Damaged Pieces (SasuSaku AU)

XXVI. Torture

DAMAGED PIECES:

"Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes."

George Orwell, 1984
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(Unedited)

"Lets go," he said to the two men accompanying him, one of whom still had his jaw somewhere on the floor.

Naruto flinched and pointed sharply at the man's hand. "That's a gun."

"Yes," stated his best friend.

"A real, functional, and might I add - loaded - gun," he repeated with apprehension.

Sasuke arched a brow. "Your point?"

"Where'd you get that?"

"Its standard police issue."

Blonde eyebrows raised further up. "Whoa! How'd you get your hands on that!?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I am in the police, moron."

Naruto's face quickly sobered up. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," sheepishly said he.

"And you say Naruto is your best friend?" Gaara commented.

The blonde opened his mouth to protest.

"I just said 'friend'," corrected Sasuke.

"Wha-a! I am offended," Naruto crossed his arms and puffed. "We are still in Suna, by the way. You aren't a part-time police office here. So, that gun is still illegal," he pointed out.

Sasuke snickered at 'part-time'. That was just insulting.

"We broke into a building and stole valuable files, basically paid a man to hold a gangster hostage, hacked our way into sealed information and illegal only hits you now?"

"Oh my god! We're criminals!" Naruto sprang.

"What an idiot."
"Moron."

With that, the two men scuffled out of the room.

*

"How is our guest?" Gaara eyed the skinny man bound in chains.

"Mulish and rather irksome," responded the captor.

Through the duct tape, the man bewailed his protest against the insult, attempting to save at least some of his dignity.

The redheaded Suna man looked over his shoulder to his accomplice. "Sasuke?"

"A minute," he called back.

Fully turning to ascertain the problem, Gaara wasn't surprised to find Naruto involved.

"This is shit, man! Why am I never told anything?"

"Because you're loud," Sasuke bluntly replied.

"Wha- hey! We are doing first degree on a police officer and I wasn't told that! Not fair!"

"Ex-officer," Sasuke corrected, referring to the banishment of the man from the Iwa police force.

Naruto groaned when his friend supposedly failed to realize his point. Giving up, he huffed. "Just tell me next time so I am not this unprepared."

Sasuke shrugged and walked over to the captor.
"Baki, find anything?"

"Not as much as I'd like to," Baki gruffly stated.

Sasuke shifted his dark eyes on the captive. He stiffened under the cold, steely gaze of the Uchiha, expression turning as serious as Sasuke's own. There was a notable smirk under the tape though.