II.
Uchiha Sasuke had never regretted a decision in his life since he had defected to Orochimaru. Sasuke forced himself to coldness and indifference to keep from facing the hurt in his heart when he remembered his friends, and one person in particular. He'd advanced far too quickly, he knew, to be safe for long. But with recent events, Orochimaru seemed less inclined to body switch with him, and less inclined to do much else. Sasuke stared at Kabuto from the shadows once Orochimaru had left, noting how smug the silver-haired bastard looked. Sasuke watched him leave, and closed his eyes. He knew that mark; he'd seen it once before, two and a half years ago when he first abandoned Konoha for Oto. It was the sister mark to his own, Kimimaru's mark. Kimimaru had died two and a half years ago. He'd found that out himself. So why was Kabuto bringing forth evidence of that now?
He felt a scowl appear on his face as answers flashed through his mind.
Sasuke closed his eyes, signed his fingers through seals, and enacted one of the spying jutsus he'd taught himself, searching for Kimimaru.
He found the desert, the bone forest that had been erected at the time of death. He noted flowers of pure white growing from the bone, beautiful petals leading to a red center. Sasuke tried digging deeper, tried going beneath the layer of sand that surrounding the bones.
Nothing.
Not even a bone fragment.
But, just faintly, a bit of chakra residue.
Which meant Kimimaru had been here, but had been moved. Could Kabuto have done such a thing? He certainly was capable, and Sasuke knew the other nin had been vying with Kimimaru for Orochimaru's attentions. But it left the question of why would Kabuto move Kimimaru's body from its own tomb just to get rid of a rival? And a dead rival at that. Sasuke focused on that trace of chakra, and tugged mentally on it. There was an answering tug, miles away. The jutsu took him there, and for a moment, Sasuke had a bird's eye view of the port town, before he plummeted, down through streets, stopping at an establishment that was a tavern and a brothel rolled into one. His jutsu took him inside, and he looked around, noting things and searching for his prey. He found it then, hidden in a shaded corner, alone.
Sasuke drew his mind back, dispersed the jutsu, and moved to his own chamber to pack. He changed his clothes to a lighter material that doubled as a civilian outfit, and pulled back his hair. The strands hand grown longer, and had fallen from their childhood gravity-defying spikyness to a straighter length. Sasuke supposed now, he looked almost like a smaller version of Itachi. He paused a moment later, just outside of Orochimaru's chamber, realizing that he hadn't growled when he thought of his elder brother's name. So what did that mean? Surely he still wanted to kill his brother. That was why he still existed. As Sasuke tried to wrap his mind around that thought, he shook his head. He was going to kill Itachi. He was going to make him suffer.
Yeah, right. That sounded convincing.
He'd been changing ever since he joined up with Orochimaru. Killing Itachi just wasn't... as important as he thought before. What a concept, that.
The teenager raised a fist and pounded on the stone door. He wasn't surprised when he didn't get a response. Orochimaru would be sulking. And Orochimaru wasn't going to listen, especially to Sasuke, who just had words, while Kabuto had proof. Orochimaru trusted Kabuto, and Sasuke still had loyalties elsewhere than solely with Orochimaru. Which meant if Orochimaru thought Sasuke was lying, he would be killed, chosen vessel or not.
Die a horribly painful, most likely stabbity, death.
"I'm going out, Sensei." Sasuke said in his usual tone, knowing the elder heard him quite clearly. There was a muffled sound from within the darkened room, the noise soon accompanied by the eldest's voice, one of acquiescence.
"Just be back," came the rather tired order, before silence fell once more, the former sannin no doubt curled on the pile of silks that was his bed, set to bite off the head of the next thing to irritate him that day - and quite literally.
Quite frankly, the man was tired, and not just physically though it added to his temper. The bones had only served to drive home how badly they had failed, how this dank little cave was out of necessity rather than preference.
The bones were also a reminder of things lost - and badly. It was not only humiliating to be beaten, but there was the added depression.
Depression was worse than boredom, and he hated it. He hated a lot of things right now. Konoha, Kabuto, Sasuke just for being there, and Kimimaru, for dying.
Unfair to be sure, but at the moment he didn't care. Being angry felt better than being empty, even if it meant envisioning those pretty aqua eyes and wanting to tear them out of their sockets.
Sasuke left the hide-out, bounding through trees until he reached the road. Keen eyes surveyed the road, checking for suspicious characters. Ninja would normally stick to the trees and forests, but hunter nin were special. They were unpredictable, which made most hunted nin very nervous. Sasuke didn't want to take a chance, the trees growing sparser the further up the road, and more travelers being down on the rocks and dirt anyway. Live cover. Sasuke dropped from his branch, and waded into the crowd, following a merchant's cart before darting around it and ahead, no more than a breeze to those he passed. Moving this fast would more than likely get him noticed if there were ninja watching, but he didn't have the time to waste, and trips like this were usually planned well in advance, with every contingency planned for. As it was, Sasuke was running blind.
Kimimaru had been gone for nearly three years. Only now, Kabuto comes forward? Sasuke thought it strange.
He slowed just before that port town, assimilating himself into entering traffic, passing through large guarded gates, pretending to be an every day traveler. His appearance had changed so much over the last few years he doubted anyone would stop him and demand to confirm if he was Uchiha Sasuke. And if anyone did, well, there were two ways out of that. One involved running as fast and as far as his legs could carry him. The other involved a very stabbity end.
Sasuke preferred to avoid both, if he could help it.
From memory alone, Sasuke reconstructed the path his spying jutsu allowed him to see, moving along at a sedated pace. Here, he wasn't Uchiha Sasuke, missing nin. Here, he was just Uchiha Sasuke, wanderer. Either way, he was still at risk. Which just made those previous thoughts insignificant, didn't it. The boy sighed quietly as he moved along through the crowd of merchants and villagers, farmers and ronin, children and yakuza, wandering toward the tavern where he had found that lingering chakra residue.
Sasuke slipped into the building, gazing around at everything, dark eyes revealing nothing as he moved, pretending to be a new patron as he moved along the shadows, finally slowing when he saw his target. The pale creature was sitting amongst pillows, robes wrapped tightly around the thin body, drawing gazes to pale eyes and white hair. Kimimaru looked like he hadn't aged a day.
Sasuke moved over to him, and slid into the booth, canting his head as a bone knife was pressed to his side.
"Did he send you?"
"You're jumping to conclusions. I'm here on behalf of Orochimaru."
Kimimaru's knife jerked a bit, pressing the knife harder into Sasuke's side before relaxing, the bone retreating back into his skin. Red-rimmed eyes fell onto black, watching the shorter nin curiously, appraising him, treating him like a schema to be taken apart and put back together.
"Orochimaru-sama...?" Kimimaru whispered. "You came on your own then?"
Sasuke nodded, relaxing back into the booth's chair, letting his body rest. Kimimaru glanced at the younger male, and then down into his lap.
"He doesn't know, does he?"
"No." Sasuke replied, eyes closing to half-mast. "But, I'm sure you want to go back to him."
"I do..."
"Then what's stopping you? Surely these people don't own you?"
Kimimaru shook his head, fingers twining. He didn't say another word, looking right at Sasuke. The former Konoha ninja nodded a little, and moved to leave the booth.
"A healer nin should go to where he is needed."
Kimimaru paused, nodded, and moved after Sasuke, the pair leaving the tavern, and heading back to the hide-out. Kimimaru studied the enigma that was Uchiha Sasuke, mainly because he had told no one of his change of being a killer to a medical ninja. And Sasuke had noticed right away. They spoke little, and did not stop to rest, as Kimimaru wanted to get home as soon as possible. And home was the person to whom his heart belonged. He'd been away a long time, and now, Kimimaru was sure, there would be terrible repercussions.