Never Trust Your Rinnegan (Tales of Sasuke's Travels)

Chapter 19

Sorry it's a bit late, I had a bit of a medical scare so I've been dealing with that.

The heroes leave, eventually. It takes a lot of poking and prodding coupled with several subtle threats, but they do leave.

"Sasuke-sama!" Haya says excitedly.

"Hm?" Sasuke looks up from the book he was reading.

"I've found something!" Haya lands on the couch cushion next to Sasuke.

Sasuke pats her on the head and listens as she explains that she was flying around Chabatake's old neighbourhood when she heard someone talking to someone with the same last name, an older woman. It was Chabatake's mother.

Still no word on Kazuhiko himself, but his mother was a good place to start. He wonders why she wasn't mentioned on his file, but ultimately deems it as an unnecessary thought. He's found her now.

"Thank you, Haya."

"My pleasure, Sasuke-sama!" Haya chirps happily before disappearing.

It's late now. 1am is approaching and Sasuke still feels like he has a lot to do.

He definitely wouldn't be able to talk to Chabatake Sr. if he were to go to her now, since she's probably sleeping.

Eri is asleep too, which is good. The sooner she's over that illness, the better. Especially since he's so close to finding someone who might be able to get him out and he'll need her for it.

Speaking of which, he should probably see her Quirk in action at some point. That way he can see if a genjutsu would work in terms of getting her to use it effectively, since she probably can't use it very well as of yet. That, and forcing her to use it if she doesn't want to would probably make it less effective.

With everyone else asleep and there not being much he can do, for now, Sasuke decides to go to sleep.

Sana is curled up on the couch, so Sasuke dims the lights in the living room for him before returning to his room.

~~~

"Chabatake-san?" Sasuke is in Oguchidori in the Kanagawa ward, which is where Kazukiho used to live and where his mother still resides.

"Who's asking?" She replies without looking up from what she's doing.

He found her working at an ikayaki food stall. It's a little more than halfway through July, now. The street is decorated with lanterns and lights. It's probably some kind of summer festival.

"I have some questions about your son." Sasuke says slowly. "And I'll take one of those." He points to one of the ikayaki options on the menu behind the woman.

"Fine." She starts making the food and Sasuke watches as people bustle around them, setting up more decorations for a festival. "You a tourist?"

"...Something like that. Why do you ask?"

"You look like it's the first time you're seeing the Toro Nagashi festival." She replies as she hands him the food he ordered. "That'll be 300 yen."

Sasuke hands over some coins and waits.

"You gonna sit there all day?" She snaps.

"Like I said, I have some questions about your son."

"What do you want to know about him? You aren't a member of the police, are you?"

"No."

"Yakuza?"

"No."

She narrows her eyes at him and scrutinizes him slowly. "Then why d'you care Kazu?"

Sasuke decides to lie. "He helped me out a while back. I'm repaying a debt."

"Then you're shit out of luck." She scoffs. "You say you owe him yet you don't even know he's dead?"

What.

Sasuke feels his nails bite into his palm. "Not even the police knew."

"Everyone else but them did. Some problems came up between his guys and a damn supervillain." She pauses and scans the crowd behind him. "It's getting late." It's not, but Sasuke accepts the warning. "Get the hell out of here."

Sasuke doesn't waste anymore time arguing with her before he disappears back to the warehouse.

He takes a moment to calm his anger. His only lead is dead.

After all that... he's dead. What a waste.

A lot of emotions go through his mind at once. Anger, frustration, anger again–

"Sasuke-sama? Any luck?" Sana asks.

Sasuke's hands shake.

And it's cruel, he knows it is before he does it but nothing is working out and he's so upset with himself for letting hope weasel it's way into his heart.

He throws the plate of, now crushed, food at the wall and doesn't even get the satisfaction of hearing the plate shatter because it's made of styrofoam. His hands are gross and sticky from the soy sauce but he can't find it in him to care.

"No." He grits out before going to his room and slamming the door so hard some of the stone hinges shatter. He's been cruising through this world so sure that an answer would just appear but he, of all people, should've known better.

Whether he couldn't find Kurogiri because of some Quirk All for One gave him, or because they'd found a way around his tracking, or because he's already fucking dead like Kazuhiko, it doesn't matter. What looked like a short stay is turning into a lengthy one and Sasuke doesn't know how to handle that.

It's not like he'd even prefer the Elemental Nations to this one. The Elemental Nations sucks. A lot. It's pretty godawful there and everyone knows it. But he's lived there all his life. He's grown up with it and intended to die surrounded by chakra and ninja and jutsu. Or at least something vaguely familiar.

And now would be a good time to think of a backup plan, but the problem is, Chabatake was his backup plan. It's not even that he was his last resort, but he was the only plan he could go with that at least felt like he was upholding some level of human decency.

The drug, Trigger, could be used on himself. Sasuke's considered it several times, and each time he's reminded of how poorly that would go.

For starters, he doesn't know what aspect of his power it would enhance. For all he knows, it could do absolutely nothing to help him and enhance all the wrong things. Because of how complicated Chakra is and how little understanding there is for it in this world, it would be extremely risky for him to use Trigger on himself, and even more so to attempt to have Eri rewind him, whether or not she's under a genjutsu.

He also just doesn't want any more power than he currently has. He spent too many years of his life desperately searching for power. The Elemental Nations are still suffering from the effects of his foolish decisions. He's still suffering from the effects of his foolish decisions, and will be for quite some time.

Sasuke comes out of his own thoughts slowly. The sky, which was once warm with the Sun's light, has dimmed considerably since he's returned from Chabatake Sr.'s ikayaki stall.

He leaves his room and cleans the soy sauce off his hand.

He picks the styrofoam plate and puts the plate and the food on the floor in the garbage. A part of him protests at the waste of food– you don't know when you'll get more, you shouldn't be wasting it, have you learned nothing?– but he ignores it.

Sana is blatantly staring at him since he probably knows that Sasuke would be able to see through any attempts at subtlety.

"Sana." Sasuke tries to find a way to make things less awkward and settles for a strangled apology. "I... apologize."

Sana accepts it immediately, like he always does. "It is alright, Sasuke-sama. There was never anything to apologize for."

Sometimes, Sasuke thinks, the people in his life are too kind to him.

A bit of a shorter one this time, sorry. I'm kind of running out of ideas haha.

Next Update: Nov. 21st