"Crap."
That was the first thing that their 'rescuer' said to them as they settled down in the room at the inn. The blonde woman was already nursing a cup of sake, and she looked downright haunted as she stared at them.
"Excuse me?" Sasuke blinked. Was that really how she was going to start this conversation? This woman was weird.
Tsunade looked like she'd bit into a lemon as she set her cup down on the table by her elbow and pointed at him like he was her personal demon sent from hell to annoy her. "I didn't notice until you turned around." She said shortly. "You brats aren't just stupid runaways, are you? That's the Uchiha crest on your damn shirt." She glared at him, giving him the once over with cool brown eyes. "And yeah... now that I've got a good look at you... you're definitely one of those cold hearted snobs – with the smirk and the dark hair and everything."
Sasuke scowled at her, but bit back the insults he wanted to throw at her. He had no idea who this woman was, but she knew him... or at least she knew his clan. That could be good or bad. Worst case scenario she was an old clan enemy that would bury a kunai in his back the moment he let his guard down, best case scenario she was an ally of Konoha. Either way, it probably wasn't a good idea to insult her until he knew where he stood with her.
"And you..." Tsunade's eyes turned to Naruto in confusion. "You're wearing the Uzumaki crest."
"Yeah? So?" Naruto glared at her, crossing his arms in defiance.
"I know Uzumaki." Tsunade told him bluntly. Then a shadow drifted off her face. "I knew Uzumaki." She corrected. "Bunch of hyperactive red-heads."
"Red-heads?" Naruto repeated curiously. "Really?"
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Most of them." She told him. "I've never met a blonde Uzumaki... one of your parents must have had some pretty strong genes to win out over the Uzumaki... aw shit!"
Was it just because she was drunk, or was this woman just insane? She was making no sense. At all.
In other news she was taking a serious look at Naruto now, eyes taking in every detail of his rather dishevelled appearance, from his spiky blonde hair to his rapidly blinking blue eyes and the whisker-like marks on his cheeks.
"...what?" Naruto asked, uncomfortable with her staring.
"You're a god damn spitting image." Tsunade sighed. "It's seriously a miracle you're not dead yet. The Intelligence Corps must be working overtime."
"Huh?"
"Forget it kid." Tsunade downed her cup of sake. "So... what is Naruto Uzumaki and his Uchiha side-kick doing out here?"
Naruto's eyes widened. "You know my name?"
She rolled her eyes. "It's not particularly hard to figure out who you are." She said dryly. "Does Uchiha-chan have a name?"
Sasuke scowled deeper at her. "Sasuke." he bit out shortly.
Naruto looked a little uncertain at her reply to his question. "Uh... is it because... because I'm... uh... the..." he trailed off, looking scared.
Tsunade looked at him sharply. "I see whoever yanked you out of Konoha couldn't keep his mouth shut." She said. "For the record, it's an S-ranked secret, so only if you say it aloud can we actually come out and talk about it."
Naruto just looked blank. "Why do I have to say it?" He wanted to know.
"Because the only two people in Konoha that can reveal the secret to other people without being executed for treason are you and the Sandaime." Tsunade told him, refilling her sake cup. "You because it's your secret and him because he's the Hokage and he can do what he likes." She pulled a face.
"Oh." Naruto's face fell. "So... it is true... I've got the nine tails sealed in me."
"Yeah." Tsunade threw back her cup of sake. "What's the big deal?"
Naruto's mouth dropped open. "What's the big deal?!" He exploded, shooting to his feet. "I have a demon sealed in me! And no one ever thought to tell me?!"
Tsunade blinked up at him. "Hmph. Guess you are an Uzumaki." She said mildly. "Always with the yelling and jumping..."
"Tsunade-san!"
"Look, calm down..." Tsunade tugged on his shirt and yanked him back into his seat. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken it so lightly. It's a big deal to you."
"And it's not to you?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "You do know that I have a demon sealed in me, right?"
"So did my grandmother." Tsunade told him bluntly. "One of the loveliest ladies I've ever known. Her honey crunch cookies were to die for." She paused, wrapped up in a memory. "Actually, I think I nearly did beat Jiraiya half to death for stealing one out of my bento, way back when..."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. This conversation was touching, really, but it was going nowhere fast. "You're a Leaf ninja." He said quickly. "Right?"
Her sharp gaze was immediately fixed on him, and he felt a little cold. It was like all the ease in her posture was sucked out the moment that he labelled her a Konoha shinobi. Sasuke shivered a little: had they stumbled across a Konoha missing-nin or something? She didn't really seem to have much love for the village at all, if her body language was anything to go by.
"Not anymore." Tsunade said softly, her gaze dark. "Not really."
"Then... you're a missing-nin?" Naruto gulped, watching her nervously.
Sasuke's whole body tensed up. It was entirely possible that they'd escaped the frying pan only to trip into the fire. He sensed this woman was nothing like the thugs that kidnapped them, and it was entirely possible that she might bear a big enough grudge against the village to take it out on them.
"Relax." Tsunade snorted. "I'm just a wandering drunk. Sensei hasn't labelled me rouge yet."
"Sensei?" Naruto wanted to know.
"The Sandaime." Tsunade bit out. "He was my teacher back when I was a genin... but that was a long time ago..." Her refilling of her sake cup was a little more hasty this time, and she only relaxed when she'd totally downed the cup again. Evidently thinking of her childhood team was not a good memory for her.
Sasuke's eyes widened. "No way..." he breathed. "You're one of the Sannin!"
"The what?" Naruto turned to look at him in confusion as Tsunade glared, gripping her cup with white knuckles.
"The Sannin." Sasuke repeated for Naruto's benefit. "The Third Hokage's students. They were heroes in the second and third wars." Sasuke frowned, trying to dredge up memories of war stories that circled the clan and hazily remembered history classes at school. "The Toad Sage Jiraiya, Orochimaru the snake summoner and The Slug Princess Tsunade."
Naruto wrinkled his nose. "But... the Second war was ages ago, that would totally make her an old lady!"
Slowly the two of them turned to look at the 'young' woman sitting at the table, throwing back sake like water. She didn't look a day over twenty five. She narrowed her eyes at them.
"I don't really like hearing that name these days." She said irritably. "The Sannin don't exist anymore, not for a long time. And the 'Slug Princess' thing is just a bit tacky."
There was a sound of the door sliding open and shut again. "Do you prefer 'The Legendary Sucker'?" Shizune said tartly, setting a plate of rice balls down onto the table and settling herself down on a cushion.
Tsunade glared at her. "Slug Princess it is." She sniffed.
"So... you did fight in the Second war?" Naruto said curiously.
"Yeah... unfortunately." Tsunade said sourly.
"So... you are an old lady?"
Tsunade's right eye started to twitch, and Sasuke slowly reached out to tug at Naruto's sleeve, getting a bad feeling about where this conversation was heading. He really needed his best friend to shut up right about now.
"Old?" Tsunade hissed. "I'm... I'm not that old! Not even fif– uh... I'm not old!"
"You're not a Nee-san." Naruto frowned. "I bet you're barely even a Ba-san! You're totally a Baa-chan!"
"That's it you little TWERP!"
Ten minutes later, Tsunade was cross, Naruto was still stubbornly calling Tsunade 'Baa-chan', the room looked like a small hurricane had swept through it, Sasuke wanted to be anywhere else but there and Shizune looked like she was feeling something similar.
At least they saved the rice balls from the carnage. Sasuke was hungry enough to eat anything; after a couple of days of nothing but stale bread even simple rice balls tasted like heaven.
"Anyway brats, you never answered my question: what are you doing so far from Konoha?" Tsunade scowled at the two of them, looking like the alcohol she was knocking back wasn't doing anything at all to help with a growing headache.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks. "We were kidnapped." Sasuke said bluntly. "We don't even know where 'here' is."
Shizune made a gasp of dismay from the side, like she really felt sorry for their predicament, but Tsunade snorted out a laugh.
"You were kidnapped." She rolled her eyes. "Of course you were."
Naruto frowned, hands clenched. "You don't believe us?!"
Tsunade waved a hand at him. "Don't get your panties in a twist, kid, I believe you just fine. I'm just laughing at the irony of the universe."
"Irony?" Sasuke wanted to know.
"I won big just before you brats came crashing into my life." Tsunade said darkly. "Nothing good ever happens when I win."
"But you rescued us from our kidnappers." Naruto stared blankly at her. "How is that a bad thing?"
"Good thing for you midgets, maybe." Tsunade said. "But it's definitely a bad thing for me. Now I've got to do the right thing or something and make sure you get back to the village okay."
"You'll help us get home?" Naruto whooped for joy, pumping a fist in the air. "Thanks Baa-chan!"
Tsunade glared at the term of address, but chose to pour herself another cup of sake instead of calling the boy out on it. "Well... I can't just point you in the right direction and hope you get there on your own." She said. "You brats look the type to get yourselves kidnapped again if I don't escort you there."
"So... we're really going back to Konoha?" Shizune piped up from the corner, sounded a little awed. "Just like that?"
Tsunade sighed. "It's not like we have a lot of choice, Shizune. There isn't a Konoha outpost around here for us to dump them at. It'll be faster just to take them back ourselves." She looked away. "...and I'm not quite enough of a heartless bitch yet to abandon them. They're just kids. They shouldn't be out here on their own."
Sasuke frowned as he picked up on something different in Tsunade's voice now. Something quiet and a little sad. From the expression on Shizune's face, he guessed that somehow he and Naruto had struck some sort of trigger in Tsunade that compelled her to grudgingly help them. Maybe long dormant maternal spirit or something? Sasuke had no clue, but he was grateful for it all the same.
"Thank you, Tsunade-sama." Sasuke bowed his head. "We'll do our best not to bother you."
He elbowed Naruto. "Uh... yeah... what Sasuke said, Baa-chan." Naruto ducked his head too as Tsunade rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever brats." She huffed. "I'm not doing it for you anyway: Sensei will owe me big time for doing this." She paused, eyes lingering on Naruto, who was practically vibrating with excitement. Sasuke remembered that she said that she was familiar with the Uzumaki family, and by the sounds of it Naruto was a fairly typical clan member personality wise. "Big time." Tsunade repeated in a mutter, eyes still fixed on Naruto.
Sasuke just prayed they made it back to Konoha before Naruto pissed Tsunade off too much. Her right eye was starting to twitch a little in annoyance already.
They would have packed up and left at dawn the very next day... if Tsunade hadn't been horrendously hung over and stubbornly refused to get out of bed. Shizune guiltily apologised to them and started mixing together some sort of hang-over cure for her shishou while Naruto and Sasuke ate breakfast. The younger woman hadn't spoken all that much the day before, preferring to sit back and let Tsunade take the wheel in the interrogation of their two newest companions, so it was over breakfast that Naruto made up for lost time chatting with her, hoping to make a new friend.
"Shishou can be... difficult..." Shizune told them both. "But she's not as bad as she'd like people to believe."
Sasuke snorted over his tea and took a sip instead of saying what he really thought about Shizune's reassurances. Naruto on the other hand seemed to look relieved.
"So... she wouldn't have really sold us to get back the money she lost?" Naruto asked.
Shizune rolled her eyes. "Tsunade-sama would never." She said firmly. "She loves children."
Naruto and Sasuke stared at Shizune blankly, thinking of the rude and antagonistic woman they had met yesterday.
"Well... uh... she loves children in her own way..." Shizune muttered, throwing a last pinch of herbs into the tea cup she was preparing Tsunade's hangover cure in. Still feeling Naruto and Sasuke's flat looks of disbelief on her, the woman hastily stood and excused herself to go and give the finished concoction to the old lady.
By the time that Tsunade had dragged herself out of bed and got ready to leave, Naruto was practically bouncing off the walls with impatience and Sasuke was running out of things to distract him with. Sasuke knew that the ease of their journey home depended a lot on him keeping Naruto from annoying Tsunade too much, but he couldn't help but feel it was a bit of a lost cause. Keeping Naruto quiet was a full time job, and even then he wasn't all that successful. Naruto was just loud and annoying by nature. Sasuke was well used to it by now, but by the way that Tsuande was clutching her head and wincing, she didn't appreciate his friend's enthusiasm one bit.
They set off for Konoha around mid-morning at a reasonable walking pace. Sasuke was on edge from the moment they left the inn to the moment they cleared the city limits. He knew that they were technically being guarded by a legendary kunoichi who could eat their kidnappers for breakfast and her apprentice (who Sasuke suspected was a lot more skilled than her quiet demeanour let on), but that didn't mean he didn't feel awfully exposed strolling through streets they had been running for their lives down the day before.
Sasuke thought that he managed to keep his unease off his face and unnoticed by the two women escorting them, but Shizune did take it upon herself to walk rather close to him as they left the city. She said nothing, but it was embarrassingly obvious that she was staying close to reassure him.
By the time that they had left the city behind Sasuke started feeling much better, and Shizune drifted away now that he was no longer so tense. As the sun rose further into the sky, Naruto started bullying him into playing stupid word games like shiritori and I spy. Because Naruto's happy-go-lucky personality was seemingly infectious, Shizune happily joined in as well. Tsunade required more poking, but grudgingly started contributing words to their shiritori word chain after a while.
For a while Sasuke could almost believe they were just on a friendly walk, not being escorted back to the village by a couple of strangers after escaping a kidnapping attempt.
Naruto screwed up his face, desperately trying to think of a word. It was his turn, and he was stuck. "Ho..." He muttered. "Ho..."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto would eventually find a word that started with 'Ho'. It was a little surprising that he hadn't already. Sasuke thought that Naruto would have jumped all over that kana like a demented monkey.
"AH!" Naruto exclaimed. "HOKAGE!" He pumped his fist in the air in excitement.
Sasuke couldn't help but roll his eyes again. It took the blonde long enough to make the connection between 'Ho' and 'Hokage'. Now that Naruto had made the connection Sasuke braced himself for the hour long rant about Naruto's future dream. Any mention of the Hokage was enough to set Naruto off. The other boy was nothing if not enthusiastic.
"What are you so excited about midget?" Tsunade snorted. Sasuke winced. That was an open invitation for Naruto to explain in explicit detail about his dream if he ever heard one.
"Hehe!" Naruto giggled. "Because Hokage is a cool word!" He said happily. "You know, I'm gonna be Hokage one day Baa-chan, just watch!" He puffed up his chest and grinned brighter than the sun shining above them. "Isn't that cool?"
"Cool...?" There was a loud crunching noise, and Sasuke looked in alarm to see that the bossy old lady had crushed her water canteen in one hand. The look on her face was dark, her golden brown eyes narrowed and her mouth set in a grim line. "You want to be Hokage, brat?"
Naruto's smile faltered, edging into a frown. "Yeah! I'm gonna be Hokage, then everyone in the village will see how awesome I am!"
"Of all the idiotic..." Tsunade clicked her tongue. "Give up on it brat. Being Hokage is a shit job. No one but a utter fool would do it."
Naruto's face blanched white at Tsunade's hissed reply. "But the Hokages... they're heroes! Especially the Yondaime!"
"Didn't stop them from dying though, did it?" Tsunade pointed out cruelly. "Life isn't something that should be gambled so easily boy. Only idiots throw their lives away for such a dream as 'being Hokage'." She snorted. "Do yourself a favour. Keep your head down, look out for yourself and your friends. That way you might live long enough for someone to call you Baa-chan."
"But I'm a boy, they'd call me Jii-chan." Naruto said stubbornly, completely missing Tsuande's point. He was scowling at Tsunade now, his good mood entirely evaporated.
"At the rate you're going, they're only ever going to call you 'brat', so it doesn't really matter, does it?" Tsunade said. "My Jii-chan gave up everything to achieve peace, and when he died in the middle of his dream, life just went on and people kept dying. Hokage is a fool's dream."
Naruto made a noise of frustration. "Then he didn't try hard enough!" He exploded. "I'm gonna be Hokage, and I'll show you! I'll beat your Jii-chan and everyone else!"
Tsunade glared at him. "Good luck beating the Shodai Hokage, kid." She said bitterly. "People have been trying and failing to do even half as well as Jii-chan at this peace crap for decades."
Naruto's mouth fell open in shock as Tsunade turned a cold shoulder and marched ahead of the group, pointedly ignoring them all. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she wished to just leave them all there in the middle of the road, but the last remaining shreds of her common sense stopped her from abandoning them.
For now.
Naruto didn't move for a long moment, and Sasuke exchanged a look of confusion with Shizune, who simply looked grim and resigned at this turn of events. The young woman nodded ahead at Tsunade, who was walking ahead without them, then looked pointedly at Naruto. As Shizune turned to start walking ahead herself, Sasuke darted to Naruto's side, anxious about being left behind.
"Naruto..."
"You don't think I'm a fool... do you?" Naruto's voice was strange, and he was staring after Tsunade with a glazed, dull look in his eye.
"No." Sasuke said firmly. "There's nothing stupid about your dream."
"She said..."
"I don't care what a bitter old lady said!" Sasuke snapped. "Are you going to give up just because she told you to? I thought you were better than that!" His voice rose as Sasuke realised that he was actually getting angry at Naruto for this, despite opening his mouth to comfort him initially. Then again, Sasuke wasn't exactly the comforting type anyway, and for some reason it pissed him off that Naruto might give up on his dream just because Tsunade said some awful things to him.
After a moment of thought, Sasuke realised that he himself had invested a lot in Naruto's dream already. That's why he was so mad. He had no idea when it started, but at some point in the last couple of months he'd stopped thinking 'if Naruto becomes Hokage' and started thinking 'when Naruto becomes Hokage'.
If Naruto gave up, Sasuke might just give up too. On everything. What was the point in trying if the most hard-working, determined person he knew couldn't keep going?
Well... wasn't that a frightening thought for him to have?
Naruto scowled at Sasuke, blinking the dull look away from his eyes. "Wha...? Hell no! I'm gonna be Hokage, no matter what the stinky old lady says! I'll be even greater than the Shodai Hokage, just you wait!" He clenched his fists and glared back at Sasuke, as if daring him to disagree.
Sasuke smiled. "Right." He said quietly. "Of course." He tugged at Naruto's shirt sleeve. "Come on moron, let's get going before they leave us behind."
The hours of walking after that were silent and tense, a lifetime away from the cheerful morning of games they had enjoyed up until that point. Sasuke did his best to distract Naruto from the argument, but he seemed to prefer spending the rest of the day burning a hole through Tsunade's back with his eyes. Tsunade, on the other hand, did her level best to ignore her unwanted travelling companions, only addressing Shizune.
Sasuke was very, very happy when they reached a inn at the end of the day. Upon arrival at the inn Shizune organised for the group to have two rooms. One for Tsunade and Shizune, the other for Naruto and Sasuke. After a tense dinner, the two groups parted and retreated to their separate rooms, relieved to finally get away from each other.
"Sasuke! Sasuke! Where are you?"
The boy looked up, jolting upright in alarm. "Mama?" He called uneasily, reacting to the panicked cry he could hear above the crowd. "Mama?" The small boy's lip started to tremble as he realised his mother was not standing right next to him as he examined the colourful masks on display.
"Sasuke!"
Tears blurred his eyes as he realised that his mother's voice was getting fainter. She was looking in the wrong direction for him, and she was getting further and further away.
"Mama!" Sasuke cried over the crowd, wiping his palm over his watering eyes. Leaving the mask stall behind, he dived into the crowd of festival goers, pushing his way towards where he had heard his mother calling for him.
No one seemed to care about the four-year-old boy that was trying to wriggle his way through the crowd. They bumped into him, jostled him, turning him around so he got disorientated and knocked him over. His breath started to quicken as he realised that he couldn't even hear his mother's cries anymore, and he had no idea which direction he was supposed to head in anymore.
Not caring about being a big boy like his Nii-san anymore, Sasuke started to cry, hiccuping for his mother miserably through each sob. None of the people around him seemed to care about the lost little boy sobbing his heart out. Nobody so much as spared him a glance. They were all engrossed in their own little worlds, too busy enjoying the festival with their own friends and family to care about him.
Clenching his fists, Sasuke rubbed his tears away and started to push his way through the crowd again, hoping that he was going in the right direction. As he walked grimly on, he noticed the crowd changing. The racial diversity of the wider village gave way to throngs of people with dark hair and even darker eyes. Colourful yukata melted into the muted fabrics that his relatives favoured: dark blues, browns, maroons and blacks. A ninja slipped past him with the sign of the Konoha Military Police stitched onto his shoulder. The festival lights dimmed, the bight lanterns that had decorated the street around him earlier disappearing.
Sasuke's breath hitched, a sense of foreboding creeping up on him. He quickened his pace, desperate to reach his mother before something bad happened. He didn't know what, but he was certain that if he didn't find his mother soon he might never see her again.
Then the lights went out.
The street was plunged into darkness as the crowd surged in panic. A scream ripped through the air, breaking the quiet chatter that had dominated the street until now. The people around him dissolved into chaos, trampling all over each other in an attempt to get away from the screams.
Sasuke swallowed back his own screams as he bolted, trying to run away with getting tripped by the crowd. His eyes burned, and he knew that he was crying again, but he couldn't stop.
Everyone was screaming now. They pushed and pulled each other, caring for nothing else but their own ability to flee. Something was coming, and Sasuke had no idea what. He only knew that he had to get away. His legs were too short though, and he couldn't run as fast as the ninja of the clan. It almost seemed like he was running in one spot, not moving a single inch from where he started.
Something wet hit him, soaking him to the skin. Sasuke stumbled and fell to his knees on the street, letting out a wild cry of fear. He tried to get up, but his legs were too weak. They couldn't support his weight and he fell to the ground once again.
"Mama!" He cried. "Mama!"
He tried to wipe away his tears again, but that only made his eyes sting worse. That's when he realised what the liquid dripping over him was.
Blood.
He was covered in blood.
Sasuke screamed, staring down at his red-stained hands. "MAMA!" He cried. "MAMA!"
She didn't answer. Sasuke looked up, hoping to see a face he recognised in the crowd surrounding him. An aunt, uncle, cousin: anyone.
There wasn't a crowd anymore. The street was silent and still. Surrounding Sasuke were the bodies of fallen Uchiha, oozing blood into the gutters and abandoned like trash.
"Mama..." Sasuke whimpered, curling up into a ball. "Mama, help me..."
He sniffled into his sticky shirt. "Nii-san..." He whimpered. "Nii-san... Nii-san..."
"Nii-san..." Sasuke moaned as his eyes fluttered open. "Nii-san..."
The ceiling above him was dark. Not a speck of luminescent paint in sight. For a moment, Sasuke stopped breathing, confused and disorientated. The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
Why couldn't he hear the sound of his brother's breathing?
Where was Itachi?
Sasuke gasped, his breath coming back as his lungs burned in protest. He felt dizzy and sick, heaving dry breaths that didn't seem to be sending any oxygen to his brain at all. Sasuke lashed out, thrashing his blankets out of the way and jolting himself upright. He clutched at his chest, which was now starting to sting with pain.
He still couldn't breathe. Why couldn't he breathe? Where was all the air?
Hot tears ran down his cheeks, but he barely noticed they were there. All he could think about was the fact that there wasn't any air, and his chest felt hot, and his brother wasn't there.
Itachi wasn't there.
Where was Itachi?
His hands felt sticky, and the dream came back in full force. He stared down at his hands. In the darkness they didn't look like his hands. They were shaking, and they still felt sticky. Was that blood? THERE WAS BLOOD ON HIS HANDS!
Sasuke stumbled out of his futon, lunging for the sliding door to his right. His hand scrabbled for the edge of the door, trying to tug the thing open but not having any luck. A few moments of scratching later he ripped the thing wide open and fell out onto the wooden veranda with a muted thud!
He was outside now, but there still wasn't any air! He couldn't breathe!
Sasuke staggered forward. Before he pitched himself off of the veranda and onto the pavement of the courtyard in front of him, Sasuke grabbed one of the support poles, clutching onto it for dear life as he slid to his knees.
There still wasn't enough air, and now he couldn't see, because there was water in his eyes and his eyes burned and his chest burned and where was Itachi?!
"Shhh..." A hand rubbed at his back, travelling in a circular motion. "Shhh, Sasuke. It's okay. You're okay."
Sasuke couldn't do anything but choke around the heaving, desperate breaths he was sucking in.
"Don't think Sasuke. Just listen. Breathe in."
Sasuke obeyed. The voice was calm. Nice. He could listen to a voice like that.
"Breathe out."
Sasuke let go of the breath he was holding, trying to focus on the circles the hand was rubbing into his back.
"Breathe in."
Sasuke swayed a little.
"Breathe out."
The moon was full tonight. It was very bright.
"In."
It was cold.
"Out."
But that made sense. It was December after all.
"In"
Itachi had promised them all that they could have a big snow fight together.
"Out"
Sasuke wondered if Naruto would like to join in too.
"In."
They could be on the same team.
"Out."
Maybe they could made a snow fort.
"In..."
Sasuke's eyes fluttered a little, and he realised that the air had come back. He could breathe again.
"...Out..."
How about that?
He blinked sleepily, gingerly letting go of the wooden pillar he had been hugging for dear life and sitting up straighter. Then he turned to face the source of the voice.
Tsunade looked back with a calm expression, humming a little as she continued to rub circles on his back.
"Tsunade-san..." Sasuke squeaked. "...I... I didn't..."
"Slow breaths Sasuke." Tsunade told him quietly. "It's okay. Take your time."
Sasuke took another shuddering breath, trying to gather his thoughts. Obviously, he'd just had a panic attack. It had most likely been triggered by the nightmare. Nothing that hadn't happened before, but usually it was Itachi or Matsu rubbing circles into his back as he calmed down. Hearing Tsunade hum quietly as she sat there and waited for him to feel better was almost jarring.
Who knew that such a sharp and domineering woman had it in her to be so nurturing and calming?
"Thank... thank you." Sasuke muttered, ducking his head. "I think... I'm alright now."
The circles on his back stopped, and a hand reached up to pat his head instead. "Good kid." Tsunade murmured.
Sasuke couldn't help but let a small sniffle escape. Why did Tsunade have to remind him so much of his mother right now?
He didn't look up at the rustling of fabric that signalled that Tsunade was moving. He felt her shift from her place at his back to a seat on the edge of the veranda. She settled down into a seat next to him that wasn't so close that she was crowding him, yet was still close enough that he could lean into her with ease if he wanted.
For a moment the two of them sat in silence, staring out at the courtyard. Sasuke craned his neck to look up at the full moon. It was was a rather pretty night, now that he was getting a look at it without the haze of a panic attack covering his vision. There was a bite of frost in the air, like it might snow at any minute, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
He could see the stars.
Nii-san would like it here. Sasuke thought wistfully.
Itachi knew a lot about stars. He was the one who first showed Sasuke how to navigate using constellations. Most ninja knew how to do that though, it was the fact that Itachi knew so much more that made it fascinating. He pointed out pictures in the sky, telling Sasuke all of the folk stories about the constellations. When he was little, he used to sneak into Itachi's room at night and beg him to take him outside for story time.
Sometimes Sasuke couldn't help but think that Itachi was ill-suited to being a shinobi. He would have been much happier as a scholar, or some sort of poet. He was sometimes just too gentle for the harsh world they lived in.
Tsunade still hadn't said anything, and Sasuke dimly realised that she was waiting for him to speak, knowing that he probably needed a little distance to sort out his head first. She was content to sit and keep him company until the last dregs of the nightmare had dissipated.
"I miss my Nii-san." Sasuke said quietly.
Tsunade still didn't say anything, so Sasuke decided to press on.
"He's probably really worried about me." Sasuke said in a small voice. "I said that I would be back before dinner."
Was that really only a few days ago? It felt like months.
"I'm sure he'll forgive you." Tsunade said. "There'll be other dinners."
"Yeah." Sasuke's chest loosened a little at the thought. Missing a few dinners was not the end of the world, and when he got home they could go right back to eating together every night. He would make extra effort not to be late again, even if he and Naruto were in the middle of plotting an epic prank and he didn't really want to go home just yet.
He just had to hold on a little bit longer, then he would be home with his Nii-san. Home where there were stars painted on the ceiling and the air was breathable.
"Your friend woke up just before you." Tsunade told him. "He's talking with Shizune. I didn't want to interrupt, so I came out here." She smiled, but there was a bitter edge to it.
"What's Naruto talking with Shizune-san for?" Sasuke asked curiously. He knew that the two had become friends, but he didn't really think they were close enough for midnight chats.
"Ah... no doubt Shizune is telling the brat all about my dark and tragic past." Tsunade sighed. "That girl can't leave well enough alone."
"Oh." So Shizune was spilling the beans on Tsunade? That sounded like an interesting conversation, and he felt a little miffed that they hadn't thought to include him in their story time.
"You're not going to ask what she's telling him about me?" Tsunade asked curiously.
Sasuke shook his head. "I can ask Naruto later." He said. "I wouldn't make you talk about it."
"Damn." Tsunade chuckled. "Here I was hoping that I could start an information trade here."
"I'm not telling you about my nightmares." Sasuke said sullenly. Only Itachi knew for sure what his nightmares were about. Matsu had a good idea, considering that most of the Uchiha clan had similar dreams these days. But still... Sasuke didn't want to talk about it.
"Fair enough kid."
The two of them lapsed into silence again. Sasuke took a deep breath, closing his eyes and enjoying the crispness of the air in the courtyard. The cold air was doing wonders calming him down. It made everything sharper, more real, like the nightmare had never happened.
"Naruto doesn't have that many people that care about him." Sasuke didn't open his eyes, but he did feel the tiny start of surprise from Tsunade as she tuned in to what he was saying. "Obviously he didn't know it was because of the fox until a few days ago, but that didn't mean that other people didn't know."
"I take it most of the village was aware." Tsunade said regretfully.
"Everyone but the kids, it seems like." Sasuke replied. "Naruto's been glared at, insulted, thrown out of buildings, tripped, shoved, excluded and cheated. Yet every time someone pushes him down, he gets right back up again, vowing to try harder."
Tsunade snorted, and it didn't take a great leap of imagination for Sasuke to guess what she was thinking. Only a few months ago, he'd thought the same thing about the blonde: What an idiot.
"For years, the only person that cared whether he lived or died was the Sandaime." Sasuke clenched his fists. "Then Iruka-sensei started giving him a fair shot at school last year." Sasuke paused. "But I'm pretty sure that I'm Naruto's first friend."
Sasuke opened his eyes and turned to look at Tsunade searchingly. The woman's face was unreadable, like she had no idea why Sasuke was telling her this nor what she was supposed to make of it.
"I used to think he was such a moron." Sasuke said regretfully. "He's clumsy, he still counts on his fingers during maths class, he doesn't really eat anything other than ramen, his chakra control is horrible and his taijutsu sucks. He's dead last at school." Sasuke felt oddly calm, telling Tsunade all this. "It'll be a miracle if he graduates, you know?"
Tsunade huffed a laugh, but she was still looking at him curiously. She still had no idea what Sasuke was trying to tell her.
"And he's going to become Hokage." Sasuke said firmly.
"You sound sure." Tsunade's voice was very quiet.
Sasuke shrugged. "When Naruto says he's going to do something, he does it. He never goes back on his word." Sasuke smirked. "So yeah, I believe that Naruto will become Hokage one day. I'm going to be right there with him, watching his back."
Tsunade didn't say anything.
"Naruto hasn't figured out yet that he doesn't want to be Hokage for the recognition." Sasuke explained. "I know better. Naruto loves Konoha. He wants to protect it. He wants to change it into a place where no kid grows up like him ever again." Sasuke nodded. "He'll figure it out eventually."
"And you're going to help him get there?" Tsunade asked. "Weird goal for a kid. I thought most of you midgets aimed for the top. I haven't met one yet aiming for second-in-command."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Well, now you have." He said. "Someone has to watch Naruto's back. Even Hokages have weak spots. With me there he'll make it to the time that kids start calling him Jii-chan."
Tsunade didn't say anything, but she starting humming quietly as she looked out into the courtyard again. Her face looked contemplative, like the hostilities of earlier in the day were forgotten.
"I guess... that's a nice dream to have." She admitted finally.
"I thought so too." Sasuke smiled, looking back up at the stars. "Naruto doesn't hesitate to dream big."
"I was talking about your dream."
Sasuke turned to look at Tsunade again, his mouth falling open a little in surprise. Tsunade smiled at him. She reached out and patted him on the head and got to her feet slowly. Before Sasuke could say another word, she'd wished him goodnight and disappeared back into the inn, leaving the young Uchiha alone with his thoughts and the cold night air.
A/N:
Writer's block hit hard after the last chapter, but I managed to push past it to bring you chapter 10! Like I said last chapter, Tsunade has barged into this story without asking, and by the looks of this chapter she won't be satisfied until she's a main character too. On the bright side I've had a ball writing her. There's something about Tsunade that I just really like XD
On another note, this chapter Sasuke has a pretty bad panic attack. That was such a tough scene to write, considering I based it off panic attacks that I've had myself (Not that I was freaking out about the same sort of heavy stuff that Sasuke has to deal with). It was worth putting myself through that though if I managed to get across what Sasuke was feeling at the end of the day, so let me know how well I did if you have time to drop me a review :)
Thanks to Yara9292, davycrockett100, Kano13, Narudevilfan, PAVeY14, Old Girl Lost, Mystery, canis lupus familiaris, bookworm189 and the three guests that reviewed chapter 9.