AUTHOR'S NOTE: Updates are gonna be Thursdays, every other week. I'll try to stick to a regular schedule, but given various things it could be a bit irregular. Anyway, enjoy!
"This can end any time you want, you know." Cold, like ice, was the voice that woke her. "All we need is the smallest bit of information you can give us about Sound."
"G-go… fuck yourself," she replied weakly, as she always had. Tayuya normally would've made the effort to spit in his face, too, but today she was feeling less spirited than usual. She HAD just woken up from her latest foray into the world of being knocked out.
"Sigh. Such insolence has gotten you punished time and time again." Ibiki Morino, the Leaf's famed Inquisitor, leaned back in his chair across from the bound Tayuya. Her red hair was wild and unkempt, her own defiance against her captors, who had tried so hard to keep her groomed. For his part, Morino looked rather clean-cut for a shinobi, though his bandana and few visible scars gave him a rather intimidating countenance.
Tayuya wasn't scared, hell, she hadn't been since the beginning. He had tried to break her mind first. Didn't work. As part of the Sound Ninja Four, she had been trained to resist mental torture. Then had come the physical torture, and a laughably bad job they'd done at that. Leaf ninja were inept when it came to that kind of thing, pacifists that they were. Currently, Morino seemed to be on the "I-really-don't-care" stage of torture, and so stopped by every so often to beat her senseless and/or attempt to verbally mind rape her. It had become so very routine, Tayuya half expected the Leaf had made a sitcom of it.
"Heh… you're lazy, aren't you? Can't move beyond 'ask question, beat up, ask question, beat up?' There's more to an interrogation than that, you know: I have information you want. But you won't get it by just yelling like a fucknut and hitting little girls." Tayuya smirked triumphantly, or as much so as she could manage.
"Your pathetic mask isn't working, Tayuya," Ibiki said calmly. "Your act of control and calmness has been cracking for months now. You're scared, you're hurting, and you want this to end… and it can! Just tell us what you know about Orochimaru. About Sound. About the whereabouts of Sasuke."
"I told you! I don't know anything about Sasuke! Shit, you know more than I do by now, the last time I saw him we were stuffing him into a barrel! I fucking told you! I don't know anything you don't already know!"
Ibiki backhanded her. "You must know SOMETHING! You were part of his elite fighting force; you can't just be a blind minion! Something, anything! How did he make the Curse Marks? What are they? Why did he want Sasuke?"
"How the fuck should I know? Maybe he was a goddamn pedophile and wanted to fuck him?!" Another backhand, stronger this time. "I don't fucking know anything!" Tayuya's self-assurance visibly crumbled as tears began to stream down her face. "I've told you everything I know, just fucking let me go!"
"You're lying, I can tell. You're the one that can end this, Tayuya. If you just tell me what you're hiding…"
"Go fuck yourself," Tayuya growled as she spit in Ibiki Morino's face. Morino backhanded her a third time and simply walked out of her cell. Once at last the footsteps faded, Tayuya hugged her knees and began to cry softly.
"So, boss-man. Did you… you know… have a PLAN on how to get this new ally of ours out? And, if so, what the hell is it? Care to share with the class?" Suigetsu looked pleasant enough as he spoke, but Sasuke could tell he was getting annoyed.
Taka was walking in a loose formation, cloaked, deep in the woods surrounding the Leaf village. They moved fairly slowly, eschewing the apparent tradition of hopping through trees to get around. Sasuke had said that a slower, more measured approach would be less predictable.
"Actually, I'm just sort of making it up as I go along," Sasuke replied casually. "What, you honestly thought I planned anything?"
Suigetsu stopped in his tracks and stared, baffled, at his leader. "You're just making it up as you… as you go? How are you still alive?! I mean… you beat Orochimaru, Deidara, Itachi, that masked man…"
"Actually, Madara just kind of let me out and apparently Itachi was dying anyway. But yeah, all of my strategies just come to me out of the blue. Like now." Sasuke rapidly moved his hands, before transforming in a puff of smoke into a mid-thirties balding man. "We'll use transformation and just… walk in."
Karin slumped her shoulders. "Do you have to be… that… the whole time?"
"I think it's an improvement," Suigetsu said, smirking. "Better than the duck-butt hair."
"My hair looks nothing like a duck… never mind." Even in a body that wasn't his own, Sasuke's face remained perfectly expressionless. "Either way, since you three aren't well-known here, you can probably stay in your own bodies. I'm the only one that needs a disguise. Once we're inside, the main goal is intel gathering. We find as much as we can on where Tayuya is, or might be, and we build from there. Any questions?"
"Yeah, one," Suigetsu replied. "How long do you expect the disguise to work if you keep that pose?"
Sasuke looked down. Sure enough, his hand was resting where his sword was, invisible to those looking at him. After a moment of internal struggle, Sasuke moved his hand away from the weapon and adopted a more casual stance. "Nothing else? Then let's get moving."
As Sasuke turned and began walking, Karin shot Suigetsu a glare then skipped off after Sasuke. "Sasuke~! Wait for me!"
Jugo and Suigetsu exchanged glances and shrugged as they followed behind.
Sasuke paused at the entrance to Leaf. He stared at it, a million mixed emotions fighting for dominance within him. He settled on "none of the above."
"Sasuke! This is no time to reminisce!" Karin's voice broke his daze. "I know this is your home, but you have a mission right now." She grabbed his arm, blushing and smiling. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "And afterwards, you and me are gonna have some alone time, right?"
Sasuke remained motionless. He mentally shook himself. It was your home, Sasuke, it isn't anymore. Sasuke took a step into the Village Hidden in Leaves, and a rush of nostalgia hit him.
Hey, screwup… To become Hokage is my dream!... If you're gone… to me… it'll be the same as being alone. Hello, students, today I got lost on the road of life… Foolish little brother… I am an avenger…
"Sasuke?" Again, Karin shook him from his trance. "I said, do we split up, or stay together?"
After a moment, Sasuke responded with, "Split up. We'll cover more ground that way. We'll meet back here in two hours. Scatter!"
Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo split off, each dashing in a different direction. Sasuke, however, simply walked, taking in the sight of his old home. For a brief moment, regret for abandoning his home hit him, but Sasuke shook it off. He couldn't afford to regret, not anymore. It was far too late to return.