Okay, so piloting a Dai Kaimen (which wasn't really all that 'large' or 'great') to Kinugyokuto in congested conditions with a painfully shy heiress, an irritatingly loud blonde and a wide-eyed, cumbersome rookie had turned out to be about as unpleasant as Sasuke had expected.
Well, at least he didn't get his hopes up.
Subconsciously, Uchiha Sasuke rubbed at the aching spot on the left side of his neck (which he received from sleeping in the aforementioned cramped contingencies; he was SO not a stomach-sleeper). He did kind of enjoy piloting a Dai Kaimen - again, it was one of the few things that he did enjoy - but with these - these imbiciles? He was surprised that he hadn't strangled them yet... well, the Hyuuga girl seemed pretty sane - but then again, she liked Naruto, so her mental stability was questionable. But Naruto and Sakura's annoying questions - What does this do, Sempai? Where do I put this, teme? Have you seen my cup ramen? Does this button let you travel through time?
Yeah.
And then some enemy Kaimen decide to swoop down and irritate Sasuke even more.
Oh. Oh-ho. They'd better say their prayers.
With Sakura and Naruto in their own, seperate Kaimen, Odoroki and the aptly-named Ramen-chan, Sasuke protected the princess in the Dai Kaimen. Truthfully, he was a little disappointed that Katakiuchi-chan would have to wait a while before kicking some ass, but he was the only one who really knew how to properly operate a Dai Kaimen - besides, it was probably better that Naruto was out there. Kaimen were, after all, chakra-powered mecha, and if Naruto's seemingly endless chakra reserves weren't enough to keep the enemy at bay, then nothing was. "Sempai, five to ten enemy Kaimen attacking starboard. Erecting temporary shield." Sakura's voice came crackling through the earpiece of Sasuke's headset, probably in the most composed and serious voice he had ever heard her speak. A shining latticework of lights surrounded Sasuke and the Hyuuga heiress. "Hn." He turned on the radar - the enemy was closing in fast. In fact, there was a multitude of them, swelling and gathering around them. Turning back to the princess, he ordered, "Hold onto something, Hyuuga-san."
"Eh? Ky- kyaa!" She did as Sasuke commanded before she was slammed into the wall, as he abruptly turned the entire apparatus around and began to shoot. Beams of blue plasma melted right through the shining metal of the enemy mecha, causing them to explode. Sakura protected the back of the ship as Naruto shot down from above at any enemies attacking the port or starboard. Sasuke grinned darkly.
This was what he lived for.
The enemies' mecha exploded, leaving bright marks, like ephemeral stars dissipating into the blackness of space surrounding him. He remembered, back when the Massacre had occured, that he would ask Tsunade for basic infiltration and defense missions to blow off steam, taking out his anger, frustration and sadness on the enemy. Sometimes he shot at stars, just for fun. He knew it was kind of pointless, seeing as stars were essentially giant balls of plasma, but when he was younger, his brother had told him that if he shot a star just right, it would explode. (A rather naive child, eh?)
He should stop thinking about Itachi.
It made him shoot a lot harder than was necessary.
"Hinata-chan!" Naruto's worried face popped up on the interior of the cockpit. Hinata gave him a weak smile. "A-arigatou, Naruto-kun. I'm fine," she assured him, although her tremulous body told otherwise. The hyperactive blonde's cerulean eyes glared at his onyx-haired friend. "Hey, watch it, teme. You coulda' hurt Hinata-chan!" His frown only deepened when he noticed the Uchiha's disinterested gaze.
"Whaaa!" Hinata's feet left the ground for a moment as large masses of melted metal began to form a sort of constellation on the underside of the ship. Thanks to Naruto's scolding, he hadn't noticed the shield flicker away. The enemy had taken advantage of this situation by shooting at them from below. (How refreshing. So they weren't entirely incompetent.)
"Idiot, can you do your fucking job right for once?"
"Fuck you, Uchiha-asshole!" Hinata jumped at the sudden expletives. The excitable young man shot her an apologetic look before glaring daggers at the Uchiha boy again. "Emotionless bastard..." Naruto grumbled before signing off.
"Tch." Sasuke's eyes lit up, swirling obsidian tomoe against shining crimson orbs, and the roseate-haired girl watched in awe as Sasuke shot down all enemy Kaimen with amazing precision. The golden explosions littered the sky, and reflected in Sakura's viridian eyes. She stared until she felt the booming vibrations of large beams of plasma being shot at Odoroki, and cursed silently at herself under her breath before turning to shoot back at the enemy.
"Tsunade-sama."
A white bottle of sake slammed onto the desk, splattering all over papers as one purple diamond crinkled with stress. Cheeks ruddy with intoxication, the legendary Slug Princess frowned and hiccuped, glowering in the direction of her sable-haired subordinate. "Whaddaya want?" She slurred. Shizune grimaced, her grip tightening on Ton-Ton. "K-Kakashi-san is here to see you," she all but squeaked out. The Commander certainly could be violent when the 'K' word came about. She had just replaced her desk and had the wall fixed from the last time Kakashi had visited. The government could only give them so much money, and aside from that, ushering a drunk Tsunade out of her office so repairs could be made was such a hassle. "That bastard again?"
Shizune bit the inside of her cheek softly as her dark, thin brows furrowed. "He's not that bad, Tsunade-sama..." Yes, although he could be very mysterious (what with that mask and unnerving, happy expression that he wore almost all the time), Hatake Kakashi really was a good person at heart. At least, Shizune liked to think so. Tsunade's opinion? Now that was a different matter entirely. "'Not that bad'?" The blonde snorted. "He's a dimension-hopping assassin, Shizune. Why in the world should I trust him?" An exasperated sigh escaped the younger woman's lips. "Tsunade-sama, without Kakashi-san we never would have become aware of Haruno-san's condition."
Senju Tsunade took another long swig of sake before scoffing and placing one hand on her forehead. "Sometimes I wish he had never told us," she replied bitterly. Another sigh from the brunette. "Shall I bring Kakashi-san in?"
"Sure, why not?" She said darkly. Shizune bowed and closed the door behind her with a resounding click. Tsunade held her head in her hands, fisting her hair and wondering if this hell would ever end.
"Hinata-chan!"
After destroying all of the surrounding enemies, Sakura and Naruto returned to the Dai Kaimen, but Naruto was still worried about his moonstone-eyed friend.
"Eh?" The heiress looked rather surprised at his apparent concern, and blushed softly. "I'm fine Naruto - "
"Any cuts? Bruises? Scrapes? Broken bones? - "
"I'm fine," Hinata insisted, flattered yet exasperated at the same time. Really, all she did was fall over a few times! However, this reassurance was obviously not enough to convince Naruto.
"Hey! Teme! You'd better watch it!" The Hyuuga princess sighed, while Sakura giggled in the background. Naruto's overprotective-ness was simply adorable, she just had to laugh.
Sasuke, who had been previously trying to take a short nap, scowled at the sky, the stars, the goddesses and everything else, and turned to snap at his blonde comrade. "I was only doing my job, dipshit. Unlike you."
"EHH? ARE YOU SAYING I'M WEAK?"
"No. You said that."
"GAH! You see? THAT'S why nobody likes you, teme! You think you're so superior!"
"I'm not superior - I'm just surrounded by idiots like you and Kakashi-bastard."
"YOU - "
"IDIOT!"
BAM!
"IDIOT!"
BAM!
Both boys rubbed their heads in an attempt to soothe the pain that their pink-haired friend (or so she called herself) had just inflicted upon them with a crobar.
"Shit..." Naruto cursed quietly.
"Sakura, what the hell?" Sakura made a 'tsk' noise and shook her finger at them, resting the crobar on her shoulder. "Foul language will result in more crobar fun." Both boys involuntarily flinched - whether from her evil smile or the way her grip on the crobar tightened, they didn't know. "No fighting! Sempai and Uzumaki-kun have to get along! Or else!" This time, it was Hinata's turn to laugh as both boys tried to explain why they couldn't stand each other simultaneously. Their dynamics as a 'team' certainly made for an odd sight.
"Kakashi-san."
"Commander."
Sitting at her desk, Senju Tsunade poured herself some sake. She offered the young man some, but he politely declined. In a very unlady-like fashion, she brought the white bottle to her lips and imbibed the alcoholic liquid, her only escape from reality. "There had better be a really good reason you came here, Hatake." Kakashi shrugged, watching the icy vapor rise from the lip of the bottle, like smoke to a smokestack. "Well, I think it's important." Hazel eyes narrowed, sending a deadly glare in the younger man's direction. He smoothly continued. "I noticed something interesting. It involves the Paraverse."
Tsunade's violet fingernails tapped impatiently on her desk, hazel eyes rolling towards the heavens. "When isn't it about Sakura?" She scoffed. The masked man ignored her snide comment. "There's something odd about her brainwave patterns. They've become increasingly more frantic - it would seem she is in distress."
Kakashi tipped back in his chair, looking thoughtful. Two perfect blonde brows made a crinkled line across Tsunade's forehead - he was acting far too aloof for such a dangerous situation! She held back the monstrous build-up of chakra in her arm that threatened to make contact with that nonchalant masked face.
Tsunade's eyes flickered for a moment. This was bad, right? After all, the more erratic Sakura seemed to become, the shorter lifespan each world seemed to have. Or, it could just mean that she was excited about something - something rather unimportant. But assuming the latter, folding her hands behind her head and sitting back would only leave her unprepared and vulnerable, and if there was one thing Senju Tsunade hated, it was being caught off guard. But she certainly didn't want to seem like she was taking this too seriously - most likely, there was nothing they could do about it. "What do you suggest we do to fix this problem?"
He scratched his nose nervously, in an almost silly manner. "Ah, I was hoping that you would have the solution to that problem...?" His expression changed suddenly to a much more serious one. "After all, you didn't like my first suggestion."
Do you like seeing me angry, Kakashi...? The Commander laughed bitterly to herself. "We've already discussed this, Kakashi." Her voice was low, dripping with quiet fury. "We've already come to a reasonable conclusion, an agreeable compromise. What more can you ask of me?" She inquired wearily. Kakashi frowned. He might have seemd like he didn't care most of the time, but he wanted to end this living hell just as much as she did. Sasuke, Sakura, Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Hinata - he wanted to save them all. He wanted to go back to his world as well, but as long as Tsunade kept acting stubbornly like this...
Well, if she wanted to stay in this goddess-forsaken world - ah, no, dimension because Sakura couldn't destroy dimensions - whatever, goddess-forsaken dimension for the rest of her life, repeating and learning but never doing and slowly rotting from the inside out, that was fine with him. Dark grey eyes closed, shoulders rolled and shifted against the scratchy material of a chair. Two forlorn sighs break the silence.
"Kakashi, I think it's best if we keep observing her." The man's expression did not change. "For now," she added. But Kakashi knew all too well that she would probably stay, stubbornly standing until the very end. That was the kind of woman she was.
(He supposed he could try and force her, but concussions were a scary thing.)
What a condescending fool this man was. Tsunade absolutely could not stand him. He kept prodding and picking and pushing her motherfucking buttons and shitshitshit she wanted to punch him so badly right now -
"Of course. I just thought you should know Sakura's current status."
My ass. "Right."
Kakashi stood up to leave, solemnly so, and bowed apologetically before turning to head for the door. And, it was in this brief moment that Tsunade felt truly... bad for her actions, her harsh, acidic words. She wanted to take it back, because she was really too proud to apologize.
"...Kakashi."
This always happened. They would have a heated discussion, about Sakura or something similar and he would walk away, and she would stop him and tell him something to make herself feel better.
"I... I know that you're only trying to end this, but..." For once, though, Tsunade's words were genuine and poignant, catching the tears that she fought to keep for herself.
"It's just that... I don't want to lose anyone else. Not you or Sasuke... or Sakura, or Naru - " She took a moment to still herself, took a deep breath and forced the tears back even further into her throat. "Naruto," Tsunade finished. Kakashi wondered just who she had lost to the Paraverse's actions. Her friend? A parent? A lover? The thought of the mighty, independent Commander with a lover almost made him want to chuckle. But what could possibly have happened...? In all his years in the assassination business, Kakashi had never heard of someone dying or simply disappearing into thin air like that.
For a few seconds, he sympathized with the Commander. It was a true moment of weakness for her, and he remembered what it had been like, abandoning Rin and Obito for all those years to become an assassin. The thought still made him choke with tears and self-loathing. "I see," He replied, rather quietly. "I'm... sorry to have bothered you." He left, and the door closed with a soft click, leaving Tsunade to sob and grieve quietly and curse at the stars, demanding that they bring Jiraiya back.
A/N: ...You want to know why this took so long?
...Me too.
This chapter was kind of 'meh' for me. I don't hate it... but I don't particularly like anything about it either. :|
Oh, well. I tried to flesh out the minor characters a little more, namely Tsunade, in case you couldn't tell. And also, this is my sad attempt at writing an action scene. Google helped. Don't ask how. XD
If you liked it, well then, awesome! If there was something that you thought could have been fixed, please tell me so. :)
It's so late... ;A; I'm tired.
Please review!