Chapter Text
Several weeks later, Sasuke sits alone in the middle of a very long train ride. He passed through Nagara Village two nights ago, meaning the trip is almost at its end.
He’s sending himself to Redaku, of all places. A location so truly remote and relaxed it has flown well under the radar over the years of Sasuke’s various investigations, pilgrimages, and wild goose chases.
It has its charms, though. If he were the spiritual sort, and hadn’t already met and spoken to the supernatural ghost of the Sage of Six Paths, he might find the place’s historical attachment to chakra’s founder at least somewhat enlightening or thought-provoking. As the train slowly breaches the mountain range caging in the country from civilization, Sasuke’s only impression is of the heat.
The ambience of the train over the rails grows louder and reverbates as they chug across a bridge, spanning a dry, dead riverbed that surely housed something once. Sasuke reaches into his pack and pulls out the one clue that had brought him here.
A small, silver ring, far from perfect condition, with a logo etched into the inner band that is almost impossible to distinguish. After some research, however, it bears a striking, one to one resemblance to the logo for Redaku’s Astronomy Research Institute.
After escaping the poisonous gas, Konoha’s investigative forces returned full force to the abandoned Ame factory. An Anbu squad, led by Sasuke and armed with gas masks, quickly and efficiently stripped down every computer, vat, and wire left in the building. As expected, almost all of it was utterly useless. Sasuke has been told that the insulation on some of the cords was very exciting to the Scientific Ninja Tools department, but not exactly relevant.
Luckily, one vat had this ring rattling around inside of it. Its significance betrays its size.
After a moment of careful study, suspended in the harsh sunlight of its home country, the ring goes back into the bag. There will be plenty of time for answers once Sasuke tracks down its owner.
-
The Astronomy Research Institute is underwhelming. Maybe once, it had been an admirable feat of architecture, but its current role as a prison has beaten it to death. It’s dull and spartan.
Sasuke has yet to determine his way inside. At the moment, he is in a bustling market in the adjacent city, casually posed against a wall. The prison’s mail post is within eyeshot. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of mail. The guard inside is almost asleep.
This is in adherence to the general security approach of the prison. There are a couple of guards posted outside the door, but none inside. The only thing keeping the prisoners in is a looming wall beyond the initial fenced yard. Both of these can be scaled with some effort.
The easier something looks, the warier Sasuke is.
He is forced to pay attention to the streets again by a large procession of people that begins pushing and shoving the marketplace to the side.
Judging by the uniforms and self importance on display, it’s a government show. There’s a palanquin and at least ten surly guards holding swords. Sasuke watches carefully, but he watches even more carefully the stragglers drifting behind them.
Clearly hoping to hide behind the bells and whistles of the main procession, two masked men skirt the crowds, trying to blend in. Sasuke is probably one of the few who would have noticed. Even without the Sharingan, he recognizes their mannerisms.
He breaks away from the wall, casually falling into step behind them as they walk past. He’s not lucky enough that they’ll start a conversation about their purpose once he’s within earshot, but at least he’ll be able to see where they’re going. He pulls his own scarf high up over his mouth and nose. Best to go incognito as well.
One is slightly taller and bulkier, even in the loose clothes they wear. They veer off of the main street to a similarly crowded path, and Sasuke reevaluates his luck. This path only leads to one place: the Astronomy Research Institute. Unless they’re hoping to suspiciously shop along one of the many pawn shops and fruit stands along the way, which Sasuke mildly doubts given their associative self importance.
For a few feet, he is perfectly in sync with the two. Then a merchant passes in front of him suddenly, pushing a cart. It’s only a few seconds of obstructed vision, but once the view is clear, the less bulky one has vanished.
Sasuke immediately turns and looks behind him, just in time to block a blow aimed at his neck.
He responds in kind with a kick, followed closely by a punch right as the kick is dodged. They exchange a few moves, the stranger going on defense and moving backwards through the crowd.
“Would you stop? You’re making a scene.” he says. Sasuke stops, elbow driven into the man’s palm.
He looks at the annoying, serene black eyes above the mask. Then he kicks out hard, slams him into a wall, and twists his arm behind his back.
“How am I making a scene?” he hisses directly into Sai’s ear. “What are you even doing here?”
He had told Naruto about the ring, who had told him to investigate it solo. ‘Sai’ and ‘solo’ are not congruent concepts.
“I’m undercover.” Sai says. “Nice to see you again too, Sasuke-kun.” Because of the pose, he has his face pressed up uncomfortably into a stone wall, and is forced to look over his shoulder at Sasuke. This just makes it look like he is side-eyeing him disapprovingly.
“Tell Naruto I don’t need backup for this one.” Sasuke grits out.
“Tell him yourself.” Sai says. “As far as I’m aware, I’m not backup for anybody. I’m just here for information on the Prime Minister.”
“Hm.” Sasuke thinks for a moment. “So this isn’t about the ring?”
“What ring?”
“Hm.”
This kind of shinobi double booking happens once in a blue moon. Usually Shikamaru is pretty good at making sure no one steps on anyone else’s toes. This must be similarly urgent. Or Sai also being in Redaku had just slipped Naruto’s mind.
Come to think of it, Sasuke had heard some whispering about the Prime Minister’s sudden ascendence throughout the marketplace. That would also somewhat explain the wariness the government procession had evoked.
“Sasuke-kun?” Sai says, brows furrowed. “Are you planning on letting me go anytime soon?”
Sasuke steps back wordlessly, leaving Sai to peel himself off the wall and rub his wrist to relieve the pain of Sasuke’s iron grip.
“Much obliged.” Sai says. Sasuke wants to roll his eyes.
“I’m here on assignment from Naruto, related to Kara.” he discloses. “Just stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
“Kara?” Sai says, missing his exit cue by a mile. “Did the factory yield something, then? I was ripped away so suddenly for this mission, I haven’t gotten to hear any proper reports.”
Sasuke blinks. He’s been here that long?
“You’ve been here that long?”
“Yes.” Sai nods. “I told you, I’m undercover. I’ve been infiltrating the Prime Minister’s messenger corps.”
“Hn. I wouldn’t have thought you would be the person chosen for undercover work.” Sasuke says. Admittedly, he doesn’t know anything about what kind of missions Sai gets chosen for, but the man is not exactly oozing charisma or subtlety.
“Is that your impression of me?” Sai says, tilting his head.
“More or less.”
“I’ve been working on my acting.” Sai says with a sigh. “I’ll get there eventually. Just now, I feigned interest in your opinion. How did I do?”
Sasuke feels something on his face twitch.
He’s noticed the political unrest since he’s been here, but what a misfortune that Naruto had also noticed it, several months ago, and forgot to unnotice it before Sasuke and Sai’s paths crossed again.
“So there’s something to do with Kara here as well.” Sai muses. “That could change things. We should compare notes-”
“It’s not related.” Sasuke says. It could be related. “Stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
Sai raises an eyebrow. “If that’s how you feel…” he shrugs his hood, which had fallen off during the battle, back over his head nonchalantly. “Until further notice, Sasuke-sama.”
He then, to his credit, disappears without a trace.
-
Sasuke has a rough plan and a roof over his head by the time it starts getting dark. He finds an abandoned silo on a lot of dry, desolate farmland overlooking the valley of the prison just enough for the sharingan to provide a decent image of it.
He’s not sure he can break in and remain undetected for more than a couple hours, which, given the ground covered by the prison, is not nearly enough time.
Ideally, to infiltrate, he would have a reasonable cover story and escort from Konoha, but they don’t have the resources to spare right now. That’s why they had sent Sasuke, and Sasuke alone. He’s an independent agent. Convenience aside, he will be able to get inside, no matter what.
The only problem, he thinks wryly as he tries to draft his cover letter of imprisonment by moonlight, is that he doesn’t quite have the creativity for this.
Mass murder, he supposes. But then, that will surely land him with too much supervision. Tax evasion is not nearly severe enough. Assault?
He’s interrupted by a figure rudely dropping in.
Without looking up, Sasuke throws a couple kunai. They miss narrowly, with one being deflected and two slamming into the wall on either side of Sai’s bland face.
“Don’t be scared, Sasuke-kun. It’s only me.”
“Don’t try to sneak up on me.” Sasuke still doesn’t look up.
“I’m not.” Sai approaches him and sits down in front of him so they are level. “I have good news.”
“I don’t suppose that you’re going home?”
“Naruto authorized my involvement on your mission.”
As suspected, him and Sai do not have the same definition of anything, much less good news. Sasuke stands up. He also discreetly pockets his in-progress letter, as he suspects Sai was trying to read it upside down.
Unprompted, Sai continues talking.
“Thus far, I’ve followed the indication of conspiracy right to the prison you’re working on. The prison director, Zansul, has some shady grants from the government and a remarkable amount of political prisoners on the roster.” he says. “There hasn’t been an inspection of the prison in years. Konoha would like to know what he’s hiding in there.”
“...”
“It could be linked to the sudden drought that displaced the old government and put the current prime minister at the helm.”
“Hm.” Sasuke contributes.
“Am I boring you?” Sai says.
Sasuke shakes his head minutely. “You talk. I’ll think.” he says. He pulls out the prison’s blueprints from his pack, spreading it out on the ground as Sai reacts to this. “If there’s anything happening, it’ll be in the lower levels. There’s not much down there, just the medbay and the staff quarters as far as I’m aware. The cameras should have a couple blind spots here,” he taps on the corner of the map, “and here.”
“Are you trying to dig your way in, then?”
Sasuke meets Sai’s incredulity with even more acerbic incredulity.
“What? No.” he gives the other man a weird look. “I’m planning to infiltrate as a prisoner. I just have to set up my cover…”
“Oh, is that all then.” Sai says. “That’s easy. Here.” he reaches for Sasuke, who reacts in the blink of an eye to dodge. Opting for a kick to retaliate, he narrowly misses the top of Sai’s head.
They exchange a couple tight blows in rapid succession, then Sai feints for the pocket where Sasuke had stashed the letter. Sasuke moves to stop him, but the momentary distraction lets Sai sweep his legs and set him off balance. At the same time Sai finally grabs onto his wrist and stops him just a hairs breadth from the wall, mirroring their position from earlier that day.
Sasuke doesn’t like being on the other end, needless to say.
“On the authority of the Prime Minister’s Imperial Guard, I place you under arrest for suspected treason.” Sai says mildly.
Sasuke pulls his wrist free. “Very funny.” he says, indicating it is not funny at all. The other man looks at him blankly, devoid of all intelligent thought.
Sasuke frowns minutely.
“Oh. You’re serious.”