Chapter Text
Sasuke Uchiha was cursed.
There was really no other way to explain it. He’d been cursed ever since he’d locked eyes with his brother that night, ever since he’d heard those horrible words, words laced with jutsu and malice, words that crawled into his brain and heart and latched themselves like a rotted parasite.
“You will kill your closest friend. Receive the Mangekyo. And then, you will challenge me.”
It was a curse, a horrible destiny that Sasuke couldn’t break away from. A jutsu compelling him to fulfill his brother’s demands. He will kill his closest friend. It was certain, solid, immovable and unbreakable, and Sasuke knew he couldn’t get around it, no matter how desperately he wanted to.
Unless, of course, he had no closest friend.
Sasuke had researched the matter extensively, desperately hoping that he’d somehow misinterpreted. But he could feel it, could feel the heavy weight of jutsu laid upon his heart, and he knew he’d understood.
His brother already had a jutsu technique that could force its target to live through horrible realities. And it didn’t take terribly much investigation to find evidence that the Village Hidden in the Sand had a long, dutifully researched history of puppet manipulation jutsu stored away for any curious visiting shinobi to find.
Itachi had cursed Sasuke that night in every way possible, and his words had put a compulsion jutsu on the younger brother who’d done nothing but look up
to him.
So as soon as Sasuke had one, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing his friend.
But Sasuke refused to let Itachi win.
He put a wall around his heart the moment he could, an icy fortress meant for shutting out the rest of his classmates, teachers, well meaning people on the street who wanted to console the poor boy who’d lost everything in one night. He made himself cold and aloof and rude, sneering and scoffing and every other unpleasant behavior he could think of. It worked fine for the random Leaf Village adults, who gave up trying to speak with him after a while, instead just eyeing him from a distance and whispering. Sasuke wasn’t sure if these whispers were about his horrible past or his snobby and obnoxious present, but he didn’t show on his face that he cared. He was performing a service to the Village, after all, and he couldn’t afford to slip up. The first person he allowed himself to befriend would die. Simple as that. So the more he let people believe he was an intolerable brat, the less they’d try to be that friend. It was much harder for Sasuke to remain distant around the people who still tried.
The trying people in question were mostly lower performing underclassmen in the academy who fawned over his skills in training sessions. They were obviously just trying to flatter him so that he’d help them train, but he was honestly grateful for that. If they weren’t being genuine, they were easier to keep at arm’s length.
The only one he didn’t understand was Sakura Haruno.
The girl wouldn’t give up, a skill which he supposed would significantly help her as a ninja as much as it hurt his attempts to shake her off. He couldn’t understand why she was so interested in him; she was an extremely bright student, with him and her constantly vying for top spot in every class, and she was pretty enough to surely get any guy she asked out. But she seemed stuck on Sasuke, for some reason, and she wouldn’t drop him and move on no matter how offish he acted to her.
He considered acting fully unkind to her to get her to leave him alone, but the thought made him squirm. There was something about her bright eyes and cheerful smile that he couldn’t bear to be the one shoving a cloud over. He debated dropping school altogether, but that was out of the question.
Because his research had led to another uncomfortable and undeniable conclusion: the best way to lift a jutsu was to have the original caster do so himself. Sasuke knew that ‘best’ in this situation really meant ‘only.’ Itachi was far too skilled for any medical ninja to be able to lift the jutsu he’d placed; the few that had treated Sasuke those first horrible days after had done nothing to lift the constricting weight of his curse from his heart. So, of course, this meant that the only way Sasuke could ever be free of his curse and able to finally make a friend would be to hunt his brother down and force him to lift it.
Unfortunately, the Village Hidden in the Leaves had strict rules about who could come and go, and even stricter rules about a certain Uchiha kid coming and going. Sasuke couldn’t tell if they just didn’t want the embarrassment of their anbu’s failure to protect the clan known to other lands or if they just didn’t trust one of the last sharingan users off on his own, but for whatever reason, it would be difficult to leave the Village for anything, let alone an extensive and elaborate hunt for his elusive brother.
So if Sasuke wanted to be able to leave the Village and gather information, it would have to be as a ninja. Usually they worked in three man teams, but that could work to Sasuke’s advantage. If the other two ninjas were friends with each other , then they could occupy themselves just fine while he stayed off on his own and researched.
That was a lot of what Sasuke did these days. Researched. Researched, trained, and worked on rebuilding the destroyed little corner of the Village that had once been the Uchiha clan’s home.
It was a difficult task and far beyond him when he’d begun it as a child, but he’d been to so many funerals in a row that he’d needed to do something else, anything else, or he’d have burst, and seeing the remnants of every fight his brother had won that night, displayed vividly in each shard of broken glass and splinter of shattered wood, made Sasuke feel ill.
Part of him wanted to run from this miniature town and never return, but he knew staying would be to his advantage, in the long run. The anbu had taken away…everyone, and cleaned as much as they could, but even so, no one dared step foot inside the walls now.
So no one would be around to be kind to Sasuke and weaken his resolve.
It was perfect, really, even if returning there every day made his chest twist, right under the residuals of Itachi’s jutsu. It was just seeing the empty streets cluttered only with the Uchiha crest. It looked wrong, duplicated and plastered everywhere. He wished there was something next to it. Anything, really.
He’d tried to add designs when he repainted the boundary’s inner walls, painting leaf symbols and the crests of his classmates’ clans and even birds and clouds and flowers, and it did feel less empty after he’d done so. He’d been fairly satisfied with himself, then. He was still pretty satisfied now.
Today, his repair project was to finally finish fixing up the general store. He’d been using it as his refrigeration system lately, since his own house’s kitchen was quite small. Though maybe it felt small because the kitchen and Sasuke’s own room were the only ones he’d refurbished. Every other room in the house had been locked and barricaded, and he hadn’t entered any of them once in the years since he’d lost everything.
But the general store had been sitting mostly completed for so long that a few weeks ago Sasuke decided to just commit and finish it. And now, all he had left to do was finish building a few shelves, and it would be done. It’d feel nice to complete another building, and the shelves wouldn’t take too long, which gave him plenty of time to get in some extra training. Their final exams were coming up soon, and while he didn’t have any concerns about failing, he did want to work hard to beat out Sakura for top spot.
He stepped over the threshold into his town and exhaled. She’d been extra persistent today, and her bow had been very pretty. He wished he wasn’t cursed.
But that just meant he needed to graduate fast and climb up the ranks as soon as possible. There was only so much research that could be done within the Village, and even less that could be done without having a ninja title. He was itching to get better books. Maybe even get his hands on puppet jutsu research from the Land of Wind.
His hands were loose on his backpack as he walked down the center of town, eyes glancing over the hard work he’d put in these past years. The shops lining the entrance looked nice; if he used his imagination, it could almost be like the town was simply away at an assembly of some sort, headed back home now.
Of course, Sasuke’s imagination rarely worked with him for something like that.
Itachi had left more than just a curse with Sasuke. He’d infected his very subconscious with their final conversation, and that subconscious didn’t like what it had seen. So now, every so often, Sasuke could almost see Itachi, like a ghost in his sharingan, hazy in his vision but lingering ever present. He knew it was his imagination, knew it wasn’t real and, even worse, was childish to not grow out of such a response, but he’d never been able to shake it. He tsked. As if Itachi hadn’t ruined enough of his life, he couldn’t even be lonely in peace.
He dropped his head back to stare up at the sky as his feet took him to the general store. The clouds were nice today, but a bit dark. He’d overheard Shikamaru and Choji planning to go watch them on the roof after school. Distantly, Sasuke wondered what the appeal of such an activity was. Wouldn’t it be boring? Sasuke usually hated sitting still, always needing something for his hands to do. That’s why his endless renovations were so nice. He always had something new to do whenever his brain got too fried reading the millionth book on jutsu reversal only to find the same conclusion over and over and over.
He dropped his head back down when he reached the general store and took a breath, closing his eyes to do so. Maybe he could make a special dinner tonight, celebrating a finished building. Plus, it’d bolster him up for his big exam. He was certain he could beat Sakura this time. He just needed to study genjutsu a little bit more; that was where she usually edged past him. And how hard could genjutsu be anyway?
His brother could use it. With no effort at all.
Sasuke frowned and stepped forward into the general store, dropping his bag onto the floor as he did.
“I’m home,” he told the empty store -well, empty beyond the shadow of Itachi lingering in his peripheral vision- and put his hands on his hips with a squint. “I’m here to rescue you, shelf-less floor.”
The floor in question didn’t reply. Quite rude. Sasuke stepped forward and got to work.
~~~
By the time the moon had risen in the sky, Sasuke had finished all but one final celebratory shelf, stepped out to practice his fire jutsu -screw genjutsu anyway, why would Iruka Sensei even put it in?- and cooked his meal on the stove in the back kitchen. Now he took the finished bowl and set it on the old checkout counter before turning to the last shelf.
“Just you and me,” he said, his expression serious as he lifted a hammer and nail. “Let’s end this together.”
He was too practiced by now for such a task to take too long. When he hammered in the last shelf support and shook it -a very professional test of load strength- he turned to where he’d propped the last plank of wood, lifting it with a slight heave and slowly, meticulously, placing it on the supports.
He took a step back. Tilted his head. Took another step back.
“And we’re done!” he finally declared, pointing. “That’s another win for Sasuke, tally it up.”
He turned to his plate of food and grabbed his chopsticks, collapsing back against the counter as he lifted them to his mouth and took a satisfied bite. He savored how the food tasted like victory, and he grinned back at his work.
“I hope shelf building is on the practical exam,” he said with a nod. “No way I’d lose to Sakura then. I’d be top of the class.”
“Top of your class, hm? Well, if you keep up this kind of work, you might even match your brother.”
Sasuke frowned at the memory, his dinner suddenly tasting bland. He turned to place his elbows on the counter, his eyes lingering on his bowl. He’d gone to this store with Itachi, tons of times. He’d try to get his brother to buy him all sorts of things -candy, toys, books- but all he’d ever get was a teasing tap to his forehead and a, “maybe next time, Sasuke.”
“Some next time,” he mumbled, stabbing his chopsticks disinterestedly back into his plate. Maybe he hadn’t earned this celebratory feast yet. All the shelves were still empty. What kind of a store had all empty shelves?
He tapped at his chin with his chopsticks, considering how to resolve this. The easiest solution would probably be to just buy things from other stores in the Village to display here. Maybe he could do that after school. Or would before school be better? Less students milling about, talking about silly things like spending the afternoon watching clouds and eating snacks and laughing together.
Sasuke dropped his cheek into his hand, putting the chopsticks back into his plate and swirling it to wrap up the noodles better. He’d go into town in the morning and pick something up. Maybe a new bowl to have his actual celebratory meal in.
He wondered if the clouds had been pretty, or if Sakura’s bow had been a new purchase. He wondered if it would be too late to win any of these people back
over even if he did lift his curse. He’d spent years pushing them away, not even explaining why, because someone might be sympathetic towards a poor cursed kid, and sympathy easily led to friendship. So no one knew he was cursed, and therefore no one really knew why he acted so cold and distant to everyone, or that in his heart he desperately craved someone, anyone really, to simply ask him how he was doing.
Admittedly, he felt fine today. He’d made significant progress by finishing the store, and his fire jutsu had been strong. He just wished he wasn’t cursed.
Well, actually, he wished a lot of things, but those were unchangeable.
He hoped he wouldn’t be too late when he finally did find his brother and take his freedom back. Though, he supposed, he knew there was at least one person who’d probably still give him a chance.
He felt a small smile on his face and wondered what Sakura was up to right now.
~~~
Sakura Haruno, right now, was trying not to cuss out the lock she was picking.
It was incredibly infuriating that she could get past three layers of genjutsu traps but end up stuck on the simple lock on Iruka’s door. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and tried to concentrate. It only took a few more tries before she heard the click she needed, and she brightened up with a beam as the door slid open.
She tucked the stray tuft of hair back into her bow and glanced around the darkened school hallway before slipping into Iruka Sensei’s office, eyes darting around. While she had confidence in her ability to dispel Iruka’s genjutsu traps for at least several minutes, she didn’t have any desire to hang around here longer than she needed to.
Fortunately, it seemed that Iruka’s focus had been mostly on the door and the actual important documents, stored off to the side. Sakura’s goal would be considered much less of a security risk than those mission files.
Well, that just made her job easier.
She rooted around her teacher’s desk before finding her target: the papers for the final exam they’d be taking shortly. She beamed and flipped through the pages, resisting the urge to laugh aloud. These questions were painfully easy. Which was good. Now all she needed was to find out what the practical exam would be and start mentioning it in conversation enough to hopefully get it through Sasuke’s socially thick skull to subliminally influence him to practice it. She needed Sasuke to pass this exam so she could get the pair of them on the same team when they graduated.
After all, Sasuke was the easiest way to get to a sharingan. Especially with that Kakashi ninja being a lost cause and Itachi Uchiha tucked away somewhere in the Akatsuki.
Personally, Sakura didn’t understand what the appeal of the sharingan was. She supposed it could be the reason why Sasuke was somehow rivaling her for top spot in all their classes -which was infuriating - but he never seemed to use it in practical lessons.
Whatever. If her employer wanted a sharingan, Sakura would get him a sharingan. Even if she had to deal with the most obnoxious brat in the Village to get it.
She found a page of Iruka’s notes and perked up, scanning it quickly, and it was all good news.
“Clone jutsu and substitution jutsu,” she mouthed, scanning the page a few more times to make sure she didn’t miss anything. That was perfect! Those weren’t too hard to do, and, even better, they were both something they’d been practicing recently, which meant talking about it wouldn’t be suspicious. It’s like Iruka was doing her job for her.
She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought. Iruka was a kind person; he didn’t deserve to be tricked. But Sakura had a responsibility, and she intended to fulfill it.
She had first entered her boss’ employ when she’d been made aware of a rumor surrounding her father. Apparently, he’d lied about an injury to dodge fighting in the battle against the Nine-Tailed Fox, the one which had killed the fourth hokage. If something like that became public, her father could be arrested for desertion, and even her mother could get in trouble as an accomplice. Sakura had panicked when she’d found the information, because if even she could find it, surely a skilled investigator could.
She’d intended to take the evidence and flee the Village with it, hoping that would be enough to ensure her parents couldn’t be forced out of their happy, peaceful life by bitter anbu soldiers, but she hadn’t even made it to the outer gate when an odd looking ninja intercepted her.
“And where are you headed in such a rush, miss?”
Sakura placed the documents behind her back, eyes wide. Genjutsu clouded this man, its tells so obvious for Sakura, as they always seemed to be. “You’re not a Leaf shinobi.”
The man laughed, a bit cold. “And you’re not out for a walk.”
Sakura grit her teeth, adjusting her footing, but before she could even consider what to do, the man had disappeared.
Sakura’s eyes widened. Where did he-?
“Interesting,” the man’s voice said behind her, and she jumped and shrieked, tripping away. He lifted his gaze from where he’d been reading her carefully stolen evidence and grinned, his tongue running along the edges of his teeth. “Sounds like Mr. Haruno found himself in a pinch, hm?”
“I won’t let you take my dad!” Sakura said shakily, grabbing a stick off the ground and holding it forward like a kunai knife.
“Hm? Oh, it seems we have a misunderstanding,” the man said, placing his hands placatingly against his chest. “I don’t intend to turn in your father. In fact, I think perhaps we could help each other.”
Sakura’s first job had been slipping past a genjutsu barrier to copy a folder’s worth of information from a jonin’s private office. Apparently, her ability to recognize genjutsu so easily was rare and therefore valuable.
Sakura liked being valuable.
That first job had been done as a favor; in exchange for her services, her employer made the investigation into her father get swept casually under the rug. But under the rug didn’t mean it disappeared, and Sakura could never quite shake the worry in the back of her mind that somehow it would come back up.
So when the man had come to her again for another job, she’d accepted without hesitation. She would do anything he asked as long as he kept her family in their safe and peaceful lives. The man would pay her back with information rather than funds, but she didn’t mind. Every successful job resulted in a scroll on her bedside vanity the next day, neatly tied with a purple bow and containing a new genjutsu lesson. She relished these little rewards, savored the fact that she was gaining skills none of her classmates would have.
Especially, she felt a smug satisfaction whenever she’d place higher than the oh so precious Sasuke Uchiha on anything related to genjutsu.
But despite how highly she regarded her employer’s rewards, she didn’t know much about him personally;
all of his requests came through another leaf ninja who worked under him, the same one she also reported back to post-job. He was also most likely the one leaving the scrolls for her when she finished, but she could tell from the writing that every bit of information had come directly from her boss.
She didn’t feel slighted that she knew so little about him personally. In fact, she knew it would be smarter not to ask. The anbu couldn’t make you talk if you had nothing to say.
In fact, she’d only heard the man’s name once, when the ninja who worked under him had let it slip. The name felt dangerous on her lips, and she’d never said it aloud before. Hopefully, she would never have the need to.
She brought her attention back to the present and replaced the tests and notes exactly as they had been, or at least as exactly as she could manage. She slipped out of the office easily, replacing the lock and genjutsu barriers before turning and striding back down the hallway with purpose in her step, enough to give no one any reason to question her should she be spotted.
Though her mind still lingered on her curiosity; why would her boss need a sharingan? He hadn’t given a specific reason. Maybe he just wanted to study one, to observe. Yes, that was reasonable.
She sighed, brushing her hair out of her face, reminding herself of that. It’s reasonable. This is reasonable.
She took another breath as she reached the end of the hallway and pushed the stairwell doors open, jogging down the steps once she did. This was for her parents, after all. Any extra benefit of knowledge given to her was just that: an extra benefit. Besides, what was the harm in helping another curious ninja research interesting jutsus? The lack of communication between villages was only detrimental, to everyone involved.
She wasn’t doing any harm by just helping someone research. She repeated that to herself as she finally pushed the doors open to the moonlit sky. What she was doing was perfectly reasonable. Anyone in her position would have done it, done anything they could to protect their family.
So yes, as long as her parents were safe and happy, Sakura would gladly do whatever Orochimaru asked of her.
And if she learned more jutsu than that brat Sasuke Uchiha in the process, then…that could only be considered a plus.