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It is a misconception that hatred is a dark feeling. At least to Sasuke, who rarely now thinks about how he is perceived anymore, the thought of darkness would be comforting.
Instead, the wrath he cradles under his bones is as searing white as the sun.
Living with it became easier once he stopped trying to control it. He barely remembers now being that child who cared about being seen as non-cooperative. The anger was such a struggle to contain. Now that he lets it govern him, it seems almost a harmony – a burning, suffocating unity of mind and body.
They are on the road when the news of the destruction of the Leaf village reaches them. Karin and Jugo look to Sasuke for his reaction when some small fry spits it in Sasuke's face like he has any trace of feelings left towards it; as if it would force him to misstep. His feelings don't waver.
They continue their way over, even if they are painfully slow, as the damage left by Hachibi hasn't properly healed. Sasuke detests the need to lick his wounds like a weak thing. He won, and he is still so weak.
The sun is as white-hot on their skin as the never-ending rage inside him when they cross a small island in Water. Suigetsu whines the whole way, but it is only a buzz to Sasuke.
The buzz turns more annoying when Suigetsu starts repeating his name louder and louder as if Sasuke is stupid enough not to notice an ambush waiting for them. Sasuke was planning to kill whatever fool tried to jump them without slowing his pace, but now that both Suigetsu and Karin are making so much noise and slowing each other, they are forced to go a less efficient way.
"Why the fuck are we going there?!" Suigetsu yells towards Karin, who, until this point, has been navigating them along the less populated roads to avoid unnecessary fighting. "What happened to that nose of yours?!"
Karin growls instead of responding and tries to hit him, halting them both.
"Shut the fuck up! You could've taken him out in a swing if you bothered to lift a finger!"
"Oh yeah, why don't I do that," Suigetsu spat. "Oh wait, maybe because I'm injured? And the only healer we have is too fussy to do their damn job and heal me?!"
Karin's eyes turn venomous with distaste.
"You will die before you bite me."
"I will chew my own leg off before I touch you, that's right! But if you are too good to be useful there, I thought you could at least do a decent job leading us!"
"Guys," Jugo stops as well, waiting just a couple of moments before inserting himself between them.
"Even I can sense that idiot in the trees! Do you know how badly you have to fuck up for me to notice?"
"Which means he is nothing and isn't worth having this conversation over!" Karin yells, and she is objectively right. They are just all on edge because of exhaustion.
Sasuke stops on a branch above them and sees the figure in the trees freeze at the signs of a fight, as if unsure how to proceed.
He knows we sensed him, Sasuke thinks. Maybe he will be smart and stay there. Even if Suigetsu is being a complete moron yelling about his injury at the top of his lungs and uncovering one of them is not a combative type, they still outnumber the guy.
"No, it is the point of pride now!" Suigetsu yells. He points exactly where the unknown ninja concealed himself in the trees ahead of them. "If not leading us around, you are supposed to at least tell us in advance about these! It is your part of the job."
"Didn't know your job was to be a little bitch," Karin sneers, and Suigetsu has to be physically restrained by Jugo before he fully throws himself at her.
"You-"
"I know what my job is and expect you guys to be competent enough to notice shit like this so I can save my energy until it is required for something serious. The other path has a village on it! Do you want to get recognized and hunted down?!"
Sasuke closes his eyes in annoyance. Karin.
What a way to tell the enemy they are on the run and won't ask for help.
The next moment, there is a strike at the ground right below the spot where the three of them stand. Sasuke was capable of stopping it, but he couldn't be bothered. He watches as Jugo takes the brunt of the club and assumes a defence stance to let Karin and Suigetsu step aside.
There is another one, further down to the east. Sasuke hones in on that presence, debating whether he should leave that one to the three or take him out himself and get it over with quickly before they have to deal with the two of them together.
He is distracted from that plan by a loud voice.
"Behold and surrender! For there is no one who could defeat me, the hero and saviour of Konoha, the one and only Naruto Uzumaki!"
Sasuke stops in his tracks and turns to look at the guy. Jugo also stops and looks at him but for a reason of his own. Jugo is not in a violent mood today, so he doesn't act while his opponent doesn't. And his opponent stands brandishing his clumsy weapon without any poise for another blow in his form.
Karin and Suigetsu hesitate as well, most likely frozen at hearing a familiar name. For them, the name Konoha is a trigger – it is not to Sasuke.
Sasuke zeroes in on the guy's face, something he didn't bother to look at a minute ago.
"What did you say was your name?" He calls from above, and the guy honest to god jumps. He hadn't noticed Sasuke.
"Me?" he asks, and the sheer stupidity of this interaction already brings back memories.
"Yes, who else," Sasuke says with no emotion. "You said your name was."
"Naruto Uzumaki!" The guy thumps himself in his chest, the mask of bravado coming back across the sunburned face, the club withdrawn to his shoulder. Sasuke looks at the bandana with a heavy-handed imitation of the village's symbol and the eyes in the wrong shade of blue.
Sasuke is wrath itself. He doesn't care about constraining his emotions anymore as he only has his rage, and he has become it completely. This reluctance and loss of experience with emotional regulation may be why the amusement that could have barely tugged at him in the past now shoots through him like a perforating wound, taking over his body for a second. That second is enough for this force to punch a laugh out of Sasuke, loud and clear, unlike anything he has heard from himself in years.
The pure nonsense of it all renders him incapable of speaking for a moment.
The guy falters at his reaction but composes himself quickly, a self-confident smile back on. "Heard of me?" he gloats.
"Can't say I haven't," Sasuke answers easily, so intrigued by that specimen that he forgets about his team there.
"What's going on?" Karin asks, looking between them. "Do you know him, Sa-"
"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asks without care about Karin's understanding. It is the first time in a while he wants to play before he kills someone. The way everything always somehow ends up with Naruto is the curse Sasuke feels like a venomous bite spreading down his skin. A rash he forgets about but which flares up every time, and he wants to tear Naruto away like a limb, drain all the blood out of him until no one ever mentions his name out of fear and shame.
But this is somehow different. It made Sasuke laugh.
"Well, as you know, I've defeated Pain," the guy says, pointing at himself with his thumb. Sasuke crosses his arms and inclines his head, unable to suppress a smile.
"Have you now?"
"Pain is dead because I killed him," the guy continues in that booming tone which betrays an act. It is a phrase he memorized and parrots out to intimidate. "And now I travel the world, and you will give me everything you have if you don't want to end up-"
"Like Pain?" Sasuke offers. By this point, he knows Pain did not die violently but betrayed Akatsuki. If he were to believe Zetsu, this betrayal was a sore spot for Madara, who never managed to figure out what could lead to Pain changing his side at the last minute. Sasuke understood that Pain had to be an idealistic fool if he fell to someone like Naruto.
People driven by ideas crumble under their righteousness. Sasuke is different, and therefore, he sees how pitiful it looks.
"Exactly!" the guy nods and swings his club once as if to threaten. "If you've heard of me, you won't be unwise enough to risk seeing my wrath!"
"You and your legendary wrath, yes," Sasuke nods, the amusement bubbling in him like frothing spring water.
Distantly, he registers the second presence moving closer but can't force himself to care. He looks at the bulky man and can't help but wonder if this is how Naruto is described now that his name has spread beyond the village. There is a story recognizable around the rough edges of bad acting. Is this how they portray him? Merciless killer, Konoha's ruthless guard dog.
Would he be flattered or hate it if he found out? Sasuke can't quite imagine his reaction anymore, even with his perfect visual memory. Both are probable, and Sasuke doesn't know this 'hero' anymore.
Speaking of which...
"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asks, relaxing his posture and letting most of his weight settle on one leg. "Isn't Konoha quite a way from here?"
He is behaving unusually talkative, and he knows it, but this guy doesn't know better. To him, this interest is a sign of his upper hand, evidence of his act being convincing enough. The guy feigns an annoyed huff.
"I told you, I am travelling the world now-"
"But why? Aren't you your village's hero, as you put it?" Sasuke presses and sees the moment the impostor falters, looking for an explanation he did not think through beforehand. "What would make you abandon your village and go robbing travellers in the middle of nowhere?"
His eyes start flitting around, looking for something to say, and Sasuke can't wait to hear what he comes up with.
At this moment, Karin opens her mouth, "Why are you even talking to him? This guy stinks of lies, and you don't even need my abilities to see it – look how sweaty he is getting! Why are you going along with it, Sasuke? You can't possibly be belie-"
"Shut up, Karin," Sasuke throws, not even looking at her.
"Yes, shut up!" 'Naruto' shouts right after, caving in under pressure. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, deciding on something before lifting his chin and facing Sasuke again. "If you need to know, I am here for a friend. I am telling the truth!"
Sasuke lifts an eyebrow, intrigued even more.
The best way to lie is, famously, to say the truth, which is incomplete or only slightly adjusted. He wonders if this guy decided to keep only the stolen name and drop the history he doesn't have. Is he talking about himself now?
"A friend," Sasuke repeats, his tone impassive. It is still enough to bait the guy into explaining himself with annoying shouting and club-swaying. At least in mannerisms, this guy is nailing it almost perfectly.
"Yes, a friend! He is more important than anything else to me. That's why I will travel far away and leave my home if he wishes. I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"Of course you don't," Sasuke agrees. "Say, what's the friend's name?"
The second guy is now within Sasuke's striking range. Sasuke suspects he is the buddy they are talking about. If it's only two of them, it will be easy. But the more he talks with this guy, the less…
"None of your business!"
"Maybe not," Sasuke doesn't even feel annoyed at being yelled at. Something about this guy catches his attention in just the right way. "I was only curious to know the name of a person worth abandoning the village over. To desert a ninja village is not a decision made lightly."
"And I would make it a hundred times over for him!"
Truth be told, he prefers this guy to the real thing already. Somewhere in the back of his mind, this ridiculous conversation convinced Sasuke to spare his life today.
"What is a damn village! They never wanted me, made fun of me, shunned me!"
"But now they love you, calling you a hero," Sasuke offers. "Is it not what you always wanted? To be recognized, to be accepted."
"Their acknowledgment does not undo their actions. My suffering is not erased by me finally becoming useful." He speaks with his full chest, a raw emotion that comes from somewhere deep and so vulnerable.
To Sasuke, the moron is hilarious.
He can't help one more laugh slipping from his lips. He closes his eyes.
"How touching," he smiles, unable to relate to some sham of a robber barking about justice under a false name.
"You dare mock me!"
"A little bit," Sasuke admits, changing his stance, his hand landing on Kusanagi's hilt under his cloak. "Throwing away principles to go after someone else is a sign of a weak mind. You look pathetic."
The guy clenches his teeth and takes a stance, riled up enough to attack.
"Loyalty to someone who showed kindness when they didn't have to is…"
"Where did your loyalty bring you? Look at yourself."
The guy rushes towards him with a yell, and Sasuke smiles, daring him. He wasn't planning to kill him, but if he so wishes-
"Stop!"
A kunai snaps out of the foliage, crossing the small clearing between them, barely avoiding clipping the impostor's nose before getting stuck in a nearby tree. The robber stumbles back and falls on his ass while Sasuke remains unmoving in his spot above.
A figure emerges from the bushes and places itself between them, facing Sasuke.
The smart one, Sasuke recognizes.
Suigetsu huffs and grabs his sword, but Jugo stops him. They stand there for the moment required for the smart one to come up with something to say.
He clears his throat before starting. What an embarrassment.
"I wouldn't recommend engaging with this one!" he proclaims, pointing a finger at the big guy. "This is the infamous Naruto Uzumaki who has been terrorizing the settlements around, bringing ruin to the island! I come from the nearby village and am here to detain him! I am grateful to you travellers for delaying him for me, but you better go ahead and leave this to me!"
Sasuke huffs. What a silly lie.
But the buddy is a clever thing – he doesn't take his eyes off Sasuke, sensing correctly that their fate depends only on his decision.
Standing like that, directly covering another one. A friend indeed.
Sasuke sighs and takes his hand away from the hilt of his weapon.
"Sure. If you say so," Sasuke says, not taking his gaze away, noticing the sweat above the smart one's upper lip and how his knees tremble when he hears Sasuke's voice addressed to him.
"Rest assured, I will bring him to justice! He will not escape us and will pay for his crimes!"
"Don't be too harsh on him," Sasuke hums, turning away to continue their path. Before he does, though, he inclines his head to the side to capture the eyes of the impostor and say, "You entertained me today. You live because of that, not because of your naive preaching or your friend. Those will become your end very soon."
"You know this guy, Sasuke?" Suigetsu finally snaps, preparing to follow his lead and landing on a branch below him. The impostor's off-blueish eyes frown at Sasuke in something close to caution, and Sasuke can't help but recall a face he wants to forget just because of how different it is.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Sasuke muses, still holding his gaze and contemplating showing them both for only a moment, just a flicker of a genjutsu to let them know how badly they miscalculated with a victim. But then he decides against it. The name sounds foreign on his tongue. Brings no pleasure to say, to give meaning to. He is tired. "Is someone I promised to kill when the time comes."
He sees the moment it registers with them both, and their faces stop being amusing to him, blending in with all others in his memory, stained by fear.
He turns away and lets the sun wash his face with its light.
"But not today."
The heat feels warmer than it used to, noticeable now that something inside him calmed from a wildfire to simmering coal. He rushes forward, not waiting for anyone to follow him.
Weeks later, when a group of foreign ninja with familiar symbols on the bandanas laugh in his face, Banna will feel a sense of deja vu and be thankful their eyes are much warmer and their voices are louder. He still laments being recognized again after they tie him up, grumbling something about how such a remote location still proves to be not ideal now that this happened more than once.
The young guy who just gave him a beating stops in his tracks and turns with a frown, the only one now quiet among the continuous laughter of his comrades. He steps closer, his kind blue eyes sharp and curious at once and asks, "You met someone who knew me? Here?"