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teamwork chapter 7 scene 1
OKAY SO.
Non-linearity FTW! Sorry if the beginning is confusing, I was experimenting. Hopefully it will all make sense if you keep going a little bit. But if it doesn't, please tell me. If you can help me figure out where I should put in-fic timeline reminders, definitely tell me. If you have any other sort of crit, yes yes. It's the first draft, it's MADE to be edited and tweaked and otherwise made shiny.
I'm not sure if some of what happens doesn't come across as a little contrived. In my mind it makes sense, but hey. As for Sasuke characterization, crit is also accepted, but please remember mine is closer to Gaara arc!Sasuke than current manga!Sasuke.
Anyway, not sure if it's the complete chapter or not, because I still don't know if I'm gonna switch the POV to someone else for the next scene. They'd have a TINY scene, but if I leave it to Sasuke, he's got another huge scene coming after that and I think if it's all in his POV the chapter would end up WAY TOO FRIGGIN LONG. I'll have to think about it. Hrrrm.
--edit: okay I forgot to mention. But that previous sasuke POV bit you read a little time ago? Pretend you didn't. I salvaged about half of it and the rest isn't in-fic anymore, just implied. I have no clue how well i did imply it, though, so if you didn't understand jack shit then please tell me. XD;;
The jounin-sensei should have been there over a half-hour ago.
The cloud of dust rising from the landslide was as good as a beacon flare. Big-scale destruction meant dangerous, higher-level fighters, but also a higher likelihood of exhausted or badly injured opponents. Only one day left for the test and those still in the running were starting to feel the need to take bigger risks if they wanted to get anywhere. Sasuke understood that.
He was still furious with himself for not understanding it faster.
At his side the draft-horse-sized wolf stumbled. Sasuke's hand shot out and snatched Green-hair's wrist before the half-unconscious Grass ninja could slide boneless off his ride.
Fingers clenching weakly into dark fur, Green-hair refused to meet his eyes, to acknowledge his help. It worked for Sasuke; he did the same, turned his attention back outward, away from the exhausted wolf and its charge, away from the other two, the girl and the giant. He wasn't any happier about being here than the Grass team was.
He'd just wanted to get them Grass team out of Kyuubi's immediate range, where the big healer and the girl with the katana could evacuate their own teammate. After that, it was their problem. He had teammates of his own to go back to.
--
The old three-tailed fox slid in his grasp, fur slick with blood. Sasuke shifted the animal back up against his chest as he ran; the fox didn't complain, even though he'd been a little rough. The animal wasn't heavy, mostly made of skin and bones, but tall enough to be awkward to carry.
Sasuke slanted a wary look at the girl with the katana. She was the only one with her arms free; he didn't like that. If the fox hadn't needed all its concentration to keep holding the genjutsu that hid their escape, Sasuke was sure she would have attacked already. He knew the type.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, sharingan cutting through the haze of the kitsune illusion. Still no sign of pursuit. Still no sign of Sakura either. He really hated this.
Fucking Kyuubi.
More than a mile away and he could still feel Kyuubi's chakra prickling his skin. Sasuke didn't want to go any farther; it seemed a really stupid idea not to have even a rough idea of Kyuubi's location. He stalked up to the girl, sidestepped the tip of her sword, and pushed the blood-slick fox in her arms.
She stiffened, forced to juggle the katana and the animal. The fox smothered a little pained grunt. Sasuke took a step back out of her personal space before she decided to just dump the beast on the ground and run him through.
"That's far enough," Sasuke said.
He took them in. One exhausted and rather slow-moving medic-nin, one half-dead guy, two summons -- one of them arthritic, with a crushed front paw, and the other one, the horse-sized wolf, still trembling on the edge of white-eyed panic. It wouldn't be hard for him to punch the girl unconscious and force their tokens out of them. And then, of course, the healer would have to juggle two KOed teammates as Kyuubi no Youko hunted them down, which made helping them get away in the first place rather pointless.
He was tempted to just turn around and leave. Negotiating would take time he could use to get back to Sakura and check on the situation.
He wished he hadn't let it bother him, when she asked what he'd do if Naruto were the one standing with him on the battlefield instead. He knew she was a ninja and he had to trust her to handle some of their collective shit at least sometimes, but he still wished he'd stayed.
Of course then Kyuubi would have just trapped him under another tree with admonitions to get some rest already because an exhausted Sasuke couldn't entertain that furry asshole enough, and the Grass team would be dead and Sakura would have ended up alone in front of him anyway. Sasuke tugged a leaf out of his hair, freeing a clump of dirt. He could probably afford to waste a little time extorting compensation out of them. Wasn't like he could do much back there, apart from getting beaten up again.
They kept staring at him, the girl and the giant, waiting for his demands. Exhausted and beaten and hating every single second of it.
Sasuke's upper lip curled and he turned on his heel to leave.
"Wait," the healer said.
The young man was a little pale, now that Sasuke looked closer. Especially around the lips, bloodless and pinched. No doubt he'd wasted a lot of chakra on his companion. He wasn't really that old, actually -- just large and big-boned. Sixteen maybe, though at first glance you'd have given him at least twenty.
"We won't go far alone."
"Not my problem," Sasuke countered. "You attacked us first, count yourself lucky I even bothered getting you that far."
The healer shifted his teammate's weight on his back; brown-skinned fingers clenched weakly on his shirt as the injured teenager woke halfway. He glanced down at those hands, squared his shoulders in resolve.
"I don't suppose you want to escort us? I'll pay you." He tapped the zippered pouch at his waist.
The girl jerked in surprise, and she put the fox down on the mossy ground a little fast, in a hurry to free her arms. "Maneki, stop right here. We will not be indebted to him."
"We're already indebted to him, Zenko."
She didn't like that, he could tell, her almond eyes narrowed to black slits. Sasuke was ready to say 'You're not going to get any more indebted than that, because I'm leaving.' But then again...
The healer acknowledged a debt. Did he feel it was big enough to owe Sasuke a way to fix that mess? That would be worth wasting a few more minutes, if he could only copy it with the Sharingan.
"Teach me how to end that jutsu and we'll be even."
The guy -- Maneki -- hesitated, and sighed. "Oh, hell. Why not. I was going to tell your teammate anyway."
He shifted his unconscious teammate's weight to the side so he could free a hand to shake on, the corner of his lip quirked up in a rueful, tired half-smile.
--
Traveling face down on his mount wasn't very good for Green-hair, pressed along the wolf's spine, arms and legs dangling on each side with only their weight to keep him balanced up there. If he lost consciousness again the fur might smother him, and Sasuke didn't know what state his ribs were in -- he just knew the guy's shirt was one big red ruin in the front.
No one else could carry him. Only Sasuke was still unburdened, and Sasuke wouldn't hinder himself again.
Where the fuck were the jounin-sensei? There should have been some around, if only for security purposes if not for handing out those tokens. Were they all converging on Kyuubi's location? That had to be it. Because Sasuke hadn't seen or felt even a hint that one of them had been anywhere close since early this morning, and that was just wrong.
He circled the group again, went on point, fell back. Looked at them, just a glance, before going back on high alert.
The old fox sat crouched on the wolf's rump, his injured paw tucked in, and sometimes pushed his weight on one of his master's legs or another to keep him balanced. The girl Zenko trudged along, slender body bent almost double under the healer's weight. Her face looked chiseled in marble.
The wolf was close to just saying 'fuck it' and bolting, popping back into whatever other space or dimension it came from. Except that its summoner -- its pack leader -- still walked. So it stayed. For now.
Green-hair watched Zenko, too, the side of his face pressed on her wolf's flank. He wasn't saying anything. No one had said a thing since the ambush.
Sasuke rubbed his forearm. Flakes of crusting blood fell from razor-sharp, parallel slices that matched his shredded arm-warmer. He'd tried to hold onto the cat. He shouldn't have.
--
"This is Yume," Maneki said, crouched on the floor with his hand still on the summoning circle.
She was tiger-striped and sleek, with green eyes, and the tip of her lashing tail was just barely forked. She looked up at Sasuke with that indifference that was the mark of cats everywhere.
"I can't teach it to you -- your control isn't fine enough. Yume knows what your medic-nin needs to know."
She leaped to Sasuke's chest, where he caught and held her only out of an old, forgotten habit. He hadn't handled a cat in so long. He felt vaguely annoyed -- amused -- at the assumption that of course he would wrap an arm under her for her to sit on... or perhaps she didn't care whether he did or not, because she had her claws in his shirt to make sure gravity didn't pull her back down regardless.
"So? What are you waiting for?"
Sasuke snorted at her acidic tone, and turned around to leave without giving the Grass team a last look. He started jogging down the slope, the cat's upper body draped lazily on his shoulder.
Naruto. Sakura. He wasn't sure how he would immobilize Kyuubi long enough for Sakura to do her thing, but they'd figure something out.
He didn't have time to go far. Yume suddenly bristled herself to three times her size and clawed her way out of his hold, yowling. He fought to hold her back, but she was fast and too small to target easily.
Why the hell had he ever imagined Maneki had honor? The rest of his team didn't, and now here was his summon, escaping to get out of their deal. He bet they had enough time to hide again and thought Sasuke wouldn't find them, or bother to look too hard.
They'd miscalculated. Sakura was safe enough for now -- anyone who got within a half-mile of her wouldn't survive Kyuubi long enough to cause her any trouble. And Sasuke hated being made a fool of.
He gave chase to the animal, keeping hot on her tail, refusing to let her lose him as she went through bushes he couldn't cross. He kept track of every movement, jumped over rocks and bounced up slopes after the madly racing cat. And then he was back where he'd left the Grass team.
He should have known the dust would attract other teams. It was like a signal flare. He should have known.
--
"He's dead, Zen."
Sasuke stared ahead, like he hadn't heard Green-hair's scratchy voice. For a moment -- ten seconds, thirty -- Zenko did the same, her narrow face fixed into a surprisingly mild expression.
"I can tell."
She kept going, bent almost double, Maneki's limp body draped over her back with his legs dragging in the dust.
It would have been easier to switch, his bulk on the wolf, Green-hair on her, but Sasuke had heard the crisp order she gave the beast, if they were ambushed once again -- to run away and get Kon out of there.
And she would stay behind to fight. With the corpse.
Sasuke drifted away on the far side of the wolf's flank, put its body between him and the two teammates so he couldn't see their faces.
"He's dead weight."
Zenko kept staring right ahead, and taking one step and one step and another step. "He is."
Sasuke saw Green-hair's fingers clench in the wolf's fur until the knuckles paled.
"Hey, Leaf bastard," he called, voice almost like a growl. Sasuke had heard Kyuubi growl, of course, and it didn't compare, but it sounded similar. A lot more raw, too. Pain and powerlessness, anger thrown at Sasuke's face like a shield. He was intimate with such methods.
"What?"
"Come here."
Sasuke went. He got there in time to catch him as he slipped off the wolf, had to take most of his weight though as Kon's legs wobbled. For a second the Grass ninja almost fainted.
The wolf stopped, whined quietly. Zenko took another ten step before she slowed and stopped in turn.
It should have looked kind of ridiculous, really; Zenko was almost Sakura's size, with narrow hips and long slender legs. Maneki had at least a foot and sixty pounds on her. It looked like any second she would fold under his bulk and be crushed.
Like their dragging escape had proved, the body was slowing them down. Extremely so. Sasuke hadn't been about to say anything, not just yet. It wasn't his place.
"Get me there."
Sasuke pulled one of Green-hair's arms around his neck, wrapped one of his around the wounded ninja's waist, and half-carried him to her.
The two teammates stared at each other. Sasuke tried not to imagine being in their place and failed.
No, never again. Naruto dead, limp on the ground. Sakura. Kakashi. He refused. God, he wanted away from there already. He'd rather have to deal with Kyuubi.
He couldn't leave them yet.
"You shouldn't be standing." She still looked studiously, determinedly blank.
The boy at his side snarled, golden eyes burning with sudden rage. "Fuck you. You shouldn't be hauling around a useless bag of meat."
Sasuke kept his face as expressionless as possible as Zenko stiffened all over, pretended he was deaf and not all that interested in lip-reading beside.
"I do not care what your kind does," she said after a few seconds, in a very quiet, very chilly voice. "I will not abandon a comrade."
Green-hair swayed a little against Sasuke's side; Sasuke got the feeling it wasn't entirely pretend. His stare stayed predatory, though a twist of his lips hinted at nausea, or dizziness, or both. "I'm your comrade. You're abandoning me."
Kon shook his head, as if to get rid of cobwebs, let his eyes go unfocused and this time Sasuke was almost sure he had let his control go on purpose.
"I need you. He doesn't."
She shook her head, angry but silent.
"Want me dead too? Hell, maybe I'll be easier to carry when you can afford to drag me over the rocks."
"Shut up!"
The wolf flattened its ears back and crouched low on the ground, but its mistress didn't even look that way.
She was losing her grasp on her artificial cool, breath coming faster, made-up lips curling into a snarl. "Shut up, just shut up, how can you want me to leave him--"
"It's him or me!" Kon yelled. "His corpse or me, because that's not him, that's not Maneki, Maneki is dead, okay?"
He paused to regain his breath; she didn't interrupt him, though she looked furious enough to deck him if she hadn't had her arms full keeping the body from falling to the ground.
"And what do you want me to do? I can't do jack shit but depend on you."
Sasuke snorted quietly. Nice to know his attempts to mimic furniture were working. Zenko's eyes immediately zeroed in on him. It was acknowledgement enough for him. "I don't care what you two decide, but it better be sorted out soon. We can't stand in the open all day."
Zenko's eyelids twitched at the reminder, like she wanted to scan their surroundings. Sasuke hadn't seen her do much of that since they'd left the ambush site; it was probably a good sign.
She closed her eyes for a second, and then it was the marble face again, all smooth and empty. But her voice didn't match, trembling with something not quite like rage. "Very well. Let's find a place to bury him."
"That'll take a while," Sasuke said neutrally. She stared at him in disbelief that he'd dared remind them he was more than a ninja-shaped pack mule. "I suggest we find a hollow and block it with branches and rocks. It will be easier to recover him later."
The old fox shook himself and climbed up on his three paws. "This sounds like quite a good idea to me. We'll look. Goro-kun, come along, please."
He limped away, the wolf following hesitantly. Zenko still looked on the verge of exploding at him, for daring to suggest anything. He understood. Anything would look like an acceptable target at this point. He ignored her as he sat Kon on the ground, his back to a little tree.
"I'll be right back."
He went to look, too, though he didn't drift very far, just in case. The animals had a better chance of finding something, but Zenko and Kon needed their privacy, and Sasuke needed to give them some. Get himself some.
What a fucking mess.
He couldn't leave just yet. Not without handing them over to someone else. He didn't even like them. They'd been antagonistic from the start, and if they hadn't had much more important shit to think about Sasuke would have never let Kon put an arm around his neck, even injured as the guy was. Just wait a little bit for him to pull himself together and Sasuke would have to watch his back once again.
He still couldn't bring himself to just walk away. It wasn't a sense of guilt, not really. If he had been there all along, Maneki would probably be alive -- so what? What next? Should he feel guilty every time some not-so-bad guy he'd never met got himself offed on some random mission he'd never heard of, that Sasuke might perhaps have stopped single-handedly? He'd done more than he had owed those three, saved them from the one risk that was his to handle -- Kyuubi.
Death happened, especially to shinobi. It wasn't guilt. More like... responsibility.
A fox bark called him back. They'd found a crevasse close by, hidden by bushes, just about the right size.
Zenko closed her teammate's eyes. She didn't linger; just stared at his face for a second and then methodically went through his pockets and belt pouch. Soldier pills, explosive tags, a couple of pieces of candy -- his token, that silly little disk of copper he'd been killed for.
She stared at it, too, and then closed her fist around it and slanted Sasuke a hostile, teeth-gritted look.
"Leaf. Come here."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little. He went, slowly, to remind her he didn't have to.
Zenko pulled a scroll out of Maneki's pouch and shoved it in his hands, and then she stuffed the token in her own belt. Sasuke stared down at the scroll, an eyebrow arched.
"Your payment. For bodyguard duties."
When Sasuke unrolled the first inches of paper to have a look inside, he saw a paw print in black ink and a summoning seal. Farther down were a list of names. His breath caught for a second.
"Are you serious?"
Who the hell just handed off that kind of thing to an enemy, no matter the reason? She hated him on principle! For that matter, so did Kon. The only one who didn't want to eat his face was the old fox, and even then he'd still dutifully go through with it if his summoner asked him to.
"What else do you want? A kunai? A roll of bandages?"
Sasuke slanted a meaningful look at her belt pouch. Zenko sneered.
"You didn't beat him. You don't get to have his token."
Sasuke shook his head, gave Kon a look, but the fox-summoner's face looked blank; he wasn't going to argue against the trade.
"...I don't want that cat scroll. I don't want anything. I didn't do it for you." He'd done it because he couldn't look Naruto in the eye anymore if he didn't. That was it. No other reason.
Zenko's hand fell to the hilt of her katana; behind her, the wolf bared his fangs. "Listen," she said quietly, with forced slowness. "It really hurts my pride when a goddamn Konoha bastard does me that kind of charity. So take the fucking scroll because I don't want to owe you a thing."
"So instead of a cheap token you'd rather give me an expensive scroll containing an important jutsu?" Sasuke snorted, a hand clenched on the half-unrolled scroll. He just didn't get the logic. Granted -- Maneki had been killed for the token. He could understand not wanting to let it go. But how was the scroll any less meaningful?
"I need the token now. I don't need the scroll."
... Oh. She planned to stay in the tournament. Even now. Huh.
Zenko turned her back on him with pointed disdain. "With a little luck you'll get killed before you leave the island and I'll get it back from your corpse. Now get the hell out of here."
Sasuke let out a short sigh, rewrapped the scroll, stuffed it in his pocket, and went. Behind him he could see the girl rolling her teammate's huge body in the hole, and the old fox limping closer, dragging branches to pull over him; then he went over a ridge and lost sight of them.
The scratches Yume had left as she struggled out of his hold looked a little inflamed already. Sasuke pulled his arm-warmer around until they were hidden and tried not to remember the cat's incredulous, wounded scream as she disappeared into smoke. He'd figure out what to do with the scroll afterwards. He wasn't sure what use would a housecat be to him... Maybe one of Naruto or Sakura's friends would want it.
Non-linearity FTW! Sorry if the beginning is confusing, I was experimenting. Hopefully it will all make sense if you keep going a little bit. But if it doesn't, please tell me. If you can help me figure out where I should put in-fic timeline reminders, definitely tell me. If you have any other sort of crit, yes yes. It's the first draft, it's MADE to be edited and tweaked and otherwise made shiny.
I'm not sure if some of what happens doesn't come across as a little contrived. In my mind it makes sense, but hey. As for Sasuke characterization, crit is also accepted, but please remember mine is closer to Gaara arc!Sasuke than current manga!Sasuke.
Anyway, not sure if it's the complete chapter or not, because I still don't know if I'm gonna switch the POV to someone else for the next scene. They'd have a TINY scene, but if I leave it to Sasuke, he's got another huge scene coming after that and I think if it's all in his POV the chapter would end up WAY TOO FRIGGIN LONG. I'll have to think about it. Hrrrm.
--edit: okay I forgot to mention. But that previous sasuke POV bit you read a little time ago? Pretend you didn't. I salvaged about half of it and the rest isn't in-fic anymore, just implied. I have no clue how well i did imply it, though, so if you didn't understand jack shit then please tell me. XD;;
The jounin-sensei should have been there over a half-hour ago.
The cloud of dust rising from the landslide was as good as a beacon flare. Big-scale destruction meant dangerous, higher-level fighters, but also a higher likelihood of exhausted or badly injured opponents. Only one day left for the test and those still in the running were starting to feel the need to take bigger risks if they wanted to get anywhere. Sasuke understood that.
He was still furious with himself for not understanding it faster.
At his side the draft-horse-sized wolf stumbled. Sasuke's hand shot out and snatched Green-hair's wrist before the half-unconscious Grass ninja could slide boneless off his ride.
Fingers clenching weakly into dark fur, Green-hair refused to meet his eyes, to acknowledge his help. It worked for Sasuke; he did the same, turned his attention back outward, away from the exhausted wolf and its charge, away from the other two, the girl and the giant. He wasn't any happier about being here than the Grass team was.
He'd just wanted to get them Grass team out of Kyuubi's immediate range, where the big healer and the girl with the katana could evacuate their own teammate. After that, it was their problem. He had teammates of his own to go back to.
--
The old three-tailed fox slid in his grasp, fur slick with blood. Sasuke shifted the animal back up against his chest as he ran; the fox didn't complain, even though he'd been a little rough. The animal wasn't heavy, mostly made of skin and bones, but tall enough to be awkward to carry.
Sasuke slanted a wary look at the girl with the katana. She was the only one with her arms free; he didn't like that. If the fox hadn't needed all its concentration to keep holding the genjutsu that hid their escape, Sasuke was sure she would have attacked already. He knew the type.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, sharingan cutting through the haze of the kitsune illusion. Still no sign of pursuit. Still no sign of Sakura either. He really hated this.
Fucking Kyuubi.
More than a mile away and he could still feel Kyuubi's chakra prickling his skin. Sasuke didn't want to go any farther; it seemed a really stupid idea not to have even a rough idea of Kyuubi's location. He stalked up to the girl, sidestepped the tip of her sword, and pushed the blood-slick fox in her arms.
She stiffened, forced to juggle the katana and the animal. The fox smothered a little pained grunt. Sasuke took a step back out of her personal space before she decided to just dump the beast on the ground and run him through.
"That's far enough," Sasuke said.
He took them in. One exhausted and rather slow-moving medic-nin, one half-dead guy, two summons -- one of them arthritic, with a crushed front paw, and the other one, the horse-sized wolf, still trembling on the edge of white-eyed panic. It wouldn't be hard for him to punch the girl unconscious and force their tokens out of them. And then, of course, the healer would have to juggle two KOed teammates as Kyuubi no Youko hunted them down, which made helping them get away in the first place rather pointless.
He was tempted to just turn around and leave. Negotiating would take time he could use to get back to Sakura and check on the situation.
He wished he hadn't let it bother him, when she asked what he'd do if Naruto were the one standing with him on the battlefield instead. He knew she was a ninja and he had to trust her to handle some of their collective shit at least sometimes, but he still wished he'd stayed.
Of course then Kyuubi would have just trapped him under another tree with admonitions to get some rest already because an exhausted Sasuke couldn't entertain that furry asshole enough, and the Grass team would be dead and Sakura would have ended up alone in front of him anyway. Sasuke tugged a leaf out of his hair, freeing a clump of dirt. He could probably afford to waste a little time extorting compensation out of them. Wasn't like he could do much back there, apart from getting beaten up again.
They kept staring at him, the girl and the giant, waiting for his demands. Exhausted and beaten and hating every single second of it.
Sasuke's upper lip curled and he turned on his heel to leave.
"Wait," the healer said.
The young man was a little pale, now that Sasuke looked closer. Especially around the lips, bloodless and pinched. No doubt he'd wasted a lot of chakra on his companion. He wasn't really that old, actually -- just large and big-boned. Sixteen maybe, though at first glance you'd have given him at least twenty.
"We won't go far alone."
"Not my problem," Sasuke countered. "You attacked us first, count yourself lucky I even bothered getting you that far."
The healer shifted his teammate's weight on his back; brown-skinned fingers clenched weakly on his shirt as the injured teenager woke halfway. He glanced down at those hands, squared his shoulders in resolve.
"I don't suppose you want to escort us? I'll pay you." He tapped the zippered pouch at his waist.
The girl jerked in surprise, and she put the fox down on the mossy ground a little fast, in a hurry to free her arms. "Maneki, stop right here. We will not be indebted to him."
"We're already indebted to him, Zenko."
She didn't like that, he could tell, her almond eyes narrowed to black slits. Sasuke was ready to say 'You're not going to get any more indebted than that, because I'm leaving.' But then again...
The healer acknowledged a debt. Did he feel it was big enough to owe Sasuke a way to fix that mess? That would be worth wasting a few more minutes, if he could only copy it with the Sharingan.
"Teach me how to end that jutsu and we'll be even."
The guy -- Maneki -- hesitated, and sighed. "Oh, hell. Why not. I was going to tell your teammate anyway."
He shifted his unconscious teammate's weight to the side so he could free a hand to shake on, the corner of his lip quirked up in a rueful, tired half-smile.
--
Traveling face down on his mount wasn't very good for Green-hair, pressed along the wolf's spine, arms and legs dangling on each side with only their weight to keep him balanced up there. If he lost consciousness again the fur might smother him, and Sasuke didn't know what state his ribs were in -- he just knew the guy's shirt was one big red ruin in the front.
No one else could carry him. Only Sasuke was still unburdened, and Sasuke wouldn't hinder himself again.
Where the fuck were the jounin-sensei? There should have been some around, if only for security purposes if not for handing out those tokens. Were they all converging on Kyuubi's location? That had to be it. Because Sasuke hadn't seen or felt even a hint that one of them had been anywhere close since early this morning, and that was just wrong.
He circled the group again, went on point, fell back. Looked at them, just a glance, before going back on high alert.
The old fox sat crouched on the wolf's rump, his injured paw tucked in, and sometimes pushed his weight on one of his master's legs or another to keep him balanced. The girl Zenko trudged along, slender body bent almost double under the healer's weight. Her face looked chiseled in marble.
The wolf was close to just saying 'fuck it' and bolting, popping back into whatever other space or dimension it came from. Except that its summoner -- its pack leader -- still walked. So it stayed. For now.
Green-hair watched Zenko, too, the side of his face pressed on her wolf's flank. He wasn't saying anything. No one had said a thing since the ambush.
Sasuke rubbed his forearm. Flakes of crusting blood fell from razor-sharp, parallel slices that matched his shredded arm-warmer. He'd tried to hold onto the cat. He shouldn't have.
--
"This is Yume," Maneki said, crouched on the floor with his hand still on the summoning circle.
She was tiger-striped and sleek, with green eyes, and the tip of her lashing tail was just barely forked. She looked up at Sasuke with that indifference that was the mark of cats everywhere.
"I can't teach it to you -- your control isn't fine enough. Yume knows what your medic-nin needs to know."
She leaped to Sasuke's chest, where he caught and held her only out of an old, forgotten habit. He hadn't handled a cat in so long. He felt vaguely annoyed -- amused -- at the assumption that of course he would wrap an arm under her for her to sit on... or perhaps she didn't care whether he did or not, because she had her claws in his shirt to make sure gravity didn't pull her back down regardless.
"So? What are you waiting for?"
Sasuke snorted at her acidic tone, and turned around to leave without giving the Grass team a last look. He started jogging down the slope, the cat's upper body draped lazily on his shoulder.
Naruto. Sakura. He wasn't sure how he would immobilize Kyuubi long enough for Sakura to do her thing, but they'd figure something out.
He didn't have time to go far. Yume suddenly bristled herself to three times her size and clawed her way out of his hold, yowling. He fought to hold her back, but she was fast and too small to target easily.
Why the hell had he ever imagined Maneki had honor? The rest of his team didn't, and now here was his summon, escaping to get out of their deal. He bet they had enough time to hide again and thought Sasuke wouldn't find them, or bother to look too hard.
They'd miscalculated. Sakura was safe enough for now -- anyone who got within a half-mile of her wouldn't survive Kyuubi long enough to cause her any trouble. And Sasuke hated being made a fool of.
He gave chase to the animal, keeping hot on her tail, refusing to let her lose him as she went through bushes he couldn't cross. He kept track of every movement, jumped over rocks and bounced up slopes after the madly racing cat. And then he was back where he'd left the Grass team.
He should have known the dust would attract other teams. It was like a signal flare. He should have known.
--
"He's dead, Zen."
Sasuke stared ahead, like he hadn't heard Green-hair's scratchy voice. For a moment -- ten seconds, thirty -- Zenko did the same, her narrow face fixed into a surprisingly mild expression.
"I can tell."
She kept going, bent almost double, Maneki's limp body draped over her back with his legs dragging in the dust.
It would have been easier to switch, his bulk on the wolf, Green-hair on her, but Sasuke had heard the crisp order she gave the beast, if they were ambushed once again -- to run away and get Kon out of there.
And she would stay behind to fight. With the corpse.
Sasuke drifted away on the far side of the wolf's flank, put its body between him and the two teammates so he couldn't see their faces.
"He's dead weight."
Zenko kept staring right ahead, and taking one step and one step and another step. "He is."
Sasuke saw Green-hair's fingers clench in the wolf's fur until the knuckles paled.
"Hey, Leaf bastard," he called, voice almost like a growl. Sasuke had heard Kyuubi growl, of course, and it didn't compare, but it sounded similar. A lot more raw, too. Pain and powerlessness, anger thrown at Sasuke's face like a shield. He was intimate with such methods.
"What?"
"Come here."
Sasuke went. He got there in time to catch him as he slipped off the wolf, had to take most of his weight though as Kon's legs wobbled. For a second the Grass ninja almost fainted.
The wolf stopped, whined quietly. Zenko took another ten step before she slowed and stopped in turn.
It should have looked kind of ridiculous, really; Zenko was almost Sakura's size, with narrow hips and long slender legs. Maneki had at least a foot and sixty pounds on her. It looked like any second she would fold under his bulk and be crushed.
Like their dragging escape had proved, the body was slowing them down. Extremely so. Sasuke hadn't been about to say anything, not just yet. It wasn't his place.
"Get me there."
Sasuke pulled one of Green-hair's arms around his neck, wrapped one of his around the wounded ninja's waist, and half-carried him to her.
The two teammates stared at each other. Sasuke tried not to imagine being in their place and failed.
No, never again. Naruto dead, limp on the ground. Sakura. Kakashi. He refused. God, he wanted away from there already. He'd rather have to deal with Kyuubi.
He couldn't leave them yet.
"You shouldn't be standing." She still looked studiously, determinedly blank.
The boy at his side snarled, golden eyes burning with sudden rage. "Fuck you. You shouldn't be hauling around a useless bag of meat."
Sasuke kept his face as expressionless as possible as Zenko stiffened all over, pretended he was deaf and not all that interested in lip-reading beside.
"I do not care what your kind does," she said after a few seconds, in a very quiet, very chilly voice. "I will not abandon a comrade."
Green-hair swayed a little against Sasuke's side; Sasuke got the feeling it wasn't entirely pretend. His stare stayed predatory, though a twist of his lips hinted at nausea, or dizziness, or both. "I'm your comrade. You're abandoning me."
Kon shook his head, as if to get rid of cobwebs, let his eyes go unfocused and this time Sasuke was almost sure he had let his control go on purpose.
"I need you. He doesn't."
She shook her head, angry but silent.
"Want me dead too? Hell, maybe I'll be easier to carry when you can afford to drag me over the rocks."
"Shut up!"
The wolf flattened its ears back and crouched low on the ground, but its mistress didn't even look that way.
She was losing her grasp on her artificial cool, breath coming faster, made-up lips curling into a snarl. "Shut up, just shut up, how can you want me to leave him--"
"It's him or me!" Kon yelled. "His corpse or me, because that's not him, that's not Maneki, Maneki is dead, okay?"
He paused to regain his breath; she didn't interrupt him, though she looked furious enough to deck him if she hadn't had her arms full keeping the body from falling to the ground.
"And what do you want me to do? I can't do jack shit but depend on you."
Sasuke snorted quietly. Nice to know his attempts to mimic furniture were working. Zenko's eyes immediately zeroed in on him. It was acknowledgement enough for him. "I don't care what you two decide, but it better be sorted out soon. We can't stand in the open all day."
Zenko's eyelids twitched at the reminder, like she wanted to scan their surroundings. Sasuke hadn't seen her do much of that since they'd left the ambush site; it was probably a good sign.
She closed her eyes for a second, and then it was the marble face again, all smooth and empty. But her voice didn't match, trembling with something not quite like rage. "Very well. Let's find a place to bury him."
"That'll take a while," Sasuke said neutrally. She stared at him in disbelief that he'd dared remind them he was more than a ninja-shaped pack mule. "I suggest we find a hollow and block it with branches and rocks. It will be easier to recover him later."
The old fox shook himself and climbed up on his three paws. "This sounds like quite a good idea to me. We'll look. Goro-kun, come along, please."
He limped away, the wolf following hesitantly. Zenko still looked on the verge of exploding at him, for daring to suggest anything. He understood. Anything would look like an acceptable target at this point. He ignored her as he sat Kon on the ground, his back to a little tree.
"I'll be right back."
He went to look, too, though he didn't drift very far, just in case. The animals had a better chance of finding something, but Zenko and Kon needed their privacy, and Sasuke needed to give them some. Get himself some.
What a fucking mess.
He couldn't leave just yet. Not without handing them over to someone else. He didn't even like them. They'd been antagonistic from the start, and if they hadn't had much more important shit to think about Sasuke would have never let Kon put an arm around his neck, even injured as the guy was. Just wait a little bit for him to pull himself together and Sasuke would have to watch his back once again.
He still couldn't bring himself to just walk away. It wasn't a sense of guilt, not really. If he had been there all along, Maneki would probably be alive -- so what? What next? Should he feel guilty every time some not-so-bad guy he'd never met got himself offed on some random mission he'd never heard of, that Sasuke might perhaps have stopped single-handedly? He'd done more than he had owed those three, saved them from the one risk that was his to handle -- Kyuubi.
Death happened, especially to shinobi. It wasn't guilt. More like... responsibility.
A fox bark called him back. They'd found a crevasse close by, hidden by bushes, just about the right size.
Zenko closed her teammate's eyes. She didn't linger; just stared at his face for a second and then methodically went through his pockets and belt pouch. Soldier pills, explosive tags, a couple of pieces of candy -- his token, that silly little disk of copper he'd been killed for.
She stared at it, too, and then closed her fist around it and slanted Sasuke a hostile, teeth-gritted look.
"Leaf. Come here."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little. He went, slowly, to remind her he didn't have to.
Zenko pulled a scroll out of Maneki's pouch and shoved it in his hands, and then she stuffed the token in her own belt. Sasuke stared down at the scroll, an eyebrow arched.
"Your payment. For bodyguard duties."
When Sasuke unrolled the first inches of paper to have a look inside, he saw a paw print in black ink and a summoning seal. Farther down were a list of names. His breath caught for a second.
"Are you serious?"
Who the hell just handed off that kind of thing to an enemy, no matter the reason? She hated him on principle! For that matter, so did Kon. The only one who didn't want to eat his face was the old fox, and even then he'd still dutifully go through with it if his summoner asked him to.
"What else do you want? A kunai? A roll of bandages?"
Sasuke slanted a meaningful look at her belt pouch. Zenko sneered.
"You didn't beat him. You don't get to have his token."
Sasuke shook his head, gave Kon a look, but the fox-summoner's face looked blank; he wasn't going to argue against the trade.
"...I don't want that cat scroll. I don't want anything. I didn't do it for you." He'd done it because he couldn't look Naruto in the eye anymore if he didn't. That was it. No other reason.
Zenko's hand fell to the hilt of her katana; behind her, the wolf bared his fangs. "Listen," she said quietly, with forced slowness. "It really hurts my pride when a goddamn Konoha bastard does me that kind of charity. So take the fucking scroll because I don't want to owe you a thing."
"So instead of a cheap token you'd rather give me an expensive scroll containing an important jutsu?" Sasuke snorted, a hand clenched on the half-unrolled scroll. He just didn't get the logic. Granted -- Maneki had been killed for the token. He could understand not wanting to let it go. But how was the scroll any less meaningful?
"I need the token now. I don't need the scroll."
... Oh. She planned to stay in the tournament. Even now. Huh.
Zenko turned her back on him with pointed disdain. "With a little luck you'll get killed before you leave the island and I'll get it back from your corpse. Now get the hell out of here."
Sasuke let out a short sigh, rewrapped the scroll, stuffed it in his pocket, and went. Behind him he could see the girl rolling her teammate's huge body in the hole, and the old fox limping closer, dragging branches to pull over him; then he went over a ridge and lost sight of them.
The scratches Yume had left as she struggled out of his hold looked a little inflamed already. Sasuke pulled his arm-warmer around until they were hidden and tried not to remember the cat's incredulous, wounded scream as she disappeared into smoke. He'd figure out what to do with the scroll afterwards. He wasn't sure what use would a housecat be to him... Maybe one of Naruto or Sakura's friends would want it.
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