Chapter six – At rest

He had no other choice but to follow the path passing through the slaughtered village down to the fields at the foot of a mountain, passing through them and further away to a surely commercial route. The little village had to have other revenue that what they made in its own abode. Shuddering violently, Satsuki morosely walked at a brisk pace, trying not to look at the still burning makeshift funeral pyre. The acrid smell of burning flesh and rot left him shivering even more and it made him edgy.

Each step toward his goal looked as if he never moved from his starting point. At every rustle of the leaves, Satsuki would start, his eyes rolling around their sockets to find the source of the noise. His breath was slightly erratic, even as he tried to keep control of his bodily functions.

Pebbles were crunched under one's feet, the sound very distinctive and Satsuki whirled around. He was frantic in his search, his chakra fluctuating frantically around but he felt suddenly really stupid. He was the one who produced the sound while walking. No one was around. Nobody. He was sure of it, since he detected nothing.

His stress was at maximum level when he finally left the village. In the open area, he broke into a dash. The air was fresh, whipping his face. The sting was most welcome. It anchored him back to reality.

He ran, panting and flushed but he was certainly less tense. However, he was not supposed to feel more comfortable. He was to be more alert, since the war had only ended.

Satsuki felt guilty from being relaxed outside the village, but he could not help it. Not when he had seen that horror. He shook his head vigorously to make the thought vanish (However, he only had been able to push it in the back of his mind for therapy another time) and instead tried to open up his senses in case of attack. He could not afford to be injured in hostile environment without any protection at disposition or shelter.

With his rambling, the time passed nearly too quickly. He was nearing the mountain and he had thankfully not been attacked while he was distracted by his dark thoughts. He slapped himself mentally and almost fell over from the force of his smack. Well, that was new, nearly losing one's footing by giving himself an internal hit.

Somewhat, he felt that Lucius was laughing at him somewhere in his luxurious mansion, looking down at him with an infuriating smirk which screamed 'Snob!' and Satsuki was rather tempted to find back him way home only to relieve his anger on the poor blonde and hand him over to dear Abraxas for further punishments.

Ah, the fields were sugar cane fields, Satsuki noticed. The air was sweet, but not overly so and he was reminded of better times, when the pink haired teen was with Harry. His mind wandered again, but instead, his negative feelings were replaced by lighter, warmer ones, then again by darker thoughts.

For sure, Harry was one cute, cuddly little boy. The pink haired teen would have loved to give back the same treatment Dorea and Charlus Potter gave to Harry.

Dorea (née Black) and Charlus Potter. Or Lily and James Potter as the Wizarding World knew them as well as Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno to which the Shinobi knew them. That couple had triple identities for better infiltration in both supernatural worlds. However, while they passed almost over five decades together, neither apparently loving red head Dorea nor gentle yet brave, a pure Potter with an untameable black mess of hair, Charlus was faithful to their marriage. Yes, Harry was a bastard child, born out of wedlock. Even stranger than the unfaithfulness of persons well over sixty, who still got a kid who was three, Harry, the mentioned three years old boy was born from a male wizard.

Harry, his dear little Harry, was conceived with the help of a Pureblood playboy, who was Russian. Charlus as the Carrier and the other one contributing to his creation (both wanted nothing to do with the child from that... fling, for lack of other words), Harry was born not in bad financial conditions but young Harry was not emotionally supported.

Yet another shocking info was that Satsuki too was a bastard child, this time born from Dorea, a natural red head, and a blonde Italian Half-Blood wizard, and somehow, that union resulted in his pink hair. Coincidentally, both unmarried contributors to the creation of both Satsuki and Harry had green eyes. And even if Harry and him were not blood-related, the pink haired male would still consider Harry as both his little brother and son, even if the 'son' part was more present (constantly present) in his mind. While it was a bit disturbing, since Satsuki would need to be the son of James and have sex with James to be both 'mother' and sibling. He shuddered violently in mixed horror and disgust and toed the thought in the far back of his decidedly strange mind.

Unconsciously, Satsuki's speed increased. Harry was waiting for him with Itachi, having no means to know if the pink haired male was doing fine or not. The little one was surely worrying himself needlessly, but it warmed Satsuki's heart a little that his dear baby was worried about his mother. He badly wanted to turn into a mushy mass of loved shinobi and coddle his beautiful son, but he would definitely be overreacting. At least on only the turning-into-mush part. Mostly.

Satsuki patted his back pouch, searching for something.

Ah… He needed to chase down some prey soon. He was almost out of dehydrated meat, while his water bottle was full. Maybe he could hold for a few days with his nutrients pills (He was quite thankful to Tsunade for having taught him that special recipe. It was not as consistent as a true meal, but it could do), but he would rather not.

And he would need some fairly difficult to find and very specific plants to make several cocktails of his own creation. Bless potion tutoring with Severus and knowledge of flora, both magical and non-magical from Muggle areas and ninja ones. Some of them, which only two persons cultivated who, in turn would need to be tracked down, were essentials. It would take weeks, if not months, to be able to find all the ingredients.

The aforementioned ingredients would mostly be used to create the newly improved version of soldier pills, additional nutrients potions for Harry and maybe a good batch of varied poisons and antidotes. Yes, it would do, especially the poisons. Bella seemed to particularly like to coat her weapons (except her wand; really, she was not yet that insane and she was no idiot) with the most virulent and painful poisons. Thankfully, Satsuki had never witnessed Bellatrix and her sword wielding or dagger use. He had asked Narcissa and even the sister of the madwoman did not want to talk about these bouts of lunacy and sadism.

His stomach growled. It was decided. He would need to chase down some food. No nutrient pills for him, thank you very much. Anyway, these small capsules tasted always horrible. Actually, they tasted as bad as Severus' most potent potions, and those concoctions were something to avoid at all cost. All...


To be continued...