Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Shinobi and The Miko ❯ An Awakening ( Chapter 29 )

Sasuke sat in his quarters, wounds ignored for the moment as he contemplated an entirely different sort of revenge. When Madara had returned with that… thing formerly known as Kabuto, he had been only mildly surprised to discover that Orochimaru was a parasite as well as a snake. Not that Kabuto understood that, of course. The fool thought that he was the one commanding the power.

 

Still, this was ultimately unimportant. Whichever one of them it was, it was going to die as soon as he could arrange it. Their return had brought not just news of an alliance, but also the news of Kaguya's death. Sasuke absently ran his fingers over the lock of white hair before him, and allowed the anger to boil over again. He was infuriated: with Konoha for sending her with him, with Kaguya for trying to find him again after he'd sent her back, with Madara for allowing Kabuto to kill her, with Kabuto for daring to think he could. But mostly, he was just angry at himself. In the end, all of this was his fault. He'd dragged her into this revenge scheme of his, and he should have expected that someone like her would be too good, too kind, to follow the same path of self-preservation as he counted on others walking.

 

Yes, he'd underestimated Kaguya, and they'd both paid a price. So, too, had Madara underestimated him. If the elder Uchiha thought he could get away with allowing her to die, well, he had another thing coming. Sasuke was willing to admit to himself that he'd been caught in Madara's web of lies, that he'd allowed himself to be blinded to the truth. You could only play the part of willing accomplice so far before you were no longer acting, and that was a line Sasuke had crossed some time ago. Now though, now he was back to something closer to himself again, and he swore to this newly-revitalized identity that from this point on, the only revenge he sought would be against those who'd been responsible for her death.

 

If Sasuke had remembered how to weep, he might have. There was little in the world he considered worth anything, but the miko had been a different story. From the first time they had met, when he had fought off Orochimaru's men from her village, she had been just a little bit different. When nobody else would treat him because of his status as a shinobi, she ensured that his wounds were healed. When he had betrayed his homeland to seek revenge, she had followed him, not because it was her mission, but because she chose to. Kaguya had fought him, though she knew she would lose, just to get through to him. She had reminded him then that he had friends, people like Naruto, who cared about him despite everything. What she hadn't realized was that it was the fact that she was the one telling him that caused him to believe it. Because she alone had never lied to him, or boasted, or made a foolish show of competition. She alone had accepted him as not the last of the Uchiha, not a tool or a puppet, a rival or a student. To her alone was he Sasuke, and with her alone did he allow himself to be so. And now she's gone.

 

Madara, Kabuto, and the Hidden Leaf: all of them would suffer as he had before this was said and done. Each would know the agony of light extinguished, the exquisite pain of losing everything that mattered.

 

And he would begin with Kabuto.

 

***

 

The journey back to consciousness was a long one indeed, marked by fitful dreams that were later only half-remembered. When she awoke, three days after she had been found, Kaguya was aware of dozens of stinging cuts all about her arms, legs and torso. The sensation brought in a rush memories of what had transpired, and she recoiled from them, shivering. The motion only caused her numerous wounds to protest painfully, and she sank back into oblivion gladly.

 

***

 

Kakashi watched the others watch Kaguya, and he wondered if they had realized what he had. The girl had been drifting in and out of consciousness for some time, but at points, it seemed as though she were struggling not to wake, which troubled him. Surely, there must be a reason for that.

 

Then again, if her wounds were any indication, she had been slowly brought to the brink of death, in a manner more vicious than he thought even Madara of being. Surely, unnecessary suffering was not something the Uchiha had gone out of his way to inflict before, and so Kakashi was forced to the conclusion that either there was something special about this case or it had been Kabuto's doing.

 

Which raised another set of questions. Why would Kabuto care enough to torture Kaguya like this? Why would Madara, who seemed to care little for what the girl did, allow it? Was it simple apathy or something else?

 

Whatever it was, she had clearly not been meant to survive it. Kakashi could count on one hand the number of times he had seen someone so methodically… damaged. The deliberate cruelty of it gave even someone as seasoned as Tsunade pause, and he could understand why. Victims of this often came out of it broken people, and those were jounin or, most commonly, ANBU operatives captured during a mission. He could only hope for the girl's sake that she would remember little of it.

 

For Anko's sake as well. His fellow shinobi was clearly more affected by this than by most anything-though she tried not to show it- and he could understand why. Kaguya was her student, after a fashion, and since Anko had never been trusted with a genin squad of her own, her only student. However brief a time the training lasted, there was still an undeniable bond there, one Kakashi knew well. Even now, as Naruto and Sakura grew stronger, he felt himself grow proud, more than he had for Yamato or any of his ANBU subordinates. So, too, did Sasuke's current condition trouble him more than that of a typical missing-nin. Those, he could have tracked and captured or killed without a second thought. Sasuke… well, there was a reason Tsunade had been reluctant to send his former comrades after him.

 

His musings were interrupted when the girl stirred once more. Anko immediately rushed forward, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Let Tsunade handle this,” he said calmly. “We'd only be in the way.”

 

She shot him a look he was fairly certain was intended to kill, but crossed her arms and did not move further. Nevertheless, he kept his hand in place, and the two watched solemnly as Tsunade tried to rouse the battered girl.

 

“Kaguya, can you hear me? I need you to stay awake.” Ordinarily, this would have been left to the injured party's own discretion, when to wake up, but they were all pretty sure the young woman possessed information they needed to supplement their picture of what was going on.

 

Between them, they had established that Kabuto and Madara were working together, and that Sasuke had somehow become ensnared in it, though the degree to which this was so was something they all seemed to disagree on. Tsunade was fairly convinced he was entirely willing, while Anko was sure it was all an act. Kakashi wasn't certain he wanted to go so far in either direction, and so had withheld his opinion until such time as Kaguya could fill them in.

 

“Uhn…Tsunade-sama?” The girl's voice was little more than a harsh whisper, but it was all Tsunade needed to hear.

 

“Yes, it's me. Do you know where you are?” The Hokage's question was a tense whisper, easily audible in the otherwise complete silence. Kakashi watched as the once-miko tried to sit up, then grimaced and fell back.

 

“But you… you were…” Kaguya sounded thoroughly confused, and cast about as though trying to see, only to remember that it would do her little good.

 

“I got better. It's not important right now.” Tsunade's tone was weary, and their silent observer noted that healing her patient's wounds even partially had taken more out of the village's leader than was good for her still-recovering body. His own chakras had long since restored themselves, and it seemed Anko's had as well. The fact that it was taking their Hokage so long to recover, he hoped, was only an indication of her weakened state and not of something more permanent.

 

On her second attempt to sit up, Kaguya was assisted by Tsunade, and leaned against the wall behind her from exhaustion. It appeared even the most simple tasks were going to drain her still, and Kakashi watched with interest as the small plant in the window drooped slightly, then withered entirely.

 

Kaguya flinched, then seemed to straighten. “I see. I'm glad,” she said, smiling weakly. When nobody said anything else, she continued. “I suppose I have a lot to answer for, don't I?”

 

“Damn right you do,” Anko said gruffly, and Kakashi smirked under his mask. Seemed like Kaguya waking up had sent the kunoichi back to her usual crass self.

 

The girl's own smile strengthened, and she waved to them both, an odd-looking gesture. “Hello, Anko-sensei, Kakashi-sensei.”

 

Kakashi murmured his won greetings, and the young woman turned back to Tsunade. “Forgive me, Tsunade-sama, for this story may be long in the telling.”

 

Tsunade snorted. “I wish I could tell you we have all the time we need, but we don't. I'll ask you to keep it short.”

 

“Very well.”

 

***

Well, everyone, in case you haven't guessed, this is my official departure from canon. I'm going to wrap this up, probably at a slightly faster pace than it's been going, so my thanks to anyone who's still with me here; and I promise I'll give it a proper resolution.

 

Thanks to Beth for her edits; you make me happy with all your ranting about character flatness, especially because I happen to agree!