1st fan

[fantheflame]

[Action: Awakening ((Closed))]

[Sasuke is not enjoying getting used to being unsure of things. But he is - unsure - and finds that while the things he is unsure of are troubling, the state of unsurety isn't as terrifying as it used to be.]

[Right now, there are two very important things he's unsure of: whether he's alive or dead, and, if the second, whether this is heaven or hell.]

[The last thing he remembers? His deranged excuse for a... cousin of sorts? Taking on the ten-tails as its container. And now he's here - wherever here is - standing in a stranger's bedroom, holding a photograph of his brother with (presumably) that stranger. He awoke nearly naked with a pair of wings sprouted from his own back, and now he's somewhere with evidence of one of the dead. What else could have happened?]

We lost, huh...?

[Something like guilt makes a feeble case for life in his chest, but it's hard to feel guilty when you don't remember an ending. Instead he's just... staring at this photograph. One thumb swipes idly across the cool glass, over Itachi's face, half-expecting it to vanish once obstructed. It doesn't.]

[He's not sure whether to feel a sense of final relief - he's here, and, it seems, so is Itachi - or sick doom - who the hell is this complete stranger who's gotten to share in his brother's... something. Not life, maybe, but...]

[The Itachi in the picture is almost smiling, and his eyes look more alive than Sasuke remembers since they were very small.]


[Action: Examination ((Sometime Later; Open))]

[Sasuke is - a little bit of everywhere. He doesn't exactly believe... most of this. Half thinks this is some sadistic side-plot in Obito's (Madara's?) ridiculous Moon's Eye genjutsu (keeps having to remind himself he wouldn't know that exists if that were the case). So he's exploring - barracks, apartments, the shrine, the forest - here one moment, maybe lingering to examine (Sharingan blazing red the entire time) - and then gone in a flicker, off to the next place. He's not taking particular care to remain hidden (really, he doesn't care who sees him in what may be a fake or an illusion or a dream), but he's not being loud about his presence either.]


[Follow-Up Action: Drained ((Closed to Sakura))]

[One thing Sasuke should maybe have done was paid attention to the tidbits he's heard about halved powers, weakened chakra, difficulty... being, as a shinobi.]

[Because now, feeling more physically real than he has the entire time he's been here - how could he be this bone-tired in a dream? - he's slumped on hands and knees on the riverbank just to the north of town, eyes fading back and forth between blazing red and dim grey-black, breath harsh in and out of his lungs. How did he run so quickly out of chakra? How did Sharingan run him so quickly out of chakra?]

[His eyes fade back to dull black and stay there at last, and he lifts a hand to brush sweaty bangs out of his eyes, feeling at once overheated and clammy. Maybe he's had his question answered, finally, and this is hell.]


[Voice: Greeting ((Sometime Later; Open))]

--believe this thing - hm.

[It's a voice some will recognize.]

If paper can really record - whatever. I'm told I've been here before. I don't think I believe that. I certainly don't remember it.

Some of you know me. That's fine. Some of you would rather you didn't, and that's fine too.

I don't know what you know and I don't know what kind of bullshit this jutsu or hell or whatever it is is pulling, and I don't entirely care.

You should know I'm no longer an enemy of Konoha.

Believe me or don't, but I don't intend to fight you.

[There's a shift, and a few long seconds of tape-recorder not-quite-silence, followed by a muffled shuffle of movement over paper before the recording ends.]

Comments

[endgames]

[He doesn't buy it. Not after everything.]

Bullshit. You don't get to make that call.

[voice forever]

[fantheflame]

...Shikamaru.

[No one's reactions are surprising, but they're wearying all the same. He's done this before; he didn't have time for the bickering then, and he doesn't have the patience for it now.]

[But he's stuck here all the same, so.]

You don't either, unless I missed the news of you becoming Hokage.

[voice forever]

[endgames]

More right than you. Who is and isn't a threat is determined by the village. Last I checked, you left the village.

[Naruto will accept him back, and even Ino, in a way that's made him grit his teeth in the past. He's sure Itachi's dreamed of this. And while he likes to think Sakura knows better now, and Kakashi, he was there throughout the years, watching them chase after their lost comrade. There's no telling with them.

Shikamaru never liked Sasuke, but for their sake and for the sake of a boy he once respected as a fellow shinobi, he could almost want to accept him back also. But never so quickly, nor on such thin standing.]

You want back, you make up for it first.

voice;

[ura_no_ura]

Shikamaru.

[ Back the fuck off.

Kakashi understands that Shikamaru might not trust Sasuke, but he doesn't need him trying to instigate a fight or say anything that might make Sasuke feel like he wouldn't be accepted by the people who wanted him back the most. ]

If Sasuke says he is not a threat, then he is not a threat.

[ And Kakashi trusts what Sasuke says because Sasuke isn't the type to lie about this kind of thing. It's simply not in his nature. ]

Quite frankly, there are things you don't understand.

[ About Konoha and Uchiha.]

[filtered | 100% unhackable]

[endgames]

[Throwing up a filter. There's things he has to explain to everyone - Naruto even agreed he could help him. He's not going to do it like this.]

Let me guess. You mean the massacre.

[ura_no_ura]

... you know.

[ How does he know? ]

[endgames]

I found out when Sasuke was here before. [It's still a sore point.] He told me himself, even as he said that he would kill every Konoha-nin in Luceti no matter what Itachi felt about them. Given at another point in time before I arrived he acted on that same ambition, I think we have reason to be cautious.

[Even now he's trying to keep an objective opinion, and turn back his own emotions about it. His voice is level, keeping every ounce out of it to instead focus on the facts. Kakashi's the higher ranking jounin here. They're screwed if he doesn't do the same.]

What do you think? Sir.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi sighs. He knows that there most certainly was a time when Sasuke was a very real threat to Konoha, and had even acted on that knowledge. Having to fight his own student with killing intent was one of the most difficult things he's ever had to do in his life. But Sasuke wouldn't just say that he's no longer a threat to Konoha without reason, without having decided that he no longer wants to destroy the village and its people like he once did. ]

I know that Sasuke was a threat to Konoha not too long ago. [ Oh, does he know. ] But, I think that... for a period of time, he really lost himself. It seems that he's found his way again, and if he says he isn't a threat to us and doesn't intend to fight us, then we should believe him.

Sasuke isn't the kind of shinobi who would lie about such a thing, especially when the honor of his family is at stake.

[endgames]

I'm not saying I don't believe he's genuine and changed his mind. [Though he has his reservations about how far it extends. Sasuke's logic was twisted even when they were kids.] I'm saying his idea of a phase was becoming a missing-nin and joining a terrorist organization, and you guys are welcoming him back without so much as a slap on the wrist.

[ura_no_ura]

It's not that simple and you know it, Shikamaru. I'm disappointed you would see it in such black and white terms.

[ Because really, you're smart enough to know better, and aren't that myopic. ]

Konoha had his entire family massacred. Sasuke chose allegiance to his clan over allegiance to the village that ordered their genocide. While he may not have known the truth when he first left the village, his departure was motivated by the fact that his family was killed in the first place. All he wanted was to bring the person responsible to justice... and he would've done anything to see that through.

To say that he did what he did as though all of his actions exist in some kind of a vacuum is foolish. You need to look underneath the underneath.

[endgames]

[And you need to look out from your own rose-tinted lenses.]

If he's a man who means a word of what he says, he can handle what I've asked of him and you'll have nothing to worry about. All he has to do is not kill anybody.

gonna place this AFTER Kakashi and Sasuke's first conversation Because Reasons also [voice]

[fantheflame]

Kakashi.

[Who the hell do you think you are butting into other people's conversations?]

Shut your damn mouth. I don't need your defenses.

[And he doesn't need Kakashi smearing things all over the walls. Sharing things about his own past is Sasuke's choice and place, and while he doesn't think Kakashi would be that cruel, he does wonder if his former sensei might be that neglectfully unfeeling.]

[It's been a long time since they've been on the same side of things, after all, and Sasuke's old and smart enough to know you show a different side of yourself to a bunch of twelve-year-olds than you do to a bunch of sixteen-year-olds.]

voice;

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi sighs. ]

Hai, hai, I know you can fight your own battles, Sasuke. But this is different.

[voice forever]

[fantheflame]

How?

This is about my choices, and my path, and my -

[Clan. But that isn't a conversation for some magical fucking diary that anyone apparently can see into.]

Just - butt out.

voice;

[ura_no_ura]

No.

[ And that's final. ]

Sasuke, you're my student.

[ Which means, you're his responsibility, and he has a duty to you. ]

[fantheflame]

Former. Former student.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi smiles.

Kakashi smiles because smiling is what he does. It reflects in his tone. ]

Ah. That's where you're wrong, Sasuke.

[ He says far too lightly. ]

You'll always be my student.

[ because what is culture even ]

[fantheflame]

Che.

[Sasuke makes what is probably the most predictable face in response to that chipper smile - scowl, scoff, just a little bit of recoil. If he could see himself, he'd be glad the other man can't. Because no, he's still never learned how to handle this kind of response. Still doesn't really want to.]

Whatever.

I still don't need you meddling.

[fantheflame]

And I came back, and your protests didn't matter then and they don't matter now.

Not that what you think matters either, but I would be fixing it right now if I wasn't here.

And the minute I'm out of here, I'll give you whatever proof you think you deserve in the hide of the Juubi and Tobi.

[endgames]

[He came back? When? fuuu way to be an hour behind the times in canonland. From the sound of it, he seems to think he's helping them.

...actually, if that's the case, as messed up as it is he can't see himself caring in that situation. If he's helping, they can figure that out later. It doesn't do much for him in this place though.]

If you think it doesn't matter here, you're stupid. If we can't rely on you here, we can't rely on you there. [And you know what-- listening in on Sasuke's comment to Kakashi there, he has something else to add.] As it is, you're getting special treatment just because of who you are. Do you want that, or do you want to do this on your own terms?

[fantheflame]

Che. Whether you can rely on me has nothing to do with your opinion either way.

I'm already intending to do this my way. I don't care what a single one of you thinks or feels about me; I just don't want you to waste your time and mine with you trying to kill me when we should be focusing on getting out of this place. Right now, that's my goal.

[endgames]

[Some idea of wanting to protect Konoha you have. Shikamaru's beginning to think Sasuke's doing that same thing he did when they were kids, and is missing the big picture. Konoha's about more than her name, but includes all her people.]

Don't kill any of ours, and we won't have a problem.

[Or you know. Move in the same apartment building. Breathe the same air.]

[fantheflame]

[Sasuke is more aware of that than Shikamaru knows. What he doesn't believe is that anyone from Konoha has to like him in order for him to help. Let them hate him; that's fine. As long as he fixes things.]

I have no reason to do harm to anyone here, except those keeping us from getting back.

Any other problems you have are yours, not mine.

[endgames]

[...every time he meets Sasuke never fails to give him mood whiplash. The hostility's a staple, as ever; what he does with it is not. Like coming face to face with a cobra, he decides. Close up and in person, not knowing if it will stare you down or strike.

The furrow between his brow deepens; nothing else to outwardly betray what he's thinking. Maybe he won't back off just yet. For Team 7's sake, not anyone else's. But like hell he'll reach out his hand to a snake.]

You get stuck here as long as I've been, you'll learn how far off the mark those counts are.

[fantheflame]

[Sasuke might not be as perfect as he wishes he was, but he's also not daft, and Shikamaru's words are not lost on him. Those counts, he says - not just whose problems are whose, Sasuke thinks. So by process of elimination...]

I don't remember ever having been here before. I can't speak for anything that happened in Luceti before today.

[Even though he's been told he's been here more than once. He's still not sure how to process the concept of that.]