UPROOT||SASUSAKU||COMPELET

chapter 11

The torrential downpour that began as a sprinkle was cliche. The small drops that hit the window, and began to slide down made Sasuke aware of his surrounds again. He no longer felt numb all around, but his face still held a worried expression.
“Sasuke,” Tsunade called out once more. There she was, looking into his own eyes, concern coating hers.
“Are you sure it was Kabuto and not somebody else?” She questioned him again.
He didn’t reply, but gently nodded his head.
“Fantastic,” the sarcastic remark resulted in a glare from the Uchiha.
“What are we going to do?” He mumbled, turning his gaze to the droplets of rain on the window. The way the setting sun reflected against the water particles was beautiful.
“We’ll need to send a group out to find him before he comes for the village. I’d hate to see a repeat of the past,” Tsunade clarified. She laced her fingers together and came to rest them under her nose, thinking of who to send. “In the meantime, why don’t you head home? You need the rest.”
Again, the Uchiha nodded his head before leaving the office. His mind was racing at a millions miles per hour, and he couldn’t keep up with it anymore. His walk home was short lived, but the fresh air, and cold droplets seemed to help clear his head as he pushed through the door. Inside, he found his house as it usually was; clean and tidy. He kicked his shoes off at the door, and watched as splotches of mud fell from the bottoms. Sighing to himself, he quickly picked the pieces up and threw them outside. As he began to walk towards his bedroom, the smallest sound that came from the front room disrupted his thoughts.
Had he seriously not sensed an intruder in his home? Was he really that deep in his own thoughts? Kunai posed, he stealthily made his way towards the large room, Sharingan activated.
Upon entering, he saw the yellow tinted eyes sitting within the darkest corner of the room; the way they were glowing in the dark was haunting. The tomoes within his eyes were spinning now as the intruder lunged from the corner, aiming for the Uchiha’s chest. As Sasuke gracefully rolled out of the way, the intruder crashed through the wall that was positioned behind Sasuke’s previous spot. Upon entering the light, he could finally see who his attacker was.
“Orochimaru,” Sasuke hissed behind clenched teeth.
“Ah, Sasuke, my dear child,” the snake Sannin rolled the name off of his tongue, and began to hunch over for another attack. The two of them in this small room was like an elephant in a china cabinet; the house would be wrecked within moments. Before Sasuke could ask another question, the man was charging him again. This time, Sasuke didn’t roll away, instead he waited until the last minute, then jumped straight up. As he avoided the second attack, he grasped the Sannin by the back of the neck, and proceeded with slamming the body down into the floor boards. As he landed on top of Orochimaru, he began to weave signs for the famous Uchiha fireball jutsu. As much as he decided against using this jutsu in his own home, he figured it was better to take his enemy out while he had the chance.
As he finished the final hand sign for it, an immediate pain began to ring within his head. Sasuke reached for the side of his head, only to have the other side hit as well, and then a final blow to his stomach. As he fell from his perch on top of Orochimaru, he saw the faint glint of glasses that sat upon Kabuto’s face.
Of all the-
Before he could finish his thought, everything around him became shrouded in a curtain of black.
“Nice timing, Kabuto,” Orochimaru complimented.
The rain that continued to fall outside was back to a consistent downpour, and the rogue nin were enthused to see that this was their perfect opportunity to escape the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
-
The pinkette had planned to visit Sasuke the next morning, but as she had left her own place, she remembered that she still didn’t know where he lived. Cursing to herself, she made way for Naruto’s apartment; the blonde would know his whereabouts. The rain that poured throughout the night was just as plentiful the following day, so Sakura stuck to walking instead of hopping from roof to roof.
As she finally got to the block that Naruto lived on, she pushed herself up from the ground, and to the floor that his apartment was located on. The loud knock on his door probably could’ve notified anyone that lived in the apart complex.
“Naruto! Are you in there?” She was impatient. Her knocking continued, until finally Naruto opened the door. His eyes were glazed over and sleep was lingering within them.
“Oh, hey, Sakura,” Naruto rubbed his eyes sleepily. A yawn sounded out, and then he saw the impatient look on his friend’s face. “What’s up?”
“Can you show me where Sasuke lives? Or tell me?” The kunoichi was watching Naruto’s face as he thought about her question. He was still waking up, and she had caught him off guard.
“Why do you wanna know, huh?”
Sakura’s eyes narrowed in on Naruto, and her face became a light shade of red, “forget it. I’ll find it myself.”
“Hey! Okay, okay. It’s over that way. Follow the road straight ahead. After you pass two streets, take a left down the third, and it’s the fifth house on the right. You can’t miss it, it’s pretty big,” Naruto gave her a small smile before watching Sakura take off.
“Thanks, Naruto!”
“Yeah, yeah. Damn lovebirds. I’m going back to sleep.”
-
As she followed Naruto’s directions, she finally reached Sasuke’s house. His instructions were spot on, and she arrived within minutes of leaving his apartment. The outside of his house was done rather beautifully. The yard was nice and green, along with trees that had been well cared for. The hedges were trimmed, and the flowers that held the droplets of rain water were stunning. Hopping the gate that surrounded the land around his house, she made her way for the door.
After waiting at the door for a few minutes, Sakura tried knocking again. Again, the Uchiha didn’t answer. Sighing, she began to hone in on his chakra presence, but to no avail, she couldn’t sense him.
Damn him and his need to conceal his presence.
She decided that enough was enough, and to be the ninja she was trained to be, and break into his house. While she could end up dead because the Uchiha was absolutely ruthless, she went on with her plan anyways. As she began to the pick the lock to his front door, his door creaked open within seconds, and Sakura found that she was completely dumbfounded.
“It… was unlocked,” Sakura mumbled to herself.
She pushed the door open further and began her adventure inside.
“Sasuke?” She called out loudly, poking her head inside and looking around. The house was rather dark, and it seemed as though the space was empty. As she pushed on, she flicked the nearest light on and inhaled immediately, her hands flew to cover her mouth. The scene in front of her explained why she hadn’t sensed or heard from Sasuke all day.
The large hole in the wall had sent spontaneous cracks along the wall as a whole, and the floorboards even had a massive hole as well. She zoned in on the small spurts of blood that remained on the floorboards and figured that whoever was here, had taken off with Sasuke. Judging by the amount of blood, she figured that he was either knocked unconscious, or he had been stuck with a senbon or two.
“It can’t be…” she felt the room around her begin to spin, and the anger within her bubble. She gritted her teeth together, doing everything in her power to hold the tears back.
The pinkette tried to keep calm, but she fled from the scene in front of her and made her way towards Tsunade.
The doors flew open, and Tsunade was out of her seat, and preparing to attack the intruder. To her surprise, was a winded and very worked up Sakura. The tears began to fall, and she was already speaking faster than her mind could work.
“He’s gone! He took him, I couldn’t find him… he’s gone!” The words were flowing from her mouth like a flooding river, and she couldn’t think.
“Sakura, enough!” Tsunade finally shushed the frantic girl, and watched as Sakura’s body quivered. “Now tell me calmly, what’s going on?”
“It’s Sasuke… H-he’s gone.”
-
It was cold.
The last thing he could remember was the intense pain that had been struck into both sides of his head, and to the front of his torso. As he moved ever so slightly, his ears began to ring, and a wave of nausea crossed over him. As he pressed the side of his face against something cold and damp, he finally felt the balance within his body return to normal, and noticed that he was lying on his side. His face had been pressed against the stone cold floor. As he finally opened his eyes, he realized that he was behind bars, and chained to the wall.
Another feeling of nausea crossed over him, but this time he spit up blood, “fucking Kabuto.”
The copper tasting liquid was bitter as it filled his mouth again. He sat up with his back against the wall and began taking in his surroundings. The room was dimly lit, and the air was cold and moist. There wasn’t anyone else in the room with him that he could sense, so he closed his eyes and began to fall back asleep.
So this is where you were, Sakura.
-
“…are you sure you’re up for this? We don’t need your emotions getting in the way. We need a solid rescue team released at once. Knowing Orochimaru, he’s had this kidnapping planned out perfectly. He’s probably just trying to lure you in, Sakura,” Tsunade was calm and composed as she assembled the search and rescue team.
“I’ll kill him!” both Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison, obviously talking about Orochimaru.
Tsunade nodded to herself, ignoring the tension in the room. The reason behind Sasuke’s abduction was going to be a trap, yet she couldn’t bring herself to dismiss Team 7 from the rescue mission; they wouldn’t agree to it and they’d go anyways. Finally opening her honey eyes, she narrowed her eyes at Kakashi who was standing in his usual lazy stance, “I’m sending your team away, as soon as possible. Got it? You’ll use Pakkun-”
“The rain has washed away his scent by now,” replied the silver haired jonin. The skin around his eye crinkled, as he smiled a sheepish smile from behind his mask. Tsunade simply pinched the bridge of her nose at her ignorance.
“Right,” the blonde haired Hokage mumbled to herself, “let me think.”
“Lady Tsunade. I have an idea,” a determined tone came from Sakura. The pink haired kunoichi’s hands were clenched into tight fists and her body was trembling. Her mentor gave her a small nod of the head to continue what she was going to say.
“I’m not sure if it will work yet, and it’s a shot in the dark, but I’m curious as to what triggers my curse mark. I think it may be Orochimaru’s presence, but it’s uncertain at this point. It’s worth a shot though.”
Tsunade’s eyes lit up at the idea and she was instantly interested, “that could actually work. The only con is being able to control it when the time is right. I don’t need your comrades getting hurt, Sakura.”
Sakura’s eyes traveled from a pissed off looking Naruto over to Kakashi, whose eyebrow was raised at the matter. In response, Sakura nodded, we’ll figure it out on the way. We’re wasting too much time.
“Then so be it. Sakura will be at the lead, with Kakashi and Naruto following pursuit. I can’t stress this enough, but keep your emotions under control. I’m aware how close your team is, but without cooperation, nothing good will come of it. You’re dismissed,” growled Tsunade. On the outside, she was well composed, but on the inside, she was like an erupting volcano. The amount of emotional energy that was put into their short yet stressful briefing was over the top. Team 7 rushed from the office, and towards the gate of Konoha; the search and rescue mission about to begin.
-
“Do you sense anything yet, Sakura?” Kakashi called from behind the group. The rain was now pouring down on the three Leaf shinobi, but they were persistent. The limbs of the trees that they were hopping from were slippery, as well, but they continued on.
“Nothing yet, Kakashi-sensei,” annoyed with herself, Sakura came to a halt and crouched down. She began gathering the chakra within her body, and focusing it on the curse mark’s location on her neck.
Maybe if I can gather enough chakra under the curse mark, I can begin to sense Orochimaru, the pinkette’s thoughts were shattered when Naruto clasped her shoulder.
“Sakura?” Naruto’s voice was quiet, “it’s going to be okay, ya know.”
Her temper began to flare at Naruto’s comment. She understood that he just wanted to help, but at a time like this, they needed to hurry. Sakura wasn’t sure whether Orochimaru had killed Sasuke yet, or made him into his next vessel. The only thing she knew, was that they needed to hurry or it would be too late.
“Thanks for the words of encouragement, Naruto,” she mumbled from under her hooded cloak, “but now isn’t the time. We need to hurry.”
Naruto bit his lip from frustration, and looked to Kakashi with pleading azure eyes.
“Now, now. We’re a team, and we’re going to find him before it’s too late. Naruto, create shadow clones and we’ll cover more ground that way,” Kakashi’s lazy voice was now filled with determination with a side of worry.
“Right,” Naruto nodded, “Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
Within moments, the orange suited shinobi erupted from their spot in the trees, and began submerging into the trees, honing in on any clues or chakra signatures that lingered around the area. Kakashi cast his own set of shadow clones into the woods, and Sakura began concentrating her chakra to her curse mark again, come on! Focus!
After what seemed like an hour of searching and waiting, Sakura’s neck finally caught the slightest tinge of pain; like an ember touching skin for a brief second.
“They’re nearby. I can feel it,” her voice was shaky now as she grasped the curse mark. The three pushed on in the direction that Sakura was more than positive that they were at. The closer they got, the more familiar the surroundings began to look, and the more her curse mark began to throb. Through clenched teeth, she fought the pain in her neck and finally caught the sight of the small statue that was planted at the base of a tree.
“There!”
As they landed, she fell to her knees, holding her neck in a tight grip. The claws of the curse were now prodding at her skin, begging to be let out. Orochimaru’s curse was created to react whenever he was around, and Sakura knew for sure, that he was here.
“Let’s go,” Sakura growled as she pushed herself back up to her feet. Kakashi stabilized her body and motioned for Naruto to lead the way.
-
“It’s nice to see you again,” Orochimaru’s voice was low, “Sasuke.”
Crimson eyes narrowed in on Orochimaru’s sitting form. Sasuke couldn’t remember how he got into this room, the last thing he remembered was passing out on the cold floor behind bars. He no longer tasted the copper liquid in his mouth anymore, but his head still throbbed with pain. The dim lights in the room didn’t help, and the pair of yellow eyes that looked at him from across the room only pissed him off more.
“Nice work, Kabuto. It’s almost time.”
The pair of glasses that sat on Kabuto’s nose always annoyed Sasuke, ever since their first meeting during the chunin exams. As he tried to move, he felt the tight restraints on his arms and legs and immediately began to think of a way to escape. Sighing, he began to scan the surrounding area for chakra signatures; that way, if he escaped, he knew how many enemies he’d be fighting to get out of this lair.
“I wouldn’t bother trying to escape,” Kabuto commented with his usual smug look. Sasuke glared at him, but noticed that Kabuto wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
Smart guy, he though to himself. He expected as much from a rogue nin who has spent his time with Orochimaru.
“You won’t be around much longer, don’t worry,” Orochimaru finally commented before leaving the room. Kabuto smirked once more at Sasuke before turning and following the Sannin out of the room.
The Uchiha was now alone again, and couldn’t think of anything he could possibly do. The restraints around his arms were made from a mass amount of chakra, and to escape those alone he would need to use a large portion of his own chakra. As he closed his eyes, he felt the small pulse of chakra, tainted with worry and fear. He knew instantly who it was.
Sakura.