The third member of the original Team Seven wasn't alone. He had four other people with him. A posse of sidekicks and extras, really. All wearing the stiff, high-collared uniforms of the Konoha Military Police Force.
Naturally, the Uchiha stood at the front, radiating that distinct blend of arrogance and brooding intensity that teenage girls seemed to mistake for depth. The most eye-catching detail wasn't his face, though, but the armband with the red and white fan crest synced with the police insignia.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice went up an octave, the sound drenched in a sickening amount of hope, with that little uptick of pleasure that girls got when they saw their crush. A small smile bloomed on her face.
Sasuke ignored her completely. His dark eyes locked onto me with the sort of cold focus that made it clear I was the only thing in his world that mattered right now. So flattering. I had always known I was a handsome fella.
"Release the civilian. Now," he ordered.
His voice had that particular flavor of arrogant superiority that came naturally to people who'd been told they were special since birth. It was the tone of someone who expected immediate compliance, who'd never had to question whether their authority was real or just borrowed from their family name. The other members of his little police squad fanned out around us with practiced efficiency, blocking exit routes.
The crowd around us, previously cooing over our good deed, went quiet. The uniform commanded fear in this village, and the Uchiha commanded even more.
Sakura's smile faltered, visibly cracking at the edges. "Sasuke-kun...?" She blinked, confusion warring with her adoration. She looked down at me, knee-deep in the thief's back, then at the struggling man, and finally back to the Uchiha. "What do you mean? He... this man is a thief. Sensei just stopped him from robbing that old lady." She offered him a fragile, trembling smile, desperate for him to understand, to validate the situation. "He just—"
"He's crazy!" The thief, ambitious little background character that he was, apparently decided this was his moment to shine. He started struggling under my knee, voice pitching into something whiny and victimized. "He attacked me! I was just walking down the street and this madman grabbed me! I didn't do anything! I only wan— wait—wait! GAAH—!"
"…..shut up," I said, and twisted his arm until he started screaming. He did shut up, though. His ambitions to the limelight of the main cast only amounted to so much.
Sasuke's frown deepened, but he didn't spare Sakura a glance. Didn't seem to give a single fuck that the civilian he was supposedly protecting was currently in pain. He didn't look at the old woman clutching her retrieved purse. His entire focus remained locked on me, and I started to suspect this was some sort of profiling bullshit.
"What authority do you have to detain and assault a civilian?" Sasuke asked, each word clipped and precise. "You're not the police. You don't have jurisdiction here."
I deadpanned. This edgy Uchiha really had it out for me.
Uchiha in general were a pain in the ass to deal with, but this one seemed like he'd be even more of a headache than usual. On a different day, when I wasn't already exhausted and pissed off, I might've been convinced to play with him a little. But I'd just gotten verbally eviscerated by the village's top brass, and I'd had my fill of Uchiha bullshit thanks to Itachi.
Besides, the crowd had shifted, and people were starting to point. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and I caught my name being passed around with the sort of distrust that came from fear and rumors.
"Here you go, Officer." I disengaged from the thief and took a few steps back, hands raised in mock surrender. "All yours. Wouldn't want to step on any toes."
The thief scrambled to his feet, immediately pivoting to gratitude. "Thank you! Thank you, Uchiha-sama! This lunatic just—"
Sasuke made a sharp gesture. Two of his extras moved in and grabbed the thief's arms, wrenching them behind his back with the ease of people who'd done this a hundred times. The thief's gratitude turned to outrage.
"Wait, what? I'm innocent! I didn't do anything! You can't—" The thief's protests were muffled as they dragged him away.
The whole time, Sasuke kept his gaze enervingly on me like an angry chihuahua trying to stare down a wolf. Then, slowly, a smug, serrated grin stretched across his face.
"So," Sasuke said, loud enough for the onlookers to hear. "You're the Kage Killer, huh?" He looked me up and down, his eyes narrowing in boredom. "I expected... more. What a letdown."
His words were like a trigger. The crowd's concealed scorn became overt. Their whispers grew louder, less careful, full of judgment and fear. I could hear fragments—dangerous, reckless, what if there's war, my son is in the academy—the usual spiral of civilian panic when they didn't understand something.
I breathed slowly through my nose. I knew how fear and perception shaped people's beliefs.
They'd already heard unpleasant and exaggerated rumors about what happened in the Land of Waves, about the potential consequences my actions might bring to their peaceful lives. Seeing me tangled up with the police would inadvertently confirm everything they'd been told.
This was one of the reasons I'd kept my confrontations with Itachi secret. Though admittedly, news of the confrontation with a Uchiha and an Anbu at that would've brought even more dire consequences than what Sasuke was stirring up now.
Guess they were brothers for a reason.
"This is Eishin Sayasaki," Sakura stepped forward, forcing a bright, cheerful tone, apparently immune to the hostile tension crackling in the air. She smiled like she was making introductions at a social gathering. I remember it was Naruto, the oblivious one. "He was our jounin commander for our last mission, and now he's my sensei. Sensei, this is Sasuke Uchiha. He was our classmate at the academy and the third member of Team Seven."
Sasuke scoffed, and when he spoke, his voice dripped with contempt. "I'm no longer part of that team of weaklings. Don't insult me by even suggesting it." He didn't look at her when he said it, like she wasn't worth the effort of eye contact. "I'm with the Military Police Force now. Actual authority, not pretend missions for children."
He gestured with his head. Two officers moved to flank me, close enough to be threatening without actually touching. They seem hesitant, rightfully so, but I had to give it to them; they hide it well.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura gasped, genuine shock in her voice. "What are you doing?"
"My job," Sasuke said flatly. His eyes stayed on me. "I'm bringing this individual in for questioning regarding his unauthorized use of force against a civilian." Then he finally looked at Sakura, finally acknowledging her presence with pure disdain. "Now would you shut up, Sakura. Stay out of this. Go play ninja somewhere else and don't interfere with real work."
Sakura flinched, her shoulders hunching inward. But she didn't back down. Either she didn't take his words to heart, which seemed unlikely, or she was used to this kind of treatment from him. Probably the latter. As expected of Sakura, she was really good at taking abuse and coming back for more.
"Sasuke-kun, you don't understand." She moved between us, putting herself in Sasuke's path. "We were just helping an old lady who had been robbed. Sensei stopped the thief. You can't arrest him for doing the right thing!"
"Sakura..." Sasuke's scowl deepened into something uglier. "You were always an annoyance. Don't mistake persistence for importance."
His eyes shifted from black to red in an instant—the Sharingan activating with that distinctive pattern. He glared hard at her, and his voice dropped into something colder, more dangerous.
"You're in my way. Move."
Sakura flinched again, harder this time. She wrapped one arm around herself protectively and put her other hand over her mouth, stepping back half a step.
I didn't like that, and I was really, really fed up with this shit.
I calculated twice, then pushed chakra into my legs in six precise intervals. The world blurred and flickered in front of the edgy bastard.
One moment, he was glaring at Sakura; the next, I was inside his guard, invading his personal space so thoroughly I could count his eyelashes.
Sasuke's eyes widened. He hopped backward immediately, creating distance, his Sharingan tracking my movement, but his body language screaming that he'd barely followed it. His scowl remained fixed on his face like it had been carved there.
"You can see," I said conversationally, ignoring the sharp pain lancing through my legs where the six consecutive body flickers had reopened injuries that hadn't fully healed. "But your body can barely follow. Might want to work on that gap, Uchiha….sama."
The fact that I'd used the technique despite the pain was telling enough how annoyed I was.
"You—" Sasuke gritted his teeth, his hand hovering over his pouch. He forced an angry, confident grin, his scowl twisted into something that tried to be an angry grin but just looked petulant. "Resisting a police officer. That's another charge. You're making this worse for yourself."
I tilted my head, then, unceremoniously, turned around and started walking away. "Come on, Sakura," I called out over my shoulder, keeping my voice easy and light, as if we hadn't just been on the verge of a street brawl. "Let's leave Uchiha-sama to his very important police work."
"Who said you could leave?" Sasuke called after me, his voice sharp with authority he thought he had. "You're und—"
"Check the hierarchy, man," I snorted without looking back. "I'm a jounin. If you want to arrest me, you'll need authorization from the big boss and…. a way stronger team than this. But please, feel free to file your report. I'm sure it'll be taken very seriously."
Fortunately for both of us, Sasuke wasn't blinded enough by his pride to actually try to stop me physically. But he'd remember this. The edgy Uchiha was the petty type, if I remembered the show correctly.
Sakura hesitated for a long moment, looking between Sasuke and me like she was torn. Then she hurried after me, her footsteps quick and uncertain on the street behind.
We walked in silence for a while, navigating away from the main streets toward the quieter parts of the village where people didn't gather to gawk and whisper. Sakura trailed two steps behind, head down. I didn't need to look back to know she was biting her lip, torn between the boy she obsessed with and the man she was learning to obey.
The pleasant mood we'd built during our afternoon together had been taken out back and shot, replaced by a heavy, awkward air that clung to us like humidity.
"Sasuke-kun….." She began quietly, her voice small and meek, only to trail off, uncertain. "Sasuke-kun isn't usually like that," she eventually said.
I beg to defer.
"Is that so?" I didn't turn around.
"Yeah. He's just... he has a lot of pressure on him right now," she continued, picking up speed as she built her narrative. "I mean, being in the Police Force is really demanding, and with his family history... he was just trying to be thorough. He didn't mean to be rude to you, Sensei. He probably just misunderstood the situation and thought he needed to take charge. He was just trying to do his duty."
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from scoffing out loud. The mental gymnastics this girl performed were Olympic-level. It was honestly impressive, in a horrifying sort of way, how quickly she could rewrite reality to fit the fantasy she'd built around that brooding asshole. It seemed that whatever brain cells she possessed committed mass suicide the moment a Uchiha entered her field of vision.
She really needed someone to put her on a tight leash. Left to her own devices, she'd set herself on fire just to keep Sasuke warm, then convince herself he was doing her a favor by letting her burn.
We reached the riverbank, the same stretch of water we'd visited earlier, but now the shadows were longer, stretching across the grass like grasping fingers. The place was deserted. I stopped and stared out at the flowing water, listening to the gentle rush against the rocks.
"Earlier…. did he cast a genjutsu on you?" I asked, keeping my voice neutral.
Sakura blinked, startled. "What? No! Of course not!" She jumped in front of me, blocking my view of the river, her expression fierce with that stubborn, misguided loyalty. "Sasuke-kun would never do that! Why would you even think that? I was just... I was just surprised, that's all. His Sharingan seemed more evolved than the last time I saw him. It was intense."
I looked down at her. She was practically vibrating with the need to defend him, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She was so blind it was painful. But wasn't that what made her so easy, so irresistible.
I let a soft, indulgent smile spread across my face. I didn't argue logic. Logic didn't work on addicts. Instead, I stepped into her space, looming over her just enough to make her tilt her head back.
"Relax, Sakura. I just wanted to make sure," I said, pitching my voice low, coating it in that smooth, caring cadence that she seemed to crave. "The fact that you're safe is what matters most. The rest is just noise."
There's a specific kind of fragility that comes from loving a narcissist, and Sakura was the poster child for it. She was so used to fighting for scraps of affection, so accustomed to the bitter taste of Sasuke's disdain, that she didn't know how to handle kindness that was freely given. It short-circuited her defenses. By catching her right when he pushed her away, I was rewiring her dopamine pathways.
It was basic conditioning, really. Emotional whiplash. Sasuke had just stripped her down, exposing all her insecurities and rubbing salt in the wounds with his indifference. She was raw, freezing in the cold of his rejection. By offering her warmth immediately after, I wasn't just being nice; I was becoming her savior. The contrast amplified my simple words into something profound. To a girl starving in the dark, a single candle looks like the sun. I didn't even have to try; I just had to be the antithesis of the Uchiha, and her desperate, delusional mind would do the rest of the work for me.
I reached up and patted her head, fingers sliding gently through that soft pink hair.
Her green eyes widened first, surprise flickering across her face, before her lashes fluttered down. The tension drained out of her shoulders as she accepted the gesture with a shy tilt of her head. Her cheeks flushed that pretty shade of pink that matched her hair, and she leaned into my touch like a plant turning toward sunlight.
It was the reaction of a stray cat that had been kicked one too many times, suddenly presented with a warm hand. She basked in it, thirsting for the sort of grounded, stabilizing attention she'd never had from the men meant to set her compass.
I let my hand rest there for a moment, feeling her melt under the simple affection. My progress with her was almost amusing—how far she'd come from the bratty, self-centered girl who'd cared about nothing but Sasuke's attention. Now she was meek, pliant, seeking validation from my touch like she'd been starving for it her whole life.
It was sad how easy she was. And so fucking hot.
Seeing Sakura like this stirred something dark and hungry in my gut. The urge to take advantage of that neediness, to twist it until she was dependent on me for every scrap of dopamine, was suffocating. I licked my lips, my mind already racing through the next few steps, calculating which buttons to push to get her from leaning into my hand to kneeling at my feet.
"Sensei?" She lifted her head, breaking the moment. She looked up at me, her big green eyes shimmering with a sudden, steely determination that seemed at odds with her blushing cheeks. "There's... there is something I wanted to say."
Oh boy. This ought to be good.
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