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Loose Ends

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"Why is it that the first thing I see when I wake up is you…?" Sasuke clearly gave an intense glare of distain to the man in front of him.

Itachi usually had a snide or witty response for Sasuke's clear attack on his self esteem but this time around his expression only grew more irate. Itachi was actually angry with him. That had not happened in years!

"What doing you think you're doing?"

"Clearly I'm in bed."

From the corner of his bed, Sasuke noticed that his foot was completely wrapped up in bandages. On an off glance, he saw that even his chest was the same. He was completely wrapped from head to toe.

"You know that's not what I meant." Itachi's unwelcoming expression, only served to surprise the boy even more. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"Aren't siblings usually supposed to worry about each other's well being, being that I just woke up in a hospital bed, before they start the accusing and blaming?"

Itachi's resigned sigh spread through the room as he slinked back into his chair at the foot of Sasuke's bed. "You're right. How are you feeling?"

"For what it's worth I can't feel my body, my head feels like a drum set at a rock concert and my eye sight went down a peg…or is it that I'm just drowsy?" Sasuke shook his head, blinking his eyes for a few seconds before he scanned the room to find one more person in the corner of the room. There was really no surprise that he was there. The only true question was how the Uchiha escaped the collapsing building with only a few bruises and broken bones.

"Is that all?" Compared to his brother, the onyx haired girl next to him had the right expression when someone was sent to the hospital.

"The headache is a usual thing. The numbness is a problem but I suppose I'm fine. Why?" The headaches were usually brought on from overusing his 'gift'. That was manageable. Not being able to feel an inch of his body from the neck down? That could pose a problem.

The blonde to the back of the room wore an expression similar to that of Itachi's. That, however, was nothing new. He broke his silence with an exasperated sigh. "Doctors said they found a poisonous substance coursing through your blood. It was even a powerful hallucinogen to boot."

Kabuto's blade. He was known to fiddle around with noxious poisons and elixirs in his spare time. That would explain the nonsense I just went through.

"Unless this is another hallucination, I'm fine."

"Another?" Ren tensed up.

"It's nothing. I rather not talk about it." Sasuke brought his hand to his head, reminding himself that he couldn't feel anything. "How many days has it been since the explosion? How did I even survive that?"

"It's been roughly a week." Ren answered.

"Believe it or not, but no one really knows; frankly no one really cares how you survived. They are just glad you weren't crushed under the debris." Naruto scoffed. Sasuke assumed the blonde was furious over what he did.

Oh so it's fine when you do it but when I do you're ready to bite my head over it?

Naruto shot him a defiant glare. Shaddap.

"The rescue team said they found you in a small pocket of space, inches under the stacked debris bleeding half to death. Only moments after they got you out did the debris fall to where you were. It was a miracle." Ren yawned. Upon further inspection, Sasuke noticed the bags under her eyes. Was she that worried about him?

"I don't believe in miracles; cold hard facts are the only way to explain the events in life." Sasuke responded quickly.

"Nothing else could explain how the debris didn't crush you."

"Maybe it was a message from the big guy." Itachi was the last person he wanted to hear that from.

"Rather than worry about me, how are you and your mother?" He didn't want to talk about this anymore. He had a hunger for knowledge. He needed his questions to be answered. First was about his maids, second were about Taka and others.

"Me?" Ren pointed to herself. "I'm just a little shaken up from the explosion; a few cuts and bruises but otherwise I'm fine." Ren's slightly cheery mood seemed to drop rapidly; turning into a melancholic expression grew as she turned to the bed behind her. "I can't say the same about her though."

Sasuke had wondered who was in the bed next to his. In total there were three beds in the room; his, possibly Ren's and her mothers. This arrangement had to be Itachi's doing.

"Her condition hasn't changed at all."

"Ren's in more of a serious dilemma than she is letting on. Her mother's obviously in no condition to work and quite frankly neither is Ren. The fire department tried their best but their house was completely burnt down, rendering them both homeless for the time being. Even if Ren were allowed to work, her pay will barely be able to cover her mother's expenses let alone her own; food, school and if she manages a new apartment. That's if she finds and apartment owner that would allow a 16 year old to live alone."

"Why did the conversation suddenly turn to me? Sasuke's the one who almost died here!" She didn't like where this was going. "…I'll figure something out. I always do so don't worry about me."

"There is a large possibility that you will have to quit school and get a second job." Itachi added.

"That's…" Ren's face fell but quickly bounced back. "So what? It's not like I need school to make a living for myself right?"

"You're being stupid." Sasuke scoffed.

"Why are you always like that? Why can't you just be happy that I'm trying to do something on my own?"

"Because it serves no purpose and you're plainly being ignorant of what's in front of you."

"I swear to Kami-sama if you say that you're going to take care of all of this, I'm-"

"Oh so you do know how this is going to end. We don't need to talk about this anymore."

"You know, technically I am the owner of an apartment complex I could-" In an instant, Naruto buttoned his lip and looked away from both of the Uchiha brothers who both shot him an intense gaze.

"What were you saying Naruto-kun?" Unfortunately, she didn't see the glares.

"Never mind," Naruto scratched his head.

"Well if you want us to be more technical about it. I was planning on moving to new house after Sasuke was released from the hospital. Originally our current house was supposed to be a temporary one after we lost our last one but we couldn't be bothered to go out and look for a new one. I plan on hiring some new staff, but I find it difficult to hire trustworthy housekeepers who won't work just to pillage our fortune. Call me old fashion, but I like some things the way they are."

"The Uchiha have always treated their staff like family. So as far as I'm concerned, your already part of the family." Itachi put on one of his trademark smiles that usually had Ren agreeing to anything he said.

"No." She answered flatly.

No way…Itachi was shocked.

Naruto sighed, shaking his head. They were going about this the wrong way.

"I can tell this is already inconveniencing you, but I'd like for you to understand that we need your services. In return, I'll offer you compensation. It's a small pay raise that would be enough to cover your school as well as your mother's hospital expenses."

"How is that small! Anyway, I already said no!"

"Just keep quiet. I've already told you that your input is almost close to 0 in these topics." Sasuke added.

"Nice." She glared.

Naruto scratched his head furiously unable to take it anymore. "Ren-chan," the blonde placed his hand on her slender shoulders.

"What these two are trying to say is not that they want you around; they need you. If you weren't around their days would be lonely, dark and dull. You must have noticed that there is nothing but negativity in that home. You and your mother are the only force that brightens that dark mood. Sasuke is a loner; without you around to tease he'd sink down to the pits of depression. Itachi would lose his best friend and you, who he practically thinks of as a sister."

"You and your mother aren't just 'house staff' to them. Both of you are part of the family. You think they'd just sit around when a member of their family is down on their luck? No! They want to make sure you and your mother are as happy as possible."

"They need you and your mother, got it?" Naruto smiled, leaving Ren flushed and unable to talk back. She glanced to the brothers; Sasuke who was speechlessly irate (with a vein on his forehead) and Itachi who looked away as if hiding his embarrassment. (He didn't blush)

"…if you put it like that, how can I say no?" Ren sighed.

"Naruto-kun, you need to teach me that skill." Itachi joked.

"It's not a skill per say, it's just I say what's on my mind."

"He's a romanticist, only he could warp your words that way." Sasuke was still pissy about what Naruto said. It wasn't like that at all. He just needed his play thing to be around when he needed it was all. Well whatever, now he need to know about everyone else.

"Ignoring your overly fancy explanation, you said at the incident that everyone was helping around. Are they in here as well?"

"Your team is at the 5th street Hospital. They were a little banged up but Tenten and Rock Lee managed to get them out before the hospital collapsed."

Why were they at another hospital? Was this one full?

"Speaking of which, have there been any other incidents with them while I was out?"

"No, everyone from school is fine." Naruto's expression grew morbid. "Everyone is a little shaken up from the number of people they couldn't save before the building came down."

"I see."

"Though, something strange has been going on with Sakura. Whenever she comes to school, she's exhausted and drained. She barely has any energy to talk to anyone let alone manage her school work. I don't know how but she still has the energy to help me with my daily chores around the house. If she's not doing that, she's either asleep or reading. Worst part is that she won't even talk to me about it!"

"She says she's fine and she isn't doing anything too dangerous but still I can't help but worry!" As distressed as he was, Sasuke was sure it wasn't too serious. He already had an idea about what was going on, but he'd tell Naruto some other day.

Sasuke's mind trailed back to the attack on the hospital. Naruto's mention of his nurse-in-training girlfriend reminded him of someone who he had forgotten.

"What about four-eyes?"

"There was no evidence that he was even there. Gone without a trance."

How far would Kabuto sink to rid the world of him? What was it all for? His master's sick obsession with him?

"Alright, I'll be right back." Ren slowly got up from her chair, making sure not to aggravating her wounds as she slowly made her way to the hall in search of the bathroom.

In an instant, Itachi's carefree smile grew grim and stern.

"Now that that's cleared you can give me some answers Sasuke." Itachi's expression mimicked that of his usual Chief of Police faces. "I know what you've been up to as of late Sasuke."

"…what are you talking about?"

"I have been handed the entirety of information of your own personal investigations over the last few months. I know about Haze, Taka being reformed, the gang fights you've been in, and the various close calls you've been in including the one which put you in here."

Sasuke's eyes widened with shock for an instance but quickly returned to his usual impassiveness "…how did you know?"

"I'm sorry Sasuke but I'm putting an end to it right now."

"Naruto! Did you-?" Naruto's clueless expression cleared him of all suspicions - he seemed as surprised as Sasuke. He quickly changed his attention to the man "Who are you to-!"

"I am Itachi Uchiha, Chief of Police and the current Head of the Uchiha Clan. You, Sasuke Uchiha, are to be put under house arrest until further notice."

"You can't do that!"

"There is no arguing over this with me Sasuke." Itachi's anger seemed to rise as the time passed but not once did he break from his usual passive expression and cool tone.

"You're lucky enough as it is. You're alive. You're still breathing. Did you know how many men almost lost their lives trying to fish you out from that concrete prison? Do you know how worried your friends are about you? Are you going to waste this new blessed chance at life? And you want to waste that chance to chase a ghost that's already on his last leg?"

"Do you really think I'm going to stop over trivial things li-!"

"Don't be so selfish!" Itachi raised his tone and Sasuke fell silent. "Sasuke, it's over. You're going to be stripped of all your privileges under the Uchiha name until I say otherwise. You're going to be put under surveillance 24/7 so you don't try any other stunts that could put your life into anymore danger."

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry about this but the same goes for you and your friends. I need to make sure that no one else in this city falls under my watch." Naruto totally saw that one coming. He guessed he owed it to Itachi to play along. He was the only reason he wasn't arrested for his 'wild' actions throughout the years. Itachi understood his situation and let a few things slide. But this however came with a price. But that was a story for another day.

After all, he guessed it wouldn't be that bad. At least everyone would be protected from harm.

As soon as Itachi got up, Sasuke began shouting "You god damn hypocrite! I don't want to hear that bullshit coming from you! You-"

Itachi interrupted Sasuke on his way out of the door. "Sasuke. We already lost both our parents. I don't want to lose the only true family I have left." Itachi said calmly. "It doesn't matter what you or anyone else thinks of me. Everything I do now is for the sake of the city."

And with that he left, leaving Sasuke with bitter resentment and self-loathing. No sooner had he left that Ren entered through the door. She immediately noticed the heavy mood.

"…what's going on?"

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Later that afternoon things were unusually quiet. Naruto had gone home to sulk about his girlfriend and Ren was quietly asleep next to her mother's bed. Sasuke drowned himself in whatever the T.V showed him at the moment until he heard a slow knocking at the door.

"Enter."

A small girl entered the room, bowing her short brown head slowly "Sorry for disturbing you."

"Matsuri. I've been waiting for you." Sasuke lowered the volume on the T.V. "I understand that you have something for me?"

"Um, yes, I do!" She replied as if she had completely forgotten about it. "Gaara-sama told me to give you this letter along with this flash drive. He didn't really tell me why, but he said 'That if you want to stop him, you'll have to act quickly."

"I see." Sasuke accepted the items and closed his eyes for a short moment. "I trust that you didn't let the guards see these?"

"No I hid them in my pockets."

"Alrightthen. Thank you and Gaara for your assistance."

With a short bow, the small girl turned to the Uchiha once more, making sure to keep her voice down to a mere whisper "Um, Mr. Uchiha."

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure what you and Gaara-sama are up to but I can already guess that it has something to do with your past. I know it probably won't mean much to you but you should be careful." Matsuri felt her cheeks color slightly from the Uchiha's long gaze.

"I'll try."

Her face managed a small smile before she disappeared through the door. For a girl to be worried about a guy like Sasuke; he was starting to see why Gaara was so taken with her.

He looked over the letter several times – each time formulating better and clearer strategies and plans. He finally had the information he needed; all he needed now was for his wounds to heal. And then…finally…he could begin his lifelong mission to take down the White Snake.

"Sorry Itachi, I can't afford to be stopped. Not now, not ever."

In the corner of the room, the girl who pretended to be asleep ever since the girl entered the room questioned what all of this even meant.

A lone figure strode silently through the brightly lit city streets. The figure whistled a small melodic tune all while enjoying the calm cool winter breeze. This was all as if the person hadn't the smallest care in the world.

The locals of the area stared at the mysterious man suspiciously as he passed by. Ignoring the glares and made his way over to a small bar. Once he entered he felt popular for what felt like the first time in ages. Everyone went silent; the waitresses stopped in surprise, the band who were up on the stage stopped playing. The other patrons who were enjoy their drinks all stopped and stared. He ignored their gazes and walked up to the barkeep, taking his seat.

"Two large glasses of ice cold water please," the man asked politely "And keep them coming."

The barkeep nodded and grabbed two large glasses and poured water from the fridge as well as added the requested ice.

His enclosed eyes flickered to his back where a few men were closing up on him. He seemed to have caught the attention of a few of the rowdier people in the bar. They began to surround him.

"I don't want any trouble. I just came to look for my buddy Yamato Kouhei." Surprisingly, the man spoke with cheer despite his predicament.

"There has been a rumor about some shady poorly-dressed freak who found his way into our city and you know what?" One of the barbarians sneered.

"What?" He humored the barbarian.

"You fit his description perfectly. Sorry but we don't take too kindly to freaks!" He grabbed the mysterious man's shoulder and forcibly turned him around. He sudden found that two things were all kinds of wrong. For one, he noticed that he was unable to move to his body and the other was that the man had a knife pressed firmly against his chest.

"What the-?" The man collapsed indefinitely.

"Keep the change," The man threw a few coins at the bartender "I know you're here Kouhei-kun~" He sang, trampling on the man at his feet.

"Come on out before I have to get physical~"

"I'm here! I'm here, okay?" A boy screamed from the back of the bar.

"You know better than to hide from me, Kouhei-kun."

"I'm sorry! It won't happen again!" Kouhei walked up to the man but instinctively kept his distance from the psycho.

"I'm not going to mince words with you, Kouhei-kun since I'm on a tight schedule tonight." The man casually twirled his tiny knife on the countertop, never once breaking from the boy in front of him. "It wasn't a hard job was it? All you had to do was rape a defenseless girl."

"I know, but-"

"I even gave you instructions for that. Pin her down, rob her of her own will then make her bend to yours. If she was resistant, it wouldn't be wrong to beat her to a pulp. Then when she's broken, you lay your seed. Simplicity incarnate, right?"

Kouhei audibly gulped. This guy was insane. He was openly talking (and going into detail!) about raping a girl in bar. To make matters worse all eyes were on them.

"After you were done you were supposed to deliver a message to the Uchiha but you couldn't even do that."

"But I didn't expect the Uchiha bitch to find us! I did everything I could! I locked the school, I made sure the teachers were busy, I-"

"Excuses aren't becoming of the 'Merciless bastard' image you often give off, Kouhei-kun-"

"I think its better that the two of you lea-" The bartender interrupted, but soon he found himself unable to speak. His voice wouldn't come out no matter how much he tried. It was then, and only then did he find that his neck had been slit.

"Don't interrupt me while I'm speaking." The man kept his voice calm, reeling his hand back to wipe the blood of his blade on a handkerchief he pulled out of his pocket. "Now, as I was saying-"

"What the fuck man?" More barbarians stood up to join their friends.

"Seems like your primitive minds can't understand simple instructions when given." The man sighed, tipping his hat forward to hide his expression for a moment. "Fine, I'll show you monkeys just how barbaric you really are."

The man raised his hat, finally revealing his blood red eyes that quickly turned golden-yellow.

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A black luxury Mercedes SLS AMG tore through the streets of Konoha barely keeping under the speed limit. Itachi pushed his machine to the limit, ripping through intersections and speeding through open ways to the scene. He had to get there as quickly as possible, but despite his efforts when he got to the bar, it was already too late.

The thick sour smell of iron filled the building when he entered. He immediately placed his handkerchief to his face and ordered his men to be careful as they followed.

Upon first glance, Itachi found that many of the bodies on the floor were killed by the same person; judging by the lacerations that covered each and every one of their bodies. Based on his observations by the bullet holes on the wall, there was an ensuing gunfight but the murderer came out on top in the end without suffering without any bodily harm.

There was no blood leading out of the building.

Whoever this murderer was, he was anything but ordinary.

"Chief! Someone's alive over here!"

Itachi quickly made his way to police officer to find a boy, no older than Sasuke cradled in the corner, hunched over hugging his legs as rocked back and forth.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Itachi asked calmly but the boy wouldn't respond. He wouldn't even focus on the Uchiha.

Itachi held the boy's chin in place and forced the boy to focus on his face. "Who did this to you?" He asked, but rather the voice out his answer the boy could only mouth out a few words. After a few minutes, Itachi finally understood the message the boy tried to say.

I'm coming for you Uchiha.

A/N: Is Sasuke wasting his chance at a fresh new chance at life? That's up to you to decide. Also the enemies our heroes have to face seem to be growing. But for the next chapter, I thought I'd take a break with all the action and go for something a bit more simple.