PAWN OF CURSE。

A   SHARP   MEMORY      alights   in   the   back   of   his   mind.   he   remembers   the   uchiha   eye   opening   within   the   stone   ceiling,   swallowing   him   as   his   skin   felt   cool   to   the   touch   whilst   simultaneously   melting   off   his   bones.   the   sannin’s   advice   remained   poignant;   while   he   often   cared   little   for   what   conflict   his   words   brought,   perhaps   an   aspect   of   caution   was   necessary.   if   not   for   his   own   comfort,   for   the   respect   of   those   who   occupied   the   emptiness   in   his   chest.   still,   sai’s   stare   remains   blank,   immobile   and   betraying   nothing.

❝      ON   THE   CONTRARY,      sasuke - san.   i’m   happy   you’ve   returned,   for   naruto   and   sakura’s   sake.      ❞      the   false   smile   reappears,   a   barrier   to   allay   his   own   thoughts,   less   than   compromising.      ❝      i   was   simply   curious,   given   konoha’s   rather …   heavy - handed   history   regarding   its   protection.   i   also   wished   to   pass   a   warning   unto   a   new   friend.      ❞      and   his   eyes   open,   staring   directly   across   to   the   once - criminal.

               LIKE   THE   FLOW   of a stream running north in its natural course,  he has instinctively discerned that something was off about this fellow.  his disarming quirk of the mouth that unveils neither emotion nor pleasantry--  it sets static to the nerves,  making even a hardened shinobi like sasuke finicky.  ironically,  someone who has seen the menace behind orochimaru’s own smile firsthand.  he even briefly ponders whether all former root insiders resemble the one before him in their eccentricity,  though the thought itself certainly gives room for pause.  if naruto and sakura would vouch for the other,  he has no reason to feel ambivalent.  however,  suddenly being called a friend at such an unprepared point is still far beyond him.  ‘  new friends?  if you can claim to be friends with someone like me,  then you’re certainly brave.  maybe even foolish.  ‘

❝    ––––    @kyugens​   𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃:   And now regarding the canon events, although ik you disregard the Boruto series, what do you think Sasuke would've done to help Naruto in his path as the Hokage? Does he stays in the village, or is he still a wanderer? And how would he have addressed all of Orochimaru's past crimes, including his attempt to take Sasuke's body?

               I   CAN   NEVER   envision sasuke fully returning to the village that he once saw as the root of all his suffering,  particularly in regards to the disillusionment he experienced upon learning the truth about itachi’s life.  if he loves the village,  it won’t be for its physicality,  but for the idea of it as his brother’s precious legacy  --  the home he sustained every possible pain in life to protect  --  and even as the place to which he can return to in the form of naruto,  his closest friend and his most resilient bond.  which brings to mind the different ways in which i think sasuke would assist naruto as hokage.

               regarding his past experiences,  sasuke has now become one of the few powerful ninja who can delve into the deepest depths of darkness in the shinobi world and return to the surface unscathed.  using this near immunity,  he would for one play a role similar to anbu which i understand he is presently doing in boruto,  or he would serve as naruto’s eyes from his post in the hokage’s office.  a hawk that no longer circles the skies for its chances at vengeance,  but for the analysis of poverty and inequity hidden in the corners of the land.  to intimately know the issues based in more provincial areas is within a hokage’s best interest,  and what naruto is unable to see,  sasuke will see for him.  that is how he will redeem his once hateful,  weaponized eyes.  even their international conflicts and tensions are not likely to fully dissipate over the course of one shinobi alliance.  because of the friction that naruto may experience as someone who has pardoned sasuke’s actions,  sasuke eases his burden by traveling to each hidden village in an effort to make formal amends with each kage.  if he succeeds and evolves into the role of delegation,  then all the better as an individual who now keeps naruto’s interests,  and in turn konoha’s,  at heart.

❝    ––––    @kyugens​   𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃:   In a scenario where Sasuke wins the fight against Naruto, and actually became Hokage, do you think he would've waited for Kakashi's mandate to end? And What would he have done regarding the damage the previous kages caused on the village? And Danzo's as well, since his followers were still alive, and the Root still exists even after their leader's death.

              OUT   OF   UNDERSTANDING   for the man who was once his teacher,  sasuke wouldn’t allow his patience to outlast kakashi’s term as hokage.  truthfully,  between naruto and sasuke,  it’s clear who will be the one to formally inherit kakashi’s blessing,  his successorship:  naruto is both the son of his hokage teacher and jiraiya’s physical and spiritual disciple,  a triumphant hero of pain’s invasion who earned the love of the villagers.  sasuke,  on the other hand,  is a deserter to his village and his friends.  the feudal lords won't likely accept him as a former terrorist of the gokage summit,  either.  ultimately,  there’s no choice but for sasuke to wrest away the seat of control by force or else his ability to enact changes won’t happen.

              just as sasuke planned to eradicate every preexisting facet of shinobi culture from existence and replace them,  i believe his idea for restoration involves the same concept.  the need to equalize the balance of power is what caused other kages to scheme against konoha in the past.  so after the current gokage are eliminated,  the next step is for him to look inward into the reestablishment of new ones as well as new systems.  with their current system of shinobi mercenary work split between five villages,  the prosperity of one is always reliant on another’s misfortune.  this breeds inequality and a necessity to place one’s village above the rest simply to survive:  the foundation of konoha's suffering as the village perceived to be the strongest.  with his monopoly of the bijuu,  the feudal lords no longer hold a militant power sizable enough to stop his interference in their politics.  it is they in turn who elect new kage and control the flow of jobs.  his goal of total political,  social,  and economic reform is a way of preventing further damage to konoha’s infrastructure and the feudal lords will be his means to that end.

         “ GOD YOU’RE SO FUCKING STUBBORN , ” runs through his mind and out his mouth faster than he can stop it ( not that he would ever hold his tongue around sasuke . he never has / he won’t start now ) . 

          but his anger ? justified . completely . to see such malice and anger and rage and righteous fury reflected back at him was oddly familiar . perhaps , because , naruto used to hold the same sort of anger any time he dared to look in the mirror . it would reflect back at him in spades and spades until he ended up punching anything that reflected such a heated yet empty gaze . 

         more than once , naruto has considered whether he could truly compare his life with sasuke’s . sasuke had known family in a way naruto would never be able to comprehend . and he’s tasted death in a manner that naruto has only sipped upon , never fully experienced , despite their wold being strife with war and death .  

           he KNOWS sasuke thinks all he is , is preaching fanfare . and he had a point , he did . if naruto truly understood then why stop him ? why not let him do this . why not JOIN him ? ( as if the thought has never crossed his mind before now . it always has . it may never stop running ) . 

          but , naruto was also incredibly stubborn . to fault . to one day , his demise . though the iron in his spine shook as he stood tall , and held sasuke’s glacial stare . fingers curled into fists , but not in fight . not yet , not now , at least . 

          “ YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT THAT THEY SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE . what the elders of this village has done in the safety of their shadows and secrets is … fucked up . ” for a lack of better words ! “ and they should have to pay . they should be called out . but you burn and you burn / you kill and you kill / and then what ? when does it stop ? when would you be satisfied ? ”  he feels it , this itch . this pulsing , erratic , that ebbs under his skin . he feels heat pool and pool and he can’t tell if it’s rage or frustration or a mixture of both . if the heat in his eyes that burns and burns as he continues to stand across sasuke , the vision he has been chasing and running towards for years , is sadness and sympathy or something , unknown . 

           “ i have always tried to understand you . and i get that although our pain , our loneliness , may feel the same , they come from different places . but it’s not like i haven’t thought over and over again what it would be like to take them out in cold blood . to rip them apart . to make them hurt how i’ve hurt . but sasuke , ” and despite himself , his voice cracks a bit at the words . and the burning in his eyes grows . “ a part of me does want let you go . to see you finish your goal . but i can’t do that . and i won’t do that . because then you’ll be playing into your hands . they’ll only see you as the monster they painted your clan to be and that’s not how you win —– that SHOULDN’T be how you win . ”

           because he’s thought about it . he has countless times planned what it would be like if he suddenly , snapped . snapped into the monster they whispered he was to their children as mothers tugged them away from him . the monster they tried to lock up in a dirty apartment and provided the bare minimum to keep him going for the next day . he’s thought about it endlessly , it’s almost driven him mad . 

          and then he thinks about itachi . who entrusted sasuke to him . and the iron in his spine fortifies . 

         “ let me help you . but let me help you get what you want , which is justice , without spiraling into the madness and hate . we can do it together . ”

               HIS   VENGEANCE,   FOR   all its calculations,  is at heart but only the purest extraction of his emotions.  stifling desolation at his very core as he seeks to cauterize the injury of his grief through the violence that he sees fit.  but in their unsparing world of shinobi,  to feel too much is to be a madman.  perhaps that is what he has become now,  what he will most certainly be when he delivers every living soul amongst both the innocent  &  the guilty to the grave.  is sasuke prepared to cross that bridge into true lunacy?  to annihilate all within the qualifications of his revenge without a trace of feeling?  regardless of the answer,  he must first deaden what sanity remains within himself in order to faithfully execute his ambition.                   

               HOWEVER,   THE   DELIBERATE   amputation of something one has always possessed is admittedly difficult.  insane only to those who see him for his former affiliation to the turncloaks garbed in red clouds alone,  there can be no question that he has still retained his mind throughout it all.  eruptive,  unquestionably wrathful,  but not unbound of selective reason--  naruto’s words even feed his reluctance,  inch by inch,  as they bring into mind the image of his clan.  the proud uchiha fan slated to become a symbol of treachery at the actions of their last,  subject to little change from the doubts initially cast over it.  since the moment he turned his back on the village,  his body had become expendable as a mere container for power,  but the fact has never changed that sasuke lives for the ideals that loom larger than his own life.

               REVENGE,   CLAN,   FAMILY..   &  at one seemingly forgotten point,  even his precious bonds.