The sound of a skull meeting a brick wall was loud enough to scare up a rat that had been feasting on what had at one point been food and was now degraded to trash. It scampered off deeper into the alley, leaving those who had disrupted its meal alone in the dark.
Sasuke never noticed the rodent, his focus solely on the man he had pressed up against the brickwall, his fingers curled in the front of a dirty shirt, his other hand pulled back, tightened into a fist, ready to punch. He wanted the man to resist, wanted him to give him a reason to let his fist fly, feel the skin on his knuckles split as it broke the man's nose. It wouldn't give him the answers he was looking for though, so he kept back, his hand shaking with the effort to restrain himself.
"I swear, man, I don't know nothing!" the man said, hands clawing at Sasuke's wrist in an effort to get free. Sasuke answered by tightening his grip and slamming the man back against the wall again.
"Then give me a reason to let you live. You are not proving yourself worth much to me right now," Sasuke spat, pushing closer, letting the piece of garbage know just how true that threat was. Sasuke was a man on a mission, he wasn't above getting his hands dirty.
"Come on, I'll help, I'll, I'll… I'll ask around, okay, I can find what you want!"
Sasuke couldn't quite hide the disgust on his face, and he knew better than to trust a lowlife like this with anything, but right now he was desperate enough to give him a chance.
It had been four weeks since he had lost Naruto, four weeks of being alone, having no idea where Naruto was or what he was doing. He was on leave from work, under Kakashi's explicit orders, and he had slowly been going mad being stuck in his apartment, so he had done the one thing he knew too well how to do, he started looking for someone who didn't want to be found. He pointedly made sure never to tell Kakashi nor Shizune about this. He was sure the therapist he was forced to see wasn't going to approve in the slightest.
His too long search for Itachi might not have yielded many results through the years, but it had given Sasuke more contacts in the shady side of the world than he would ever know what to do with, so he had started searching. Naruto had left him to figure out what he was, so obviously the only way he was going to get him back was to find those answers himself. If Itachi had known what a Protos was that meant others would know as well, it was just a matter of getting them to spill.
This particular piece of scum was little more than a shifter gone druggie. Thing was that shits this low on the hierarchy had a tendency to crawl around unnoticed in the shadows. No one paid particularly mind to the scrawny shifter who just wanted another hit to keep his nightmares at bay, so the people like him tended to… pick up news a lot. Trouble was that they were often high enough that reality and dream mixed together, so it was hard to tell which was which, but Sasuke was grasping at straws, and right now this man was his straw, and he wasn't above breaking it if he thought it would help. He wasn't technically supposed to kill anyone that wasn't a vampire, since this guy was technically still classified as human rather than walking corpse, but who would ever know?
The rational part of his brain knew that was a barrier he should not cross, that it would take him firmly into the territory of bad guy, but he wasn't even sure he cared anymore. He didn't like the feeling of helplessness that came from sitting around at home, the loneliness became too big and overpowering, so he needed to distract himself. So far it had led to bruised knuckles, a black eye and no useable information.
"I'll give you a chance," Sasuke said, letting his fist drop, but keeping his fingers in the shifter's shirt, leaning close enough that he was sure the other wasn't going to miss a word. "I need to know about Protos. Someone out there knows what it is, and the moment you sniff out anything you report back to me, and I promise I won't drag you off to the DPA."
The mention of the agency sent another spike of fear through the shifter. The DPA was the big bad in the dark underbelly of the city, known for it's strict way of hitting down on any crime committed by any preternatural being. They were a lot more effective than the human police, and punishment was swift and ruthless, and the shifter well knew it. No community service if you could be traced back to crime that had hurt people, and certain branches of the DPA was very talented at tracing.
"Shit, man, I promise, I promise, okay. Protos, yeah, sure, I'll tell ya," the shifter sputtered out, hands held up, palms outwards in a placating manner, as if Sasuke was little more than a rabid dog.
He wasn't too far off. Desperation could make any man smudge the line between right and wrong, and Sasuke's line was little more than a shadow at this point. He had too many kills on his conscience, had seen too much bad, had lost too much.
Back in the DPA headquarters Kakashi was sitting behind his desk, staring blankly at the computer screen, the incoming messages that were slowly piling up staying ignored. His phone was still pressed to his ear, even though the person on the other end had long since hung up.
Tonight had started up as usual, him delegating the most prudent assignments, sending each of his agents into the field to fight the brutal predators they faced every night. There had been the usual laughter and banter among the group, eight of his agents, and two others, two that were there to make up for those who were gone. They were capable enough, but Sasuke and Naruto was his agents, they belonged, and these two were just temps, and it was jarring to see them at the other two's desks each evening. Still, they had been undermanned before Naruto left and Sasuke was put on leave, so it was crucial to have them in the unit.
He had just gotten an update from the field, and again he found himself useless stuck behind a desk while his unit members were out there, risking their life. Apparently Lee had been overpowered by a vampire, nearly got his jugular torn out, until Sakura stepped in and snapped the vampire's neck, incapacitating it long enough to execute it properly. Lee was fine, just twin scratches that needed little but some rinsing and maybe a bandaid, but it had been close. Every day there were new incidents where it seemed pure luck was the one thing between death and success. No matter how good the agents were at their job it would take so little, a mere moment of not paying attention and their lives would be snuffed out.
He closed his eyes, two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt as if it was only a matter of time until he lost someone, until luck wasn't on their side anymore and someone lost their lives to the fight against the vampire plague. Their sacrifice wasn't enough, for every vampire they killed two more seemed to be brought into their wretched unlife. The DPA needed a way to stop them altogether, to mend the rifts between their realm and the demonic one, to stop the demons from entering in the first place, but no amount of scientist had been able to find out what had happened to create the rift in metaphysical space in the first place, and thusly the vampire execution branch of the DPA had been born, agents trained specifically to hunt and kill them all because there was nothing good in these demons, no redeeming factors at all, and right now only Kakashi's unit, and its sister units across the country, were the one line of defense they had, and in truth it seemed rather laughable.
He slammed the phone a little too forcefully to the desk and pushed away, getting to his feet. Sakura and Lee was on their way back, but it would take them a while, and in the meanwhile he was going to do what he should have done weeks ago. He needed to talk to Tsunade.
She was sitting at her desk when he was called into the office not ten minutes later. There were stacks of paperwork in front of her, and she looked happy to see him, if only because it was a respite from the eternal paperwork that came with her position.
"Hatake, sit down," she said, nodding towards the chair placed in front of her desk. When Kakashi slumped into it he could barely see her head over the pile of papers he recognised as the reports he and the other unit leaders were forced to send in. Useless waste of paper, but everything needed to be documented, and it was nothing they could do about that. He straightened his posture just enough to see the entirety of her face.
"How are the temps working out?" she asked, shuffling away some papers and leaning forward a little, her ample cleavage very much on display but holding little interest to Kakashi. He'd take a smooth, tan chest over boobs any day.
"As well as you can expect," he said noncommittally. "They seem uncomfortable with the executions, but they do what they must."
"But they are not what you came to talk about." Tsunade filled in what Kakashi wasn't saying.
"No, they are not." Kakashi ran a hand through his hair, stalling. "It's about Uzumaki and why he quit."
As Kakashi left Tsunade's office thirty minutes later he was glad he was not Tsunade's assistant, because having to tidy up the countless stacks of papers that had fallen to the floor as Tsunade had broken her desk with a well-placed slam of her fist fueled by her sheer fury at learning what Kakashi had kept from her would be a tedious assignment indeed.
Truth be told he was just glad he was walking away without a table leg shoved up his ass, she had been furious enough for that to be a viable option. Not only had one of her agents hurt another to the point of almost killing him, but said agent was now on the run, and was possibly unstable, and Kakashi had kept it all from her, and Kakashi knew that the only reason he wasn't now walking away without a job was that she couldn't afford to have to find someone else for his position.
He felt as if he was betraying Naruto by setting Tsunade on his trail, but he had realised that right now this was the one thing he could do to help him. Naruto was alone, and there was no knowing what state he was in, and right now he just needed to get back, they could deal with the consequences later.
He really hoped he hadn't just made a terrible mistake.
Blood was steadily flowing from Naruto's arm, dark red through the glass of the vials that the man in the white coat was filling up.
He was sitting on a stainless steel table in a room in the basement of the cabin. It had been a surprise when he first saw it, a modern piece of white and steel that looked out of place in the otherwise traditional cabin. By now he had gotten used to it. They'd tapped so much blood from him he was wondering if he even had anything left at all, but Sai kept saying that it was crucial to test the effects of the suppressants they shot him up with every other day. Experimental as it was they had a hard time getting the dosage right.
The first shot had Naruto think he was dying, and he had spent the next day in a haze of pain. By the sixth he was just dizzy and queasy, and the tenth wasn't strong enough, the beast still there, snapping at Sai, twisting his features into that of the beast before he could be held down to top off the dosage. The eleventh had him convulsing all through the night, having to spend it strapped down to the bed to ensure he didn't hurt himself.
They were getting closer, but it still made Naruto feel sick more often than not.
It didn't matter, because through the drowsiness and the quesiness and the pain one thing was clear.
They worked.
As his time in the cabin neared the month mark he realised that it had been over a week since he last felt any stirring from the beast. The heat that he had gotten used to swirling in his gut was gone, leaving behind a cold hollowness. He didn't dwell on that feeling too much, too glad to finally feel in control to pay attention to it.
The medic, an elderly rat shifter, removed the needle from his arm and taped a cotton wad to the nook of his elbow, nose twitching in a way that showed he had spent too much time in his rat form, the mannerisms bleeding into his human form. He even looked a little like a rat. Long nose, small eyes, front teeth that was a little too long for his mouth.
"That's it for the day," he said, shuffling out of the way so Naruto could jump down from the table and roll down the sleeves of his sweater. He peeled away the cotton wad and threw it out when the rat wasn't paying attention. He never said anything, but it wasn't as if he needed it, the wound healed up too fast for more than a bead of blood to escape.
He had wondered how the suppressants would affect his abilities, but so far he seemed much as before. His healing was still fast, and he was still strong. Apart from the fact that they made him sick more often than not these suppressants seemed like a miracle.
Naruto left the room, and almost walked right into Sai, who was hovering outside. He never seemed to get a break from the other, he was always there, lurking around corners. He was either madly in love with Naruto, or had just been told to keep an eye out for him, and Naruto desperately hoped it was the latter.
"Dickless, he's here to see you," Sai said, following after Naruto as Naruto took the stairs up to his room, intending to change into sweats and getting in his daily workout.
He had no idea where Sai had gotten the nickname, but Naruto had gotten pissed the first time Sai called him that, so Sai kept it going, finding some sick pleasure in it. Naruto was of mind to drop his pants and show him that he he was in no way dickless, but he also kind of suspected that was exactly what Sai wanted, so he refrained from doing so.
"Who's here to see me?" he asked instead. He was positive he did in no way know anyone that was likely to visit him here considering no one he knew had any idea where he was.
Sai cocked his head to the side, smiling at him as if he knew something Naruto didn't, which made perfect sense, because Naruto had no idea who the hell he was supposed to meet.
"He," Sai said as if Naruto was an idiot for not getting it. "Is here to see you. I recommend a shower and a change of clothes." His gaze dropped to the long-sleeved sweater Naruto was wearing, the one with the hole in one pit, and a grease stain he had never been able to get rid of on the front. His jeans sported more holes to finish off the outfit of the day.
Naruto had no idea who he needed to dress up for, until realisation suddenly hit him. He . The one in charge of everything, the owner of this place, the one behind the suppressants, the one he had thought he would meet when he first came here. Sai had said that he had every intention of coming earlier, but work had gotten in the way, and that Naruto would realise why when he met him. For some reason Sai had never said his name, just kept referring to him as he , and everyone else here did the same, as if it was so clear who they were talking about.
Naruto wasn't sure if he was nervous or excited to meet the one who had given him the possibility of maybe being free of the beast forever.
"Shower," Sai stated, leaning against the doorway, making no move to leave Naruto alone in his room to actually get that shower.
"Yeah, yeah, dickhead. Are you going to watch me strip?" Naruto said offhandedly as he dug out some clean clothes from the dresser in the room. Nothing he had thought to bring was really very nice looking so he just took whatever had the fewest holes and stains.
When Sai made no move to actually get his ass out of his room Naruto stalked over, shoved him away and slammed the door shut in his face. For a while Naruto just stared at the closed door, feelings swirling in his mind. For the last weeks he had lived in some sort of limbo. His days were spent getting tests in the medbay, working out or helping out around the cabin with chores. There weren't many people around to talk to, and those that were mostly stayed away from him, leaving only Sai like some shadow always on his tail, and if it was one thing Naruto didn't want it was to talk to Sai. He hadn't allowed himself to think too much about what was going on here, who the man who owned a cabin like this in the middle of nowhere and took care of supernatural creatures in distress was. Sai had referred to this as a sanctuary of sorts, saying that everyone here was someone who had to leave regular society for various reasons. Naruto wasn't sure everyone was very nice people, but he kept that opinion to himself for now. The suppressants were working, and they were getting closer to a dosage that kept the beast at bay without making him sick, and that was the sole reason he was here, and the one thing he was going to focus on.
He yanked off his clothes and stepped into the adjacent bathroom, turning on the cold water and stepping under, his body seizing up as the icy cold blast hit his skin. He ignored it for a few moments more, needing the cold to clear his mind. There was really only one thing he wanted right now, and that wasn't to meet some benefactor. He wanted to go home. Home wasn't even a place to him anymore, it was a person. He missed Sasuke with every fiber of his being, and no matter how many times he tried to tell himself that he needed to stop thinking about him and just focus on why he was here it was so hard. His body just yearned to wrap around Sasuke's body and pull him close, burying his face in the nook of his neck and just breathing in his scent.
When his body seemed to go numb from the cold he finally turned the knob to heat the water somewhat and scrubbed off quickly, washing away the sweat from having chopped wood earlier and the pinprick of a blood drop that was all that was left from the session in the medbay.
Knowing he was just procrastinating when he washed his hair for a second time he begrudgingly got out of the shower, getting dressed. It felt oddly as if he was preparing for his doom.
Tsunade was dreaming fondly of the bottle of liquor she had waiting for her at home and yet again questioned why she had thought accepting this job was a good idea. Sure, the pay wasn't half bad, and came in handy when she went gambling, but the stress of managing an entire DPA branch and its dozens of agents was eating at her. Numerous reports of people hurt at job, cases gone bad, people dying because they were never enough. Shifters that needed help but got incarcerated, because there weren't enough money to help. An ever growing flow of vampires that killed more people than she could count. Ghoul infestations in most of the cemeteries in the city and a coven of witches that had turned to human sacrifice in what seemed to be sheer boredom. And that was just this week.
She was tired of arguing with stuffy old men for more money. They didn't get how it was out on the streets, what the DPA went through on a daily basis, they just saw numbers. She was tired of endless reports that needed her approval. She was tired of responsibility, but at the same time she knew someone would be stuck in this position no matter what, and it might as well be her.
She was glaring at a particularly tall stack of paper when the phone rang, and she dove for it out of sheer desperation to procrastinate paperwork just a little bit longer.
"Tsunade," someone said, and Tsunade recognised the voice of Homura Mitokado, and suddenly the idea of paperwork held a whole new appeal.
"Yes?" she said, knowing she wasn't going to like what came up now. Mitokado was one of the stuffy old men (and women, although the former was definitely in majority) that seemed to be there solely to make her life a living hell. Politicians. A sleazy bunch that delegated money and thusly had a hand in everything that went on in the DPA. She had a feeling they all cared more for their own personal causes than that of the city, but there was little she could do about it.
"We just received word that there has been a warrant issued for an agent of yours, one Naruto Uzumaki," he said, and Tsunade fought with herself not to slam down the phone receiver. She could just imagine what was coming now, berating for having hired someone who would do anything to get himself a warrant on his head. They hadn't issued it as anything criminal, it was posted as he was needed for questioning and little else. Kakashi had told him everything that had happened, and together they had decided on this course of action. Even if Uzumaki had technically attacked one of their agents there were circumstances regarding it that Tsunade would take into account, but that she knew the higher uppers would definitely not care about. They'd see dangerous or out of control and lock him away, Tsunade saw someone she needed to talk to to assess. There were a lot of things the big men didn't know about how she ran her office, and she preferred it that way.
"And?" she said curtly.
"We just want to inform you that the warrant has been rescinded. You will not use any resources to track down this man. It has been taken care of."
Tsunade sputtered into the phone. Rescinded the warrant? Why? It didn't sound like they had found him, and there was no reason for them to rescind the warrant unless they had either found him, or someone higher up than her knew something she didn't. She didn't like that one bit.
"Why?" she asked, even though she knew exactly what she would be told, because she had been in the situation before. There were no love lost between her and Mitokado, and she knew he resented her. She didn't really care about his opinion, but she was still bound by his and the others in his position, shackled from doing truly good by the red tape of bureaucracy.
"That is classified information. Forget about the agent, hire someone else for his position," Mitokado said and hung up before Tsunade could protest.
The plastic of her phone receiver made a threatening cracking sound as her fist closed around it, and she had to force herself to put it down before she broke it. Her assistant had chided her because she kept doing that and he had to go out to by new ones.
Something was going on, and she didn't like it one bit.
Sai was creeping outside his bedroom door when Naruto finished dressing, so he shouldered past him and headed towards the stairs leading down to the first floor. He had no idea what to expect, he had tried to imagine who would have an interest in creating a place like this. Some shifter with bad experiences in his past perhaps? But how did he know what Naruto was, when Naruto had spent months trying to find out, when the entire archive at the DPA seemed to come up empty. Was the owner of the cabin a Protos as well? Would he be able to explain more?
"He's in the study," Sai offered when Naruto got to the bottom of the stairs and had no idea where to go. Naruto shot him a middle finger over his shoulder and headed in the direction of the study, a room Sai had pointed out to him but he hadn't been in.
He stopped in front of the door, hesitating a moment before he knocked. His mind was swirling, and he couldn't decide if he was looking forward to this at all, but he knew worrying wouldn't help, he just had to meet the man and take it from there.
"Come in," someone said front within, and Naruto pushed open the door, hearing Sai following him.
There was a man sitting behind the wooden desk across the room. Naruto's first thought was that he looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place him. He was middle-aged, wore a crisp white shirt crossed over by suspenders, and a tie around his neck, still tightened in a way that had Naruto gulping, glad he wasn't the one wearing it, but also feeling woefully underdressed in his almost-whole jeans and mostly-clean sweater.
The man rose up and reached a hand across the desk. Naruto walked close enough to grasp it. The man's grip was firm, and the handshake lingered just a little too long for comfort.
"Naruto Uzumaki," he said, and Naruto had no idea how to respond to that, because he had no clue what the man's name was. He felt that he should, he was almost positive he had met him before.
The man made it easy for him, and Naruto couldn't help but to appreciate that. "We met at the fundraiser a while back, if you recall," he said as he sat back down, motioning towards a chair placed to the side of the room, "Please, take a seat."
Sai stepped in before Naruto could do it and dragged the chair across the room, setting it down right in front of the desk, and Naruto spared him a quick glare before he took a seat, feeling like he was fourteen and had been sent to the principal's office all over again.
He remembered that dinner, it had started off boring and had ended up anything but. He scanned through the numerous business men and politicians he had met when realisation hit him. "Councilman Shimura," he said, remembering the man he had talked to, the one who had appeared to dismiss him as little other than scum.
"Please, call me Danzo," the councilman said. "We have a lot to talk about."
A/N: I know I've been bad and not updated in months, but I guess I have good news? Unleashed was my NaNoWriMo project this november, so I have the next 45K words or so all written up and ready to be edited, so hopefully you won't have to wait months for the next chapter. Enjoy this one, and please leave a review to tell me how it was!
