Disclaimer: The Naruto series and its characters belong to one Masashi Kishimoto, aka Narutor, Creator of Awesome Manga and Destroyer of Worlds. All rights are his; I'm just playing with his characters and hoping he doesn't burn me with his laser vision.

Please note: This is a sequel to the fic Path of No Regrets: Renewal, but reading that isn't essential to understanding what's going on here. All you really need to know is that Sasuke never made it to Orochimaru—Naruto brought him back, and events proceeded from there (this takes place about six months after VotE).

Other notes and Japanese terms are at the bottom of the page.

Limb by limb and tooth by tooth
Tearing up inside of me
Every day, every hour
I wish that I was bulletproof

--Radiohead, "Bullet Proof (I Wish I Was)"

Path of No Regrets: Redemption

-Prologue-

The men had come to kill.

Angry blasts sounded as exploding tags went off in the streets, sending fire and shrapnel ricocheting everywhere. Fences and posts and buildings crumbled, trapping people whose terrified cries filled the air: calls for loved ones, pleads for mercy. Flurries of weapons—kunai, senbon, shuriken—sailed with deadly accuracy to silence those cries. Shin watched it all, his heart in his throat, his blood rushing past his ears, his gut wrenched tight with horror.

Men in masks darted from corner to corner, carrying out their massacre with sick efficiency. They wasted no movement and spared no one. Smoke and flames drove the survivors from their homes, only for them to be slaughtered in the street. Some fought back; they were ninjas too, after all. But their special jutsu took time to prepare, and the masked men had not left them any. They were too fast and too strong and had struck too suddenly. And so they overpowered, they overwhelmed, and there was no quarter. The men meant to leave no survivors.

Shin watched from the tower, not daring to move or make a sound. Mother had told him to wait.

("Shin, listen to me. They're coming. I want you to stay hidden, no matter what. Do you understand?")

He understood all too well. And so he'd listened, he'd stayed hidden. And he waited…

("Your father is coming. I need you to stay hidden, you hear me? It'll be okay. Just stay here, don't move…")

He waited.

("…I love you, dearest.")

He waited.

He couldn't see his mother anymore; she had disappeared amongst the fighters. He could hardly see anything now, the smoke was so thick. It burned; he pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. If he wasn't careful, he'd breathe too much in and he'd suffocate and die. Or he would cough, and they'd find him, and then he'd die anyway.

He pulled the shirt up as high as he could while still being able to see, and peered out again. They were still fighting. More explosions sounded—he couldn't—where was his mother?

Where was his father?

The pride of the Tenshou clan was nowhere to be seen.

("I should be back in a few days. I'll bring back help—so you have to hold down the fort until I return. Okay, Shin?"

"I will. I promise!"

"That's my boy. I need you to be strong, all right?")

He was only nine, but his father still trusted him. He'd promised, so he needed to stay strong, and not move from the tower until then. It would be all right. It would be all right…

Above him, he heard the rafters creak—was one of them on the roof? Don't panic, he told himself sharply. There was another groan, another creak. Don't panic… don't panic…

Another groan, louder this time, and Shin realized that it wasn't one of them; it was the building itself. The fire—it had spread. Should he move? He listened carefully, trying to judge how strained the wood sounded. He still had some time. His father would be here soon. Mother had told him not to move…

A cry of rage suddenly sounded from the street below. Shin squinted, trying to see if it was one of them; but no, the man wasn't wearing a mask. The man shouted again—not just anger, this time, but something else that frightened Shin, something almost despairing. And now Shin recognized the voice; it was Genda, one of his father's close friends. He strained to hear.

"…betrayed him! You son of a—"

The ceiling groaned again, but Shin ignored it, drawing closer to the edge of the window, a horrible cold feeling clawing at his stomach.

"He came to you for help and you betrayed him! You killed him!"

One of the rafters crashed down suddenly beside him. Shin barely heard it. Genda was brandishing a sword—his cheeks, Shin could now see, were streaked with tears.

"How dare you call yourselves shinobi! I'll avenge him, I swear it! This is for Tenshou Jin!"

He charged, they countered, and a moment later Genda fell dead to the ground as Shin's whole world came crashing down like the rafter. He collapsed to his knees. For a second he was unable to breathe, and then something broke, and he was sobbing.

Tenshou Jin… his father.

His father was dead.

No, they were all dead. No one was going to save them; they had been betrayed. He was going to—

The floor caved in.

And suddenly he was falling, and then an excruciating impact. Bones shattered; he screamed.

His vision dimmed, and then, blurrily, he looked up and saw a man standing there. He didn't have a mask—but no, he did, Shin realized the next instant; he had taken it off, coughing in the dust and ashes. But now he was looking around; he had probably heard Shin's scream. A second later, their eyes met, and Shin gasped, then cringed in agony as pain shot from his broken ribs. The man took a step forward, and Shin struggled, but there would be no escape. His body was broken and trapped under the rubble; he was going to die here. This man would be his killer…

He closed his eyes. He could hear a dog barking nearby; then another round of explosions sounded off. There was another groan from the roof, the most severe-sounding yet—

—and then it collapsed as well, as the heat from the fire finally proved too much for the remains of the tower to bear, sending huge chunks of burning wood falling…

Falling toward him…

-9 Years Later-

Sasuke dodged the falling rocks as the cliff face crumbled, his Sharingan easily anticipating their movements. He touched down lightly on a branch, and kept moving, leaping from tree to tree, each jump taking him deeper into the foliage and further away from his opponent. He knew distance would be of crucial importance in this battle; if he and the others didn't stay out of the range of their enemy's jutsu, the fight would be over before they could blink.

Speaking of the others, they were late, he noted as he approached their rendezvous spot. He, Naruto, and Sakura had agreed to fan out and scout around, then regroup ten minutes later. He was already a couple minutes late himself, so if they weren't back yet, that didn't bode especially well. Their current opponents weren't exactly off the danger scale, but they were particularly crafty, and Sasuke was wary of falling into a trap.

Just when he was starting to think he'd have to come up with a backup plan, there was a rustle of leaves above, and a moment later his broadly grinning teammate dropped down beside him. Naruto was breathing hard, but looked exhilarated. "He almost got me," he reported gleefully. "He's way faster than I thought he'd be; for a second he really almost had me—"

"That's great," Sasuke cut him off, not really interested in the details of Naruto's latest super-amazing escape. "Did you find a location or not?"

"Best place for an attack…" Naruto put a hand to his chin, as though trying to look especially thoughtful and strategic. "Probably that clearing back down there. A lot of open space, so they can't trap us so easy. Plus we're above it right now, so we'll have a better—what do you call it—vantage, or whatever."

Sasuke frowned. "I agree."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, you don't have to look so happy about it. Just because you and I actually had the same idea for once—"

"You and I both," Sasuke said pointedly. "You really think if both of us have realized it, that they're not already expecting us to attack there?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to frown. "…Good point."

"So we should switch tacks and hit them over by the river instead," Sasuke mused. "Except…"

Naruto's jaw dropped. "Wait, I get it! If they're expecting us to figure out that they're expecting us, then they'll be waiting for us there instead!"

"Not that I'd put it in exactly those terms, but yeah." Sasuke crossed his arms, making up his mind. "We'll get them in the clearing."

"Wait a sec, though." Naruto's face was doing that fox thing now, where his eyes got all slanted and he looked—in Sasuke's opinion—especially clueless. "What if they knew we'd figure that out too… so they want us to attack in the clearing…"

"We could go around in circles all day," said Sasuke impatiently. "At least in the clearing we'll have the better vantage point, so if they try to spring a trap we'll be better prepared."

"Yeah, that's true." Naruto was grinning again now. Sasuke shot him an irritated glare.

"Cut that out already, this isn't a game."

Naruto gave him a weird look. "Okay…" Sasuke decided to ignore him; the mission was what he needed to be focused on here.

"…We'll probably need a diversion," he said, thinking out loud. "It's the only way we'll be able to get close."

"Diversion, huh? Well, I've got some ready-made—how many do you want?"

And suddenly the woods around them were filled with Narutos, all of them wearing that annoying grin that made Sasuke want to punch him and demand that he actually take this seriously. But then he paused—the clones had given him an idea.

"Two of them," he said slowly. "You and me."

All but two of the clones disappeared. There was a poof of smoke, and a moment later one of the clones had become Sasuke's twin. "How's this?" the bunshin said in his voice.

Sasuke nodded. "That should do fine."

"Hey, Sasuke," the real Naruto said in a suddenly sober tone as Sasuke turned to head out. "What about Sakura?"

Sasuke met his eyes gravely. "If she hasn't come back by now, you know what that means."

Naruto clenched his fists. "Great."

"Come on," said Sasuke as he started down. "There's only one way to get her back."

"You still haven't mentioned how exactly you plan to not get captured," Naruto muttered as he caught up.

Sasuke glanced back at the clones following them, and formed a quick hand seal. "Leave that part to me."

He halted them three quarters of the way down, and they concealed themselves while Naruto's clones crept on ahead. Minutes passed, and they waited, growing increasingly tense.

"I wish I knew what was going on," Naruto whined under his breath.

Sasuke shushed him with a wave of his hand. "We'll find out soon enough."

"So what were you planning on, exactly?" Naruto went on, more quietly. "If they don't take the bait…"

"Maybe not your bait," Sasuke muttered.

"How is yours any better than—"

Naruto broke off, suddenly, then swore, looking at Sasuke wide-eyed. His clones, Sasuke realized; it looked like their decoys had been discovered and taken out.

"You'd better—" Naruto began, but Sasuke was already moving, sprinting the rest of the way down to the clearing. He needed to move fast, and hope the timing would be just right. Mentally he crossed his fingers, and then—

"That's far enough, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke froze immediately, his eyes bleeding red as they scanned the area before finally resting on the speaker. Even without the Sharingan, he knew the figure walking out to meet him was not who it appeared to be, but his bloodline ability confirmed it anyway. He could see the foreign chakra possessing Sakura's body, and cursed inwardly. It wasn't that he hadn't been expecting this, but still… it definitely put a damper on their odds. Keeping a careful eye on 'Sakura', he risked a quick side glance toward the area where Naruto had sent his clones.

"Naruto's clones?" the 'Sakura' spoke up again. She smiled. "Yeah, we already took care of those."

Sasuke allowed a corner of his lip to quirk upward. Perfect. "Naruto's clones, huh?"

He took a step toward 'Sakura', who stepped back carefully, on guard.

Then he vanished in a poof of smoke.

"Damn!" It only took 'Sakura' a fraction of a second to figure it out and start to spin around, but it was a fraction longer than Sasuke needed. He—the real Sasuke—grabbed her from behind, kunai positioned by her throat.

"Maybe you didn't know," he smirked. "He's not the only one who can use Kage Bunshin."

"Yeah, but I do it so much better than you," Naruto put in as he landed in front of them.

Sasuke tossed him the kunai. "Shut up, idiot." He pulled a bundle of wire from his equipment pack and quickly wound some around Sakura's wrists. Then he pushed her toward Naruto, who caught her, looking surprised. "She's been possessed," Sasuke explained. "Watch her, make sure she doesn't get a chance to move." He slid the wire back into his pack. "I'm going on ahead."

Naruto frowned. "Let me back you up!"

"Forget it," said Sasuke, "you'll just get in my way."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Quit acting all high and mighty; you're not the only one who's gotten any stronger, you know!"

"I said, stay put," Sasuke repeated, taking off before Naruto could protest again and ignoring the angry cry behind him. He wasn't about to let Naruto wreck things now, not when they were so close. One down, two to go, and just so long as his other two clones kept their targets distracted for just a little longer, they had this in the bag.

He didn't see any sign of them around, so he switched directions and started heading back to where he had seen one of the enemies earlier, over by the cliff, all the while keeping a close eye out for any sign of activity. If he didn't find them, he'd at least set up and conceal a few explosive tags, on the off chance that they came back later. Even if they found the traps, disabling them would slow them down and with any luck, alert him to their presence—

He paused in mid-thought. There, hidden on the side of the cliff by a shimmer of genjutsu, sat the unmistakable silhouette of the same opponent he'd encountered no more than fifteen minutes ago. He didn't appear to have detected Sasuke yet; all he had to do was get close enough to snare him with a binding jutsu. It was almost too easy.

Suddenly he stopped cold. In the shinobi world, there was no such thing as too easy.

He took a closer look at the figure, this time focusing the Sharingan not just on the flashy gleam of genjutsu, but on the other's internal chakra patterns.

Shit.

Even as he realized it, the enemy henged back into his true form, and a voice spoke from somewhere behind him. "Game's up, Sasuke." Without even sparing a second to look back, Sasuke gathered chakra to his feet and launched himself as far away from the voice as possible. But even as he landed back out of range, the voice tsked at him.

"It doesn't matter, you know. It wasn't you we planned on targeting. We had the diversion set up from the start; he and I switched places before this even began. So you know what that means."

Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke swore again, turning back toward the clearing. But before he could even take a few steps, his opponent spoke up again: "Don't bother. They're already here." Sasuke spun on his heels to look back where his target stood and saw 'Sakura' strolling up beside him. Just behind the two of them, tied up and pinned to a tree by a seal, was Naruto, squirming uselessly. And as Sasuke stared at the group, he suddenly found that he wasn't just worried or frustrated anymore.

Now, he was pissed off.

"Well, get any closer, and you know what happens," his opponent went on, sounding bored. "Sorry, Sasuke; you guys lose today."

And as Sasuke watched his idiot teammate—the idiot teammate who had, once again, managed to ruin everything—try to worm his way out of his restraints, he felt something almost familiarly hateful burn inside him, and abruptly decided that no, today he didn't feel like losing.

He took a slow step forward, turning his glare back on his opponent, and very deliberately started to form a seal pattern. He was pleased to see all three of the others look completely taken aback. His opponent blinked; he looked like he hadn't expected this at all.

"O-oi! Wait a sec, you—"

"I haven't lost yet," Sasuke said darkly, and brought his index fingers to his lips. "Katon! Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

A huge fireball seared through the woods, and the enemy had no choice but to dive to the side as the flames coursed straight toward him. They came within inches of hitting Naruto, and he couldn't even see where Sakura had suddenly disappeared to, but Sasuke no longer cared about that; all that mattered was proving that he wasn't about to go down as easily as the rest of his team. The fire obliterated all shadow in the area for a moment, and a moment was all he needed. He was on the back of his fleeing opponent within two seconds, a kunai tip firmly positioned against his neck.

His prisoner, now looking more annoyed than anything else, raised his hands in surrender. "All right, I give up already!" He sighed. "Geez. How freaking troublesome."

And then another voice spoke up: "That's enough, for everyone. Training's over for today."

Another poof of smoke, and then it cleared, revealing two elite jounin. The first, Sarutobi Asuma, was wearing a fairly satisfied expression, in sharp contrast to the second man. As Hatake Kakashi fixed a look of bored disapproval first on his other two students and then, with considerably more sharpness, on Sasuke himself, Sasuke met his gaze with all the defiance he could muster. He hadn't wanted to be a part of this stupid training exercise to begin with, so as far as he was concerned, they could all go to hell if they still expected him to play by the rules.

He allowed Shikamaru to climb back to his feet, which he did while giving Sasuke a look that asked in varying degrees of weariness and incredulity what the hell his problem was. This Sasuke ignored, instead watching as Sakura suddenly blinked several times, shaking her head as if just waking up. She cringed as she looked around, apparently realizing what had happened, then went to cut Naruto loose with a sigh. Meanwhile, Chouji made his way back down the cliff to join them, offering Shikamaru a grin and the rest of them awkward smiles. Finally, Ino emerged from the woods, cricking her neck as though stiff, and giving Sasuke an apologetic look before going to join the rest of her team.

"Nice strategy, you three," Asuma congratulated now that they were all assembled. "Of course, in a real battle, you most likely won't encounter anyone so familiar with your battle style that you'll need to pull a switch, but in a situation like this, it definitely helps to catch your opponents off guard."

"It was Shikamaru's idea," said Chouji, looking somewhat embarrassed. "He was the one who figured out it would be easier to lure in the others if he and I used Henge no Jutsu to swap places. It was only because of that that we were able to trap Sakura with Kagemane no Jutsu so Ino could take over."

"Same thing when we caught Naruto later," Ino put in. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke caught her mouthing something to Sakura along the lines of, Maybe next time, forehead girl. For a moment, Sakura looked as though she was mentally debating the pros and cons of pounding Ino's face in on the spot, but then Kakashi placed a warning hand on her shoulder, and she looked away.

"Regardless of whose idea it was, it was executed perfectly by all three of you," Kakashi said calmly. "You won this match fair and square; well done."

Sasuke glared at him. Meanwhile, Asuma gave Shikamaru an admiring pat on the back. "I guess it's a good thing you were able to take the time off to come and train today," he grinned.

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Eh, no big deal… wasn't like I had anything better to do, I guess."

"Well, at this rate, we'll have the rest of you guys up to chuunin in no time," Asuma continued, giving Ino and Chouji approving glances. "Anyway, good job. Team 10, you're dismissed."

As Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru slowly turned to head back to the training field entrance, Kakashi spoke up once again.

"Team 7, you are not dismissed. I'd like to have a little chat with you guys." It was his usual drawl, but there was a stern undertone beneath, one which Sasuke knew was aimed particularly at him. Again, he found himself not caring in the slightest; it was Naruto and Sakura's own fault that they got captured so easily, and as far as he was concerned, they should be the ones getting in trouble. He was still angry at how the entire 'mission' had turned out, and not exactly in the mood for a lecture.

As Team 10 left the area, conspicuously avoiding any of their gazes, Kakashi rested his eyes on three students who were about to receive an earful.

-to be continued-

Senbon – Needles (the same type Haku was so fond of)
Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu – Fire Style: Grand Fireball Technique
Henge no Jutsu – Transformation Technique
Kagemane no Jutsu – Shadow Imitation Technique

The rest is pretty common—so are these, for that matter, but just in case.

Author's Notes:

First of all, for those who have been following this series, this takes place two months after the epilogue of Renewal, and one month after Stone Skipping. Not that anyone actually cares, but hey, I like to keep my timelines straight.

Anyway, second—again, for those following this series, you may have noticed a contrast between Sasuke's personality in the two aforementioned fics, and in here (by which I mean, gee Sasuke, asshole much?). There are reasons for this, which will be explored more in the next chapter, but for now suffice to say that if you noticed an improvement in Team 7's teamwork by the end of the previous fics, well, so did Sasuke—and we all know his thoughts on bonds.

And I'm trying to trim down my author's notes ramblings, so if you have any other particular comments or concerns—my crappy action scenes (I hope that made sense by the end) and strangely random OC introduction, for starters XD—just mention them and I'll do my best to clarify, though keep in mind that this is just the prologue and some things will get answered on their own as we progress. Otherwise, hope you enjoy. :)