Selfish Desire [Sasuke Uchiha]

Chapter 18: Dear Siblings

Third Person's P.O.V

"So... what did you want to talk about?" inquired Sakura to Tsunade.

"Huh?" the voluptuous Fifth Hokage finally remembered the reason why she had summoned Naruto, Sakura, Kaito, and Kazuki to her office. Standing next to her was her fellow Sannin friend called Jiraiya. Tsunade averted her eyes, looking like she was in deep thought, as she hummed, "Hmm..."

"What's wrong, Granny Tsunade?" pressed Naruto impatiently, "Don't you have something to talk about?"

Tsunade began with uncertainty dancing in her eyes, "Well... there's certain information that is being spread throughout the region. It's about that."

"Information?" repeated Kaito in confusion.

Kazuki spoke up solemnly, "What is it about?"

Jiraiya's frown intensified even more. Tsunade stared at the young ninjas before her and narrowed her eyes in pure seriousness. She apprised them, "Orochimaru is dead."

The four teenagers were caught off guard by this unforeseen news. Their faces morphed into absolute shock as they each let out a gasp. Tsunade added, "It seems Sasuke Uchiha killed him."

The young ninjas' eyes widened significantly. Everything froze around them as if all things were also mortified by the news. Naruto couldn't help but stumble over his words, "Is... is that... true?"

Jiraiya spoke up, "There's no mistake about it. I heard it from a reliable source."

Naruto dissolved into laughter as his face lit up with pure joy, "Heh! After all, there's no way he'd get killed by Orochimaru!"

Kaito wondered with wide hopeful eyes, "That means Sasuke and Ayuda will be coming back to the village, right?!"

"That's the reason why you summoned us here! Both of them are here already!" beamed Kazuki whose lips quirked upwards in a joyous smile.

However, both Jiraiya and Tsunade looked away with a serious yet sad expression gracing their features. The four teenagers could only wait with bated breath as their smiles faltered and eventually dropped to a bewildered frown. Jiraiya said grimly, "That doesn't seem to be the case..."

The hopeful glimmer in Kaito's emerald eyes faded away as though his soul flew away from his body. What was left were only his eyes without a light whatsoever. Kazuki glowered in complete exasperation while Naruto snapped all of a sudden, "What's the matter with him?! Orochimaru is dead, so why isn't he returning to the village?!"

"Sasuke is possessed by the desire for revenge," elucidated the well-informed Jiraiya, "He intends to approach the Akatsuki in order to kill his older brother Itachi."

"Then what about Ayuda?" queried Kaito as his stare looked deep into the white-haired Sannin's eyes, "What happened to her?"

Jiraiya turned to him and answered, "According to the source where I got this information from, they were told by witnesses that a girl with long black hair was also seen with Sasuke. So it is safe to say that he is bringing her along."

Kazuki opined, "I think he forcefully took her along with him."

"Yeah," concurred Kaito as his glare slowly materialized over his forehead.

"Well, let's get going," announced Naruto out of the blue with haste in his voice, "Operation 'Track Akatsuki' is still ongoing, right?"

Tsunade nodded her head, "Yeah."

Naruto continued with his teeth gritting in sense of purpose, "If we hunt down that Akatsuki member first, we'll definitely run into Sasuke and Ayuda eventually! In other words, our target is Itachi Uchiha!"