"So" Tsunade slid a slip of paper across the table to her deceptively amiable guest. "I have heard that Orochimaru is deceased."
"I have heard it so, yes" Iroh deftly retrieved the paper from her fingers, and viewed it impassively.
"Do you know anything about it?" Tsunade asked with all the sweetness she could muster. Playing mind games with a General was an exhausting exercise, and they had already been going around in circles for hours. She longed for the quiet comfort of the Hokage Mansion and the bottle of Soju hidden therein, but it would have to wait.
"Only what I have heard from the whispers of the people" Iroh stated calmly, as he placed the paper back on her desk.
"And just what have you heard?"
"That this Orochimaru was slaughtering villagers, and someone put an end to it. The stories vary on the identity of the victor, sometimes he is a tall man with a mighty sword, or the infamous Copy Nin." Iroh shrugged amiably, and reached for the cup of tea Shizune had brought in for him.
"And sometimes, is he an older man capable of breathing fire?" Tsunade deadpanned, reaching for her own glass in turn.
Iroh smiled in a way most people would have found disarming, but Tsunade knew better. "I would not put it past people's imaginations to think of something so fantastic." Iroh took a long drink of his tea, and brought the cup slightly down from his face, meeting Tsunade's eyes with his own, so that she could see a playful spark in them. "But I am sure you have more reliable information than the gossip of civilians."
Tsunade willed her eye from twitching in agitation. "No, but I have a Fire Nation royal sitting in my office."
His smile never faltered, and he looked over her with kind eyes. "Perhaps" he offered, "it would be best if we had a greater foundation of trust to stand on."
Tsunade snorted, and leaned back into her chair. "And how do you propose to accomplish that?"
Iroh gingerly retrieved a small folder from his jacket, and placed it upon her desk. His hand remained on top of the paper, and he stared directly into her eyes. "An equal exchange of information".
Tsunade eyed the paper under his hand warily. "And what is that?"
Iroh smiled and shrugged at her, which pulled at her curiosity.
"Fine" Tsunade sighed, rubbing at her temples.
He pushed the folder gently towards her and she carefully examined the documents therein. "So it's true, he is dead."
Iroh inclined his head slightly, and Tsunade felt slightly light-headed. "Was there any information on a boy that may have been with him, around the age of thirteen?"
Iroh shook his head slowly, and Tsunade could see that he was genuinely sorry for being unable to help her with that information. "There were no reports of a boy made" he said quietly.
Tsunade's head inclined forwards, and she brought her hands back up to her face to cover her eyes. So they had no information on Sasuke still. Naruto was going to be absolutely inconsolable, not to mention her already emotionally vulnerable apprentice.
"Shizune?" she called out, and the woman in question appeared in the doorway.
"Yes?" the woman in question appeared quickly, poking her head into the doorway.
"Bring us the files on Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno" Tsunade sighed, lifting her head from her hands in time to see Shizune nod and disappear again. She looked over to Iroh, who was watching her with mild interest.
"Sasuke Uchiha is the missing boy" she clarified. "If you're going to work with me, I would like you to look for him."
"You would have me look for a missing child?" he inquired calmly. "That seems a waste of your resources."
"It would seem so, if you were unfamiliar with his background" Tsunade said drily, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to relieve some of the headache that was quickly forming.
"I have the files you requested" Shizune said smoothly, gliding into the room and placing them on the desk.
Tsunade grunted in acknowledgement, and Iroh turned up to smile warmly at Shizune.
"Thank you, Shizune-san" he inclined his head in a slight bow, and Shizune giggled a bit in spite of herself.
Tsunade scowled, and Shizune quickly took her leave.
"Well, General Iroh" she started, and at his protests she reconsidered. "Iroh-san, I believe that we can be of use to each other."
He nodded in agreement, and she gestured towards the files Shizune had left on the desk. "I would like for you to review both of these files, and continue to train Sakura as you see fit. I will be monitoring her development closely and she will still be receiving her normal training from myself."
He nodded, and so Tsunade continued calmly "As for Sasuke Uchiha, I would like for you to review his files and attempt to find any information as to his location and state of being. I would like him to be returned to Konoha unharmed, as he is a young ninja under my care. I would not see him harmed unjustly, and I will provide you access to the Uchiha grounds and any unclassified information on his family or education as you see fit."
Iroh stood and bowed lightly in understanding. "Is there anything else you would wish of me, Tsunade-sama?"
She shook her head briefly, and he turned to leave her office. Sighing in relief as he shut the door behind him, Tsunade leaned her head back onto the back of her chair and closed her eyes. As taxing as debating Iroh could be, it was infinitely more tolerable than the next item on her agenda.
"Danzo-sama here to see you" Shizune called, and Tsunade grumbled a retort that would have left Jiraiya blushing.
"Hi, Uncle, Tsunade-sama said you needed me?" Sakura bounced on her heels lightly, as Iroh looked up from the papers Tsunade had given him.
"Yes, Sakura. Your Hokage has asked me to locate your teammate, and so I need your help." Iroh examined Sakura's face as it turned first to confusion, then relief.
"You know, I thought when Tsunade-sama told me that I needed to prepare for a mission, I thought I'd be leaving the village." Sakura sighed, and ran her hand through her hair. "So what do you need me to do, Uncle? I haven't seen him in almost two years, I don't think I would be much help." Sakura looked guiltily at the ground, and idly tug her toe into the dirt.
"We are going to look in the Uchiha clan compound for any information as to where he would have gone, and you will be an immense help" Iroh reassured her. "Your eyes are younger than mine, and we must assume there are multiple traps inside. You are well-suited to the task, and are a very clever and observant young lady. In fact, I do not think I could complete this assignment without your assistance."
Sakura's mood lifted immediately, and she smiled hesitantly at him. "Do you know where the clan compound is?" Iroh shook his head. "Well, I've never been inside, but I know where it is. Let's go!"
Iroh offered her his hand, and Sakura grabbed it excitedly. She pulled him out of his seat and through the winding streets of Konoha, stopping a long while later at a large and imposing gate.
"Here we are!" Sakura announced, as Iroh carefully examined the deserted ground before him. It had never occurred to him just how large Sasuke's clan must have been before the massacre. Elegant buildings sprawled out as far as the eye could see, neatly organized so as to emphasize the importance of the main house at the center.
"Where do we want to start?" Sakura asked, leaning from her torso in through the gate and peeking around inside.
"The main house, I believe" Iroh said calmly. He had reviewed Sasuke's instructions to get into the clan library, and the only entrance was accessed through there.
Sakura and Iroh moved slowly through the grounds, disabling a few traps and making their way to the imposing structure, checking the other buildings on the way. The grounds were in a rather obvious state of disrepair, there were weeds climbing over the paths and up the buildings. Some of the vines were crawling in and out of cracks in the houses, and Iroh saw more than a few old bloodstains on the wooden floorings from outside.
How long had Sasuke lived here, with nothing but the whispers of the wind and his own despair? Had he been the one that tried to scrub the bloodstains from the walls and floors?
Iroh shook his head in a futile attempt to banish the thought from his mind, and followed Sakura into the main house.
"Wow" Sakura breathed after stepping through the doorway. "It's just how he left it."
There were clean dishes put away, and everything indicated that Sasuke had literally cleaned the house, packed his clothes, and left. It was obvious that he had been intending to return, from the care he had taken to shut up all of the windows and doors properly.
In fact, the only reason they knew someone wasn't living there was the fine layer of dust all over.
"It makes me sad just looking at it," Sakura sighed, holding her hands over her heart.
"I know," Iroh placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, breaking her out of her trance. "But lingering upon it will do none of us any good. In any case, we should look around and see if he left anything for us to find. It appears that he intended to return, does it not?"
"Mmhmm" Sakura hummed, and turned to enter the hallway.
The first bedrooms were much like the front rooms, someone had meticulously cleaned and organized them before leaving. The beds were made, the floors were free of bloodstains, and everything was probably just as it was when the occupants had been alive. The next door neither Iroh nor Sakura could open, Iroh suspected that it had been Itachi's room. He kept that opinion to himself, and proceeded down the hallway feeling like a stone had lodged itself in his stomach.
Iroh couldn't help but think he might have burned it all down to save Sasuke the heart wrenching horror of living there ever again.
Near the end of the hall, they reached what could only have been Sasuke's room. It was Spartan bare, with only a bed and an empty dresser for his weapons and clothes. There were holes and gashes on some of the woodwork, it looked like anything that had decorated it before had been unceremoniously stripped from the walls.
Iroh and Sakura combed the room completely, but found nothing at all within its walls.
"Did you know Sasuke well?" Iroh carefully shut Sasuke's bedroom door behind him, eager to get as far away from the empty clan grounds as possible. The silence here was deafening and oppressive. There were patches of grass children should have been playing on, kitchens that should have been filled with sweet and savory smells, and beds that should have been occupied.
Not to mention the beautiful wooden floors that shouldn't be tinged red.
"Well, he was on my team, and I…. I liked him for a long time. He didn't really talk to anybody, so I don't think anyone really knew him." Sakura said hesitantly, while she stared blankly into the empty family room.
"I feel like all the emptiness is screaming at me." She shifted from one foot to the other, and looked back at Iroh sadly. "How did he live here?"
Iroh felt his stomach jump into his throat. "One day at a time, with a great weight in his heart, I think." She nodded slowly, and put a hand out to the door frame. She slid it down gently in a considering manner, and Iroh knew that she was thinking to herself again.
"Do you miss him?" Iroh ventured, leaning back onto the other doorway. Being in this is place was beginning to drain him considerably. The very air felt stale and sorrowful, it ate at him with every breath.
"Yes, I do." Sakura murmured. "I hope he's safe, and I hope he comes home." She looked up into Iroh's eyes. "Do you think he's all right?"
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Iroh reached out quickly with his hand to catch her shoulder again. She dove her head into his chest, weeping on his collarbone. "What if he's dead, Uncle?" she choked, and Iroh gently moved his arm from her shoulder to the back of her head. "What if he's dead, dead, dead and he never comes home?"
Iroh said nothing, but let her rest her head on his collarbone and cry. After she had used up all her tears, she straightened, pulling away and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Uncle," she choked, "do you think he's dead?"
He'd anticipated telling her on a happier occasion, but it appeared she wouldn't be able to wait that long.
"Sakura, would you be willing to keep a secret to keep him safe?"
She nodded determinedly, still sniffling. It hurt to see her in so much emotional distress.
"Suppose," he hesitated, knowing that the wording he used would make all the difference between two living, happy students and one dead one, "that Sasuke happened to find a teacher." If she told Tsunade… The Hokage might rescind her offer of clemency to the boy. She did not trust Iroh at all, and the association would trouble her.
"Like Orochimaru?" Sakura whispered, eyes wide with fear.
"No, not like Orochimaru. Perhaps a teacher that cared for him, and wanted him to be safe and happy." Iroh shifted his weight from one foot to another, careful to not remove his gaze from Sakura's eyes.
"A teacher like you?" she asked, instantly furrowing her brows together the same way she did whenever she puzzled out a difficult problem.
"Maybe" he pursed his lips together, and hoped that Sakura would find his meaning. He could never tell her outright and risk both of their lives, but she was a very clever girl.
"And maybe that person would make him come home?" A clever girl, indeed, bargaining like that.
"I do not think Sasuke is the kind of boy who can be forced to do anything." he acknowledged, watching the darkness creep back over Sakura's face. "But I do think that he would return when he is ready, if he knows there is anything to come back to."
At that, she smiled tentatively, and Iroh held out his hand. She placed her hand in his, and he compressed it lightly.
"I thought I saw something odd in this room" he ventured, gesturing with his other hand to the area where the hidden entrance was. "Perhaps we should investigate?"
Sakura didn't let go of his hand, and gently pulled him over to the area. "I don't see anything, Uncle."
"Hmm." He reached out his empty hand to run his fingers down the woodwork. When he found the catch, he pulled it delicately. The panel creaked open, and Sakura gasped.
"You're amazing, Uncle! What do you think is down there?" He nudged the panel open wider with his foot, and was greeted by total darkness.
"Perhaps we should find out?" Iroh turned to see Sakura grinning fiercely, as she pulled a flashlight out of the pack on her belt.
She hit the button with her thumb, and directed it into the darkness. "A whole lot of stairs, Uncle. We should see what Sasuke left for us to find."
They carefully descended the staircase to find a massive room full of scrolls, just as Sasuke had described in his instructions.
"A clan library!" Sakura's eyes were wide with wonder, and Iroh couldn't help but chuckle. Her file had made many notes of Sakura's interest in reading. She turned back to look at him bashfully, and squeezed his fingers hesitantly. "Do you think Sasuke would mind if I took a look at some of them?"
"Knowledge is a wonderful thing" Iroh shrugged. "I should think that so long as you return them and do not share them with anyone else, he might not mind."
Sakura squealed excitedly and let go of his hand. "Is there anything he might want in specific?"
"I believe he might be interested in something called a 'summoning contract' and his family jutsu, would you know how to locate those?" Iroh shuffled across the room, and began to examine a scroll.
Sakura picked up scroll after scroll, bringing them to the table in the middle. "We're going to need more light, Uncle" she said placidly, setting the flashlight on the tabletop. "I saw some candles over there, would you be able to light them while I look?"
Iroh found the candles in question with relative ease, and quickly lit each one out of Sakura's line of sight. He brought two to the table and placed them out of her way, while she patted the dust off of a chair and seated herself to examine the scrolls she had found.
Iroh went to work pulling out each scroll in turn and bringing anything he thought might be relevant to Sakura at her table. He lost track of the time they had spent in the library, mindlessly examining the labels on each scroll.
Suddenly, Sakura squealed from behind him, and he quickly turned around to address any potential threat. Sakura was standing up, proudly holding out a scroll to him, which he tentatively accepted. "That's the summoning contract he was looking for" Sakura said, looking for all the world like a cat that had eaten the family canary.
"Did we find any of his special family jutsu?" Iroh inquired, sliding the scroll up the sleeve of his jacket.
"Oh, yes. And I've found a few things I'd like to read, too." Sakura glanced back to the immense pile of scrolls littering the table's surface.
Iroh smiled warmly back at her, and moved towards the table. "Well, perhaps we should gather our things and go, then?"
Sakura hummed in agreement, and went to work putting scrolls into two containment scrolls she had had in her pack. "You know," she started conversationally, "I've never really had to use containment scrolls before. But these will be much safer this way, if we carry them around normally people will see them, or they could get ruined."
"Should I put the summoning scroll into the seal as well?" Iroh inquired over her shoulder, and she shook her head.
"No, probably not the best idea. I'm not sure if it would react differently, and if it disappears, no one can use it." She shrugged, and turned to hand him his containment scroll.
"Unless I missed my guess, your well-dressed nephew should know how to open it." she grinned, and Iroh placed this scroll up his other sleeve, placing the bottom into the hem just like its partner.
"Uncle, do you really have to leave?" Sakura whined, obstinately kicking the dirt a ways outside the Konoha gate.
He cocked an amused eyebrow at her, and she scrunched her nose in retaliation. "Fine, Uncle. I know you have to leave. But you're going to be back soon, right?"
"I will be back when I am able." Iroh allowed, ruffling Sakura's hair affectionately. She shook her head to remove his hand, and let her hair fall back down around her face.
"Ok. Will you keep writing me?" She examined him carefully for any trace of a lie.
"Of course, Sakura." He inclined his head forward, and smiled at her. "My nephew also enjoyed your letters, be sure to write often."
Sakura grinned, and jumped forward to hug Iroh tightly. He patted her back reassuringly, and carefully pried her off of him after a long moment.
"I must leave now, Sakura." he looked confidently into her jade-green eyes, and clasped his hands around hers and squeezed. "I will return as soon as I am able."
She nodded, and he released her hands. He turned to the road, and waved goodbye to the friendly gate guards before shuffling down the road. Sakura watched his fading figure until he finally disappeared from view, then slowly made her way back to her dark and lonely apartment.
So, as previously mentioned, I love reviews. Mostly because I love getting constructive feedback (and in particular, please, Aninnymouse, log in so I can PM you, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have) and partly because that way it feels less like I'm talking to the air.
So thank you for viewing, I hope you enjoy it. :)
Even though this chapter was pretty depressing.