Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Don't steal and don't sue. Thank you *Phantomness bows*

Chapter 4: Revelations

"Another C-rank protection mission," Naruto asked. "I guess it's not a daimyo or a princess, is it?"
Hiruzen shook his head. Naruto sighed.

Sakura and Sasuke waited as their client walked in. Tazuna was not very appealing, and slightly hung over. But, a mission was a mission, and they already knew they could take care of any bandits that showed up. So, they went home to pack up the supplies they would need and met up at the front gates, ready to go.

The sight of the Demon Brothers only fazed Sakura and Naruto a little, and only because they weren't bandits. Naruto went high, Sakura went low, and they knocked them both out. Kakashi did the interrogation, and Sasuke guarded Tazuna, as was his role on the team. The Hokage's instinct had been right. This was no simple C-rank mission. With Chuunin-rank ninja after him, this mission was at least an A-rank, maybe more, especially after the brothers confirmed they were working for Momochi Zabuza. Sasuke watched as Kakashi secured the prisoners and summoned a dog to send a mission update back to Konohagakure. As expected, Naruto and Sakura wished to continue the mission. He himself voiced no opinion, gazing up at his squad leader for confirmation. Kakashi nodded, so Sasuke obeyed.

Tazuna was surprised that the black-haired kid in the body armor with the sword was the one who had stayed back to protect him. When he asked why, the others had given him incredulous looks.

"Sasuke's the medic," Sakura said, as if it were obvious. "He's our last line of defense. Of course he'd be the one protecting you."

"But he's the one wearing the armor!"

"He has to stay alive, doesn't he?" Naruto cracked his knuckles. "He can't heal like I can, but he can dodge damn well everything."

Kakashi gave him an eye-smile. "Don't worry too much about it, Tazuna-san."

When they actually reached Wave proper, there was already a thick mist on the ground. Sasuke exchanged a glance with Kakashi. Kakashi gave him a nod. Sasuke calmly reversed the signs for the jutsu, and the mist cleared. Then, he pushed Tazuna to the ground as the Executioner's Blade whizzed overhead. As expected, Momochi Zabuza was standing atop of it.

"Sharingan Kakashi," Momochi Zabuza began. Immediately, Sakura and Naruto took guard positions on either side of him, moving to protect the downed Tazuna. Kakashi wasted no time engaging the Mist nukenin, cutting off whatever dramatic monologue he had been about to spew. Sasuke watched the fight idly with his Sharingan, wondering when that other presence hiding in the trees would make itself known. Yue, he thought, flaring his chakra. The moon guardian might be in his false form, but he was definitely close enough to sense. I'm waiting for you…

Haku knew that he was supposed to wait for his master to finish his fight, but he was finding it hard to concentrate. It was almost as though there were something inside of his mind trying to take over. He didn't understand what was going on! As he noticed Kakashi about to give Zabuza the final blow, he sent two senbon straight through Zabuza's neck. He showed himself, about to give his prepared speech, when suddenly; he lost all control of his body, and his consciousness for that matter.

Kakashi looked up, just in time to see a Mist hunter-nin incapacitate Zabuza before falling head-first out of the nearby tree, unconscious. What is going on here? He thought. He watched, dumbfounded, as a pair of enormous white wings sprouted from the hunter-nin's back, surrounded him, and when they opened, a different man was floating there, long, white hair, silvery-white robes, cold, ice-blue eyes.

"Uchiha Sasuke," He spoke.

"Yue…" Sasuke replied. Kakashi jerked his head back. Sakura and Naruto had fallen unconscious, and Sasuke was not alone. By his side was another strange beast, a winged male lion, without a mane.

"Cerberus," The one Sasuke had called Yue intoned. "So this is the one you have chosen as the candidate for our new Master? Yet he does not bear the Sealing Wand."

"He never needed it," The lion replied. "He did not bind us with magic. He bound us with love, and his very blood."

"And what would you know of love," Yue scoffed. "No matter, he will fail, like the others before him."

"No," Cerberus replied. "If it is Sasuke, he will pass any test you set before him."

What was going on? Kakashi wanted to ask Sasuke, but he found himself frozen in place, unable to interfere, unable to move a muscle. He could only watch in stunned horror as the one called Yue rose into the air, and attacked his student. A single crystal shard formed in his hands, multiplied, became hundreds and thousands of them.

"Shield," Sasuke spoke a single word. A barrier formed around him. Not a single crystal was able to pierce his defense.

Yue seemed to frown at that. Wind surged around him, tearing at Sasuke's hair and clothing. Sasuke sighed quietly. "Firey," He whispered. Flames wrapped him in their embrace, consumed the wind hungrily. Water doused the flames, but the waves were shot through with lightning. Ice shattered the lightning into frozen shards and then a sandstorm scoured the ice to nothing. Vines sprouted from the earth and broke the storm, a maze twisted around them. Yue scoffed and erased the maze before Kakashi's very eyes, his own shadow entangled him. Sasuke riddled him with arrows, pressed a sword to his throat.

Yue stabbed his hand, crackling with energy, through the boy's chest, Kakashi gasped in horror. Sasuke only smirked, before Yue felt himself impaled from behind through more than one vital point, blood dripping down his robes, watching the Sasuke in front of him fade, gazing in shock at the three of them behind him. "Mirror… Twin…" He gurgled.

"You guessed correctly," Sasuke withdrew his katana, flicked the blood off of it with a practiced motion as Twin did the same.

"I…Final Judgment Maker, Yue, accept you as the new master of the Clow Cards," Yue gasped. Sasuke nodded, feeling the magic bind him. As soon as Yue finished speaking, Sasuke immediately bent over him, hands glowing green. Yue watched in astonishment as his new Master set to work healing him.

"I'm sorry I had to hurt you like that, Yue," Sasuke apologized. "But you gave me no choice. I would much rather be your friend and family than your Master. Mirror, as soon as I'm done with Yue I'll tend to you." Yue saw Mirror nod. It was astonishing. He could literally see his torn flesh and blood vessels being stitched together underneath Sasuke's hands as he concentrated. What manner of magic was this?

"Erase," Sasuke spoke. "Could you please take care of the witness?"

Yue saw a flicker of movement as Erase moved to the silver-haired man. A moment later, he was out like a light.

Sasuke finished in a surprisingly short amount of time. "Are you in any more pain, Yue?"

Yue shook his head.

"Do you still require to be bound to this young man as your false form?"

He thought for a moment, and shook his head again. He could sense that his Master was strong enough to support him, to support the Cards as well. He could feel the darkness in him, so familiar to Clow's magic. Sasuke smiled, and Yue returned to the book to rest. Sasuke got to work on Mirror, who needed far less healing. Then he cut Zabuza and Haku's throats, modified Haku's body and Kakashi's memories some, and sealed their bodies and equipment in a storage scroll, before he woke Kakashi and the rest of his team and Tazuna up. After all, considering the damage he and Yue had done to the area, there needed to be some explanation.

Kakashi groaned when he woke, feeling chakra – recognizable as Sasuke's – inside of him. His head was pounding and it felt like he had overused the Sharingan. "Sasuke, report," He ordered as they began to walk down the road towards Tazuna's house.

"The hunter-nin was a fake and Zabuza's ally with mastery over multiple elements as well as several potential kekkei genkai." Sasuke explained. "He incapacitated Naruto and Sakura at the get-go. We were forced to engage him until you passed out from overuse of Sharingan. I eventually managed to defeat and kill him and stabilized you."

Kakashi nodded. He had figured out that much. Sasuke handed him two storage scrolls. The rest of the report could wait until they were in a more secure location. He wanted details!

After arriving at Tazuna's house, Kakashi had Naruto and Sakura secure the perimeter. Sasuke gave Kakashi his Sharingan-encoded memories of the false encounter with Haku. Kakashi watched it all, whistling a little. No wonder he was exhausted… that fake hunter-nin had really pulled out all the stops! It was a very good thing Sandaime-sama had promoted Sasuke to Anbu and made them take this mission. He shuddered a little at the thought of a regular team of Genin, or even Chuunin, dealing with this mess.

"Well done," He finally said.

Sasuke just nodded.

The boy was starting to remind him of Itachi. But, Kakashi reminded, at least Sasuke had his family back in Konoha waiting for him, albeit his very much dead family.

"You're all going to die," Inari told them.

"What did you say?" Naruto demanded.

"No one can defeat Gatou! He's too powerful!"

Sakura sighed.

Sasuke ignored the boy, helping himself to another serving of food. Now that he had to support Yue as well, he needed to make certain he consumed enough calories. Although Wave was supposed to be very poor, so after dinner, he pulled out one of his month-long supply food storage scrolls and offered the contents to a grateful Tsunami, explaining that he didn't want to impose on her family too badly.

"Assassination," Sasuke asked Kakashi that night.

"Information gathering first," Kakashi reminded him. "And we still have to guard Tazuna. Even if Zabuza is dead, Gatou may hire others."

Sasuke nodded.

"It's a full moon tonight," Kakashi remarked, a little too casually.

"I know," Sasuke replied.

"You can take whichever watch you want."

"Thank you."

"Yue loved Clow, didn't he?" Sasuke asked that night as he stroked Cerberus' fur.

"Yes," Cerberus sounded slightly shaken. "He has never fought a Candidate as violently as the way he fought you, though. I never thought…"

"It's all right," Sasuke replied. "I forgive him. And you can't say I didn't give as good as I got." Cerberus nodded, his tiny wings fluttering for a moment.

"You know we love you, right?"

"I know," Sasuke smiled. "I love you too, my family."

"But you miss your brother…"

"I'll see him soon enough," Sasuke closed his eyes. "Even if it takes years, I will get him back… and I will finally be able to tell him how I truly feel."

Gatou was not a happy man when he discovered that there was no news of Zabuza and Tazuna had resumed work on the bridge. He really should not have paid that man a single ryo in advance! Well, he thought grimly, maybe he would hire that other mercenary group, the dawn or whatever they were called. Sure, they were more expensive, but it would be worth it. Besides, the blue shark-man looked a lot tougher than Zabuza did and the other one with the demonic red eyes would definitely be able to take down the team from Konoha, right?

End Chapter

Started 3/25/16

Completed 3/25/16

I used the Card Captor Sakura Wikipedia to answer a lot of questions about which cards fall under Moon/Sun.