess, but otherwise? No other critical injuries outside of flesh wounds?" She clenched her hands in an effort to stop wringing them.
The other woman gave her a suspicious look. "You could go in and see for yourself." Hinata immediately shook her head, avoiding the narrow-eyed glare directed at her.
"I can't do that."
"Who is he? Who is this Sousuke?"
Sousuke? Hinata inwardly smiled at the strange role reversal. She'd assumed an alias in his world, and now he was assuming one in hers.
Then her tendril of a good mood vanished. What if he really had forgotten everything? Then he would have forgotten her. That was a notion that made her heart twinge.
Worry pinched the other's pretty features. "This isn't like you. Why the secrecy?"
Hinata looked away.
"It's better that you don't know," she said quietly. "You know how delicate our situation is. The past is a dangerous thing out here. Sousuke's background might be trouble. For all of us."
Her companion probably had an uncomfortably accurate guess, but she only sighed. "I trust you, you know that. But you will tell me, eventually?"
Hinata smiled fondly.
"Of course, Kurenai."
AN:
-Thanks to Rhinst for awesome betaingness!
-Oh my, did Hinata just talk to Kurenai. Whatever is going on?! *innocent eyes*
-Oushou! This little guy is going to be a major part of the story. And I think you all know who the daddy is already. ;)
-So that fight scene between Orochimaru and Sasuke got kind of ridiculous. Whew. I know I probably completely mixed up a lot of techniques, but let's just go with artistic license here. Otherwise, this chapter would take months.
-Yes, it seems a little strange that Sasuke wouldn't catch wind of Hinata's doings for five years. I'll explain a little more next chapter.
-I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to explain later in the story, and Sasuke wouldn't be thinking about such things. But the soul that Orochimaru resurrected was a dying Hyuuga he got a hold of. The Hyuuga lady had her own love that left her, and he basically got her to promise to act a certain way in exchange for something. The Orochimaru in my mind would prepare for stuff like that.
-Review! I'm actually really curious to see your theories on what happened and such. It's a very useful gauge. (And feeds the ego so well...:D)
P.S. Shameless plug here - I started another story, as a mini-coffee break for this monster of a fic. It's call Dreamcatcher, and it's ItaHina! I update much more frequently. Go read, go read! (After reviewing here, of course, lol).
