I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Long Time No See
Suigetsu dashed into the horde of thugs, avoiding slashes for a moment before beginning to beat them into unconsciousness with one hit a piece. After about three minutes, they were all gone. Then, he sprinted into Tenzen's fort. No way would he let Sasuke beat him to the sword. Just inside, there was a river with only one bridge crossing it. The other side was lined with more thugs than Suigetsu could count and there were still more on the level behind the first group. Suigetsu leapt over the river, quickly and easily tearing into the thugs, knocking them all out without dealing a single lethal hit or receiving a scratch, the fights Orochimaru forced him into finally coming in handy. Once he had finished the thugs in the courtyard he darted inside and sprinted through the halls as fast as he could.
The first room had a relatively small group of well-trained thugs that he beat within seconds. He rushed up the stairs at the back of the room laughing to himself at the ease with which he was able to beat the thugs. A thug at the top of the stairs stepped into view swinging at him but Suigetsu jumped over the blade and kicked him into the floor before darting up the rest of the stairs into a room where Tenzen stood looking extremely enraged.
"That actually tired me out a little," Suigetsu smirked. "Now to get what I want."
"That's impossible," Tenzen snarled. "There's no way that a single man could defeat all those soldiers in combat!"
"There's a way," Suigetsu smirked. "Attacking me with conventional weapons is pretty much useless."
"If conventional weapons are useless," a voice shouted before a large man wielding the Executioner's Blade exploded from the wall charging at Suigetsu. "Then how about this!?"
"Hey thanks," Suigetsu smiled. "My Executioner's Blade, I was looking for that."
Just then, the sword tore through his waist, bisecting him.
"You got him!" Tenzen laughed as Suigetsu's upper half landed beside his upright legs,which fell over a moment later. "You let your guard down and now you paid the price for your arrogance."
After a moment, Suigetsu couldn't help but chuckle as he sat up a bit and rested his head on his hand.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to tell you? Blades don't work on me," Suigetsu smirked as his legs reattached themselves, the pint of the injury turning into water for a moment. "See?"
The bodyguard stared at Suigetsu in shock and fear, as did Tenzen.
"But I'm feeling awfully jealous here," Suigetsu admitted. "I didn't think anyone could wield that sword without special training. Guess it helps to have a good strong physique huh?"
The bodyguard growled in frustration and slammed the blade down on Suigetsu, who turned entirely into water before moving out from under the sword and reforming, standing this time.
"Now I hear that you've been telling anyone who will listen that you killed the demon Zabuza and took this blade from him," Suigetsu lied setting his hand on the handle of the sword as his arm grew, the muscles growing much more pronounced.
"No way," the bodyguard said. "Not me. Lord Tenzen, he's the one!"
"I see," Suigetsu smirked. "So you're the one who killed Master Zabuza."
"No!" Tenzen gasped. "Not me! The person who killed Zabuza was-"
"Where's your respect?" Suigetsu interrupted, voice icy and dangerous.
"I mean, Master Zabuza," Tenzen corrected. "I was trying to say that it was..."
He trailed off as Sasuke walked up the stairs into view.
"You're the one!" Tenzen gasped. "The one from yesterday! Yes him! He's the one you want! The one who killed Master Zabuza! The only thing I did was bring the blade back from where I found it!"
Suigetsu stared at Sasuke for a moment before laughing.
"I gotta say, that's pretty impressive," Suigetsu snorted. "I was amazed you could come up with such a good lie under the circumstances and all."
He laughed again as Sasuke tossed him his water bottle.
"You're so thoughtful," Suigetsu beamed catching it. "I was starting to feel a bit dehydrated. I think you've got the wrong idea. I knew Master Zabuza, but it's not like he and I were particularly close."
Tenzen stared at Suigetsu in shock as Suigetsu sipped from his water bottle.
"But still, he was an elder of mine," Suigetsu stated quietly.
He picked the sword up, bodyguard and all, then swung the sword and launched the bodyguard out through a hole in the wall.
"I can't let rumors keep flying around about him losing to you," Suigetsu stated. "Especially when you're a bunch of losers. You understand."
He held the sword up to Tenzen's entire upper body making him shrink away from it in fear.
"You...you'll never get away with this you know!" Tenzen threatened voice high from fear. "You can't just walk in here and do what you want!"
"You have to pay for what you did," Suigetsu growled. "You know that. I think I'll test this out on you."
"Just forget it," Sasuke spoke up. "What's the point in killing someone like him anyway?"
Suigetsu drew the sword back as Tenzen ducked then spun and sliced through the four support beams in the room easily.
"I've cut through all the main support pillars so you better get out of here quickly," Suigetsu warned resting his sword on his shoulder. "I'm sparing your life, such as it is. Out of respect for Sasuke."
With that, he turned and him and Sasuke began to descend the stairs.
"Sasuke," Tenzen gasped sitting up and looking at the two. "No not him. The Sasuke that killed Orochimaru?"
"Hey, did you hear what that guy just said?" Suigetsu questioned grinning. "You're famous. They've heard about you even way out here in these back woods."
As they left the building it began to collapse, Tenzen inside of it due to not heading Suigetsu's warning.
"You know, as long as I have this blade, I could defeat even you, well, maybe," Suigetsu smirked. "Hold on, you knew I was going to go after this blade even before you freed me didn't you? And wait, you also knew that the blade wasn't at the grave site anymore. Of course, and the one who told that guy his castle was gonna be attacked and got him to gather all of his men together, was you. Tenzen acted like he had met you before and I don't think that was a lie. Wait, did you suggest that wager just to get me to go into enemy territory with you? Was this your way of testing me? It was, wasn't it? Man you're terrible. I could have gotten seriously hurt doing that. Well at least now I understand exactly what kind of person you are. And you're pretty much just the way I imagined you'd be. Well anyway, I got my blade so I'll help you just like I promised. Now what? Which way do we go next? No wait! Whatever path is closest. That's what you were going to say isn't it? I'm starting to get inside your head Sasuke."
"Hm, yeah," Sasuke snickered. "Let's take the closest path."
He turned south, heading toward the Southern hideout and Karin, despite the fact that they were about fifteen miles from the Northern Hideout already.
"You were wrong, by the way," Sasuke said after a few minutes.
"Hm?" Suigetsu questioned.
"I'm not cold and calculating usually," Sasuke stated. "I don't put friends in danger if it can be avoided. But our mission requires only those with immense skill and strength. That's why I had to test you."
"Yeah sure," Suigetsu smirked. "I bet you just like watching me fight."
"Whatever you say," Sasuke smirked. "You remind me of someone...a little bit."
Suigetsu smirked and they continued in silence.
A day later, they reached the Southern Hideout and Suigetsu saw a number of mounds of dirt, fatalities from the experiments done at the Southern Hideout, no doubt. But not as many as the normal count. Actually there were barely any, maybe a dozen at most. After a moment, they reached the entrance, a massive set of double doors made entirely out of iron and reinforced a lot. Sasuke looked over at Suigetsu expectantly.
"What?" Suigetsu questioned as Sasuke looked at the Executioner's Blade. "You know you have two swords of your own right?"
"Yours is better suited to this task," Sasuke stated.
Suigetsu sighed drawing his sword and cut the door into pieces before putting the sword away. The door fell to the ground at their feet and they both walked inside silently. They passed several cells where prisoners sat quietly either playing dice or fantasizing about one thing or another. After another while, they stopped as Karin stepped into the light ahead of them.
"I knew it was you, Sasuke," Karin stated. "If you're here by yourself it can only mean one thing. The rumors about Orochimaru's death are true."
"Um, hello," Suigetsu spoke up slightly annoyed. "I'm standing right next to him you know."
"Well?" Karin demanded. "Why have you come here Sasuke?"
"Sasuke came here to talk to you but we're tired from walking so far," Suigetsu stated. "Can you please take us to a room where we can sit down?"
"You want to talk?" Karin questioned. "Talk Sasuke."
"Would you stop ignoring me!?" Suigetsu snapped suddenly. "Christ! You save my life and get sent away then you act like you can't even see me!? What's you problem?"
Karin sniffed him and wrinkled her nose.
"You changed," Karin stated. "I don't know you."
"Yeah well I have Orochimaru to thank for that," Suigetsu stated. "You know that ability of mine to turn to water when I got hit? Thanks to Orochimaru's further experimentation on me, it's now permanent. I always turn to water now until I am too low on chakra. Except that now, since I am essentially water, I dehydrate in a matter of minutes if I don't have water. You saved my life only for Orochimaru to curse me."
"Take us to a room now," Sasuke ordered cutting off Karin's response.
"Alright, come on," Karin sighed turning away from them and walking down the hall.
After a time, they reached a room with a couch that was in the corner and took up half of both walls.
"Karin, come with me," Sasuke began. "I need you on my team."
"Why would I go with you?" Karin demanded. "I have responsibilities. I run this place!"
"Orochimaru is gone now," Sasuke stated.
"So?" Karin questioned. "There's still a lot of prisoners here."
"Speaking of which, they were awfully quiet when we got here," Suigetsu spoke up. "They must know that Orochimaru is dead. "That news had to have reached here by now."
"I noticed that the population of this hideout is slightly lower than it was even though all experimentation here was meant to have stopped," Sasuke stated. "You laced a spy among the inmates and if any started talking about Orochimaru, you had them killed, and buried."
"Experimentation stopped?" Suigetsu questioned. "I thought that she had just been a lot more careful in her experiments."
"It's your cautious nature that has kept peace here," Sasuke continued. "It's also what kept you alive."
"You know," Suigetsu sneered. "You're a lot scarier than I remember. You probably thought up a hundred different ways to kill us huh?"
"Only you," Karin growled.
"True, you could never take Sasuke down," Suigetsu shrugged.
"It's not like that!" Karin snapped. "We're colleagues! It's different!"
"And you wanted to know if the rumors were true," Sasuke guessed. "I killed him."
"How can you say that so casually?" Karin demanded.
"Suigetsu, I want you to go out there and release everyone who's being held prisoner here," Sasuke stated.
"What!?" Karin gasped. "You can't just walk in here and take over!"
"No prisoners means no need for a warden," Sasuke stated. "I'll ask again. Join us. We could use you."
Suigetsu stood picking up his sword and walked to the door.
"I'm not going," Karin snapped. "I don't owe you anything."
Suigetsu left the room allowing the door to slam loudly. He dashed down the hall and cut the bars freeing the prisoners and having one of them lead him to the others. Once they were all free, Suigetsu returned to the room, pressing his ear to the door as he knocked on the door.
"It's Suigetsu," Sasuke stated.
"Let's forget about that nuisance," Karin's voice suggested sounding much sweeter and more flirtatiously slutty. "'Kay, Sasuke?"
"Karin," Sasuke stated calmly. "Don't get so close."
"What's wrong with the team being just you and me?" Karin questioned. "I mean, we don't really need that Suigetsu. Right?"
Suigetsu stepped back reaching for his blade but stopped. He wanted nothing more than to cut his way into the room and get Sasuke to leave without her but instead, he turned and walked out of the hideout and to the shore, resting his feet in the water with them joining with it.
"You were an experiment too?" one of the inmates questioned walking over.
"I was," Suigetsu nodded. "Used to be I could turn my body to water at will to avoid injury from a weapon. Now it happens every time I get hit. I hate Orochimaru for that. I won't be shedding any tears for that asshole any time soon."
"Suigetsu?" Karin called as she stepped out of the hideout.
"I wasn't here," Suigetsu growled turning to water and moving forward into the ocean.
"You know I can sense you right?" Karin questioned.
"Your point?" Suigetsu replied without materializing.
"Get out of the water," Karin ordered. "And you had damn well better be dressed."
"I don't need to leave the water," Suigetsu stated. "If I stay, I can travel up the river that leads to the Northern Hideout without dehydrating. Besides. If I stay in the water, you're free to let me leave, and Sasuke will be none the wiser. Then you can be alone with your precious Sasuke."
He spat the word "precious" as if it left a bad taste in his mouth and Karin's eyes widened slightly.
"You think I want you to leave?" Karin questioned.
"I heard you," Suigetsu spat before mimicking her voice, getting the tone correct but the voice nowhere near. "Let's just forget about that nuisance. I mean, we don't really need that Suigetsu, right?"
"You...heard that?" Karin questioned blushing slightly and looking a bit ashamed.
"I heard it all," Suigetsu spat. "You want to be alone with Sasuke, be my guest!"
"Suigetsu," Sasuke spoke up appearing beside Karin. "You are going with us whether you like it or not. And if the two of you annoy me, you will regret it when we find Jugo."
After a moment Suigetsu rose out of the water and glared at Karin before calming himself and turning to Sasuke.
"Yes sir," Suigetsu nodded. "Can we leave now?"
Sasuke nodded and the tree of them left the hideout heading for the Northern Hideout.
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