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The land of rivers was one of the countries that Kabuto Yakushi was not really fond of.
The country was a little too mundane, if you had asked him, and the further he ventured within said country, for some reason, the quieter it had gotten.
The natural sounds of the world, such as the chirping of birds, the songs of the wind, and the rustling of leaves, seemed to quieten.
Why that was the case, Kabuto hadn't the faintest clue.
The same could be said about the county folk.
The people were more lively and chatty the further he was from his destination, and the opposite rang true.
Traveling to the southwest edges of the country, and the people near there even started ignoring his existence. Any attempt to make conversation only resulted in awkwardness as Kabuto tried to keep up conversation while the other party only ever responded with lazy responses that would make the men of the Nara clan look as energetic as Maito Guy by comparison.
When he brought up the missing people's reports he saw plastered throughout the country, the silence around him got even quieter, wordlessly telling him to drop it and leave.
Gladly, he would love to.
Sadly, he couldn't do so.
The medic wasn't here because he wanted to go on a vacation; he would sooner go to Konoha for a vacation.
Lord Orochimaru had sent him on official business to retrieve one Sasuke Uchiha, whom his master came to believe was disguising himself as a tomato farmer.
One of the last Uchihas, who not only awakened the sharingan but was also a ninja prodigy, ends up becoming a lowly tomato farmer? Kabuto wanted to laugh, yet struggled to do so.
All in all, the notion was utterly ridiculous.
Regardless, Kabuto's personal opinion didn't matter. Once Orochimaru had ordered him to retrieve Sasuke, Kabuto left without hesitancy.
One simply couldn't refuse Lord Orochimaru and not suffer the consequences. Seeing the things the depraved scientist had done to the prisoners who had the gall to defy him, Kabuto made sure that he was never on the receiving end of the snake man's punishments.
Upon reaching his destination, after a long process of gathering information because none of the locals wanted to say much of anything, Kabuto walked up to the secluded farm house (that was surrounded by Tomato patches and only tomato patches), knocked on its door, and waited. The house looked shabby but was well maintained. The wooden perch creaked with every single step taken upon it as the lightbulb dangling from a rigid, torn-up wire above Kabuto's head flickered on and off.
A single oddly colored rabbit (a pink one) was perched upon the wooden lining of the porch, peering at Kabuto, and the man couldn't help but wonder: was it always there?
"Is there something you need, Kabuto?"
A voice broke Kabuto out of his inner musing as he looked up to see a man with black, well-kept hair with small accents of dark blue. Dark coal eyes that gave him a disinterested look. And what he wore for clothing was a black T-shirt that was under denim overalls and a pair of white flip-flops.
This man looked as mundane as the country itself.
Despite the change in looks, Kabuto was certain the man before him was Sasuke Uchiha.
Not only could Kabuto sense the man's chakra, which matched how Sasuke's chakra felt when they had last met, but the man had already known Kabuto's name when Kabuto himself hadn't introduced himself yet.
Wanting to get things over with and go home, Kabuto confided in Sasuke about the reason behind his visit.
Sasuke pulled out a beer bottle from his pocket, gave it a quick swig, and said, "If I wanted to go to Orochimaru, I would've done so by now."
Tossing away the beer bottle, it missed the trash can it was aiming for, and the bottle shattered to pieces. Kabuto only learned of the bottle's fate by looking at the millions of shattered pieces of glass lying about.
'That's odd. I should've heard the noise of the bottle shattering. But I didn't...'
Even the beer bottles refused to break the theme of silence that was going on.
"So, Kabuto, how do we proceed?" Sasuke began. "Do we talk things out rationally in a civil manner, or do things the ninja way, or the special way?"
Now instead of a beer bottle, Sasuke was now holding a tomato as he brought it up to his lips and took a bite out of it, eating it raw as well as eating it quietly so as not to bother his guest.
"The special way?" Kabuto asked as Sasuke began squeezing the tomato, making it bleed as its blood traversed his hand. "Yes. The special way."
Kabuto chuckled nervously. "I'll take the rational way if you don't mind."
"I apologize for making you think you have a choice in the matter."
A plethora of vines suddenly burst from who knows where as they latched onto Kabuto's arms, legs, and neck, ensnaring him.
Sasuke tossed away the tomato he was eating as it quietly splattered on the ground.
"What should I do with you?" Sasuke proddled as he poked at Kabuto's body. "Maybe just kill you off? Maybe sell you off to the black market? Medics always fetch a good price there."
As Kabuto struggled, the more the vines tightened. "How are you doing this?"
Sasuke shrugged. "The vines are the product of chakra manipulation and gardening." By growing plants, or in this case, wines, with my chakra as an ingredient in the fertilizer, I can manipulate plants to act in whatever way I wish. "The only downside is that I can only use my chakra to manipulate plants that I have grown with my chakra, and growing plants is a time-consuming process."
"So it's a poor man's wood release." Kabuto would've chuckled if it weren't for the vines tightening around his neck.
"While rude, I can't deny the claim. It is a poor man's wood release."
This fact didn't trouble Sasuke at all when his plants always did what they were set out to do, as Kabuto's predicament testified to their ability. No amount of summoning chakra to aid him would save him, as the vines, as if detecting the use of chakra, kept tightening their hold upon their victim.
Kabuto wanted to scream to the heavens, but his voice betrayed him, as nothing ever came out.
"It's nothing personal. I simply wish to live a quiet and peaceful life. As such, any ninja who seeks to disrupt that must disappear. Fret not, Kabuto; I know what I can do with you."
The last thing Kabuto saw before blacking out was the outstretched, bloodied hand of Sasuke closing in on his face.
Two weeks later.
The street market was filled to the brim with bustling customers buying whatever they wanted from street vendors that sold a wide array of foods, drinks, clothes, and other necessities.
Three vegetable vendors were discussing amongst themselves when the local farmer arrived and set up his kiosk near them.
"It looks like he's selling tomatoes again." Takashi, one of the aforementioned vendors, said, "To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen that guy sell anything other than tomatoes."
"Beats me." Hiroshi responded. "But I'm glad he only sells tomatoes. He's the only guy people buy tomatoes from. The man basically monopolized tomatoes, so if anyone tried selling tomatoes, they would only incur losses. Imagine if he started selling other kinds of vegetables?"
"Well, actually, tomatoes aren't vegetables."
"Shut the fuck up, Naruhisa." Both Takashi and Hiroshi snapped. They just couldn't tolerate this damn know-it-all.
"Anyways, have you ever heard of the rumor surrounding that guy? The one where he turns people into tomatoes?"
All three vendors bellowed with laughter at the utterly absurd rumor.
"And he's the one behind the multiple cases of people going missing. He's turning them into bananas!"
"No! He's turning them into Brussels sprouts!"
Their rambunctious laughter drowned out the soft, almost quiet cries for help coming from the tomato that was in the far left corner of the quiet farmer's crate.
Kabuto cries, silent to all.