Chapter 29
It took so long for the captured men to give them anything useful that both Sasuke and Naruto were bored out of their minds. They passed the time by keeping themselves busy and recovering all wayward weapons. Eventually Itachi decided that the sun moved a little too much for his liking and that using genjutsu would get them to a safe place faster.
“How much longer?” Sasuke understood Naruto’s complaint all too well. The novelty of being in the same team as his brother had worn off and all that he could feel was annoyance at the men who despite being laughably bad bandits were successfully wasting their time and grating his nerves. As the leader manically explains everything he’d ever known in his entire life, Shisui dully writes down the few things that could possibly be useful. How his older cousin was keeping up with whatever the guy was spewing was beyond him. Last time he tuned in, he was talking about his last job before becoming a missing nin. Embarrassingly pathetic.
Itachi stood closely to them while watching the mostly harmless group that Shisui wasn’t questioning. Most of them were out cold but a few were blubbering into the dirt or crying at the sky. Somehow, the scene manages to pull a bit of sympathy out of Sasuke if only because he would never want to experience the same.
“It shouldn’t be too long now.” Itachi looked up at the now dark sky. “It’s a good thing we bribed the guard earlier, otherwise we would have been stuck sleeping in the woods.” He headed over to Shisui and the leader of the group. The tied up man renewed his struggle against the ropes when he noticed the menacing teenager.
Sasuke sighed and looked at Naruto, “Wonder what we're gonna do with them?” The final call was thankfully Itachi’s.
“Who knows?” Naruto yawned again and sat down. “Whatever we’re doing, we need to hurry. I’m starving!” Sasuke felt his own stomach rumble in protest. Itachi had shot down the idea of unsealing some food earlier when Naruto suggested it because he didn’t want the others to see the technique. So they hadn’t eaten since they left.
Whatever conversation Itachi and Shisui had, they must have reached a decision. Itachi simply turned to the tied man and cleanly decapitated him before the poor bastard could even beg for his life. The almost calm clearing suddenly filled with sounds again. Instinctively sensing the imminent danger the other bandits startled awake just to witness the growing pool of blood surrounding their leader's lifeless body, one of the shorter ones managed to grumble out a plea for his life that started a cacophony of mismatched voices desperately trying to save their own skin. Something bubbled in Sasuke’s blood at the noise.
It was a testament of how far he and Naruto had grown that neither flinched when the body spasmed and fell, but the way these people dared to call themselves ninja left a bitter taste in his mouth. Was this why some civilians couldn’t stand being near them? Yeah, they never were well liked, but some of it came just from being shinobi, he was sure.
Shisui took an exhausted sigh and yelled out, “Chill folks. We’re not gonna kill all of you.” The reassurance wasn’t nearly as effective as they hoped though and Sasuke got the impression it somehow intensified. A little offended but too done to deal with any more of this, Shisui motioned Itachi, who promptly took a deep breath and let out a large flame. The sight of it was enough to silence anyone that didn’t want to become extra crispy.
“Now let’s try again,” Shisui restarted. “This man was wanted in several villages for murder and conspiracy.” He pointed to their fallen comrade and Itachi signaled Sasuke and Naruto over. The entire group watched in silence as Itachi showed the two boys how to seal the head and instructed them to strip the body. This would be their first time doing it without their older brothers' help.
Sasuke was able to keep an ear on Shisui as he worked on the body. He was in charge of cutting out usable organs and putting them in stasis while Naruto was looking for any belongings or markings they could cut off for further proof of identity. This village wouldn’t be likely to pay a bounty but they might when they find out the man tried to kill their beloved general. Otherwise, the head and other markings would stay in stasis until they arrived at the next village.
“Now, if you gentlemen will be ever so kind enough to point out any others that are wanted dead or alive. The others may leave in peace. If someone lies though, I don’t have to explain the power of the Uchiha Clan. Do I?”
The bandits froze as Shisui activated his Sharingan. Itachi looked up from where he was supervising the kids and activated his own. Many looked away and Naruto’s nose wrinkled slightly at the smell of someone soiling themselves. Sasuke hoped they wouldn’t have to clean that person. Defecation was normal in corpses but that was foul by any standard. Just the threat of the ‘demon eyes’ were enough to get them all falling over themselves to talk. He was willing to bet most of them had no clue what the Sharingan even was, let alone what it could do.
Some tried to blend into the back of the group, but their previous allies were happy to push them to the front and present Shisui with a group of about 6 people. “Is this all of them?” Shisui raised his eyes. The men nodded vigorously and hid behind their sacrifices.
Shisui walked up to the first man. “What’s your name?” It was more of a demand than a question.
He stubbornly stayed quiet until one of the others spoke up his name anyway. Shisui took his time flipping through the bingo book to find his entry and when he did. He cut the man’s throat before he could say a single word. Quick and efficient, same for the other 4 men. One wasn’t actually in the bingo book so they simply untied him. And as a reminder to not pull another stunt like this they made the group watch as Sasuke and Naruto worked over the corpses.
Sasuke groaned as he stood back up after they were done with the last one. He really could use a warm bath right now. “Good job,” Itachi said simply as he glanced at their work. He then piled up the remains and used a fire jutsu to cremate them. Most of the men left alive were civilians and didn’t have a kill or arrest order so Shisui let them go after a stern warning to stay away from unsavory shinobi in the future. They also took all their money and weapons to really drive the point home. They scrambled like ants as soon as they were untied.
“I doubt they’ll be a problem now.” Shisui was in higher spirits with the job done and their supplies partially replenished. He had no shame in shaking the coin purse that was now much heavier than they started.
“Can we please go back now,” Sasuke pleaded. Naruto, with his inhuman stamina, was already recovering but Sasuke needed a real bed and food.
“Yeah, I’m hungry.” Naruto’s stomach growled and surprisingly, so did Shisui’s.
“Great idea, Lets get breakfast,” Shisui was quick to respond and they started back towards the village. The interrogation and ordeal ate up most of the day and even the night. By the position of the moon, it would be daybreak soon.
“What are we going to do about this?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke’s tired mind had no clue what Naruto was talking about. “About what?”
“The conspiracy.” Naruto answered.
“Do we have to do anything?” He shot back. “We won and they can’t do anything anymore, even if they wanted to. I’m more upset that we can’t turn in the bounties here because of that stupid no bounties rule the general has.” They didn’t need the money but Sasuke didn’t want to carry a head to the next location.
“Not exactly,” Shisui grimaced. “We just didn’t have the authority to do anything. Back when we were recognized as jounin, we would have been expected to execute the entire group. Since our village isn’t well known and our authority isn’t in place yet, we had to let them go. Chances are good, they’ll just find more shinobi to throw at the kage here.”
“Hopefully not until after we leave this time,” Sasuke still wasn’t sure why that mattered.
“I’ll think about it,” Itachi said and went quiet.
By the time they made it back to the village, predawn was beginning and they didn’t need the Sharingan to see the gate. They were greeted with a different guard but he waved them back in all the same.
“The last guy must’ve filled him in and shared the bribe,” Naruto remarked offhandedly as they climbed over the wall.
“Doubt there was much sharing with that lot but sure.” Shisui easily agreed, the banter then was cut off by an amused snicker as Sasuke abruptly lost his footing.
Thankfully, Itachi was quick to catch him. “Way past your bedtime, huh?”
Sasuke blushed in embarrassment. “Well we can’t all have chakra storage the size of a village,” he mumbled defensively. Unfortunately, Naruto heard that and the traitor started laughing maniacally at his expense.
“You’re just jealous that you have to sleep like a mere mortal and I can go forever.” To add insult to injury he even sounded breathy, surely it wasn’t that bad to make the blond sound hysterical. He turned to look at Shisui’s almost concerned expression at the look in his brother’s eyes and was a little validated.
“How about we all catch some Zs and work out what to do when we’re better rested.” Shisui had the grace not to mention him and Itachi could go almost a week without any sleep. That didn’t mean he had to though.
Sasuke grunted, his word count for yesterday had already expired and the sun coming up was giving him a headache.
He could only hope that Itachi and Shisui were able to keep watch because he was out the moment his head met the pillow. Even though waiting for food would have been smarter, Sasuke was also too tired to care.
He didn’t know how long he slept but the sun was high in the sky and blinded him when he tried to pry his eyes open.
“And he returns to the land of the living!” Shisui's chipper voice was a little too much to deal with first thing in the day in his opinion and he grumbled intelligibly while rubbing his eyes. The temptation to just roll over and continue sleeping was appealing, but Sasuke was able to shake the rest of the drowsiness fast enough. It felt odd when he finally opened his eyes and the entire group was looking at him when he’s usually one of the first ones up.
He was so involved in the staring contest that it took a few seconds for the smell to hit him full force. He tore his eyes away from the others and let out something between a whimper of a wounded animal and a cry of frustration. “What did you do to my pot!” Why did Naruto allow either Itachi or Shisui near it!
Tangled in a bundle of sheets that he clumsily shrugged off with urgency, Sasuke tripped out of bed to make a beeline to the bubbling pot. Itachi’s face darkened as he quickly removed his hands from the bottom of the pot. He refused to speak or look directly at Sasuke anymore, who was stubbornly trying to take a spatula in a desperate attempt to save his pot. It may not have been fancy but he helped make it and didn’t want to scrap it.
“Well, you were asleep.” Naruto offered as if that answered all Sasuke’s questions. He would rather have a detailed explanation on what the black sludge defiling his pot was supposed to be than whatever half baked excuses were forming in his best friend’s mind. Sasuke gave a considerate look towards the window before unceremoniously dumping the black sludge out of it. The other three watched him slink into the bathroom where he filled the pot with water before slowly heating it again, trying to soften the crust to clean it.
“I’m actually impressed he can clean and glare at the same time,” Shisui commented with a casual air unbefitting the attempted murder of Sasuke’s appliance so he made sure to amp up his glare specifically in his direction as he scrubbed his pot in the bathtub.
It took almost an hour to clean it and glaring helped enough to find his words. He simply turned to Naruto and demanded “What happened.”
“I told you mister grumpy, you were asleep and we were hungry. We tried to get food this morning but there wasn’t anything open so we ate some vegetables before going to sleep. We woke up before you and decided since you’ve been cooking this way, it couldn't be that hard for the older boys to figure it out.” Naruto explained.
“We found out pretty quickly that the temperature control is a lot harder than it looked.” Shisui almost looked apologetic when he spoke and Itachi remained stubbornly silent and staring at the wall, as if it wasn’t his handprints Sasuke just cleaned off his pot.
Sasuke opened his mouth to give them all a good scolding but was interrupted by Naruto’s stomach. Trust him to play peacemaker even now. “Soooo, now you know. Can you….” He trailed off as if afraid of the answer.
He was hungry too so he pointed his finger at them sternly. “Don’t touch my pot.” “I don’t want to wait for stew to cook. Do we have any rabbit or deer left?”
Naruto cheered. “We have some strips of meat from different animals. We were going to make oatmeal and fry them.” Itachi supplied.
“We didn’t quite make it past the oatmeal though.” Shisui looked at the window where their first attempt went and Sasuke heard his stomach rumble as well.
“Did any of you think about the fact it’s late enough to buy something now?” He was truly curious.
“Yeah, but Itachi said we shouldn’t split up until after we get all this other junk settled.” Naruto pouted and grabbed a spoon. He could stir while Sasuke handled the heat.
“Why did you let me sleep so late? You could have woken me up.”
“It was a long day and you needed to rest. We could wait. It’s important to push through when you have to but we had plenty of time.” It was hard to take his brother’s fussing seriously when he almost ruined his pot, but he could appreciate the effort later.
Still, he felt a little disconcerted. “I don’t want to hold you back.” He was the only one that needed to sleep so much. There was a sudden itch to fidget with his hands, but instead he focused on his work.
It took a few minutes for anyone to respond to the hushed confession.
“That’s stupid,” Naruto broke the silence.
Sasuke looked at him and Naruto could tell he needed something more than that. He rubbed the back of his head and continued. “I mean, Itachi and bro are already super awesome and experienced. We can’t be expected to catch up to them yet.” True. One of the reasons they were all here was so they could learn. It didn’t sound too bad like when he put it like that but he still felt guilty.
“Besides, I have a bunch of extra chakra and a tailed beast sealed in me. You can’t expect to compete with a tailed beast on reserves. You’re way better at other stuff, like cooking and knowing technical things from jutsu. I can’t compete with you on things like that, does that mean I’m holding you back.”
“No!,” Sasuke objected before he realized it. “I would never think that. Besides, even if I did, we can just work together to get you better.” That’s how it was when they first took Naruto in. He didn’t know how to read and could barely do basic math.
“Exactly,” Shisui cut in. “Everyone has different things they’re good at. It’s important not to get hung up on who’s better or worse. Even pros like us,” He gestured to himself and Itachi, “could be taken out by someone weaker if we get taken by surprise.”
Sasuke thought about it while the others patiently waited for his reply. “I guess it was a silly thought.” He felt a little embarrassed now for even bringing it up.
“Don’t call it silly,” Itachi reassured. “This goes for both of you. If you ever feel something like that, say something. I’ve seen so many shinobi go down that path and it’s not good.” The grimace on his face spoke of several unpleasant memories this conversation was causing to resurface.
“That’s right. If you kept quiet about it and we didn’t talk, these emotions could take you down a dark path.” Shisui looked serious as he spoke and looked at Itachi. It felt a bit pointed to Sasuke but he chose not to comment.
Like a flickering spark turning into an ember, the world felt warmer. “Now for something equally as important as our gooey feelings. How’s breakfast?”
Sasuke finished heating the pot with their basic oatmeal quickly and with Naruto’s help, it was much more appealing then the first attempt. He still would have liked to add some dried fruit or something but they just didn’t have enough anymore.
“Finished.” Sasuke presented the meal proudly. The group finished off the meat and all the oatmeal. They went around the market and straight back to the mission desk.
“People are looking at us funny today,” Naruto commented as they casually walked down the street. Sasuke looked around but couldn’t really tell. Itachi put his hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“We weren’t far from the village and several of the people we let go probably live here. It’s natural for rumors to already have spread, spinning a story of the evil Uchiha that attacked them out of the blue. We’re lucky this village’s policies stop us from being arrested in the city for things we did outside.” Shisui explained without raising his voice above a whisper.
“If we weren’t acting as part of an envoy right now, we would have left after we collected the bounty to avoid all the drama of killing on someone else’s doorstep.” It was hard to tell, but Itachi’s fingers kept twitching towards his hidden blades.
The tension remained until they reached the desk. The clerk wasn’t the bored girl that greeted them when they arrived but a worn down looking man. He almost looked like a toad to Sasuke and he held back a giggle at the high pitched voice that came out of his mouth. “Are you the ones that started all that trouble yesterday?”
It would have been a demand if he was capable of putting any threat in his voice. Itachi stepped forward to stop the annoying sound. “We would like to seek an audience with the Kage. We have something imperative to bring to his attention.”
The toad man stopped to consider them and turned purple before he took a long suffering breath and started shooing them to the elevator. Shisui put his hand on Naruto’s shoulder and stopped them from going in. “I’m so sorry my good fellow,” He didn’t sound sorry at all. “I’m a bit claustrophobic. Would it be possible to take the stairs instead?” He asked but ushered Naruto towards the stairs. Sasuke followed without complaint.
“It’s the top floor. We can’t take all those stairs!” Toad man insisted while trying to steer them towards the elevator.
“Nonsense, it's better for your health.” Shisui opened the door to the stairwell before making a show of looking at the short toad. “If you have problems, please feel free to take the elevator and meet us at the top.”
Itachi shut the door in his face before he could respond. Sasuke couldn’t hold back his grin on the sour look.
“Why are we taking the stairs?” Naruto asked while Sasuke made faces at a livid Itachi.
“Two reasons. The primary being safety.” Sasuke looked at Shisui curiously.
“Safety?”
“They knew we were coming,” Itachi added and Shisui nodded.
“Exactly. They could have an ambush set up for us or gas in the shaft. We wouldn’t have room to move or respond to a threat. I am worried about them knowing we were coming to report to the tower though. Could spell trouble.” He mused, losing his thought. Sasuke honestly thought they would continue to ignore them.
“What’s the second reason,” Naruto picked up his train of thought and refocused him.
“Power,” Sasuke answered.
“Bingo!” Shisui waved his fingers. “We’re making them make accommodations for us. That’s not a ninja thing, it’s an envoy thing. Never forget, you two,” He pointed to Itachi and Sasuke “are the sons of the village leader. You’ll have to learn the politics behind that and it’s going to be rough.”
Itachi rubbed his eyes like he was getting a headache. “When we arrive, I want you to let me do all the talking and follow all my directions. His demeanor was suddenly deadly serious and he sternly added. “This isn’t like the other fights we’ve had. We can’t attack the Kage of a village without risking our own charter.”
“You two stay behind us,” Shisui instructed. “Keep your eyes and ears open and signal us by tapping.” He grabbed Naruto’s hand and Itachi did the same to Sasuke. Because of their ages, it looked like they were simply comforting the younger duo instead of setting up to give secret signals. Morse code was one of the things they taught in the new curriculum at school so Sasuke didn’t know all of it yet.
Most Shinobi didn’t bother with it because it couldn’t be used to send secret codes because civilians were also taught Morse. Sasuke didn’t see the value in it either until this moment. He watched Naruto scoot a little closer to Shisui and felt nerves well up in his stomach. He took a deep breath as the group entered the door exiting the stairwell.