Chapter 63 - Pasodoble Agitato

Sakura was able to get back to Naruto in the evening.

Somehow, Sasuke was there, too. Naruto had managed to pry him away from his home, after convincing him that, yes, Ino, Hajime, and Takeru combined were more than enough of a force that could protect Yakata.

From a conversation on the way back to the Hokage Manor, together:

"So they know, right? About who he is?"

"What do you mean."

"Well he's sorta your brother, isn't he? Does your family know that?"

"…my wife knows, nobody else," Sasuke said, once he was certain that nobody else was around.

"Oh, okay, 'cos I told Hajime an' Takeru to stick around your house and protect that kid for you and I didn't mention that, y'know. Did you want me to?"

"No, and I'd appreciate it if as few people knew as possible."

"Okay, awesome, I understand. But if Orochimaru says anything that the other ANBU hear-"

"Just as long as he's protected."

There was a bit of silence.

"… so, was it… Sakura who told you? About him?" Sasuke said.

"After you stormed off 'n stuff, yeah. Dude, I kind of don't blame you, this is some… bad stuff, y'know?"

"Hm."

"Must be super weird, huh. Having him around like that?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

"But kinda nice, right? I mean, I know how much-"

"I just want to make sure that he's safe," Sasuke said, quickly.

"He will be," Naruto said, smiling. "Don't worry."

"I'll try not to."

From a conversation in the Uchiha house, shortly after Sasuke's departure with Naruto:

"So I, I still can't leave the house…? What's… what's going on, I, is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Ino said, with a hand on Yakata's shoulder. The boy was lingering near the foyer.

"Then why is... But Sasuke-san, um, he told me he didn't want anything ha-happening to me…"

"Nothing's gonna happen to you, little guy. I promise," Hajime said.

(Hajime, who had stayed at home since informing his father of Orochimaru's arrest, and had not been there to hear.)

(Certain things.)

Takeru, the other guard, said nothing.

(He hadn't heard them, either, having slept in after his shift was over and taken up his new "mission" with well-disguised disdain.)

Nadeshiko had stayed home, that day, since the initial, angry re-entrance of her father. For Yakata's sake.

(She would break her promise, to protect that boy. But she prayed that, whatever was happening, it would never come to that.)

Presently, Sasuke was leaning against the wall of Naruto's office with his arms crossed. Trying not to worry.

"Everything all right?" Sakura said.

"Eh, could be better, but we're doin' what we can," Naruto said.

Sasuke scoffed. "Can't see how you can be so cheerful about this."

"Sasuke, I'm not being cheerful, I'm just trying not to panic or nothing, okay?" Naruto said. "Panic's not gonna do anyone any good, y'know."

"I suppose," he grumbled.

"Anything happened while I was at the hospital?" Sakura said.

"Well the ANBU guys are telling me you let Karin in to see Orochimaru. That true?"

A stiff corner of Sakura's mind uncoiled and creaked, even though his voice hadn't been remotely accusatory. "Yeah, it's… true. It really shook her up, I probably shouldn't have let her go, even though she insisted on it…"

"She wanted to see him? Figures. That just figures," Sasuke said.

All Sakura could do.

Was glare at him.

"Is she okay, though?" Naruto said.

"Yeah, she… needed to rest afterward, but I got the feeling that…"

And suddenly she remembered.

"Oh, that medicine! Naruto, did they tell you about that?"

Naruto paused for a moment, lowered his eyes to a piece of paper on the desk, and lifted it to consult it. "Andou-kun put down something about Orochimaru mentioning some sorta medicine, why?"

"I… can you send a team out to find it? Karin really needs it. Really needs it."

"And why is that?" Sasuke said. Sakura noticed that his foot was jittering.

His strained sarcasm and carefully concealed tics only made her more nervous. She had rarely seen him so anxious.

"Because that kid she's carrying is gonna die if she stops taking it, that's why, and she's almost out of what she brought with her. That's the reason why Orochimaru's even here, Sasuke. He's worried about her. And the…"

Theory suggestion truth THEORY.

"…and what she's carrying."

Because it couldn't possibly be, that Karin was being used in Orochimaru's experiments still.

Or that she was the mother of all these children.

Those were just.

Theories.

("Though I did have quite a bit to do with its creation, that's for sure.")

If that wasn't a confirmation of something, she didn't know.

"The only thing he ever cared about," Sasuke said, "was if experiments were going the way he wanted them to."

"Sasuke, stop it," she snapped.

"Stop what. I'm only saying what you already know," Sasuke replied. "There's something going on with that… thing she's having, isn't there."

Sakura felt awful for feeling a hesitation in her thoughts.

Was it even really a baby?

"That, the… He told me that he had something to do in… in making it," Sakura said, quietly. "When I brought Karin in to talk to him. I don't know what he meant by that—he said he's not the… the child's father, but."

Sasuke suddenly shifted away from where he had been leaning and began pacing along the far wall of Naruto's office.

"So he's been in contact with Karin-san?" Naruto said.

"That's… what it looks like, yes," Sakura said. "At the very least."

"…well we should talk to him about that first, you said Karin-san wasn't doing too hot, y'know," he continued, nodding, crossing his arms. "I mean, heck, I sure wouldn't be, if I was in her situation. That guy still creeps me out, can't even imagine how bad it must be for her."

Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah, that… sounds right," Sakura said. "Did you wanna send the T&I guys down there or…?"

"Nah, I can talk to him myself for now—well, you guys can come too, if you want. I mean… he's actually being pretty cooperative, y'know."

"It's suspicious as hell," Sasuke said. His voice was clipped. "Orochimaru? Cooperative? This whole thing reeks."

"Well, yeah, Sasuke, it's suspicious, but we might as well take advantage of it, y'know?" Naruto said. "If things start going sour then there's stuff we can do about it later. I mean, y'don't take out the entire toolbox when it looks like you just need to use a hammer, right?"

"…what in the world are you even talking about," Sasuke said.

"I'm just saying that maybe he's mellowed out in his old age or something!" Naruto said, with a slight smile.

Sasuke's expression carried three statements within it: "I hate you," "You can't be serious," and "Are you high?"

"At any rate," Sakura interrupted, "we'll have to talk to Karin too, when she calms down some. At least after we find that medicine of hers. I get the feeling that she's been… keeping some things from us."

"More like outright lying," Sasuke said. He lowered his head. "Told me that thing was her son, I can't believe her…"

"Maybe she didn't have a choice, Sasuke," Sakura said. "I mean, I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt…"

She paused.

"…wait, what do you mean she told you 'that thing was her son'?"

Sasuke didn't say anything. He turned around, instead, continuing to pace.

"Yeah, what the heck d'you mean by that, anyways?" Naruto said.

"Was this… what got you so upset this morning?" Sakura said.

Sasuke didn't say anything. But he stopped pacing.

"Yeah, Sasuke… Can you try explaining or something…?" Naruto said.

He took the time to make several heavy, almost angry sighs.

"You all remember when I went to visit Karin. Last month. It was about Yakata."

"Well, of course, you came back with him, after that," Sakura said.

"Yes, well, while I was there, when we were talking, he showed up and she told me that he was her son. She told me his name was Ooda and… she told me later that he was." A bitter scoff. "Left on her doorstep with a note from Orochimaru telling her to take care of him. What a load of… I should have seen through it."

"A… note? How did she know it was from him?" Naruto said.

"We know it's a lie now, so why the hell does it even matter?" Sasuke replied, rolling his eyes. "And anyways, she told me not to tell anyone about him. Gave me this… sob story about how she wanted him to have a normal life, why did I even…!"

"Sasuke, hey, calm down," Naruto said.

"Maybe it's because… she told me he was a clone or something," Sasuke continued, as if he didn't hear, "I don't know, maybe it was to throw me off, maybe he told her to say that, or-"

"She told you he was a clone?" Sakura said.

"Yes," Sasuke said, "she did, told me she did tests and everything."

"…so maybe she's telling the truth, Sasuke," Sakura said. "I mean, goodness knows what's really going on, the one you saw could really have been her… adopted… clone… son, person..."

He scoffed. "You don't understand. They're the same person. I know. I know. That… his hair is the same, and… it's the same person I saw!"

"Sasuke, calm down…" Sakura said.

"They're the same person! I know!"

"Well we could always ask him about that Ooda thing," Naruto said. "See what he has to say about it. Maybe he does have a clone. They could both exist, for all we know."

"Wouldn't that be something," Sasuke said, lowly.

"Well, it would…" Sakura added. "That'd be something we definitely have to ask him about, though."

"Yep. Tomorrow morning. And Sakura, I promise, I'll make sure that medicine is found by then or sooner, y'know? 'cos we got a lot to ask her, too," Naruto said. "I wanna make sure that Karin-san's feelin' okay."

"Thanks, Naruto, I seriously appreciate that," Sakura said. "And I'm sure that… she will too."

He nodded, smiling slightly. "In the meantime I'm sure Orochimaru will be a bit more cooperative in the morning. Heck, you think we could ask him about, uh. Yakata-kun? I mean, 'cos of what you told me, Sakura."

"I'm not letting him near that monster," Sasuke cut in.

"Sasuke, why would I even…?" Naruto said.

"I'm just saying."

"We should probably ask about Asaoto-kun and Taki Kiine, too," Sakura added, before Sasuke could narrow his eyes any further. "I mean, Kiine especially. She's the one we probably know the least about."

"Ah, yeah, definitely, yeah…" Naruto said. His eyes began to wander.

The silence that followed was uneasy and painful and entirely uninvited. But possibly necessary.

"So, now that we've gotten that all squared away," Sasuke said, "was there even a reason for me to be here?"

"Just thought it'd be fair for you, Sasuke, y'know, that's all," Naruto said. The shift in subject caused his eyes to focus only slightly more. "You want someone to come get you in the morning, when we go in to talk to him?"

"Yes," Sasuke said, "I would."

"Well awesome, I'll be sure to send an ANBU to your house, then."

"Oh, and, um, speaking of fairness. Naruto, would you mind sending a summary of what's been going on so far to Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke glanced, sharply sideways, at her.

"Kakashi-sensei? Why's that?" Naruto said.

"He… also knows about Yakata. And I promised him that I'd send him more information as I—we found it. But I've…" she added, with a smile-grimace, "…kinda been negligent about that lately."

Sasuke resumed his pacing.

"Oh, sure, that's totally fair, y'know," Naruto said. "I'll have Andou-kun send something to his house."

"Thanks, really."

"How much you want included?"

Sasuke cleared his throat, catching both of their eyes. "Considering that the conversation doesn't seem to be concerning me any more, can I go home?"

"Sure, you can-"

"Just—hold on a second, Sasuke, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, actually," Sakura said.

"Well, are you going to tell me before or after you're finished with putting together your little digest for Kakashi-sensei?" He had his arms crossed.

Sakura breathed in, breathed out, frowned, and said, quickly, "Have everything about Juugo-san and Asaoto-kun included, in addition to all this stuff with Orochimaru. You think that's doable?"

"Totally fine, I'll have him get right to it, y'know," Naruto said. "I was gonna make one for Iruka-sensei, too, actually, and maybe Shikamaru. I mean, I should keep my advisors informed an' stuff, too, right?"

Sasuke's eyes were spinning.

"…you guys go on ahead, I'll… be here." Naruto managed to smile.

He had a great stack of paperwork on his desk that had yet to be signed and filed. It was still business as usual for a great amount of Konoha's citizens.

(And news of Orochimaru's arrest had been heavily restricted, circulated only amongst ANBU, the Hokage, and his immediate staff. And a few known exceptions. And, apparently, advisors, now, too, who for some reason had not been included in the immediate staff.)

(Panic, so close to the chuunin finals, so close to the arrival of Kages and dignitaries and so many other visitors, had to be kept to a minimum.)

"Thanks, Naruto," Sakura said. "Sasuke, we can talk on the way out."

"I was planning on it," he replied, and let himself out without a farewell.

Sakura couldn't bring herself to say anything until he asked her, almost a full minute later, "Well, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh! I just… wanted to see if you were okay."

"Do I look like I'm okay."

"Well… no, that's why I'm asking." She paused, trying to think of a comfort that wouldn't insult him. "I… with Orochimaru here, and knowing your pasts with each other-"

"That isn't what's bothering me. Orochimaru is a pathetic, white little worm that doesn't know when to die."

Sasuke's response was just a little too quick.

(There were things that happened to him in the Land of Sound that he never talked about with anyone.)

"Then what is, Sasuke? I mean, we're all a little freaked out, but you-"

"He isn't supposed to be back. He isn't." He quickened his pace, bowing his head, grumbling to himself. "She told me he was her son."

"…for all we know he might really have been that, Sasuke," Sakura said. It was becoming an effort to keep up with him, now, charging down the hallway. "We don't know the full story yet."

"Full story, bull shit," Sasuke said. "It's just going to be more lies, none of us are going to be right."

Sakura tried to put a hand on his shoulder and he pulled away from the contact, violently.

"Don't touch me," he said. He stopped walking. "Is this really all you wanted to do? To pick me apart? Make me look like a scared little child?"

His eyes were whirling, and even she couldn't look at them for more than a moment.

"…Sasuke, no, I'm just… worried."

"Well don't worry, I can handle myself!" He began back down the hallway. "You insult me."

"Sasuke-"

But, by then, he was already far too gone.

Feeling poisonously grateful that his thoughts were confined to his mind.

Since hearing the news, since—seeing him, him, wearing that face that already unsettled him so much, Sasuke found awful and untrue and horrible notions beginning to swim around between his ears, behind his eyes, and it was taking every ounce of his effort to keep them from.

Growing too loud.

He was almost too scared to go home.

But that was nonsense, why would he be scared of returning to his own home?

Because Yakata was there.

…why would he be scared of Yakata? Yakata was a child, ten years old, harmless-

(He had learned the fireball technique in three days.)

But he was just Yakata. He was a quiet boy, an obedient boy, he did what Sasuke told him to-

(And yet he had asked to go back to the flower shop, despite Sasuke's-)

He was harmless-

(And yet, what would happen if he came home and, suddenly, it was no longer Yakata he saw there, but-)

Itachi.

…why was Sasuke—why would Sasuke ever be afraid of him?

He was just.

Being.

Delusional.

(Yet, what had happened the last time he had gotten this way?)

(The last delusion was Yakata.)

(And Yakata was-)

Sasuke was home, and he opened the door loudly. "INO!"

There was no answer.

"INO, FOR FUCK'S SAKE."

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm—Sasuke, when did you get home?" She ran down the hallway.

"Where's Yakata."

"Sasuke, what-"

"WHERE'S YAKATA."

She paused, drawing back a little, as if she'd been stung. "…he's with Nadeshiko, why?"

"Just…" Sasuke began pulling off his shoes. "Good, just, make sure he doesn't leave."

He went down the hallway. She followed.

"Sasuke, did everything go all right with Naruto?"

"What do you think," he replied.

"…badly?"

He opened the door to their bedroom.

"Leave me alone."

And he closed it behind him.

He got into his bed but he couldn't sleep. It wasn't even that late out.

He just.

Didn't want to deal with.

Anything.

(His student, Go'on, left the training ground where he and Sasuke were supposed to meet every day, feeling only minor disappointment. He figured something came up.)

(Sunao and Kyou had been doing D-rank missions, alone, for weeks. Neither of them had a problem with this, Sunao viewing it as the practical thing to do, Kyou seeing it as the good thing to do, both of them believing it right.)

Ino called him for dinner, cautiously, quietly, some indistinct amount of time later.

"I told you to leave me ALONE!" he shouted. "Can you not do ANYTHING right?"

She didn't bother him, after that.

("What's Dad's deal?" Inou asked, at the table. Everyone had heard the outburst.)

("I get the feeling it's something he won't be talking about, little brother," Hajime replied.)

(Takeru said nothing.)

(Just, every now and then, glancing across the table at Yakata, with small, suspicious eyes.)

Sasuke did not often dream of things he had not experienced before.

(Somehow, he had fallen asleep.)

When he did dream, it was always clips of memories, flickering things that jumped from year to year, minute to minute, repeating, muted in color, vivid in color, repeating and flickering. But always memories.

That night, Sasuke dreamed of his brother, as he had done so many other nights before.

But that night, he was wearing Yakata's face.

It was—jarring, because he knew that… yes, they looked the same, they looked the same, just at different ages, that was what had set his mind so on edge originally, but.

Was there really, now, such a difference in their faces?

Had Itachi's eyes ever been so perpetually scared?

(Was that what that expression meant? Fear?)

There had to have been a difference because.

Yakata's wide eyes narrowed and grew very cold, and his mouth tightened into a hateful, thin line.

"Hello," he said, with Yakata's voice.

The corners of his mouth began turning upward, slightly. The brother wearing his boy's face closed his eyes.

And opened them.

And they were red and carried within them a pattern of scythe-like curving black within them.

They were no longer Yakata's eyes, they were-

"I'm here, Sasuke," Itachi said.

His body began dissolving into a storm of black feathers.

And Sasuke.

Woke up.

Screaming.

This rather startled Ino, who had taken up her side of the bed long before.

"Sasuke, goodness, what's the matter?" She herself was breathing heavily.

Sasuke sat up and had his hands covering his temples and forehead, his palms over his eyes.

"Sasuke?" He felt a thin hand on his arm.

"Don't TOUCH me!" he snapped.

She drew back, her hands burnt by words. "…Sasuke, what's the matter…?" Her voice was very quiet.

"It's… nothing, just a… dream, just a." Nightmare, just a nightmare, just a. "Just a dream."

Ino sat in an almost twitching almost-space. He didn't want to be touched.

"You think you'll be all right?" she said.

Sasuke looked at the clock. 1 AM. It was early.

The bed felt uncomfortable, infected with feathers.

He got up and went to the closet.

"Sasuke?"

"I'm gonna go—sleep on the couch. It's too hot in here."

He grabbed blankets, and an extra pillow, from above.

"Are you sure? But, isn't Hajime-"

"I'm sleeping on the couch."

"…well all right." A pause. "Sasuke, really, are you oka-"

"I said I'm fine, Ino," he said.

Another pause. He closed the closet door.

"…you were just screaming so loudly, Sasuke, it scared me."

"Well don't be, it was just a dream." He went for the door. "Good night."

"…goodnight, Sasuke," his wife said.

He closed the door behind him. He turned right, and right again, and once more right into the dark living room.

The couch had been expensive. It was L-shaped, taking up the corner and most of the walls against which it was shoved. Hajime slept on one of the arms, quietly, on his side, his arms pulled into each other and against his face. Looking at him there, Sasuke almost couldn't believe that the boy was almost twenty-two, given that he slept so much like a child. His dark eyebrows were smoothed, his expression soft.

Sasuke tried not to look much further, and tossed the blankets and pillow on the other arm, haphazardly. He sat down next to the pile.

And then stood up. And went up the stairs. To Hajime's room.

Where Yakata was sleeping.

He was on his back, and he had his face turned slightly away; one of his hands was resting, palm-up, on the pillow. His breathing was gentle and his hair was already slightly messy.

…really, was that what he was so afraid of? This little child?

(That face?)

Delusional. There was nothing to be scared of.

It was just a dream, just a nightmare, just his brain processing images and sounds that he had heard and seen before.

Sasuke closed the door behind him, silently.

And Takeru came out of the bathroom, rubbing an eye. "Father…? What are you doing up here?"

"Oh, Takeru, I." Sasuke struggled for words. "I was just checking on Yakata."

"Why?" Takeru's eyes were too narrow to be plainly sleepy. "I agreed to take the night shift, you know. If anything were to happen, you know I'd take care of it, Father."

"Don't doubt it, Takeru. You are the best," Sasuke said, though his words were more muscle memory than true praise. His eyes were elsewhere.

"Well thank you," Takeru said. He yawned. "Though, really. Is this one of those things where… you wake up suddenly, in the middle of the night, and you get this sudden inexplicable urge to check on something?"

"…something like that," Sasuke said.

Takeru put his hands in his pockets. "Well, again. There's no need to worry, I've got everything under control."

A pause.

"…what's the reason for all this protection for him, by the way?" Takeru asked. He tilted his head, slightly. His hair, a deep black-brown and curling around his ears, was combed. "There was very little detail in our mission statement, beyond to keep him in the house."

The only person that knew about Yakata in the house—the only one Sasuke could trust, bitterly enough—was his wife.

"…it's a very complicated situation, Takeru, that's all," Sasuke replied. "He needs to be kept safe, though. At all costs."

Takeru blinked very slowly and very thoughtfully. "I understand," he said. "Really, though," he added, like an afterthought, "you were already so protective of him before. The boy's really got a hold on you, doesn't he, Father?"

Sasuke just looked at his son, with tired eyes. "I promised that I would keep him safe, is that really too little to demand my attention?"

Takeru's eyes slid to the ceiling as he shrugged. "I suppose a promise is a fair enough reason."

Sasuke went up to him and clapped him on the back as he began for the stairs. "A promise is a powerful thing. Don't underestimate the power of one. Either broken or kept."

"I will keep that in mind," Takeru said, from the top of the stairs.

"I'm going back to bed," Sasuke said. He began down. "Stay alert, now."

The impromptu lesson—just talking to Takeru for more than a few seconds—eased his heart just enough for him to ration out a smile.

"Goodnight, son."

"Goodnight, Father," Takeru said, with his own smile-imitation.

Ah, yes, of all the things that Sasuke saw of himself reflected in his son, that smile was the one that was easiest to notice.

Though it was still, undeniably, Takeru's smile. For all the ambition and pride within it there was still an injection of his own personality to it.

All of Takeru's mannerisms were that way. Original imitations.

(And of his five children, truly, Takeru was the only one whom Sasuke felt comfortable with calling "son," the only one he really called "son," in his mind, with his mouth. All of the others were just children. Generically his, all Uchihas—yes, undeniably, they carried his blood, and he would never forget the—disgusting things he had to do in order to create them—but not his sons, his daughters. Maybe Ino's.)

(But Takeru was his.)

(They shared a connection, beyond biology and genes, that he felt with none of his other children.)

(Especially the girls.)

Sasuke looked at Takeru and he saw his imprint as a father, and this pleased him.

Takeru, he felt, was the one most worthy of his last name. Him, above all others.

He returned to the living room with a clearer heart.

Hajime, in the time passing, had turned over onto his other side on his arm of the couch. His neck was naked, uncovered by the blankets.

Sasuke made his bed, quickly, and lay down and closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

And in doing so, he actually did.

He did not dream.

Thank goodness.

It was Hajime who ended up waking him. "Dad…? What are you doing down here…"

His voice was drowsy, and slow. Sasuke's awakening was likewise. He sat up with creaking movements, wiping the blur out from his eyes.

"Slept on the couch," he replied, stretching his back.

"I can… see that," Hajime said. "Did, uh… Mom kick you out of bed or something?"

"…no, why would you think that?" Sasuke replied.

Hajime just shrugged, his expression clearly not speaking from experience, and he got off the couch and left for the hallway.

Sasuke could hear him talking to Takeru a short while later, in the kitchen. Something about shift changes, and Hajime exhaustedly explaining, yes, Takeru, he was going to stay on patrol until Takeru was fully rested, now if he would please go get some sleep. His wife chimed in as the harmony to Hajime's chorus.

Sasuke passed through the kitchen and into his own bedroom without much more than a raised hand to indicate that, yes, he was aware of his family's presence in the kitchen, thank you for noticing him as well now if they would please leave him be to conduct his business.

He changed into fresh clothes—he had fallen asleep without putting on any sort of pajamas—and had returned to the kitchen when.

There was suddenly a masked person at the door asking for him.

Oh. That. Orochimaru's interrogation. Thing.

(That was not spoken.)

(Confidential information, after all.)

His heart, once emptied, began to fill with a lead-lined dis-ease that slowly burrowed into his stomach.

That, and he was hungry. And he explained that to the ANBU, with tight eyes.

"Well, I can give you time to pick up something quick, but we really have to get going, Uchiha-san," the ANBU, a stout-beaked bird, said.

"Sasuke, I can make you something," Ino offered, from behind.

"Just… make me a… sandwich or something. Something quick. Go on," Sasuke said.

So she made him a sandwich and handed it to him in a plastic bag. "Take care," she said.

He didn't reply.

And he left, Takeru watching from the top of the stairs.