Why? Because he was "rookie of the year" for his class. He was the Last Uchiha, a vengeance haunted shinobi whose destiny was to kill his eldest brother for the destruction of his clan. He excelled in every category as a ninja.
Except the rest of his team were currently overshadowing him.
Sakura had beaten TWO enemy ninja of at least chunin rank.
Naruto had taken on an enemy JONIN - and won!
Even the damn CAT had taken on a missing nin and defeated him. Her. Whatever.
Sasuke Uchiha was not a happy camper. Ninja. Whatever.
"You might as well talk to us," said Kakashi. "Your jonin may still be alive, but he's got to be heavily injured from that fall. You're captured. The Demon Brothers of the Mist - defeated. There's no reason for you to not negotiate."
"I don't know, I think if it had just been your 'dead last' over there," began the prisoner as he made a head-gesture.
"The what?" asked Sasuke, realizing that he'd just been indicated.
"I have heard of this practice that the Leaf Village paired up their best with their worst in order to maintain some sort of balance," said the prisoner, looking directly at Sasuke. "I meant no insult by it."
Dead silence, broken only when Sasuke got up and went to the door.
"Okay," said Kakashi. "He took that better than I thought he would."
"Huh," said Naruto. "What's going on, anyway? Sakura's been pretty quiet, so has Sasuke come to think of it."
"Troublesome," said Kakashi.
An hour ago:
"What is the problem with this group?!" practically growled Gato.
"If I may?" asked a man who looked to be pressing up against the century mark.
"What?" snapped Gato.
"We're up against an Uzumaki," said the old man. "You haven't made it personal yet, but you might."
"So? What's the problem with that?" asked Gato.
"I'm old enough. I remember the Uzumaki," said the old man. "They use their special jutsu to bend time and space, and they're vengeful. And creative. I remember one, a gang-boss. Wealthy, powerful, surrounded himself with highly trained ninja and bodyguards."
This sounded enough like the current situation that Gato lost a tiny amount of sneer in his voice. "Oh? And what happened?"
"He made it personal," said the old man sadly. "Hurt a kid. Tetsuo was his name I think. I was a young student doctor back then. Tetsuo Uzumaki. Anyway, one day the boss was just sitting there in bed. Didn't find out the whole story until we did the autopsy. Had to cover his face. That expression on the boss' face gave me the willies."
Gato swallowed despite himself. "Really? His bodyguards didn't stop this 'Uzumaki'?"
"They use seals to bend time and space, kid," said the old man. "Not a mark on old Bartlett's body. Except when we tried to find a cause for his death - he was missing all of his intestines and his voice box, plus he'd had his spinal cord cut. Not a mark on him though. He died paralyzed, screaming without a voice, with his guts ripped out of him. THAT is why people ain't too anxious to go up against an Uzumaki."
"I'm too busy to listen to old wives' tales," said Gato dismissively as he walked away. "Idiots. I'll just offer a bounty."
"Old Bartlett didn't listen either," mumbled the old man, shaking his head. "Thank goodness I'm too old to do autopsies anymore, I sure don't want to have to see anything like that again."
The various mercenaries and bodyguards shifted uneasily, looking from the departing Gato to the old doctor.
"It was three days after the old boss died that the bodyguards started disappearing," said the old man, easing himself down to a seated position. "Bad business. Bad business all around."
"Now:"
Sasuke realized he'd been a little preoccupied by his thoughts. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone three strides out the door before realizing there was a crowd of mercenaries around him. "WHAT?!"
"He doesn't have hair the color of fresh blood," pointed out a mercenary.
"Well, he could still be an Uzumaki," argued another mercenary.
"I'm not an Uzumaki, I'm an Uchiha!" snapped Sasuke.
"'Uchiha'?" asked the first mercenary.
"Ninja clan, I think," said the second mercenary. "Wasn't there one of them went crazy and killed all his kin?"
"They're ninjas," said the first mercenary. "They get progressively crazier as they move up the ranks."
"That's..." began Sasuke, who was then struck with the Truth in that statement. Were there ANY jonin or above that he'd met who weren't at least slightly nuts?
"Anyway, kid," said the second mercenary. "We're here to kill the Uzumaki. You can just run along home."
Sasuke went into a combat pose, drawing a kunai with each hand. He opened his mouth, ready to engage in the Combat Banter part of ninja battles.
"Kid? You okay?" asked the first mercenary.
Sasuke was actually fairly grateful to these guys. He really needed to vent.
Kakashi Hatake cocked his heads as the sounds continued outside the house.
"Uhm, why's Sakura sulking?" asked Naruto, whose hammer was out.
"Sasuke..." began Kakashi, trying to figure out how to put this that wouldn't have further conflict within the team dynamic. "Sasuke lashed out verbally at her a little earlier."
"Oh," said Naruto. "Well."
"Actually," said Kurochan, startling Haku from where he was listening to all this. "Sasuke referred to her as 'just a doll.'"
"Oh damn," said Naruto, glancing at Sakura.
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(Posted Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:54)
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