Back Together

Chapter 24: Back Together

Konoha was rebuilt, but the familiar warm aura of it was no longer there. A lot had changed since the war. People seldom went out and Konoha wasn't as lively as it was before.

He walked around the streets of the now gloomy Konoha. The sight of him was unbelievable. He resembled a walking corpse. His clothes were dull and dirty, his hair was incredibly untidy-bangs all over his face and uncombed and his face was void of any emotion. This was a complete opposite of the handsome, neat and the most envied man in Konoha.

Shizune followed behind silently, footsteps hardly heard. She was his caretaker for the day. He had collapsed a few days ago due to malnutrition and dangerously low chakra levels. He was supposed to be hospitalized for a week, but had left the hospital without a word. He had a look of firmness on his face that repelled everybody and no one dared to hinder his actions. Shizune could only follow behind him helplessly, lest he collapsed once again. Her constant pleads for him to go back were only ignored and responded with a bitter silence that tensed up the whole aura around them. She realized then, that he could take silence, coldness and bitterness to a whole new level. A level that could frighten anybody in sight. Goosebumps formed on her skin and she shivered as she looked at the boy walking in front of her.

He no longer lived a life worth living.

"Sasuke!" Shizune jerked at the sudden voice that came from behind her.

"Sasuke!" She looked at Sasuke expectantly, waiting for him to respond to the voice calling him. No response.

"Sasuke!" He just continued walking, unfazed by the voice calling his name.

"SASUKE!" Shizune felt a gust of wind as Naruto ran past her, towards the boy in front, and stopped him from walking.

"Sasuke! Damn it, what happened to you?" Naruto exclaimed, looking at Sasuke's disheveled figure. When he received no reply, he finally acknowledged Shizune's presence and looked at her with a questioning look on his face.

"Malnutrition. 70% drop in chakra levels." Shizune replied briefly. Naruto's sky blue eyes widened as he looked at his best friend. Sasuke looked horrible and his face was drained of any life. Naruto's eyes softened as he remembered that episode.

"Sasuke... It's been almost a year... You have to at least take care of yourself." He advised. Sasuke just started walking, eyes stuck to watching the ground, bangs now shielding his face. Naruto sighed and dropped the subject.

"Anyway... I came here for a reason." No response. "Tsunade wants to see us. All of us."

Everyone was there. Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ten Ten, Neji, Lee, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Sai, Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo were all present.

It had been 6 months since Sasuke and his team were on probation and they were now accepted back into the village. They all were all jounins now, along with everybody else. Tsunade finally spoke.

"As jounins, all of you need to be deployed into teams for missions. I have the finalized list now." She flipped through some papers before taking out one from the stack.

"Naruto, you're with Sasuke, Suigetsu and Karin. Sasuke's the team leader." With this, Naruto sulked.

"Neji, you're with Juugo, Ten Ten and Lee. You'll be the team leader. Shikamaru, you're the team leader with Ino, Sai and Chouji in your team. Hinata, Shino and Kiba, you're team will be twinned with other ninjas of other villages." Tsunade continued.

Everyone moved to their respective teams and Tsunade seemed pleased with the arrangement. "Dismissed!"

"So..." Naruto tried to get the team talking. They were Team 1 now. 'This is so different from Team 7...' He thought bitterly.