When he woke up, the same girl loomed over him. Her head blocked the sun. She blinked her big, dark eyes at him curiously. He stared back, irritated. One part of him wondered why he was awake if she, a Jinchuuriki, was still here, and the other part was glad to still be alive.

"Are you alright? She continued staring at him, looking concerned. She held out her hand to help him up. He took it reluctantly.

"I'm fine," he stated briskly.

"If I may, why did you faint? Was it an allergic reaction?"

"Um...something like that." He figured that explanation was good enough. "Who are you?"

"I'm Yugito. And you?" She smiled at him politely. Sasuke guessed that she hadn't recognised him from the Bingo book, or else she probably would've killed him while he was unconscious. He hated being so helpless.

"Sasuke. Nice to meet you," he said. In actuality, it was not nice to meet her. At all. He brushed the dirt off his shoulder and began walking away. She shrugged, letting him go.


"You took a while," Minato regarded him suspiciously. Sasuke didn't reply, feeling annoyed. He had to get this Jinchuuriki problem sorted, or else he'd accidentally be running into random Jinchuuriki and leaving himself vulnerable.

"Let's just get this stupid mission over with," he groaned, sharpening some knives. He looked out the window - the sky was dyed in red and orange hues, the sun was setting.

He got up, about to leap over the balcony when Minato stopped him.

"Wait, Sasuke. Take your shirt off." Minato approached him. Sasuke was aghast.

"What? Why? Ew."

"Just do it, you moron," Minato said, sighing in exasperation. Sasuke reluctantly did as told. Minato coated his fingertips in chakra, touching Sasuke's abdomen lightly.

Almost instantaneously, the seals snapped shut. They were deactivated. This time, it felt more permanent. The sudden inrush of chakra flowing through him made him sigh in relief. He felt like a huge weight had been removed.

"I don't get it. Why?" Sasuke stared at Minato, puzzled. Logically, there was no reason to do this - although it was an extremely pleasant surprise.

"We might run into some Kumo ninja. I can't have you dying without your chakra. Even though you could probably handle it," Minato turned away from him sheepishly.

Sasuke just hoped that they wouldn't run into that girl - the Jinchuuriki - from earlier. Even if they did, at least Minato would be with him. He figured that he should probably warn Minato.

"By the way, I might randomly faint," he said to him, confusing Minato. "Anyway, let's go." With that, Sasuke leaped off the balcony. Minato followed, still dazed.

It was quite simple, really. The dimly lit hallways stretched on endlessly. They both strolled through the twisting, maze-like structure, until they reached the Daimyo's bedroom. Two guards stood in front of the door.

Sasuke silently decapitated them. Blood spilled, but no noise.

"How many do we need to kill exactly?" He mouthed to Minato, who mouthed back 'a few, maybe five or six'.

He nodded, picking the lock to the bedroom. He cringed as it creaked open, but nobody noticed. He quickly slipped in, decapitated a few guards, and then got out.

"Done," he stated. Minato went in there to check he did it right, much to Sasuke's chagrin. He didn't need to be supervised.

"We got that over with pretty quickly. Nice. Okay, let's go," Minato nodded. They both strolled towards the exit, almost in disbelief at how easy it had been. In retrospect, they shouldn't have let their guard down as quickly.

"Do you hear that?" Minato whispered to Sasuke. He could vaguely make out the faint sound of creaking.

"For the love of fuck," Sasuke facepalmed, prepping himself for a fight. He could sense several Kumo ninja rapidly coming towards them.

"You can handle this, right? I need a drink," Minato muttered, vanishing, probably by using his Hiraishin. Sasuke internally cursed. Fucking hell, he thought.

The ceiling caved in. Several Kumo ninja jumped down, landing among the rubble. Sasuke stared at them nonchalantly, despite them glaring at him vehemently. He really could not be bothered.

"Let's get him!" One of the Kumo ninja, decidedly the most impulsive one, tried to launch himself at Sasuke, only for his collar to be nabbed by his partner.

"You idiot! Don't you recognise him?" Another ninja whispered something into the first one's ear, "He's the one that they call..." he leant into the first one's ear and whispered something that Sasuke didn't bother overhearing.

The ninja - there were about seven of them - stared at him, trying to look menacing and ominous, although they all looked too frightened to succeed.

"Are you going to just stand there and talk about me?" Sasuke said to them, beginning to get annoyed. He still didn't make a move to kill any of them - just out of sheer laziness.

"Didn't he kill the Raikage? I heard he did it easily," another one whispered, probably thinking that Sasuke couldn't hear him. "I don't want to fight him. He'd actually destroy us."

Sasuke sighed in irritation, watching them argue amongst themselves. How stupid - bickering like children in front of an enemy. Deciding that he stalled long enough, he decided to speak up.

"Are you done?" He eased into a simple fighting stance, "I'm going to kill you now. Just a warning." He shrugged, "Not that there's anything you can do about it."

All seven of them stared at him, wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights. At once, they broke themselves out of their reverie, beginning a futile, chaotic scramble towards the exit. Over the course of seven seconds, seven heads rolled. Sasuke almost regretted the fact that he stained the pristine, white carpet with blood.

He turned around. The Daimyo gaped, seemingly petrified. Suddenly, he let out a high-pitched scream and began running in the opposite direction.

Why do they always try to run away? It's like they think they can outrun me, Sasuke thought to himself, chuckling quietly. He let the Daimyo go; killing him wasn't part of the mission, luckily for the Daimyo.

He paused to look at the decapitated heads and the headless bodies. For some reason, he got into the habit of decapitating a lot more - it was probably all the bounty hunting that required him to collect heads.

Sasuke calmly exited the building, trying to find Minato. As soon as he stepped outside, the crisp night air chilled him, making him search for the nearest shelter. There was a a shack some several metres away, with the label 'booze' loosely hanging from the roof. The lights flickered, so the sign read 'boo' instead.

He walked in. Minato said he needed a drink, so this was probably where he was. He scanned the surroundings, sighing when he didn't find Minato.

Unfortunately, he found someone else - someone he was really hoping to never see again. He accidentally made eye contact with the Jinchuuriki from earlier. She was sitting at the bar, overlooking an ice cream sundae. What kind of person walked into a bar and ordered a chocolate sundae anyway?

She smiled and waved when she noticed him - why was she so friendly and normal? She was a Jinchuuriki. Wasn't she supposed to be traumatised and abrasive instead? Well, in all fairness, Naruto was also a Jinchuuriki and also a ball of blinding sunshine.

Before she approached him, Sasuke dashed towards the exit. He made it, trying to leg it a bit further when he collided against somebody: Minato.

"Oh, you finished. How come it took so long?" Minato tilted his head, looking curious.

"Uh, yeah," Sasuke muttered, feeling panicked. His heart thudded - he really didn't want to experience those awful black outs again. "Oh, they kept arguing. I listened for a bit because I was bored."

"I see," Minato shrugged, accepting the answer, "How nice of you to let them argue."

"By the way, why were you running out of that bar, like some sort of madman? Is there a problem?" Minato glanced at the bar. It looked pretty ordinary to him.

"Um, there was this girl," Sasuke replied absent-mindedly. As soon as he said it, he knew he should've come up with an excuse, rather than tell the truth.

"Really?!" Minato's eyebrows raised in surprise, "I didn't think you were the type to develop a crush and run away."

"It's not-" he stopped himself before he denied it completely. He would rather that Minato think of him as a cowardly, obsessive teenage boy than know the complicated truth about his aversion to Bijuu chakra. "Yeah, that's what it is. Mhm."

Sasuke began hurriedly walking towards the inn where they were staying. Minato followed, walking alongside him.

"Anyway, aren't you supposed to be my babysitter or something? Are you allowed to just leave me with enemy ninja, with the seals deactivated?" Sasuke spoke to Minato. Surely, they were giving him a bit too much leeway.

"I don't really care about that. They won't know, and you probably won't run off. Besides, what's Hiruzen going to do to me? Arrest me? Hah." Sasuke was shocked at Minato's reply. In the history books, they outlined him as a loyal, rule-abiding ninja that respected authority completely. However, right now - Sasuke may have been wrong - Minato seemed to harbour a mild dislike for Hiruzen (why else would he refer to him as Hiruzen and not 'Hokage-sama'?).

Sasuke shrugged. He couldn't pry into it, or else Minato would get suspicious of him again. But he realised that the history books were superficial information, probably plagued by bias and confusion. He couldn't rely on them completely, because in reality, the story was much deeper.

"Well, whatever. Anyway, I just want to get some sleep," Sasuke sped up, starting to sprint towards the inn.

He was starting to dread the morning. There was still so much to do.