A Bad Mission
Chapter XVII- 'This One's for Us!'
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and you're stupid if you thought if one second I did. : )
Warning: This fic has both shounen-ai and cross-dressing.
"Things will be alright Naruto. Sasuke was pardoned because the counsel decided that Itachi was forcing him to do everything through hypnosis, and when he gets back everything will finally go back to normal," Sakura tried to comfort her teammate with the same sentence she used yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that for exactly a week now.
"Nothing's going to be the same again," Naruto argued glumly.
It was heart breaking for Sakura for even look at her boyfriend anymore (not that they were really doing anything remotely boyfriend-girlfriend at this point…really they were as good as over in Sakura's mind, which just added to the awful feelings swelling inside her). The fact was that just a week ago he had been happy and enthusiastic, and it had suddenly been like Sasuke never left. But he did leave and not only that but he had left again, and now everything and everyone had changed and everything was so completely screwed up.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Sakura agreed, sitting down next to him and feeling her eyes tear up. "So we're pretty much over, huh?" she asked, switching the conversation over to their relationship...or rather lack of.
Naruto slouched over and looked at the ground, nodding his head softly.
"So what does that make us? …If we both like Sasuke... ...Rivals?"
"If we have to be," Naruto answered, turning to finally face his teammate and looking at her with a determination in his eyes that hadn't been there for months…hadn't been there since Sasuke left.
"I won't give up just because we're friends," Sakura warned him, feeling the same sort of determination rising in her chest.
"Good."
"Sasuke," greeted a man sternly as he bowed deeply.
"Father," Sasuke greeted back as he had been told to while he copied the bow.
"I haven't heard any news about Itachi's death," the man stated, but Sasuke knew he meant 'If Itachi's not dead then what are you doing here?'
"He is…I think my village is trying to hush it up because his death didn't go exactly as planned," Sasuke answered pretty vaguely.
"I'll get my daughter," the man replied, retreating into the house before Sasuke could object.
"Don't just stand there dear; come in, come in," a woman greeted, pushing the door open and gesturing for Sasuke to come inside.
"Thank you." Sasuke bowed his head again and walked in before sitting on the chair that she had motioned to.
"Here she is," the man announced as a woman followed him into the room.
She was…pretty, Sasuke couldn't really argue with that, but right away he could tell she'd be to him what his mother used to be to his father. She wouldn't voice her thoughts, she wouldn't do things for herself, she'd just be a slave. Sasuke didn't want that.
"Sasuke," the girl…his wife…fiancé…whoever-she-was greeted him, bowing deeply and gracefully.
"I didn't come here to get married," Sasuke said, looking towards the man.
He blinked in surprise before replying, "What other reason is there for you to be here?"
"I will not be continuing the Uchiha bloodline," Sasuke answered, still looking the other man in the eyes.
"You dare to betray the Uchiha clan?"
"I am the Uchiha clan." Sasuke shifted his eyes to the young girl standing in the background to see her face expressionless.
"You realize that by doing this you betray my clan as well," the man pointed out.
"I do."
"And you don't think I'll avenge my family for your appalling decision?"
"I was never that hopeful."
Kakashi sat on his couch trying to read Flirting Paradise but was annoyed to learn that thoughts of Sasuke kept interrupting him.
He had managed to persuade the Hokage to pardon his student with the help of the fact that Sasuke couldn't have sided with his brother if he had killed him. Unfortunately when he went to the murder scene the next day he was surprised (and a little pissed) to learn that where Itachi had once lay in a pool of his own blood there was now just a log. The Itachi Sasuke had killed had just been a clone; the older Uchiha was still at large.
It also made the job of convincing the Hokage that Sasuke was innocent even more difficult.
What if he had known it was a clone and killed him just to prove to the village he was on their side, then he took off before the Itachi clone turned into a log, leaving people to think that he thought of himself as a hero?
But somehow he had managed to get Sasuke off the hook, although the village was still to treat him like an enemy if they had any reason to. Never the less, it was an improvement, and more importantly it was the most that Kakashi could do.
Someone banging on his door and shouting his name shook him from his thoughts.
"Iruka?" Kakashi asked, coming to the door and glancing curiously at the other ninja.
"Someone reported…there was a sighting…Sasuke…heading to the Miloh Clan's lands," Iruka explained through deep breaths as he tried to stop himself from panicking.
"And I'm supposed to go get him?" Kakashi guessed accurately, neither seeming happy nor upset about the news. "Who's going with me?"
"No one," Iruka answered before hesitating, "…Naruto and Sakura if you want them."
"I'll take them," Kakashi decided. "When are we supposed to be leaving? Did the Hokage schedule a departure time?"
"No, she just said to go as soon as possible…and to be careful."
Kakashi nodded in affirmation.
Konoha wasn't enemies with the Miloh people, but they were also far from friendly; bringing in any assortment of ninjas could end in trouble. It seemed like a bad idea to just wander into the territory, but it was the Hokage's orders and Kakashi had no right to not trust her judgment.
"I'll go inform Naruto and Sakura," Iruka said before taking off again.
"Since you broke the promise you made to me, it is my decision as to what your punishment should be. I could let you go with nothing more than a scratch or I could go so far as killing you. Whatever I chose the Miloh people will be behind me," Sasuke's ex-father-in-law pointed out. "Do you still refuse to be talked out of your decision?"
"I'm afraid my decision is concrete," Sasuke answered sternly.
"Fine then," the man accepted, walking to the door and opening it to two ninjas. "Take him to the town square and make sure everyone knows he is a traitor to the Miloh people."
"Miloh Clan? I don't think I've ever heard of them," Sakura said as soon as Irukai had started to fill her in.
"You can discuss it more with Kakashi after you're ready and packed. Meet your teammates at the entrance of the village as soon as possible," Iruka ordered before racing off to give the same message to Naruto.
Sakura wasted no time in packing her bags, thinking during the whole process.
What did Sasuke have to do with the Miloh Clan?
Who were the Miloh Clan?
Could Sasuke be in trouble?
How far away was the Miloh Clan's village?
How rough of a journey would it be?
Would they be able to find Sasuke?
Would he have already left by then?
Did he know about Itachi by now?
Was he going to do anything about it?
Was he still going to be trying to kill him?
Was he going to train even harder because of what had happened?
What about Naruto?
Had something happened between him and Sasuke?
Would Naruto really try and take Sasuke from her?
Would Sasuke want either of them?
What would happen between her and Naruto?
If they both couldn't have Sasuke would they go back to going out?
Would it be totally bad and messed up if they did?
Before she knew it Sakura was packed, and she had to mentally block all the terrifying questions flooding into her in order for her to be pulled back together before she reached Naruto and Kakashi.
"The Miloh Clan is very powerful and very bloodthirsty, so we must take care not to upset anyone and not to raise our tempers," Kakashi looked pointedly at Naruto. "No sudden outbursts, keep a level head at all time, act indifferent. The Miloh people pride themselves on their total logical and emotional detachment from situations. It is a sign of disrespect if you don't do the same," the older ninja lectured.
"No offense, but don't you think you picked the wrong people for this job?" Sakura asked as Naruto's crying and outbursts came to mind. Of course, that had all been in the past now, but when Naruto had seen Sasuke again he had started to revert back, so who really knew what seeing the Uchiha would do to the other boy?
"It was either you two or no one and I'd rather have a team than be on a solo-mission," Kakashi replied. "Unfortunately when we get to the village, it's every man for himself to some extent. The Miloh people hold everyone accountable for their own mistakes, so if you do something wrong you will be punished and no one will be able to take your place. And, if for some reason you try to go and take someone's punishment in their place you won't stop their punishment, but just add your own for not being detached," Kakashi continued.
"Sasuke's definitely going to have an easier time here than us," Naruto stated the obvious before grumbling at the unfairness of it all.
"Sensei, I don't think I can do this," Sakura said worriedly. There was a lot of trouble that Sasuke could have gotten himself into and Sakura knew she wasn't ready to sit around and just watch him be punished for it.
"It's not your choice anymore, Sakura," Kakashi replied sadly, "I already had to pull enough strings so you could stay instated as ninjas after the disaster that happened at the boarding school; this mission will help you in proving that mission was just a lot of bad luck."
"I thought they already wrote off that whole mission since it was actually a lot harder than we were told it would be and because technically we never backed out," Naruto complained loudly.
"It doesn't matter, there are still people in the council who don't believe you should be here. Hopefully this mission will give them enough reason to change their minds," Kakashi explained.
"So we have to risk our lives just to prove to a minority on the council that we aren't fuck ups?" Naruto shouted at the injustice.
Don't you do that everyday, dobe? A voice in Naruto's head that sounded surprisingly like Sasuke asked.
Goddamn Sasuke, he even has to bother me in my own head! Naruto cursed mentally.
You make it sound as if I want to be here. Trust me when I say 'I don't'; you have some really perverted ideas about me floating around up here, it's starting to give me the creeps, Mental Sasuke replied.Shut up! Naruto shouted inside his own head as he wondered how crazy he had to be to be hearing his nemesis/teammate/crush in his head.
"You will stay here until the ceremony begins," Sasuke's would-be father-in-law commanded, shackling Sasuke's hands and feet to the ground so that he was standing directly in the middle of the town square. "The ceremony will begin in a few days time. There the mark of a traitor shall be burned into your flesh. After that you will no longer be welcome in our village."
Sasuke nodded with indifference, knowing already what was going to happen thanks to his teachings before the Uchiha massacre and also knowing that if he didn't show indifference worse consequences would occur.
"You already know more about our village than other outsiders," the head of the village said, stepping in front of where Sasuke was chained and replacing the spot where the man that now had no one to wed his daughter once stood, "We cannot help that, however, we can limit your sight and hearing at present until you are forced to leave, that way you won't learn anymore during your time here." With that statement the man did a series of complicated hand motions before Sasuke was lost to the silent darkness.
"We should be there by tomorrow," Kakashi stated during their third night of traveling at the fastest pace they could manage. "Don't set the fire; scouts from the Miloh Clan might be roaming about. Let's just go to sleep as quickly as we can and rise with the sun tomorrow."
"Does that mean we aren't going to be able to cook anything?" Naruto whined as his stomach growled.
"Sorry, Naruto, but there's plenty of bread," Kakashi said, sounding a lot more uncaring than sorry.
"Hey, Naruto?" Sakura asked through the darkness when Kakashi had walked away a bit (most likely to find a comfortable place in a tree to sleep).
"Hm?" Naruto murmured, giving more attention to the glare he was giving the lump of bread in his hands that he was supposed to be consuming as opposed to his teammate.
"Do you think that we'll find Sasuke in the Miloh village?" Sakura asked with uncertainty lacing her voice.
"I don't know, but if he is there he's guaranteed to be okay; he practically lives by their rules of indifference already," Naruto shrugged, not appearing to be too worried about it.
"Yeah, but will we be okay there?" Sakura asked, bringing to light some of her fears.
"Of course," Naruto said optimistically as he finally tore into the bread he had been glaring at and started talking through a mouth full of food, "Just channel Sasuke."
Sasuke was bored; there were only so many things you could do while remaining motionless, blind, and deaf, and the young Uchiha was pretty sure he had done them all.
He had no idea how long he had been chained here either. At first he had kept count of the seconds that had passed in his head, but after about four hours of that he had been interrupted by a hard kick to his shin.
The first time he felt it he had written off the pain as a mistake of someone walking past, but he wasn't stupid enough to continue that theory when the hits and kicks and smacks kept coming sporadically during his time in the square.
He wasn't sure if he could still talk; he hadn't tried to. What the hell did he have to say anyway? 'If anyone's there will you smack me in the back of the head if you know how long I've been standing here'? No thanks. Plus, it was too much like caring what was going to happen, and Sasuke wasn't sure if they'd punish him for that minor offense or not. At any rate, it was probably better to just take the abuse and wait. Eventually he would get out of here; it was just a matter of time.
"The ceremony is ready to begin," a voice called out through the darkness and Sasuke had to blink when he realized that he could finally see again.
"Bring him to the theater," the voice (which Sasuke realized belonged to the head of the village) commanded, "so he can correctly learn his lesson."
Sasuke tried and succeeded to maintain an indifferent attitude to everything that was going on as he was unchained and dragged away yet again.
"No one's here," Sakura pointed out as soon as they came to the village of the Miloh Clan, "The streets are all completely empty."
"Keep the emotion out of your voice Sakura," Kakashi reminded his student. "Neither of you are to speak unless you have to; that way you'll be less likely to have emotion slip through."
"As for the people…" Kakashi said, interrupting Naruto before he could ask, "They must be having some sort of entertainment at their theater. If my memory serves me correctly it's over this way." Without waiting for a reply the ninja took off towards the inner workings of the city.
"Sasuke," Sakura whispered under her breath as soon as she found her teammate bending down on his hands and knees in the middle of the theater without a shirt.
"Don't do anything rash," Kakashi muttered through clenched teeth as he pulled both Sakura and Naruto over to the nearest three empty seats. "Sasuke has done something to insult this village and must pay the price, anything you try and do will just make it worse."
"What'd he do? What are they going to do to him?" Sakura asked worriedly.
"Something extremely bad," Kakashi muttered when he noticed the head of the village standing beside his student.
"Is he going to be okay?" Naruto asked next.
"Well, they don't put people to death in front of crowds, so that's a good thing. However, if you two keep looking like that it won't be good for any of us; keep your faces expressionless," Kakashi replied.
"You can express emotions when the burn comes into contact with your skin; you're a traitor now, so you don't have to follow our customs," the head of the village's voice said to Sasuke.
Sasuke looked up from where he was staring at the ground so he could gaze upon the man beside him. Surprisingly the man was staring straight ahead with a blank look on his face, and it seemed as if he hadn't spoken at all.
"Which, is good, because it will hurt. There's no way that you could hold your face expressionless while your flesh burns," the voice continued.
"If anyone can do it I can," Sasuke said to the village leader with a little arrogance.
"Alright, fine," the head of the village replied, still looking into the crowd with an unchanged expression, "I guess we'll be seeing about that, won't we? Here it comes."
Before Sasuke had another second to think hot metal was being pressed into his right shoulder blade. He clenched his teeth and held his breath and cursed under his breath, but his facial expression remained there, albeit with not as much confidence or thought put into it.
A few moments after his eyes started to become wet cold water was dumped over his back and the metal was lifted off of him.
"Impressive," the village leader remarked quietly with his same indifferent expression before speaking in a voice loud enough for the entire audience to hear, "This man has paid his debts; carry him to the outskirts of the village so that we may continue on with the day."
Sasuke managed with immense difficulty not to wince as two men gripped him under his arms and started carrying him off.
Sakura and Naruto looked in barely concealed horror as their teammate was carried off.
"Come on, Sasuke will be somewhere outside the village," Kakashi urged, getting over the ordeal quickly thanks to his knowledge of the Miloh's people's customs. He had assumed something to this affect would happen; he was actually a little astounded nothing more had been done.
"B-but Sensei," Sakura started to argue.
"Not another word until we're out of this village," Kakashi ordered. "They wouldn't have dumped him too far; let's go."
"Sorry things couldn't be different, Sasuke-san," the village leader apologized and bowed low, all the while still looking completely indifferent.
"I knew what would happen; there was nothing you could have done," Sasuke accepted, trying hard to keep from wincing in pain as his shoulder throbbed.
"I'm sorry I can't at least arrange transportation to take you home," the man continued.
"In a couple of days I'll be fine," Sasuke shrugged off ( though not literally shrugging for fear of hurting his burnt shoulder even more).
"Sasuke!" a voice burst out, interrupting the conversation between the two men.
Sakura appeared and was about to hug her teammate before Kakashi stopped her.
"His shoulder, remember?" Kakashi reminded her when Sakura shot him a questioning look.
"Are these your friends?" the village leader asked without waiting for answer. "Well that's good, at least I know you'll be looked after." Without waiting for any kind of response the man walked slowly back to his village.
"Sasuke! What happened?" Sakura asked, immediately showing concern for her long-time crush.
"I'm fine," Sasuke replied, not answering her question.
"No you aren't; stop acting so cool," Naruto scolded. "What'd you do to piss them off so bad that they would burn you?"
"It doesn't matter," Sasuke muttered, wishing that his teammates weren't there; he could handle this by himself.
"He's a traitor; he went back on his word," Kakashi said, answering Naruto question. "Though what I'd like to know is what word you went back on."
"It was nothing; it doesn't matter," Sasuke answered again, finally giving into a wince when he accidentally moved his arm and his shoulder gave a throb worse than the others.
"You really shouldn't have run off like that Sasuke, especially with most of the village thinking you should be locked up," Sakura interrupted.
Because obviously getting raped by my own brother and getting a traitor mark seared onto my back wasn't enough, Sasuke thought sarcastically, but he didn't say anything out loud in reply to his teammate.
"Here, Sasuke, let me take a look at your back," Kakashi offered, already going about it before Sasuke could voice a complaint. "Why don't you two start setting up camp; it looks like we'll be spending at least one night here," he ordered Naruto and Sakura.
"So? What happened? What'd you do?" Sakura asked Sasuke with concern.
She sat around the nearly made fire with Sasuke and Naruto, Kakashi having already gone to bed.
"Why does it matter? Just let it go," Sasuke replied, avoiding the question.
"You always get yourself into things you can't handle," Naruto answered with superiority radiating off of him, "You couldn't have just avoided this?"
Of course not, because my fiancé…ex-fiancé…she isn't the one I want, Sasuke thought before mentally rolling his eyes at how sappy that was. "You're telling me this?" he said out loud, "You're the klutz you wants to be Hokage."Okay, I'm struggling through chapter 18 so I really have no idea when it'll be up...sorry. As soon as I finish it I'll post it.