Sasuke
*The Genjutsu Game*
The rush of waterfalls sounded behind us. I put my hands together like I was kneading chakra and closed my eyes like he was doing but nothing was happening. Meditation wasn't really my thing. My mind kept wandering. I listened to the birds cawing above and water pooling in the river near us. We sat under an overhang for genjutsu practice. I continued allowing my consciousness to reel in my surroundings. Frogs hopped by me. I could sense a squirrel nearby burrowing for acorns... Wait...wait...
"Wait, a second!" I exclaimed.
I turned around and was surprised to see a vast valley with multiple waterfalls, a large luscious green forest and many grazing forest animals.
"Now, you've finally realized?" he asked.
"Damn..."
It was less like genjutsu "practice" and more like a genjutsu "game", a game that teenage Uchiha members played with each other probably since the dawn of time. As soon as you unlocked your second totem, you were eligible to play. I'd never played before that day even though I'd long since unlocked my second totem. I would see the kids sitting there cross-leggedly with their eyes closed and it always looked incredibly tedious to me. They just looked like they were wasting time. So I avoided it. But this... This wasn't useless at all.
Well, it was boring at first. We had been sitting there without moving for at least thirty minutes, it had taken SO long for something to happen.
Itachi opened his eyes and looked at me.
"Do you see the point of this 'game' now?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Clearly it's a game of patience." I responded.
Sit there for as long as you can and whoever breaks concentration first is vulnerable to be easily pulled into a genjutsu by the other player.
"But I didn't look into your eyes..." I mused. "I don't recall sensing anything strange either."
"Of course you didn't." he said. "Genjutsu is the art of unawareness. If you noticed the spell I was putting over you, it would've defeated the purpose."
The beautiful scene around us slowly faded. We came back to the room we had initially been sitting inside. The large, dark, empty room inside the Uchiha hideout.
"How did you cast it?" I asked. "How could you have done that when I wasn't looking at you at all?"
"Genjutsu's are not just casted with the eyes." He said. "When you are in a genjutsu, all five senses are being manipulated therefore, it's clear that-"
"That a genjutsu can be casted by all five senses!" I pointed out. "Of course..."
My mind flashed back to halfway through the thirty minutes. He'd begun knocking on the floor...knocking...knocking...knocking... It was soft. And I didn't want to break concentration so I pretended that it wasn't happening. Later, I felt a soft breeze going up my arms. Then suddenly, I smelled a woody, earthy kind of smell. Like I was deep in a forest. That was when I completely broke concentration and opened my eyes to see the waterfalls and everything.
"Let's play again."
"Do you think you're going to win?" he asked me.
I didn't reply.
No, I'm certain I'm going to win. I won't lose to you.
However, by the end of my genjutsu training, we'd probably played that game a hundred times and I still hadn't won once.
"You're getting close though." He reassured me.
I sighed.
Don't patronize me.
Well, I could give myself at least SOME credit. It didn't take long for me to get advanced enough to be able to tell when the genjutsu was sneaking up on me. I could easily sense that he was trying to cast a genjutsu and tune out whatever sounds or smells he was creating by focusing hard on what I remembered to be reality. Soon, it was child's play; I treated it like the game it was. The only REAL way for me to get caught in his genjutsu was if I forgot what my surroundings looked like. Unfortunately for him, all this training was doing wonders for my concentration and patience levels, so that was almost impossible.
This created a complete stalemate. While I was adept at avoiding his mind tricks, I couldn't yet figure out how to catch him in my own trick. This resulted in hours and hours of concentration...and when I say, hours, I seriously mean HOURS.
I crushed a Sakura blossom between my fingers. I had discretely picked it up before we'd sat down to play the game. I didn't think of it as cheating. I thought of it as preparation. Slowly, with my eyes still closed, I blew the scent out to him. When I believed he'd gotten at least a whiff of the scent, I blew harder, attempting to distract him with the cool feeling of the breeze.
"Nice try." I heard him say.
I sighed, breaking concentration, opening my eyes and relaxing. He relaxed, too, smiling at me in that "teacher" kind of way.
"Really, it was good." He said. "Might've gotten me if this wasn't a hot day...void of breezes."
Right... It was hot. That was why we both took off our shirts. That was precisely the reason why I blew that breeze. I knew he'd have a lot of skin exposed and get caught easier.
"I know." I told him in exasperation. "I thought that if you felt a breeze it would break your concentration by making you want more of that feeling since it's so hot."
"It's just a bit too obvious that it's hot." He explained. "Instead of making your victim appreciate the feeling and thus creating an opening, you're putting your victim on guard."
"'Tch."
I lay on my back, staring up at the darkened ceiling.
"We don't much time left to practice." He told me.
I'd be shocked if we did...
It had been at least a half a year since we left Konoha. Somewhere between that day and the day we left, I turned fifteen. We didn't stay in the Uchiha Hideout the entire time. We traveled to other villages and towns in the middle of nowhere and gathered info. Since I'd already been on an Intel mission for almost four months with Team 7, I'd gained patience for that kind of thing...but not by much.
"I thought this was a seek and destroy mission not a sit on our asses and wait mission." I'd asked him more than once.
Itachi smiled at me.
"Are you complaining? And here I thought you'd become patient and understanding."
I sighed.
"You're avoiding my question." I had reminded him.
His expression turned serious. I knew that it was the time I would get a solid answer.
"The other shinobi from the other lands who went to fight the Akatsuki have been killed." He said.
"And so...our mission is halted?" I asked, already feeling disappointed.
"No." He told me. "The Third Hokage told me that if I believe I can take some of them down, then I should do whatever I can to complete the mission."
"So what are we waiting for?" I asked him at that time slamming my hands down on the table.
"You." He said. "Your genjutsu capabilities are not strong enough yet."
After that day, I started busting my ass to learn. There was no way I was going to let him blame our mission failure on my incompetence. In time, I started getting better.
"I don't need any more practice, I'm ready." I finally said, sitting up and staring him dead in the face.
"So certain." He said, then he nodded at me. "I think you're ready, too."
That threw me off guard. I gave him a questioning look.
"Well, you've yet to catch me in a genjutsu, but that's me." He said. "I have no doubt that you're strong enough to catch someone else."
You're missing the point, brother. All this is useless if I still can't defeat you.
Suddenly, he reached over and plucked my forehead.
"But you need to work on your critical thinking skills."
I rolled my eyes and rubbed my forehead sorely.
"Can you stop that? I'm not a child." I complained.
As I jerked backwards, the Uchiha necklace I had been consistently wearing tapped against my bare chest lightly. I rubbed the metallic piece between my forefinger and thumb. A habit I had taken up at some point.
Itachi looked down at it.
"You haven't been sending Satomi-chan any letters." He pointed out.
"I never promised her I'd do something like that." I mumbled. "Only Naruto..."
Then I trailed off, even Naruto hadn't been sending letters. I was beginning to worry about him but I put my worries aside in face of beating Itachi. Still, I wondered what he was doing. Did he stop writing because there was nothing to say, it was just that boring, or...was he being forced to stop?
"Don't you think she'll worry?"
I scoffed. "Like I care."
That was a bit of a lie. I did care. I had begun thinking of her a bit more than I thought of Naruto. But I didn't want her to know that. I didn't want anyone to know, really.
Itachi saw through my lie in seconds.
"If you didn't care about her, you wouldn't keep that necklace so close to you." He protested.
I immediately dropped it from between my fingers and looked away from him.
"You never take it off." He went on.
"So what?"
"So... Your big brother isn't cool enough to know what you really think?"
I slowly turned my head to him and sighed.
"It's not that I don't care about her." I muttered, lying on my back. "It's just that if I tell her that and admit it, then I'll have to actually act like I care. I don't have to time to sit around and write love letters."
He raised his eyebrows.
"I see. It's easier to just mess around with her whenever you feel like it without having to be attentive to her all the time." He said.
I nodded.
"Exactly!" I said, feeling relieved that he understood.
A smile spread onto his face.
"That's sounds like you're just afraid of commitment." He pointed out.
I was caught off guard.
"I-I'm not-"
"It's fine. If you want to mess around with every girl you meet without ever settling down..."
"I never said I wanted to do that." I protested. "I'm only interested in her!"
He grinned.
"Then, why not commit to her?"
I opened my mouth but no words came out. I literally could not find the words to disagree.
Seeing my lost for words, he began laughing. After a second or two more of being irritated, I couldn't help but join in. There was honestly nothing quite like being with my older brother.
*Hokage*
"There he is."
"What is he doing alone?"
I felt like it was so ridiculous that the Akatsuki had such a loud uniform. A black cloak with red clouds on it, really? So, everywhere you go, your outfit is attracting alarm. Well, I guess this specific member didn't have that problem. Strangely, he was wandering around a morgue. No one really cares what you do for a living at a morgue.
"This place gives me the creeps." We heard him mutter.
"What is he doing there anyway?"
"My crows tell me he lost his partner a couple of hours ago."
"Did someone kill him?" I asked.
"No, he's dropping a corpse off at a money bank. I'm sure this one here knows that his partner is fond of trading dead people for money, so he's waiting around this morgue to see if he will come back."
We were crouching on the top of the morgue. It was dark, around nine or ten pm. But time meant nothing to an Uchiha, in fact, darkness was better...
"This timing is perfect...easier to confuse him into a genjutsu." I muttered.
"That's right." He agreed.
I glanced at him and realized what I said.
Oh, god...now I'm even starting to think like Itachi.
Suddenly, a crow popped up next to him. Attached to the crows leg was a note. He slid back off of the edge of the roof.
"Itachi, worry about that later." I told him. "Mission first, right?"
"I'm afraid not this time." He said. "This letter...has the Hokage's seal on it."
I see. Hokage seals are S-rank mission level...meaning it rivals the mission we have now.
I continued watching the Akatsuki member.
"Oh, Jashin!" he groaned.
I glanced back at Itachi to see his eyes darting across the paper quickly. His eyes widened and his eyebrows rose high.
"This...isn't good news." He said quietly.
"What?"
The face he'd just made worried me more than anything else. I didn't even think my brother HAD a shocked expression.
"The Third Hokage...was killed." He reported to me. "By an Akatsuki member named Orochimaru who had been hiding out in the village."
My mind flashed back to Tsunade recounting the run-in she'd had with him and another man named Kabuto that they'd barely escaped.
But I thought they were aware of Orochimaru's presence? How was he still able to gain the upper hand?
"He's destroying the village single-handedly." Itachi told me. "There are already a lot of casualties. The military is barely strong enough to hold him back. Konoha is under attack."
My brain froze.
Home is under attack? That's impossible... Satomi is at home... And so are Ota-san and Oka-san and Kakashi and Hinata and Konohamaru... Everyone is...
"This letter is a reverse summoning style letter only able to be created by someone with immense power...such as Danzo of the Konoha underground."
I said nothing.
"Danzo was a leader who always coveted the Hokage position." Itachi went on. "I knew him very well. I know he sent this letter."
"Why does it matter who sent it?" I questioned.
"Because...at the end of this letter, there is a Hokage stamp certifying my immediate promotion to the Hokage position."
I turned around and stared at him.
...What?!
"And if Danzo, a man who would've rather died than let anybody other than him become Hokage, wrote this letter... That means he probably knew he wouldn't be around to take the position."
In other words, he wrote it right before he ran head first into a suicide mission, simply to get revenge on that bastard for killing the Third Hokage. He must've...really cared about him.
We stared at each other.
"I must go." He said, standing up.
The Akatsuki member was sitting on the steps right below us so even if we stood he wouldn't see us.
"Right, me too." I said.
He shook his head.
"No." he said. "This is a perfect opportunity to take down an Akatsuki member. One of us must finish this mission."
"Then you do it and I'll go home and check on Mom and Satomi and the rest." I proposed.
Listen to me...
"It makes more sense for you to handle this guy and then come meet me. You said it yourself that you're stronger than me." I went on. "If I get home first, I can help the resistance."
"Sasuke." He said steadily. "As the Hokage of the Village Hidden in Leaves, I must do my duty to my village...meaning I must report home immediately."
I know, I know, I'm being unreasonable but...
"But-"
I need to make sure they're safe.
"And as your superior, I order you to stay here, capture or kill the Akatsuki member, and return home only after you are finished."
My only purpose in life is to protect them.
"I understand your point but you're not listening to me." I said.
He turned around and opened the letter fully, about to release the reverse summoning.
They're in danger...you can't leave me here...
"Itachi, you will take me with you, I-" I said walking up to him.
"Sasuke." He said again.
I froze, somehow, his voice sounded different.
"If you fail this mission or refuse to complete it then..."
He glared at me, Sharingan unlocked and taking a strange pattern in his eye.
"Never return to Konoha again."
The letter exploded and so did he and his crow in a rush of feathers.
My hand was still outstretched toward him, I slowly pulled it back and stood there, staring at the spot he used to be, shaking.
His eyes...what was up with them? It wasn't the normal three totems... They had this strange pattern...
*Sasuke vs. Hidan*
He can't be serious about banishing me...
I slowly walked back to the edge of the roof and peered over. He sat there with his head in his hands muttering to himself.
But just in case he is, I'm not going to mess this up.
I had the advantage because he wasn't aware of me at all. I strung a demon wind shuriken to some thin wire and hung it over his head.
This should be enough...as long as he doesn't move.
Three...two...one
I dropped the four pronged shuriken right in front of him and then used the string to swiftly pull it up and into his stomach. He flew back against the building and I pulled the wire further so that it shoved the shuriken through his belly, out of his back and pinned him against the wall there.
Well, that was surprisingly easy. Who the hell are they hiring as Akatsuki members these days?
"Hey!" the guy screamed. "Come here and look me in the eyes like a man, you bastard!"
I jumped from the top of the roof and landed down in front of him.
"You're the one who did this? A little brat like you?" he asked me.
I said nothing.
"Good thing you showed up, though." He said. "Lord Jashin was getting thirsty for a sacrifice."
He grabbed the shuriken, pulled it out of himself and threw it back at me. I was too close to dodge completely. It scraped my shoulder.
Dammit... Of course he'd be an immortal... Just my luck.
He jumped down and grabbed a large staff with three dull knives jutting out of the top of it.
"Who are you anyway?" he asked me pointing at me with the staff.
That weapon... Isn't something you use to kill people. The most it can do it give me a superficial gash. What kind of trick is that?
I unlocked my Sharingan and squared up against him.
"Oh? You think you're going to fight?!" he asked me. "Well come on then!"
Asking me to come first? That's odd seeing as how I just disgraced him by using a shuriken to pin him to a wall through his stomach. A normal man would be pulling out all the stops, using every ninjutsu they knew but he...
He stood with his staff still extended toward me. He stayed where he was, grinning at me.
Of course. He's a short-range fighter. That's why he isn't doing any techniques. He needs me get closer. And moreover...
"Scared?" he asked. "Bitten off more than you can chew, kid?"
He's probably better at fighting defensively. Because that staff is so long, he can easily get into an offensive position during the confusion of battle and strike me. So he's egging me on to help his own battle strategy. The last thing I want to do is get close to this idiot...
I ran at him, completely unarmed and vulnerable. I brought my arm back, activated the Chidori, and extended it toward him as a new attack I'd named the Chidori True Spear.
This guy isn't too bright. He's looking right at me.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed, pulling the staff around me.
Blood dripped from the tip of the swords on his staff. There were three more cuts on my upper arm to accompany the first one.
He laughed hysterically, and bent down to draw a circle around him. Suddenly, his skin was changing colors. He changed to black and white. He laughed again.
"Be terrified!" he yelled. "You're about to witness your death."
I stared at him solemnly.
His smile turned to a snarl.
"Take this!"
He jabbed a sharp pole into his thigh and screamed out with the painful pleasure of the feeling. My face remained emotionless, I stared him down.
He grimaced and pulled the pole back up and stabbed himself again, this time through the stomach.
"Why aren't you screaming in pain?" he asked.
He continued stabbing himself, other arm, through the eye, through his foot.
"I'll kill you!"
Finally, worn out, he positioned the pole so it would go through his heart.
"Die!" he screamed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I finally said.
He paused.
"So, it talks huh?" he asked. "And why not?"
"Just take a look at yourself." I told him.
He looked down and almost dropped to the floor realizing that all the damage he'd been trying to inflict to me, was done to himself. The only eye he had left bulged in it's socket. The outside of the building was made of iron, he turned and looked at the reflection of himself. He was bleeding out.
His knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
"This is...impossible!"
His body quivered in pain.
"Stop trying to trick me!" he declared. "This is my jutsu!"
He stabbed himself again, through the stomach. But I wasn't harmed, just him.
"I won't be made a fool of!"
And again, through the throat.
His screaming turned to gurgles after that. It was a disgusting sight to see. Especially for me because I wasn't in a genjutsu. Where he saw me standing there, bleeding profusely, but not dying. I was actually not bleeding at all and in reality, he was lying on the ground writing in pain from having stabbed himself so much.
So, I was correct afterall. This idiot stars in close quarters combat because he has this ridiculous ability to kill someone just by taking their blood sample. That's why his staff isn't made for killing.
I imagined Itachi standing there, smiling at me.
"Your observational skills have grown tremendously, little brother."
None of the wounds were showing up on me because he'd never taken my blood sample to begin with.
The guy didn't even recognize a Sharingan when he saw it. As soon as I unlocked my Sharingan, he was under a genjutsu. I never ran at him. I was never cut by his staff. He turned black, drew that circle, and went on stabbing himself because I willed him to do so. I wondered if he would finally kill himself at one point.
Right at that moment, he stabbed himself through the heart. My eyebrows rose questioningly as he stopped, not moving.
"No! Why won't you die?!" he screamed out suddenly.
I sighed and extended my hand as lightning sparks began to course through it.
I extended the Chidori spear and cut his head from his neck cleanly. Then, quickly afterwards, I did a fire ball jutsu and burned his body. I couldn't burn it completely but I did succeed in burning it beyond recognition or future use. I walked over and grabbed his head.
"I'll kill you yet!" he promised.
"Yeah, yeah...whatever." I mumbled.
*Hawks*
"You should probably learn a summoning." Itachi said to me a couple of days into our training leave.
"Why is that?"
"It's incredibly helpful for getting you from point A to point B in a short amount of time."
"When you make a contract with summoning animals, you can summon them and they can summon you, too. It's a partnership. My animal is the crow."
I had already known he had a peculiar relationship with crows. But it was something I didn't think about often. Noticed but not dwelled upon...
"Would you like to sign a contract with crows?" he asked me.
I considered the thought, mulled it over in my head. Crows were interesting, they were just birds but in many aspects they seemed menacing, like predators. Free themselves but somehow eager to force others into chains. Crows were perfect animals for my brother who was often misunderstood. The more I thought of it, however, the more I disliked it. I was tired of living in his shadow. I wanted something unique. He guessed my feelings.
"Perhaps another kind of animal?"
I shook my head.
"No." I said. "I like birds but just not crows."
"Well, you think about it." He said.
One day, I was alone outside the hideout, looking for a tree bearing fruit and I spotted a snake. As soon as I saw it, an idea formed in my head. Snakes would be perfect for me. They're sneaky and cunning, that sounds like me. But as soon as I approached it, a hawk swooped down from the sky and plucked the snake right off the ground. Just like that, the snake was subject to nature. I gazed upon the sky, hypnotized by the thought of something as smart as a snake being captured. Suddenly, I became aware that conniving creatures are worthless in the grand scheme. What's the point of slithering upon the ground like a slave...when you can have the power to control the skies?
"Hawks." I told him that day.
And they became my summoning animal as quickly as that. It did take some training to get strong enough to be able to summon the largest hawk. But compared to the genjutsu game, that was nothing.
I summoned a hawk. The biggest hawk there was...Takami.
"Hello, there, Sasuke-kun." She said.
"I need to get to Konoha as quickly as possible."
"I'll do my best."
I pulled myself into the batch of feathers on my back and positioned the annoying, talking head of Hidan next to me. She lifted off the ground, wings raised, and bolted ahead. There truly was nothing like flying... It was something special. Something only hawk summons would be able to enjoy.
I sat up higher on Takami and looked below me. We were flying right over the final valley, bathed in moonlight. The eyes of Madara Uchiha shined out at me. I remember visiting the valley as a child for a field trip in the academy.
"And this...!" Iruka Sensei declared. "Is the Final Valley!"
We hadn't learned how to knead chakra so that we could walk on water yet. But Naruto was so excited, he ran out into the water like he could do it anyway. The entire class stared at him as he pulled his shirt off and dove into the water. He soon resurfaced, droplets of water glistening off of his blonde hair.
"Aren't you all coming?" he asked.
I looked back at the class, knowing what they thought of him...
Weirdo, freak, amateur...
I pulled my own shirt and shoes off and jumped into the water after him without even a second wasted. As soon as I got over to him, I dunked his head in as a joke. Kiba and Choji, seeing how fun it looked, ran in after us. Then Shikamaru, after complaining for a couple seconds, and then suddenly, the entire class. Hinata hung back, but she still participated in kicking her feet in the water a bit.
"Hey! What are you all doing!?" Iruka Sensei yelled. "Come back!"
We all laughed and made faces at him, forcing him to swim out into the water after us. Instead of a history lesson, it became more like a day at the beach with Naruto the center of attention as he made up water games for us all to play. Iruka still managed to teach us a bit about our surroundings though. We sat on the shore near sunset as he pointed to the big stone statues, then bathed in lavender and orange colors.
"Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama." He told us. "One was a hero, the founder of this village, he created all the rights and freedoms we have now, the other was a villain bent on destroying everything Hashirama had stood for and taking away everyone's hope and peace. In the end, the evil was destroyed by Hashirama, rightly so."
I didn't question anything at the time. Uchiha's were always doing evil things in the history books. But as I stared into those shining eyes, I couldn't help but wonder if those stone statues had more of a story to tell.
The head under my arm twitched, brining me back to the present.
"Jashin will be pleased when you're finished!"
I rolled my eyes almost willing myself to take him out of the genjutsu just so he could see the situation he was in but I was too smart to let my annoyance get the better of me.
"How much father, Takami-san?" I asked.
I knew she was flying as fast as she could but I was on edge. Something bad was happening. I could feel it in my bones. And it coupled with all of the bad feelings I had been having the entire time I'd been on that long term mission. My worries about Naruto... My questions about the Akatsuki...
"We're almost there."
She was right. I craned my neck to see over her large white feathery head and saw a bubble of orange and red on the navy blue horizon. The moonlight wasn't giving the village a scenic, peaceful look. It looked like complete chaos. The closer we got, the louder I could hear screams.
Soon we were swooping over the village. Smoke was rising. I could see a multitude of villagers being led into the secret hiding places inside the Hokage mountain. Leaf ninja in uniform were scrambling about below, running from something. I wasn't sure what.
"We need to get lower." I ordered.
Takami swooped lower, then stuttered.
"The fire!" she cawed.
I wanted to tell her to go down anyway and that I would protect her, but there were no water jutsus I could recreate. I nudged her toward an empty spot near the village gates which were locked tight for security.
"Stay here." I said, tossing Hidan's head back up into her feathers. "And keep watch over him, he's an enemy."
"Yes, Sasuke-kun." She said obediently.
*Attack on Konoha*
I was already running before even waiting for her response. I was relieved to discover that I was faster than before. Taijutsu practice with Itachi wasn't a joke either. It was like that guy was perfect in every aspect of the word...
I bounded onto the top of one of the telephone poles and looked around the village. I was happy to see it again after so long...but not this way. I used my Sharingan to make a quick sweep of my immediate areas. Leaf ninja were everywhere. As I gazed toward Ichikaru Ramen, Naruto's favorite hang-out spot which was completely caved in, I saw two leaf ninja...fighting each other...
What the hell...?
Suddenly, there was a screeching sound to my left.
"Somebody please help me!" the voice sounded.
It sounded like a kid. I turned and jumped to the ground watching as a snake, three times larger than a small boy in a large gray tunic and a dark green head wrap.
"Ahhh!" he screamed, trying to get away.
His leg was caught under the roof of what used to be the Weapons' Shoppe. He gripped the dirt desperately looking like he was ready to cut his own leg off. I blew my Phoenix Fire jutsu at the snake which was easily caught in the blaze. I jumped down and lifted the roof off of the kid.
He slowly turned and looked up at me. I reached out for him and he shrunk back, damaging his leg more by trying to scramble away.
"I'm not your enemy." I said. "Calm down."
"My mommy told me don't trust anyone!" he shouted.
"I'm a ninja." I said.
I realized I wasn't wearing my headband or the chunin vest or any kind of uniform. I racked my brain for a legitimate excuse but he wasn't listening anyway.
"Especially ninja!" he went on. "My mommy told me that I especially shouldn't trust ninja!"
The scene of the two ninja fighting each other flashed through my mind.
Did the Akatsuki somehow infiltrate our ranks?
He started crawling away. I sighed, momentarily contemplating letting him run off and be stupid. When I finally decided to go after him, it was too late. He'd found a small child-sized hole in the side of an apartment building that was on fire and climbed through it.
"Hey!" I shouted. "Come back!"
But he didn't answer.
Whatever... I can't waste time...
I turned and made a beeline for my house which I assumed was still where the Uchiha district used to be. I heard screams all around me but tried not to let it distract me. Under my feet, the ground began shaking and rumbling. I looked up to the orange hazy sky trying to detect any presence and almost ran head first into a giant snake slithering into my path. I jumped over it, barely saving my leg as the gray beast lunged for me.
What's up with all these snakes anyway?
As I jumped over it, I blew my fire ball jutsu at it, landed and continued on my path. Something was telling me it was incredibly important to get home. Something was really bothering me... I was running so quickly, everything around me was a blur even with my Sharingan on.
As I ran past one alley, I glanced to my left and was shocked to see around five snakes suddenly fly around in all directions. I paused, my eyes quickly scoping out the ninja.
"Hinata!?"
She glanced over at me, face breaking out into surprise.
"Oh, hey Sasuke." She said, running over.
She gave me a quick hug and smiled fondly at me.
"I didn't think you'd be home so soon."
"Let's walk and talk." I said, taking up the route to my house. "What's going on?"
"It's chaos." She told me. "Hard to say."
"Did the Akatsuki infiltrate Konoha?" I asked, looking down all the roads.
On one path, I saw two genin looking ninja trying to keep a large snake off a villager. On another I saw three jounin looking ninja trying to use water jutsus to put out all the flames. And on another I saw four leaf ninja having a full out war with each other.
"Yes." She said. "The guy... Orochimaru, I think? He and his accomplice infiltrated the ranks somehow and implanted their own ninja."
Their own ninja...?
"From what village?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"I was with the Third Hokage right before the attack. He thinks it might be an entirely new village that he created."
A new village?
"Satomi thinks it could be people from all the other villages combined though."
"So... Where is she anyway?" I asked.
"The last time I saw her, she was helping the Third Hokage fight."
My heart skipped.
But, the Third Hokage is...
"How long ago was that?"
"A while ago." She said. "Maybe three or four hours ago."
I cursed myself for wanting to look for her.
No, home first.
I sped up so much Hinata was having a bit of trouble keeping up with me. But not much. I could tell she had been training, too. She was wearing a chunin vest and the entire navy blue uniform. She must've been promoted to chunin level while I was gone.
The Uchiha symbol loomed in the distance. I could tell that symbol anywhere. We dove through the smoke surrounding the place and past the metal fence. Right inside the gate, a man was lying on his back seeming to be struggling to breathe. Hinata skidded to a stop and I nodded at her. I didn't need her to accompany me. The district was eerily quieter than the rest of the village. My house had to be closer to the back of the entire place. As I ran, my mind retreated back to a time when things were different.
"Sasuke, I'll race you home!"
I frowned.
"Why are you always kidding around?" I asked. "Can't we just walk like normal people?"
It was his turn to pout. I grinned, glad I caught him off guard, and sped past him.
"Ah! You cheated, Sasuke!" he declared, chasing after me.
Our footsteps sounded past the shops, past the old style wooden houses, past the district plaza...
My hand slammed down against the side of the house.
"I win."
His hand got there a second too late.
"Cheater." He responded.
"Nii-san told you, you have to be more aware of your surroundings." I said, wagging my finger at him.
"That has nothing to do with this!"
We walked into the house, not surprised to see Oka-san sweeping the front hall.
"How was the academy?"
"Okay." We both said in unison.
Naruto kicked his shoes off and wandered farther into the house.
"What did you learn?" she asked.
Naruto was already in the kitchen grabbing fruit out of the bowl. I was slowly taking off my shoes, lining them up neatly, and lining Naruto's shoes up from where he'd thrown them. It was the same routine every day. With the same questions and answers...
"Sign weaving." Naruto called with a mouth full of pears.
My mother ruffled Naruto's hair and then looked to me meaningfully. Naruto said 'sign weaving' everyday. It wasn't really what we learned. I smiled.
"The history of Konoha." I said truthfully.
She grinned.
"Sounds interesting."
Naruto would then raise his arms to my mother.
"Mikoto-san, can we play sign weaving?"
She would always smile and pick him up and sit him on the kitchen table. He extended his hands to her and she grasped them in hers.
"Dog..." she said, moving his fingers. "Tiger... Snake..."
They would go over all the signs with her gently pushing his little fingers into each position. I was way passed learning all the signs. That was five year old stuff. We were at least ten year olds by that point. Naruto wasn't an idiot either. It was obvious to me that he begged for that attention because he wanted special time with her. As she smiled softly at him, I knew she understood that, too.
Instead of watching them, I'd go find my father where he was in his office. Since he wasn't the village head, he spent his time being a sword architect. He drafted swords that other people would come buy the blueprints for so they could make them. His swords were beginning to become a bit legendary. Very oddly, he named the sword brand "Fire Shadow". I would sit on his desk as he drew his blueprints. At that time in my life, it wasn't anywhere near as difficult to be around him as it was when I got older. I was fine with just being in his presence. Sometimes he would speak.
"This extra layer." He would say, as he rubbed a dark blue line around his draft. "Is for a special kind of metal that can conduct any kind of nature that the holder has."
"So, if I'm a lightning style, I can turn it into a lightning sword?"
"Precisely." He said.
I cocked my head whimsically.
"But, Otou-chan, a water sword wouldn't be very useful, would it?"
"You'd be surprised." Was all he said.
Most of the time, he was quiet though... But I felt like I was getting something out of watching anyway. After about an hour or two spending time with my parents, Naruto would come get me.
"Let's go find Itachi and spar!" he'd usually suggest.
"Okay!" I would say, hoping off of his desk.
My fingers grazed the desk at the very place I used to sit on. I had neglected to leave my shoes at the door, eagerly searching for anyone, anything. But I circled the house twice. I didn't find my parents... Or any sign of life.
*The Sword*
My house shook. Wood shavings fell from the ceiling into my hair and stuck to my sweaty forehead. I was in my own room. Everything was exactly the way I left it. Not even a book was slightly out of place. Before I could let myself get sucked into visions of the past, I turned and left the room. I didn't know how much time I had wasted in my own house but I was certain it was more than enough. I bolted onto my outer deck, jumped the fence and rushed to the front gate of the district. I felt grateful to see someone in a leaf uniform crouched there. I felt relieved. Hinata had waited for me. But as I neared, I could tell it was someone else. Someone with slightly lighter hair...
I came to a stop in front of her. She slowly lifted her head and smiled.
"Hinata told me you came in here." She said slowly. "I was just waiting for you."
I couldn't take my eyes away from her face. She...
She forced a laugh.
"Am I that ugly?"
Blood poured down her face. Her lip was busted. She had a black eye.
"That opponent... Is definitely not someone you should copy..."
"Satomi." I said steadily. "Who did this to you?"
Even through all the pain I knew she was feeling, her eyebrows jumped teasingly.
"What, are you going to avenge me?" she asked.
She pushed herself to her feet and leaned against the wire fence.
"Don't bother. I just came to deliver a message."
Same old Satomi, huh?
"I was fighting a really powerful man named Orochimaru with the Third Hokage and other Leaf Jounin." She told me. "But then we were separated by this weird barrier. I ended up having to fight another guy who was just as creepy, Kabuto. Then... Somehow... Orochimaru... He actually..."
"He killed him." I finished.
She looked at me in shock.
"Danzo sent Itachi and I a message." I told her. "What else?"
"Well, when he fell, Danzo came in to fight. I continued on with Kabuto by myself. But... His ninja... The ones they used to infiltrate Konoha. They have some weird jutsu. He used one of them against me and... I couldn't hear anything. And the absence of sound made me really disoriented. I was basically a sitting duck. It would've been a lot worse than this if Itachi-san hadn't shown up right when Danzo was finished."
"So, Danzo is dead as well?"
She nodded.
I frowned, realizing yet again that my brother was smarter than me. If I had come here trying to help, could I really have saved Satomi from such a powerful villain?
She wobbled unsteadily, pin wheeling her arms like she was about to fall backwards. I caught her before she crashed to the ground and gently leaned her against the fence in a sitting position.
"My hearing is just returning." She said. "My balance is really off. It was a miracle I even got here."
"Where is everyone fighting?" I asked.
"On top of the Hokage mansion." She said.
I turned, ready to go assist my brother in any way I could but she grabbed my leg.
"Itachi-san doesn't want you to go there." She told me.
"What?!"
"He wants you to find your parents."
"I looked already, they're not here." I said. "This whole district was probably already evacuated to the secret hiding spots."
"You're wrong." She told me. "They're all fighting desperately to escape."
I froze.
"What?"
She nodded. "The passage ways to the Hokage mountain were the first things to be destroyed. Orochimaru knew about them somehow. All the villagers are being taken outside of the North exit with Genin supervision and protection."
Genin level? Outside the village?
"Who came up with this plan?!"
"Your brother."
"'Tch." I muttered.
"He wants you to assist with the protection of villagers and non-fighters." She said.
"And you?"
"He didn't give me any clear orders except to wait for you to return...then pass the message on."
So, he knew I would defeat Hidan as well. Intelligent bastard... But this plan didn't sound smart at all. Why remove everyone from the village? What was he planning?
"Chunin are already getting the word across. The majority of the villagers are on the move." She said. "Go find your parents."
I scoffed.
"He might've just been promoted to Hokage level." I muttered. "But that doesn't mean he can give me whatever useless orders he wants."
She positioned her hands over her ears and with my Sharingan I could see the greenish chakra pouring out of her palms. She was attempting to heal her injuries. Her eyes eased closed.
"Stop being an ass, Sasuke." She said. "It's not all about you."
"Then tell me, what the hell is the purpose of a Jounin doing a Genin's job?" I asked. "He still thinks of me as a child. He just doesn't want to give me a dangerous job."
"Weren't you the one who was on a solo mission defeating an Akatsuki member? Or did Itachi-san lie about giving you that order?" she asked.
I paused.
"It sounds to me like the only one he would trust with something as precious as getting all the villagers out safe is you." She said.
Then she rolled her neck around and stood up straight.
"That should be enough." She said.
But she was walking with a limp and was still slightly unsteady.
"If anyone should be out of the line of fire, that's you." I told her. "You're not even fully healed."
"Awww." She said, looking back at me with a mock puppy-dog face. "Are you worried about me?"
"'Tch. Of course not." I muttered. "I'm worried about the mission. You're just going to destroy everything."
She sighed exaggeratedly.
"Fine. It's clear little baby Sasuke-kun wants a bottle so I'll humor you." She said. "I'll go with you to take the villagers out."
I rolled my eyes.
"Do what you want, I don't care."
I turned, planning to run but she grabbed my arm.
"Why can't you just admit that you want me around?" she asked.
I could see the playfulness in her eyes but I smacked her hand away.
"Because I don't." I said.
Her eyes eased into a cold glare. I mirrored her expression. A silence passed between us.
"Then why not commit to her?"
I sighed, remembering Itachi's comment, and my expression softened.
"Let's go." I said quietly.
I turned and sped off toward the North exit and she darted after me without a wasted second.
Despite her wounds, she kept up with me pretty well as we jumped atop the roofs of the houses and dodged lunging snakes. At one point, a random leaf ninja that I didn't recognize threw a shuriken in my path, trying to stop us. I turned, planning to phoenix fire him to hell but Satomi jumped over him, slipped a kunai knife out of her pouch, sliced his neck with ease and fell back into step next to me. She caught me staring at her and grinned.
"What did you think I was just sitting around while you were out having brotherly time?"
I shook my head and we ran on.
"There! I see him!" she shouted.
I looked to my right to see my father running over the top of the academy with three leaf ninja on his tail. He suddenly turned around, performed the hand signals, and blew them all off the rooftop.
"Well, damn..." I heard Satomi muttered.
I couldn't help but smile. Yeah, that was my father.
We jumped up onto the roof next to him. He appraised me momentarily.
"Back-up?"
I shook my head.
"Itachi gave me orders to evacuate everyone outside the village." I said. "Including you."
"You think I'm going to take orders from my own son?" my father asked me.
"That's exactly what I said." I agreed.
Suddenly, two ninja jumped onto the roof with us. My father tensed, ready for battle.
"Your mother's hiding in this building." He told me. "You can take her but I'm staying to fight."
I nodded at Satomi who immediately back flipped off the roof and dove into the building through a window. My father's back pressed against mine. I raised my arms, ready to be his back-up. I took on the ninja who ran at me and with my Sharingan, I could see something that no one else had seen in the six months I had been gone. But before I could unravel that mystery, I had to bring him down. His eyes were covered by bandages so it was clear that this opponent didn't fight using sight. I recalled Satomi saying that they messed with her hearing. Sound...
I whistled. The opponent's head turned toward me and he dashed toward me raising a blunt looking object above his head. Something told me I didn't want to get hit by it. My father pulled his sword out of it's holster and stabbed at his opponent who dodged easily.
"Swords have no effect on me!" he shouted, bounding around my father.
It was difficult for me to keep track of my own fight and his, also. I continued whistling at a rhythm. My opponent dove at me with the club, feeling my father's movements and predicting his actions, I ducked as he turned and met the blunt object with his sword. I spun around him and, enacted my Chidori and ran toward my father's opponent with it. He jumped away from me easily.
"It's no use! We can't be cornered by such a loud attack!"
I whistled in response. His eyebrows furrowed.
"Stop making that insufferable noise!" he yelled, coming toward me with a dagger.
My father nudged me. I ducked again, spinning around him on my heels as he blew his fire out in one of his special techniques; ring of fire. The fire circled us and then blasted out. I stood up on his other side, seeing my opponent at a disadvantage and raised my arm toward him. The opponent was stuck by my Chidori true spear.
"Impossible!" he yelled.
The chi-chi sound of my attack rang out.
"How can I be stabbed by such a nosy attack?!"
My father's opponent was almost blown off of the roof with that last attack. He jumped back on the roof and ran at us. I took my attention away from my opponent. He wasn't really stuck by my Chidori. He was caught in a genjutsu...one I had casted using his affinity for sound. My father ran at him with the sword and he jumped up, as I knew he would do, using my father's back as a springboard, I easily met him up there and back-handed him down toward my father who gave me a smile. Not just any smile. That smile. That smile I always ached for.
"Nice one, Itachi!"
I froze.
Itachi? But... Dad, I'm...
He blew his fire ball jutsu up toward the incoming enemy and fried him easily. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. I saw it but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Friend or foe. Threat or not. By the time I categorized it... It was already...
"Otou-san!" I shouted.
He turned, that smile from my assistance still plastered on his face. And then it hit him. The opponent I was supposed to have taken care of. The one who was supposed to be in a genjutsu dove at him and hit him with the blunt weapon he was holding. It was a direct hit. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose. He flew off the rooftop. The opponent immediately turned to me and came for me.
"You!"
I wanted to crush his throat in my fist. I knocked his weapon away with my bare arm ignoring the pain shooting up my hand and shoulder, grabbed his face and shoved him to the ground. Chidori sparks pulsated from my palm and coursed through his face. He screamed. I could see his face frying under my hand. I didn't care.
"Unfortunately... This time, it's reality." I told him.
Even after he wasn't moving, I wanted to keep pounding him into the rooftop but I knew I had more pressing concerns. I took his Konoha headband off and felt satisfied to see another headband under it, wrapped around his fired head. I pulled the second headband off and ran to the roof edge.
My father was lying there, motionless. Two people surrounded him. One was Satomi and the other had to be...
She crouched next to him with her hands on his chest, pushing him, willing him to get up. She turned to Satomi who shook her head slowly, there was nothing she could do. Part of me wanted to turn and run away cover my ears and never come back. But that was a part of me that couldn't exist in that world. My feet hit the dirt next to my father's body. My mother's large, dark eyes rose to me. Even through despair, I could see the relief in her eyes. Glad that I was safe even though her husband wasn't...
My father coughed out more blood. It was like his brain exploded. He was bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth. He grabbed his sword, which had fallen on the ground next to him and raised it to me.
"This..." he struggled to say.
I reached down and took the sword in my hand, gripping it so tightly my hand felt numb.
"Is yours...Sasuke."
I felt a bubbling sensation under my face. My face felt hot. I wanted to turn away but my eyes were glued to his bloody, black ones.
"Protect...them."
I knew who he was talking about without even having to look. It wasn't just my mother, or Satomi or Itachi. It was everyone. It was the village.
Slowly, his eyes closed. Mine closed, too. I remembered the day I showed him the fireball jutsu with Naruto. And all the times watching him make swords. And everything... Everything... All the times...
Nothing was ever going to be the same again, would it?
"Fugaku-san, how long are you going to stay alive?" Naruto randomly asked one day.
"That's not something you ask someone!" I shouted at him.
He shrugged.
"Cause you're already old, so I was just wondering." He said off-handedly.
I expected him to get mad. I don't know why I did. My father was never really angry... Just detached. In many ways, his detachedness felt like white anger. To my utter shock, he smiled at us both.
"Death isn't something you can call." He said. "But if I ever could decide when and how I die. I hope it's in this village, protecting the people I love, surrounded by the people I love."
Naruto cocked his head, the information was clearly flying right over his head. I understood him, to a certain point, but I never revisited that memory... Until...
Though his face was bloody, his mouth was pulled into a pleasant smile.
"You...have what you want." I whispered.
My Mother held his hand. Satmoi's hand brushed through my hair. I allowed her to pull my hair back off my forehead and hug me from behind.
But... I can't blame you. What kind of death is better than one with the touch of the woman you love still hot on your skin?
Naruto
*Time*
I was surprised how quickly it took to get him to talk. It felt like it was only two or three minutes of me lying down there before he sighed.
The Sage of the Six Paths...
I'd heard stories about him from Itachi-nissan. But I thought it was just that. Just stories. Suddenly, fairytale was becoming reality.
All the beasts form one beast, the ten tails. The only reason to try to get all the beasts together would be if one wanted to resurrect the ten tails.
"But I don't even know if such a thing is possible unless the Sage comes back." Kurama told me.
It sounded to me like anything and everything was becoming possible.
"So, you'll help me defeat these enemies, Kurama?" I asked him.
He huffed.
"I suppose." He agreed. "Your death isn't specifically something I want to happen but... Don't assume that we're best friends or anything."
"Too late, I already picked out a nickname for you."
My laugh rang out as he narrowed his black, beady eyes on me.
"Let's go, Kurama!"
I grasped the door handle. It was strange... It was the door to the main room where we had all mediated as a group but it was also the door to get out of my mind. I glanced back at Kurama. As we talked, I'd taken the cuffs and chains off of him. He stood tall, looking down at me. Somewhat proudly. I nodded at him and pushed the door open.
It's time...
"Oh! One's coming out!"
The light was almost blinding. I had to blink a couple times to steady my vision. The door swung closed behind me.
"It's the nine tails!" someone declared.
I rubbed my eyes and looked out at them clearly.
Someone's hand clapped onto my shoulder.
"Welcome back, Naruto."
I looked out at a circle of samurai with their hands clasped together sitting just as we Jinchuriki sat before. The samurai watched me in awe. Mifune grinned at me.
"How did it go?"
"Pretty well." I said, stretching out. "Where are the other guys? Did they go ahead?"
A very noticeable silence passed.
"Well... Actually, Naruto, you're the first one out."
"Huh?!" I exclaimed.
He nodded solemnly.
"It seems no one else could learn to master their tailed beast." He said.
Did Mifune get shorter?
I ran my hand through my hair.
"Well, no worries." I said, turning around. "It's not like we're pressed for time or anything."
"Actually..." Mifune said. "This land is in terrible danger at the moment."
I turned back around quickly.
"The Akatsuki have simultaneously ambushed every ninja village."
"What?!"
He pointed toward a map he had spread out on the table.
"Everything's in chaos. Your village, Konoha, correct? Was ambushed by two akatsuki leaders, Kabuto and Orochimaru, and the cloud, rain, stone, mist and sand villages have all been ambushed."
I clenched my fists.
"They're... They're looking for me... For us... Aren't they?"
"No one is certain yet. The militaries of each land are barely keeping the people alive." He said.
"How could this much have happened in just an hour or two!?" I exclaimed.
Mifune cocked his head.
"An...hour?" he asked. "Naruto, it may have felt like an hour to you in whatever world you were trapped in but for us, for real time, many months have passed."
"What?"
He dragged my hand and pulled me along to the common bathroom.
"Look at yourself."
He pointed at a mirror and my jaw dropped.
"What the hell...?!" I exclaimed.
I touched my face.
Wasn't it only an hour or so ago I was washing my face here with Gaara and we were talking about how hard the chakra gates test was!?
"The world is very different from the one you left." Mifune went on.
How is this possible!?
"You must proceed with caution."
I look like I'm sixteen years old!
I ran my fingers through my longish blonde hair and looked at Mifune.
He didn't get shorter at all... I'm taller!
"You must awaken the other Jinchuriki and enter the battlefield along with them." He told me. "If not, you won't stand a chance."
And more importantly, I haven't even trained to see how well I can fight with Kurama... I thought I had a lot more time than this... And the others haven't even woken up...
"We don't have time for this." I said.
And I haven't even figured out how I'm going to get them to realize the secret!
"I can help you there."
Huh? Kurama?
"We can meet with the other Jinchuriki in our minds." Kurama told me. "I'll just call a meeting."
I closed my eyes, almost immediately, I was whisked away. Someone shook me. I stumbled backwards.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed.
A large, dark-skinned man grinned down at me.
"Yo, Naruto!"
"Hey, Bee!" I said, fist bumping him. "Wait... You're already friends with the Eight Tails just fine, right? Why are you still in here?"
He grinned.
"I thought I'd waste a bit of time, hiding from my bro and writing rhymes."
I smiled back, but only for a second.
"We can't waste time here, Bee." I told him. "Every minute we spend in here is like an hour! Almost two years passed out there, Bee! Look at me! I'm a lot older now!"
He shrugged.
"So what if that's true? I'm still older than you."
"There's a war going on!"
Kurama appeared behind me standing next to Killer Bee's Octopus-Ox tailed beast. He nodded, agreeing.
"My village, your village, they're barely managing to stay alive!"
He was serious then. More serious then I'd ever seen him.
"Why is it just you? Shouldn't the others be here, too?"
"They haven't learned how to master it." I said. "We'll have to teach them the secret."
"That's not all we have to do. You all will need to train, too."
Kurama and the eight tails put their hands together like they were weaving some kind of jutsu. Slowly, all the other Jinchuriki and their beasts appeared around us, one by one.
Sasuke, Hinata, everyone... Wait for me!