Author: Vanilla Muse

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Chapter 8 – Plucking at the Heart Line

Although it was never confirmed, whispers spread through the Academy like wildfire at the long absence of the Uchiha Sasuke. The children were never explicitly informed – they were told that Sasuke-kun had some family problems, which was putting it very mildly considering that did nothing to cover the scope of the problems, not to mention there was the hushed up kidnapping incident – but overhearing gossip from their parents, they knew vaguely of the Uchiha Massacre.
Story by Vanilla Muse
After months, the sole Uchiha survivor finally returned to school. But in the place of the once happy and energetic yet snooty and arrogant boy was a child with a delicate air about him. Gone was the enthusiasm to best his brother, and in its place was a quiet demeanor and faraway eyes.

In the months that the Uchiha was absent, his hair had grown out and gravity tamed the tufts of hair that used to stick out in the back. The longer hair was now pulled into a ponytail at the nape of the neck. One had to wonder if he was trying to emulate his brother a bit. He had also switched out his usual black outfit for an all white one, which was perplexing, since black was the color of mourning in Konoha. Perhaps it was the Uchiha’s way of saying, “I am done mourning.”

The fangirls could care less about the meaning behind his wardrobe change though. They were more mesmerized by the ethereal effect that the white had on their Sasuke-kun, coupled with the longer hair and subdued attitude, the new Uchiha Sasuke was a nosebleed trigger and just begging to be coddled.

“I heard about your family,” Ami approached Sasuke just before the start of class. “I’m sorry.”

Sasuke tilted his head, his dark eyes scrutinizing the young girl. Ami fidgeted. Sasuke nodded at her condolences. She flushed and hurried away. The girls tittered and push at each other to approach Sasuke. The Uchiha huffed an imperceptible sigh and looked out the window. Just as another girl worked up the courage to approach him, Mizuki walked in and class began.

During recess, Shikamaru lazed under the shade of a tree with his best friend Chouji snacking by his side. He took note of, but didn’t pay much attention when Sasuke leaned against the other side of the tree and cracked open a tome. As long as Sasuke was quiet and didn’t disturb his peace, he was fine with the boy being there.

For most of recess the area under their tree remained undisturbed. The other children played ninja games and chattered with each other, all activities that took way too much effort in Shikamaru’s opinion.

Nearing the end of recess Kiba bounded up to Sasuke. “Hey, hey. I heard your family all died and that you fought off the killer. That’s how you got the scar. Is that true?”

Shikamaru sighed at Kiba’s lack of tact. He was not looking forward to the fall out from that blunt statement. He prepared himself to roll away from the conflict, but Sasuke surprised him with his answer.

“I have family.” Sasuke closed his book. “I didn’t get this scar from… the killer. It was my carelessness.” He stood up. “Now if you’ll excuse me, recess is about to end.”

“Huh? What? I didn’t understand that at all. So is your family dead or alive?” Kiba shouted after Sasuke. Shikamaru wanted to tell him to shut up, but it was too troublesome.

“Kiba, put a sock in it,” Chouji said. Shikamaru looked over at Chouji and his friend took it as a sign of thanks. Chouji shrugged in response. “Didn’t do much good,” he noted.

Kiba was running after Sasuke and peppering him with questions until an instructor heard him and roughly pulled him aside.

By the end of the day there were various stories behind Sasuke’s new facial scar. It ranged from Sasuke getting cut while avenging his family honor to falling into a ditch by accident. The girls beat up the last person that suggested the ditch theory.

The laziest Academy student in Konoha sighed and dropped his head into his arms. He didn’t have the energy to deal with all the drama.

Things were a lot less troublesome before Sasuke came back.

xxx

It was the spring before Haruno Sakura’s fourth year at the Ninja Academy. She had turned ten not too long ago. Right now the Academy students were on a three-week long break, as the instructors got ready for the transition into a new school year.

Seeing that Sakura was on break, her mother decided to bring Sakura along to the marketplace to show her off to the uncles and aunties while they did their weekly grocery shopping. Sakura hated it when her mother got it into her head to show off the Haruno family’s budding ninja. The limelight made her feel uncomfortable and despite Ino’s reassurances that she looked cute with the red ribbon, Sakura still couldn’t help feeling insecure about her large forehead from time to time.

But as it was break time, Sakura did not have an excuse to refuse her mother. Plus, she was promised anmitsu on the way home to sweeten the deal, so Sakura grudgingly agreed to tag along.

Sakura smiled nervously as another auntie patted her on the head and called her “precocious” and “cute.” As soon as the auntie turned away, Sakura tugged on her mother’s shirt hem, eager to be home, away from all the attention. That was when a ripple of angry whispers went through the crowd. Sakura looked around perplexed by the change in atmosphere. Then she spotted a little blond hair boy standing in the middle of the street with a glower on his face.

The boy wore a tattered cream-colored shirt with a red spiral on it and navy shorts. There were dirt stains and scuffmarks all along his arms and legs. The adults were all looking down their noses at the boy and talking behind their hands. Sakura did not understand. Did the boy do something bad?

Her mother took her hand and pulled her away to the next street over. Sakura’s legs followed, but she couldn’t help looking over her shoulder at the boy. She has never seen a child her age look so angry and… sad before.

As her mother continued to converse with the local tenders, Sakura could not help thinking back on that boy. She tugged at her mother’s hem for attention.

“Mom, I’m going to go check on something,” she murmured.

“Aw sweetie, just wait a little bit longer.”

“Mom,” Sakura whined.

Her mother sighed, “Oh all right, don’t go far, I’ll meet you at the park once I’m done here.”

“Okay!” And then she was off.

By the time she retraced her steps to that spot, the boy was already gone. She fidgeted before mustering up enough courage to ask one of the shopkeepers where did the boy go.

“Oh dear, you don’t want to get involve with that boy, nasty little demon.”

Sakura was taken aback by that answer. She murmured something incomprehensible and jogged away. It took all her courage to approach an adult for help, and to be given that kind of response… Sakura found herself shrinking away from the adults. Why were people so scary and mean? Only Ino-chan was nice.

Giving up hope, Sakura decided to head to the meeting place to wait for her mother. The sakura trees were in full bloom at this time of the year, so the trail through the park should be beautifully littered with the light pink blossoms.

Sakura was ambling leisurely to the meeting point, which was the center of the park, when she heard a little chirp. She followed the chirps to a find a featherless baby bird stranded on the ground.

“How did you get down here?” She wondered as she cradled the bird in her tiny hands. She looked up to see a bird nest nestled high in the branches of an old sakura tree. She swallowed. It was so high.

Sakura shook her head at herself and drew her lips into a determined line. She was a ninja (in training)! She can take on that tree! And so, with the baby bird in one hand, Sakura began to scale the thick tree. In her devotion to not jostle the baby bird, Sakura misjudged her next foothold and slipped. She held the bird close and screamed as she fell.

The sound of wire being pulled reached her ears and next thing she knew, she was caught in a slow descent. Sakura blinked in surprised. All she could see was white. Her savior set her gently on her feet. She took a step back to take in her savior. A boy her age, dark hair, fair skin, a thin scar along the jaw, and dressed in white.

“Sa- Sa- Sa- Sasuke-kun?” Sakura exclaimed.

The corner of Sasuke’s lip twitched. “Why were you climbing the tree?”

Dumbstruck, Sakura stuttered and could only hold up her hand as explanation. The bird chirped at Sasuke.

He quirked an eyebrow at the animal and then looked up to the bird nest. “I see.” He held out his hand. “Allow me?”

Sakura nodded and transferred the bird gently onto Sasuke’s palm. Their hands touched. Sasuke’s hand was warm. Sakura blushed and snatched her hand back. Sasuke snuggled the bird into the high collar of his shirt to free up his hands. By swinging back and forth between two trees with the help of ninja wire, Sasuke easily made his way up to the nest. He carefully returned the bird to its nest. After making sure the bird was okay, he looked down to her and smiled, as if to say, “mission accomplished.”

Crouching on a dark branch of the sakura tree amidst pale pink blossoms, with his hair and clothes ruffling gently in the breeze, and a gentle smile on his handsome face, Uchiha Sasuke was a vision. Sakura stumbled a few steps back. Upon realizing what her body just did, she burned bright red. She did not just swoon.

From his vantage point, Sasuke admired the blossoms. It was like sitting in the middle of a bouquet. “The blossoms in this park have the most beautiful color,” he remarked casually. He caressed a pink petal. “Like your hair,” he added as an afterthought.

Okay, she just swooned.

Before the… tragic Uchiha incident, Sakura had always thought Sasuke was cute. He wasn’t gross and unrefined like the other Academy boys. Coupled with that was the fact that he was the top student in their class. Sakura appreciated brains and talent. She could understand why the girls in class went ga-ga over him. Then after the incident, Sasuke returned a changed person. He had a mature yet sad air about him, like a rare ephemeral blossom that grabbed your attention and had you fretting over how to preserve the beauty and life of such a fragile existence. It made one’s heart clench and roused maternal instincts.

Despite all that, Sakura always held herself back. Someone like her would never be able to have someone like Uchiha Sasuke. He was like a god on a pedestal, way too good for her. He also had a huge fan base, with his number one fan being none other than the number one kunoichi in their class, Ino, her best friend. Sakura had convinced herself that she would be satisfied to nurse her baby crush on Sasuke from afar and maybe see him get together with Ino-chan in the future. Sakura didn’t know about Sasuke, but at least Ino would be happy. And if her best friend were happy then that would make her happy, too.

Now, however, gazing upon that smile, remembering his warmth as he held her and saved her from a nasty fall, seeing his gentleness with the baby bird, and hearing that compliment, Sakura could not contain the feelings that burst within her chest. Her hair was the second feature that she was most insecure about, following her forehead. Her bullies used to taunt her about it being a weird color and that it was unsuitable for a ninja to have such unsightly hair. But Sasuke said he liked that color. The way that he said it, so flippantly, the sky was blue, the grass was green, her hair was pink, and it was a beautiful color. Like it was a matter of fact. It filled her with pride and made her chest swell with unbridled joy. He was the second person to give her confidence in her appearance – Ino being the first, and her parents’ opinions didn’t count.

In that moment, Sakura felt a connection with Sasuke. At the Academy, he was an untouchable being – never mind the fact that his fangirls would step all over her if she tried to get close to Sasuke – but here, he was close. Close enough to touch, and they did touch. Twice. Uchiha Sasuke used to be just someone to admire from afar, but here and now, Sakura thought she played witness to the human side of that untouchable god, something softer, and she liked what she saw.

She liked it a lot.

“Sakura! Where are you?” Her mother called.

“Coming!” Sakura replied. There was a snap of wire, and when she turned back to the tree, Sasuke was gone. On the ground by her feet there was a sprig of cherry blossoms.

Sakura took the sprig home and pressed it into a bookmark to commemorate the date that she confirmed her feelings and set her heart on one Uchiha Sasuke. Even if she was not yet worthy, he was someone worth fighting for. She was sure of it. A voice in the back of her mind bellowed its agreement.

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Author’s Note: I have no idea how the Academy curriculum works. I assume that it’s year round. Since they’re ninjas in training, I doubt they would get as much breaks as civilian students would. So I’m going to say the Academy runs year round with weekends off and a three-week break in between school years, and that break time is somewhere around springtime.

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Chapter 7 – Drawing New Lines

After the incident with the missing-nin that Sasuke killed, Ranmaru had been on high alert. He didn’t want to see his new friends getting hurt again and he definitely did not want to see the look of deadness in Sasuke’s eyes again, so he had taken to using his Kekkei Genkai to avoid anybody that might be honing in on them. Ranmaru could see and hear ninja coming from afar – although Karin was more adept in this area with her sensor abilities – and he could cast genjutsu to misdirect them. He tired often, however, and he still wasn’t strong enough for large-scale genjutsu, but he did what he could to help out the group.
Story by Vanilla Muse
Sasuke wasn’t in a rush to return to Konoha. He led the group leisurely and they took frequent breaks. While the group rested and enjoyed Konoha’s temperate environment, Sasuke would often practice with the weapons foraged from the bandits and rogue ninja that attacked them. He had poor aim with the shuriken, but did better with the kunai.

If Sasuke wasn’t doing target practice or ninjutsu training, he would be coaxing one of the older children in the group to spar with him. Taijutsu practice, he said.

Juugo was a poor taijutsu partner in that he lacked form. When he needed to fight he usually relied on his nature chakra to transform himself and go berserk, although he was learning to be more conscious of his actions during those periods, but the going was slow.

Kimimaro preferred using his bone weapons to fight, especially in close combat. It was the way of his people and Kimimaro didn’t see any special need to change that, but he would indulge Sasuke.

Karin turned out to be the best sparring partner out of the three, as she didn’t have a previous style of fighting that she liked to fall back on. She had some formal training in Uzushiogakure, but didn’t get to learn much before the invasion destroyed her village. Her style was a mix of formal learning, instincts, and fighting dirty. This seemed to work just fine for Sasuke, for he used a rather unorthodox style of fighting too. There was definitely a form and a flow to his movements, speaking of a past teacher, but it wasn’t anything you would see in a ninja village.

Sasuke’s form was graceful and fluid and relied on evasion and redirecting of the opponent’s momentum instead of powerful punches and kicks. The style suited Sasuke, because he was so flexible that he would often evade an attack in a way that no one else would or could. Watching him fight was like watching water dance.

They continued on for a time like this. Strolling through Konoha, training, hunting, camping, and generally bonding with each other. The bonding helped each of them in ways that they did not realize, but as they grew closer and the loneliness moved further, they became lighter on their feet and smiles came more readily.

Once they hit the outskirts of Konohagakure, it wasn’t long before ANBU tracked them down. Upon confirming that Sasuke was Uchiha Sasuke, the Last Uchiha and sole survivor of this clan – the others were not informed about this little important tidbit until then – an ANBU entourage arrived to escort them back to the village. Karin also got to see firsthand a medic-nin at work.

Once they arrived inside Konoha, they were given three days to clean up and recuperate before politics and paperwork come breathing down their necks. During that time, each one of them had to go through a therapy session to assess their mental state. Asides from a few minor hiccups that were to be expected from their experiences outside of the village, their mental states were considered stable and no one was pronounced clinically insane.

For Ranmaru, registering to become a Konoha citizen was simple enough, a brief meeting with the Hokage and mounds of paperwork. Applying to attempt for a Konoha genin position was more of a hassle. There would be an interrogation followed by a probation period in which they would be monitored by ANBU to ensure that they were not enemy plants. After which they would have to pass a test before general admission into the Academy.

What caused uproar was when Sasuke wanted to write Kimimaro, Ranmaru, and Juugo’s name into the Uchiha family register, to officially bestow upon them the Uchiha name. Murmurs of unrest rose in the Council. Talk of some Itachi dude came up, something about blood purity, and something about them lacking the eyes. They do have eyes and they can see just fine, thank you very much.

Karin was fine with keeping her Uzumaki name, so she avoided that whole debacle. She did have pride in her birth village after all. Besides, she would be an Uchiha in the future when she married Sasuke, or so she’d like to believe.

Sasuke stood at his full height, which wasn’t much considering his age, and presented his arguments to the Council. “As the Last Uchiha I am now the Head of the Uchiha clan. I hold full authority over the Uchiha name. I have an obligation to rebuild my clan and these are the people I choose to become my new family. Together we will rebuild the Uchiha clan and serve Konoha with pride!”

Murmurs.

“You are still a child, hardly the head of a clan.”

“I grew much in the time that I was taken from my beloved village. I have escaped my captors and made an example of them. I have led our group safely from The Land of Mist back to Konoha. I think I have proven myself capable of taking care of myself and that of others. I understand the heavy duty that comes with being responsible for human life. If Itachi should come to attack my village or my clan, I will confront him myself. Konoha is my village, and I have acknowledged these people,” he waved to Ranmaru, Kimimaro, and Juugo, “as my people now. I hold full responsibility for their safety.” Sasuke was laying it on thick, but the Council was still tittering back and forth.

Sasuke breathed deeply, “Once I am a genin I will be acknowledged as a full adult. If it will settle your minds I will take the graduation exam now.”

“No!” The Hokage put his foot down and everyone was startled by his vehemence. “We are not in a time of war, there is no need for Konoha’s children to graduated from the Academy early.”

“Yet you would make exemptions for that monster instead?” One member sneered.

Sasuke spoke up before the conversation could digress, “Very well then. I shall graduate on time with my year mates, at the top of the class,” he declared. “I will prove that I am a man of my word, and that I am capable and responsible enough to be the Uchiha Head. I hope this will set your minds at ease.”

Of course the Council didn’t just bend over at that point. There was a lot more beating around the bush, but Sasuke pleaded to the Hokage with his eyes, and eventually with their effort saw three new names added to the Uchiha family register.

They all moved into the Uchiha Compound. Karin was shocked at the eerie, desolate state of the place. The once proud Uchiha clan, reduced to a compound of ghosts. Ranmaru just looked sad.

Sasuke told them to choose whichever property they liked. Kimimaro and Ranmaru moved in with Sasuke naturally. Karin chose the house next door. Juugo decided to choose a place further away just to be safe. If they hear him raging, they will have time to plan a course of action before he reached their houses.

Sasuke was given ten days to settle his new family members into the village and then he was to return to the Academy. Sasuke did just that, and he also threw himself into his training and studies. Every morning he trained in his weaker aspects and at night he would pour over his Academy notes meticulously. He even dropped by the Academy to pick up a packet covering the lessons he missed in class.

His friends tried to be as supportive as possible. They hadn’t realized what it took for them to join his family; even opening the Compound to Karin, an outsider, was fraught with arguments against the Council. Karin wondered if the Elders liked to argue just to be difficult or maybe they had nothing else to do in their old age, because they ended up approving of her stay in the Compound after all. Seeing the struggle that Sasuke went through, was still going through, and probably would be going through for a long time in order to keep them, they developed a new appreciation for his dedication and devotion to them.

The four of them, Kimimaru, Ranmaru, Karin, and Juugo, explored the village as a group to familiarize themselves with Konoha, so that Sasuke wouldn’t have to show them around everywhere – he did make a point to show them major establishments at least. Juugo was surprisingly adept at cooking once he figured out the kitchen implements, so he would come to Sasuke’s house and cook a big meal for everyone, allowing Sasuke more time to study. Karin took care of any more paperwork that came their way. Kimimaro and Ranmaru took over household chores.

All in all, it was a tough week, but Sasuke’s house had never been so lively and warm.

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Chapter 6 – Crossing Lines

Although Ranmaru was a frail child, his stamina had been building day by day ever since he met Sasuke. Each day he would walk a little longer. Today he walked up front with Karin and the group’s latest addition, Juugo. Juugo was immediately taken by Ranmaru and the two hit it off well. Karin was still leery of Juugo, which was just as well, because when Sasuke asked her to stay close to Juugo to keep an eye on him, she did not have an excuse to refuse.

Sasuke and Kimimaro trailed behind because Sasuke had sensed questions weighing on Kimimaro’s mind since the night before.
Story by Vanilla Muse
“What’s on your mind?”

“…It’s nothing, Sasuke-sama.”

Sasuke huffed, “We’re family now, are we not, Uchiha Kimimaro?” It was still weird to say the Uchiha name, but Sasuke shrugged it off.

Kimimaro straightened at the name.

“You can talk to me about anything. Ask me anything. I can’t promise to answer all of your questions, but I can promise to listen and I won’t ever get angry at you for simply being curious.”

“I was wondering how did you control Juugo-san’s rage? What did you do?”

“I didn’t really do much. The thing with Juugo is that he needs to know that there is someone forceful to control him should his anger get out of hand. He’s insecure, and desires a sense of security. By being confident and forceful with him, I was showing him that I was in control. That I could and would control him if anything went wrong.”

Sasuke sighed, “I’m really not too keen on trying to dominate over others like this, but Juugo seems to need that outside force to ground him. Masochist is what I would call it.” Sasuke shook his head. “I hope he gets over it eventually. Anyways, keeping the parameters of Juugo’s needs in mind, I then implanted a strong suggestion into his mind and he calmed himself down. I inserted the connection between my touch and tranquility into his brain. Truthfully, it was all a gamble.” Sasuke’s eyes flashed red for a second. Two tomoe spun lazily in each of his irises. “I’m still very green with this.”

“The… when did you…?”

“When I killed that missing-nin. Or more accurately, he did something to trigger it right before I killed him.”

“Sasuke-sama?”

“It’s over now.” Sasuke shook his head to indicate he didn’t want to talk. Kimimaro, being the person that he was, did not push. If it were Karin, she would’ve pestered Sasuke for an answer. Her desire to “fix” everything wrong for Sasuke was disturbingly devout.

Sasuke studied Kimimaro for a long moment, and Kimimaro found that he could not turn away from that gaze. Sasuke smiled, a genuine, pleased smile. “I entrust my secrets to you Kimimaro, because I know that you will never betray me.”

“Never!”

“And I you, my brother.”

Kimimaro fell silent, touched by Sasuke’s words. It seemed that no matter how often Sasuke is kind to him he would never get enough of it. Before meeting Sasuke, his life had been a harsh string of reprimands, fear, killing, and the coldness of death and loneliness. Here with Sasuke, there was warmth, kindness, smiles, and gentle words. Kimimaro didn’t think he would ever be deserving of having family like Sasuke, but he’d try anyways, because he wanted to always walk in Sasuke’s light.

xxx

They were attacked by a group of bandits.

Karin felt them coming a mile away and they were ready, but when the bandits reached them, it wasn’t Kimimaro or even Sasuke that took them down. It was Juugo. He went into rage mode and slaughtered the entire troupe.

Using ninja wire and a nearby tree, Sasuke thrust himself into the air. He came at Juugo from above just as the orange-haired boy set his sights on a shivering Karin. Sasuke landed nimbly on Juugo’s shoulder, and before the bigger boy could throw him off he touched the top of Juugo’s head with his entire palm, applying light pressure.

“Juugo,” he said. “Focus.”

Juugo growled, but he didn’t try to buck Sasuke off. He breathed heavily. His transformed arm morphed back into normal skin and the black lines slowly receded.

“Good job,” Sasuke praised and he petted Juugo on the head while he was at it.

Even he was surprised that his trick had worked. In all honesty, Sasuke was hesitant about bringing Juugo into the fold. Physically, Sasuke was still only seven, he wasn’t very strong, fast maybe, but far from physically strong, and he had no confidence that he could smack down a raging Juugo or cow him with killing intent, but Ranmaru had been insistent on “giving the beast a chance at salvation.” Ranmaru sees a kindred spirit in every tortured soul, so Sasuke had braved Juugo for Ranmaru.

Sasuke addressed the redhead, “Karin-san, are you hurt?”

“One hundred percent fine!” She gushed with stars in her eyes.

“Good. Let’s collect what’s useful from these bandits and move on quickly.”

Twenty paces away from the gruesome sight, Ranmaru couldn’t hold it in anymore. He barfed and Sasuke joined him. Karin rubbed their backs and held Sasuke’s growing hair away from his face.

Sasuke had lost his hair tie when tussling with the missing-nin and now his hair fell freely around his face in a lustrous black curtain. Ranmaru thought it made him look pretty, like an onee-sama instead of an onii-sama and had told him so. Juugo had chuckled in agreement. Sasuke had sighed and patted Ranmura on the head.

Once Ranmaru and Sasuke were done heaving up their lunch the group pretended it never happened and continued along their merry way.

As fate would have it, they were soon accosted by trouble again. This time it was in the form of a bloodthirsty rogue ninja looking for some fun. Sasuke, as if in a move to prove something to himself, took down the enemy alone. He approached the missing-nin from a blind spot and with a series of quick jabs to pressure points he rendered the enemy ninja’s arms temporarily immobile.

As soon as the missing-nin realized what had happened he delivered a sharp snap kick to Sasuke’s gut, sending him crashing into a tree. Juugo started to roar to life, but Ranmaru held him back.

The ninja charged at their group when ninja wire wrapped around his ankle and tripped him up. Sasuke emerged, coughing and cradling his stomach, but he grimaced through the pain and made quick work of trussing the enemy up, using the enemy’s struggling movements to his advantage to tangle the ninja up even more.

However, when it came to dealing the final blow, Sasuke stopped. He gazed down at the tied up ninja with impassive eyes.

“Sasuke-sama, allow me.” Kimimaro stepped forward and pulled out a bone sword from his arm.

Sasuke held out his hand for the weapon. “I’ve made my decision to set on this path. I will do this.”

“Sasuke-sama…”

“Onii-sama.”

“I have to do this.” Sasuke said. Although at that point, it was hard to tell if he was talking to the group at large or to himself. “I did this before, I can do it again,” he murmured and adjusted his grip on the bone weapon. “Don’t look Ranmaru,” Sasuke commanded, but Ranmaru looked anyways as Sasuke took the weapon from Kimimaro’s hand and drove it through the missing-nin’s neck in one quick thrust. He jumped back as he pulled out the bone weapon to avoid the spray of blood.

“Sasuke-kun, let me heal you,” Karin offered her arm.

He shook his head. “After he dies,” Sasuke nodded to the missing-nin, “retrieve my ninja wire for me please. It’s still a long way from Konohagakure and we’ll need to stretch all the supplies we have.”

“But Sasuke-kun.” Sasuke looked at her and she conceded with a reluctant nod.

“Let’s find a place to set up camp after this. I’m sure we’re all tired.” Sasuke said. Then he walked away from the cooling corpse and wretched bile in a patch of dry grass. Ranmaru’s eyes trailed after Sasuke with a worried light. At the very least, only one of them was throwing up their stomach this time.

That night, they had to create a campfire manually because Sasuke was having trouble getting his breath together to use his clan’s technique. Karin suspected a fractured or broken rib.

Falling asleep was a task in itself. It was hard for Sasuke to find a comfortable spot to sleep in, but eventually fatigue took over and he fell into a fitful sleep. Karin and Kimimaro made eye contact over the smothered campfire and came to a silent agreement. Together they got the unconscious Sasuke to bite down on Karin and she transferred her chakra to heal him.

The injury wasn’t life threatening yet, but traveling on the road was sure to make it worse. Already, Sasuke was warm with a rising fever. If only Sasuke wasn’t so stubborn about not using her forbidden technique. Though it warmed her heart and made her blush when she replayed his reasons in her head. Maybe she should pick up some medical ninjutsu in case something like this came up again. She hated seeing Sasuke’s face contorted with pain.

At dawn, Sasuke jerked awake with a scream in his throat, rousing Karin from her vigil by his side.

“Sasuke-kun, it’s okay. It was only a nightmare,” she soothed.

There was cold sweat dotting his brow. She touched his forehead; glad to note the lack of fever. He breathed deeply and raggedly until he got himself under control. The others were rousing, too. Since everyone was up, they decided to start the day early. A quick breakfast and then they were packing up camp.

“Karin.”

The redhead girl shivered at the low timbre of Sasuke’s voice. And did he just drop the honorific with her?

“Show me your arm.” Karin skipped over to him in a blissful haze and showed him her arm. “The other arm.” She hesitated, but showed him the bite mark on her wrist. She chose the wrist because it felt more intimate somehow. Sasuke studied her wrist for a long while, at war with himself over what to say. For a while it looked like he might apologize, which was absurd because she chose to heal him. Finally he traced his thumb over his teeth imprint and said, “Thank you, Karin. I promise to be stronger next time so that you won’t have to resort to this.”

Tingles went up her arm and down her spine. “If it’s for you, I don’t mind using this technique an infinite number of times,” she admitted with hearts in her eyes. Sasuke was so cool.

The look on his face was pained at her admission. She sobered up. “I’ll learn medical ninjutsu so that I can heal you even without using this technique.”

He startled at the declaration, and then gave her a gentle smile. “Thank you, Karin.”

“Anything for you, Sasuke-kun.”

“Maybe I should get some training in the medical field too,” he pondered out loud.

“Eh? But then it would defeat the purpose of me healing you.”

He gave her an amused looked and she blushed but didn’t look away.

xxx

Juugo did not quite know what to make of Sasuke.

When they first met, Sasuke gave the impression that he commanded authority and demanded absolute obedience. Which would work out just fine for Juugo if Sasuke were to be his master and his cage, but after their first meeting Sasuke began to use less and less of that imperious tone on him, and to the others in the group he was downright clement and even sought to serve them in some ways, by helping them complete a task or volunteering to do the harder chore when it came to setting camp.

But none of his actions made him subservient to the others, in fact, everyone in the group deferred to Sasuke. Ranmaru obeyed and looked up to Sasuke like an older brother. Kimimaro guarded Sasuke like a loyal vassal to his lord and never challenged Sasuke’s authority. Karin threw herself at Sasuke’s feet to be helpful to him. And Juugo listened to Sasuke of course, because Sasuke was the lock for his rage.

Then there was Sasuke’s changing attitude towards him. The more control Juugo showed over his rage the more friendly Sasuke became towards him. Sasuke was benign even before, but now it was like he actively sought a – dare Juugo believe it? – friendship with Juugo.

It was all very jarring and perplexing.

For now Juugo decided to just go with the flow, and he promised to hone his rage into Sasuke’s shield, so he would do that too. Maybe in the future there could be something more between Juugo and Sasuke, but for now, this was enough. This was contentment enough for Juugo.

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