Chapter Text
“Naruto why are you doing this?” Sakura had finally finished to take care of Sasuke and now she was looking at him disappointedly.
“It’s the only way, the war needs to end.”
“At what price? I know you, Naruto. You are a good man, and yet you are here slowly killing a person that has no way of defending himself”
“He is not an innocent either. He is our enemy. He organized all the worst battles we had. Sakura, he killed Sai, Rock Lee and so many others. How can you defend the killer of our friends?”
“Are you even listening to what you are saying? I guess you are repeating the same words you tell yourself when you are plagued by guilt and I know you are. I’ve known since we were children, don’t lie to me. You cannot blame him for those actions, because we have done the exact same things for years. That’s war. That is necessary, Naruto. I have heard you when a couple of years ago you were admiring how just he was, how he always attacked during the day, how he never mistreated any prisoners he took, he even released the poorest and asked a reasonable ransom to the richest. Our friends were killed in battle, they were armed, they fought, they lost, they died quickly. This is entirely different. You are slowly killing him, hoping for information that he will never give and at this point you know that if you do obtain it, you will have to kill him because if his brother learnt what you’ve done, no quantity of information would be enough to win this war. You must…”
During the whole speech Naruto got paler, the guilt he had tried to keep at the corner of his mind was slowly coming back to him, but he could not let feelings cloud his judgement.
“Enough Sakura” his voice was slightly higher than he wanted “despite our friendship, I am still your prince. You need to address me with respect, you cannot tell me what I must and must not do. I am the reason you, a woman, were chosen as our official doctor on the front of war. No one else would have deemed it appropriate. So, if you want to stay here, from now on, just do your job and let me handle mine. Have you understood?”
The woman looked puzzled as if she wanted to keep arguing but then she just bowed down
“Yes, I do, your highness. Forgive me, I overstepped my boundaries, it will not happen anymore.
The prisoner needs to eat more, if you want him to recover fully. It would also be advisable to interrupt the sessions with Kakashi for a couple of days, so that his body has time to heal. If that is all, can I be dismissed?”
“Yes, thanks for your help” Sakura silently left, he knew she would not forgive him easily, but she was voicing those thoughts in his head that he had tried so hard to suppress. He could not give up or change his mind, he was already past the turning point so what was really the point of thinking about it?
Hours passed before Sasuke started to stir, in his first semiconscious movements he moved his arm causing a groan of pain to escape his lips. Naruto was immediately by his side, taking the arm and gently murmuring.
“Careful, do not move it too much” the voice seemed to alarm Sasuke more than helping, his body went rigid, but he remained silent.
“Everything is alright, don’t worry. It’s me, Menma” this seemed to calm him a little.
“Menma…”
“Yeah, it’s me. Come on, I can help you sit” he started putting the arms around him
“Leave me, I can do it by myself” and he obeyed, he needed the prince to trust him, he knew that Sasuke had lost all control on his life, having the impression of having gained a little back would help his mission. He waited patiently until the prince lifted himself and tried to hide his pain, the wounds on his back must be troubling him.
“Do you want a glass of water Sas’ke?” he nodded and drank avidly
“You know, I think I can count on one hand the number of people who call me by my first name, people are usually respectful around nobility.”
“Doesn’t it get boring? I mean… I think I would hate being called by a title that I did not gain”
“I guess…it’s not a question of whether I like it or not. If people get too familiar with me, they will treat as one of them. They will start objecting when I give an order they don’t like, and this cannot happen. We are at war I need respect and obedience, or we are doomed”
“But if everyone follows you blindly, how can you know when you are making a mistake” the other stayed silent for a couple of moments
“I don’t. I try my best but at the end of the day no one can foresee the future”
“But if you had trusted people around you who are not afraid you, you could use their advice. Two or three heads are always better than one”
Again, silence and then a sigh.
“If I were at my camp, I would never admit something like this, but I guess here there’s nothing I can lose. I will probably be dead in a week anyway…”
“Whaat? You are not going to die, don’t be an idiot” he did not know how he could tell but he was sure that behind the blindfold Sasuke was giving his best death glare.
“I do not why I keep talking to such a dobe” was that a laugh? He could not believe in so much luck if he laughed it meant he did not feel an immediate danger, he was getting closer he knew.
“Oh, come on. Don’t act like that! You were going to tell me something, what was it?”
“You don’t have to pretend you care, Menma, after all I’m not sure I want to ruin your joy with the misery of my life” joy of his life that was funny, if only he knew.
“I want to listen, pleaseee” he seemed so idiotic,+ but it looks like it worked because the other started speaking again.
“I was saying that when this war started, I was nine, my brother sixteen. Suddenly they told us our parents had been killed, a couple of days later we find out that there must be a spy in the palace, then a nation that we saw as our ally refused to give us the head of my parent’s killer….”
“You make it easy King Minato doesn’t believe in capital punishment, he didn’t want him to die for a mistake” that was a big slip
“You are informed about the events that led us to war, I didn’t expect that”
“My king is honest, before refusing he allowed people to vote. He explained his reasoning and most of the country agreed”
“He must be a charming man to persuade so many people to go towards suicide rather than handing over a murderer’s head”
“He is a just and smart man, he knew war was inevitable, he knew you were only waiting for a plausible reason.”
“And how would you know that exactly?” Crap he was getting carried away: Sasuke was getting suspicious, he needs to be more careful.
“Well, you know: you can hear a lot about the war when you are surrounded by soldiers”
“I thought you had just started to work here”
“Yeah I started this week, but this was also my old man’s job and my uncle’s” he hoped he would not ask other questions he did not know how much he could make up without mistakes.
“I guess it makes sense…maybe, it actually does not matter. Even if you were the prince in disguise, this information cannot be used against me” He was actually closer than he thought, Naruto forced himself to laugh at the joke.
“However if you want an answer: I don’t know what my father’s plans were, I was nine when the war started. I was not allowed in the council back then, but honestly if we were so ready for the war, why were we at such a disadvantage at the beginning of it. I think you must be aware of how easily you were going to win, before my brother started actively participating in plans and battles. Do you really think my sixteen years old brother wished to fight and kill hundreds of men and to live everyday asking himself if that was his last one?”
Silence came back again.
“But you declared war for a stupid reason. You risked thousands of lives for vengeance. Was all of this useful?”
“Our parents had just been killed. Have you ever heard what exactly happened?”
“No, I haven’t” the shame in his voice was clear. He never investigated the story, he only knew they had been killed, the details did not seem important at the time.
“I am not surprised, it took months for us to know. Itachi did not want a war, he acted as peacefully as he could. Your soldiers prevented us from seeing them for three days, they wanted to analyse the bodies thoroughly before letting anyone get close to it. They did not tell us what had happened for almost two months. They refused to give partial information, they said. I was nine and all the politics around it did not concern me. All I cared about was that my mother had broken her promise, she said she was going to come back in two days, but she wasn’t there.” Sasuke stopped for a moment, his voice was becoming more erratic “I apologize. I got carried away. As I was saying: I found out what happened, because I sneaked in the second day, no one pays too much attention to children. That’s how I found that my father’s head had been crashed and my mother had been stabbed. I don’t think I could ever forget her: she was almost the same colour of the sheets around her, her beautiful black hair surrounded her face the contrast was sharp. Even two days after her death, surrounded by insect and dirt she is still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, but what really shocked me was her expression she was smiling. I still dream that smile, it’s meaning has taken so many nights away from me and that is just another of the things the soldiers refused to talk about with us. They allowed us to bring the bodies back home three days after they found them. That’s when they told us that my father had tried to fight but he was probably surrounded, and someone grabbed him from behind. They broke his arm before crushing his head to a three, in front of my mother’s eye. She did not fight and what was her repayment? She was stabbed through the stomach and left for hours to bleed out and yet when they found her, she was smiling. It took another two months to know that the Couchman’s body was not in the forest. He probably had betrayed them. Another four months to know that a man had confessed of having stabbed my mother. Of course, they told us two weeks after his arrival. My brother asked for the permission to try him personally as his crime had been mainly against our nation. They refused: the crime had been committed in their territory and it was their right. Then my brother asked to assist personally the judgement. They refused they didn’t want feelings to cloud the decision. He asked the permission to send a couple of his councilmen. They refused: same reasons. He tried many times. At the end, they allowed him to talk with this man without guards around for ten minutes. They had probably written the answers for him but…. well I have heard my brother tell this story so many times, sometimes, details get changed a little that’s normal but the words that man said. They never do.
-I didn’t expect you to be so similar to her, you have her eyes…. I’m sorry she seemed such a wonderful woman, but my family was starving. Those royals promised so much money for that-
This is the reason Itachi declared war, not because of a stupid vengeance against a criminal but because King Minato ordered the murder of my family!”
He stayed silent, what could he say after such a declaration?
“I think you must be wrong. Listen I am not a noble. I do not know everything, but I’ve always been very observant. Our king has been on that throne for quite a while now and yet this is the only war he was engaged in. Yes it’s true your kingdom used to be incredibly rich, but not the richest. Queen Kushina was a very close friend of Queen Mikoto, not one of those courtesy relationship they grew up together. King Minato adores his wife you can see it in the way he looks at her, he built a park in her honour, so why would he order to murder her sister. Don’t you think that all of this does not make any sense”
“Do you really think that I never myself these questions? That they have never plagued my dreams?” Sasuke was raising his voice then he stopped for a moment “My mother and your queen were friends?”
His expression switched from anger to confusion, it was time to go before he asked more questions.
“I guess I have been spending too much time here. I don’t want Kakashi to kick me out. I’m sorry”
“Uhm” he did not even seem to listen to what I had said.
“Ah I forgot, I don’t think you’ll see him for a while. Doctor’s orders: absolute rest” He did not turn to see the raven prince reaction he just left that cursed place as soon as possible.
“Kakashi we need to talk” he had not realized how late it was, he had practically run from the prisons to the general’s chambers, Sakura had drugged Sasuke to keep him unconscious, so he slept almost the whole day. He seemed unable to leave his side for the whole time, he felt guilty. And now as midnight was approaching he had been furiously knocking his mentor’s door forgetting all the rules his parents had tried so hard to teach him.
“Your highness what’s happening?” he appeared slightly shocked at the door, it was clear by the tone of his voice and his clothes that he had woken him up.
“Can you let me in please? I need to talk”
His old teacher moved aside, giving him the chance to enter and then carefully locking the door behind him.
The room was simple, the only pieces of furniture were a wooden desk with two chairs and a small bed in a corner right under the window. The walls perfectly white as the first day the general had arrived, more than once his students asked him why he never hanged a portrait of his family or something else that might remind him of home. His answer was always the same -Home is where family is, and I have mine with me here-
“Naruto is everything alright?” nowadays he only used his name behind closed doors, appearances before everything else, even if this man had practically raised him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize it was so late. I can come back tomorrow if you prefer...” he started walking towards the door, but Kashi grabbed his arm to stop him.
“I’ve spoken to Sakura, what’s happening?” of course Sakura would ask for his advice, after all, he had been as much a father for her as for him, he smiled as memories of two little children causing trouble in the palace came to his mind.
He turned to look right at his teacher’s eyes.
“What am I doing? I’m becoming a person I cannot recognize, the kind I always despised. I yelled at Sakura because she was giving voice to that guilt constantly plaguing me. As a knight I swore I would always act honourably. Where is the honour in what I am doing? Do I even deserve my title?” he felt the tears at the corner of his eye, but he could not cry now, he was not a child anymore. He was the leader of an army; how could he be this weak?
“You know, I’ve been in other wars before this one. I’ve worked with other soldiers and yet I’ve never seen such a relationship as those you have with them. Yes, some may despise you and your strategies, but most of them are grateful to you, they have seen you fight on the front line, risking your life for them. Believe me when I tell you that they would follow you to hell if you so asked them. Remember I know that this war has been going on for ten years and it seems nowhere close to an end, but one day it will end and you will come back home and rule your country. One who inspires devotion or one who demands it? So, now you must decide what kind of ruler do you want to become? Because remember, no matter how difficult it might seem, there is always a different path.”
A small tear crossed his cheek, so many followed it, now that he had started he could not stop crying anymore. Kakashi didn’t say anything he just hugged him and so they stayed standing in the middle of the bare room hugging each other as the father and son that if they weren’t by blood they certainly were by love.
After a couple of minutes, he finally felt strong enough to leave the embrace and speak again.
“I know that there is another way, but we already tried, and it did not work.”
“There is no success without failure but if you quit there will only be failure.” Naruto looked at him and this time determination was clear in his eyes.
“Then we will try again, but this time we need more information. Sasuke has told me something interesting. I need to know how much truth there is behind it. Kakashi please can you tell me everything you know about the Uchiha murders” his teacher sighed as he sat behind the desk.
“If we are going to talk about that, have a seat. This will be a very long conversation”.