A New Way of Ninja, (Naruto)

33: The Ultimatum

[OP: "Move"--Thousand Foot Krutch.]

"Okay, shut up!" Shoto spat at Sasuke, unable to contain his anger any longer. "You? Reform? You don't know the first thing about peace! Or about rebuilding. All you ever do is ruin the things other people are trying to build! You're not worthy to be the Hokage or to be anyone's leader, and you're not worthy to pass judgment on the others--especially Gaara, the guy who'd have put his life on the line for you if it would have done any good and who wanted to spare you from the Kage's anger, but you spat in his face! As long as I'm alive you won't touch one hair on his head."

Sasuke glared at them. "I have the Tailed Beasts."

"Oh, scary." Shine was cutting. "And who was it who subdued the Shukaku while you were watching?"

Pause.

"And now," Shine said, walking up to Sasuke before he could think what to do, "you have gone too far."

She took her sword and hit him across the face.

Sasuke was so shocked he didn't even dodge, he just fell to the ground.

"Ah!" Sakura jumped in surprise.

Shine pointed her sword at Sasuke. "You threatened Gaara," she said, in a livid voice. "That's my student, do you understand? Gaara, whom you don't deserve the kindness of, but he's too humble to care. Gaara, who's done more to clean this mess up than you ever have and to bring real peace. And not to mention that Mei has done her part too, and even the Raikage and Tsuchikage have done more than you. Tsunade is...well, she's never done anything to you personally, and she saved you once. You ungrateful, unprincipled, unsatisfactory little brat!"

"I don't know if this is helping," Kakashi spoke up.

"Oh, you guys go on with your little talk." Wally was mad too. "But to be clear, whatever you tell Sasuke, we're not letting him harm a hair on Gaara's head, and you can bet on that."

"Oh yeah," Camie said. "No one touches the Sand boi, or you catch these hands." She put her fists up.

Sasuke, who knew perfectly well they could stop him from hurting Gaara, decided not to push his luck.

"Well, fine," he said. "Gaara can be left alone. I guess he's young enough anyway for it not to matter, but I'm still going to take over. So even alive, he's still going to be depowered."

Shine laughed at him openly. "Well, go on with your little speech." She pointed at the others. "We'll just wait till you're done making an ass of yourself."

"But, Shine," Shoto said, "I don't want to listen to him anymore."

"No, let Naruto and Sakura handle this," Shine said. "They're his team after all, and we're not allowed to interfere with Sasuke, as you know, unless he threatens our own... Unfortunately the others are not our own, so now that he's pulled back we'll just have to wait."

Shoto clenched his fist, but he wasn't going to disobey Shine again, not for Sasuke's sake especially.

"Fine," he said.

They all stepped back again.

Sasuke got up, still rubbing his face but convinced that he'd at least put them off because of their rules. He wasn't much deterred.

"Do you understand," he went on to Naruto, "what I'm talking about? It's revolution."

Camie started to snicker in the background, which didn't sooth Sasuke's anger, but he ignored her.

"Ugh. Listening to him talk makes me wanna freaking die," Bakugo muttered.

"But why do you need to kill them?" Kakashi was still kind of lost.