Chapter Text
Look what Haru-chan drew in the photograph! A drawing of him playing with his friends. Do you have any idea how fucking HUGE this is! The kid always used to sit in a corner all by himself, too shy to talk to anybody, it would take like ten minutes of talking and a promise I’d buy him ramen from Ichiraku’s, to make him come out and play with us, and look at him now!
(But then I’d have to buy ramen for everybody else too because I didn’t want anyone to feel left out. Treating them to ramen all the time. I’m gonna run dry. Now I know how Iruka-sensei feels.)
--
Sasuke, the kids don’t appreciate my taste for décor. I try to give them some of my houseplants for their new rooms, some cool looking cacti, some wicked dracaena, some gardenia, GARDENIA, Sasuke, do you know how HARD it is to grow??? I grew all that just for them, and what do they do? They have the nerve to look bored about it, they ACTUALLY said, ‘Why do old people like plants so much?’ OLD? I’M NOT EVEN 25 YET!
--
Yuki-chan filled her room with SO many scrolls and books you’d think it was a library. When I asked her what her favorite was, she told me that she loved reading ‘The Pandemonium of the Great Five Nations’ the most. Scary. These kids are smarter than me.
--
Two of the kids are always fighting with one another. ALWAYS. They so much as see each other and they just start talking shit. It’s pretty damn funny, because when Iruka-sensei assigned them to writing about the person they admire the most right now, they wrote about each other. Can you believe it? Iruka-sensei just rubbed his head all funny and went all ‘This is really happening again.’ He wouldn’t tell me what he meant by it.
--
“Woah, what’s got you all smiley?”
Sasuke put the papers he was reading away in his cloak as he leaned back against the tree he was sitting under.
“You’re late.”
Suigetsu shrugged and just splattered (literally) onto the ground in exhaustion.
“Well hey, the blueprint you gave me of the syndicate’s layout was annoying to read. And you try navigating through the water pipes in that behemoth only to listen to creepy old goons talk for hours on end. It ain’t fun, Sasuke.”
“Did you find out where they keep the prisoners?”
“Found out where they keep the prisoners, what time the guards switched their shifts, what the experiment schedule was, which kekkai genkai cost the most to the big dogs, aaaand even one of creeps’ birthdays. It’s tomorrow, if you’re curious,” Suigetsu listed off easily, self assured as always.
“You know the plan. Get those kids out of there…take them somewhere far away.” Sasuke instructed. “The rest is on me.”
A grim promise for violence echoed his words.
They were currently in the mountain range that surrounded Kirigakure. Sasuke was still tracking down the top gangs who ran the corpse market. The Land Hidden in the Mist was a big hotspot for these bastards. After the war, the trade had boomed over the years apparently. Big wars meant big business. Not to mention big opportunities for ninja to experiment whatever kekkai genkai they managed to exploit from their dead test subjects on their live test subjects who were picked right off the streets.
Especially on orphans. On people who had no one to protect them. Especially in Kirigakure, where the lowest class still wasn’t priority to the higher ranks at all.
So they were victims. To criminals who would use their bodies for their own gain. The young Uchiha was reminded of his and his companions’ own history as Orochimaru’s pets. These low-lives were much the same as the snake was.
Sasuke could feel his fire burning his veins, itching to come out and leave the scum in ashes.
Soon.
“Good work today. Rest for now.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice, boss,” the Hozuki saluted, then turned his back to the Uchiha. He was asleep in an instant. No surprise, seeing as he used up all his chakra spying on their target today.
Suigetsu had worked especially hard on this mission. He tried to seem nonchalant, tried to seem like he wanted to get this over with so they could return to Juugo and Karin quickly, but Sasuke could tell being in his birthplace affected him. Seeing it again surely brought back painful memories.
Naruto was trying his best to assist the Mizukage (Mei Terumi) to take better measures in managing all the crime that had festered under the reign of her predecessors. But she was always focused on trying to keep the blood-thirsty clans of Kirigakure from exploding into full-out civil war, especially now, after she had abolished the class hierarchy, inspired by Naruto’s own reformed policies with the Hyuuga. And of the hidden villages, Kirigakure was the farthest from Konoha. It needed more hands-on assistance.
So Naruto assured her she could count on Sasuke to help from the shadows.
He watched the sun fall beneath the mountains, welcoming the darkness that engulfed him.
Tomorrow, then.
--
Sasuke awoke in the night with a start.
He tried to get his breathing under control. He looked around himself to remember where he was. Absorb his surroundings.
Kirigakure. The mountains. The trees. And Suigetsu asleep a few feet away from him.
They didn’t need anyone to stand lookout, since he would sense anyone coming easily. But he scanned the trees, the blackness, the mist, to make sure they were secure, and sure enough, all was still.
Yet he found his nerves on edge.
“Tch…”
Nightmares again…they always seemed to come back when he thought they were gone.
But he supposed they never really would be. Though they weren’t as…awful as they used to be.
Still it was a weakness he hated.
“It’s okay, you know. That you have nightmares. I still get them too sometimes.”
Silence. Then,
“What…do you do to…”
“Feel better? Hmm…I guess I think about the things that make me happiest! It doesn’t always work but…it helps. When you wake up and feel alone.”
He looked into a stray puddle and saw his reflection staring back at him. It hurt to see it. Raven hair… eyes (or in his case, an eye) as black as the dark side of the moon…features that were the Uchiha’s trademarks. That he shared with his brother, his mother, his cousins, aunts, uncles…
His family.
Whenever Sasuke had these nightmares, of the blood that soaked Itachi’s hands, of his mother’s warm smile ripped away from him, of his father’s fiery eyes rendered lifeless, and he risked falling into that despair again…
There was only one thing.
One thing that chased away the feeling of being alone. Of being in despair.
After taking a few more minutes to breathe, to feel the wind caress his face, he took out some of those old letters he had been reading earlier.
I hope you remember that if you ever find yourself in a bind just think, ‘What would the great Naruto Uzumaki do?’!
He could practically hear him say it.
Sasuke shook his head, actually managing a huff of amusement. Naruto’s handwriting was as messy as one could imagine. Not only because he himself was messy, but also because it was as if, even in writing, he was eager and impatient to say everything that came to his scatter-brain of a mind. And there were always scratch marks over sentences that he would decide to take out, because he would be trying to stay on track, but to no avail (he read those too). And there were sometimes food stains on the corners or over the words, probably because Naruto would sometimes try eating ramen and writing at the same time.
Even his notes radiated his personality.
It was almost like he was here with him.
Sasuke found himself smiling again.
That smile didn’t go away when he took out the group photo Naruto had sent him of the kids, Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto himself.
Of course, Sasuke was only focusing on one person.
Those shining blue eyes, as open as the infinite sky, free and full of promise. A twinge of a fox-like mischief. That messy, sunflower blonde hair.
That grin that put the sun to shame.
That warmth he felt in his chest, reminiscent of the warmth he had felt with his family as a child.
That joy.
His one and only.
Always.
--
Suigetsu released the signal.
He had gotten the kids out quietly, and wrecked their hydroelectric system as a bonus. They would be confused and at their most vulnerable in the darkness.
The time to act was now.
He activated his Sharingan, eyes glowing red.
And set off.
It had become a habit to think about all that has lead him to this point, especially when he was about to take another major step towards a changed future.
Something that stuck out to him was the surprisingly insightful question of one of the many people he had bested over the years.
“There was a time when you were ready to destroy this world, Sasuke Uchiha, so what made you save it? What changed your mind?”
‘Wouldn’t you like to know’ was the first response that came to mind. But then he thought better of it. He was working on becoming more diplomatic.
Let them know. Let it be the last thing they hear.
“Because I realized I had something that made this cursed world worth saving.”
But Sasuke put those blue eyes, that grin, out of his mind. For the moment.
It was time for ruthlessness.
And so he set fire to the underworld.