The Flower at the End of the Tunnel

Chapter 9: Taka

Sasuke had made his way towards one of the other hideouts, he needed to compose a team to help him achieve his goals and he knew the perfect people for the job. Training under Orochimaru was annoying but it had its benefits such as meeting other powerful shinobi such as the one he was about to get.

Sasuke entered a large room with the only light coming from the 'fish' tanks at the end of the room. In one of these fish tanks was a young man who Sasuke had taken a liking towards, he had an interesting yet useful skillset and was even considered to become a one of the 7 Ninja Swordsman of the Hidden Mist.

"Suigetsu." Sasuke said staring directly into the biggest tank.
"Ah Sasuke, here to perform experiments with Orochimaru?" The shark toothed man said.
"No. Orochimaru is dead." Sasuke said smirking.
"What? How?" Suigetsu said looking extremely shocked.
"By my hand." Sasuke said giving Suigetsu a cold stare.
Sasuke drew his blade and broke open the tank.
"Thanks Sasuke, I won't question how you killed him." Suigetsu said laying in a puddle on the floor.
"Find some clothes and meet me out the front we're leaving." Sasuke said, he flickered away leaving an unclothed Suigetsu in the room.

Suigetsu walked out and Sasuke started walking off, Suigetsu followed.

"Where are we going anyways?" Suigetsu said.
"Well you need a weapon." Sasuke said.
"Yeah I do but I would much rather one of the Ninja Swordsman blades, that is what I trained with." Suigetsu said.
"That's exactly what we're getting." Sasuke said, he picked up the pace.

The pair arrived at the Land of Waves in front of the Naruto bridge.
"What exactly are we doing here Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked.
"Well, my former team and I eliminated Zabuza on our first mission." Sasuke said.
"I'm not going to ask how you did that... So I'm guessing the Executioner's Blade is somewhere here?" Suigetsu said.
"Yes." Sasuke said setting foot upon the Naruto bridge.
"Hold on this bridge has the same name as that Naruto kid." Suigetsu said with a slight expression of confusion on his face.
"They thought the loser was brave, so they named it after him." Sasuke said with a look of disgust on his face.

The two arrived at the grave sight for Zabuza and Haku with no blade in sight.
"Looks like we're going to have to do some asking around" Suigetsu said.

The two went along the outskirts of the village trying to not draw too much attention to themselves and asked around.
Apparently the lord of the land had taken it upon himself to claim the sword because he was worthy of it. Suigetsu was disgusted by the thought of it. They set out for the lord's mansion at this point it was night so infiltration would be easy.

"We're here." Sasuke said.
"We going in loud or quietly?" Suigetsu asked.
"Quietly, no need to draw attention." Sasuke said.
"Awww damn, I've been hanging for a fight." Suigetsu said.

The two made it to the wall that surrounded his mansion, security was lacking it would be easy to get in unnoticed even for Naruto. They easily found the lord's bedroom and entered, the blade was on a mount above his bed.

"Grab it and go" Sasuke whispered.
Suigetsu rolled his eyes but obliged.
He walked over to the bed and as quietly as he could grabbed the sword and then...
"INTRUDERS!" A guard coming up the stairs yelled.
The lord awoke to a shark toothed man smiling at him.
Suigetsu grabbed the blade and ran for the balcony alongside Sasuke. Outside guards waited, turns out the sparse security doubled in numbers.
"Don't kill anyone." Sasuke said jumping off the balcony and onto the outside wall.
"You're no fun." Suigetsu mumbled as he used the blades handle to knock the guard out behind him.

The two managed to escape following Sasuke's rule of no killing. They set up camp for the nights and got some rest.

The next morning Suigetsu awoke to see Sasuke sitting on the edge of the cliff, he was looking down obviously consulting a map.
Suigetsu walked over to Sasuke and sat down next to him.
"So the Land of Rivers eh?" Suigetsu said.
"Yes. Karin Uzamaki is also needed for my plans." Sasuke said, he always liked Karin she wasn't a problem and rarely complained.
"You know how much I hate that woman!" Suigetsu complained.
"You're going to have to get used to her, she's extremely useful." Sasuke said.