Sasuke ducked under the right hook and swiped his leg in Hope's of tripping his opponent. Itachi however jumped over his leg and immediately spun in an attempt to kick Sasuke in the face. Sasuke held up his arms in defence but the kick was strong enough to knock him through some trees.
Haku clapped from the side as the winner of the spar was obviously not Sasuke.
"I keep getting my ass kicked by a blind man! How!? 20 plus years of fighting and I still lose to you" Sasuke yelled, he wasn't usually one to raise his voice unless it was at Naruto, but this was ridiculous.
"Hn, I'm not fully blind you, idiot. I'm at the stage where everything is blurred together but nothing has started going black yet" Itachi explained.
"That doesn't make it better" Haku pitched in, he had spent a lot of time meditating in Hope's of becoming one with Isobu, but obviously it would take a lot more Chakra control than he thought.
"Speaking of which, if we get you some glasses that might help with your vision" Sasuke spoke up.
"Why would I risk worsening the effect of my Sharingan when I can still defeat you without full sight?" Itachi asked.
Sasuke grit his teeth at that, now he was just gloating.
"Hn, fine then! Be blind! Who cares? Not me!" Sasuke snapped, it had been a few stressful weeks.
It had been about 7 weeks since they had found Isobu, and they decided to make their way to the land of Lightning. It's not that they took a long way around, more so they wanted to delay speaking with A for as long as possible.
To top it off all three were rogues from the same place! 2 places if you count Haku's previous desertion. This put them all in a really tough spot. Anything they wanted or needed, was always hard to get because they were wanted, men.
"Hn, calm down foolish brother, I never said it was a bad idea. Besides if I was any other Uchiha glasses would affect my use of Genjutsu, however, I have easily found a way around that." Itachi replied, he had his arm resting on his jacket again.
Sasuke used to wonder why he did that before Itachi told him the reason, it lessens the pain if it's resting. Sasuke had already sent a messenger Hawk to Tsunade, who by the way was still incredibly pissed off at said Uchiha, was willing to meet in a small Village to at least assess what was wrong with Itachi.
Haku had also been acting weird the last few weeks, but every time Sasuke asked he was assured that there was no problem... in fact the more he thought about it the more his eyes narrowed.
If Sasuke ends up discovering that Haku has a fatal wound that he never told him about because of some stupid reason like 'he has too much to worry about' he personally would see to it that the healing process would be damm painful.
So for Haku's sake, it better not be a wound he was hiding.
"Nonetheless, for your glasses, we need to go into town. It would also be a good chance to restock on some supplies" Haku announced, his arm tensed slightly, it was such a small tense that anyone could have missed it... but not Sasuke.
"Haku... are you sure you're ok?" Sasuke asked, he didn't need his friend dying on his mid-mission.
"I'm fine" Haku replied.
'Liar' Sasuke thought.
Standing up the three continued their walk to the nearest village which happened to be the Land of Hot Water.
"We'll need to go to Yugakure if we want to get Itachi his glasses. I highly doubt any small Village will be able to help" Haku stated, his Anbu mask perched on the side of his head.
"The only downside is that Main villages will be keeping an eye out for any rouge. Thankfully Yugakure is a haven for rogues and abandoned alike much like Amegakure" Sasuke announced, as they walked across the border. He adjusted his scarf to let his breath a bit more as the Land of Hot water was indeed a hot place.
"Unfortunately that also means that, unlike Amegakure, Yugakure also holds Ninja who are simply on vacation, so we'll still need to be careful" Itachi pointed out.
Yugakure was a Pacifists Village, Ninja went to live there to retire, or to have a vacation. Their policy was simple. Keep the fighting out of the Village. What you did outside of the Village wasn't their problem, but to start anything inside meant instant captivity.
They didn't care if you dragged someone out of the Village and killed them, but to kill inside the village was where their problem lied. This made the village the perfect place for Rouge to go as Ninjas from their villages couldn't attack them, less they wanted to be thrown into prison.
The team had spent enough time walking around and training, it was time to make some genuine progress. Once Itachi was sorted they would head straight to the Land of lightning.
Sasuke still holds a little bit of Hatred for A due to his hatred for him in his last life. Sasuke will however admit that he may have deserved A's Hatred as he did attack Bee. That however was when he was mentally unstable, this time would be different.
Or at least he hoped it would be different, he wanted to prewarn Bee and Yugito-nee about the Akatsuki and hopefully get them on his side. If he can help them master their Bijuu, especially since both are already halfway there then both would be better prepared to defend themselves.
He was just silently hoping that A wouldn't kill them on sight... not that he could it would just complicate things is all.
When they arrived at Yugakure the guard at the gate looked at all three of them. He then checked his Bingo book before giving out a hefty Yawn and then stepping to the middle of the road, stopping them from going any further.
"Welcome, Rogues, Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha and Haku Yuki. The Hotel is straight down the road at the second right, the supply shop is straight down the road at the fourth left and the Sauna is at the bottom of the road, any questions?" He asked blandly.
Sasuke had the feeling he had repeated that speech well over a thousand times.
"Is there an optician here?" Haku asked.
"Down the road, take the first left, then an immediate right. Anything else?" He asked again.
The group was silent and the guard took that as a no.
"Very well, head on in and Welcome to Yugakure, our main rule is peace only. While you are here you live under the Pacifists code. By choosing to ignore that code you are willing to go to jail or to die. Do you agree?" He asked.
All three nodded.
With that, the man stepped to the side and the three of them walked into the Village.
Once entered the three split off, Sasuke to get supplies, Haku to book rooms in the Hotel and Itachi to go get his glasses.
While it truly does seem weird for Itachi to get glasses he's already unlocked the Mangekyou Sharingan. Once an Uchiha's eyes have reached that level things such as glasses do not interfere with them.
One, for example, might assume that should Itachi cast the Amaterasu it would simple hit his glasses. However, that isn't how it works as the flames appear in the location that the user is looking, since glasses are see-through they don't affect this ability.
Itachi would know as he attempted to set Hidan on fire while looking through a glass. The guy stole one of his Dangos.
When the team met up a few hours later in the Hotel they decided to rest for the night before heading to Kumogakure.
It was late at night and the two brothers were still up.
"Sasuke... you know Mother loved us... right?" Itachi whispered.
Sasuke was wide awake staring at the sky, the bright moon reminding him slightly of a certain pair of lavender Pearls.
"Hn"
"Father too..." Itachi spoke up.
"That I have a hard time believing. That man cared about strength. Something I never had in his eyes" Sasuke responded, his father reminded him a lot of Hiashi...
Maybe that's why...
"You won Uchiha, what is it you request?" Hiashi asked.
"That you treat Hinata with respect, and love her like your daughter... you'll never know when the day comes, that you'll never see her again," Sasuke said, before beginning his March out of their compound.
He assumed Hiashi changed after that. After all, Hinata did let her hair grow out a bit more after. He Hopes that Hinata has a good relationship with her father now. Sasuke would hate it if theirs ended of like his own.
With his father being dead and unforgiven.
"Father did love you... he wanted you to be strong. He was scared to lose you to this horrid world Sasuke." Itachi spoke up.
"Hn. Bastard sure had a funny way of showing it" Sasuke muttered.
"He had a Shinobi way of showing it... In the Shinobi world, it is kill or be killed. Dad showed me that when I was 5. That no matter how much of a Pacifist I wanted to be there would always be someone out there who would want to hurt me... he just wanted us to be prepa-"
"HE CALLED ME A FAILURE!" Sasuke interrupted. His shout awoke Haku who chose to act as if he heard nothing. This wasn't a conversation for him to listen to.
"...Sasuke" Itachi whispered.
"A failure of an Uchiha, that's what he called me. 'You'll never be half the Shinobi your brother is' that's what he told me... in his eyes I wasn't the prodigy he wanted... I was the defect... the mistake... the failure... Mum would hug me all night as I cried myself to sleep, she would tell me stories of great Shinobi and replace their names with mine so I would feel like I was the one doing those amazing things... you want to know what the best thing that Bastard ever said to me was!? 'You might be worthy to be called my son after all'... so forgive me if I don't believe you" Sasuke finished. He was panting.
Sasuke's eyes spun slowly as the red glow slowly grew brighter. Itachi put on his new glasses and witnessed the few tears fall from his baby brothers eyes.
"He just wanted you to be strong Sasuke..." Itachi whispered as he put his glasses back on the side and laid down.
Sasuke let those words hang in the air for a bit. Fugaku never made him feel like he was accomplishing something. He always felt weak in his father's presence. He would train his ass off day and night and for what!? For him to be a failure of an Uchiha!?
"Hn"
Sasuke laid down and slowly began to calm down as he gazed at the moon. He really did miss Hinata. It would be on nights like this where he would seek out her calming aura.
He would head to her house, sneak in through the window and awake Hinata. She would sit patiently as he told her whatever it was that was bothering him and move over to allow him a spot to sleep on the bed.
He would decline but snag the spare futon she would hide under her bed and sleep on the floor while Hinata told stories of her mother. He in return would tell stories of his own mother until they both fell asleep. Only to be woken up by the not so silent squeals of joy that came from Hanabi.
He wondered if Hinata missed him this much too...
.
.
.
And it would be a long time before he learns that she missed him just as much.
______________________________________
Hi guys!
I managed to find an opening to post something! and to let you guys know I'm still alive.
Sos this chapter took a long time, I've been very busy, and chapters for every book will be slowed down.
I'm just really busy guys.
I hope you can forgive me but I do hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Like I said in the last chap there is just a small-time skip as I don't want to skip out on too much of Sasuke's adventures.
Fyi, Itachi with glasses is my life!
Ja ne!