Work Text:
His wandering brought him back to the Land of Fire, somewhere east of the Hidden Leaf. A generally unimportant area without any historical military significance. He knew he could have just checked his map, but there was no point.
Now and then, he would activate his sharingan to check around for anything unusual, seeking out something out of place, though this has proven boring over the last couple of hours since he stopped by a village for food. The only things to see are the animals that continue their own little lives in the forests and the little wisps of strange colors of chakra all around him in the wild. Naruto says that those are the natural chakra of the earth, the nature energy present all around. He concludes that it may be the rinnegan which gives him this strange sensitivity to nature energy. It is something different than what he experiences with his sharingan. It has been strange to get used to it since he attained the Rinnegan, seeing it permeate everything, especially in the forests with all of the animals around.
It does look similar to when that unpredictable idiot uses his sage jutsu.
Ah, alone with his thoughts, that is nothing new to him. Those thoughts are all that have accompanied him even before he went away, alone in the service of the nation. At least he’s gotten past the guilt of all his past actions, and has solidified his resolution to right the wrongs.
There was a coastal village, somewhere only named in shipping infrastructure maps and in shinobis’ lists of places to acquire passage to lands distant by water. A typical civilian area with most of the residential zones barren as everyone goes into the main town area to work.
Sasuke walked near the beach, working through the sand toward the harborside full of the sounds of physical laborers loading and loading more and more onto the assorted boats. The ground eventually became stones, a relief after filling his sandals with sand. Activating his sharingan, he could see the physical effort to carry certain crates. It appeared that a number of the laborers had suspiciously higher chakra circulations for a civilian. They were definitely trained in some form of ninjutsu. Those laborers were certainly shinobi, he thought to himself. But were they enemy shinobi? That was something else to consider. Since it was the Land of Fire, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn there was a significant shinobi presence here, especially at a shipping village on the coast facing the Land of Water.
It wasn’t too hard to locate a Hyuga clan member. She met his activated sharingan with a pair of activated byakugan, something he imagined did not happen very often. A Jonin from the Hidden Leaf of course, as denoted by her headband, jonin vest, and especially her pair of activated byakugan. She made a face at the sight of Sasuke.
No, at the sight of his sharingan and most definitely his rinnegan, the latter eye seen through the hair that draped over his face by the byakugan's visual prowess. He was used to that look, the one that always appeared in people’s faces when they beheld him, though nowadays it only brought sadness instead of disdain for people. It didn’t help that the retelling of events leading up to and during the Fourth Great Ninja War painted the rinnegan as a power of mass destruction. It didn’t help that he had fought Naruto, the hero of the world, using that same power.
The presence of a Hyuga’s penetrating gaze calmed the thought of enemy shinobi in the docks. The Leaf shinobi walked from her position on the dock, some tens of feet away from Sasuke. His right eye returned to its standard black hue, he relaxed a bit.
It wouldn’t be right for him to continue to strike any more fear into his fellow Leaf shinobis.
He inquired about shinobi activity in this shipping village, learning that of course there was a strong Leaf presence, it was a port that does most of its business toward the Land of Water. The peace among the five great nations has made it possible for both the Lands of Fire and Water to help each other manage illegal trade across their shared economic corridor through an increased presence of shinobi on both sides and the good cooperation between leaders.
Sasuke took this all in. He wasn’t even going to consider if it was worth his time to jump into cracking down illegal trade. It was not something he would need to do, the Hyuga clanswoman seemed very confident in the already enacted efforts. Not all issues needed the ninja skill and visual prowess of Sasuke, he reminded himself. His addition to the cause would speak to some sort of weakness in the current program.
He wondered how this shinobi had felt comfortable enough to speak to himself without falter. Usually people he met were very nervous to be around him, seeking out some kind of reassurance that he truly was the reformed former-terrorist that he is. Perhaps it was that she had already seen his eyes, perhaps the appearance of the rinnegan through the vision of the byakugan was unique, something no lab could ever recreate and no jutsu ever disguised into.
She had been watching him with her activated byakugan during the entire conversation, perhaps she was already confident that this was truly Sasuke, a man who no longer sought vengeance. It is more likely that she has been using the omni directionality of the Byakugan to continue monitoring her fellow Leaf shinobis behind her. It wasn’t worth the time to inquire anymore to her. He was clearly not needed here.
He thanked the shinobi and departed to walk elsewhere around town.
There was nothing overly remarkable about the village aside from the harbor. He purchased some onigiri at a vendor. Those triangular rice balls wrapped in dried seaweed were something easy to carry around in his bag which did not need the support of a second hand. It still bothered him that he had to relearn so many activities with just his right hand, but he accepted it as part of paying back his service to the Hidden Leaf. The onigiri were also filled with some meat so it was a full meal if you had enough of them.
He found a seat outside of a ramen shop to eat, ironic that this was the only thing thus far that particularly reminded him of home. Though, it's hard to think about the Leaf village being his home when he is practically never there. He really could go back, there was no one forcing him to be away. No, that wouldn’t feel right, especially with all the looks from all the people.
It’s dealing with people which is the most difficult, having to speak to all sorts of people for whatever reason, watching them slowly realize who you are, recalling what you have done, and their expressions changing accordingly. It’s a frustration that Sasuke has carried for a while though, before he rejoined service toward the Hidden Leaf, it was more angering. Sasuke knows that he needs to regain the trust and respect of the people of the Leaf village, just as Naruto pushed through the negative perceptions of himself through his actions.
This wasn’t a productive line of thinking anymore. This happens all the time. He’s learned to not let it spoil his minor indulgence in food.
With nothing specific in mind for what to do at the moment, no particular mission orders from Lord Hokage, it seems only appropriate to take time to rest, somewhere more secure than the forests that have been his lodging along his journey. It was late afternoon, approaching the golden hour where he was sure the oceanside looked somewhat more appealing.
He found a small inn not too far from the water, far more south than the main dock area. The innkeeper requested his name and signature for his records, startled and surprised to see the Uchiha name. Just another person to convince of the reputation of the Uchiha, Sasuke thought.
It will be a tough thing to do.
He had gone inside the small room upon receiving the key, planning to work on his chakra control, something Sakura had kept encouraging him to do so she could show him how to do some medical ninjutsu. He much preferred to evade injury through speed rather than healing afterward, but he’ll grant her this one small wish.
He threw his bag down on the low bed, removed his sheathed sword from his waist and held it. Performing the hand sign seal of confrontation, he brought lightning style chakra into his hand. The lightning style chakra enshrouded the entire sheathed sword.
The presence of the chakra began to draw the sword out of the sheath, something quite strange to see, a different application of the use of chakra. With a larger burst of chakra released, the sword jumped out of the sheath.
He quickly shifted the sheath between his body and what remained of his left arm, grabbing the sword as it fell right into his hand.
These are the things Sasuke has had to figure out now that he was without one whole arm.
With the sword in hand, Sasuke did a few hand signs, upgrading the lightning style chakra he was using into the more focused Lightning Style: Chidori . Manipulating the shape of his chidori through his sword, he could refine the way the chakra flows through and around the blade.
He could extend the lightning beyond the physical shape of the blade, something he has already mastered in the past. If he could somehow make his use of the technique more efficient so he would not have to deal with chakra depletion so much. Perhaps Sakura was right about having to practice chakra control more often. Perhaps the chidori doesn’t need to be channeled into the whole blade. It could remain as effective if it was just in the sharp portion of the blade.
This is where he feels most comfortable: working on himself without concern from anyone else. At least in these past few years, he can appreciate that Sakura and Naruto have been earnestly trying to help him.
They are not just a bother to him.
The few moments inside with this practice with chakra control eventually brought his attention to the beach outside. Sasuke felt he should be doing more if he was going to practice, and the confinement in this inn room would not help him practice any of the actually important large maneuvers he would have to make in a real combat situation. Though the sun had already fallen below the horizon, there was still enough light to go down to the beach and run around. Plus, he could activate his sharingan to supplement the low light perception. He made his way outside, leaving his shoes and cloak inside the room.
He wasn’t actively concealing his identity here anyway, all of the shinobi here probably knew he was here by word-of-mouth.
The late sea breeze brought memories of the cooler weather months. Sasuke wondered if this would be the kind of place for a person to remember fond childhood memories of a beach. He wouldn’t know, his whole childhood was shrouded in loneliness and angst. He doesn’t want that fate for anyone else. He began drawing his sword to train before his thoughts went as far as considering how he would treat his own children if he were to revive the Uchiha clan.
He used earth style to raise some sand pillars out of the beach sand, one of the first jutsus he had copied from Lord Hokage using his sharingan in the early days. There was much that he wanted to work on, the stories from the Fourth Great Ninja War mentioned the old Uchiha’s, Madara’s, powerful fire style technique that threatened the lives of the entire division with one full blast, something requiring so many shinobi to counter attack with water style.
Sasuke has been working on his normal fire style, something less straining on his eyes than his application of Amaterasu flames. His Fire Style: Fierce Dragon Flame jutsu was already something impressive. Perhaps that one could be made larger. That might be too much for activity out here at the beach though, so maybe something small is called for.
Sasuke did the hand signs for his Fire Style: Fireball jutsu, though instead of shooting out any at the pillars, he breathed the fire style chakra onto his sword, shrouding the blade in an aura of fire that well followed the contour of its straight blade. Swinging it around, some wisps of fire flew off the end. It reminded him of the destructive power of a Susanoo’s sword where the energy of a slash had flown off and struck down a mountain as Madara had done during the war.
He activated his sharingan to view the flow of fire chakra better in the sword. He thought he should learn to control it as well as he had done with his lightning style chakra. Deactivating his sharingan, He charged at one of the pillars, his burning blade crashing through the sand which left a hardened layer of sand.
It was expected.
He used the body flicker technique. With his swiftness of borderline teleportation, he began stabbing them at chest height as the fire style chakra melted holes in the sand before they solidified into glass.
He went away from the sand pillars, charging the fire style chakra into the sword again, he made a horizontal slash with it. Activating his rinnegan eye, he used his Inferno Style: Flame Control to manipulate the fire style chakra into a ranged attack: a crescent of flame spreading flying out of his sword.
The top halves of the sand pillars were blasted back, creating a cloud of sand and dust. Sasuke found this promising.
If you had been looking at him now, you would have been the first to see him smile in a while.
It was only then that he had activated his mangekyo sharingan that he noticed the group of Leaf shinobi who had been watching him from the road. Their Leaf Village headbands glistened by his distant flames. The assorted chunin with few jonin among them had likely been watching him for a while, he hadn’t really cared.
He stared at them for a moment, they could definitely see the full extent of his visual prowess: his right mangekyo sharingan and his left rinnegan revealed by the wind moving his hair.
One last show of force, Sasuke has decided, one more show of his strength to show what he is capable of doing as a reminder of the strength that he has dedicated to the Hidden Leaf.
He charged his sword with fire style chakra again, eyeing the remaining stumps of the sand pillars. Getting a farther distance from the pillars than before, he fired an black Amaterasu fireball at the remaining stumps, quickly swapping places with the black fireball before it had hit the pillars.
He slashed at the ground, disrupting all of the sand near him, toppling the remaining stumps. The black flames were where he had stood, far away from anyone to get hurt from them. He had switched places with the Amaterasu fireball using his Amenotejikara , that powerful rinnegan space-time ninjutsu. He sped backwards, body flickering to the site of the black flames, dispelling them with his Flame Control .
He looked back to the Leaf shinobi, some of them had begun to walk down to him. The last wisps of sunshine had been smothered out of the sky by now, they carried lamps as they walked closer to the shore.
Sasuke saw that some of them were carrying supplies. No, it was food they brought with them, a late night outing to the beach perhaps then. The beach is surely their place of recreation. Sasuke recognised the Hyuga clanswoman from earlier walking with the group.
They invited Sasuke to join them on the beach. He halted in surprise. The shinobi garrison for the shipping port was large enough to essentially have two working shifts; these shinobi were off for the day now. He saw one of the shinobi carrying a crate of beer bottles, reassuring him that this was their downtime.
Sasuke was hesitant to join, he didn’t like that these total strangers seemed so comfortable to hang out with him. But they urged him to join them, reasoning that since he has done a lot for the village, he deserves a break. One of them held out a beer for him. The Hyuga jonin from earlier assured him that he is a Leaf shinobi like them.
Sasuke didn’t need his sharingan to know that some of the others were somewhat uncomfortable with him, he can read it plainly in their expressions and the way they stood further away from him than the Hyuga jonin was. But it seemed that she did not share the same discomfort as the others.
Sasuke concluded that the open invitation toward himself must be all from her efforts, she’s trying to be nice to him. Sounds like Naruto honestly, unconditional niceness and respect. That assessment of a person would have made a person someone for Sasuke to avoid, but he’s learned otherwise now. Sure, he’ll join them for this one night. If there is nothing for him here, then he should be on his way tomorrow.
They made camp closer to the water than where Sasuke practiced. They sat on the sand, around a small campfire that the sea breeze kept threatening to extinguish, drinking their beer and recounting tales of the day.
Sasuke was silent throughout most of the talking, though the group eventually began to recount activities from the Fourth Great Ninja War. Some of them had only recently become ninja and were very curious about the experiences of the war.
Sasuke feared they would ask him about the war, how his experience was wildly different from many of the others. He wasn’t concerned about the alcohol, his body deals with that in the same manner it handles poisons, one of the remnants from his time under the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru.
Sasuke felt obligated to remain attentive to the discussion at hand, discussing the abilities of the various enemies of the Allied Shinobi Forces. He was quick to interject that it was true that Madara had become one of the most powerful people in the world upon becoming the Ten-tails Jinchuriki.
The group was amazed at Sasuke’s background with the Fourth Great Ninja War, some of the junior members of the group wanted to ask for specifics but the older shinobi were quick to stop them and not bother Sasuke for all of the details. It was clear these junior shinobi were among those that were made to remain back at home during the Great War and defend at home, they didn’t get to witness anything firsthand. Despite that, he knew they were much better off at home than witnessing the loss of life during the war.
Seeing the fire struggle to keep aflame, Sasuke activates his mangekyo sharingan and lit the wood with a small amount of black flames, an endless campfire. He appreciated their respect for his situation, but he wanted to make one point clear. Sasuke let them all know that it was teamwork that won the war.
He thought fondly of Naruto and Sakura at that moment. It was a truth he had been more hesitant to think about, especially during the final battle against Naruto. The efforts of many different people were all necessary to end the war.
If you try to take on all of the power by yourself, you will fail. That is the mistake Madara made. Sasuke emphasized this last point to the group.
They were quiet, whether they were scared to ask anymore questions or they were in genuine thought, Sasuke didn’t know, but he appreciated the silence regardless.
Sasuke wouldn’t be here had it not been for the camaraderie and respect that these shinobi shared with Naruto. It seems that message of friendship and peace had radiated everywhere since the war.
Some of the shinobi decided a swim was due, leaving the fire and going straight to the water. The older shinobi sat back and continued to discuss matters related to business in the shipping village. Details about how many illegal shipments were intercepted, information on local notorious criminals, they all flew over Sasuke’s head.
Sasuke could see the positivity that the shinobi were giving him. Sitting at the beach, under a half lit moon, beer in hand. Something different for a change.