LONG AS FUCK A/N: Some kind albeit unnecessarily rude individual pointed out to me that I made no mention of my OC being in this story. Sorry, I literally forgot when I posted the first chapter that she was in the story; literal fucking moment of amnesia. TBH I was not intending to publish this story. I changed my mind, however, when it started to come out pretty awesome and then forgot when I posted it that I needed to mention that there's an OC "around" in the story. Well, technically five... villain, Kaisuki & company.
If you want to learn about Kaisuki, you can either read the following or read Beneath a Steel Sky. Beneath a Steel Sky's not my greatest work (I'm going to rewrite it, actually, so it matches the fucking sequel) but it can serve as a more in-depth explanation as to who Kaisuki is. If you don't feel like reading it, once again, you can just read the following.
I'm not going to take the time to introduce Kaisuki's WHOLE story, I'm just going to tell you a the basics NOW so you're not all pissed off later (likethatcommentercoughcough):
SPOILER ALERT FOR: Beneath a Steel Sky & Within an Endless Night
Kaisuki is a thing I made up called a Yurei; she carries a couple spirits of the dead because it's a trait of Yurei which are a weird thing that the Tsubaki clan produces (made that up too); there's three spirits in her, along with her own, and they're all chicks - Khrai, Izumi, and Saeka, in order from who died first to who died last. There are a few other Tsubaki left but they're basically all in hiding for historical reasons that I won't get into. Let's just say, countries took advantage of their abilities during the last two wars.
Teara is actually a character who is originally also from Beneath a Steel Sky, but nothing - NOTHING - from the plot OR world of that story carries over to this story. Teara's name, Kaisuki, Izumi, Khrai, and Saeka and anything that HAS to change with the ladies' presence are the only similarities. In a nutshell, Kaisuki was on Team 7 (she didn't replace anyone) and now she's a wanderer out in the world because Naruto and Sakura disowned her when she refused to help them hunt down Sasuke, who she knew from childhood but they're... estranged. Like everyone else in Sasuke's world LOL. She visits home about once every six months. Every other detail about Beneath a Steel Sky is 100% irrelevant.
ii.
He was going to dehydrate to death. He was just going to expire in this stupid room for a stupid reason. He was pretty sure that he'd either been forgotten or simply abandoned for the sake of a slow death. Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu weren't going to find him in time. Naruto wasn't going to find him in time, either. He was going to die.
Fear kept his heart rate elevated, and the adrenaline was burning through calories. He hadn't eaten in three days. The pain from his hunger was excruciating. On the bright side, he was able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep for short periods of time if he stayed sitting upright. He'd eventually slide over and wake up laying down again, but at least he was able to sleep. If he couldn't have slept, he would probably have been going insane at that point.
It didn't really matter, though. It only took three days for the human body to dehydrate to death. He would be dead before he could actually lose it.
He leaned his head against the wall. His neck and back and shoulders were killing him. He'd had his arms tied tightly behind his back for three days, and he was sure that he was sporting bruises by this point. There was no truly comfortable position he could get into. There was no way for him to sit or lay that didn't hurt.
He hadn't been this miserable in a long time.
He flinched violently when he heard what sounded like someone undoing a lock. He couldn't sense anything outside of the room, apparently. Or else he would have sensed the approach of whoever that was. There was a metallic sound, and then a wooden door sliding open. He still couldn't sense who that was. Was it the rope?
The door was slid shut again. Sasuke found that he was biting down on the gag. Who was that? If it had been Naruto, he would've greeted Sasuke much louder. The same went for Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo. It had to be Teara. So the bastard had come back, then? Why? Was he not planning on leaving Sasuke to die? Or had he shown up to witness the Uchiha's final hours of suffering?
You piece of shit.
Footsteps approached at that point, but whoever it was, they didn't speak. He was beginning to grow anxious. Was that Teara? He didn't know what he was going to think or do if it wasn't. Were they here to kill him? Were they here to hurt him? Were they here to save him? Or were they just here to prolong his life?
Was it Teara?
He hadn't spoken much when Sasuke had first met him, so he wouldn't be surprised to find that it was the white-haired man. That didn't make him feel any better. At all. His heart was racing and it was hard to remember to breathe.
The footsteps stopped right in front of him, and Sasuke heard the rustle of fabric as they likely knelt down in front of him. He heard something being put down – sounded like a paper bag and … was that a cup? A jug?
His immediate thought was water. He didn't want to get his hopes up though, lest he be horribly disappointed.
"If you make a sound," that was definitely Teara. He recognized the voice immediately and he stiffened. "I'm going to hurt you."
Fuck you. Sasuke thought venomously. He couldn't sense Teara's chakra, but he could feel his presence moving closer and he instinctively pushed himself into the wall. Stay away from me, you fucking-...
"I'm taking off the gag. Don't move."
Sasuke resisted the urge to bite down on the cloth so the sadistic bastard couldn't get it off. He felt Teara's cold hands touch his face and flinched before he could stop himself. He let out an angry huff through his nose as Teara reached behind his head and undid the knot. It seemed like it wasn't tied all that securely, which infuriated him. He'd tried to get that stupid gag off a thousand and one times, yet Teara had barely touched it and it'd come right off. What the hell?
Teara pulled the gag away and Sasuke immediately swallowed, trying to wet his parched throat. It did not help. In fact, if anything, it made his throat feel drier. He heard the rustle of what he was now positive was a paper bag and a scent filled his nostrils. His stomach clenched and he ground his teeth together, trying to quell his body's obnoxious physical reaction.
He then heard the sound of a drink being poured. Teara probably was here to prolong his life. He had no idea why. Maybe he was just planning on letting the Uchiha suffer as long as possible... but he hadn't even hurt him aside from knocking him out that one time.
Why are you doing this, again?
His throat was so dry he couldn't speak, but he wanted to.
He jerked back when something cold touched his lips, alarmed. He opened his mouth to say something, even though his throat was way too dry to produce sound, but Teara cut him off. "Shut up. It's water."
He froze. He wanted that. He definitely wanted water. He didn't want to have Teara helping him drink it, though. He didn't want to be relying on Teara for anything. He didn't want Teara to be anywhere near him, in fact.
However, if he didn't take the offer, he was going to be dead within another day or two. Hesitantly and begrudgingly, he nodded slightly, just once, and parted his lips. The cool glass came back, tilting water into his mouth. He drank the whole glass in one go, gasping once he'd finished it.
Teara didn't say anything at all. There was the rustling of the paper bag again and Sasuke was reasonably certain he could smell onigiri. He was irritated that the only thing he'd been brought was onigiri, but he supposed that was better than nothing at all.
He tried to pretend that he wasn't completely humiliated, but he definitely was.
Something soft and slightly sticky was pressed to his lips and he started, but recognized the texture as rice. So it was onigiri. Hopefully more than just the one, because that was not going to be enough calories to keep him going for long. He opened his mouth and allowed the morsel of food to be fed to him, feeling his face heating up.
He was given two onigiri, and then another glass of water, and then another two onigiri, and that was it. When he realized he wasn't getting any more, he was immediately furious and he immediately wanted to cry. He was still starving. He swallowed hard, listening to Teara doing... something. Probably putting things away. It sounded like he had a bag of some sort. Was he going to leave again? Already?
"If you keep behaving, maybe I'll bring you an extra one in the future."
He couldn't stand it any longer and he'd already been given as much as he was going to be given, so he threw all caution to the winds. "Fuck you!" He snarled furiously, pulling at the ropes even though he knew they weren't going to budge. "I'm going to slaughter you when I get out of this, you piece of fucking shit!"
He didn't get a verbal reply or any other kind of warning before Teara backhanded him so hard his head swung to the side and he felt his lip split. He could taste blood immediately. Teara grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking hard to the side. He let out a slew of curses alongside several sounds of pain, cursing his captor's name a hundred times in under a minute.
Teara's other hand wrapped tightly around his throat, squeezing hard enough that the Uchiha could only get in a sparse amount of air and couldn't get out any more profanity. "You really just can't follow directions, can you?" The white-haired man growled, increasing his grip until Sasuke couldn't breathe at all.
The captive tried to pull away but there was nowhere for him to go. He could hold his breath for a while but he hadn't been given an opportunity to inhale before Teara had started strangling him.
Teara withdrew the hand that had been in his hair and loosened his grip on Sasuke's throat, and the Uchiha immediately sucked in a deep breath and started coughing and gasping. He heard another metallic sound and stiffened, pressing himself against the wall even harder.
It wasn't like he was actually moving further away. He didn't even know why he was bothering.
There was absolutely no warning this time, either, aside from the sound of metal he'd heard a good minute before a searing agony split up his side, eliciting a gasp of pain followed by another slew of curses. Teara tightened his grip on Sasuke's throat again, cutting off the Uchiha airways, pushing the apparently extremely sharp blade into bone.
It hurt a lot more than he was prepared for, and there was literally no way for him to escape it. He couldn't move backwards, he couldn't even move to the side because of the grip Teara had on his throat. His eyes were watering and he couldn't even vocalize the amount of pain he was in. To be perfectly honest, he'd never actually been tortured before, so he was unaccustomed to being stabbed when there wasn't adrenaline coursing through his veins.
It hurt a lot more when it was off the battlefield.
Teara abruptly jerked the knife to the side and Sasuke flinched violently, which only increased the amount of moving the blade was doing. He was beginning to feel like he was going to black out from lack of oxygen when the pressure on his throat abruptly relinquished. He sucked in a deep, wheezing breath before he had even realized that he was able to.
However, the knife was still in him.
He started coughing uncontrollably, trying to take in breaths past the heaving gasps. Every time he moved, every time he coughed, it jerked the blade that was still in his hip and sent a shockwave of more pain up his side and down his leg and across his pelvis and just generally everywhere. He could feel the metal grinding against the bone it was embedded in and he actually couldn't hold in the series of unintelligible curses and cries of pain let out through clenched teeth.
He made a sound that was significantly less dignified than the rest, wheezing and trying to control the tremors that were starting in his shoulders. He felt sick and hot and cold and he hadn't eaten nearly enough to be expending this much calories and blood.
Teara ripped the knife back without a word, his hands coming off the Uchiha completely. Sasuke collapsed to his uninjured side, curling up as best he could, groaning and whimpering interchangeably. He was actively shaking and he could feel warm blood spilling out of the wound, running across his stomach, pooling underneath him.
His breathing was uneven and he was trying to correct it in an effort to distract himself from the searing agony, but it wasn't working. He didn't know how much blood he was losing but it felt like a lot. If Teara didn't stop it, he was probably going to bleed out. If he didn't bleed out, the loss of so much blood would guarantee that he dehydrated to death if he was left alone for a couple of days again.
He coughed, making a thin, weak sound.
"Are you regretting it yet?" Teara's asked, sounding bored. His voice sounded a touch farther away. Was he standing now? Or was Sasuke about to faint?
The sound that came out of this throat then sounded dangerously close to a sob and he followed it immediately with more cursing. "Fuck... you..." He ground out through clenched teeth, every breath hitching on the waves of pain splitting through him. "You fucking..."
Before he could continue with the insults, a booted foot slammed down on his injured hip and he cried out sharply in pain. Teara increased the pressure exponentially, until Sasuke was sure his hip was going to fracture. It would already be weak and unstable from having a knife in it, if Teara put in enough force it would break and if it broke he was really going to be screwed why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut would it kill him to refrain from baiting the guy with all the power into hurting him fuck fuck stop get off it hurts it hurts you fucking asshole stop it it hurts....
He felt something crack deep in his hip and white hot agony tore through him and Teara's heel dug in harder. The sounds he was making increased in volume until he was doing something between screaming and sobbing. If he hadn't been in so much pain, he probably would've been embarrassed.
The weight let up abruptly, but the pain remained long after. He choked on his breaths, coughing and gasping and whimpering, wishing that Teara would just kill him. He didn't even know what he'd done to attract this guy's attention. He didn't even know where this sadistic fuck had come from. Why was he on Teara's radar? Why had he been kidnapped? Why did these things always seem to happen to him?
"How about now?" Teara's tone was nothing short of disgusted now.
If Sasuke hadn't been in such indescribable agony, he would have been furious and insulted and probably fairly ashamed of himself for being so weak. Itachi probably wouldn't have been sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. Almost definitely not, in fact, as he had been extensively trained by Konoha's Black Ops and that included a week-long period in which his brother was endlessly beaten and tortured so that, should he ever fall into the wrong hands, he would be able to keep his mouth shut.
Sasuke did not have that training.
He heard a step pretty close to right next to his head and he instinctively flinched away, which only served to make the pain in his hip flare up again. He made a thin, pained sound, trying to will himself to melt into the floor boards. He was still bleeding. Would Teara let him die if he kept being disrespectful? Maybe.
"Well?"
It felt like his heart would jump out of his chest from the fear of saying what he was about to say, but he said it anyway. "F-fuck off, you sadistic... piece of shit," he forced out, cursing his voice for wavering. Although, he supposed it didn't matter. He'd gotten his point across. That was what he cared about.
Teara grabbed a fistful of his hair and hauled him upright, forcing him to sit instead of laying down. He tried to hold in the sobs that came up his throat immediately from putting weight on his broken hip, but it was impossible. In the middle of taking in a wheezing breath through his mouth, Teara placed the gag between the rows of his teeth and pulled it taut behind his head before he could so much as turn away. He whimpered weakly, too tired and in too much pain to struggle, as the white-haired man tied the gag. It felt tighter than it had been before.
He made a thin sound in the back of his throat a split second before Teara backhanded him again, this time so hard he fell back onto his side, stunned. He could taste more blood. He shrank back as much as he could while moving as little as possible.
He wanted to be killed at this point, if for no other reason than to not be tortured. He hoped Teara could tell. If the guy hated him so much, could he not be bothered to just kill his captive and be done with it? Why was he finding it necessary to punish him like this? What had he done, exactly? How had he slighted this random stranger to the point that he wanted to do this?
There was an explosion of excruciating agony that split through the same hip out of nowhere, sending shockwave after shockwave of nerve-splitting pain down his leg. He couldn't even tell what had happened. He couldn't even scream, really. He did, however, make a lot of noise through the gag, sobs wracking his body to the point that it was making the pain worse. He could faintly feel the blade, seemingly as far into his hip as it could go.
He thought he heard Teara stand up, but he wasn't sure until the psychopath spoke again. "Let me know when you've changed your mind."
Sasuke froze, making a sound of confusion. What was that supposed to mean? He heard footsteps moving away from him and panicked. Where was Teara going? Was he leaving his captive tied up, gagged, and blindfolded with a knife in his hip?! He heard the door slide open, heard it slide shut, heard the lock latching on the other side.
No. No no no no do not leave me here you sick son of a bitch! Don't-... don't, no, please come back, please come back, at least take this fucking knife out, please, please...
He whimpered, the shaking that wracked his body showing no signs of relenting. He couldn't move. He couldn't move at all or he'd jostle that knife. The tremors by themselves were already making the pain literally unbearable. He couldn't sit up so that his shoulders weren't straining as much and he couldn't move his leg into a more comfortable position. There was absolutely nothing he could do to escape the amount of pain he was in. He couldn't even heal it himself.
His eyes spilled tears of frustration, misery, and agony from behind the blindfold.
Couldn't be bothered to just kill me, could you?
.
When he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital.
He groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. He felt sick and his hip was aching.
"Sasuke?" He winced at the familiar voice and turned to stare at his once-teammate, Naruto. The blond was staring at him with wide eyes, looking nervous. Sakura was sitting beside him, looking as though she'd been crying, but she didn't speak.
He was too tired to be angry that he'd been brought back to Konoha. Kakashi was leaning against the window behind Naruto and Sakura, his one watchful eye scrutinizing Sasuke carefully. After a moment of thought, Sasuke realized that Kaisuki wasn't there, and it immediately struck him as odd.
Sasuke turned his gaze away from them. He felt guilty for some reason, but he was distracted from it by pain. The sharp throbbing in his hip was worsening with every passing second and his shoulders, neck, and back were aching. He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. He felt like it was strange that he'd been moved so much and hadn't roused.
The silence stretched. No one said anything. Sasuke didn't want to speak, so he closed his eyes. His stomach was twisting and he felt hot and cold at the same time. Had they deemed him not worthy of a transfusion? He'd probably lost enough blood for it.
Abruptly, Kakashi spoke, his voice lowered, his tone twisted into something malicious. Something that didn't sound right. "Have you learned your lesson yet?"
It wasn't even the right voice. Sasuke turned back to his old mentor, alarmed. Kakashi's smoldering gaze bore into him, his expression nothing short of disgusted.
"Wake up."
A blindingly sharp jolt of pain was what roused him. Sasuke cried out through the gag, startled and frightened and in agony. He couldn't see anything. There was no hospital. That had been a dream. Immediately, he wanted to start crying again, but he forced himself to hold it in. He wouldn't cry from emotional distress. He probably couldn't help crying from the pain, but he would be damned if he gave this bastard the pleasure of seeing him broken.
He didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, but it seemed to be darker out. Actually, the light in the room seemed awfully dim, even for sunset. It had to be night, then, and Teara had probably brought a lantern.
Sasuke flinched, cringing away when he felt a pair of fingers press against his throat. Was Teara checking his pulse? He made a weak sound of confusion, noting that he was still shaking. It didn't feel like that knife was still in his hip, though. That must've been what woke him up – Teara ripping it out. His whole side felt hot and angry and he could just barely feel fresh blood spilling out of it. He felt ill. He had to have lost a lot of blood at that point. Teara had first shown up in the earliest hours of the morning, and now it was dark out. That told him enough all by itself.
He groaned.
"Have you learned your lesson yet?" Teara asked, his tone exactly the same as Kakashi's had been in his dream. Sasuke shivered. He was freezing and he was thirsty and he was tired and he was hungry.
He was just managing to regulate his breathing again when Teara grabbed him by the hair again, twisting until he rolled onto his back, which jostled his hip to the point that his eyes started to water beneath the blindfold again. Teara's hand was still wrapped up in his hair when he felt a hand curl around his throat, a threatening amount of pressure being applied.
"You won't get another chance after this and I have no intention of killing you." The white-haired man hissed menacingly. Sasuke whimpered before he could stop himself, breathing shallowly. "Do you understand me?"
Sasuke shuddered, but didn't make any noise or movement in reply. His eyes were spilling tears of pain and his hip was throbbing and burning. He didn't want to be tortured into obedience. He didn't want to be tortured at all. The past twelve hours had been bad enough, and Teara had only been physically present for half an hour of it. He didn't believe for a second that he would've made it through if Teara had been there the whole time, continuously finding new and improved ways to drill pain into his bones.
He didn't want to give Teara that victory either, though. He didn't want to just give up and give in and let the bastard do whatever he wanted while he waited for someone to find him. He didn't want to be forced to put his pride and dignity aside as a means of protecting himself from harm. He wasn't that weak, was he?
Itachi wouldn't have given in.
His heart was hammering in his throat. He didn't know what to do.
It seemed that he was taking too long to make up his mind, though, because Teara pulled his one hand out of Sasuke's hair and wrapped his fingers around the Uchiha's injured hip instead, digging his fingers in. The searing pain that ricocheted through him very nearly paralyzed him and he bit down hard on the gag, screaming into the cloth. Teara dug his thumb directly into the original, scabbed over stab wound, and he could feel it reopening, could feel it tearing, and his voice cracked around the shriek that came up his throat.
Teara stopped digging, stopped moving his hand completely. Even without the movement, it burned with a white-hot, searing agony. It seemed like, every time he was thinking that maybe there wouldn't be something more painful, Teara proved him wrong. Sasuke lay there, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, unable to steady his breathing around the noises that kept coming up his throat.
"Well?" The white-haired man pressed, beginning to sound irritated, shifting his thumb just slightly and sending a sharp, blazing pain down Sasuke's leg.
Before he could stop himself, Sasuke was bobbing his head rapidly, eyes streaming tears beneath the blindfold, desperate for relief. Immediately, he felt the man withdraw his hand from the wound in his hip. That action alone sent another wave of pain tearing through his nerves and he let out a loud sob through the gag. Teara let go of him and he instinctively rolled to the side and curled up into as tight a ball as he could, considering his injury and his state of being extremely well-restrained.
He'd lost before he'd even realized what he was doing.
Good job, Sasuke. Good job.
He just reminded himself forcibly that he wouldn't be able to get away if half the bones in his body were broken. He wouldn't be able to escape if he couldn't walk. It would be better to do what he was told and behave himself until help arrived or he found an out.
He whimpered. His hip was still on fire.
He jerked away when Teara's hand touched his hip again, letting out a muffled, pleading sound that he hadn't meant to make.
"Stop moving." The white-haired man commanded. Sasuke made a weak noise as he felt that hand return. The touch was gentle, this time. It didn't hurt, but that didn't mean it didn't exacerbate his tremors. Teara's other hand fell on his shoulder, steadying him somewhat but not hurting him. He just left his hand there. If the guy had been anyone else, Sasuke may have found it comforting.
He felt heat envelope his hip and shifted anxiously, before he realized that the warmth he was feeling was definitely irou-ninjutsu. He could feel the wounds closing, the bone knitting back together. It stopped hurting within a few short moments, but his shaking wouldn't stop.
Since when am I this weak?
He had killed Uchiha Itachi in a fair fight. He had killed Orochimaru in a slightly less fair fight, but he'd still killed him. He could tame Juugo with no more than a flex of his chakra. He'd almost killed Naruto a number of times. He wasn't sure he could take out Kaisuki, simply because she was a cheater, but he knew he could take out any other member of Team 7.
So how did this random, sadistic fuck one-up him so easily?
Once the pain had fully subsided, he was left exhausted. He wanted nothing more than for Teara to go away so he could try to sleep. He was suddenly starkly aware of how horrible he felt. He was covered in a cold sweat and it felt like he was overheating, his stomach was twisting and rolling and bubbling with nausea, and he felt dizzy. He was reasonably certain the symptoms were being caused by blood loss.
A hand wrapped around his bicep and he groaned as Teara hauled him upright. He didn't even have the energy to hold his head up, so he didn't. He felt a pair of hands cup his cheeks and he winced, startled by the contact. But all Teara did was tilt his head back for some reason.
The white-haired man was still refraining from hurting him now. So, truly, all he had to do was "behave" and he wouldn't be harmed. He didn't know the full implications of "behaving," but that was something he could learn quickly.
"Very good," Teara said quietly, absolutely no warmth or affection in his voice. He was thumbing away the tears that were still streaming down Sasuke's face. The captive started leaning into the contact, only realizing he was doing it when Teara withdrew his hands suddenly and he almost pitched forward. He leaned back against the wall, swallowing hard. He wished he could see.
He heard footsteps walking away from him. Was... was Teara leaving again? The door slid open, and then slid closed, and then he heard the lock latching on the other side of the door. He didn't move for a long time, just sat there, head turned in the direction those sounds had been coming from. The shaking in his shoulders still hadn't stopped. He felt paralyzed.
Sasuke lowered his head after a long while, as miserable as he was angry with himself. He had given up way too easily. Teara had only needed to spend an hour's worth of time in the same room as him to make him surrender. How pathetic was that? Itachi wouldn't have given in so easily. He didn't think even Kaisuki would've given in that easily. He was clearly not as strong as he kept boasting.
His strength was meaningless as soon as his ability to fight was taken from him.
That's pathetic, Sasuke.
…
When he'd first come to in whatever hotel that had been with Kisame nearby, his immediate thought was that he must have accidentally killed Sasuke. He had wracked his brain trying to remember everything that had happened, but the last five minutes of their fight had gone by in a blur. He couldn't remember anything.
Kisame had explained that he had gone to intercept the team of folks from Konoha who had shown up to retrieve Sasuke and that, while he'd been holding them off, a powerful shockwave of sorts had very rudely interrupted them, and it had very clearly been coming from the direction of the battlefield. It had also very clearly consisted of chakra that didn't belong to either of the Uchiha brothers. His partner had explained that he had immediately taken off to go and investigate, and that when he'd gotten there (with that team hot on his heels), Itachi was laying on the ground, thoroughly unresponsive, and Sasuke had been gone entirely.
It had been two and a half weeks since then. Sasuke was still missing. The team that he had seemingly been intending to bring with him to his battle against his brother had no idea where he was. Naruto and his team didn't seem to know either. Itachi had been tailing both teams interchangeably, hoping that he might find a clue. So far, nothing.
Itachi had disappeared off the radar as well. He'd ditched his Akatsuki cloak and had abandoned Kisame without a word. He sort of missed his partner, but there were more important things at hand. Because Teams 7 and Hebi had no idea where Sasuke was, Itachi was going to the last person he could think of who could help him look.
Assuming he could find her.
He'd been following lead after lead after lead for four days, and it was bothering him that he wasn't spending that time looking for Sasuke directly. It was bothering him enough that he'd been pushing through anxiety attacks that seemed to hit him every few hours. The fact of the matter was, however, that he wasn't a sensory type. He alone would have a lot of trouble finding Sasuke if no one had seen him.
He had a feeling that Sasuke had been taken off that battlefield by someone, but he couldn't imagine who could possibly be powerful enough to incapacitate both Itachi and Sasuke in one shot, without either of them seeing it coming.
He stood in a darkened alley across the street from a small diner, eyes trained on the door. This was the last place Kaisuki had been seen, according to the locals. Apparently she'd been staying in the little hamlet for a few days and had been frequenting that diner and a few other places while she was doing something in the general area. The diner was where she'd been sighted the most amount of times, so that was where he was starting.
He sighed, wondering how long he'd have to wait before he spotted her.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He heard a very familiar voice speaking in very unfamiliar tones and turned to see who was talking to him.
"Looking for you," he replied once he'd confirmed that it was Kaisuki. Same purple scarf around her waist – the same one Itachi had given her when she was a child, same facial features. Everything checked out, except that her eyes were blue.
The spirit with the blue eyes glared at him with extreme hostility. "Why?"
"Is Kaisuki around?" He asked, getting straight to the point. "I need to speak with her."
The blue-eyed woman blinked, confused and irate. "You can talk to me. What the fuck do you want?"
Itachi resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he let out a long-suffering sigh. He saw her hands immediately curl into fists. "I'm looking for Sasuke," he stated bluntly. He was past the point of making things up. He wouldn't tell anyone of his mission to wipe out his family but he didn't have the time or energy to waste pretending that he wasn't looking for his little brother because he was concerned that something horrible had happened to him.
There was a second's pause before Kaisuki's eyes switched to their usual bright red. She looked suspicious. "Why?"
"Because he's been missing for over two weeks," the older Uchiha deadpanned. Had no one noticed just how far under the radar Sasuke had gone? Had nobody noticed that nobody else knew where Sasuke was? "I've known where he was at any and every point in time since I left Konoha, and yet now I can't find him anywhere." He pointedly ignored the fact that he sounded exactly as stressed out as he felt.
Kaisuki blinked. Now she looked slightly less suspicious and more confused, perhaps growing slightly concerned. "I... why does Sasuke's whereabouts matter to you all of a sudden? I'm pretty sure that the last time you saw him you were-..."
"Kaisuki," he heaved an irate sigh, reaching up a hand and pinching the bridge of his nose. He did not have the patience for this. "I don't know where he is. I don't know why I can't find him. I also have no idea why I blacked out in the middle of our battle. All I know at this time is that Sasuke is missing and I'm not a sensory-type. I've already exhausted my resources. All I can do at this point is wander around, asking people if they've seen him. Otherwise I wouldn't be coming to you now. If you'd rather go looking for him on your own, fine. It'll give me peace of mind just knowing that you're looking as well."
The Yurei stared at him through his monologue, her face losing color. The last time he'd seen her, she had tried to persuade him to let her treat the terminal illness he'd been carrying around. She'd essentially cornered him while he was alone and tried to convince him, and it hadn't worked. He had every reason to imagine that she would be willing to help him directly now. She had tried to worm her way back into his life before. He was giving her an "in" now, simply because of necessity.
"You're... worried?" She slowly said, eyes somewhat glassy. She had to be talking to the spirits she harbored while she was talking to him.
"Yes," he replied simply, hoping that she could hear the sincerity in his voice.
Her eyes flickered to green. This was Izumi, he knew. He'd spoken to her briefly when Kaisuki had confronted him before. The irou-nin was scrutinizing him carefully. "This is a bit late for a change of heart, Itachi-kun." She challenged. They were incredibly suspicious of his intentions and it was getting annoying. He didn't blame them for it, but now was really not a good time. "Why are you looking for him, really?"
Itachi stared at her stonily, feeling as though he were physically deflating. He didn't have time for this.
"I'm not asking you to trust me or even believe my intentions are sincere," he was surprised by the wavering of his quietened voice. "I'm only asking you to help me find my little brother."
His chest felt tight. He was hyper-aware of how much time he was losing talking to them. Every second he lost was a second that could put Sasuke closer to death. Every minute could be another sixty seconds his little brother was being beaten and tortured. Every hour increased the likelihood that Itachi would never find him. Every day put Itachi himself that much closer to ripping out his hair and losing his mind.
His breathing was irregular and he couldn't steady it. He hadn't really been able to steady it in a while, though. Izumi looked slightly alarmed, but she didn't speak and Itachi was growing agitated. If they weren't willing to work with him, he wished they'd just say so. He was wasting time trying to convince them. He had already wasted four and a half days finding Kaisuki.
He was struggling to remain composed. "Kaisuki," he said tensely, and her eyes flashed to red again. "I hate to rush you into decision-making, but it's not like I have all afternoon. I spent four and a half days looking for you instead of looking for him, and that is too much time to have wasted."
That startled Kaisuki, very clearly. "You... you spent four days looking for me?"
"Kaisuki." He ground out, turning his gaze towards the sky. "You have thirty seconds, and then I'm leaving."
There was a long pause that stretched to about fifteen seconds, and he felt his stomach sinking. The unreadable look in Kaisuki's eyes was suggesting to him that she didn't believe him at all. In fact, he was getting the impression that she was jumping to the conclusion that he was looking for a Sasuke who was hiding from him, or something. As if Itachi was probably the one behind his little brother's disappearance.
Kaisuki opened her mouth to speak, but Itachi spoke before she could say anything. He hadn't felt so defeated in a long time. "At least start looking for him on your own, then," he requested in a subdued voice.
The Yurei blinked, startled, but he didn't give her a chance to say anything. He turned and stalked out of the alleyway, rounding the corner and using a variety of ledges to get to the roofs. From there, he took off. Kaisuki wasn't going to be useful, then. He could check in with her from afar in a few days to see if she had come across any leads. In the meantime, he'd just have to start from the relevant names and work backwards from them. People he knew Sasuke had slighted; Orochimaru and Kabuto's underlings; the Sound Village's inhabitants; old enemies of the Uchiha clan; people Itachi himself had slighted (that was a long list); Akatsuki and their enemies (that was an even longer list); anyone who might have it out for Team 7...
He'd already been through most of those names, but he'd go through the list again, being even more thorough, and work backwards until either he ran out of people in the Shinobi Nations or he found Sasuke. Whichever came first.
His chest was aching, but he didn't slow down.