Chapter 28
Two days after their royal run in. Sasuke had to send a bird summon back home for more glass. They had sold almost all of their stock and still had four more villages to go. “If nothing else, we can sell weapons,” Naruto comforted. He was right. For as much glass as they were selling, nobody seemed interested in the metalwork. Those who came were looking for information more than craftsmanship.
Part of the fruit was getting ripe as well. They had either sold or eaten most of their stock of fresh fruits and vegetables. They were planning to close down shop for the day and do some hunting in the nearby prairie for some fresh meat and maybe luck into some spices.
“About time,” Naruto stretched his arms behind his head as they finished packing up.
“I can’t wait to get out of here for a few hours,” Shisui agreed and put his hand on Itachi’s shoulder. Itachi had calmed some since their encounter but still seemed like he would stab the first person who looked at him funny. They had a few close calls today.
“Can we check out that orchard today?” Sasuke liked running his stand but they hadn’t gotten much training time in. He was starting to get stiff and bored with the merchant work. Itachi looked at him and he made sure to turn the puppy eyes up to ten.
Itachi could never resist and soon gave in. “Fine. It's not far and there might be fruit.”
“Yay!” Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s arm and jumped a few times, dragging the brunette with him.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath for any fruit but the trees might be concealing bigger animals than a couple of rabbits.” Shisui mused. “Naruto, do you remember how to butcher an animal properly?”
“Yep,” Naruto popped the p and thankfully didn’t go into details. They hadn’t been worried about saving the skin and making the meat pretty since they didn’t have a way to tan the hide on the road and they were the ones eating the meat. Now that they intended to use it to bulk up their stand before they left in two more days, it would have to be done properly.
“Before we go, let’s seal everything.” Itachi motioned the group into a nearby alleyway. Nobody batted an eye when the group vanished into the darkness. While Itachi maintained the genjutsu, Shisui got to work drawing a seal on Naruto and Sasuke’s shoulder. There they sealed up all their wares. Sasuke and Naruto didn’t have as big a storage space as the two older boys but Shisui made it big enough that they could put things they catch or pick inside as well. They kept their everyday supplies and cash on them. The cash was split evenly between the four of them.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and got a head slap in return as he was being checked over by his older brother. Naruto snickered beside him and got the same treatment from Shisui. “You’re being paranoid again,” Sasuke ignored the man handling and spoke.
“You two aren’t paranoid enough,” Itachi snarked back.
“Sometimes it’s better to be over prepared than underprepared,” Shisui tried to explain. Sasuke didn’t get it. Both him and Naruto were fidgeting before the older boys finished up and they reappeared in the alley. A nearby civilian jumped when they all walked out but otherwise they went unnoticed. Naruto was bouncing on his toes while Shisui sweet talked the guard into letting them out without going through the line. They would have to be quiet when they returned but were told to come back over the same wall.
“Why do we have to give them money all the time?” Sasuke complained.
“It’s not all the time,” Shisui evaded and Itachi shot him a look.
“If it’s a ninja thing, you might as well tell us,” Naruto reasoned. Shisui sighed before he gave in.
“Technically we’re not allowed back in after the sun goes down, but sometimes a little coin can keep the gate open longer. You get me?” Naruto was nodding along but Sasuke was lost.
“If we’re not supposed to, then why are they letting us out? That’s dangerous.”
“Not to that guard,” Shisui answered. “If anything, it’s profitable for him. Since we’re trying to hurt him, he had no problem with breaking a few rules.”
“Many people have a price,” Itachi continued. “Almost anyone can be bought for the right price and if you convince them that it’s safe. The price is pretty cheap.”
“Like going out to pick some fruit?” Naruto was half asking, half explaining.
“Exactly. We've been here a couple of days now. They don’t think we’re planning anything and this village is corrupt. Why not use the system while we’re here.” It sounded reasonable to Sasuke when Shisui put it like that.
He thought about that until they started getting close to the orchard and the sun was going down. It wasn’t far from the back gate. It only took them two hours of running to get there. The bad news was that they hadn’t seen a single animal worth eating on the way there.
“Pretty poor excuse for an orchard,” Shisui commented as he broke a stick off of a dead tree. There were no living trees in sight. Not much grass underneath either. It looked like something had sucked the very life out of the earth.
“Well,” Naruto forced a smile. “Since we’re here, we might as well look around. Maybe we’ll find a rabbit or bird.” Sasuke was pretty sure they were going to be stuck with whatever the inn could scrounge up this late in the evening. His nose wrinkled at the thought and he saw Itachi’s eyes twinkle in a way that meant he was amused but hiding it.
“Do either of you feel anything to be concerned about,” Itachi prompted.
Sasuke immediately started sensing his surroundings but came up empty. “Nothing,” he was almost disappointed to report. If something was there, they would have had a goal.
“Hey, betcha I could hide better than you could sense me, “Naruto goaded.
“Betcha Can’t,” Sasuke replied and closed his eyes. “!5, 14, 13….” He smiled in his hands as he heard Naruto panic and sprint in the opposite direction. Itachi and Shisui were a distance away quietly laughing and poking at one of the tree roots.
Sasuke may have counted faster than was necessary but at least he didn’t skip numbers like Naruto was prone to do. He always said he forgot but Sasuke knew better. Naruto was better than him at math.
“Here I come,” He stretched his arms with his senses and stood back up. He took a moment to look around his surroundings before picking the direction he heard Naruto go. He could only faintly sense the direction the other boy was in. His activated Sharingan helped track Naruto. “Ah, ha.” He started running towards where the ground was recently disturbed. He was barely paying attention to Itachi’s voice calling for him not to go too far.
He ran for a minute before he slowed down and tried to spread his senses again. He couldn’t hear or see Naruto but he couldn’t have gotten far. The brush was also thicker in this part of the dead forest. It would be easy for the blonde to hide. “Come out, come out. Wherever you are,” Sasuke started taunting and kicking the bushes he passed.
He went around the thicket twice before he found a small game trail. It looped and swerved so badly he couldn’t see five feet in front of him through the dead underbrush. He was so invested in his game he didn’t notice he couldn’t sense his brother any longer. He heard boisterous laughter up ahead and figured Naruto had found a new friend, so he headed that way.
Before he could call out, the path in front of him cleared somewhat and he saw a sight that made his blood run cold. Naruto was being held by his collar and had some sort of seal binding his wrists. His yells were being smothered by the laughter of the same man they had encountered at the village gate. He hadn’t ended up going in but left after he caused a scene and Itachi put him in his place. He was just as ugly as when Sasuke first saw him and even though he was laughing, his eyes were cold.
Sasuke ducked behind a fallen tree before they could see him. There were about 5 people on the path besides Naruto and even in his panic, Sasuke could sense chakra coming from all of them. He couldn’t identify what type of chakra nature they used because they were masking. He was about to go get help before he heard the man speak.
“Well, Well, Well…. What do we have here? Are you lost?” His words could be taken for concern if it wasn’t for the sneer on his face.
Naruto wasn’t having it. “Let me go, ya jerk.” He tried to bite the man but was cuffed for his trouble. He was dazed enough that he probably didn’t understand the man’s next words but Sasuke did.
“Since you're not being very cooperative. I guess we’ll just have to take you with us. Nothing personal, but we really can’t have you telling the General you saw us.” He slung Naruto over his shoulder and Sasuke had to act before they disappeared. He flared his chakra in a quick SOS and charged out from behind his cover.
He managed to kill two of the criminals before they realized he was there. Sasuke winced as the ugly man dropped Naruto and the blonde started coughing on the ground. More people who must have been hiding their presence started coming into the clearing and suddenly Sasuke couldn’t keep up.
Some were obviously civilians and he could dispatch them with ease but there were enough ninja mixed in that he was beginning to wear down. He hoped his brother would get there soon. Naruto was trying to get up and not get trampled. He was bleeding from his head and that was the distraction that big and ugly needed.
Sasuke’s eyes flashed with stars before he realized he’d been clubbed in the back of the head. His Sharingan flitted in and out before settling on his normal gray eyes and he fell. The ground was hard but he couldn’t feel it over the roaring in his head. “Sasuke!” He heard Naruto scream but couldn’t respond.
There was a copper taste in his mouth and the next thing he knew he was dangling in the same position, minus the cuffs, as Naruto was earlier and had a kunai to his throat. His eyes were still blurry but he could make out two figures in front of him and could hear his brother's voice.
“Let him down now,” It was cold and calculating death.
He felt a man’s hand tremble on his collar and wondered if it was the same one as earlier or if he was handed off to another. “Get any closer and I’ll open him up a new hole,” Sasuke smelled something rank coming from behind him with those words. “Turn off the devil powers of yours too. I don’t want no curses following me.” Sasuke almost giggled at the thought that the sharingan could curse anyone.
Itachi and Shisui must have listened to him because the hand holding him relaxed and he felt his feet drag on the ground. He wanted to lash out and make the man drop him but he still didn’t know enough about what was going on or where Naruto was.
“Hello again,” when Sasuke’s sight cleared, he saw that Shisui was looking off to the side. He saw itachi’s eyes sharpen in recognition that he was awake again and tried to keep his body limp. He was able to see a bit out of the corner of his eyes and saw the older man from the market. They were seeing a lot of familiar faces today.
“You two weren’t interested much in my offer last time,” he sounded contemplative as he addressed Shisui. “This time, how about we sweeten the deal.” He must have gestured to the man behind Sasuke because he felt himself lifted again and heard Naruto’s muffled cry from behind him. “How about you help us with our little project and in return, you walk out of here alive.”
Sasuke almost tensed when he felt a prick on his neck. It was only his training that kept him limp. He looked at Itachi, wondering what he should do.
“This wonderful offer is oh so generous,” He heard the sound of grinding teeth by his head at Shisui’s words. He could only guess they didn’t like his cheerful tone. “However, there seem to be a few problems with it. One, we have no way of knowing if what you say is true and two, we have no reason to assassinate anyone in this village.” Shisui took his hands from his side and rubbed his chin. Sasuke only saw the ninja wire glint off his fingers for a moment because he knew Shisui liked using it for surprise attacks.
“How about a counter offer,” he continued. Keeping all the attention on them wasn’t hard. “You let the kids go and you get to walk out of this clearing with most of your limbs.” He felt shifting behind him as the cheerful voice turned cold.
“See we don’t know much about this place and only want to be left alone. We didn’t say anything before and we have no intentions of saying anything now. So how about we both walk away and mind our own business.” It sounded so reasonable and clinical when Shisui said it like that.
“How do we know youse telling the truth,” Sasuke heard someone beside him yell. They must have been fairly stupid if so many came out into the open just to talk. Itachi’s glare softened at the sarcasm written on Sasuke’s face. He opened his eyes completely and saw that no one was in front of him at all or even looking at him. He risked a glance to the side, disguising it as a head roll and saw the idiot group had lined themselves up.
“What are you even doing out here,” ugly answered.
“We were just playing and picking fruit when you maniacs….” the end of Naruto’s offended sentence was cut short. Shisui glared harder at whatever the men did to shut up the blonde.
“Not this time brat. You ain’t talking your way out of this,” He must have been remembering the other time as well.
While all eyes were on Naruto, Itachi sent Sasuke a signal. He was requesting a distraction and Sasuke’s eyes lit up at finally being about to move. He closed his eyes and groaned loudly, like he was just waking up. He felt everyone’s eyes drawn to him and scrunched up his face. He took his arms from his side and slowly moved them to the hands on his scruff as if confused.
With that movement, he sensed the other man and determined he didn’t have any chakra he could use. Sasuke thought it was a stupid of them. He opened his eyes at the same time his hands gripped the other and acted like he was clueless, like Naruto 90 percent of the time.
“Wha….” He trailed off his words and let his eyes go wide at the same time his grip tightened. “Who are you, what’s happening,” he let some real panic about the situation bleed into his voice. Scarred and ugly made the bad decision to take his eyes off of the real threat to look at Sasuke.
“Finally awake, I think I owe you for earlier.” Ignoring Itachi and Shisui completely, he raised his arm up to strike Sasuke. Before he could bring it down, Sasuke let out a huge burst of chakra from his hands. He heard the scream behind him and smelled charred flesh before he was dropped.
He didn’t have time to think about it before Itachi was holding him safely across the clearing and the ugly man was howling in pain. Where his hand had been, now there was only a spurting stump of an arm.
“I tried to warn ya, man.” Shisui’s voice was cheerful again and it was easy to tell why. Naruto was snugly in his arms with blood splattered over the two of them. “I said most of your limbs but does anyone ever listen. Noooo, you just had to be the big bully threatening a couple of kids.”
He pulled his ninja wire taunt and all the other men suddenly found themselves strung up. Sasuke shivered at the sight. It would only take a twitch of Shisui’s finger to disfigure the trapped men. The pleading that permeated the clearing told Sasuke he wasn’t the only one that figured that out.
“Now, let’s have a real conversation,” the grin on Shisui’s face was anything but pleasant.