Redemption |complete| (SasuSaku)

The Land of Birds

(Sasuke's location)

Sasuke was about to land in the Land of Birds, Tori no Kuni. From up where he was on the hawk, he could see the small island.

He tried to remember what he knew about this place but the only thing he had heard of was coming from what Orochimaru and kabuto spoke while he was living with them. Apparently there was a rumour that there was a group of wandering ninjas who hoped to take over the country. They were defeated but today no one was living there anymore. It was reported that the birds who were migrating there each year came back carrying some unknown illnesses, weird colours or other unnatural elements. Sasuke wondered if this had something to do with Kaguya or a special radiation.

As soon as he had left Konoha three days ago, he decided to head there first and then to the abandoned city located in the Land of Wind, not too far from Suna.

His hawk started descending towards the land. Sasuke tried to analyse as much as he could from up there. He could see the ruins of where once stood the village but it didn't seem like anyone was living in there anymore.

Once his feet touched the ground, the bird disappeared. His chakra was still hard to control and he just emptied all of it to keep the summoning for three days with short breaks. He took out of his pocket a small box. He opened it to take one of the labelled jar out. It was Sakura's birthday gift to him. She had put some special pill for his chakra that she had made herself. They were saving his mission so far and he was once again grateful. He shook his head to push the image of her out of his mind. Focus on the mission.

He looked around to make sure that nothing was following him and he walked towards the abandoned village. The sun was starting to set and he took this opportunity to visit the place. If he was lucky enough, he wouldn't get caught if anyone was on this island.

He walked silently into a house. As he expected the place was totally empty. Judging by the state of everything, it had been years since someone had used it. His eyes scanned the room trying to find any information about this place. A map, a sign, a weapon, anything that could tell him what kind of people lived here and if there was any chance that they were related to the meteor or Kaguya.

As he walked through the rooms, he heard some noise outside. He walked closer to a broken window and hid in the room to listen. There was two voices talking.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes the sensory type ninja, you know the new guy, said that someone entered the island."

"How did the guards didn't see him then?"

"I think they did. They announced the arrival of a giant bird... one that we haven't seen before. The hunter team was sent but the bird was nowhere to be found."

"The intruder landed with it? Like a summoning jutsu?"

"That's my guess. He was sensed here in the village."

"Let's search the place before the reinforcements arrive. I don't think we should worry too much."

The two men walked away from the house and Sasuke found himself shaking. He had no chakra and was exhausted from the serious lack of sleep. He had spent three days taking pills to keep him awake and create chakra and it was taking a toll on his body. He needed to find a way to escape before the others arrived.

Based on what he just heard, he assumed they were ninjas. They knew about the summoning jutsu, had a sensory type of ninja... it was a very well organised group.

He made sure that they weren't anywhere around before he left the house quietly. He once had been trained to infiltrate and gather information but he never actually had to do it. Still shaking, he ran to a different building and closed the door behind him. The mutated sound of his shoes hitting the stone ground sounded loud to his ears. He controlled his breath so he was only inhaling small and silent quantity of air and exhaling just as much.