"A wise choice. Come with us. Lord Orochimaru will grant you true power." Sakon smiled chillingly, his two-headed face filled with the arrogance of success.
Sasuke Uchiha sat on the hospital bed, his scarlet Sharingan gleaming with a chilling light in the dim moonlight. A pungent smell of disinfectant filled the room, making Sasuke feel unbearably stifled and sick. Without another wasted word, Sasuke swung himself off the bed. He did not even change out of his hospital clothes, simply grabbing the Ninja Tool Pouch by his bedside and strapping it tightly to his leg.
"Hurry up. Konoha's ANBU might be a bunch of useless trash, but it'll still be a pain if they get on our tails," Tayuya urged impatiently, reaching out to push open the hospital room's window.
The four Sound Ninja became four blurred black shadows, leaping out the window first like ghosts and melting into the deep night. Sasuke stood on the windowsill and glanced back at the village where he had lived for over a decade. Konoha's streets seemed especially quiet in the darkness, while the distant Hokage Rock cast an enormous shadow in the moonlight. Naruto's perpetually grinning face flashed through Sasuke's mind, followed by Kakashi Hatake's lazy, dead-fish eye, but in the end, every image was replaced by Uchiha Itachi's cold, merciless Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Konoha... there's nothing left here worth holding on to." Sasuke murmured those words, then leaped into the endless darkness.
The night wind howled past his ears as Sasuke followed the Sound Four swiftly across Konoha's rooftops. Just as they were about to reach the gates at Konoha's entrance, a pink figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows of a nearby alley and blocked Sasuke's path.
It was Sakura Haruno.
"Sasuke... where are you going this late at night?" Sakura's