Fractured

Dissonance

Beneath the cover of darkened foliage, Sasuke perched on a limb high above the ground, his single Sharingan trained on the widest field of vision possible. Three hundred meters east, he could see the faint glow of the chakra signatures of the two nearest guards monitoring Code's claw marks. He thought briefly back to their interaction several days prior, the palpable distrust of the guard with short hair something Sasuke was more than accustomed to. It was human nature to distrust those who had wronged you in the past. Sasuke wasn't bitter about it. He knew his own past and wrongdoings better than anyone. The other guard, the one with long hair—his reaction was something Sasuke was used to as well. Blind adoration. Idolization, even. Sasuke had encountered this reaction well before he was labeled a rouge ninja and traitor to the village.

But the guards east of him, while ignorantly monitoring a dead contact point, were playing an important role despite not knowing they were essentially being used by Shikamaru as a diversion. A deterrent, rather, to keep Code from even considering appearing in such an obvious location. This, too, wasn't their fault. He turned his attention back to a tree in the shadows a short way off. For a moment he lamented the loss of his Rinnegan. He could sense the shifts in space-time before... before Boruto stabbed him in the eye while possessed by Momoshiki. A jolt of pain seared through his vacant eye socket and he winced, bringing his hand to cover the place where the invaluable gift from Otsutsuki Hagoromo once resided.

Strange. Strange how the fates of everyone, allies and enemies alike, seemed to be inextricably tied to the Otsutsuki clan in some manner. Unsettling was a more apt way to put it. Sasuke couldn't help but feel like all of them were just puppets being manipulated by powers far greater than they could imagine.

He cleared his mind and retrained his eye on the tree marked almost unnoticeably with one of Code's claw marks. Amado had mentioned that Code wasn't too bright, but he was clearly smart enough to make decoys while fixing this particular claw mark in a place that made it seem like it was just another line twisting its way up the bark of the tree. Sasuke knew better than to underestimate any member of Kara. And he definitely knew better than to take anything Amado conveyed about Code's abilities at face value.

He shifted his weight to his other foot, making sure to stay as limber as possible. While not as powerful as the Rinnegan, his Sharingan was still nothing to disregard. The darkness allowed him to stay hidden, while his Sharingan granted him the ability to see any new charkra signatures in the area with or without the intermittent moonlight. Nobody was going slip past him. He wouldn't allow it. Their last encounter had been too close. Too close to losing. Too close to losing his own life. Too close to losing him...

No.

He wouldn't think about it. That's not what's important right now. It didn't matter anyway. It didn't happen, and he wouldn't let it happen again, so that line of thinking was a waste of time. He needed to focus on the task at hand.

The clouds above lazily made their way across a waning moon, casting shadows on the earth beneath.

A shift in the darkness. A shock of auburn hair protruding unnaturally from the tree he was monitoring. Sasuke confirmed this was a chakra signature he had never encountered before. Sasuke strained his eye further, taking in as much light from the moon as possible to discern this new foe's appearance. A black claw mark across his head. A roman numeral VI under his right eye. Trademark Kara cloak wrapped around his neck. Sasuke committed this new chakra signature to memory as he saw the newcomer move his hand to and from his mouth and ear, occasionally speaking but the line of conversation difficult to follow from this vantage point. Sasuke couldn't hear more than the distant muffled sound of speech, but he could follow Code's lips with the Sharingan.

He should alert HQ immediately, but Code didn't appear to be on the move right away. Better to glean as much intel as possible while he could.

"Whatever..." the auburn hair man said, Sasuke's Sharingan following the movement of his mouth. Code turned his head briefly, cutting off Sasuke's line of vision. "...ask him directly."