Chapter Text
There are very few things Sasuke would say he likes. Rain is not one of them. Neither is an under qualified sidekick. And yet here he is, in Amegakure, cooperating with the head of Anbu.
“He’s here.” Sai says. As if Sasuke’s eyes have stopped working. “Try to look less murderous,” he pauses, then amends, “actually, look more murderous.”
Sasuke, not one to be ordered around, schools his face somewhere in between.
Sai’s contact, every bit as unnotable as Sai himself, hurries over to the corner of the sidewalk they’ve inhabited for the past ten minutes. He looks around skittishly, hesitant to even meet Sai’s eyes, much less Sasuke’s.
“Nothing’s changed since last time, boss.” he says, fixated on the lamppost next to them. “And I’ve kept an eye out, honest.”
“This isn’t about that.” Sai says. “I need to know if you’ve heard anything about an organization called Kara.”
“Kara?” the man is startled enough to whip his head around and look at Sai, pupils wide. “I’m not poking around with anything to do with them!”
“I’m not asking you to. I just need to know what you know.” Sai says. “Any activity in Ame?”
“No, no.” the man shakes his head frantically. “I’m not saying anything, got that? Do you know what’ll happen if they get wind that I tipped ‘em off to Konoha?”
Sasuke catches the corner of Sai’s steely expression as he leans forward to level the cowardly man with an unimpressed look.
“Do you know what will happen,” he says softly, “if you don’t give me what I want?”
The man, previously so intimidated at the thought of Kara, freezes with an entirely different type of fear. Sasuke looks Sai over again; still pale, unassuming, and unbearably mild. At least from his angle.
“I-”
“Yes?” Sai leans back, and offers the man a closed-eyed smile. “Speak your mind.”
The man swallows. “There are rumors,” he finally says, “just rumors, mind you-could be from anyone-about the old factory district.”
“Is that all?” Sai says, and looks over at Sasuke. “That’s hardly information, is it?”
Sasuke, assuming he wants some sort of response, doesn’t give him one.
“The tallest building-used to be a sewage treatment facility-but it’s supposed to be one of their meeting points.” the man rushes to say. “Or was. Once.” Sai looks at him, and he holds up his hands, shaking slightly. “That’s all I’ve got!”
“Alright.” Sai says, and, with another smile “Thank you for your help.” He tosses the man a small sack of ryo which he catches urgently and doesn’t even look at before bowing (?) and rushing off.
“Well,” Sai says, turning to Sasuke. “It’s better than nothing.”
“Not by much.” Sasuke mutters. A meeting point is next to nothing. An organization can meet anywhere. Hell, right here, under a flickering lamp post and sandwiched in by sketchy apartment complexes, could be a meeting point for Kara, assuming they dressed unobtrusively enough, and had a very slim roster. He expresses as much to Sai, shortly and monotonely, as they start walking.
“They’d probably want some level of privacy, though.” Sai points out. “Maybe the property is linked to a member somehow.”
“Or maybe they accidentally left behind an address book.” Sasuke says sharply. “Nothing’s that easy.”
“I’ll defer to your knowledge, Sasuke-kun.” Sai says, entirely too good naturedly. “You’re the one with experience in a terrorist organization, after all.”
Sasuke’s mouth flattens. “Doesn’t Root count as a terrorist organization?”
“More or less.” Sai smiles. “I suppose it was smart of Naruto-kun to put us both on this mission.”
Smart, or sadistic, Sasuke wonders. Maybe it’s the blissful years of solo work, but Sai’s presence is extraordinarily grating. Naruto spent a few missions with the guy, surely he knows this. But, then again, maybe he doesn’t. He’s not exactly the best judge of character.
The factory district is a thirty minute walk from their current location. There’s no sense in running there, and Sai’s birds (his most redeeming quality) don’t function well in the rain. Luckily, Sai runs out of things to talk about after a minute of Sasuke’s most noncommittal responses.
‘The tallest building’ is an understatement. To Ame locals, it might make sense, but it’s barely a couple feet higher than its surroundings, which makes it very difficult to pick out from a distance.
The walk through the factory district, detached from the paved sidewalks and slick metal walkways of the more maintained districts, is slippery and muddy. Sasuke begrudges every bit of chakra he expends to keep his footing during the downhill stretches, but he almost slips once, resulting in Sai reaching for his arm, the nonexistent one, and steadying his torso instead. Sasuke would use up half his chakra to never have that happen again.
“Well,” Sai says when they stop walking, staring up at the old sewage treatment facility. “That must have been an old rumor.”
Sasuke has to agree, because it’s probably been a good five years since the term habitable could even hesitantly be applied to this place. Half of it is completely caved in, and the other half looks like it’s literally teetering in the wind, despite being made of stone and iron.
“The leftmost entrance looks feasible.” Sai ventures.
“Feasible.” Sasuke repeats drily. It’s not the worst place he’s ever had to enter, though, so he starts walking across the mud before Sai even has the chance to smile blankly in response.
He hears Sai’s footsteps as the other shinobi starts to follow, then another set of footsteps, quieter, and more distant. He pauses. Sai must hear it too, because he stops as well.
It sounds like it’s coming from the other side of the building, and getting closer. Sasuke clocks a huge piece of sheet metal jabbed in the ground in front of him, and moves to duck behind it. Sai has the same idea, but faster somehow, and grabs Sasuke’s shoulder to push him forward and down. Sasuke’s heartbeat rushes faster at an alarming rate, and he swats Sai’s hand away.
A man emerges from around the corner-well, a kid, more like. He can’t be older than sixteen. His cloak is the simple, industrial kind most Ame citizens wear. Sasuke, keeping one eye on Sai to make sure he doesn’t try anything (though it doesn’t look like he intends to) watches as the kid kneels down in the mud and reaches for something.
There’s a faint click, and then a section of the ground next to him, relatively untouched by dirt, slides open into a gaping tunnel. The kid glances around furtively, then jumps in.
A few breaths after the tunnel closes, Sasuke and Sai pull away from their sheet metal. They’re disturbingly in sync. They wordlessly go over to where the kid was and Sasuke uses the Sharingan to scan the ground.
“It must lead under the facility.” Sai says. “He descended at the right angle.”
Sasuke noticed that too, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he just zeroes in on a little metal panel and bends down to click at it. After a few tries, the tunnel slides open for them.
Sai politely gestures at it. “Ladies first.”
Sasuke ignores him and jumps down. It’s not a long drop, but it’s hard to land quietly. It’s an echoey metal chamber. Sai somehow accomplishes it a little better than Sasuke, not that he’s paying attention to that. There’s no point in getting competitive. He’s not twelve anymore.
Even though the tunnel has been washed clean over time by the rain, the smell unmistakably establishes that yes, this used to be a sewage treatment facility. Sai wrinkles his nose as they start walking, Sasuke scanning ahead of them to see if the kid is close.
“Is that you, Sasuke-kun?” he says. Not funny.
Ahead of them, the dimly lit tunnel starts to get a little foggy. Sasuke squints, Sharingan whirling a little harder. It doesn’t clear, but it does take on a purplish tint.
“I wouldn’t take another step if I were you.” a voice says behind them. Sasuke stops walking and turns around. He hadn’t heard anyone coming, but a figure drops from the ceiling to the ground. It must be a network of tunnels, then.
The figure straightens up slowly, cloak blowing into an ominous silhouette. It’s the kid from earlier. He takes a step forward and Sai’s hand moves down to his kunai pouch. Sasuke doesn’t do anything.
“There’s poison gas up there.” the kid says. “You’re going to walk right into it.”
The tense atmosphere disintegrates. Sai relaxes his hand. “Thank you for the warning.” he smiles. “You’re familiar with the area, I assume?”
“I more or less live down here.” the kid says. “Are you from Konoha?”
Sasuke doesn’t think this kid should know that, but Sai nods. “Yes. We’re on a mission to investigate this area.” As if that’s not bad enough, he keeps going. “Have you heard of Kara?”
The kid’s eyes widen incrementally. “Are you after them?” Sai nods again. The kid looks at the gas behind them, then back at Sai. “The gas is going to move down here in a bit when the fans shut off. Follow me.”
He starts walking, and Sai takes a step forward. Sasuke grabs his arm to stop him.
“If this is supposed to be a Kara meeting place, he could have any relationship to them.” he points out. “Will he really be any help?”
“You investigate your way, I’ll investigate my way.” Sai says. “We don’t have enough information yet. There’s only one way to get it.”
“Let me guess; your way?” Sasuke says, unimpressed. Sai smiles and starts walking after the kid. Sasuke lets him get a ways away, then sighs and follows.
-
The kid is called Garashi. No last name. He takes Sai and Sasuke to his main hideout, an old underground control room which has been completely refurbished into a living quarters. Sasuke can’t help but notice that it seems intended to house more than one person.
Apparently, the place shut down due to a toxic explosion that killed half the workers. Ten years later, when the rest of the factory district started clearing out and deteriorating at the tail end of the war, Garashi moved in.
“My parents died in the war,” he explains. “A few of my friends’ parents too. Lady Angel offered reparations to a lot of families, but a few of us still managed to slip through the cracks. We ended up in the factory district, and then here.”
“So you’ve been here for,” Sasuke thinks back to the war, “Fifteen years?”
“Yes.” Garashi nods.
“How much of the facility are you familiar with? Sai asks.
“Only about half.” Garashi admits. “The fans are still on a timer, and they’re water powered, so they keep the gas rotating through, but most of the time it’s in the north. There’s only a small window of time to get there, and it’s always been too risky.”
Sai does his best to make eye contact with Sasuke to establish that they both know that the mysterious northern half of the facility is probably where Kara’s been meeting.
“It looks like it’s just you here.” Sai says bluntly. “You mentioned your friends. Where are they now?” Sasuke can’t say he would have been much more tactful than that, but he was expecting Sai to be. For some reason.
Garashi’s face darkens and he looks down at his hands to obscure it. “...they’re dead.”
“Anything to do with Kara?” Sai presses, like a total moron. Sasuke stares at him.
“...No.”
“Have you noticed anything strange in the northern half of the facility?” Sai transitions. “We’ve heard rumors that this is a meeting place for Kara.”
“Once.” Garashi says. “We took a chance and checked it out. There were a bunch of figures there. We couldn’t see their faces, but they were around this thing on the ground...like a coffin or a container.”
Sasuke actually does meet Sai’s eyes at that news. This is more than just a meeting point.
“Anything else?” Sai asks. Garashi shakes his head.
“Can you take us there?” Sasuke says. Garashi looks up at him, aghast.
“The poison-!”
“Not an issue.” Sasuke says. Sai looks at him questioningly. “I’ll blow it back with Susano’o.” he elaborates. “Obviously.”
“When the fans click on, it’ll all come right back at us.” Sai points out.
“We’ll go when they’ve just turned off.” Sasuke says. “We’ll have at least five, ten minutes to examine before it starts coming back. Then I’ll blow it back again. Easy.”
Sai leans back in his chair, which is a risky move, considering how shoddy the furniture is. Sasuke expects him to make a sarcastic comment, but he just smiles. “Excellent plan, Sasuke-kun.”
“Tch.” Sasuke says. Garashi looks between the two shinobi, hands trembling on the table top.
“I-I’ll show you there,” he says. “But after that, you’re on your own.”
“Alright.” Sasuke says. “Lead the way, then.”
-
“Sasuke-kun,” Sai says, stopping Sasuke as soon as he gets out the door. “Can I speak with you?”
“What is it.” Sasuke says. Garashi is already walking, and he’s getting further away. Sai waits until the kid is out of earshot to speak.
“About Garashi-”
“I know.” Sasuke says. The kid is clearly hiding something. He’s already swiped a gas mask from Garashi’s hideout and tucked it under his cloak, just in case. “We’re on the same page.”
“Right.” Sai smiles. “In that case, proceed.”
Like Sasuke needs his permission.
The tunnel system is complicated enough that he turns on his Sharingan to make sure he doesn’t forget how to get back to the surface. His years with Orochimaru have left him with an excellent sense of direction, but better safe than sorry.
Sai doesn’t even look mildly impressed when Sasuke activates one arm of his Susano’o. He amps it up to the torso, for extra power, but Sai still looks bored. Sasuke doesn’t care about admiration, anyway. He never has. He does add the armor, not that it matters, and Sai still doesn’t care, not that that matters.
Garashi’s jaw drops, but it’s not fulfilling.
“Hm.” Sai says after Sasuke pushes away the gas, stupid bangs shoved out of his face from the blowback. “I thought that would be more powerful.” Sasuke almost attacks him.
They walk further down the tunnel, sans Garashi, who almost sprints back behind them after the blinking lights up ahead become unobscured, and into a huge room, at least twice the size of the Hokage Building. The remnants of flashing filtration equipment and vats are scattered around, mostly knocked over, but not all in a certain direction, like they would be from an explosion. Most of it looks like it was purposely moved out of the way.
There’s a raised platform in the center of the room, but whatever it held is long gone now. There’s computers, tubes, and wires all trailing off of it, waiting to be hooked in.
“This is probably where Garashi’s coffin was.” Sai notes.
“Tch.” Sasuke says. As if that wasn’t obvious.
“It seems like they were running some sort of experiment.” Sai continues, ignoring Sasuke. “Probably not biological, given the location…”
“I’ve seen biological experiments in all sorts of unsavory locations.” Sasuke says.
“Now, Sasuke-kun,” Sai says in a scolding tone, “Naruto-kun’s apartment is unsavory, but it’s not fair to call him a biological experiment.”
Sasuke actually laughs. Or, exhales forcefully. Like a laugh. It wasn’t even that funny. It wasn’t even funny . Sai isn’t funny. He almost claps his hand over his mouth as soon as it happens, as close to mortified as he’s ever been. Sai looks pleased with himself, which is not something he has earned.
“Tch.” Sasuke says, trying to play it off. “Like you’ve been to Naruto’s apartment.”
“Jealous?” Sai teases. “I’m sure he likes you more, Sasuke-kun. Don’t get insecure now.”
“I don’t care if that idiot likes me.” Sasuke says.
“Oh, good.” Sai says. “In that case, I think he likes me more.”
“Tch.” Sasuke says. He is not going to laugh again. There’s no reason to. Sai smiles to himself, like he can read Sasuke’s thought process, which he doesn’t like. “Let’s just stop wasting time.”
“Whatever you say.” Sai goes over to tap at one of the computers, which is in the process of deciding whether it’s powered on or not.
Sasuke sees movement out of the corner of his eye and looks up at the wall. There’s nothing there, except an empty observation room separated from them by a sheet of glass. He looks closer- there , a piece of paper taped against the window, but the corners are fluttering like it’s just been disturbed. Sasuke narrows his eyes.
His attention is drawn away by a loud slam. The way in has been sealed shut by a set of blast doors. Sasuke looks to the other side of the room, where he blew the gas, and there’s another set of doors closing before he can move.
“Damn it.” he curses, taking a step back. There’s a hissing sound, and then purple gas starts billowing out of the vents in each corner. It moves through the room quickly. Sasuke reaches for the gas mask in his cloak, but it’s not there.
“You shouldn’t have been so arrogant.” Garashi’s voice rings through the room. He’s in the observation room, looking less smug than he sounds, and more wild. “The only thing worse than a shinobi is an arrogant shinobi.”
“Sasuke-” Sai says, but Sasuke is one step ahead of him. He activates Susanoo's torso and fires Indra’s Arrow at the wall. It dents, but doesn’t cave.
“Don’t bother trying to get out.” Garashi drawls. “This place is modified to withstand the force of twenty tailed beasts. Thanks to Kara, of course.”
“Let me guess. You’re working with them.” Sai says.
“They saved my life.” Garashi says fervently. “Besides, they have ideas. Big ideas. Ones that will destroy the whims of this damn world.”
Sasuke’s heard enough. He punches up with the Susano’o and breaks the glass of the observation room, grabs Garashi, and yanks him down.
“Even Kara overlooks things, don’t they?” Sasuke raises an eyebrow.
“So do you.” Garashi says, not bothering to thrash in the Susano’o's hold. “The observation room’s sealed off with the same stuff as the doors. Good luck getting out of here.” he laughs.
“Protecting Kara’s secret is more important than your own life, hm?” Sai says. Garashi laughs again. That’s enough of a response.
The gas is flowing out of the vents faster now. Sasuke’s eyes sting as it starts to reach him.
“We should-” Sai interrupts himself with a coughing fit. “We should seal ourselves in one of those vats while the air’s still clean here. Buy some time to think.”
“Right.” Sasuke uses the other Susanoo arm to yank one of the smaller vats from out of the rubble and drop it over them, extinguishing all but the arm holding Garashi as the vat falls. Sai crouches down and pulls out his ink, doing something around the base of the vat to make it relatively air-tight.
“I assume you have a plan from here.” Sasuke says. Sai nods as he stands up, a bit too close for comfort. But then, Sasuke’s personal space when it comes to Sai extends up to eight feet in any given direction.
“There should be-” he is overshadowed by a loud screech of metal on metal. Sasuke whirls around to see Garashi has gotten one arm loose from the Susano’o and driven a kunai through the side of the vat. Gas comes pouring in.
Sasuke uses his hand to cover his mouth, and Sai doubles over next to him.
“Hey, Sai, get it together-” Sasuke reaches for the Anbu Captain, but with a loud cough he splashes into ink. Sasuke blinks against his blurring vision. That’s good...or is it bad? It means that Sai is...his train of thought gets lost as he inhales more poison.
The Susano’o almost completely disintegrates as he falls to his knees, hacking into his hand. He scans the room through the kunai hole-there must be something his Rinnegan can do. He would use Amaterasu, but by the time it burns a hole, he’ll probably be dead. Maybe a summoning-
There’s another metallic tearing sound. Sasuke looks up through blurred eyes to see Sai standing in front of him, the sides of the vat peeled away on either side of him.
“Doing alright, Sasuke-kun?” Sai says. His eyes wrinkle into a faux smile above his gas mask. Sasuke tries to roll his eyes through the tears. Damn this guy. He sent a clone in.
Sai hands him a gas mask, which Sasuke recognizes as the one he had earlier. It must have been taken by Garashi, or fallen out at some point. Damn. He fumbles to pull it on, but the nose keeps slipping before he can switch to holding the strap.
The only reason he doesn’t slice Sai’s hand off of his arm when he reaches towards his face is because he is about to pass out. Sai holds the mask in place for him with no commentary, thankfully. Sasuke can’t really see his expression, though.
He inhales the fresh, filtered air like-well, like a drowning man. It’s similar enough to his situation to be functionless as a simile. Regardless, it’s the most euphoric he’s felt about breathing in a while, even though everything smells stale and mildly stomach-churning.
His vision starts to clear out more, and he looks up to see Sai still standing above him, holding out a hand silently. He’s still light-headed and unsteady, which is the only reason he reaches out and takes Sai’s hand.
The other shinobi helps him to his feet and lets go respectfully, only to transition to grabbing Sasuke’s arm and pulling it around his shoulders. Sasuke is pouring all of his energy into making sure the Susano’o is still intact enough to drag Garashi along behind them, so he lets it happen.
One of Sai’s ink birds is waiting patiently next to them, and, again, Sai helps him get on. It’s embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as falling would have been. The bird spreads its wings out, shaking them slightly. Sai does a half turn where he’s sitting in front of Sasuke, making sure that the other shinobi is holding on to his waist tightly. He is. They fly out through a hole in the roof that leads into another tunnel. Sasuke should have thought of that.
There’s a hairpin curve that leads them left, and then up out of the tunnel and into the outside world. Uncharacteristically, Sasuke is mildly relieved to see the rain. Sai’s bird immediately begins dripping, of course, so he lands them on the roof and they slide off of it. Sasuke drops Garashi unceremoniously, pulling off the gas mask to revel in the thick, smoky air.
Sai occupies himself shoving the lid of the tunnel over it to seal in whatever remnants of the gas might have followed them.
Sasuke looks at him. He might still be light-headed, or suddenly delirious. The euphoria of fresh air might be stronger than he thought. Or maybe it’s just because Sai’s annoying face is finally covered with a gas mask-but he’s suddenly feeling very, very strongly about the other shinobi.
Sai turns around and pulls off his mask, dripping with rain and smiling fakely. Sasuke stares at him very, very hard.
Then, luckily, Sai opens his mouth and destroys it all.
“I’ve never had such a pathetic teammate before-no offense, Sasuke-kun. Are you feeling alright?”
Sasuke rolls his eyes.
“Consider it a test.” he says. “I wanted to know if you’re really as competent as Naruto seems to think you are.”
“I hope I didn’t disappoint.” Sai says with a certain tone that leaves his gullibility up in the air. “Do you think he’s dead?” he gestures to Garashi, who certainly looks dead. Sasuke is unbelievably grateful for the conversation switch.
“He probably has a higher tolerance to that gas than us.” Sasuke says. “Most likely, he’ll wake up soon.”
“You thought of everything, didn’t you.” Sai teases. Sasuke internally flushes. With rage. Externally, he looks at Sai blankly, and a little evilly. It’s a look, he has learned from Suigetsu, that unintentionally encourages rather than dissuades lighthearted banter. Maybe he should have chosen a different one.
Sai walks over to Sasuke, and then right past him, to Garashi. He doesn’t make any moves towards Sasuke’s personal space. He held his breath for nothing.
Sai slings Garashi over his shoulder, and heads over to the edge of the roof.
“Let’s get out of the rain,” he says. “Recover your chakra, if you need to. When Garashi wakes up, we’ll interrogate him.”
Who the hell put him in charge. Sasuke grapples with insanity once more. Ultimately, though, he follows Sai off the roof.