Chapter 3
I have to get stronger. I have to avenge my mother. Shisui and Itachi are so much stronger than me, and he almost killed Shisui.
Sasuke sat in his parents' bed, clutching one of his mother's shirts to his chest. Why would his father do this? It wasn't fair! Naruto and Sai had offered to distract their babysitter so Sasuke could go home. Now that he was here though all he wanted was his mom. Itachi was gone on a mission and Shisui was in the hospital with Sakumo.
"Are you okay hatchling?" hissed a voice. Sasuke jumped as a seven foot long gray snake slithered on the floor of the bedroom in front of him.
"Y-you can talk," stammered Sasuke as the snake lifted its head to be even with Sasuke's knee.
"Yessss. My name is Yumie. My sssummoner is looking for you. Don't worry, I won't hurt you," said the snake. Sasuke noticed the black mouth and the fangs.
"You are really pretty," said Sasuke.
"Yessss. Much better than toadsss," preened Yumie.
"And so humble about it too," said another voice. Sasuke whipped his head around and saw one of the older brothers Naruto talked about leaning against the doorway.
"She's also really fast and really deadly," said the man.
"I will go tell Pakkun and Oro that you have him. Good bye hatchling," said Yumie. Then, true to the man's words, she slithered out really fast.
"Wow," breathed Sasuke, his eyes wide.
"Yeah Yumie is fast. And a bit of a show off," said the man.
"I don't want to go back," snapped Sasuke. The man held his hands up in surrender, senbon moving in his mouth.
"I get it. When my mother died I didn't know what to do. Of course I was only three or four at the time and my father was an asshole and threw me out. But the village was too busy recovering from one war and gearing up for another, orphanages were so full I just slipped through the cracks. Sakumo found me wandering the streets. I wanted to hate him. He had been my mother's team lead on the mission that killed her. So I punched and kicked him when he picked me up and carried me home. I screamed and yelled. Made life pretty difficult for him. Then my father came for me and Sakumo punched him in the face. Took a lot of deep conversations but I forgave Sakumo and moved on," said the man.
"Is your father still alive?" asked Sasuke.
"Unfortunately. Want to go see my dad though?" asked the man.
"But he threw you out. Why would you talk to him?" asked Sasuke.
"Kid, to me, a father is who helped create you. Nothing more. A dad though? A dad is someone who loves you as you are. They help you and support you. They are there for you when you need them and even when you don't," explained the man. Sasuke's eyes started watering.
"Why did he have to kill her? Why did he kill everyone?" sobbed Sasuke. Genma entered the room and hugged the distraught boy.
"I don't know kid. But he won't get near you. I'll have Yumie bite him if he tries," promised Genma.
"But what about Naruto's dad and Shisui? He could have killed them!" cried Sasuke.
"Only because he had help. I'm sure if he went against Dad and Shisui by himself he wouldn't win. Not even close," assured Genma.
"Promise?" asked Sasuke.
"Promise. Now how about I take you to see them both? They are worried about you," said Genma.
"I-I didn't mean to worry them," stammered Sasuke. Genma chuckled.
"Dad lives to worry. He's a big mother hen," said Genma as he scooped up Sasuke.
Sasuke grabbed on to Genma's ANBU issued chest plate. Sasuke realized that Genma had taken off his ANBU mask before he started talking to Sasuke.
"Will you get in trouble for not wearing your mask?" asked Sasuke as Genma walked out of the house and jumped on a nearby rooftop.
"Nah. I'm using a genjutsu seal I developed. Only you see my actual face right now. Everyone else sees my mask," answered Genma as he ran along the roofs, nodding to a Hound masked ANBU and a Cat one.
"C-can I meet Yumie again?" asked Sasuke. Genma chuckled.
"Sure. As long as you don't run away by yourself again. Itachi and Shisui would murder me if you did that," answered Genma.
"You can be my second favorite big brother," declared Sasuke with a small grin on his face.
"Awesome! Can I rub it in Kashi's face? He's Naruto's favorite big brother," said Genma.
"Sure. Why is Kashi Naruto's favorite?" asked Sasuke.
"Kashi's dogs," answered Genma.
"Snakes are better," declared Sasuke.
"I agree."
Tsunade held Jiraiya by his throat in the air. He wheezed for breath.
"How does one of the ssstrongest ssshinobi of this village lose track of an academy sstudent?" Orochimaru demanded to know.
"I was distracted by the seven kids trying to kill me," wheezed Jiraiya.
"I had to sedate a patient to keep him from going after the kid. I don't like having to sedate my patients because of stupid people!" snapped Tsunade, shaking Jiraiya.
"My ssssummoner has the lossst hatchling now," hissed Yumie as she slithered into the room.
"Thank Kami," stated Orochimaru.
"Sssummoner will most likely take the hatchling to the wolf sssummoner. I told Pakkun to let his sssummoner know as well," said Yumie. Oro nodded.
"Thank you Yumie," said Oro. Yumie gave a nod then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Tsunade released Jiraiya, rubbing her temple to stave off a headache. Jiraiya rubbed his throat, then made the mistake of talking.
"See? Everything is fine!" exclaimed Jiraiya happily.
"Run," stated Tsunade.
"Uh....what?" asked Jiraiya.
"Run. I'll give you a five second head start," said Tsunade.
Jiraiya turned as white as a ghost and vanished in a pile of leaves. True to her word Tsunade waited five seconds before she too vanished from her teammate's office. Orochimaru ignored her teammates' yells while going back to her paperwork and wondered what kind of conversation was taking place in the hospital room her husband was in.
Sakumo arched an eyebrow at Genma as he entered Sakumo and Shisui's hospital room, in ANBU uniform with Sasuke's face buried in his chest piece. Genma shrugged and deactivated the seal Sakumo knows he uses to avoid wearing his mask.
"I'm sorry my father hurt you," whispered Sasuke as Genma put him on Sakumo's bed.
"Not your fault. Besides it was mainly Sasori that hurt me. And Sasori is not a problem anymore," replied Sakumo.
"Did you really punch Genma's father in the face?" asked Sasuke. Sakumo rubbed the back of his neck.
"Maaa.....did Genma tell you that?" as Sasuke's nod Sakumo continued, "He must really like you. He doesn't tell many people about that."
Genma snorted from where he was reading Shisui's chart. He smirked when he saw Tsunade sedated him.
"Yeah I punched him," said Sakumo, "and a few other things," he mumbled that Sasuke couldn't hear.
"I met Yumie. She's so pretty! Do you have a summons?" asked Sasuke.
"I have a pack of wolves," answered Sakumo.
"That's so cool! Can I meet them?" asked Sasuke.
"When I get out of the hospital. Tsunade doesn't like animals in her hospital unless necessary. And I don't want her to sedate me like she did Shisui," said Sakumo.
Sasuke opened his mouth to ask more questions. Sakumo made him stop with a shake of his head.
"Come on kid. Let's take a nap. Genma will guard us. Hopefully tomorrow me and Shisui can come home and you can meet everyone's summons," said Sakumo.
"There's more summons?!"
Genma chuckled as he told up a guard position by the door. The kid was going to be just fine.