𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐤𝐢 | ɴᴀʀᴜᴛᴏ ꨄ︎ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘᴜᴅᴇɴ

Anti-Akatsuki

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✧˖*°࿐

Sasuke's POV:

In my hands, I fiddled with a small shuriken. The sun's reaching the horizon, where the vast ocean spreads out ahead of me. Despite the wind's being harsh, a boulder I leaned against kept me upright. It was not just the winds wavering me, but the truth of Itachi.

I've chosen to stay for a while. I wish to watch the sun set beneath the sea, falling down the line where 3D cannot be seen. To see it fall, no less different from the plans I have toward the hidden village of the Leaf.

"You're bleeding." Kazumi's smooth voice breaks my gaze from the scene, and I look down to the shuriken clenched in my grip.

It didn't occur to me I done this.

With a light flick, I send the shuriken out to the crashing waves. The movement of Kazumi makes me glance at her in the corner of my eye.

She's sat herself on the boulder I was currently leaned against. That aloof Kumo just always has to look down on me, even physically. Her sandal feet dangle off as I trail my gaze slowly up her leisure position.

Kazumi's wearing a kimono-style grey jacket with the typical baggy, wide sleeves, which hides her developed muscles. Rather than an inner shirt, she's got new sarashi cloth wrapped from her chest to her neck—masking the cursed mark. Tied tightly around her waist is a darker grey sash, flattering her foreign feminine silhouette.

Now that I look up at her side-profile, I take in the calmness of the atmosphere that seemed to radiate off of her. The wind's caressing her dyed white strands back, showing more of her sharp features. But deep down I know she's far from calm. There's a similar storm in her heart, just as mine is.

"That thing you do with your kunai's, what does it mean?" I ask, though part of me knew the reason. Whenever she assumed I wasn't looking in the past, I'd catch the sentimental actions.

Such as the Leaf headband tied at her pouch, one that certainly isn't hers. Where does her loyalty currently align? I bite onto my bottom lip.

Her yellow eyes find mine, and I'm almost stunned into silence. "Cheap offerings for the dead." The way she referred to it as trash was intriguing compared to the little pride she seldom holds onto. "He's dead, isn't he?"

I pull my eyes from hers, focusing on the crashing waves instead. Occasionally, the salty water would manage to lightly splash us. "Yes." My bleeding hand clenches and unclenches to reveal a perfectly healed palm. "The Leaf tried to destroy Uchiha. They've ruined our lives, Kazumi." I look back at the victim of Leaf shinobi duty.

Her lips have parted into a small gap, surprised. I can feel her faltering resolve, see a revolting pity in her understanding gaze.

So, I continue. "It's not just Kabuto that's put you on the path to Otogakure three years ago." I should be seething rage right now by her deceit. I even planned to admit my knowing of her mission for a while now much later than this, but I refuse to let the last person dear to me become a thrown-out pawn. "Cut ties with Leaf and help me, Kazumi."

An incredulous snort escapes her as she turns her head away. "Nothing I do gets past you." My brows narrowed together. "We're already considered traitors to the Leaf." She made it sound like her connection to Konoha was all useless, though she neither agrees to any concept of destroying them.

"Be careful who you trust, Sasuke-kun."

Orochimaru's words cross my head for a moment, and I feel my face visibly scrunch. Trust shouldn't matter when all I need is Kazumi's compliance.