Chapter 104 - Slavemaker Ant

Sasuke had to take a walk.

Even though there was no walk feasibly long enough for him to work off the amount of stress inside of him.

What the hell was happening?

He walked quickly, desperately, as if the ground behind him were crumbling.

What the fucking hell was happening?

Everything, it felt like everything was falling apart. Whatever order that had once belonged in the world was rusting at the stitches and dissolving, one by one.

First Yakata had been taken from him. And even before that, there had been the dizzying whirl of snake-identities and the prison that was his house, and all of the deserved and the undeserved paranoia and that sexless monster in the rain, illuminated by blue fire.

And then Karai, that worthless, weak little girl, fooling him into believing she was competent and then going off and helping Inou. Inou, that weak spinner of minds, worthless, all of them worthless excuses for Uchihas, disappointing him at every turn.

(And that hadn't been Itachi, that hadn't been Itachi, that hadn't been Itachi, that was just a madwoman and a coincidence.)

And then Hajime! The average one, the one that had at least gotten somewhere, going and messing around with Hyuugas and impregnating them with bastards and those stupid fucking old-power Hyuugas trying to foist the problem off on him, the disrespect, the absolute nerve of them and that boy, did he not even know who he WAS?!

And now Ino! That unfaithful bitch, talking back to him, keeping secrets, and, and…

…and Takeru wasn't his son.

No, that had to have been impossible, it had to.

(But Takeru looked nothing like him.)

(Shikamaru—him, why HIM!?—absolutely.)

No, no, no.

Sasuke began to run.

No, no, no, none of this was even possible, he was the head of his clan, his clan, he had children that were not disappointments or failures and they obeyed him and he had a wife that obeyed him and everything was fine but it wasn't.

His children were failures—the ones that were his children anyways—no, but Takeru was his son but he wasn't he was that fucking Shikamaru's but that was impossible—but his children were failures and they didn't obey him and they kept secrets, all of them kept secrets.

But this was his clan, his clan, his clan.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Sasuke was a capable leader.

He was in control.

But maybe that was just an illusion. Maybe he was just fooling himself, like he had fooled himself for nineteen years about Takeru—but he'd never thought about it before, but Takeru was his son, he was, Takeru smiled like him and was so smart and so talented and he breathed fire like an Uchiha was supposed to.

But he wasn't his son. And Sasuke had been too ignorant, no, too stupid to notice.

Sasuke let out a yell of frustration, and the emptiness of the Uchiha memorial swallowed it up entirely.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He was in control. This was his family, and he decided what happened with it. This was his right, this was his duty.

But all these secrets, all these lies, all these disappointments.

All these things right before his eyes, but he was too fucking stupid to notice.

Sasuke kicked a rock and it zoomed away like an arrow. He heard it hit and splinter something in the distance.

Why was this happening, why was any of this happening.

Because he wasn't a good enough leader?

No. No, no, because they weren't good enough Uchihas, that was it. They were the disappointments, not him.

If they were good Uchihas they would be faithful and obedient and talented and they would listen to him and not throw fights and have secret relationships and damn damn damn what the hell had Sasuke done to deserve this?!

He'd only run the clan like he was supposed to. He was supposed to be strict, supposed to be unyielding, supposed to demand perfection, and reward it where he found it. That was how things were supposed to be done, because the Uchiha clan deserved nothing less, because his clan had once been great and now it had fallen, and it was Sasuke's sole responsibility to bring it back up to the level of glory it had once possessed.

He didn't have anyone leading him, after all, so Sasuke was only doing his best with what he knew.

Besides, if his father were still around, surely he'd have instructed Sasuke to do the same as he was doing now.

(If he had even truly been confident enough in Sasuke to declare him head of the clan, anyways.)

Sasuke was only trying to preserve the man's memory, to respect him and make him proud.

And Sasuke had sacrificed so much for his clan. He had spent hours training with his children to make them strong, he had had children in the first place, he had gone so far as to find a respectable woman he could tolerate for the purpose—did any of them appreciate that? No, no, no, of course they didn't, they didn't understand just how much he had sacrificed, just how much respect he deserved.

None of them respected him. He probably meant nothing to them.

Well, he would make them respect him.

Because, ah yes, this had happened once before.

With that greatest of failures, Nadeshiko.

He had done everything for her. He had taught her everything he knew. He had spent hours with her going over every technique, praising her, improving her. She could have been the fucking Hokage by now if she had only stayed obedient!

But, no, she went and threw his gifts in the dirt and spit on them, in the name of—weakness.

The nerve of her. The nerve.

Sasuke had done nothing wrong. She was the one that didn't respect him, that didn't obey him.

(Though, why had she still turned out like that, if he'd really done everything for her?)

No, he was mistaken. He'd not been blameless.

He'd been too soft on her, too loving.

And for the ten years after that, he was the undisputed head of the clan.

…but this, what was happening now, was more than just one little girl. This was his entire damn family.

Well, he could make them behave again too!

(But Ino had betrayed him years ago, and he'd never noticed.)

He would have order, and control!

(But Hajime had known Hyuuga Ninako for almost as long.)

This was his clan, damn it, and he would make it function again!

(But Inou and Karai had always underwhelmed him, no matter how hard he pushed them and trained them.)

(But there was nothing he could do about Takeru.)

The illusion of his control was fading fast, like an afterimage.

And the more he tried to fight against it, the more apparent it was.

They didn't respect him because he truly meant nothing to them.

Even though they were everything to him. They were his clan. His very reason for existing. Everything he did was for their sake.

He was losing control of his very life.

Sasuke started to panic.

No, no, no, he was incapable of panicking, that was just an illusion too, everything was fine.

He wasn't losing control of his life, he wasn't in freefall, he was fine, he had absolute control over everything, he was fine.

He just needed to clear his head, and then he was going to return home, and he was going to deal with his problems.

He would leave Karai and Inou to think about what they had done, and after the chuunin candidates had been announced he would decide on a further course of action.

He would confirm with the Hyuuga clan that he wanted Hajime's mistake taken care of. They were already ensuring that he wouldn't see that girl again. But it wouldn't hurt to shame Hajime further. Perhaps Sasuke would start looking for an acceptable wife for him. Someone that was certainly not a Hyuuga or a Yamanaka or a fucking Nara, just someone.

And he would put Ino back into her place.

(And he would not think about Takeru.)

(There was no space in his mind for him.)

Sasuke took a few, long, deep breaths. Yes, everything was going to be fine, he was fine, perfectly fine.

But when he returned home, the house was completely empty.

There was nobody in any of the bedrooms, nor the bathrooms, nor the living room or kitchen.

His family was gone.

His grip, already loosened and weakened, was gone.

"Fine. I suppose that's how it's going to be, then," Sasuke said, to the void.

And he calmly took off his shoes, and went down the hallway and into his bedroom, and he sat on the edge of the bed.

For hours.

His family was gone.

But he would be fine.

Of course, Naruto heard about all of this. The chuunin that had tried to break up the fight between Hajime and Sasuke had filed their report, and after reading it in the morning—Naruto seemed to be going to work earlier and earlier than usual, lately—he decided to go handle Sasuke personally, before any of them did anything else.

The Uchiha house was quiet, as expected, as Naruto approached it. But ringing the doorbell did not bring anyone out, and since the door was unlocked, Naruto let himself in.

"Uh, hello? Anyone home?" he said.

No answer.

Naruto began taking off his shoes. "Hello-o? Sasuke? Ino? Anyone there?"

Nothing.

Naruto's face wrinkled. "Weird…" He closed his eyes, trying to get a feel for the area.

The only chakra in the house was Sasuke's, extraordinarily dark. He was in his bedroom, so Naruto made his way there, and peeked his head inside.

"Hey, Sasuke…? That you?"

Sasuke was sitting on his bed with his back facing the door. He didn't say anything.

"Sa-asuke…?" Naruto dared to enter. "What's going on? I heard there was a fight last night, y'know."

"None of your concern," Sasuke replied.

"Uh, it sorta is my concern, since there was a fight and it was all out in public, y'know," Naruto said. He tried to keep his tone light, but Sasuke's emotions felt so wrong that he barely managed to keep even his faceup. "What happened?"

Sasuke shot a sideways glare at him, shifting his position slightly. The red of his Sharingan seemed agitated. "My clan is gone."

Naruto swallowed his surprise. "Gone? Uh, what d'you mean?"

"What do you think I mean. They decided that I was useless so they left me behind."

Naruto was directly beside Sasuke, now, and he was halfway to sitting on the bed with him. "Sasuke, what the heck does that mean?"

"What I mean is that they're so perfectly fucking content running their own lives with absolutely no concern for me and the clan that they decided it was better if they were no longer in it. So after going behind my back and keeping secrets for years, they finally just left. That is what I mean."

Sasuke was literally filled to the brim with a sick blue-orange mix of frustration and anger and rejection. "So… if they left, then, where did they go?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know and I don't fucking care," Sasuke grumbled. "They can go live their own lives without me if that's so much easier."

"Sasuke, hey." Naruto tried to put a hand on his shoulder.

"DON'T TOUCH ME." Sasuke jerked away and scooted to a further end of the bed.

Naruto waited. He put his hand back on his own leg.

"So is this why you were fighting with Hajime last night?"

"He started it," Sasuke replied.

"What was the fight about, Sasuke."

Sasuke sniffed disdainfully. "He's got some Hyuuga girl pregnant. Apparently they were in a relationship. He should have known better, honestly, he knew that it wouldn't work out, but no, no consideration for his own family…"

A horrible feeling gripped Naruto's stomach. He tried to ignore it (and tried even harder not to think of Hinata). "So you, uh—did he get into a fight with you because you didn't approve, y-y'know?"

"He took offense to me disowning him."

"You disowned him?"

"If he doesn't value or respect this family enough to make the right decisions, then he doesn't deserve to be a part of it."

"Sasuke, that—don't you think that's a little… much, y'know?" Naruto said, almost squeaking near the end.

Sasuke shot him a withering look. "You have no right to tell me how to run my clan. It was my decision. He took offense. And he reacted, like the child he is."

Naruto closed his eyes, gathering his composure. "And your family followed?"

"Apparently. I don't care. They obviously don't care."

Naruto's response was more a reflex than anything. "Sasuke, your family does care. You mean a heck of a lot to them, y'know."

"If I mean that much to them then they wouldn't have left me. Ungrateful, ungrateful, fucking ungrateful…" He started to mumble. "Everything I fucking do for them and this is what I get…"

Naruto sighed, watching Sasuke shake his head. "I'm gonna try and find your family for you, all right? You… cool off."

Sasuke's reply was a grunt.

Naruto left the house, after that. And he grappled, for a while, with the right thing to do.

He wanted to find Sasuke's family, he wanted to find out what had happened, he wanted to talk to Hinata.

But he decided, eventually, that the best course of action would be to go back to his office, to go about his business as usual, meeting with the other Kages and the Taki clan and other guests.

His chuunin would find the rest of the Uchiha family. And news would trickle in from there.

But even though they were eventually found, the word never really made it to Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't notice.

He remained in his house, alone, for days.