SasuSaku - Past Selves

Chapter 19 - Fairy tale

Naruto's angry stare did not bother Sasuke - he had bigger fish to fry. He simply nodded at Naruto and Kakashi respectfully, and focused on Tsunade.

"So, Sasuke. Why are you here?"

"I wanted to bring Sakura somewhere safe, where I knew she'd get help."

"Ino informed me that Sakura sought you out on her own accord. Is that true?"

"Yes. I paid my goodbyes and left her at the apartment. I did not want her to be involved between me and Itachi. It looks like she used her curse mark to track me down and... save my life."

"You are aware of your murder charges against Danzo, Deidara, and Itachi Uchiha, correct?"

Sasuke nodded. "I'd kill them all again if I could."

Tsunade frowned. "I see. And now that Sakura is safe, what do you intend to do?"

Sasuke was taken aback by this question.

"Is staying here an option for me?"

Naruto looked like he wanted to charge at Sasuke for even asking that question, but Kakashi stopped him.

"Focus, Naruto."

Tsunade sighed.

"Here's the thing Sasuke. It turns out that Danzo was, for the lack of a better word, an absolute piece of shit who ran a whole underground army for a rebellion against Konoha. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Did you also know Deidara was working for the Akatsuki - the criminal organization?"

"Of course. He attacked me. I don't just go around killing random innocent people."

"Why didn't you inform anyone of Danzo's wrongdoings?"

"I did not trust Konoha to look into it based on my word. His hidden armies would never come clean, and it would be my word against his. Plus, I trusted my own ability to kill that motherfucker."

"And Deidara?"

"He was a part of the same organization as Itachi, who was working with Danzo all along."

"Itachi's body was found yesterday. It is remarkable that you were able to kill him."

"It almost cost me my life." Sasuke looked down.

"How did you evade Anbu for so long?"

Sasuke chuckled at this line of questioning.

"Sorry, Lady Hokage, but they suck. I simply concealed my chakra. It seems like their team consists mostly of assassins and not enough sensory/tracker ninjas. You should fix that."

Tsunade scoffed.

"It seems like a lot of your murder charges turned out to be beneficial for our village - which is a shock to us all, who spend the better part of the past year thinking of you as a criminal."

Sasuke remained quiet.

"Why did you kill Orochimaru?"

"Because he was going to kill me first. "

"We have intel implying that Orochimaru was planning to attack Konoha." Tsunade sharpened her gaze.

"I did not know it was about Konoha, but I suspected a planned attack on one of the villages. He deserved to die."

"Last time he attacked us, our village was almost fully flattened. I don't know if we would have survived another attack from him."

Sasuke nodded, unsure what to say.