Black as Blood

XIII

The scent was strong and the blankets were still warm. So he still lived. The question was for how much longer. Like a shadow, the intruder slipped from the bedroom to the sliding glass door, easing it open and slipping out. Not a moment too late, either, as when the intruder leapt from the balcony to the roof of the building across the street, the glass doors exploded inward. The intruder turned, eyes going wide at the sight of masked ninja tearing into that apartment and destroying everything. What was the point of trashing the apartment that belonged to the younger boy? What were they looking for? The original intruder let a snarl grow and vanished into the night before the moonlight revealed what needed to be kept hidden. In the morning, the intruder returned just before the owner of the apartment walked up to the front door, peering over the destroyed objects for clues. The intruder looked up as a key turned tumblers and darted from the apartment when the door swung open.

“What happened here…?” Naruto asked the destruction and chaos of his apartment, staring wide-eyed at what awaited them. Sasuke nearly dropped the books he held to the floor as he followed Naruto into the apartment, surveying the damage. Furniture was broken, smashed to pieces. Stuffing from the couch cushions hung everywhere and broken pieces of dishes littered the floor of the kitchen. It was like a tornado had gone through and wrecked everything but the kitchen sink, because the kitchen sink always survives whatever horror takes place in a home while no one’s there to watch. The bedroom was destroyed, drawers pulled out of the dresser and dumped on the floor as if whoever had gone through hadn’t bothered to be gentle about anything. The signs that someone had been looking for something were clear, but neither Naruto nor Sasuke could fathom what could be looked for in Naruto’s apartment. It was almost like a death threat, though Naruto had stopped getting those when he defeated Gaara of all people and Sasuke had only recently stopped getting death threats when Tsunade and several jounin had spread the word of his bravery in the forest. So whatever the vandal had been looking for, they didn’t find.

“Unless they’re that into bloody sheets.” Sasuke whispered, even though Naruto glared at him for the reference of the night before last. The sex had been good, very, very good, but they had woken with just a bit of blood on the sheets, of which Kyuubi had made the joke that Sasuke was no longer a virgin, to which Shiro replied that he wasn’t either. Kyuubi had shut up after that.

“I’m going to go report this to Tsunade-baa-chan.” Naruto said finally. “She wanted to see me, anyway.”

Sasuke nodded, heaving a sigh, looking out the destroyed glass door to the balcony. “I’ll look for clues. If I find something, I’ll follow.”

“Right.” Naruto pulled Sasuke into a kiss and finally released the elder, vanishing in a puff of smoke and ozone, leaving the darker alone in the destroyed apartment. Sasuke bit his cheek, letting the warm and salty blood wash over his tongue. Look for clues, how bad a lie was that?

“I should tell him,” Sasuke said to nothing.

- You tell him and you’ll be ostracized again. – Shiro replied.

“A small price to pay for living in peace.” Sasuke moved to the balcony, stepping lightly over broken glass. He looked left and right, let Shiro widen his senses just to see if anyone was nearby that could be watching, and finally stepped up to the balcony. He balanced there, as if waiting for something, lifted one foot and fell forward. It was a trick he’d practiced whenever he got the chance. His hand shot out at the last minute as he fell, catching the edge of the balcony on Naruto’s apartment, swinging himself beneath the structure. His feet hit the wall and he balanced there, his free hand feeling for that secret pocket that had to be there. Ah, there it is. Sasuke peeled back the paper that concealed the missive and tucked the missive into his shirt before letting go and dropping that twenty or so feet to the ground. He landed easily enough, and once again he looked around for witnesses. Finding no one, he pulled the missive out and opened it, recognizing the flowing script.

- What does he want now? – Shiro asked his host. Sasuke only shrugged, tossing the missive in the air when he set it on fire, watching the ashes disappear with the wind. Sasuke’s mind was racing. Was it time? It couldn’t be. Not yet. Not now. He hadn’t… Sasuke felt eyes on him then, and he shivered. He had to find Naruto. Naruto. He’d gone to the Hokage’s. Sasuke clenched his fist and darted away from the apartment, passing like a shadow through the crowd in the streets. He’d tell Naruto, he’d tell Naruto everything.

He owed him that much, even if Naruto hated him afterward.
---
“-completely trashed,” Naruto was saying when Tsunade came back to the conversation. It wasn’t that she didn’t care – she did – but it was a regular occurrence among her jounin to return to find that their homes had been broken into and trashed, as Naruto had said. Sometimes it was a prank done by genin or other jounin, and Tsunade wanted to be able to say she was going to look into it to appease them. Because jounin are very territorial like that, you know.

“Naruto, you know things like this happen all the time.”

“No. Tsunade-baa-chan, this isn’t some prank! This was some real vandalism, and if Sasuke and I hadn’t been at Iruka-sensei’s, we probably would’ve been involved in said destruction.”

Tsunade watched the blonde, seeing the frustration in his electric blue eyes. It wasn’t something she could just dismiss easily, Tsunade knew. The vandalism in Naruto’s apartment hadn’t been the only place torn to bits. The hospital room that had held Sasuke had been torn apart and several students’ homes had been broken into. The fact that the children were being targeted frightened Tsunade a little, and so she had kept the events hushed to keep people from freaking out. Still, now that Naruto had come to her, claiming the same thing several other people had claimed, she had to do something.

“I’ll have you look into it all then,” Tsunade said after a few moments of silence. “A new mission for you.”

“But… I’m already watching Sasuke for you.” Naruto said. “I thought babysitting him was my mission.”

“He’s no longer in need of watching. When you have the time, give me a report. As of now, your mission of keeping an eye on Sasuke is finished. I’ll have your pay ready for you soon enough. Now-”

There was a crash outside of Tsunade’s office and by the time she maneuvered around the desk to throw open the door, Naruto was in the hallway, looking every which way for the person who had made that crashing sound. Tsunade looked at the blonde young man just in front of her and tilted her head. The boy was glaring at a broken potted plant and the window just to the side of it, and if looks could kill, Tsunade would have sworn that poor squirrel in Naruto’s line of vision would be dead five times over. She sighed and moved back into her office, or tried to, when Kakashi appeared in front of her, making her heart gallop around her rib cage. Even if she was an old lady, no one should have their heart beat five times the normal rate. Someone was going to die of that!

“What do you want Kakashi?” Tsunade said, maintaining the calm she had felt before the silver-haired jounin had appeared in her office. She was going to have to fix that. Tsunade made a mental note to have Shizune look into wards and the like to keep the jounin out.

“Sasuke’s gone.” Kakashi replied. “I’ve looked all over for him. He was supposed to meet Iruka and he never showed.”

“There was an incident at Naruto’s apartment,” Tsunade said. “Sasuke’s probably hanging around there.”

“I told him to stay there,” Naruto clarified. “He should still be at my place.”

Kakashi shook his head and the room went silent. “I looked there first. It’s a mess, Naruto. I’ve checked Ichiraku, all your haunts, all his usual haunts, even the ANBU training room. He’s no where.”

“He couldn’t have gone far. There are guards everywhere,” Tsunade said, already moving to fetch Shizune, to have her call the jounin. If they couldn’t find Sasuke before the council found out, things were going to get messy and very, very bloody.

“He was trained by Orochimaru,” Naruto whispered, saying the thing they were all thinking. “He could get in and out, and we’d never know.”

“Find him. Find him and bring him here.” Tsunade said with authority and more malice than she felt as Shizune appeared. “If he’s outside Konoha, bring him back in chains if you have to. Alive.”

Kakashi and Naruto nodded, both looking at each other with a worried glance before vanishing. Tsunade gave Shizune her orders and went to slump in her chair. The council was going to hear of this soon enough. Sasuke’s life was no longer in her hands. He was on his own. She turned to look out the window of her office, staring into the afternoon sun. If Sasuke was found outside Konoha, he was as good as dead. If he was found within Konoha, maybe she could petition with the council for some leniency. There was something going on here that she didn’t understand, something that involved Sasuke in a way she just couldn’t understand. He had left before she had been instated as Hokage, but she knew why he had chosen to join Orochimaru. Sasuke’s was a mind she just couldn’t figure out. She hoped he was still within Konoha. She hoped he was just in the bathroom or off with one of his old friends. She hoped he was at the Memorial Stone, hiding in the trees, or on top of the Hokage mountain. She hoped he was found safe and alive.

But most of all, Tsunade hoped Sasuke was found at all.