Dayshift 42: Main Street - Noon

[jokers_wildcard]

[continued thread from here]

Hahaha~ Poor Sheena. At this rate, she was doomed. At least it was a playful kind of doomed. Sheena was her friend after all, and if Harley actually felt the girlie was in any danger, she wouldn't have been as nice to little miss youkai over here. Sheena was so dramatic sometimes, heh.

Harley made an excited Oh!

Comments

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sent to? The phrasing implied the Konoha-nin were actually working as a cohesive group, with somebody actually making plans and giving out commands. Sasuke was almost surprised -- then again, the last time these nin had been here there hadn't been any real authority figure amongst the bunch.

It was interesting nonetheless. And it meant that it was probably worthwhile to find out who was in charge.

"Who's giving out these assignments?" Sasuke asked. "Kakashi?"

Or perhaps Jiraiya, though the Sannin didn't seem the type to take charge with such efficiency.

-- and then, of course, Sakura managed to twist his words into something convenient for her to pry into his plans. It was probably reasonable to want to know what it meant when an ally said something like that, but Sasuke had just barely succeeded in pushing Itachi and what he'd said (that they had never really been the last Uchiha) out of mind and had no intention of retrieving it and all the attendant issues into the open. Especially not with Sakura around.

"Any of my goals that are relevant to you have stayed the same," he said shortly, choosing his words with a certain amount of care. "I am still exploring the basement as my current priority."

[see_my_back]

The more Sasuke tried to hide, the more obvious the answers became. Maybe if he was talking with Naruto it would've rolled right over his head, but Sakura at least, could read between the lines. If Itachi had merely disappeared, Sasuke would continue to seek power and strength and ways to destroy him. But if he'd already achieved his goal...

She was quiet again, considering the implications. Itachi was dead. She could easily assume that much from what she'd observed. So what now? Sasuke had to be asking himself that exact same question. Technically, he'd destroyed an enemy of Konoha, hadn't he? So he could hardly be branded a complete traitor, right? While it made sense in her mind, she couldn't be sure Tsunade and the village elders would feel the same way.

And how did Sasuke feel about it? She knew how much it hurt to lose people you cared about, but how could she understand how it might feel to kill his own brother? There were complications there that just made it impossible to know exactly what he might be feeling. And that same stoic mask he wore, crushing any emotion that threatened to sneak away didn't make it any easier. But it wasn't herself or Itachi or anyone else she was worried about. It was Sasuke. Whatever burden he was carrying had to be so much heavier alone.

"Yes," she replied, though her voice had grown somber. "Kakashi-sensei and Shikamaru have been doing most of the planning."

She wanted to reach out, but she wasn't sure she could handle it if he jerked away again. So she tried to keep up the act, even if she was failing miserably. "Have... you found anything worth mentioning?"

[sasuke_of_sound]

The fact of the matter was the situation hadn't so much changed as reverted -- Sasuke was aware of another goal he had to complete, one that required that he become even stronger, if Itachi were to be believed. And what reason would Itachi have to lie about Madara's power? Where that left him was where he had been when he had first arrived in the Institute: looking for an escape route in order to be able to continue with his goals. Because there was no way he could become stronger here.

But even if he knew that he had things he needed to accomplish, goals he had to meet -- without Itachi the path of darkness had lost its edges; without Itachi at its end, there was nothing but a murky gloom and a direction that Sasuke understood without knowing the precise way to walk it. As if Itachi had been more guide than goal, had led his spare like a brother.

With effort Sasuke forced all thoughts of Itachi out of mind again to concentrate on what Sakura was saying (for the first time he could ever remember, forcing Itachi out of mind in order to focus on Sakura and not the other way around).

"Shikamaru's doing the planning?" He questioned, surprise evident in his tone. The class slacker? Sasuke did remember that Shikamaru had supposedly done well in their first Chuunin Exam, but beyond that the news that filtered into Sound barely mentioned the Nara. If Kakashi trusted Shikamaru enough to plan for his team, then there had to be something useful about him -- intriguing.

Something worth nothing.

Unlike what Sasuke might have learned the past few days. He tensed slightly, aware that he had nothing to offer, and shook his head. "I haven't yet."

[see_my_back]

Of all the things for him to show emotion about, Shikamaru would not have been her first guess. How... annoying. Still, it gave her something to focus on instead of what had happened to Itachi.

Sasuke hadn't been there to hear the results of the Chuunin exam. And she knew that Shikamaru's team had been sent after him, only to come back battered and half-dead. Apparently it hadn't been anything noteworthy in Sasuke's opinion.

"He's lazy and obnoxious," Sakura explained flatly, "but he's a very good strategist." It was because of him, after all, that they'd been able to take down both Kakuzu and Hidan of Akatsuki. His plans were nearly flawless.

"What is it," she asked, "that you think might be down there?" The bulletin had been filled with nothing but negativity when it came to the basement. While some thought it held the secrets to escape, others only cautioned against it.

[sasuke_of_sound]

Count on Sakura to make her opinion known so bluntly. Sasuke had to wish that she could muster some of that firm judgment when it came to him -- the only reason she could even be here had to be because she was looking at the situation with glasses tinted so deeply rose they might as well have been a blindfold.

Nonetheless, the information about Shikamaru was interesting. Sasuke made a note to possibly look into speaking with him at some point; though Shikamaru had made little impression on Sasuke when they were younger, people did change. Should change.

As for the basement -- well, there was an example of something that did change when it really wasn't supposed to. Then again precious little of Landel's, creature or building, did what it was actually supposed to.

"I don't have a precise idea of what might be there," Sasuke said, truthfully enough. "But if there were nothing of interest, it wouldn't be set up the way it is. Landel wants us down there, but he only wants those who are able to make it all the way. It's worth finding out why."

That, and Sasuke could hardly go running out into the darkness beyond the Institute without having to rely much more heavily on others than he liked.

[see_my_back]

Sasuke had a point, but Sakura wasn't sure she could trust that Landel's motives were so simple. She decided to drop it for now so they could get moving.

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