Daylight

Scarlet Spring

A/N: I referred to both the anime and manga for this chapter, but stayed mostly in line with the anime. 

The world was alight with a heavenly glow that graced the earth with pink and purple hues that covered even the most barren lands with a hope for life. Every inch of darkness that haunted the corners of the earth seeped away when it felt the faintest of light, and as the sole male Uchiha fell back onto the earth, he looked at the rising sun with a new found yearning to reach out to his wife. Sasuke reached into his satchel and looked at the device that had been given to him from the Hokage roughly three years ago after the summit: 

Naruto and Sasuke had been sorting Sasuke's scrolls full of intel about Kaguya into chronological order, and  then sorting them out by location when Naruto turned to Sasuke and beckoned him over to a filing cabinet in the corner of the sealing room in the Hokage tower.

Sasuke followed Naruto and eyed the box suspiciously in Naruto's bandaged hand. Naruto smiled and handed it to Sasuke. "It's a parting gift," he offered. 

Sasuke opened the box to find some sort of technical device. He took it out of the box and inspected it. "What is it?" he asked, unfamiliar with some of the modern advances in the progressive state of the world. 

"It's uh... my scientists call it a mobile, or something. Only the top shinobis and Kage have them at this present time, so it is easier to communicate and send messages. It's an alternative to sending messages by summonings or messenger birds. The messages are sent instantly. I'm not really sure how though..." Naruto confessed as he scratched his cheek, trying to hide his embarrassment for not being completely familiar with the technical device. "The only downside is that the battery runs out quite quickly, and you can only charge them at the labs in the Five Great Villages, hehe... Might be an inconvenience for you. But use it sometime, if you want. I've made sure it has all us Kage's contacts on."

"Hn. Thanks."

Sasuke looked queerly at the mobile device in his palm, and had a sudden wish that he could contact Sakura with it. As he had been travelling throughout the past three years, he had found more and more shinobi have these peculiar devices at hand, which indicated to Sasuke that there were other ways of charging the portable devices, but ways he was unaware of. And so he shrugged off the thought and instead used it for the first time in three years to contact Naruto of where he would next be heading. As soon as he pressed the 'send' button, however, the device went blank. Sasuke shook it, and attempted to turn it off and then on as he had seen other shinobi do at inns, but to no avail. He could only assume that the mobile had run out of juice, and Sasuke did not know when next he would encounter another Great Village. Throughout his travels, Sasuke had become more accustomed to the latest inventions of science, from the new methods of travels to Kages using more advances laptops. Sasuke thought they made the life of a shinobi more bearable, although he was still used to his own methods of travel and doing things, such as sending messages through summonings. 

Sasuke continued on his way towards the Land of Waterfall, where he had heard rumours of the chiefs keeping artefacts that dated thousands years back to a time where a mystical goddess had infiltrated the lands and had borne two sons... The fable sounded too close to Kaguya, and it was there he was next headed. As he travelled, the rain pattered onto his face, leaving light kisses that trailed down and dripped off his chiselled jaw, mixed with his sweat. From afar, you may have mistaken these wet trails for tears. 

Upon arriving at the Land of Waterfall, Sasuke found that he would have to win over the chief if he wanted any chance at him disclosing their town's secrets and ancient histories. Sasuke was not known to be a social person; during his travels, the only beings he would be willing to communicate with was his snake summoning, Aoda, and his chance meetings with Naruto.