CHAPTER 12

The weather was bright and warm in the Land of Fire. Early morning mist began to clear the dew laden grass. Sunrise casted its rays dissipating the clouds and the penetrating lights seeping over the landscape. The air was very clear now. Animals in the woods stirred to their daily routine. The tranquility of this place can easily ease anyone's mind.

"Such troublesome friend you have there, Naruto," Shikamaru complained.

Unfortunately, the road home was alive to the sound of bickering men. Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru had just passed the country's borders. Sasuke led the front, as usual, pretending to ignore Shikamaru's list of complains and nags about risking the laws of diplomacy and the alliance that has involved not two but three villages.

"You. Ignorant. Ass!" he shouted, but Sasuke simply waved it away. "Do you even care what you'd done?! Oi, Naruto! You better talk sense with this guy!"

Escaped from the secret volt in Shinkirōgakure while carrying a bag of scrolls was simple. Compelling the weak guards to forget their faces and proceed as though nothing had happened was an easy breakout. The study of the scrolls, however, was difficult. They had been tossing and turning, trying to figure out the meaning of the symbols. Sasuke, on the other hand, had maintained his composure and cool, studying its contents and writing down notes.

Until stress had caught up to them.

Naruto understood that they have their own punching bags when it comes to stress. While others rather leashed their anger onto someone, Sasuke preferred to conceal his. He might seem patience on the outside, but on the inside, his anger was like a sleeping volcano waiting to erupt. The stress caused him to reach his limits that on the fits of his tantrums, he did the silliest thing by setting a few scrolls on fire and claiming that he was bored.

"Shoving scrolls to our faces and then demanding us to study it is not a nice way to ask for help!" he complained further, putting down his bag. Everyone stopped and took a break. "I don't understand the need to steal these scrolls! We'd spent every day, with the help of Kurama's, trying to decipher these damn codes of symbols. And what do we get in return? No answers and more cold shoulders from you! Two weeks! Two bloody weeks without a damn explanation! Even the Gods doesn't have such patience!"

"No one does," Naruto added while scratching his head. "I understand your demand for the truth but pressuring Sasuke right now isn't the best idea."

Shikamaru wouldn't take no for an answer. He stepped forward, stopping Sasuke in his pace. His dark eyes challenged to those of the Uchiha's.

"You will listen," he demanded, "Too many times I've been ignored by you. You can fool those villages, you can fool Naruto but you're not going to fool me. What you did was wrong. Had your fish friend gotten capture, terms won't sit well with Konoha. You could have jeopardized everything that we've built and stood for."

"Suigetsu could have been captured had he been on his own. To have him teaming up with you reduced those chances to none. In the end, no one get caught, hurt or dies. You did your job, now get over it," Sasuke argued sarcastically.

"Are you even listening to yourself? You think you can pass yourself as a Kage with that attitude of yours? I am never," he emphasized, earning himself the infamous Uchiha's glare, "going to acknowledge you. No one will."

This is bad… There's tension between them… Naruto-yo, you have to do something…

Naruto threw a kunai directly at Sasuke. The Uchiha deflected it with his Kusanagi sword. The kunai dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Back away, Shikamaru," he warned and his friend obliged, suddenly jumped and stood behind him. There was nothing but brooding silence. "You want to burn our nakama with your Amaterasu? You do realize that you owed him an explanation."

"Tempted to," Sasuke scoffed. His eyes focused on the horizon, in the direction of Konoha. "I don't owe anyone."

"You owe me an explanation," he emphasized with a calming voice, decided to be straight forward when facing his no-mood-to-talk friend. "You, Sakura-chan and I, we're Team Seven. You can't do this by yourself. I know you want to seek her, but you forget that everyone in Konoha does too. It's better to work as a team to go up against those bastards."

"This has nothing to do with you," Sasuke spoke and walked away.

Naruto remembered the very last moment of Sakura. Before she was taken, Madara had been busy extracting the tailed-beasts out of Uncle Bee and him. The jutsu was too strong for them to counter, but when the pull stopped, he immediately thought that Madara was finally killed and the war was finally won. What he had witnessed next shock him the most. There, in front of Madara stood Sakura, his fingers wrapping around her neck. The chakra cloak on her was gone, absorbed by the enemy. A mix of panic, fear and rage whirled inside him that he immediately ran towards them- towards her- without a second thought. Kurama had warned him not to get close as it might have been a trap. He chose to ignore it and was about to use the Rasengan when Madara pushed him with Shinra Tensei- one of Pain's jutsu. He reached out for Sakura, using his strength to pull her to him. Unfortunately, she was pulled back by the Uchiha and was casted away by another almighty push directly, this time, to his chest. Her fingers were barely in his grasp and before he was deflected away, he saw her tears and heard her last words to him- I'm sorry.

"Bullshit," he called in a low trembling voice, "if it has nothing to do with me, the both of you wouldn't have talked about me before she was taken away. We're not kids anymore, Sasuke. You, of all, should understand how hurtful it is to be lied to. Day after day, month after month, year after year, I've waited for any news about her. Words circulating of her death fear me the most, and I held my prayers in hope that she is still alive, well and safe. I've searched for her across five countries and not once I'm closed to finding her. You, on the other hand, can't even tell it to my face that I've wasted my effort, and that you've been holding the truth all along. Where is the trust in that?"

His sharp blue eyes firmly judged by those dark ones.

"Funny when you mentioned trust," Sasuke put a hand on his hip as his head tilted to the side. "You don't seem to trust her strength."

"Of course, I do! She's strong and smart. She's-"

"I'm not talking about that kind of strength," he interrupted. "I'm talking about her strength of will to fight. You've claimed that we're a team and yet, you tend to forget who she really is. Sakura isn't just a member of ours. She's a kunoichi; she fights."

"She's a medical ninja. She mustn't get hurt."

"Is that the only reason why you had told her to stand at the back of the line while others moving forward into battle during the fourth war? So that no one could hurt her? Naruto, even before she turned into a medical ninja, I've never once doubted her will to fight."

"You barely know her," he said, tightly clenching his fist. "She may look tough to carry all the burden but she's just a girl who-"

"That's the whole point, isn't it? You still see her as a girl and no more," Sasuke flipped the thrown kunai in the air with his sword and threw it back at him. He caught it with his bare hand. The kunai cut his skin and he allowed it to bleed. "Stop burden yourself with regret and trust in her will to fight."

"You'd said that she has a plan and that she would know what to do," Naruto pointed out. His voice was now as cold as ice. "And as much as the both of you plan to keep the truth away from me, it doesn't change the fact that I'm part of that conversation. You already know this, Sasuke, the moment she had spoken my name, I'm already involved. Don't fucking shut me out."

The curse word shocked both of his friends; and they knew that he was dead serious. The Uchiha was looking at the horizon again, towards Konoha, his back facing him.

"The riddle of the symbolic seal must be answered. It's too difficult to handle this alone," Sasuke admitted, biting his lips as his mind was put into a deep thought. "If you insist, I'll share what I know, but this has to be kept between us. I can't risk its exposure; I can't risk her."

The Uchiha's onyx eyes focused from him to Shikamaru. They nodded to each other in mutual respect, understanding that the information which was about to be given must never be leaked.

"Not here," Sasuke held up his hand and shook his head. "Let's head back to Konoha."

A soft knock on the door interrupted him in the middle of his studies. Orochimaru looked up to see Tsunade, holding a small parcel.

"Why am I not surprised that you're still up?" she asked, placing the parcel on the table.

He averted his eyes back to his notes. "You know me well that if something has caught my interest, I will get into my zone no matter what the time is."

She took a seat opposite of him, warning him at the same time not to scheme around. Such words earned his slithering glare and the beloved Tsunade gladly countered it with hers. As the granddaughter of the First, with beauty and strength, he could understand the reason now why Jiraiya had chosen her to be the next Hokage.

"Is that it?" he pointed to the parcel on the table. "Is that from the young Kazekage?"

"Yes, it's the one you'd mentioned and asked for." She sighed. I still don't understand your theory though."

"No one does. In fact, I might be wrong," he admitted.

"Orochimaru, do understand the reason you're allowed to stay in my residence. Since you're an expert of understanding unique bloodlines and my grandfather's cell, I need you to find a way to defeat the still living and breathing Madara."

"An order under the watchful eyes of your men, I assumed, for security reason?" he teased and then focused on the parcel in front of him. "Something so simple cannot be a coincidence. If my theory on Rikudō Sennin is correct, this little box may be the answer to defeat Madara."

"I can't open it," she confessed.

"What?"

"The box cannot be opened, even with all my strength."

Even the smallest thing can change the course of this world, he thought. He took the box and studied it closer. His lips pursed, feeling the disappointment at how small it is. Then again, if the box couldn't be forcefully opened, even by a brutal strength, this ought to count for something.

"If you can't open it, this means that the box is sealed with a jutsu, but," he twirled the box several times in different direction, "there's none. I don't see it."

"There must be a way."

"There has to be. This would be an interesting challenge," he studied the box again. Something about it screamed mystery. "How to open a lock if we can't even see one?"

"Orochimaru," she called with a serious tone in her voice. She gestured to his desk which was filled with books, scrolls and notes. "I think it's best to send your protégé to Ryūchi Cave for further trainings. I believe you'll be quite busy with research and all."

"I agree with you. Besides, he needs to be prepared just in case that Madara shows up."