Chapter 20

Light was prevented to come into the hut and the shadows fell long on the ground. Suigetsu looked back and saw the entrance was covered by the guard forces of the city.

“Hold your hands over your head!” one of the men yelled. Ignoring him Sasuke held Maiko’s lifeless body and stood up. “Don’t move!” his sharingan glaring he walked towards them. The men hesitated taking a step back. The Konoha ninja’s aura was dangerous promising death if anybody dared to get into his way. Taking his sword from the ground and dropping it over his shoulder Suigetsu followed him.

People stopped and looked at them as they passed. Sasuke looked ahead carrying his friend’s lifeless body in his arms. The responsible of her death was going to pay. He was going to take her revenge with the most painful way.

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Naruto, Gaara and others were in daimyo’s office in administration building. They were in a dead end at the peace meeting. They couldn’t reach a salvation at the end of long seasons. Everybody was restless and tired. They were thinking about giving a break about the meeting with a little treaty to keep peace for a while. They hoped next time they could prevent the talked war.

“Sorry I made you wait,” Akihiko came into the room. The ninja didn’t miss his stressed and worried state. “Well where were we?” he sat behind his desk glancing over the papers in front of him.

“The peace trea…” Before Shikamaru could finish his sentence the double doors opened suddenly, the wings hitting the walls hard. Everybody stood in alert in first instinct and they gasped seeing Sasuke standing at the broken door bloody, limp form of Maiko in his arms.

“What happened?!”

“Sasuke?!”

“M-Maiko?” Akihiko got up and ran around the large desk to go his wife.

“Don’t!” Sasuke growled between his clenched teeth glaring to him. He stopped. “Don’t you dare to touch her!”

“Sasuke what the hell happened?” Naruto asked.

“Ask him,” Sasuke tilted his head to the man standing in front of him.

“You killed my wife! First my father and now Maiko,” Akihiko said angrily and panicked pointing his index finger shakily to him. “Guards!” he yelled. “Guards! What are you waiting for?” he looked to the ninja in the room, who were standing confused. “Don’t you see? He is going to kill me! He killed Lord and Maiko!”

“Shut up!” Sasuke hissed. He walked in and laid Maiko’s limp body on the couch. Straightening he turned back to the people in the room. He looked at Akihiko. “You killed your own father.” His statement surprised everybody.

“Sasuke, What are you talking about?”

“He is the one who killed Lord.” He was looking at the man bloody and in fury. “And Maiko.”

“WHAT?” Akihiko asked with unbelieving voice.

“Your accusing is so strong Sasuke. You say Akihiko-san killed Lord, his own father. And his wife,” Neji said looking at the woman lifeless on the couch. “Do you have any proof?”

“What proof?” Akihiko cut in. “Are you crazy? He is the main suspect. Now he is trying to blame it to me and get away!” Sasuke ignored him.

“I believe none of you knew about Akihiko-san’s dangerous addiction. Gambling. But someone found out it and used his weakness. Nakagawa entrapped him by gamble.” Everybody shifted uneasy. The man was the one, who was trying to settle a new village in Fire and wipe Konohagakure from the history. “He got into a debt which he couldn’t pay even if he sold Fire Country three times.”

“So what? Everybody has a bad habit!” Akihiko tried to defend himself.

“Nakagawa made an agreement with you for your debt. You were going to help him in his plans. Taking down Konoha and help them to settle Hidden Light.”

“That’s not true!”

“The disorder among villages, Grass and Rock’s attacks they were all part of the plan. You even killed your own father when you couldn’t persuade him! You blamed me for his death so we would start quarrelling while you could get close succeeding your plan.”

“What?” Akihiko chuckled disdainful. “We all know your friend killed my father! How could I take him under my control to kill Lord?”

“Stop denying Akihiko! You killed Maiko because she found out the truth. You knew she would come to me so you had her under watch and followed her.”

“This is ridiculous! I didn’t kill anybody!”

“No. You didn’t! There are Nakagawa’s men to do these. You just lead them.”

“Sasuke,” Naruto cut in. “I believe you but we need proof for your words you know.”

“Don’t worry I have.” He tilted his head and glanced to the door. Everybody looked there and saw Suigetsu standing with beaten up Nakagawa. A few sound ninja came and stood behind them. One of them came in and handed two files to Sasuke. “Here.” Sasuke gave them to Naruto. “These are the plans. Also here is Nakagawa himself to tell you everything himself.” The man hardly standing looked up his face and eyes got swollen.

“No! No, it isn’t true! This is a trap!” Akihiko protested in panic.

“It’s dead end Akihiko,” Sasuke said. “We even know how you took Suigetsu under your control.” He looked at the long blond haired girl in the room. Ino took a few steps back guilty and nervous under her comrades’ shocked looks.

“I- I didn’t want to,” she cried. “They threatened me! You really think my parents are on holiday? They have been prisoner in their hands for three months!”

“Why didn’t you tell us about it Ino?” Shikamaru asked hurt.

“I couldn’t. They could get killed if I said anything. I am sorry. I didn’t know,” She shook her head. “They only told me to take Suigetsu’s mind under control and make him kill Lord and… at the end the Grass was going to be blamed for it! I didn’t know… I am sorry,” she repeated apologizing despaired.

Naruto sighed rubbing his temples. “Sasuke! Don’t!” but he was late to stop the angry man. Sasuke grabbed Akihiko, who couldn’t move from his place frozen with fear, by his throat and squeezed it. “Sasuke, stop!” he let go but the man was trapped in the terrible genjustu already.

“Hokage-sama!” a Leaf nin rushed into the office in panic.

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The sirens were ringing over the village. People were being lead to the cover under the Hokage Mountain by the charged chuunin as most of the jounin were running towards the borders in groups. The messengers were rushing from one way to the other.

“Sakura?” Hinata ran to the pink haired kunoichi.

“Hinata!” Sakura turned to her. “We are surrounded. They are getting close to the borders. Go and help team yellow!” It was the code for the people who worked in the village to do works under attack times. Hinata looked at her in expectation. “You just got out of the bed, you can’t fight.” She shook her head. The black haired woman nodded helplessly and ran away.

She was patrolling among the houses to see if anybody left back and as she passed by people, who were running to the cover, her eyes caught Uchiha fan symbol. Frowning she changed her way.

“Ken!” she grabbed her son’s arm as the child was passing by her running.

“Mother!”

“Where are you going?”

“I am going to fight!” he said looking towards the way of the entrance of the village.

“What? You are coming with me!”

“No!” he tried to pray his arm away. “Let go!”

“KEN!”

“Let go!”

“Stop it! You are so little to fight!” Hinata scolded. “You only get in their way! Come!”

“I won’t!”

The slap was lost under the cries of the sirens. Ken held his cheek looking at his mother shocked and hurt. But it pained Hinata more than him. “Let’s go,” she said quietly holding his hand. He followed without a protest.

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Naruto, in the front, Konoha ninja was running to their village as fast as they could. They were informed about the ambush of Grass, Rock and some other villages who were their enemies’ allies. All of them were praying they could reach on time or Konoha could hold on until they were there.

Sasuke with Suigetsu met Sound ninja, who were waiting for him out of the city. He first took Maiko to her family’s house. He thought it was his duty at least. She died while helping them.

“Sasuke-sama.” The ninja bowed.

“I accept your offer,” he said “on one condition.” The man pleased to hear Sasuke’s accepting looked up waiting ready to do whatever they were asked.

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“They are crowded and they surrounded us from all sides.” The jounin a senbon in his mouth said frowning. “There are about one thousand ninja at every side.” He pointed where the enemy forces were settled.

“We spotted Grass, Rock, Mist and Cloud. Also some missing ninja from different villages.”

“Okay.” Kakashi leaned over the map of the village. “Can you tell us which ninja were where? So we can charge the ones, who can fight against them best to those points.”

“I can’t certainly tell it. The groups are usually mixed,” the man whose face was scared said. “But on these and these points there is mostly Mist. Here,” he traced the parts which were close to the mountain “we can say Rock.” Thinking carefully he continued to tell about the ninja surrounding them. Kakashi tried to make the best defending plan to protect the village. Sakura was in the hospital and taking care of the works there to get ready for the war. The enemy was crowded. Although they began to get ready for the war it wasn’t enough to easy the tension in the village or be prepared completely for everything that could be thrown their way. There were some ninja who they didn’t accept to see in front of them.

He wondered if Naruto heard the news. They couldn’t send a warning to them. They didn’t want to risk losing their best ninja, even one on the way out of the village. The messenger birds were taken down before they could get away.

To prevent the enemy to get into the village they set their ninja out of the village in two lines. One was closer to the borders to take down the ones who could pass the first barrier. A third line was on the borders. Although they had most of the ninja in the village it was bad the bests as Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Ino, Hanabi, Shino and Sasuke were away. Also Yamanaka wasn’t in the village as his daughter.

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The battle took five days. It wasn’t necessary to say it was bloody and hard. Konoha was accepting Sand’s help but they were surprised to see Sound at their side blasting away the enemy. The double attack of the two other villages from outside with the other ninja of Konoha who were away when the village was enclosed helped the people in village to ease their work. Also the attackers were shaken to see one more strong support on Leaf’s side.

It took days for Sasuke and others to get into the village after Grass and Rock decided to withdraw. Some of the other villages left earlier after the heavy losses they gave. There was nobody except the high ranked ninja and charged personnel at the places close to the borders. Medics were running around checking injured ninja and carrying them to the hospital. It was already full of injured ninja and the medics including Sakura were all working nonstop. The harmed walls were already begun to be repaired. Fortunately the enemy couldn’t get into the village much. A few places suffered by far range attacks were also being cleaned and fixed by chuunin and genin.

Sasuke stopped in front of the huge doors of the village and looked at his comrades walking in front of him. They didn’t know the deal he did yet. He was sure Naruto would be furious when he learnt it. Shikamaru was carrying Ino’s lifeless body, which was frozen by a special jutsu. The woman died two days ago protecting hokage. He wasn’t sure if her name would be on memorial after her betrayal. However after she died sacrificing her life to save Naruto they decided what happened wouldn’t be mentioned to anybody. Most of the truth about Lord’s death was secret. Nakagawa, his men and Akihiko were dead.

“Father!” Ken ran and jumped on Sasuke’s arms. He held the child as the tiny arms hugged him tightly and small legs circled around his waist. He stroked Ken’s back affectionately. He had no idea how he could tell Ken and Hinata he was going to leave. He put a hand on his son’s head pressing it to his shoulder lightly.

Sakura glanced at them as she walked towards Naruto. The worn out man was also looking at the pair standing a few meters away from him. A sad look in his eyes.

“Hi,” she said quietly.

“Hey,” he gave a tired smile half-heartily.

“How are you?”

“Fine,” he said. He looked down at his bloody form. She nodded glad he wasn’t hurt very bad. The tears ran down her cheeks.

“Sakura?” Naruto looked at the silent woman whose head was bent down. She took a step closer and leaned to him, her arms going around his torso. He let her cry in his arms. There were not much Konoha ninja, who could comply ninja rule no 25. In fact their village had the most emotional ninja of the world. In the war they lost a lot of comrades. But the ones who were closer to them hurt more. Ino’s death wasn’t easy for Sakura. The girl was her best friend. Her first real friend. Streams of tears fell down her face and small shudders racked her body lightly with the force of her could not surpassed sobs. He closed his eyes and continued to hold her tightly.

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Two days later the ceremony for ninja died in the war was done. Their names carved on the memorial. Hinata stood with Ken beside her lined among all the people joined the commemoration. Her eyes searched for Sasuke but he wasn’t around. She heard he was back from Ken but didn’t have a chance to meet him. She has been working in hospital to help. But she was hurt he didn’t come to see her. She wondered if she was wrong having her hopes high. She was anxious and excited to see him again but she felt as she smashed against a wall. She looked down and squeezed her eyes shut. Not knowing for which one, the ceremony or him, she didn’t want to cry.

At the back Sasuke couldn’t see Hinata or Ken but he knew where they were sensing their chakra. He could tell her thoughts in turmoil. He wanted to go and see her but couldn’t. He was busy with patrolling missions around the village. Also he couldn’t decide what to do yet. Leave or ask her to go with him. Would she come? What about Ken? Naruto would never allow him to take the child away. But he promised and he had to go. With them or alone.

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Four days later Neji and Hanabi learned about the incident happened in Hyuuga. Hanabi was furious ready to snap the necks of the people who kidnapped Ken and tried to perform the seal. Unlike her Neji was clam to the bad news. He read the reports about the event and decided to have a meeting with council and all members of the clan.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sasuke asked angrily grabbing Hinata’s arm and swirling her around hard. The sheets she was carrying fell down the floor. People stopped and looked at them. Hinata gasped in surprise. She was scared and worried seeing the anger in his eyes. He dragged her to the nurse rest room nearby. He pushed her in rough.

“Get out!” the two women in the room rushed out of the room in fear.

“S-sasuke?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she looked at him confused. “They attacked Ken and you don’t say anything about it to me!”

“I-“

“I can’t believe you hid something like that from me!” he glared to her. “I don’t want Ken to stay in Hyuuga Compound anymore!”

She didn’t know what to say. Where she could go. Living outside by herself wasn’t safe either.

“I am taking Ken.”

“Wh-hat…”

“He is not safe in the clan. I won’t let him live there anymore.”

“N-n-o,” she shook her head. “Y-you can’t t-take h-im a-away from me.”

“And let him die there?”

“I-it won’t happen again! They were taken care of. Neji…”

“I trusted it before. And look what happened? I believed you can protect him but I was wrong!”

“No.” she clenched her fists. “Ken is m-my son! You can’t t-take him away from me!”

“He is carrying my name!” he narrowed his eyes.

“You aren’t his father!” her heart began to beat faster. She regretted what she said but she would never let him take Ken away from her. They stood silently looking into each others eyes. There were so many things to say but the words coming out of their mouths were so much different from what they really wanted to say. “Y-you can’t do that. W-we a-are divorced a-as you said when w-we g-got married…” she gulped. “I-I am tired. I am tired of y-“

“I see,” Sasuke cut in. He looked at her hard. “As you wish.”

“S-sa..” he turned and left. “..ke…” she sobbed and ran out of the room after him. She checked the corridor but couldn’t see him anywhere. She dropped on her knees in the middle of the hall. People looked at crying woman as they passed by. It wasn’t what she meant. He didn’t let her finish. She was tired of the uncertainty between them. She was tired trying to guess what he felt, what he wanted and all ifs in her head.

Sasuke knew she was right. He overstepped the line. He had no right to take away Ken but he was worried for his health. What if next time they succeed? He only wanted to keep him safe. He wasn’t his real son but for years he was the father of the child. Letting him go wasn’t easy. You aren’t his father. She had never said that before.

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With his decision Neji surprised everybody. In spite of punishing the attackers he let them go. Having Naruto’s and some council members’ support on his side he gave reform decisions in the clan. While some protested the clan would get harmed by his changes the agreeing of the generality silenced them.

The cursed seal was forbidden and none of the children, who didn’t have it, would be given the seal. The main family members were forbidden to activate the seals on branch family members either.

While Hinata was happy about the change Hanabi wasn’t much supporter of Neji’s decisions but after telling her worries she stepped back. She was also annoyed to see the girl, who was one of the attackers, around her husband. The lady of the clan was aware his interest to the young girl too. Their marriage wasn’t a love relationship. He didn’t love his second wife either. Even if she wanted to be happy for him she was worried to be left alone by herself.

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Having permission from Naruto wasn’t easy. When he told the blond about his leaving his friend acted as he guessed. Their arguments ended with newly added scars to their previous wounds from the war. It wasn’t easy to convince the man while Sakura and everybody were against to him.

“What about Ken?” Naruto yelled. “How could you leave him and go?!”

“When I am gone you have your chance!” Sasuke said back. “You can be his father now.”

“Idıot!”

He caressed the hair of Ken lying in his arms. He asked Hinata to have Ken for the day and night before he left. She didn’t look at him when they met. Her eyes were on the floor all the time. She was upset, worried and tired. She could just nod when he told her he was going to leave and wanted to spend his last day with Ken.

Kissing the top of the little child’s head Sasuke got up slowly to not wake him up. Sitting on the windowsill he watched him sleep. The sky began brightening.

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When he woke up Ken found himself alone in his own bed. Confused he got up and left the room to look for his mother. She was in the living room of the wing they used in the mansion. The breakfast table was settled and she was sitting beside it. Her tea was untouched cold. She was crying.

“Mother?” he asked. He shifted on his feet and fidgeted with the hem of his night shirt when his only answer was silence from the crying woman. “Where is father?”

Hinata didn’t look up to him. “H-he left.”

“ Mission? Why he didn’t wake me up I would see him off.” He whined.

“No, Ken.” She fisted her yukata on her lap. “He left. He is not coming back again.”

“W-what do you mean?” he was worried.

“Sasuke left. He is moving to another village. He isn’t coming back.”

“No. You are lying!” he cried. “Father won’t leave me!” he ran out of the room, house and compound.

He stopped in front of his father’s house panting.

“Father!” He called punching on the door. “Father!” nobody opened the door.

“Father!”

He turned and ran to the Hokage Tower.

“Naruto!” he called when he saw his real father in front of the building talking with Kakashi and Shikamaru. They stopped and looked at him.

“Ken?” Naruto frowned. “What happened?”

“Father?” Ken panted. “Mother said father l-left. Is it true? Is it true?” he looked up hopeful to hear it wasn’t right. His father didn’t left. But he saw the pitiful looks of the men and understood Sasuke really left.

“Yes, Ken. It’s true.”

“W-where he went? Why…”

“He is going to live in Sound after now. They asked him to be their kage and he accepted.” Ken nodded and ran away.

“Ken!”

He ignored Naruto calling after him and continued to run.

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“Naruto!” Tenten ran into hogake’s office ignoring the guards.

“What is it?” Sakura asked. “Naruto is in a meeting right now.”

“Ken,” the weapon mistress said. “We saw him in the forest out of the village. He was alone. Lee went after him.”

“Prepare three searching teams for three. Be sure every team had one Inuzuka or Aburame in them.” She ordered the chuunin beside her. The guy nodded walking out of the room already.

“Don’t forget to send someone to inform his mother Hinata.”

“Yes!”

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Lee cursed his luck looking around. He lost the child and it began to rain. Even if the search teams came they would have trouble trailing his scent. He was fast but the child was small to get away easily in the big and old forest. He wished he could have ability as Neji, Kiba or Shino.

“I lost him here,” he said to the ninja came beside him.

“He is probably going to Sound,” a guy, who Lee could guess by the red paints on his face from Inuzuka clan, said. “We follow him from three ways to the Rice Field. Hinata-sama was already going after him.” they nodded and jumped different ways.

Hinata was running as fast as she could to the Valley of the End. There was Gina beside her. The rain was getting harder. She prayed over and over for his safety. She cursed her eyes weren’t strong enough to see further. She looked at the girl following her. Byakugan on she shook her head not seeing Ken.

Ken continued to run towards the village of Sound. He knew the village from the maps he saw in the books he studied. The real place of it wasn’t certain but they mentioned it was in Rice Country. He believed going there he could find the village. His arms, legs and face were scratched because of the pricks when he had to pass through a large bush to escape from the jounin following him. He waited in the middle of the thick branches a while to lose the man. Fortunately he couldn’t sense chakra or follow scents.

His thigh was burning with every step he took. It hurt when he fell and slid down a hill. He stopped breathing hard. He was wet from head to toe causing him to shiver. He activated his eye bloodline and cheeked around the find his way under the heavy rain.

Not being in rush Sasuke was traveling in a slow pace. When the rain began to sprinkle down he found himself a dry place over the rocks. He sighed thinking about Ken. He wished the child wasn’t too angry to him for leaving. Especially after he left without telling him. If it was done to him he would get angry.

Ken yelped in fear when the tree he was passing hit by the lightening cracked loudly and fell. He jumped away at the last moment and saved himself from getting under the smoking trunk. You are a ninja. You are a ninja. You are a ninja. He repeated over and over to himself trying to encourage himself to move forward. He wanted to catch his father as soon as possible. He looked back and front before he got out behind the rock he hid and continued to walk. He was trying to be careful to not slip and fall again.

“Found him!” Gina yelled passing Hinata to lead her. The child was moving slowly and she could tell he was limping. Her eyes widened when she saw someone was going towards Ken. A man with a strong chakra. “There is a man there! He is running towards Ken” she shouted over the rain. They raised their speed.

“Can you see who he is?”

“No.”

Sasuke frowned and focused when he felt the strong existence of someone nearby. When he found out the identification of the familiar chakra he flied out of the shelter.

“Ken?” he yelled.

“Father?” the child looked up.

“What are you doing here?” Kneeling beside him he asked.

“I want to come with you,” Ken said. “Please. Take me with you.”

“Ken, you can’t come with me.” He looked up as Hinata and Gina jumped down beside them. “You have to go with your mother.”

“No.” Ken grabbed his arm. “I want to come with you, father.”

“You can’t.” Sasuke parted the little hand from his arm and pushed Ken by his shoulders towards Hinata. She dropped her hands over Ken’s shoulder as Sasuke stood up.

“Father?”

“Good bye,” he said and began to walk away.

“FATHER?” Ken yelled trying to get free of his mother’s hands and ran after his father. “DON’T GO! PLEASE!” Hinata dropped on her knees and held him tightly. She didn’t let go even when he burnt her arms with his chakra. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” Sometimes he extended his arms forward sometimes clawed his mother’s hands to free himself. “LET GO!” he cried his voice raw. The ninja surrounding them looked away.

“Ken, please stop,” Hinata begged quietly, her voice clogged.

“LET GO!”

She cried holding Ken tighter. Sasuke’s figure was becoming indistinct under the curtain of rain.

End of Chapter 20