You Had Your Chance Ch.42 (Patreon)

Leaving so early and so suddenly had its advantages, especially about saving time or the distance covered. Our group was essentially gone from the Land of Lightning and we were crossing a second frontier to reach the Land of Fire.

So we were in a forest and getting close to the town in the Land of Hot Water, and had some rest in their famous hot springs. It was a reward for everyone but knowing Jiraiya's tendencies this was mostly for him. At least I could be sure that he would come to help if something happened over there.

Weird but good that I could count on him despite his problems.

Sadly, we didn't cover enough distance, so we were forced to camp for the night and it was the dawn of a new day so as everyone was preparing or making breakfast, meaning only Naruto and Jiraiya stayed back at the camp. It ended with me and Tayuya patrolling the surrounding areas and we left in opposite directions; she taking the southern parts while I was patrolling the north.

The decision to split up for patrol wasn't ideal, but with Akatsuki potentially lurking anywhere, we needed wider coverage. Every shadow could hide a threat, every rustle of leaves could herald an attack aimed at capturing that knucklehead. And I knew for a fact that Akatsuki obtaining the nine tails was game over.

But compared to the consequences, the current situation was boring to say the least. Just the wind. But that boredom was deceptive; in our world, peace was often the calm before a storm.

But boredom wasn't that much of an issue as soon as I remembered that Tayuya was true to her word and kicked Jiraiya in the balls, many times, I may add. She had every right to do so, that was a very important and extremely private moment. The perverted bastard shouldn't have spied on us.

It was a shame that I wasn't there to watch him fall to his knees clutching his crotch and howling in pain. I was certain it would have been a funny sight to remember. The way she described his high-pitched whimpering was almost enough to make up for missing the show. According to her, he'd squealed like a stuck pig. Unless that old bastard was just pretending.

But sadly I could only confirm with Tayuya telling me about it and how vindicated she felt after that. So all I could do was to take her word for granted.

However, thinking about that girl took me back to that moment when she broke down. It wasn't something I could just ignore and forget like other things, it certainly wouldn't be fair. The raw vulnerability she'd shown, the way she'd trusted me with her deepest scars—it meant something, even if I couldn't quite define what. It was strange to have experienced that.

I stopped in my tracks, right in an empty patch of the forest.

Why do I care?

That was certainly a good question, a good question with poor timing.

Tayuya was a special case in many ways and thinking about it a little more, would I have done the same with Karin? Would I have held her while she cried? Would I have felt that same protective instinct? 

The answer troubled me more than I cared to admit.

I shook my head, I couldn't focus on those things out in the open. Especially when out on a patrol, where I should be focused on my surroundings more than anything. With Akatsuki hunting Naruto, any moment of distraction could be fatal—not just for me, but for everyone.

Yet in correct tune with my thoughts my ears barely registered a creaking sound coming from the east, making my head snap in that direction as my hands immediately reached for the hilt of my blade. 

Which proved to be the right course of action as something jumped from the trees, making my vision go red and take in the new sight of two black masked shinobi coming out from hiding with their weapons drawn and aimed at me. 

Akatsuki? 

The thought flashed through my mind as I analyzed their approach, looking for any distinctive markings.

However, I didn't move from my spot. Not even when they threw simple projectiles at me, merely moving my head slightly to the left and letting the projectiles fly past me, my eyes never looking away as they closed the distance and their weapons glinted their sharpness. Yet their movements were too clumsy, too predictable for Akatsuki members.

But still never moved. As soon as they were within my range I made a quick lunge and shot my arm out and grabbed the first attacker by the throat and slammed him against the ground, only hearing a pained gasp from him. The ease with which I caught him confirmed my suspicions—these weren't the elite killers we'd been expecting.

And within the same second I unsheathed my blade with a perfect swing and intercepted the oncoming attack, which was clearly aimed at my throat. Our blades clashed causing sparks, but I didn't relent and moved in to press as to not give that person any room to breathe and put him on the defense but with just a couple of blows I learned the blatant difference and how weak and lacking he was compared to me.

These weren't even close to jounin level. Hell, they barely qualified as chunin.

So I just did a strong sweeping arc and shattered his weapon on the spot. Probably frozen in shock, I capitalized on those moments and took one large step and punched him in the stomach and sent him flying and crashing against a tree, to the point I heard a sickening crack echoing in the forest.

But not taking any chances against them I first slammed my foot down and crushed the throat of the one beneath me before I channeled my chakra and turned it into lightning before throwing my chidori senbon at the second attacker, and watched how all the needles pierced his body and pinned him against the tree like a pincushion.

I didn't need them alive. Two unknown assailants in the middle of nowhere meant this was probably an ambush targeting our group or reconnaissance for a larger force. Every threat had to be eliminated swiftly.

So just like that I finished the skirmish within seconds, causing a smirk to tug at my lips as it was easy, it was always easy. 

Disappointing, really.

But even if it was easy I couldn't lower my guard yet so I kicked over the body at my feet trying to get a better view and find anything important that would help me to recognize and identify if they were part of a village. But the first check up found absolutely nothing, so I moved quickly for the second body and found the same, and the only thing that I could see was that they didn't even wear a uniform, but it was a mismatch of ragged clothes.

That fast discovery made me frown. 

Bandits with chakra? Or mercenaries? The timing and location were too convenient for random thieves, especially this close to our route back to Konoha. And we already knew that Akatsuki has been using proxies as of late.

Feeling some unease in my stomach, I brought down my sword and decapitated the body, just to double check that the guy was truly dead, and quickly ran up towards the other body and decapitated it as well. From there I paid extra attention, and that was the right action because the body didn't bleed.

Zetsu?

If these were Zetsu clones, it meant that they were moving up plans. They could be watching us right now, gathering intelligence before striking and that didn’t sit well with me.

I grabbed the head and brought it close with a critical eye and waited for it to transform back or dissolve or anything, but it remained the same. 

So maybe it wasn't a Zetsu clone after all. Just an empty husk of a body—some sort of puppetry then? 

Why did so many questions crop up when I got a single answer?

That was always frustrating. 

But more than that, it could be dangerous. I needed to get back to camp and warn the others.

Doing a single hand seal, I took a single breath and released a fireball at the corpses. The flames engulfed them eagerly, crackling and popping as flesh and bone charred leaving a not very pleasant smell. I watched until they were reduced to ash as I didn’t want to leave any chances if these were Zetsu clones or something else.

I tensed my legs and launched myself onto a nearby tree, running vertically up the trunk before catching a branch and picking up speed. The forest blurred around me as I jumped from tree to tree, heading back toward camp. But my head was occupied with a train of thought, were those attackers just scouts? Was there more lying in wait somewhere? Or just a probing attack to gauge the strength?

Then my world decelerated to a crawl the second a small white spider sat on the branch directly in my path. 

'Motherfucker…'

My Sharingan flared to life.

I barely managed to twist my body mid-leap, using the branch I'd been about to land on as a makeshift shield while my cursed seal activated. My fleshy wings burst from my back, wrapping around my body just as the explosion went off.

The blast hit me hard. The shockwave launched me backward through the air before I crashed hard into the forest floor. Pain lanced through my entire body as I rolled across the dirt, feeling the searing burns covering my skin. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I forced myself upright, immediately scanning my surroundings with my Sharingan.

And this entire place is infested. The damn clay spiders were encircling me and getting closer, fast.

I snapped through hand seals and unleashed a lightning chain, the crackling electricity arcing out in every direction and frying everything within range. That caused the bombs to detonate prematurely in a chain reaction, filling the air with smoke and the acrid smell of burnt clay.

When the explosions finally ceased, I rolled my neck, and eased up my shoulders.

"I'm not in the mood for games," I snarled into the smoke-filled forest. "Come out, you coward."

Silence answered me, broken only by the crackling of small fires and settling debris.

Deidara. The mad bomber himself.

Why was he here? And where was his partner? 

Was his partner Obito now?

Even if Obito was here, he wouldn't stand much chance against Jiraiya—especially not now that I'd given the Sannin detailed intelligence on Akatsuki members. The resented shinobi would just get sealed forever, kamui or not.

Still, I couldn't afford to worry about a second Akatsuki member when the blonde bastard was hiding somewhere beyond my Sharingan's range, or was somehow masking his presence.

Should I burn the entire forest to smoke him out?

No. Too wasteful. I needed plenty of cover against Deidara's countless explosives creations—and especially against that suicidal nuclear option of his. 

But that train of thought is interrupted when I detect movement from the corner of my eyes. Small cracks spider-webbed across the earth beneath my feet. Not wasting a single second I propelled myself skyward with a powerful beat of my wings just as dozens of white clay serpents erupted from the ground, jaws snapping at where my ankles had been moments before. Missing their mark, they detonated in a series of explosions that would have shredded my legs.

Yet in that moment my Sharingan locked in and quickly deduced the trajectory, calculating the origin point.

"There you are."

I twisted mid-air and launched myself toward a dense cluster of trees, using one trunk as a springboard to change direction. Within seconds, I spotted the blonde bastard sitting cross-legged atop a massive clay bird, that infuriating grin plastered across his face.

I scanned the immediate area. Clean. No additional traps detected.

"You're eager to die, aren't you?" I called out, channeling chakra through my body in preparation.

"HA! I should be asking you the same thing, yeah!" Deidara stood slowly, extending both hands to reveal those grotesque mouths with their lolling tongues. His grin widened even further. "You Uchihas, always rushing headfirst without thinking! No grace, no beauty, no finesse… no ART! Just those useless eyes, looking down on everything!"

He leaped backward from his clay bird, slamming his hands together. The enormous bird immediately changed trajectory, diving straight toward me.

Asshole.

"KATSU!"

The giant bird exploded in a massive fireball.

I launched myself away, wings wrapping protectively around my body. But the shockwave still caught me, the force of the blast hurling me through the air like a ragdoll for a few seconds before I regained control. Scorching heat seared through my wings, and I could feel them burning, smoke rising from the affected flesh.

It was still very painful but it would be worse so I retracted the transformation before the damage could worsen, the burns transferring to my normal body as angry red welts across my chest and back. And the subsequent pain throbbed with every breath.

I landed in a crouch, assessing the damage to my body. Not bad, and it wouldn’t hinder me in the fight.

"Tch, and to think Orochimaru got himself killed by a brat like you, yeah!" Deidara stood on the ground now, looking completely unscathed and radiating underserved smugness. "You definitely cheated! Only my true artistic self could actually defeat the snake!"

"So what if I did?" I smirked, preparing my Chidori Spear. Electricity crackled and danced around my hand, casting flickering blue-white light. "At the end of the day, I'm the one who killed Orochimaru and you're not. That's what the world remembers—not the whining of some con-artist who makes cheap fireworks."

Deidara's face contorted, teeth grinding as he glared at me with his visible eye. But then, just as quickly, the anger melted away, replaced by that manic grin.

"Well then, I just have to kill you to fix that mistake, yeah!" He reached into his clay pouch with both hands, the mouths already chewing. "And this time, I'll make sure everyone knows—my art is superior! Those damn eyes won't save you when you can't even see my masterpiece coming!"

Clay birds began forming in his palms, dozens of them.

"Your art?" I scoffed, stance shifting as I prepared to move. "Is that what you call randomly blowing things up? Even a child with firecrackers has more creativity."

Provocations worked wonders with him.

"SHUT UP!" Deidara's composure shattered completely. "You don't understand! You CAN'T understand! True art is fleeting, momentary, EXPLOSIVE! Not like those boring eyes of yours that just copy and steal! When was the last time you created something original, yeah?!"

Is that ‘yeah’ a verbal tick or something?

The clay birds launched toward me in a swarm.

This fight was going to be a drag.

I launched myself away from the swarm while simultaneously thrusting my Chidori Spear forward. The crackling lightning extended like a living thing, shooting straight for Deidara's skull with lethal intent.

His visible eye widened for a split second before he dropped backward with surprising flexibility, arching his spine impossibly low. The lightning spear passed through the space his head had occupied a heartbeat before, so close I could see strands of his blonde hair standing on end from the static.

But now he was off balance, and I capitalized immediately. With a burst of speed, I closed the distance, my blade singing through the air in a perfect killing arc aimed at his exposed throat.

I clicked my tongue in frustration as Deidara twisted away at the last possible moment, my swing cutting only empty air. The bastard was more flexible than he looked.

"Too slow, yeah!" He grinned manically as both hand-mouths simultaneously spat out dozens of white clay spiders that immediately scurried across the ground toward me, their tiny legs clicking against roots and stones.

"Annoying." I swung my free hand in a wide arc, chakra surging through my system. Hundreds of lightning senbon materialized and shot forward in a deadly rain, each needle finding its mark with perfect precision. The spiders detonated prematurely as the electricity pierced them, creating a symphony of small, controlled explosions that filled the air with smoke and the smell of burnt clay.

When the smoke cleared enough to see, Deidara was already hunched over, gagging violently. All three of his mouths—hands and face—vomited out a massive glob of wet clay that hit the ground with a disgusting splat. The substance immediately began taking shape, forming crude humanoid figures that charged at me with jerky, puppet-like movements.

I know this technique.

Rather than waste time and chakra fighting disposable puppets, I simply pointed one of the Kiba blades skyward. Throughout this fight, I'd been channeling lightning through them repeatedly—and storm clouds had already gathered above in response, dark and swirling with barely contained electricity.

Lightning answered my call immediately. A massive bolt struck down from the heavens, obliterating Deidara's clay army before they'd taken more than a few stumbling steps. The ground where they'd stood was scorched black, steam rising from the burnt ground.

I smirked at Deidara, whose face had turned an interesting shade of red. Fury radiated from every pore as both hand-mouths gnashed their teeth in impotent rage.

But I wasn't finished. I pointed my right blade directly at him.

More lightning rained from the sky.

I love these swords.

Deidara's eye went comically wide as bolt after bolt crashed down around him like divine judgment. He threw himself left and right with no grace or dignity, barely avoiding being turned into a charred corpse. Each strike forced him to create more distance, and I recognized the tactical error immediately—he was getting pushed beyond my effective engagement range.

Then I raised my left blade high overhead. Lightning struck it with a deafening crack, and I let the electricity course through my entire body, feeling it sing through my nervous system before violently discharging it into the earth beneath my feet. The ground lit up like a spider's web of crackling blue-white energy, branching out in every direction.

Multiple explosions erupted in a wide circle around my position as hidden clay mines detonated prematurely.

I already knew about that tactic.

Deidara's expression shifted from surprise to absolute fury in an instant, his visible eye blazing with hatred and wounded pride.

I smirked and began walking toward him slowly, deliberately. Each step radiated absolute confidence, my blades held casually at my sides.

"You think you're better than me, don't you?!" Deidara screamed, spittle flying from his mouth as his composure shattered completely. "Just because of those STUPID EYES! You look down on my art with those cursed Sharingan! You don't appreciate anything! You just steal and copy and—"

"I don't think," I interrupted, shrugging casually while letting my smirk widen into something cruel. "I KNOW I'm better than you. Your 'art' is nothing but cheap explosives any academy student could make with enough clay."

"You—!" He fumbled desperately in his clay pouch, pulling out a small statue and hurling it skyward with all his strength. Mid-flight, it rapidly expanded and transformed into another massive bird. Deidara leaped onto its back as it formed, and the creature began flapping its wings, desperate to gain altitude.

I remained utterly unfazed, merely pointing my blade upward with lazy precision.

Lightning struck the bird's head before it could gain more than a few feet of altitude. The clay construct went limp instantly, its wings freezing mid-flap as it began to plummet.

Deidara's eye widened in panic. He threw more clay toward the ground, the mouths on his hands working frantically. It formed into another large construct that cushioned his fall, preventing him from splattering across the forest floor in an undignified heap.

"Survive this, you bast—" His threat was cut short as something slammed into him from the side with brutal force, sending him flying. He crashed into the ground hard enough to create a crater, a huge cloud of dirt and debris exploding upward.

I stopped my advance, taking in the scene with mild interest and raised eyebrows.

"Hmmm, aren't you supposed to be on the other side?" I asked, studying the short redhead standing where Deidara had been moments before. Something felt off immediately—the stance was wrong, the chakra signature slightly distorted.

"And miss all the fun?" The fake Tayuya grinned, rolling her neck and pumping her fists with theatrical anticipation. "You know me, Uchiha. Besides, that blonde bastard's been a slimy twat ever since—"

My arm was already in motion before 'she' finished the sentence.

The blade cut clean through the impostor's neck in one fluid motion, separating head from body with surgical precision. I watched with cold detachment as those fake eyes widened in shock, the severed head sailing through the air in a graceful arc.

No blood. Not a single drop.

Exactly as I expected.

"H-how?" the severed head managed to gasp out, genuine confusion evident in the voice that almost—but not quite—matched Tayuya's distinctive rasp.

"I'm just better," I stated coldly, bringing my foot down and crushing the impostor's head beneath my heel like an overripe fruit. White plant matter splattered across the ground instead of brain tissue.

Tayuya always calls me 'princess'. She'd never pass up that opportunity no matter the situation.

"Nice try.” I called out into the forest, my Sharingan scanning the surrounding area for any chakra signatures. "But you’ll never fool an Uchiha."

No response came from the forest.

I crushed the fake body beneath my foot for good measure, feeling the plant matter squelch. "Now where is that coward hiding?" I muttered, more to myself than anyone else.

My Sharingan tracked movement in my peripheral vision—Deidara was pulling himself from the crater, looking significantly worse for wear. Dirt and debris covered his cloak, and I could see him favoring his left side. 

So the clone attacked him for real, that must have pissed him.

So I drove another nail to his ego.

“You are all talk, no substance. Just like your 'art.'"

That struck a nerve. Deidara's visible eye blazed with renewed fury as he pulled out a glob of clay which his hands eagerly began chewing.

I didn't wait for him to finish creating whatever he was planning. Rushing forward, I closed the distance before he could complete any of his more lethal bombs.

Deidara's eye widened in alarm as he immediately went on the defensive, both hand-mouths working frantically to spit out smaller clay creations—birds, spiders, centipedes, snakes—anything to create breathing room between us. He twisted and dodged with surprising agility, narrowly avoiding my strikes as I pressed the assault.

But he was predictable. Every dodge, every movement followed patterns my Sharingan could easily track. I angled my approach carefully, herding him like cattle until I had maneuvered him into the perfect position.

Our eyes met for just a fraction of a second.

I channeled a small amount of chakra, just enough to cast a simple genjutsu. Nothing elaborate or chakra-intensive—just a subtle distortion of his spatial perception, making him misjudge distances.

The effects were instantaneous.

When I swung my blade in a wide arc aimed at his midsection, Deidara dodged—to the wrong side. His visible eye widened in horrified realization a split second too late as the Kiba blade met flesh instead of empty air.

The sword cut clean through his left arm with almost no resistance, separating it from his body in one smooth, surgical motion. The severed limb hit the ground with a wet, meaty thud, the mouth on the palm still twitching and chewing reflexively.

Deidara's expression froze completely, shock overriding pain. His body stumbled backward several unsteady steps before his remaining hand clutched desperately at the bleeding stump. Blood poured between his fingers as he gritted his teeth.

I smirked and began casually twirling one of the Kiba blades in my hand, the lightning still crackling faintly along its edge.

"Falling for such a simple genjutsu?" I mocked, making sure my voice had a condescending tone. "And you called yourself an artist? That's just pathetic. Even toddlers know never to look an Uchiha in the eye. Didn't Itachi teach this?"

"YOU—!" Deidara's face contorted with pure, incandescent rage, spittle flying from his mouth as he screamed. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL BLOW YOU INTO SO MANY PIECES THEY'LL NEVER FIND ALL OF YOU! Those cursed eyes won't save you from my ultimate masterpiece, yeah!"

He suddenly hunched over violently, his actual mouth opening impossibly wide as he began vomiting an enormous, seemingly endless amount of clay. The substance poured out like a grotesque waterfall, far more than should have been physically possible to contain in a human body. It pooled on the ground, already beginning to take shape.

My eyes widened in recognition. I knew exactly what he was planning—that atomic bomb technique, C4. If he completed it, I could die.

I couldn't let him finish.

Launching myself forward with everything I had, I closed the distance in less than a heartbeat and delivered a devastating upward kick directly to his chin. The impact snapped his jaw shut with a bone-cracking sound that echoed through the forest. I watched with grim satisfaction as several teeth went flying through the air in different directions, trailing blood like tiny crimson comets.

Not giving him even a moment to recover or comprehend what had happened, I spun on my heel with perfect form and delivered a follow-up roundhouse kick to his side. The impact must have driven the air from his lungs with enough force to send him completely airborne. Deidara's body went flying like a rag-doll, crashing and rolling across the ground, leaving a trail of disturbed earth, blood, and clay in his wake.

Before he could even think about getting up or gathering his bearings, I raised both Kiba blades high above my head and pointed them directly at his prone, broken form.

Lightning answered my call immediately.

Bolt after bolt crashed down from the roiling storm clouds above, each one striking Deidara's body with devastating, pinpoint accuracy. The electricity coursed through him again and again, his body convulsing violently with each successive impact. The acrid smell of burnt flesh mixed with burnt grass filled my nostrils as I watched the assault continue without mercy.

Over and over and over again, the lightning struck.

A thick cloud of dirt, ash, smoke, and debris spread everywhere, obscuring my vision completely and forcing me to rely on my Sharingan alone. Only then I stopped the barrage, every sense on high alert as I waited for the chaos to settle, scanning intensely for any movement.

After what felt like hours, the cloud gradually dissipated in the wind.

A charred crater remained where Deidara had been, the earth blackened, cracked, and still smoking with residual heat. But I couldn’t find a body. No remains at all.

My eyes narrowed immediately, and combat instinct made me look skyward.

There—a giant white clay bird was already flying away, rapidly gaining altitude and distance. I could just barely make out Deidara's form on its back, hunched over and clearly in awful shape.

Damn it.

I quickly jumped to the nearest sturdy branch and ran up the trunk to the very top of the tallest tree in my immediate vicinity, my eyes tracking the fleeing bomber with my Sharingan. Pointing one blade at the escaping bird, I called down more lightning.

Strike after strike lanced toward the flying target, crackling through the air with lethal intent. But the bastard dodged them all with surprising agility despite his severe injuries, weaving and banking erratically through the bolts before he disappeared completely beyond my range of vision.

I clicked my tongue. My grip tightening on the blade hilts for a moment before loosening the grip.

I wouldn't pursue him—not now. I'd already proven my superiority decisively. He was missing an arm, badly burned, and probably had internal injuries from that beating. With the Kiba blades and my knowledge of his infamous bombs weakness to lightning, he wouldn't be able to accomplish much against me in a rematch. And I highly doubted he'd use his self-destruct technique until he'd completely exhausted every other possible option. His pride as an "artist" wouldn't allow him to suicide bomb without at least attempting to beat me conventionally first.

But the more pressing concern crystallized in my mind. I needed to get back to camp immediately to inform the others about the White Zetsu clones infiltrating the area. Deidara's attack was almost certainly meant to separate me from the group, to isolate and pick us off individually. It had failed spectacularly, leaving him severely injured and forced to flee, but that didn't mean the overall danger was over.

Then another thought struck me.

Tayuya might have been attacked too while patrolling her sector.

And what about Naruto and Jiraiya back at camp?

We needed to regroup immediately. Now.

I took one more sweeping glance of my surroundings with my Sharingan, searching for any lingering threats* then launched myself through the trees at top speed, heading back toward our camp.

But I ended up meeting them halfway, deliberately stopping at a safe distance when I spotted two figures approaching rapidly through the forest.

"Sasuke! We heard explosions!" That was definitely Naruto's voice. "Are you okay?! What happened?!"

But I couldn't take any chances. My Sharingan remained active and focused as I scrutinized each of them with extreme care, looking for any minute inconsistencies in their chakra signatures, body language, or behavior patterns.

Then I pointed my sword directly at Naruto's throat, the blood-stained blade glinting dangerously in the filtered sunlight.

His blue eyes widened in shock and confusion. "Sasuke, what—"

Jiraiya's entire demeanor changed instantly. His eyes narrowed dangerously, his usual jovial expression vanished. His entire posture shifted subtly into a combat-ready stance, though he didn't move to attack. Yet.

"Use the Kyuubi's chakra right now," I demanded coldly, my voice absolutely brooking no argument or discussion. "Or I kill you where you stand.."

"WHAT—" Naruto protested loudly, confusion and hurt evident in his voice.

"Do it, brat. Now." Jiraiya cut him off sharply.

"Okay, okay! Jeez!" Naruto closed his eyes with obvious reluctance, and within seconds, distinctive orange chakra bubbles began forming around his body. The Nine-Tails' power swirled and condensed with surprising control, the chakra cloak taking shape smoothly. 

The display showed just how much mastery the idiot had actually gained over the Kyuubi's power.

"That's enough." I lowered my blade slowly, though I kept it ready just in case. "White Zetsu clones can impersonate people almost perfectly—appearance, voice, mannerisms, everything. You should have read about them in that intelligence book I compiled. One tried to pretend to be Tayuya earlier." I gestured dismissively at my somewhat disheveled and battle-worn appearance. "And Deidara from Akatsuki ambushed me, but he ran away like a coward when he realized he couldn't beat me. Left his arm behind as a souvenir."

"Deidara?" Jiraiya's expression darkened considerably, all traces of his usual humor vanishing completely. "So Akatsuki is making their move already, and aggressively too. This is significantly worse than I thought..." He trailed off.

"Where's Tayuya?" I asked, suddenly acutely aware of her absence.

"Over here, princess!" Her familiar, raspy voice came from the trees above us before she landed heavily beside our group, immediately bending over and panting hard. Her breath came in labored gasps.

Her clothes were burnt and torn in multiple places, revealing various cuts, burns, and bruises across her exposed skin. Some wounds were still bleeding sluggishly, and I could see the beginning of some nasty bruising forming. Her red hair was singed in places, and there was a particularly nasty-looking gash on her left arm.

"You bastards are way too fucking fast," she complained between breaths, straightening up with a wince. "Some of us don't have fancy stuff, you know?."

Just a little injured. Good to know.

"We must move." Jiraiya's voice was grim. "I left my toads to watch the camp and our supplies, but if Akatsuki is actively hunting us this brazenly, staying in one * location is suicidal. We need to reach Konoha's borders as quickly as possible, preferably before nightfall."

"I agree, especially about traveling at night," I commented, my mind already working through scenarios. Then a thought occurred to me. "Can't you three get reverse summoned to Mount Myōboku to sleep safely at night? You're all toad summoners now."

"We can," Naruto said quickly. "We could even send a toad ahead to finish the rest of the journey and have them reverse summon us back once we're safely inside Konoha's walls. But..." He hesitated, looking genuinely conflicted. "That would leave you completely alone and way behind us, Sasuke. What if Akatsuki attacks you again while you're by yourself?"

'This absolute idiot.'

I rolled my eyes at his thoroughly misplaced concern. "How touching. I'm genuinely moved by your worry. Really."

I wanted to mention my own snake summoning contract as an alternative, but the snakes collectively despised me after what happened with Manda. The entire clan had made it abundantly clear I wasn't welcome. They'd probably refuse any request I made out of spite, or worse, actively attack me themselves.

"Yeah yeah, cry me a fucking river, princess," Tayuya interrupted gruffly, already limping forward. "Stop with the touching reunion bullshit. COME ON! We're still halfway to the village, and I need a goddamn bath and a drink, in that order!"

She took the lead position, limping noticeably but still maintaining a decent pace despite the cuts and burns covering her body.

I noticed Naruto had remained almost completely silent during most of our conversation, which was extremely strange and uncharacteristic coming from him. Usually, he'd be asking a million rapid-fire questions, making loud proclamations about protecting everyone, or trying to be the group cheerleader. The uncharacteristic quiet was rather unsettling.

"Oi, what's with the silent treatment?" Tayuya called back, apparently noticing the same thing. "The shithead finally run out of stupid things to say?"

"Just... thinking," Naruto muttered quietly, which made it even more concerning.

Jiraiya shot me a meaningful look before picking up the pace.

We continued the journey without further incident, though every shadow made my hand drift toward my blade.

The next few days blurred together in an exhausting haze of constant movement, minimal sleep, and paranoid vigilance. We pushed brutally hard, taking only the bare minimum breaks for water and brief rest periods. Jiraiya and I alternated on point position to scout ahead while Tayuya and Naruto maintained the middle, with whoever wasn't on point taking rear guard. 

When we finally arrived at the village of Hot Springs after days of this grinding paranoia, I was running on absolute fumes. The whole thing had drained me far more than I wanted to admit. My body ached in places I hadn't even known could ache, muscles screaming in protest with every movement. The burns from Deidara's explosions still throbbed painfully despite the basic field medical treatment Jiraiya had provided during our brief rest stops.

I needed rest. Actual, proper rest in a real bed.

But first, the hot springs beckoned like salvation itself. The promise of hot water soothing my battered muscles was almost enough to make me increase my pace.

"Finally!" Tayuya groaned as the village came into view. "I'm getting in those springs and not coming out until I look like a goddamn prune."

"Now that's the best idea I've heard in days," Jiraiya agreed with obvious enthusiasm, though I noticed his eyes were still constantly scanning our surroundings. "Though I should probably check on my spy network contacts here first. Make sure Akatsuki hasn't been sniffing around."

"You mean you want to go peeping," Tayuya said flatly. “I warn you damn bastard, I will make sure there is nothing down there if I fucking catch you!”

Naruto just sighed.

Despite everything, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch slightly. Some things never changed.

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AN: With some time I finally finished this chapter that was dragging for way waaaaaay to long but even then I don’t satisfied with it but will ignore it and continue the story finally. So it will be 5 chapters that I will post in patreon and when it reaches 5, I will release 3 chapters at once so people will have 2 chapters in advance and only then it will be added to the story cycle as promised.