Disclaimer: Memes are the true and only currency of this world, meaning that with enough memes we can buy Naruto.


Honestly, I could tell if it was unfortunate or lucky that we didn't encounter any bounty target in our journey to Tanzaku gai, it would have been nice to practice more against targets but time wasn't something we could spend at our own leisure.

Unlike the other towns, our arrival to Tanzaku gai didn't bring any attention to us at all, people didn't turn to look at us with curiosity. The city itself being a center of entertainment would attract a diverse population of tourist, it made sense that nobody would be surprised at the appearance of our unique group the moment we passed through the large gate.

The streets were busy and the merchants promoting their products.

The scenario reminded me of the bridge from the little port town, but only the entrance because the principal street led to the main attraction, the Casinos.

"This town looks way more alive than the last one." Our swordsman commented while he checked our surroundings with mild interest.

"Of course it would, this place is a center for entertainment to satisfy people hedonism in every possible way." Karin has always delivered new knowledge for our group whenever the opportunity arises.

"We need to look for Tayuya, can you sense her?" I asked her, Jiraiya never specified where exactly we could find her or how she would communicate with us. It only left us with our own redhead to locate the other.

But all those hopes died down when she shook her head.

"I do recognize her chakra signature but I cannot feel it anywhere within the town."

Suigetsu groaned. "In other words, the bitch is hiding as a revenge."

I rolled my eyes at his words; he was so eager to make her wait and now he was complaining of the retribution, how ironic.

I turned to Juugo again to ask for his critter's help, but he was fast to shake his head as if he read my mind. "The people scared off all the animals within the vicinity."

"What an annoyance, we will have to ask around but I doubt there are other redheads than you two." With my statement made we started as a group our search for the girl in the big town but as soon as we asked the locals we found obstacles to our search.

The locals didn't have a single clue of who we were talking about, and the girls for my case only focused on me, acting as fangirls wasting my time with their endless questions.

The shops refused to even acknowledge us if we would buy nothing from them, unless the worker was a girl who immediately became interested in me and failed to invite me for a cup of tea.

When I looked up at the sky, the Sun was midway to reach the horizon, if we didn't find Tayuya before night came then we would have to wait for the next day because the town had a lively night as Casinos towns should have, the major influx of people occur at nighttime after all, which in turn would make it next to impossible to find the redhead.

But the stress was building up in my team, it wouldn't be efficient to keep them like that for more than necessary, besides I really wanted a small break to do another activity from my list like buying clothes.

I turned around and moved to a different direction from where our group was heading.

But Karin was quick enough to grab my wrist and stop me from giving one more step.

"Where are you going?"

"To get a new set of clothes first." My reply came fast.

"Let me go with you!" She gleamed a smiled.

"Whatever."We continued moving forward for some time before Karin abruptly stopped and turned to face the other two behind us.

"Why are you following us?! Don't you see we want privacy?!" Our red head screamed.

"Shut up, our big guy shouldn't be left alone to begin with and I don't want to ask around to a bunch of people alone."

She turned her frustration to me. "Ugh! Sasuke-kun say something."

I realized I didn't want their company when I would be looking for clothes, their attitude couldn't match and more problems would arise from a simple matter

"Karin, give them some money so he can take Juugo to eat."

She pulled out from her uniform a considerable stack of money and threw it towards the ground with disdain, but Suigetsu was faster and caught it mid air flashing his unique smile, the one which only an enemy uses to show his hostility.

It was my curiosity, but I wondered for a while if Karin was deliberating provoking Suigetsu to attack her and force my hand? The girl wasn't an idiot; she was a meticulous girl and had a side of cruelty perfectly exemplified weeks ago at her old facility.

For the best outcome, I pulled her back, creating a distance between the volatile couple. "Don't cause problems."

Suigetsu pulled back as well, looking at Karin with a smug smile.

"With my frozen yogurt I won't!" He exclaimed before pushing Juugo towards their new destination, our big guy didn't voice any discontent but showed a slight interest of what Suigetsu wanted to do with him.

Soon enough they disappeared within the crowd.

"That idiot is right Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't leave Juugo alone." Karin brought out a legitimate matter of concern.

"He won't lose control, he firmly believes that if something were to happen, I will come to stop him."

She looked up at me for a moment trying to make sense from my words but shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I didn't have to restrain him even once in all this time, he believes in me and that's enough to keep him down." I reassured with my hypothesis, but honestly speaking, I was putting a lot of trust in Juugo's individual ability to maintain control.

If things had a turn for the worse at least, I knew that he would make cause a big commotion, making it easy to find him and subdue him in an instant before things escalated and then run away from the authorities.

Karin kept her gaze on me for a couple of seconds before closing her eyes and turned around.

"Anyway, I cannot wait to buy some new clothes!" She immediately jumped in glee.

"You want new clothes too?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering about her sudden change of attitude.

"Of course I do! I cannot go moving from place to place with only one set of clothes."

"I don't see the issue." If my memories served me well, Sakura, Ino and Hinata wore the same set of clothes when I was still a part of Konoha.

"You are a man, you wouldn't understand." She puffed her cheeks with her nose held high.

What a sexist remark.

She grabbed my hand and led me at a fast pace to wherever the clothing stores could be.

When we arrived to a specific street, she immediately left my side and ran towards the nearest store where she pressed her face on the glass window to get a better look at the beautiful clothes in exhibition until I got closer so she could change towards another store.

But as some time passed, it was surprisingly amusing to watch Karin acting like a kid who entered a candy store, meeting another side of her besides her professional and her love-struck attitude wasn't a common occurrence.

For the best I left her to enjoy her own world as I glanced every store, one would catch my attention, eventually.

I stopped in front of a large store, as such it had a crowd of people entering and leaving with their shopping bags. What truly caught my attention was the exhibition manikins flashing simple but cool men's clothing like a leather jacket, hoodies, ripped jean shorts and tight pants, the nostalgia hit me with force.

It would be nice to have them and have a day for myself.

"May I be of help?" A voice brought me out from my nostalgic world, the owner was no other but a male worker who piqued my interest in their products, he had the stereotypical happy merchant look. To find a man working in that kind of industry wasn't uncommon as far as I could remember, but usually the female workers are preferred for more reasons than just their good looks.

"I want a new shirt."

"Right this way!" He showed me the way inside the store just in time, so the female workers took their turn to guide me inside their store.

"Wait Sasuke-kun!" Karin shouted my name from the entrance.

"And help my friend to decide."I pointed her with my thumb, to make it easier for the workers to recognize Karin.

"I didn't mean that!" Karin tried to protest, but I was already being taken away, the rest of her protest went deaf to my ears as she was being taken away to another section of the store.

Deeper inside the store there was an entire section for men's clothing, and a small part was only filled with shirt of all sizes, colors and models. I looked away from a moment and noticed a mannequin wearing the same clothes than the one at the entrance; I wanted to see more but the girl grabbed my hand and led me closer to the rows of shirts.

"As you can see, we have a large variety of shirts I hope one of them may be of your liking."

"I will take it from here."

She bowed and left my side giggling towards the growing group of giggling girls not so far from me; it was exactly the same what happened back at Wave, so annoying.

I looked between the shirts until I found a gray short-sleeved shirt with a zipper, a close examination revealed that it had a resemblance of Sasuke's shirt with the difference that it didn't have the Uchiha symbol on the back. For diversity's sake I grabbed a white one as well and moved towards the section that caught my interest first.

I grabbed a blue hoodie and a pair of shorts before I headed to one of the many female workers who had been watching me, daydreaming...

Since I didn't know the place at all I had to approach the group fro directions. "Where is the changing room?"

"Hmmm...at the woman's section you need to turn to the right and go straight, is hard to miss since the ladies always form a long queue at the opposite side."

When I arrived I quickly closed the door and finally have one moment of privacy for myself.

The shirt was the perfect fit as expected so I didn't put much thought into them but the other clothes was another thing, wearing the shirt I chose I posed in front of the mirror.

I really liked the hoodie, and the shorts gave me a sense of freedom instead of the tight pants that I had been using in the last couple of weeks.

After posing a couple of times I changed my clothes back and left the changing room, heading towards the cashier.

"Sasuke-kun wait!" But Karin's voice stopped me.

I turned to see at her direction and noticed her waving her hand at me to come closer, better said she called me toward her own dressing room. Since I didn't want to be that much of an asshole I complied to her request, an action that earned quite the number of jealousy stares.

"What do you want?" I asked when I was close enough and away from the unwanted stares.

Right at that instant, she threw open the door. "Look!"

Karin surprised me with her new clothes, a loose lavender sleeveless qipao which reached her hips and her arms were completely covered by long black skin tight arm warmers, my eyes lowered to find that she tied her uniform around her waist but she kept her black shorts and her long black thigh-high stockings.

"That's... a very creative choice."

Karin's face immediately heated up at my particular choice of words and looked away, scratching her right cheek. "Thanks..."

She was so occupied acting all flushed that she didn't notice the nasty glares from the other girls and ladies from the store who by the look of things had been staring at us since she called for me.

Together we went to the cashier and paid what I could assume was a considerable amount of money, yet having millions at the price didn't affect me at all. However, before leaving I took my chances and asked them about Tayuya whereabouts or if they have at least seen her.

But it was in vain, the workers shook their head and told us that we should try our luck at the casinos.

We left the establishment to resume with our search with the relatively short time we had left after we stored our clothes inside one of her storage scrolls.

"She enjoys drinking so any bar can be a place we can search for her." Karin suddenly remembered.

"It would be better to start again before the sun sets."

We didn't need to ask for directions, the entertainment district was clear to the view and some Casinos were high enough to be seen from a distance.

Karin still tried to locate her with her sensory abilities but she couldn't sense her at all, except she mentioned a couple of chakra signatures moving within the city in different directions, I got Tsunade's pardon yet I couldn't discard the possibility of a Konoha shinobi team sent against me for other reasons, but the more likely possibility was that those shinobis came to enjoy themselves in a city of sin.

I chose one casino which had a focus more on card games and much to my relief I found the redhead in one of table playing what I could assume Poker with a group.

Karin wanted to call for her, but I quickly placed my hand on her and approached her table in silence.

The dealer gave the signal and all the players threw their hand, almost immediately one screamed in joy and started to jump on the spot.

Tayuya slammed her head on the table while the other player groaned and left the table with their head low.

As an act of sincerity I patiently waited for her to sulk and recover from her loss, which didn't take long.

She stood up and was ready to depart until we finally crossed gazes.

"Oh..."

"Yes, I've finally arrived." I finished in her stead.

Her face contorted into a frown. "You took your fucking time, princess."

"You don't seem to be bored." I threw a jab to her pride.

"Well, I can't since I just lost half of my money." She pointed a table where an out of shape man with a mustache was laughing uncontrollably while hugging stacks of money and tokens.

"Have you ever heard of cashing out?" Any sane person would cash out his or her winnings, casinos are only a dark abyss that you should never stare for long times. At least that's what I would do as soon as possible if I ever won in a casino.

Better said, Tayuya brought out a particular thought, my Sharingan could be the perfect tool to cheat the casinos from their money, with the ability of predict others next move and discern lies from truths, I could easily make a fortune in Tanzaku gai.

"Where is the fun in that?" She grabbed an old bag and threw her recently converted money inside."Besides you know that Casinos don't like when you take a lot from them."

There was truth in her words but I highly doubted that they could command high ranking shinobis to do their biddings and even then I doubt that any of them could pose any threat to me or Suigetsu and much less Juugo.

"Anyway, what's Tsunade's response."

"Oh right, you have a letter along with her answer." She pulled the zipper and rummaged through her bag for a moment.

"A letter?"

"Yup." She handed me a pair of scrolls and a small piece of paper.

I quickly unfolded the paper, but I only found a single sentence written with capital letters.

'I HOPE YOU CHOKE ON A DICK AND DIE!'

The paper became ashes in my hand before I could crumble and throw it into the trash.

"Sensitive, are you?" Tayuya's words went deaf to me, my attention shifted to the scrolls.

The first thing I noticed was the official Hokage seal, I opened it with no more doubts.

"Just what I wanted and more." I didn't want to hide my smile of satisfaction since Tsunade accepted my demands meaning that I no longer would be pursued by Konoha forces, my freedom to roam the Fire country and much to my surprise the authority of the Uchiha treasury was transferred to me, it was surprising how valuable information about the Akatsuki members could reach.

Or Jiraiya was that convincing

Or Naruto had something in the matter, probably the later.

The dobe should learn when to let it go, it wasn't healthy to hold on an obsession.

"You had very good conditions after all, that kind of information doesn't come cheap or fast, only a retard would have rejected your offer."

"Karin give her the book." I gave them permission to proceed.

She handed the small book which took me a single night to complete; it surprised even Karin when she first read it.

Tayuya read and check every profile that had been written, her eyes widening in amazement. "Wow, I didn't know that the bastard had this much information on the Akatsuki."

Promptly, she closed the book and stored inside her bag and closed the zipper.

"Weren't you part of his bodyguards?" I wondered.

Tayuya lips twitched along with her eyebrow. "And that makes me entitled to know his secrets?"

I kept my silence.

"Wanna go out for a drink?" She asked out of the blue a very off topic question.

"Why?"

"I want a drink, and the fuckers of this place charge too much." She pointed at one butler holding a tray with alcoholic beverages who only frowned and walked away.

I turned my gaze and met Karin's eyes for a moment.

"I don't mind."

"Great! I know exactly the place." She didn't waste time and sneaked her arm around Karin's shoulder before she pointed the way.

We soon followed her directions and arrived at a rather humble bar which, despite the sun was still up in the sky, already had a crowd in merry drinking and laughter.

Tayuya led us to an empty table and left for a moment on our side before returning with a plate filled with full mugs.

"So where are the cumbuckect and the Big guy?"

"Somewhere inside the city eating to their heart contempt."

Tayuya chugged down an entire chug of beer and wiped clean any remnants from her face with her wristband. "Good to know that they aren't around, so tell me princess how did you kill that bastard?"

I raised an eyebrow, wondering about her curiosity. "Any specific reason?"

She shrugged. "I simply want to know if he suffered or not."

The exact memories were only blurred images inside my mind, but I could recall his screams of sheer disbelief, and his unbelieving eyes refusing to accept his fate. The surge of sadistic glee ran through my veins.

"He did, Orochimaru couldn't believe that I defeated him on his own game."

"Good to hear."

"Tell me, how exactly did you survive the whole mess?" I had the intention to find out the whole story, or at least a very reasonable explanation for a supposedly enemy kunoichi could change teams.

Tayuya crossed her arms, tilted her head to the side. "Didn't I tell you that I changed sides?"

"I know for a fact that is not that simple."

"You are right! It took a couple more of steps before I could become a shinobi of Konoha."

"Which are?"

"Well, the moment the Suna girl arrived I surrendered, but she knocked me out cold so much later I woke up in a cell and was interrogated for days without end."

"And you told everything?"

Her face twisted into a deep frown. "Why wouldn't I? I wouldn't risk my neck for the bastard and Konoha torture methods are at par with Orochimaru, the snake bitch is like him in many ways and the baldy really knows his shit."

I considered her words for a couple of seconds, even if she put up a front then those two would have mentally broken in a matter of time, she was right that it wasn't worth it to suffer for somebody who didn't even put you at the level of living being.

But a part was still missing.

I looked at her straight to the eyes without blinking to apply pressure on her. "How did you even got accepted to become part of Konoha corps? The villages wouldn't recruit enemy forces for absolute no reason to begin with."

Tayuya stare didn't falter or showed any sign of weakening. "The shithead vouched for me, I don't know why but he did."

"Why would he vouch for you?" I asked out of curiosity, even if I knew Naruto's character to some degree I couldn't believe that the idiot would be willing to help somebody who had part of his biggest regret which caused him a lot of harm.

She closed her eyes for a moment and released a long sigh. "Dunno, probably thought that I would somehow lead him to you or something else, or the fact that I'm loosely related to him. But I'm thankful that he got me out of that shithole, the food was shit and they made the bed out of stone."

My eyes widened in surprise.

"You are part of his family?"

The only things that could somehow relate her to the Uzumakis was her red hair, even if it was said that only the Uzumakis had that gene.

She grimaced while she rubbed the back of her neck. "Loosely related...look, is hard to explain but there is a lot of science and fucked up experiments here and there that the bastard did on me."

Her vague answer only creates more questions for me but it was enough for me to understand that she didn't wasn't comfortable with the topic as well.

Could she be some sort of bastardized Uzumaki clone?

There was more about her that she was hiding, but I could solve the mystery at a later date.

"So Karin is related to both of you as well?" I asked, rather perplexed.

Tayuya and Karin shared a look for a moment before Tayuya shrugged in dismissal.

"Dunno, may she is maybe she is not but if you are curious, then go and talk with the shithead or the saggy hag." She grabbed another cup and gulped it down in a single shot.

But aside from her drinking habits, I was honestly surprised that she didn't even show respect to Tsunade, unless she only dared to speak like that behind her back.

"Well, that is enough about the good old me, Karin how have you been this whole time?" She patted Karin's back with a wide smile.

Karin shared a smile and adjusted her glasses. "Well, I hope you do not get bored since it isn't as exciting as your adventures."

But before they could continue with their happy reunion, I took a long sip from my mug and left the table heading outside for fresh air, both girls didn't say a thing and continued with their merry drinking and chattering about the life.

The fresh gust of wind hit my nose, compared to the stench of alcohol and cigars from inside the outside was a better environment to take a moment to relax. However, I couldn't allow me to sit down and wait, Suigetsu and Juugo were still somewhere in the town eating to their heart content or just wandering around trying to kill time.

Yet since I didn't have Karin with me I had to ask to the people but to my luck, there were few places where frozen yogurt they could buy, and after getting some directions I began my short search for the rest of my team.

I found them on the second try, Suigetsu was seated on the table while Juugo was on a chair silently watching him eat more yogurt. What truly surprised me was that despite his bad manners, his whole area seemed clean without a mountain of cups piling up.

He quickly explained that he threw the stack of money to the big shot of the place and they had been bringing them yogurt since then so there was no issue with us leaving the establishment.

However, what shocked me a little was that Suigetsu took some of his free time to ask for recommendations where we could spend the night in peace, he led us towards a different district filled with tall buildings until we reached to a particular building which had an eye-catching door design, two butterflies made of wood at each side with a rising sun at the middle.

I made all the arrangements with the receptionist before leaving those two inside our new room, which I could tell how comfy it was with a simple glance. With the task over I headed to the bar jumping over the roofs until I reached the street and jumped off the building so I could calmly look for the place.

By that time the sunset had started and they turned all the lights on in succession.

Just as I was about to push the door to enter, an angry redhead looking at I with eyes ready to punch anything with the slightest of provocation received me. Her gaze locked on me and didn't show hesitation to throw me a crumpled piece of paper to the face, but much to her displeasure I caught it midair and returned it to her in the same manner.

It hit her leg and fell flat on the ground before she stomped twice, burying the paper.

Tayuya had quite the temper, no surprise there.

"Twat, you owe me for the drinks." She spat.

I shrugged, it was my fault that I didn't stay with them to and be the chivalrous type. "Sorry, perhaps next time." I mocked her with my fake condolences, as if I would ever pay her back.

Karin finally joined us with the exception that her face had a slight hint of red in her cheeks. "Where are those two now?"

"I rented an apartment for tonight."

She did a couple of stretches before setting her path towards a place she did not understand where it was; it made itself clear that Karin was tipsy enough to forget the important details.

I rolled my eyes, it would be better to carry her and avoid unnecessary trouble that a tipsy girl might bring.

But a hand on my shoulder stopped me from giving the first step but that became a secondary thing the moment I felt a soft pair of lips reach for my cheek, my eyes widened in surprise.

I turned only to find Tayuya looking at me straight to the eyes. "What's that for?"

She shrugged. "That's for killing Kabuto, I guess."

There was an awkward silence between us, she was looking frantically her surroundings while I was trying to make sense on the situation at hand but all those thoughts died down when she quickly pulled down my collar to mesh our lips which felt like an eternity together until she released my collar.

"And that for killing Orochimaru."

Before I could utter a single word she disappeared from my sight with a smile expressing her brazen attitude, it took my brain seconds to realize what just happened causing my cheeks to heat up from embarrassment; it was supposed to be me the one who make girls blush not the other way around!


AN:

And the lockdown has been extended!

HAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK MY LIFE HAHAHA!

But I heard that Germany is now testing a vaccine on people so perhaps this whole ordeal will end by the end of the year.

Honestly I had been writing a couple dozen of words per day this whole thing is just draining spiritually it seems, I really miss going outside even if it was just to assist my university lessons and occasionally eat in a cheap restaurant.

Anyways I decided to start drawing on a graphic table and to my shock i saw that is not the same than drawing your pencil, I couldn't even draw a circle so decided to practice and probably I will spend weeks learning the techniques and strokes which is good since I will probably will be trapped inside my home for the rest of the year.