"So why are we going to the Land of Wind?" Sasuke griped, readjusting the strap of the bag slung over his shoulder and looking over to Sifu. "You know there are shinobi there, right? And their new leader is actually someone I've met before. This sounds like a horrendous idea."
Sifu half-shrugged helplessly, and turned to meet Sasuke's gaze.
"I suppose it is a very good thing you had that growth spurt then, Haru-kun?" Sifu offered, and Sasuke grunted and rolled his eyes.
At least the growth spurt was true. He would be turning sixteen very soon, and his body had evidently decided that it needed to make up for all the time he hadn't changed at all. His shoulders had gotten broader, and he was quite a bit taller. He felt slightly overstretched, but Sifu had assured him that soon his body would even out again. Until then, Sasuke had to deal with the abrupt changes from when they had arrived in the Land of Vegetables. They'd stayed there for months, gathering information and training in an area outside of town, until the new Hokage sent Sifu a new mission.
"In any case, you are a very different young man now than you were when you last met, I am sure." Sifu continued, and Sasuke blankly stared forward at the road. That was true, too. He'd not only grown, but he was sure his chakra signature had altered dramatically after he'd been gifted with firebending. He couldn't use any outside techniques that weren't fire-based (luckily, he hadn't had many of those at all), and he just felt like a different person in general. The solutions to his problems were much more obvious from this distance, and life seemed much less complicated.
"All the same, I think it might be best if we took a few precautions before entering the Land of Wind. What do you think, Haru-kun?" Sifu eyed his hair apologetically, and Sasuke frowned.
Sasuke ran his fingers quickly through his entirely-too-distinctive haircut and nodded. "I think a change might be in order, I'm getting sick of my hair being in my face."
That wasn't true at all. He knew it was too distinctive and that this had been a long time coming, but it had been unappealing to get rid of the last vestige of his former life. Burning his clothes with the Uchiha symbol had been particularly painful, but Sasuke understood the necessity.
He wasn't sure that Gaara would recognize or remember him if they were to meet, but it would be best to fully trust his shishou in this regard. Especially since Sifu was willing to let him accompany him in his meetings with the Kazekage. It would be an invaluable experience, and a first sign of how far he had come. If Gaara did not recognize him, then he would likely be able to fool most other acquaintances. Gaara had been fixated on him during the Chuunin exams, and was uncannily intelligent.
Not to mention the rather extreme vote of confidence from his shishou in allowing him to observe such an important meeting.
So if Sasuke needed to cut his hair and find new clothes, he'd gladly burn his whole wardrobe and hack at his hair with a kunai. Unfortunately, Sifu would find that haphazard arrangement wholly unsatisfactory. So they were going to have to find…
A stylist.
Sasuke shuddered involuntarily as Sifu hummed lightly, so happy he was almost skipping.
"We should be able to stop in that next town up the road in the Land of Wind, to remedy our appearances before we meet with the Kazekage. It would not do to dishonor the Hokage by appearing unkempt."
If Sasuke didn't know Sifu so well, he would wonder if Sifu just really wanted another excuse to shop. As it was, he was absolutely certain that was the case.
But it was true, he noted with slight disdain as he brought his hands up to his face. The sleeves fell awkwardly short of their intended length, indicating just how much he had grown since Sifu had brought these clothes back for him. His hands were dirty and calloused from hours of training and being (lovingly?) mauled by his cat summons.
Frankly, he had no business appearing in a ramen stall looking the way he did.
"First, we will clean ourselves up properly and get our hair cut." Sifu grinned, "Then, we will find new, more suitable clothes, some delicious dinner, and a place to stay. I am sure that the Land of Wind will offer us many new sights and interests to occupy ourselves for the duration of our stay."
"Well, they have a large amount of sand." Sifu offered helpfully, as Sasuke glared out at the seemingly endless desert outside of town through the stylist's window. "Isn't that interesting? I would suppose they have much material for artisan glass blowing. Perhaps you would like to try your hand at that, Haru-kun?"
Sasuke's eye twitched, as the hair stylist expertly cut another long section of hair off and it fell sadly to the floor. Iroh had suggested a style that would be closer to his head, much like Naruto's or Gaara's in fact. It was common enough to seem unremarkable, but easily well-kept to appear professional.
Sasuke took comfort in closing his eyes and dreaming of the day when he could have his own haircut back, once his own name and life were an asset and not a liability. That day was coming soon, he reassured himself, as his head grew lighter and lighter with every snip of the scissors. Before he knew it, the stylist was done, and brushed all the extra hair off. She shooed him out of the chair with the apron she swiftly snatched off of him, and Sasuke retreated to the front of the shop and waited as Sifu received much the same treatment. To his surprise, underneath the bushy beard and eyebrows, Sifu appeared much more authoritative and genteel.
Evidently Tsunade-sama had elected not to use Sifu's usual "helpful elderly man" approach in favor of a more conventional show of power. Sifu still had a kindness in his eyes, but his natural features lent themselves more to command. Sasuke could definitely understand why Sifu had elected to grow out his facial hair to soften some of his more hardened features. Sifu looked almost as dangerous as he actually was without it.
Sasuke ended up warily following Sifu through the city streets, carrying bag upon bag of new clothes. He still felt filthy and awkward. Sasuke had managed to not take his new height into consideration multiple times, and his forehead had paid the price. He rubbed at it grumpily with his free hand, distantly noting that his shishou had disappeared into another shop. Sasuke trudged along behind him, to patiently endure being examined by both Sifu and a helpful shopkeep for some better-fitting clothes.
Finally, Sifu had finished shopping (more because Sasuke had run out of space on his arms for bags than anything else), and they headed for a hotel. Sasuke dropped the bags on the floor by his bed, and was very tempted to just fall on top of the covers and pass out, but he felt so disgusting that he knew he needed to shower before anything else. He looked over to his shishou imploringly, and Sifu chuckled and tilted his head towards the bathroom. "Of course, you take a shower, I will place an outfit on your bed for you. You look exhausted, Haru-kun."
"Thank you, Uncle," Sasuke groaned out tiredly, as he shuffled determinedly into the bathroom and turned on the blessed hot water.
"Do not take too long, Haru-kun, there are restrictions on water consumption here, as you will remember." Sasuke nodded, though Sifu could not see him behind the door.
Oh, and did the water feel wonderful. Sasuke hummed to himself as he scrubbed quickly, rubbing his skin almost raw. He hadn't felt clean in the week since they had left their hotel in the Land of Vegetables, and he was not about to miss the opportunity. Of course, he was sure he would feel just as disgusting before he reached Suna, but that was a problem he would have to deal with later.
That, or firebend the whole sandy country into smooth glass.
Sasuke considered it for a moment, before concluding that it would take more time and energy for him than it would save. And Gaara would probably be less than pleased, even if it would be substantially faster and more fun to skate from village to village on his socks.
After his shower, he absentmindedly dressed into his sleeping clothes and barely made it to his bed, smiling as his head hit the pillow. The filthy sand could wait until tomorrow.
Sakura sighed tiredly, as she opened yet another box and peered inside. As she had suspected, they were filled with papers. The musty smell of ancient books and dust wafted up to her nose, and she sneezed delicately, waving her hands in front of her face to fan the dust motes away.
The Sandaime had evidently never heard of a paper shredder in his life, and had rarely organized his personal documents in the years after the Kyuubi attack. As such, when Tsunade had taken office, they had had to box up all the papers he had left and deal only with the immediate issues initially.
After they had put out the major fires, Tsunade-sama had put forth a standing order to pull out the boxes of documents in reverse order, the assumption being that anything ten years old likely wouldn't have that much significance on their daily lives.
Of course, most of the documents had been utterly useless. There were scores of receipts for Ichiraku (probably from taking Naruto to lunch, Sakura had thought fondly), financial accounts, and general day-to-day musings from the Sandaime.
Of the scores of duties Tsunade-sama had her complete, this was actually Sakura's favorite. It was interesting, to say the least, to be able to peer into the mind of a powerful and deceased Kage. Tsunade-sama hated it, but for the same reasons Sakura relished the chore. Sakura supposed it would be stressful for Tsunade-sama to read into her former sensei's most private thoughts, especially as Tsunade made such a constant appearance in them. He'd been so confident that Tsunade would return, so hopeful…
Sakura knew that it felt like a vice around Tsunade-sama's heart to read it. She'd only returned after he was dead, and he never knew that she ever came back at all. He just had faith that she would come back, just like he had faith that Orochimaru would find his way. Sakura was exceptionally glad that he hadn't been able to write his musings on that particular betrayal. She wasn't sure she'd be able to stomach it. Despite never having known him well in life, at this point she couldn't help but feel she knew the previous Hokage as well as she did her parents. Possibly more—his philosophies, hopes, and most bitter regrets were all discernable in these files. He'd held this office for most of his life.
Of course, if he had survived to write about that betrayal, things would be very different in Konoha. There was no point in musing on what might have been.
Sakura bit her lip as she took out the first piece of paper in a new box. It was yet another bank statement for Naruto's inheritance. Tsunade had been absolutely mystified that the Hokage had been managing it himself, and had turned over handling to her office. Of course, Naruto was out of Konoha for now, but when he returned, it would be handed over to his control. Perhaps the Sandaime just hadn't gotten around to it—Naruto had been old enough to be responsible for his own money.
'To be fair,' she mused, 'I could see why someone who cared about him deeply would feel a bit wary about giving twelve-year old Naruto access to this much money.' There was a distinct possibility that he might have built a house out of instant ramen and optimism.
One of the odd things she kept noticing was the way that mentions of the council of Elders and Danzo-sama changed at some point. In older, yellowed papers, they were at almost every meeting, and private jokes were referenced, as well as their opinions. In anything remotely recent, any mentions were minimal and had a strange tone of hostility.
Curious, Sakura started keeping track of the latest dates that had the positive portrayals, and the earliest dates of the somewhat hostile references to the trio of powerful village elders. Something strange must have happened to change his opinion of them all at about the same time. But she just couldn't find what it was. It was almost like some of the files were missing.
'Is that even possible?' Sakura frowned, putting away the papers she'd been looking at. She was sure that she hadn't left anything back in the office, although it was possible that it was out of order. The only person who could have removed the missing files without her knowledge would be Tsunade… or someone from the previous administration. Probably the Sandaime himself, actually.
That was a curious thought. Why would he have done such a thing?
'Well,' her mind supplied, 'Maybe the information removed is highly sensitive?'
So sensitive that he couldn't trust his own office with it? Now that was strange. If it was that important, it shouldn't have been recorded in the first place. The fact that he had written anything down indicated that at the time it hadn't been highly sensitive information. But it had become so after the fact, and it was all related to three of the most respected people in the village.
How curious. That sounded like a fiasco of some sort—either one that had happened at the time, or one waiting in the future that might come and bite Tsunade-sama in the ass. Sakura frowned. Maybe… just to be safe… she should note the oddity to Tsunade-sama. What could it hurt? At least she'd know that something strange had happened.
Maybe the Hokage could track down the missing information. It wasn't like Sakura was party to all available information, so there could well be some sort of way for the Sandaime to leave information for a future successor. He'd been an uncommonly intelligent man, after all. Surely the Professor would think of something like that.
"Thank you for coming to these negotiations," Gaara rasped, "I trust you have found your accommodations to your liking?"
Sasuke resisted the inhuman urge to scream that he was reasonably sure that this country was in fact the colon of the world, and instead smiled politely as Sifu engaged in pleasantries. A more socially apt person might have noticed that it looked pained, but Gaara looked pleased and shuffled the papers in front of him.
Sasuke cautiously re-examined the conference room they were occupying. There were few windows, and the circular table they were seated at was obviously meant for larger gatherings. This was likely where they held council meetings, and Gaara was naturally occupying his usual seat at the back of the room.
This room, like all the others in this Kami-forsaken hole, was sand-colored. Gaara fit right in here, he supposed, but he couldn't imagine anyone else being so comfortable in the blankness of it all. There were no decorations, save for a few curtains to cover the windows, and a large (and nearly dead) potted fern in the corner. This was probably some well-meaning attempt to make the room less uncomfortable for everyone else not being conveniently used for demon storage.
Unfortunately, the fact that the plant had clearly seen better days was actually more off-putting than not having it there in the first place. Gaara's obviously practiced and awkward smiles weren't helping matters, either.
The next few hours were certainly educational. Sifu practically danced verbal circles around Gaara, negotiating border patrols, contracts, and trading agreements. The poor Kazekage didn't even know he'd been hopelessly outmaneuvered, but then, that was the point.
'Maybe I should call the ANBU,' Sasuke thought somewhat wryly, 'and tell them there's an old man beating a child in here.'
These negotiations weren't really that important. Sasuke knew that the reason Sifu was being so relentless was purely for his benefit. This wasn't even really the reason that they were here, to be honest. These negotiations were non-critical things that could have been easily handled by a semi-conscious chuunin, and hardly required the personal attention of someone like Sifu. No. The real reason they were here was to observe what was really going on in Sand.
Unsurprisingly, Tsunade-sama was incredibly skeptical of both Suna's intentions and level of competency. The only reason they'd surrendered was because their invasion had failed, regardless of whether Orochimaru had really been pulling the strings or not. Konoha was playing nice, to be sure, but the Hokage had her doubts about Suna and their fifteen-year-old Kage.
So Sifu and Sasuke politely smiled their way through the meeting, as an oblivious Gaara signed all the papers and handed them to Sifu to be sent to Tsunade for ultimate approval.
"Thank you for your personal attention on these matters, Lord Kazekage." Sifu and Sasuke bowed respectfully, and Gaara nodded thoughtfully in return. "We will send these to the Hokage for review immediately." With that, they calmly but swiftly made their way out of the building.
Sasuke was ridiculously pleased with himself. Gaara evidently hadn't noted who he was at all. They had talked and exchanged various social niceties, and Gaara hadn't once made mention of his real identity. If his disguise was really that convincing, he might be able to accompany his shishou more often for information gathering, instead of touring "the finest hotel rooms in the Elemental Nations."
"Did you learn anything?" Sifu asked in an evaluating manner as he slipped the papers into a pocket for safekeeping.
Sasuke nodded and smirked before opening the door for Sifu to go inside their hotel room.
"I learned not to ever negotiate with you."
Sifu smiled, amused, as he stepped into the room. "You will learn in good time." Sifu smiled pleasantly. "And so will he."
Sasuke hoped so. Seeing Tsunade-sama and Sifu engaged in a verbal battle would be extremely educational (and incredibly entertaining), but she would certainly recognize him. Not that Gaara had been ill-equipped for the task at hand, to be fair. He was very intelligent and would likely improve quickly to cover any weaknesses he had shown today. However, Gaara just lacked the experience that people like Sifu and the Hokage had.
Honestly, Sifu had probably done Gaara a favor by being so brutal in an otherwise unremarkable negotiation. Suna wouldn't be hurt by anything they had agreed to, and Gaara would learn quickly that some of the things he had ultimately agreed to were less than ideal. All of Sifu's information had stated that he was very adept at picking out patterns, and this would just be another problem for him to solve.
Sasuke rather liked his own position best. He was allowed to observe without having to make those decisions, and absolved of any fallout. Someday, he might like to be in one of those chairs, but he was glad that today was not that day.
ABOUT A YEAR EARLIER:
Itachi stared down at his target, who was moving alone through the crowded streets. Luckily, he had left his companion back in the hotel room. Itachi moved quickly to intercept him, and cast a genjutsu so that no one around them would see who they really were or hear what they were saying.
"Jiraiya."
To his credit, the man in question did not look disturbed at all to find an S -ranked ninja staring him in the face, and in fact his body lost some obvious tension.
"Itachi, to what do I owe the pleasure? Is there something I need to know about Akatsuki?" Jiraiya folded his arms over his chest and took a slightly commanding stance.
"No" Itachi grunted. "Akatsuki is not the reason for this particular visit."
Jiraiya's face contorted in confusion. "Then why are you here?"
"My brother. No one has seen him for over a year, since Orochimaru was defeated."
Jiraiya's face lost all color, and he took a quick step back. "Orochimaru is dead?"
Itachi felt his head tilt to the side, like one of his crows. "You didn't know."
"No" Jiraiya sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. "We had no idea. We heard about some possible scuffles in Sound, but nothing since. I thought he might just be lying low, I've never been able to get an agent into Sound."
"Sasuke left the village for Orochimaru to teach him, and I have been informed that Orochimaru has been dead for over a year." Itachi had hoped that he would be able to obtain information on Sasuke's whereabouts from Jiraiya, but he hadn't even known his own teammate had died. He was quickly running out of options.
"What sources do you have?"
"Kabuto and Orochimaru's personal bodyguards. They came to me, seeking the protection of the Akatsuki".
Jiraiya scoffed. "Well, that was a mistake," he said in an ironic tone.
Itachi nodded curtly. It had been a rather grievous error in judgment. It was almost statistically unlikely that they would go to the one spy in Akatsuki for protection, but there it was. Perhaps it had just been that it was easiest to track down Itachi and Kisame. Reports of a giant land shark tended to garner attention, even among those who didn't recognize the Akatsuki cloak.
"They stated that Orochimaru had taken Sasuke to a remote village for… training… and neither of them returned. They were certain that Orochimaru was dead, as they had located small evidence of his burnt remains. I disposed of Kabuto and the Sound Four and investigated the village. No one in the village that survived had any clue of what happened, except for Orochimaru talking to someone and then they saw a large flash of light. No one saw what happened to Sasuke."
Itachi examined Jiraiya's reactions to his words. He hadn't known, that much was obvious. He was genuinely shocked that his former teammate was deceased.
"I suppose that's one less thing to worry about if Orochimaru is dead. Do you have any leads at all as to who defeated Orochimaru?" Jiraiya stood with his arms crossing his chest and bit his lip.
"No." Itachi admitted. The considerable worry he had been feeling was doubled in Jiraiya's expression.
"It would take someone very powerful to kill Orochimaru and walk away." Jiraiya tightened his arms on his chest, as if to provide himself some small reassurance. "Not very many people are capable of that. In fact, I can think of less than ten people that have that kind of power."
Itachi, who was definitely one of those people, nodded curtly in agreement. "So what would you like me to do?"
Hi, incredibly interesting and good-looking people who are reading this! Thank you for reading my story, and I hope you enjoy it! I enjoy hearing back from you, so if you have any opinions or thoughts, I would love it if you would share them with me.
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