Chapter 11: Where She Belongs
x-x-x
Whether or not the outcome was dire, Sasuke didn't care. Watching the girl in the hands of the enemy caused the black haired teen to have an epiphany. He would never see the world through Itachi's eyes, but suddenly, he understood his brother.
That is, in believing Madara's story. And when looking back on the piggy back rides, the teasing-yet-loving forehead pokes, and that promise…that even as an obstacle for Sasuke to overcome, Itachi would always be there for him…Sasuke had no choice but to believe Madara. Yet even in realizing this, the sight of the captive pink haired girl from his childhood eliminated all feelings of revenge on the people who sealed his brother's fate.
Because in the end, he could have let Itachi live and given up on his revenge. He could have avoided this with Sakrua. He could have had a life not of loneliness, but of love and friendship. Kakashi warned him years ago that exacting revenge would only lead to more pain. His friends inspired him to think of a happier future, one where Naruto could take the place of his brother, and Sakura would love him unconditionally, like a mother. Kakashi had already served as a second father figure, much more of a father than his own had ever been. But he gave it all away for one impulsive and misdirected path towards bitterness and hate.
When the images stopped flashing on the mirror, Sasuke turned to face the doorway. Some time ago, he had noted Naruto's presence leaning on the door frame to the bedroom. The blonde had his arms folded across his chest, gazing at Sasuke with a serious, calculating look.
"So are you done running from them?" Arisa murmured quietly, being scarily accurate in assessing Sasuke's thoughts.
"Almost." Sasuke nodded then turned to look at the kyuubi jinchurki in the doorway.
"How is she?" Naruto asked, not hearing the previous exchange of words.
"Sakura's fine, just captive. I'm surprised that with Akatsuki being so brutal that she's as fine as she is." Sasuke mused, "They must want me back pretty badly."
They stood in silence as Arisa excused herself out of the room. The tension hung so thick that hardly Asuma's chakra knives could have cut through it.
"Do you really feel nothing for her?" Naruto prodded, arms still folded in front of him.
Sasuke let out an irritated sigh and looked down at the mirror, "I don't know." I wouldn't know love if it hit me in the face.
"Well, is she even important to you?" Naruto asked angrily.
"Of course! I wouldn't be on this mission if she wasn't!" Sasuke spat. It was the first time Naruto had ever seen him the least bit flustered on the topic of the pink haired girl.
"What would you do if she died? What if Akatsuki killed her? What would you do, Teme!?" Naruto yelled, clenching his fists by his sides as his voice steadily increased.
Sasuke hadn't considered the bubble gum haired kunoichi ever dying. A life without her…what would he do? What would happen if he found her bleeding to death in Akatsuki's prison? Simple.
"I'd kill those bastards." Sasuke looked away.
Naruto relaxed. "That's good to hear. So you do love her."
"What? No! I…I don't…" The raven haired boy snapped his head over to look at the grinning idiot. For some reason he couldn't say the words.
"We all know that the last group of people you avenged meant a hell of a lot to you. If you would avenge Sakura too, well, for you? That says something." Naruto shrugged, "Maybe you don't love her in a romantic way, but she is one of your precious people."
Ever since he had come back, Sasuke had found himself agreeing with nearly everything that the blonde would say. Either Naruto had grown up, or Sasuke had grown down. His pride couldn't figure out which one was the lesser of two evils.
Sasuke sighed, "Your point, dobe?"
"Just making sure that I wouldn't have to kill you." The blonde smirked, "If you had taken her without having any feelings for her, I would have had to kick your ass so bad."
The raven haired teen smirked, "Hn. As if you could even lay a finger on me."
One blonde eyebrow quirked upwards, "heh, is that a challenge, teme? You know, we've both gotten a lot stronger, and we're long overdue for a spar."
Sasuke's smirked, a calculating yet determined look contorting his features, "I think we can arrange that."
"What? What do you mean?!" A shrill voice rang through the wooden room.
"Yeah, Sasuke. Where do your loyalties lie?" another growled, "You said you'd come back, but you never told us when, and now we're supposed to join up with your old team?"
Sasuke remained calm and disinterested as the last two of team Taka sat facing him.
"Karin, you don't have to come if you don't want to. But I need Suigetsu." He turned to the said shinobi, "You do want to get your precious swords, don't you?"
Karin and Suigetsu both looked away, but Suigetsu was the first to speak. "What happens after? Is Taka disbanded after this?"
When Sasuke looked at Suigetsu, he could see that same hurt and anger, which had sparkled in the blue eyes of his other teammate.
"You do remember you both agreed to follow me because you all had something to do along the way towards my mission. I never said we would be teammates forever." Sasuke explained. He knew he was avoiding the answer but he didn't want to say 'yes'.
"So we are disbanded, then." Suigetsu looked away from Sasuke, down at the floor.
"Then why should we follow you?" Karin snapped. "If we're no longer a team then you're no longer the leader."
"What else have you to do? As far as I'm concerned, you only wanted to join Hebi to join me." Sasuke said, directing his attention to the redhead, "And if you were to go with me, Suigetsu, you may have an opportunity to get the samehada."
Suigetsu ran his hand over his chin in thought, then looked up at Karin who was gazing at him with uncertainty. Sasuke could tell that the two had gotten closer, simply by the fact that they were thinking about this together. He should have known, at the very beginning, that there was chemistry; a spark that started out as embers of rivalry and teasing grew into friendship and…perhaps something more?
"I'll go if she can come with us." Suigetsu explained.
Sasuke let out a sigh, "Fine. But you have to work with the team from Konoha as well."
"Fair enough." Suigetsu stood up, looking at the still uncertain Karin, "what are you worried about?
"We're on Konoha's bingo list. Who's to say they won't wipe us out once they're done with us?" Karin looked at Sasuke warily.
"That'd require you going back with me to Konoha after the mission. You're free to go once we get Sakura back."
The redhead visibly relaxed her shoulders and then looked over at the silver-haired mist-nin. "Just curious, Sasuke," Suigetsu bent down, gathering his belongings as he readied himself to leave, "are you going after her because she's bearing your child? Or is it something more?" Sasuke remained silent, an icy gaze piercing into the back of the man who spoke to him. "Just wondering. Seems to me, if she left you, she's better off that way. It's not like you two had a healthy relationship."
Sasuke walked toward the exit, slid the shogi screen open and paused, "I'll be waiting for you at the entrance. Be ready to leave in ten minutes." he snapped as he exited, slamming the sliding door shut behind him.
"Oh yeah. I hit a nerve alright." Suigetsu mumbled to Karin, who was beginning to pick up her belongings as well.
"Sounds to me like he's not comfortable with how he's feeling."
"Yeah, that much is obvious. If he just wanted the child, he would have said it. He's not afraid of coming off as a jackass." Suigetsu mused as he rolled up his sleeping mat.
"But he's afraid of coming off as weak." Karin stood up with her bag over her shoulders.
"That…" Suigetsu stood up, picking the rolled mat with him, "and he's so used to hating everything and anything around him that he doesn't know how to deal with love. He's afraid of it because he doesn't know how to use it." the silver haired water-nin placed the mat in the closet and shut the door.
Karin was silent as she looked out the window. From where their room was placed, she had a perfectly good view of the entrance, where the rest of the team from Konoha stood. "People have loved him, but he's never loved anyone else…" she trailed off her words, her thought voicing the rest. And the one person he truly loved hurt him, so he killed him. But then he learned that Itachi loved him all along, and now he's left with regret…its almost like the same thing is happening all over again.
"You ready?" Suigetsu spoke, waking her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah." She nodded, walking with him out of the room. She took his hand and gripped it gently, then let it go.
And without words, Suigetsu understood exactly what this meant.
When the two teams met, it had been much more peaceful than Sasuke had dared hope. Staying together with Suigetsu had calmed Karin down quite a bit. He wasn't sure if this had to do with patience she was forced to learn by staying with him, or if it was contentment with their relationship that kept her at peace.
Just as Naruto was about to ask why Karin was joining them, Sasuke predicted the question and answered him. If he had to be totally honest, the whole situation was weird. The last time they were together, the group had been fighting each other. Now they were working together peacefully, and he couldn't help but feel a little relaxed…content.
Happiness…is this it?
After setting off through the trees, the large group was brought to a standstill when Karin announced that she could sense chakra in the distance.
"Hinata." Kakashi commanded with just her name, and she understood.
"Hai. Byakugan!" she near-whispered and searched the area with her mysterious, pale eyes. "Its an akatsuki!" she exclaimed, her high pitched voice making it sound like a yelp. "his chakra system isn't like others…it's almost...invisible!"
"Does that mean he's dying?" Sai asked.
"No, I would still be able to see the flow." She focused in closer, "wait…he's…he's the same guy as before! It's Madara!"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as the mere thought of his distant relative disgusted him.
A simple hand gesture from the silver haired jonin had the team dispersing into several different locations. Sasuke stood where he was, out in middle of the murky, foggy land. Charcoal eyes bled red as his sharingan began to spin to life, allowing him to see clearer in such conditions.
Within a few minutes, the onyx-haired teen was confronted by the man in the orange mask. Sasuke knew he was at an advantage, thanks to his beloved nii-san—Madara would be unable to use the sharingan, as Sasuke's own mangekyo would react to it with the black flames of Amaterasu.
"You can summon your pets to come back out." Madara smirked, "I'm not interested in fighting."
"Who said I came with company?" Sasuke asked, calling the man's bluff.
"I can sense at least five different chakra types, if not more. Specifically the kyuubi demon." Madara tilted his head, "you should know that chakra is impossible to mask from us."
"They must have followed me." Sasuke lied easily, "I didn't bring them."
"perhaps we should leave so we will not be interrupted."
"Are you afraid of taking on a few Konoha shinobi? You've already taken on three teams at once."
"Aren't you afraid of them taking you back?" Madara retorted. Just then, Naruto jumped off the branch he was on to deliver a right hook to Sasuke's face. Sasuke, however, sensing the attack, caught Naruto's fist right before it hit his face and threw the blonde to the side.
"Not one bit." Sasuke's stoic demeanor remained completely unchanged through the whole ordeal.
"Teme…" Naruto growled, wiping the blood that had began to leak out of his cheek and then charged at the younger Uchiha again, drawing a kunai from his sleeve. Sasuke countered it by stabbing the orange-clad ninja, which revealed itself to be a kage-bushin. He turned just in time to kick the real Naruto out of the way from behind him, sending the teen flying once again.
Just then, Karin jumped down from the trees to join Sasuke and Madara.
"Where's Suigetsu?" Madara asked.
"He didn't want to go. He said he's close to getting some other sword." Sasuke explained
Turning to Naruto, Madara smirked, "You know…Why don't you bring him along?". The ice-prince nodded, turning his eyes on his former teammate.
Inside of the fox demon's prison, Sasuke found Madara already waiting, conversing with the nine-tails.
"I see you've met your predecessor, sassssuke." The kyuubi drawled, seemingly amused by the scene going on.
"Why don't you do the honors, Sasuke." Madara smirked under his mask.
"It's time to sleep, kyuubi." Sasuke stated coldly, eyes commanding the fox to do as he wanted. The beast let out a low growl as it succumbed to the unconscious.
Madara turned to Sasuke, "Well done. Lets get out of here." He nodded before vanishing. After he had disappeared, Naruto ran out of the shadows of the cellar.
"Wait, Sasuke." He grabbed the said ninja's sleeve.
"Yeah?"
"Just so you know, I was holding back." The blonde grinned.
Sasuke smirked before disappearing, "That better have been the case."
Back in the world of the living, the blonde ninja began to fall down, unconscious, but the younger Uchiha caught him before he hit the ground. Slinging the deadweight over his shoulders, he nodded to his team to take off into the forest, leaving the rest of the Konoha shinobi behind.
About a mile off in the distance, Hinata turned to Kakashi.
"They're moving away now." She explained, having watched the scene with her byakugan.
"Lets go." Kakashi commanded, and the set of ninja took off, making sure to mask their chakra.
As they arrived in Amegakure, Madara led the way. The darkened skies and pouring rain caused a shiver to roll down Sasuke's spine, though he didn't show it. It reminded him of misery, of pain, of finding out the truth about Itachi. It reminded him of the mess he had made of his life and the loneliness that followed.
People called him cold, called him unemotional, and chastised him for the decisions he made. But he couldn't help but feel that he had just been dealt a shitty hand. He had just been born in the most cursed clan, inherited a brother who killed his family, happened to run into Orochimaru at the chunin exam, just happened to be friends with Naruto, who just happened to be the one Itachi was after, only to be reminded of the pain, sorrow and weakness in his heart…and, after all this, people had the audacity to criticize the person he became.
Part of him didn't feel bad. Part of him wanted to tell all his critics, "what the fuck would you do?"
While Naruto admittedly was his only close friend, the blond teen's happy go lucky attitude was not only irritating, but in a way, Sasuke felt like it was a punch in the face. Naruto went through just as much, though not the same kind of trauma, yet he was much stronger and able to get past it and stay optimistic. Sasuke? He couldn't do it. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't put away the pain of the past and it followed him like a shadow—and these forces which all came together to work against him seemed to mold the person he became.
Because he was Uchiha, he didn't show emotion or genuinely smile. Because he had his family killed, he wanted revenge. Because he wasn't strong enough to get revenge, he wanted to get stronger. Because Orochimaru came to him and offered to make him stronger, he took the opportunity. Because Orochimaru taught him, he became heartless. And it just so happened that when you're heartless, you don't genuinely smile, and when you don't smile, it's hard to find your way out of an oppressing situation, and thus, the situation won. No matter what, he was weaker than the life he was given.
It was a weakness that he was all too aware of when the blonde idiot smiled. He was almost afraid to smile, afraid to laugh, because of the ridicule and the shocked expressions he'd get from those who knew him. And because he was so used to frowning, nothing seemed funny or amusing enough to him—It was as if he didn't know how to smile. His life was about pain, about misery, about revenge. It wasn't about living life to the fullest, it wasn't about protecting his precious people, it wasn't about promoting peace. For gods sakes, he just wanted something to make him smile.
The team from Konoha met with Suigetsu up ahead. The silver haired mist-nin nodded, before disappearing beyond the misty border between Amegakure and a neighboring nation. They watched as he fell to the ground as a puddle of water, moving its way across the surface of the ground. After the group was out of sight, he continued on into a large body of water that separated the village from the border like a moat.
His puddle form slowly crept out onto the soggy shore and across the street to a familiar, towering building. It was Akatsuki's base, and the one time he had been there had been enough to give him at least some sort of direction. He maintained his puddle-form, moving fast up the walls of the building until he could find an opening of any kind.
Finally finding a way in through an air-shaft, Suigetsu could no longer remain a puddle, for the dry atmosphere would evaporate him. The air shaft proved large enough for him to crawl through, and he returned to human form in a crouching position.
He spotted his exit as light filled the tunnel through a vent in the ceiling. He heard voices passing below, one that sounded very much like Madara's, though he couldn't be sure. As the voices faded, Suigetsu carefully opened the vent, peering down the hallway it opened into, and found it to be empty. Lowering himself out of the vent, he let himself drop down, extending his arm with chakra to close the vent.
"Couldn't use the front door?" a sultry female voice caused him to jump.
He turned around to see the sole female Akatsuki member, Konan, "It's not as fun." He replied with a smirk. "I'm looking for sas—"
"She's gone."
"ke—wait, what?"
"You don't have to play dumb. I could tell Sasuke wasn't here to make amends with Madara. Your suspicious entrance proved my theory correct." Konan folded her arms. "Besides, like I said. Sakura's gone."
"What do you mean, gone?"
"She disappeared…" Konan replied, and, seeing the glare Suigetsu was giving her, continued, "on her own. She escaped, somehow."
"oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Suigetsu slapped his face. Just then, a familiar shrill screeched from around the corner. The end of the hallway lit up in a pale blue light, followed by a loud explosion. The silver haired mist-nin ran around the corner to see Sasuke and Karin jump out of a hole in the wall, onto the top of another nearby building. Madara was gazing at him with his one eye, as if daring Suigetsu to move—and he did. With the rain pouring in freely, he rushed past Madara as a large water dragon and onto the building behind Sasuke and Karin. Upon hitting the ground, he returned to human form and continued running behind them
"Where is she?" Sasuke asked as they ran.
"She escaped." Suigetsu explained briefly "Konan told me just before you blew up the place."
"Konan could have been lying." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"No, I couldn't sense Sakura's chakra either."
"How the hell did a girl like her manage to escape a place like that?!" Suigetsu asked.
Sasuke remained silent, running toward the border. A few Amegakure ninja stood in their way as they crossed the river, but the rain enhanced the power of his chidori.
"Where's Naruto?" Suigetsu asked over the silence.
Karin pointed ahead, and the three of them could see an orange-clad ninja grinning on the shore with a pink haired medic unconscious in his arms.
"That's how she escaped." Sasuke explained.
"Well I'll be damned." Suigetsu muttered.
On the shore stood Naruto bearing a shit-eating grin, "Sorry, the opportunity just struck."
"You're damn lucky Suigetsu blew our cover when he did." Sasuke glared at the silver-haired nin as they took off into the forest.
"Damn, for the first time, I'm not the one who screwed up the mission." Naruto laughed.
"Be careful with her, moron, or you might." Sasuke snapped, noting how the blonde wasn't particularly watching where he was going.
"Wait…" Naruto paused, causing the others to halt as well. He hopped over to the branch Sasuke was on, and handed the unconscious girl to him. "Its better this way." The blonde spoke quietly, in one of those rare serious-naruto moments that unnerved Sasuke to his core.
Sasuke had no choice but to take the girl in his arms. He looked down at the limp figure, slightly heavier than she had been when he took her away from Konoha, so many months ago. The bump in her stomach had swelled enough to notify the world of her pregnancy, but he was, for some weird reason, thankful.
The group set off again, in quiet solace of a perfect moment. While the mission may have gone a little too well, it would have been a crime to try and bring up the looming future and ruin the moment.
He would return with her in his arms, and that's all that mattered.
RA: Well…not my greatest chapter, but hell, I'm horrible at writing fight scenes. I need to watch some Jackie chan…or hey, the Orochimaru vs Sasuke fight is in the process of being animated, so maybe I could get some inspiration there, but honestly…
I'm sorry this took so long to update. I'm also working on a Suigetsu/Karin oneshot that goes along with the story! I wanted to explain how their relationship has changed so much, but at the same time, I wanted to move this story along. I'll let you all know when I publish it. :]