Disclaimer: I shall be a faghag to a glorious geebee one day. I will. One day. ONE DAY.
And in my dreams, Sasuke wears lipstick. But for now, Naruto is not mine.
Unbeta~ed, because I'm too lazy.
True story, bro.
I don't want to hurt you
I don't want to make you sway
Like I know I've done before
I will not do it anymore
I've always been a dreamer
I've had my head among
the clouds
But now that I'm coming down
Won't you be my solid ground?
"Sway" by The Perishers
Disenchanted
By
JD01 (Emerald Lies)
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Finally, Finally
Time. Skip.
8 YEARS LATER.
XXX
Finally.
Heaven knows this day was a long time coming.
And he knew it, he could have predicted it.
The way his bed creaked this morning when he rolled off— a strange, acute, almost stringent creaking, he had noted with morbid fascination. You have to understand, his bed never creaked. Nor did it crack or crick or croc. It was perfectly crisp at all times. Firm, but smooth, the springs never once complaining underneath his weight. But today, it creaked, and Sasuke was not a superstitious guy, but he knew that for his bed to creak, it had to be a bad omen.
And after being torn over the strange auditory occurrence, Sasuke noted much to his sheer horror, that he had a perfect round of saliva staining his pillow. An eerie perfect sphere of wetness on his firm-but-not-too-firm pillow. Sasuke never drooled. It just… It didn't happen. Monkey drooled. Apes drooled. Baboons drooled. Lesser humans drooled. But Sasuke did no such thing! It was just… physiologically impossible.
But today of all days, Sasuke… Sasuke drooled.
And that wasn't even the worse part.
Oh no, there was more. After applying a perfect curve of toothpaste on his toothbrush (5.7 ml, not that he actually measured…) – which lasted him for exactly 243 strokes with 3 rinse breaks scattered in between— Sasuke realized he had run short.
Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, when at his 137th stroke, he realized that he was running short of freshness of the toothpaste.
Oh no. It couldn't be. Had he not applied the right amount? Surely the morning's events couldn't have possibly distressed him so? For him to make such a grave mistake?
His toothbrush fell from his limp hand, as he clutched the basin, his head spinning.
He didn't even jump from his sunken position as Kakashi suddenly waltzed right behind him, with an aura of urgency swirling about him.
"Sasuke!" he implored thunderously. "Hurry, it's the Hokage," Kakashi said grievously, before dissipating into thin air as inexplicably as he had appeared not even seven seconds ago.
Sasuke lifted his head up.
He could have predicted it.
XXX
"Why was nobody surveying her?" Sasuke boomed as he angrily paced about the room.
She clicked her tongue in annoyance as she watched his signature angry pacing, clearly not in the mood to have wild accusations thrown her way, and certainly not by the Uchiha.
Typical douche bag behaviour. Blame everyone else for his own shortcomings.
"I don't know, Captain. Why don't you tell me?" Sakura retorted acerbically, glaring at her once superior viciously.
Sasuke stopped in his tracks and snarled at the once ass-kissingly, sickly sweet young apprentice medic nin. Oh how quickly they change. The change in her demeanour had struck him like a torpedo. Several years ago, back when he was directing the trio of dunderheads— Sai, the creep; Sakura, the useless and Naruto, the dobe. One day, poof! The insolent set of brats had decided to skip practice— practice he was forced to give in the spirit of fucking team bonding after the Suna disaster, he recalled through gritted teeth.
Fucking brats and their fucking drama.
He grimaced at the memory.
That beastly-breasted Hokage claimed that she had sent the trio on some special mission— but Sasuke wasn't the Captain for no reason. He could smell deception miles away. What with her inconsistent body language, it was practically painted in neon colours; her too intense eyes, her slightly hunched shoulders, the looking down in the left corner for barely a split second.
She had lied to him.
But no one else had seemed to know the answer and no one else seemed to even care that three ninjas directly under the guidance of the captain would mysteriously and spontaneously be sent on such a long-term mission, without his assistance.
He sourly clicked his tongue.
A captain should not be kept in the dark regarding missions! It was his right, his duty to know.
But alas, the stubborn bitch (even though he probably shouldn't be insulting her aloud in a time like this…) didn't let up.
A year had gone and passed, and finally one spring morning— it was like any other spring morning. The air was too thickly damp with the promise of an early afternoon shower, the soggy soil crushed underneath his weight. The musk scent of rain, mixed with the sweetness of just-blossoming flowers hung heavily in the air— a smell that Sasuke rather disliked, he wasn't entirely sure why… perhaps it was others' over fondness of the smell and the stupid, muggy season that repelled him.
The gates to the village were wide open, announcing a new day of business. The normal band of cheerful dunces waltzed in with bright, spring-loving smiles neatly plastered on, making Sasuke's innards churn violently.
And as the nimbostratus gently clouded over the timid sun, he felt a new presence walk through the gate.
Not the typical rather moronic "let's make an idiot of ourselves and dance in the rain" type of visitor— no, this was a very familiar figure. Or at least, looks wise, she was familiar, mused Sasuke.
With the firm, confident clip-clop of sandals, in entered the only naturally pink-haired ninja Konoha has ever had the pride to house.
Sasuke had stopped in his tracks— had he been a lesser man, he would have been gaping at this queer and most unexpected sight. But instead, he just quietly stood in place and observed his former student.
Her hair was slightly longer, but still as bubble-gum pink as ever, and she hadn't grown one bit. Physically, she was undeniably Sakura Haruno.
But, as she strode past him without even sparing him a second glance, Sasuke could tell that something in her had changed.
Soon Sasuke would discover that long gone were the star-struck eyes, the high-pitched hopeful rambles, the longing glances, the nerve-grating heavy sighs.
In its stead stood a young woman who strut through the entrance gates like a man, carried herself around like a man and threw lethal blows like a raging bull… (which also happens to be male, Sasuke reinforced.)
If it quacks like a duck…
And however annoying the girl's obsessive infatuation might have been, at least back then, she knew when to shut her cakehole and take orders like a good little underling.
Unfortunately, just when the pink-haired medic nin decided to become useful to society, she also magically grew a very unnerving backbone.
One step forward, two steps back…
So now, the wannabe-man on steroids ran around the village, throwing scathing remarks left and right and vocalizing her opinions on everything. Every. Fucking. Thing.
You couldn't even give the thing (because Sasuke was honest to God confused about her gender and felt uncomfortable referring to her as a female; he assumed that gender confusion was the most likely source of all her problems) an order without hearing an earful.
"The Hokage was placed under twenty-four/seven supervision, Haruno," he bit out the last word as if it was something crude and vulgar. "Where are my men?"
"You don't even know where your little army of muscleheads is?" Sakura asked, incredulous. "My, what competence," she spit out with as much venom as she could muster.
Sasuke derisively snorted, seriously contemplating if he could get away with Katon~ing the rotten bitch.
"Shouldn't you be assisting her, medic nin?" he sneered, taking relish in his uncanny ability of making even the most noble professions sound so sleazy. He balled his fists at his sides.
Must not hit woman. No matter how much of a man said woman is.
"She's relatively stable. Hyuuga's with her now," Sakura said softly, her hands on her hips.
Tsunade… Tsunade was like a surrogate mother to her and… Stop it! Focus!
Sakura chewed her inner cheek in frustration.
"We have to call the meeting. Is the council of elders aware of the situations?" Sasuke asked, in the most civil tone he could muster at the moment.
"The Hokage is in a coma, Captain. A coma. She has been poisoned, Captain," Sakura spoke slowly and enunciated each word in a rather insulting and infantilising manner, "Do you honestly think such news could possibly remain hidden from them?" she retorted in clear annoyance.
"Mind your tone, Haruno!" Sasuke growled, with his rage flaring by the second. Even when he tried to be civil…
"You have no authority over me," she cut him sharply, garnering a most lethal look from Sasuke, who was showing a noble level of self-control.
"Children, children, this is neither the time nor the place for such a display," Kakashi abruptly stepped into the Hokage's office, raising his hand to quiet Sasuke when it was obvious that he was going to retort something unpleasant and instigate a verbal warfare. "Our leader has been poisoned. That's a direct attack to our village, our people. What are you thinking, fighting like immature twats? Sakura, as the Hokage's underling, have you alerted the council of the situation?"
The said pink-haired ninja averted her eyes, and for a split second, Sasuke saw the insecure youngling he had taken under his wing way back when.
"I… I didn't need to… they already knew…" she admitted uncomfortably and Sasuke found it hard to believe that this was the face of the enraging shemale who had come to make his life that much more miserable.
"What do you mean they already knew?" Kakashi demanded, in a crisp, alert tone that did nothing to soothe Sakura's budding nervousness.
The cacophonous alarm bells in Sasuke's head began ringing at once.
Something about the entire situation just didn't bode well with him.
He keenly surveyed Kakashi, "I thought you were the one to find her…?"
"I did. On the floor, bleeding. I didn't alert any council elder. The only people I contacted are here in this room, and Hyuuga," Kakashi answered casually, and although there was no change in inflection, Sasuke perceived a slight change in posture that spoke volumes of the seriousness of the situation.
"Hinata wouldn't speak to anyone," Sakura quickly jumped in to the defence of her friend before any wild accusation could be fired. She turned her gaze sharply to her once sensei.
"What are you looking at, Haruno?" Sasuke boomed furiously, when he felt her accusing emerald eyes pierce through him in that typical self-righteous manner of hers.
"Where are your men?" she asked in return, with barely concealed fury buzzing beneath her skin, " The guards you assigned to watch the Hokage— where are they?"
Sasuke, who had become greatly intolerant to all these rotten games, had no patience to play a round of twenty questions.
He gritted his teeth and plainly growled, "What are you insinuating?"
"Why can't you even answer a simple question?" the medic nin shrieked, seconds from gutting him with her kunai. Sadistic? Maybe. Necessary? Definitely.
"Who was on duty, Sasuke?" Kakashi intervened, in all his perfected professionalism.
"The bug freak and dog-breath," Sasuke answered at once; despite Sakura's inane beliefs, he happened to be a good, no great— and perhaps even the best captain that Konoha has ever bred. He was always on top of things.
Kakashi mulled over this piece of information, being fairly familiar with the likes of those two.
"Sasuke, dispatch your men to go find Aburame and Inuzuka." He then turned to Sakura and shot her a meaningful look. "You. Keep a steady eye on Hokage-sama. We need to find an antidote and it's pressing. I'll go call up the meeting. Sasuke, join me later."
Sasuke nodded curtly and dissipated with an audible poof!
Sakura was slack-jaw with astonishment. She wildly flailed her arms in incredulity, angrily pointing to where seconds ago stood one egotistical, arrogant Uchiha Sasuke.
"You're really going to let him find his own men? Do you not see what's happening here? Kakashi-sensei I always thought you were a smart man, but this… this really takes the cake. His men were in charge of guarding Hokage-sama! I know Shino and Kiba! They'd never let their guard down! Not for a second! And now suddenly they disappeared and he," she shrieked until her windpipe was raw, pointing furiously to the thin air, "is claiming that he is unaware? Can you buy that? Captain at the fucking age of seventeen and he is unaware?"
"Enough, Sakura-chan," Kakashi interrupted her angry spiel in that infuriating light-hearted, almost jovial manner of his.
"Get to work!" he added in singsong, before he followed suit.
Sakura turned her head to the side and shook it in disbelief, and before she could even sigh in frustration, she was slammed to the wall, the wind knocked right out of her.
With a steel grip pressed to her throat, practically crushing her windpipe, she gasped harshly, struggling to breathe. Her eyes look about wildly, into those familiar, cruel coal eyes she knew all too well.
Her ninja-instincts kicking in, Sakura kept herself from weeping and tried to remain alert as the pressure on her neck increased.
She clasped her eyes shut, attempting a technique to achieve inner-peace in stressful, do-or-die situations that Tsunade had taught her many moons ago.
Breathe. Just breathe. Just focus on the air entering… in, in, in.
That's it, just breathe…
The harsh, sadistic hiss unpleasantly tickled the side of her ear with an uncomfortable, hostile intimacy. The deep rumble whispered menacingly, "Treason is a serious accusation, Haruno. I wouldn't make it lightly if I were you."
And in a blink of an eye, the pressure was suddenly gone and Sakura collapsed at the foot of the wall.
Her right hand repeatedly skimmed over her throat, as she gasped audibly for air, while attempting to keep the tears at bay.
Her eyes wide, Sakura, visibly shaken, coughed wildly.
She looked around furtively; ready to pounce on any sign of movement.
Sakura clenched her left fist with a menacing, vengeful promise.
No sign of Sasuke remained.
XXX
The air was murky. The thick sheets of the tent shielded them from the outside air, creating a heavy, almost claustrophobic ambiance.
The designated area was devoid of any ostentatious display— it was a rather simple place; rough dirt covered the grounds and a few bare necessities were scattered about the place.
Danzo was a pragmatic man after all— he didn't need lavish decorations, besides this was only a temporary establishment. Not only was he a pragmatic man, he was also a very patient man. Oh, how he was a patient man.
He didn't turn around when he heard the light ruffling of the tent sheets. Instead, he lightly brushed his hand across his bandaged arm.
"Kakashi has convened a meeting with the elders. I will have to go," he stated matter-of-factly after a moment of silence.
He closed his eyes and heard the feet shuffle uncomfortably behind him.
Then came a very hesitant, "S-Sir?"
"Everything, everything is finally in motion. I've been waiting for years for this. Years, years. Do you know what it's like? To wait over two goddamn decades? I can taste it. I can almost taste it," Danzo continued, with a complacent smile tugging at his lips.
When he heard the uneasy smack of lips of the rather foolish boy behind him (probably struggling to find an adequate response), he raised his right arm in an authoritative silencing manner.
The boy didn't dare speak.
"That poison, that poison was coursing through her for eight years. Slowly eating away at her insides. Painstakingly slow."
He almost had to chuckle at that. Eight years. Who else would spend eight years poisoning the Hokage? He had to laugh at the genius of it all. Sometimes, he himself marvelled at how perfectly everything fell in place.
"We'll dispatch the village's strongest assets. Yes, Kakashi and that Uchiha brat will go fetch the next in line. We'll lure him back to Konoha. Finally, finally. I can taste it. Can you taste it?" he asked lightly, still staring off aimlessly in space with that self-satisfied smile neatly perched on wrinkled lips.
Yet still, the boy remained silent.
Maybe he wasn't as big of a moron as he had esteemed him to be.
"Are his whereabouts known?" Danzo asked, despite already knowing the answer.
"Yes, sir. Sai has revealed them to us," the boy promptly answered proudly, as if he had somehow contributed in this finding.
"Excellent, excellent," he muttered, making a mental note of having a congratulatory word with Sai upon his return.
"The Kyuubi vessel finally returns," he declared, with a nearly maniacal smile that would have surely frightened the boy, had it not been for the fact that Danzo's back was to him.
The poor kid, he didn't understand the meaning, the sheer weight of any of this.
The poor, poor kid.
"It finally, finally begins."
XXX
She angrily grabbed the silk ribbon and methodically tied her hair up with much expertise. She flitted through the chart in frustration, nearly ripping the pages in the process. Finally, she slammed the chart shut and threw it on the floor. She rubbed her eyes fiercely.
This is a disaster.
She glanced up from her seated position in the much-to-be-desired wooden chair. There she lay. The fierce, ruthless, iron-fist Hokage in all her glory— with tubes and beeping machines strewn about her.
She couldn't stare at the bed for much longer. The genjutsu had vanished; it couldn't be kept up in this state, and that wrinkled and hardened by life frail little figure on bed was not the face of her kick-ass, dukes of steel mentor. It was an old woman on the verge of crossing over, not the fearless leader of the village.
And the damage that had been done- oh God. She couldn't even bear to look at the chart. The internal damage was so extensive, almost as if the poison had been in her for years- slowly eating away at her insides.
She remembered noticing it a few years ago— the Hokage had begun to develop a cough, and sometimes Sakura recalled hints of crimson on napkins.
If this was an attack that had been building up for years… then Sakura bit her lower lip, this was definitely the start of something big, something terrible.
Maybe even— her mind automatically flashed to Captain Uchiha— an inside job.
She unconsciously stroked her reddened neck.
But the Hokage had always brushed her concerns away and carried herself as per normal, with her disinterested and nonchalant façade.
Said it was nothing.
Deep down, Sakura had known.
She had known that the presence of blood couldn't have been a good sign. She was a trained medic nin for God's sake! Trained under the very best! And yet still, she had let herself be swept away by Tsunade's words. She should have intervened, imposed herself, but instead she got swayed by Tsunade's grumpy everything-is-all-right charm.
And now look— she looked up at the sack of bones and wrinkled flesh— where she ended up.
"Argh!" she grunted out in anger.
That rotten Uchiha.
She didn't trust him. She didn't trust him one bit. She didn't know how, she didn't know why just quite yet, but she knew, she knew that he had to be involved in this somehow.
She used to be so ridiculously infatuated with his good looks; she completely glossed over the shit personality beneath the angelic halo.
There was just something so suspicious about him, about the way he carried himself, about his actions.
Why would a man who so obviously hated children and hated people in general and seemingly had no alliance to the country become Captain of ANBU and undertake subordinates?
His motives, she never understood them.
But she did know that he ruined her best friend's life.
Naruto.
The machines sorrowfully beeped in rhythm in a symphony of condolences.
Tsunade had become the boy's surrogate mom. She had picked him, out of the field of many, raised and honed him to be the next in line.
Naruto, he didn't know.
She sighed deeply.
(God, if she could, she'd give her life to protect that clueless, clueless man.)
He has to know.
XXX
He looked at the leaking pipe, defeated.
Completely and utterly defeated.
He pushed himself out from under the sink, running his fingers through his slightly damp, blonde hair.
Eating five tons of ramen? That, he could do.
Warding off enemy nin in a perilous S-class mission? No sweat.
Fixing a measly leaking pipe…? Fail.
Domestic life, he was clearly not made for.
He growled, tossing the wrench on the side, with an audible bang.
It was a nice home.
A small home, but a nice one.
What was the word…? Cozy…?
It was a cozy place.
He sighed adding "leaky pipe" to the list of things to fix in this dilapidated, rundown, cozy dump.
Don't get him wrong— he never had ambitions of living the good life in some ostentatious, I-eat-money-as-entrees estates. But if you asked him a decade ago where he would end up ten years late, making lists for handymen wouldn't have even crossed his mind. Not even in the realm of possibility.
Funny how things change so… unexpectedly.
He placed the magnet on the list, sticking it to the fridge, making sure it was visible, when he noticed a single dirty sock littering the floor.
"Honestly…" he grunted disbelievingly, as he bent down and picked up the lone, browned by lord-knows-what sock with his index and thumb.
" 'Tie your socks together and put them in the hamper'. You think that'd be a simple enough procedure to follow," he muttered miserably, making his way to the hamper in the corridor.
He could hear the acute giggling from the playrooms and the unfortunate high-pitched shrieks of "Stop it!" and "I'm gonna tell!" in the background.
He shook his head, deciding not to get involved.
Besides, as he stepped over the patch of spilled juice and looked at the dirty floor with much dismay, he had other things to worry about.
He went to the cupboard and equipped himself with a mop, just as strong arms securely wrapped around him.
Instinctively, he bent towards the warmth and closed his eyes, loosely holding the mop.
He clasped his eyes shut and sighed deeply, inhaling the familiar warmth.
Some days… some days were not good days.
Some days, he forgot he wasn't in this alone.
It's not that today was a particular tragedy, but some days were just… hard. It wasn't always easy to get through the days— not that he was complaining for a second.
He was happy. Content. Or at least, he thinks that this, this life, this reality, this is the picture that pops in people's minds when they imagine 'happiness'.
But sometimes, he just had to wonder how his life changed so drastically. How did this become part of his "normal"? And those days he wondered about all the people he had dragged in with him in his mess.
He had to wonder if this is how they had pictured their lives to be. Hw had to wonder how much they had sacrificed for his mistakes.
Some days, this just didn't feel… right.
And those days, he couldn't keep the gnawing pang of guilt wreaking him from the inside out.
"What's going through your pretty little mind?" the voice asked softly, muffled by
Naruto's very blonde hair.
Naruto licked his pink lips as he felt Sai's nose nuzzle the back of his head.
The familiar warmth smoothed over him as he weakly bit out, "Would you ever trade it?"
He felt the arms tighten about him, silently pressing for an explanation. Naruto swallowed the lump down his throat, "Trade it? This life? For the adrenaline. The matters of life-and-death. The sparring. The weapons. The missions. Do you ever miss it?"
Naruto's eyes fluttered open, as Sai didn't answer immediately. He had been right all along, but the sinking feeling in his gut offered no sense of reward.
"This life has plenty of adrenaline rush for me. Like say, figuring out who broke the latest set of plates," Sai joked, pressing himself further onto Naruto in a light-hearted manner in an attempt to diffuse the tension that had settled with his silence.
But Naruto noted how he didn't answer the question.
The Godzilla-eating butterflies in the pit of his stomach roared annoyingly as he tried to keep his tone neutral.
He was not a girl. He was not going to be the girl. He was not some overly emotional stereotypical female.
But there was just some things the needed to know. Some things that had to be out in the open.
Then, softly came the, "Do you regret it?"
Naruto turned around in the embrace so he could face Sai eye-to-eye with his imploring, blue, blue eyes.
Blue, blue eyes that Sai couldn't look into.
"D'awww! Is someone feeling a teensy bit insecure?" Sai asked, looking away, with a big, almost forced grin etched on, and really, that was all that Naruto needed to know.
He swiftly broke out of the embrace and firmly clutched the mop, jittering about.
God, he was stupid.
So stupid, stupid, stupid.
He cleared his throat, effectively evanescing all trace of softness and insecurity that had been there but a second earlier.
"I don't know what you're talking about. There's a list of shit to repair on the fridge. Go be useful to life," he said thickly, the walls quickly mounting up again.
But Sai seemed oblivious to the quick change in moods and kept smiling in that habitual goofy, borderline creepy way of his.
"Yes ma'am… sir, sir," he said with a mock salute.
And Naruto frustrated— frustrated at his life that felt so wrong, frustrated from the infectious guilt that piled on daily, frustrated from feeling like he's keeping his best friends from happiness, frustrated from feeling so emotional and insecure and… womanly all the time; this wasn't who he used to be, this wasn't what he thought he'd be— he clicked his tongue and turned his heel.
But before he had the chance to stomp away, a firm grip on his wrist yanked him back. Naruto's back collided with a thud onto Sai's front. The arms securely locked around him, and all those pesky little voices in the back of his head disappeared— just like that. And Naruto bit his lower lip and pressed his head further down, because he was not a woman and he absolutely did not blush and the fluttering warmth in the pit of his stomach and this uplifting pang of, "this is home" coursing through him was just a side effect of the heavy breakfast he had.
The lips that brushed on the side of his ear tickled, and Naruto was pretty sure that if Sai wasn't holding him, he's surely liquefy all over the floor.
The butterflies fluttered in his stomach, gently, gently.
Naruto shut his eyes again. There was no one else in this universe.
"For the record? No, I wouldn't trade it in for the world, because I don't regret a second of it," Sai whispered softly into his ear, in a show of intimacy that spoke volumes about his feelings.
He vaguely wondered if Naruto was aware.
And Naruto was so glad that he couldn't see Sai's dark, dark eyes at the moment, because he wasn't sure just what he'd do when scorched with such sincere, burning intensity.
I think I might give my life away to him.
An inexplicable, fleeting thought in the back of his brain that caught him off guard.
The sharp shrill of the doorbell rang, and the moment was gone.
XXX
From the outside, it was a rather unimpressive, stunted little hut in the midst of a cluster of unimpressive, stunted little huts— he noted with much disinterest.
"The Uzumaki kid hasn't even set foot in Konoha in nearly a decade! What says that he's fit to lead the nation?" The derisive sneer had been enough to drive the Uchiha on the brink of violence.
"With all do respect, sir, he was sent away under direct orders from the Hokage," Sasuke had said, through gritted teeth. He wasn't even sure why he was defending the damned absent brat, but he was, and for a split second he saw a look of complete satisfaction on Danzo's dried feature— a look that did not bode well with the Uchiha.
"Uchiha, Kakashi, go fetch the boy. And do so in a timely fashion. The clock is ticking."
Sasuke glanced to his side at his former teacher-come-partner, Kakashi, who looked as nonchalant and emotionless as ever.
"Sasuke, calm yourself. Don't go blowing off your head now," Kakashi had said back in Konoha— ever so fucking velvety smooth at breaking people in.
"Just. Spill," Sasuke had said, through clenched teeth.
And then, casually, as if talking about the weather or the amount of sugar cubes to put in tea, "I know where Naruto is hiding."
He had paused, thoughtfully— almost as if internally debating whether to divulge the next slab of information.
"I have know since the very beginning," he had spoken it breezily, much to Sasuke's budding irritation.
And so, they found themselves in the middle of nothing and nowhere and sand— Sasuke's eyebrows twitched; sand, everywhere. So much sand. They stood before all that wondrous nothingness which is Suna, in front of a very plain looking hut in the midst of other very plain looking huts, where resided the country's future.
"There is something you must know," he had added, much to Sasuke's dismay— because naturally, just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you know they always did.
But there are just certain things that no amount of time can make alright.
And that infuriatingly calm, neutral low octave of Kakashi was permanently jammed in his mind, repeating the sentence like a broken record.
Despite the travel to Suna, he still could not digest, hard as he may try, the bitch blow that Kakashi had delivered to him.
There were just some things, there were just some things…
Kakashi nudged Sasuke and eyed him meaningfully.
It said, "Compose yourself."
It said, "We're on a mission."
It said, "Man up, boy."
And so, very painstakingly slowly and very much reluctantly, Sasuke trailed behind Kakashi and headed to the little, tiny, plain-looking and unimpressive hut, sounding the doorbell. With knots in his stomach, he heard the excited pitter-patter followed by a deafening crash on the other side.
He glared at Kakashi, who seemed utterly unfazed.
This can't be true.
This just couldn't be true.
The door was yanked open and Sasuke— he wasn't quite sure why— held his breath.
Sasuke stared quizzically at the open door. There was nobody in sight.
"What do you want?" came brusquely from a little, rude voice down, down below.
Sasuke looked down, only to be met with his worse nightmare.
There stood a little black-haired boy, frowning— couldn't be more than five, Sasuke mused. He had his arms crossed clearly trying to muster as much attitude as possible with his furrowed brows and jutted lower lip. But the effect was unfortunately lost due to his pygmy height and the sheer effort into making such a look.
After a couple of seconds of gawking, Sasuke noticed a much younger little girl, shying away behind him.
Despite all of Kakashi's warnings beforehand, Sasuke couldn't help but feel like he had just awoken from a forever-long genjutsu of sexing that nightmarish Haruno shemale, over and over and over and— oh dear lord— over again.
"Oh fuck," Sasuke muttered miserably.
XXX
Reminder: for those who forget to read the important bolded letters at the beginning of the chappies, there is a time skip. This is set 8 years after the previous chappie. (:
I write when I feel inspired.
And lately I'm been so busy with graduating/ getting into med school/ sleeping/ watching lovely gayboy moobies/ being uninspired to write.
And for that, I apologize.
But for all those of you who continue review and voting and sending the most wonderful messages ever, thank you.
Thank you for still having faith in this story, even in times when I didn't.
You guys are the best fans ever.
True story, bro. XD
(YES, I LIKE TO SAY BRO.
WHAT OF IT?)