Old Friends Reunited

Naruto?

Sasuke looked at Naruto. It felt like he had not seen this guy in three years. Over those three years, he really had learned many useful things from Orochimaru.

He had indeed benefited greatly. He was nothing more than a tool for revenge now, so what did it matter who he was with?

"Sasuke, come back to the Hidden Leaf Village with me!"

Naruto's eyes were still as bright as ever, but they were no longer the boys they had once been.

"What are you talking about?"

Sasuke found it somewhat amusing. How naive.

Yet Naruto still said,

"Sasuke, come back to the Hidden Leaf Village with me!!"

At that moment, Sasuke felt that Naruto was like a child who had never grown up, unbelievably naive. When words did not align, even half a sentence was too much. Sasuke did not want to waste any more breath.

He used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before Naruto and hooked an arm around his neck.

But he did not attack...

"Naruto, wasn't your dream to become Hokage? Instead of wasting your breath on this nonsense with me, you should be training properly."

"Sasuke..."

Naruto fell silent. He did not understand why Sasuke had become so unfamiliar. This was not the Sasuke he knew.

"You think I'm right, don't you, Naruto?"

With that, he drew the Kusanagi Sword from behind his back.

"And now... I might just take your little life!"

Josuke, who was watching from the side, could not help but mock him. As expected of the king of posers—he really pulled it off. Though he could act cool too; he just did not want to.

Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword was already poised to strike, but Naruto did not dodge. His voice was firm.

"Becoming Hokage is important, but! What meaning is there in being a Hokage who can't even save his comrades? How could someone like that become Hokage... don't you think so, Sasuke?"

As expected of Naruto's talk-no-jutsu. Sasuke did not know how to respond.

The Kusanagi Sword stabbed down. Seeing Naruto remain completely motionless, Sai could no longer sit still. He rushed between them and blocked Sasuke's attack.

Then!!!

Electric light burst from Sasuke's entire body and struck the two of them!

The two were injured by Sasuke's lightning. Seeing things go badly, Sakura and Yamato hurried forward to help, only for both of them to be injured by overpowered Sasuke as well. Yamato was even stabbed by a sword.

Naruto had originally wanted to use the Nine-Tails' chakra to attack Sasuke, but Sasuke entered the mental space and defeated the Nine-Tails.

(Then there was a bunch of pointless nonsense. I don't want to pad the word count, so I'll skip it. If you want to know, go watch the original Naruto.)

After saying that, Sasuke raised his hand to unleash his ultimate move, but Orochimaru grabbed his arm.

"Our enemy now is the Akatsuki Organization. We must not throw ourselves into disarray at a time like this. We share a common enemy with the Hidden Leaf Village."

After thinking for a moment, Sasuke understood the stakes and stopped his attack.

Orochimaru was very satisfied. He spoke to the empty air.

"All right, Josuke-kun. You don't need to hide anymore. Come out!"

Before his voice had even faded, a man who looked ninety percent like Sasuke appeared beside Orochimaru. Wasn't that Josuke?

Everyone was horrified. It seemed they truly could not complete their mission. There might have been a chance against Sasuke and Orochimaru, but with Josuke added to the mix, it became far more difficult.

Sasuke also looked at Josuke, utterly surprised.

His eyes were filled with confusion and incomprehension, but Orochimaru interrupted his thoughts.

"Whatever you have to say can wait until after we retreat..."

Orochimaru used a ninjutsu to take the three of them away, leaving behind only the bedraggled members of Team 7.

Faced with such helpless circumstances, Sakura and Naruto fell into self-reproach. If they had been just a little stronger, would the outcome have been different?

They decided to continue improving their strength.

On Josuke's side, he and Sasuke sat face-to-face. Josuke poured Sasuke a cup of tea.

"Go on. What do you want to ask?"

Looking at the younger brother he had not seen in three years, it would be a lie to say he had not missed him.

Sasuke did not know where to begin, so Josuke broke the silence.

"How have these past three years been?"

Sasuke thought for a moment.

"I've been training with him the whole time. Life hasn't been great, but it's much better than being in the Hidden Leaf Village. What about you?"

"Same as you. Training."

Sasuke's life was exactly as Josuke had predicted. Orochimaru treated his subordinates fairly well, although he did intend to make use of Sasuke.

But was that not mutually beneficial for Sasuke as well? Orochimaru had long told Sasuke that he would take his body, but he had indeed fulfilled the terms of their agreement.

He gave Sasuke the power he wanted.

It just wasn't as strong as my god Itachi, that's all.

Ahem, ahem.

Now that the subject had opened up, there was naturally more to talk about.

Sasuke still did not understand why Josuke had joined Orochimaru.

"You... why did you come here too?"

Of course, he could not mention the agreement he had made with Orochimaru three years ago, so he brought out the great Danzō instead.

Josuke deliberately made his voice sound furious.

"It's all because of that bastard Danzō!!"

"?"

Knowing Sasuke did not understand, Josuke continued.

"Do you know? That night... aside from that man, I also discovered that Danzō was connected to it in countless ways. And I don't know when Danzō set his sights on me—he wanted my eyes.

"He even threatened me, saying that if I refused, he would make it impossible for me to remain in the Hidden Leaf Village. Heh, just as expected, I was framed for murder! So I had no choice."

Sasuke was horrified! He clenched his fists. Danzō, was it? Everyone connected to that man had to die!

Sasuke had no interest in checking whether Josuke's words were true or false. At worst, he would kill an innocent man by mistake. After hearing his brother's words, another name was added to Sasuke's blacklist...

Land of Fire

Fire Temple

Hidan and Kakuzu successfully killed Chiriku. Cruelly cutting off his head, they prepared to go to the black market to collect the bounty. Kakuzu carefully examined his blacklist.

There were more than a hundred ninja names on it, large and small, and half of them had already been crossed out.

It was enough to show how powerful the subordinates recruited by the Akatsuki Organization were.

But they were not the protagonists. Josuke was. After news of Chiriku's death spread, Josuke came here. The Fire Temple no longer retained any of its former prosperity.

Its magnificent splendor had become nothing but ruins. Josuke strode into the Fire Temple.

(The following plot is anime-original. Manga readers, please don't mind it.)

Seeing someone arrive, the novice monk guarding the entrance immediately stopped Josuke.

"My apologies, sir. Since the Fire Temple has been damaged, it is temporarily closed to visitors. Amitabha, please do not take offense."

Take offense?

Why would he take offense?

How could he? Being a rogue ninja was great—free and carefree, without all sorts of restrictions. Unlike normal ninja; even dogs would shake their heads at that.