The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

95: Taken Prisoner

[OP: "Constellations"--The Oh Hellos]

Sakura hoped she'd get an answer from the others immediately.

But the bandits weren't going to wait that long.

One of them had a ninja hound with them--which was a regular hound, if it was more dangerous because of chakra enhancements.

The hound sniffed out the two people hiding right away.

The bandits weren't anxious to attack Sasuke, however...so they stalled a bit to think of a plan.

Sasuke thought maybe he could genjutsu them.

He risked making that suggestion to Sakura, though asking her what to do annoyed him--but, on the other hand, if she got involved in it, she'd ruin the attack.

Sakura wasn't as opposed to it as he expected.

"Only thing," she said, "if Mangekyo has the same effect on you as the Susanoo did, I'll have a whole other problem to deal with."

The idea that she would deal with it was almost so ridiculous it would have been cute, if he'd had the sense of humor to think of it that way.

"What if I didn't use Mangekyo, just regular genjutsu?" he suggested tightly.

"I didn't think you could do that." Sakura kind of insulted him unintentionally.

Though it was mostly true. Sasuke was never any good at genjutsu outside of using his powers.

He also knew that the DJs wouldn't like it, but wasn't it better than the alternative?

"I could do something small," he said. "Not the nightmare realm..."

Actually, he was just afraid she was right about that. If he went into it himself again, he'd never get out with only her around to help him.

And he didn't want to experience that ever again.

"Like put them to sleep? Like you attempted to do to me in the War?" Sakura was salty.

"Sure, like that. Without some annoying people to stop it this time." Just as salty.

"Well, fine, go ahead. Why didn't you just do that to begin with, then?"

"Because it's more complicated to do that. You have to be close enough to not miss."

"So get closer... They're all scared of you anyway," Sakura snapped. "I'm going to wait and see if the others answer me before I do anything."

"Suit yourself, I don't care."

"Then stop talking about it!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes to himself.

He still felt kind of sick, but it was passing gradually with time, and he hoped it wouldn't cause him any hesitation.

He sprang onto the roof of one place and looked down on them. His eyes turned red again.

He didn't plan to really use his Sharingan, except maybe to boost his effectiveness.

This kind didn't make his eyes bleed or anything major, and he thought maybe that would be okay.

It still made his head pound at once, but he didn't give himself time to think about it. He dashed down to attack them, forming the genjutsu energy in his hands.

The people freaked out at once. Even the dog whined in fear.

Sasuke was a cat person anyway and didn't much like dogs--still, the animal being scared of him didn't make him feel less like a monster.