Work Text:
The crest of the Uzumaki clan is on Konoha uniforms.
It’s something Sasuke’s always known,so it’s something that’s easy to ignore.Until one day something else clicks.The Uchiha clan symbol is on all the police buildings in Konoha.Just as every branded Hyuga clan member wears the Konoha headband over their markings.
Uzushio has fallen.The Uchiha are dead and the Hyuga are ritually crippling their own blood.
The symbols aren’t being used to show respect-they’re trophies.
***
Konoha had arrived too late to save its sister village(something that’s suspicious on its own,given that from the tragedy,Konoha gained the nine tails).Konoha had killed the Uchiha in cold blood(something Kakashi made sure to bury more thoroughly than his predecessors during his term as kage).And Konoha turns a blind eye to Hyuga slavery.
But Naruto is Kage now, he’s suffered at the hands of the village,so things are bound to change.
…They don’t.
***
For a time Sasuke thinks the Hyuga law’s been amended while he’s been away…it hasn’t.
And he finds out by running into a crying Hyuga child in the market, tiny forehead covered by a bandage ,at his side is an older pale eyed woman,her forehead also covered.
He shouldn’t be as surprised as he is.But he finds himself standing in the middle of the market,staring at nothing for a long time.The Anbu that trail him whenever he’s in the village start to get jittery, and word must get back to Naruto because for once he doesn’t have to go to the Hokage tower,Naruto meets him there in the street.
He takes Sasuke’s remaining arm and leads him to Ichiraku, talking at length about his upcoming wedding to Hinata Hyuga.The blond is at ease, so whatever deal was struck, it must mean his future children will not be sealed.
“But what about the others?”He doesn’t realize he’s spoken out loud until Naruto stops talking and gives him a quizzical look,then his face lights up.
“Oh!You mean the other kages, they’re definitely coming, though your seat will have to be behind theirs,you know,with the war and everything things are still a bit tense on the diplomacy side,”It’s just like almost every conversation they’ve ever had.Sasuke says something and Naruto completely misinterprets it.
He wondered if the other still thought not having anyone who cared about him was the same as losing an entire family in a single night.
After their meal,they run into Shikamaru.Sasuke sends him a nod and thinks nothing of it,then he senses Kiba not far off,soon after there’s Ino and Chouji, he also catches a glimpse of familiar pink hair, and one of the Aburame’s insects try to land on him as he walks and he deftly crushes it,pretending its just a common bug.
Naruto notices,and he takes a startled breath when Sasuke flicks the dead creature away, but he doesn’t comment, pretending like they’re not all waiting to see if Sasuke will snap.
To say something would ruin the illusion of peace and forgiveness, so Naruto just smiles.
They resume walking and the other presences fade, but the Anbu remain,triple in number now that he’s with Naruto…same old,same old.They only talk,they never communicate.
***
His next mission has been dated so that he leaves a day after Naruto’s wedding-Sasuke ever diligent is out of the village a month early.
Rather than teleporting, he walks,and as he does so,he thinks.
What has really changed in Konoha other than the leadership?
Nothing.
But change takes time,it can’t be forced.
But is he willing to waste his adulthood in the same way most of his clan members wasted their lives waiting for acceptance.
…No.
***
After everything Naruto did to bring him back the choice shouldn’t be so easy,but it is.Staying in Konoha was for Itachi,the same older brother who’d torn Sasuke to shreds and labeled him a fool and a coward,despite knowing full well that Sasuke, young and weak as he’d been,had tried to fight,to avenge his parents.
He’d left to kill Itachi and had come back because of Naruto.
What has Sasuke ever done for Sasuke?
It’s kind of sad how the thought of doing something for himself feels like a taboo.
***
The Uchiha knows of only one other who’s walked away from Konoha before.Only Tsunade had made a mistake,she’d left a door, and when the time had come, Konoha had pushed it wide open and dragged her back in.
If the descendants of the founders of the village,both Uchiha and Senju are running from it,why do others still think it’s paradise?
Unlike his first escape from the village,he thinks long and hard about his second run.
Tsunade had wrangled it so that she could become a missing nin,without being labeled a missing nin.Though most of her success was probably due to Sarutobi not wanting her in the village while he got his hands dirty and hid behind Danzo.
Sasuke takes a leaf from her tree and does the same when it comes to leaving, he walks right out the gates with Naruto’s blessing only he doesn’t leave any ties.He waits until Naruto’s wedding is a week away,then he sends a simple note,sitting at the desk in an inn he’s stayed in before.
Congratulations.
And enclosed with the note,is a letter.In it he’s all business,he tells Naruto of a lead he’s found about a scroll linked to Kaguya.He doesn’t mention that he already has it with him.
It’s the last time Sasuke allows himself to be sighted.
***
Once Orochimaru’d had this idea of cloning bodies that were actual blood and bone.It had ended in him covered in revolting brown goop and binning the idea altogether.But Sasuke’d seen the plans, and quick as a whip he’d figured out what was wrong.Orochimaru had gotten the DNA sequences wrong,joining chainlinks that shouldn’t have been put together.
In the confines of an old cave,a blizzard howling outside Sasuke works.He watches as marrow is covered by bone,to the bones tendons and muscles attach,and are covered by flesh and skin.Tiny hairs dust the pale skin,until finally Sasuke stares down at his own face.
He pumps the clone full of the blood he’s been taking from himself once a week since he’s concocted his plan, pressing down on its chest until its cheeks fill with a light blush.
It should be harder to do, but Sasuke holds it close and snaps its neck.Its ribs cave in when he kicks it across the room.He splits its knuckles, and runs its too soft hands over gravel to give the impression of callus.
One bloody hand curls around the scroll Sasuke’s promised Naruto, and overcome by a sudden rage,he cracks the creation’s skull on the solid floor,and when the head lolls, he does the final deed.
As good as the clone is,he’s been unable to recreate his kekkeigenkai, so he does the next best thing.The clone’s finger,bent and broken as they are,do their job,they don’t resist when he guides them,and they don’t hesitate to go through the soft tissue of the eyeballs,turning them to pulp.
***
The next part is somehow harder to do.
It’s not about killing, it’s healing, and Sasuke’s worried about the living he’ll have to do once he’s done with that.
He hasn’t lived since he was seven years old and still held his brother’s hand.
Sasuke looks over at the stump that used to be his arm one last time.He’s nestled in Aoda’s coils,the snake hissing soothingly guiding Sasuke as he sheds for the first time in years.
It hurts in a good way, and when it’s done he has two arms, both whole and healthy, and it’s like his phantom limb pain never existed.
***
One thing Sasuke’s never understood when he took time to think about it,was the sage of six paths.
All the man’d really done was give Sasuke and Naruto the power needed to defeat Kaguya.
He’d had that power all along.Why had he waited?Why not just give the power to his sons?It might have prevented centuries of bloodshed.
But the time of asking has long passed, and in a way Sasuke is grateful for the extra power.He carves the sealed chakra out of him, doing his best to remove most of it, but he can still see the remnants stuck to him.Once he’s taken out as much as he can,he does not pause,and moves on shaky legs.The clone gives an unholy jerk when Sasuke pushes the chakra into its chest,and for a moment he’s worried it won’t hold-but it does,and seconds later realizing Sasuke’s heart no longer beats-the chakra goes cold.
He leaves the body in the cave, knowing the endless cold will preserve it,and that by the time it’s found he’ll be long gone.
***
Though he’s not there to see it.Sasuke’s disappearance is treated just as he thought it would be.
The first month when he doesn’t check in,Naruto hides it.In the second month Sakura and Kakashi find out.In the third the council, and in turn the rest of the village learn of it.
For the second time in his life Uchiha Sasuke is named a missing nin.
Always knew it.
Not shocked at all.
Once a traitor always a traitor.
Just a matter of time.
The words differ,but the sentiment is the same.
***
During that time, a man crosses death valley alone,and he makes it to the other side.His name is Sasuke-no last name.But he has a fondness for fans.
So the people start calling him Uchiha, laughing at giving him the name of a once fearsome clan to a lowly tomato farmer.
The people beyond the valley are warriors in their own right,but to them peace is not code for taking breaks in between wars.They work at it,address their problems after arguments ,they lay it all out, most of their ancestors are from the land before the valley, so they understand what damage burying things can cause.
***
Thirteen years after being declared a missing nin,the body of Uchiha Sasuke is discovered.
Cold and snow have preserved him perfectly.Gripped tightly in his fingers they find a scroll that helps them find and destroy all traces of the Mother of chakra.The very last thing he said he was going after all those years ago.
The sentiments towards him change,just as they’d done for the rest of his clan after they were murdered.
A great loss…from such a noble clan…ever loyal…a true hero.
One had to wonder which were the lies,the words spoken when he was declared rogue,or the whispers uttered once his sacrifice was discovered.
Maybe both are true,people love and hate you depending on how useful you are to them afterall.
***
In just as much as Naruto often ranted about knowing Sasuke better than Sasuke knew himself, the Uchiha had known Naruto too.
Had Sasuke simply gone missing,Naruto would have hunted him down and found him.Then upon discovering the body, he’d have gone looking for the people responsible and somehow tripped head first into Sasuke’s sanctuary.
But Sasuke hadn’t just gone missing,he’d hidden ‘his’ corpse.Allowed assumptions to be made,and had Naruto be at the helm of it all-willing or not.
Then when the truth had come out,and they’d saved their world thanks to information obtained from Sasuke’s body.There was no space for righteous justice from the blond.
Only grief, guilt and shame…chasing the killers didn’t even matter.
All that mattered was that Uchiha Sasuke had died for Konoha,…Naruto’s Konoha.
***
It was a cold and heartless thing to do, but one day long ago,Sasuke had thought of his future children,and their children living the way Sasuke and his family had lived like prisoners in a village they’d built and it hadn’t been all that hard to do.
Far away in his new life, none of this matters to Uchiha Sasuke,the shinobi world is just a distant nightmare.His tomatoes are the best in the land, he feels the earth and touches the red fruit,running both hands over the leaves and smiling when they don’t come back coated in blood ,the smile reaches his eyes and flows all the way to his toes.
He does not worry about ever being dragged back to his nightmare.
No one hunts for the dead.