"Remember we need them alive," Shikamaru's voice blared in Sasuke's ear through his headset "the Hokage wants to question them. You two have to hold back."
Sasuke said nothing, the forest was dense and he was too busy nimbly hopping through the trees, trying to find the leaders of a group of bandits who burnt a small village to the ground about an hour away from the hidden leaf. While Sasuke felt his talents were ill-used on a group of boring arsonists, he'd rather be doing this than being sat at home having random people drop in on him and Suigetsu throughout the day. Being out and on a hunt simply kept him from having to deal with people.
Suigetsu, on the other hand, was loving the hunt. He was almost like a bloodhound the way he trailed his enemies. Sasuke knew too well how carried away Suigetsu hits on these things, especially after being away from a real battle for such a long time.
Suddenly Suigetsu drew his sword, Sasuke was still uncomfortable around the Butchers Blade, the same sword Zabuza's used in Sasuke's first real mission.
Suigetsu's voice came through the headset. "I see them," his voice full of twisted delight "I'm closing in."
"Suigetsu you can't kill him," yelled an anxious Shikamaru "we need them alive!"
Sasuke made his way to Suigetsu's location. Suigetsu was already closing down the first of the two men, who had been slowed down after having fallen from one of the trees and seemed to have broken his left leg.
Sasuke was nearly there, he looked at Suigetsu as he dove from the tree, sword in hand, he was about to cut the guy in half – his bloodlust was strong and Sasuke knew there was nothing he could do to stop him.
"You're mine!" Suigetsu roared, swinging his sword back as he prepared to swing down. The man screamed in fear, a bloodcurdling cry of a man who knew he was about to die. Suigetsu's feet touched the ground, and then he stopped – he was frozen like a statue.
An out of breath Shikamaru stood in a small clearing about 50 meters away, the midday sun shooting shadowing out across the rest of the forest for hundreds of meters away, and his Shadow Control Jutsu spiked out and barely reached Suigetsu.
"I told you," panted an angry Shikamaru "you don't kill them."
Two hours later the three man team returned home. They were tired, frustrated and empty handed. Shikamaru called the mission off after he had to restrain Suigetsu, and the man with the broken leg managed to escape by using incendiary and smoke grenades as he went, causing a small forest fire the team had to concentrate their efforts at extinguishing.
"You're an idiot." Said Sasuke as he and Suigetsu broke away from Shikamaru.
"Hey what do you mean? I just put out a forest fire if you remember correctly, what did you do?" Suigetsu said defensively.
"That wouldn't have been an issue if you hadn't tried ran in like an idiot and try to kill that guy." Sasuke sighed "It's like being on a team with the blonde idiot again, only a lot more homicidal." Sasuke shook his head.
"Well sorry for being enthusiastic!" Suigetsu shouted as Sasuke walked away with him.
Suigetsu looked around, tired and now alone. "Man, I just realised I haven't really tried much around here – I should really get some food."
Meanwhile, Shikamaru had only one place in mind to go, the Hokage's office – to explain why his first mission as a team leader had been a total disaster.
The whole building was a mass of corridors and rooms full of paper. 'Man' he thought to himself 'this is a total drag.'
He finally found himself on the top floor, outside Tsunade's office – and the guard on the door let him in.
It was getting late, Tsunade was nearly ready to go home, and she signalled this by having a can of Sake openly on her desk, showing she was clearly ready to relax.
"Ah Shikamaru," she sighed "my jail cell is missing two arsonists, do you have an explanation?"
Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head "Sorry ma'am," he sighed "it was going well and then Suigetsu flipped out, I told him to hold back but he ignored me, I had to restrain him and then the guy started a forest fire during all this and we got caught up in that."
Tsunade rubbed her hand down her face, clearly this was the last thing she wanted to hear.
"I don't blame you Shikamaru," she groaned "honestly, I'd ask if Sasuke could have done anything to help but I had a feeling he may not be too willing to do too much on a low level mission like this. These results are exactly what I expected."
Shikamaru walked closer to her desk "Don't worry, we'll be back out there tomorrow, I've been analysing the direction they went and-"
Tsunade held her hand up to stop him "Don't bother Shikamaru, your team is off the mission, we have a different assignment for you."
Shikamaru was disappointed and intrigued. He wanted to complete his mission but he wanted to know what she had in mind for them.
Tsunade stood up "You will no longer be the leader of your team," Shikamaru was about to interrupt her but she held her hand up again to silence him and continued "instead you will co-lead a new merger. Your team will join with the current Team 7 – that's Naruto, Sakura and Sai. You will be the co-leader, alongside Kakashi Hatake. I haven't had anything permanent for him to do for a while so such an position will be good for all those involved. Now go home and I want you back here at noon tomorrow – you're dismissed."
Sasuke walked down by the river he used to sit by when he was a kid. It brought back so many bad memories of those times. How alone he was, how angry he was. For some reason he still felt those – but less. He saw the small wooden platform he used to dangle his legs over and stare into the lake. Those golden sunsets always seemed so dark to him after that day. He sat there again and reflected. Had he just given up? Did he simply miss the place? He couldn't quite tell why he came back, but he knew that here was where he wanted to be.
Suddenly his thought process was disrupted by someone sitting next to him. He turned to find the all too familiar orange jumpsuit covering the man who hadn't left him alone for as long as he could remember – Naruto Uzumaki.
"Hey Sasuke," said Naruto, looking somewhat serious for once "we haven't talked properly since you came back."
Sasuke grunted "Why would I want to?"
Naruto's expression didn't change "I guess so," he sighed "but then again why wouldn't you, there's a lot that needs clearing up."
Sasuke sighed as well "Naruto, you really haven't changed at all. You're still as annoying as ever."
He stood up ready to walk away when Naruto's voice did change "Sit down Sasuke." Naruto said firmly. Sasuke turned and found Naruto standing facing him.
"Why should I?" Sasuke said, now getting angry.
"Because," Naruto said, still firm "you've done a lot to hurt people around here. Your friends, Kakashi, Sakura-"
"Why should I care about her?!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto, cutting him off.
Naruto glared at him. There was fire in Naruto's eyes. An angry determination Sasuke only ever saw in those crystal blue eyes.
"Because she loves you," Naruto said "so does Kakashi-sensei. So do I."
Sasuke was taken aback.
"Not like that," Naruto said "but everyone here cares about you. And what did you do? You left us. You did horrible things. What you did to us did things to people here. Nobody sees it but me as well. Sakura grew up, I haven't seen her cry properly since you left. She used them all on you. Kakashi changed too. He seems the same but his eyes are sad. You were important to him, why I don't know. But since you left he blamed himself and nobody realises it but me."
Sasuke wasn't specifically shocked hearing Naruto speak so passionately about his comrades. But it definitely made something inside him feel different. He almost felt guilty. But what really made him realise what Naruto was saying was true was how Naruto acted. So often in the past Naruto would have tried to punch him. He would have attacked him with all of his hate. But instead he simply stood there, and talked.
"I was wrong Naruto, you have changed. Sasuke said sincerely, "You grew up."