Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended

Title: Floodgates
Chapter: 26/26

Chapter 26

The bar was mostly vacant while he sat there; early morning was not generally the time people would visit such places. But he felt like he needed a good stiff drink after defeating that hulking assassin. He'd left his house too soon.

But he'd had to do it.

There had been too much space there and the walls had started to close in on him.

It'd been a long night and now the alcohol burned his insides on the way down.

He coughed. When he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, it came back sticky with blood. He cleaned it on the side of his already ruined pants and tossed back the last of his drink.

"I have to say," a male said behind him, "I'm actually pretty glad you came out the winner."

Sasuke patently ignored the vaguely familiar voice. He had better, and worse, things to deal with.

"Still, I didn't think you'd kill him." There was an ambiguous smile in that statement. "Bravo."

Sasuke gave the man as direct a look as he could manage, threw as much anger into it as he could and headed to the exit. The loud-mouthed idiot followed just as Sasuke intended, like a lamb to the slaughter.

"I can't say I'm disappointed," the man continued blithely, stupidly, on. "I didn't really want you dead."

The instant Sasuke led them into a secluded alleyway he turned on the man, slammed him against the stone wall, and pointed his sword at his throat. The cracked rib in Sasuke's side punctured his lung, but he didn't care. This fool was something he could throw his frustration at.

"Who are you?" He asked calmly, biting back the pain.

"Don't tell me you don't remember," the man whined moodily. "After those glorious days we spent together." He ran light fingers over Sasuke's jaw. "I never minded a little violence."

Something clicked in Sasuke's brain. He twisted the blade a little closer. "Kenta."

The boy sighed with a sick sort of contentment. "You remembered."

"What's this all about?" Sasuke asked dangerously, assuming the context was clear.

Sasuke could feel the boy's pouting petulance beneath his hand. "You wouldn't pay attention to me. Even after everything we shared." He huffed childishly. "Though you wouldn't come with me that last time." The sound of his voice changed, turning to self-satisfaction. "At least not until I gave you a little something to help you relax."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, remembering that lost night, but he otherwise ignored the comment. "So you tried to have me killed?" He clarified.

Kenta laughed, an oddly musical sound. "I always knew you were dangerous. Powerful." He gave a rattling sigh. "But I didn't know you were that powerful."

"So all this," Sasuke pulled at Kenta's skin with the tip of his sword. "Was to get my attention?"

"Of course," Kenta said, his voice a little warbling from the strain of stretching it away from the blade. "How else was I to get you away from that stupid blond?"

On cue, all of Sasuke's muscles tensed. His insides still blazed but now it wasn't just from the injuries. "What do you know about him?"

"It's not fair," the boy spat defensively, not answering the question. "He's not special. I've seen him." He snorted scornfully. The assassin sneered. "He's not worthy of you. Don't you get it? He doesn't appreciate you. That's why I had to – " But he stopped there.

Sasuke waited a second then slammed the boy hard against the stone. It felt good.

"That's why you what?"

Kenta rumbled low in his throat.

"That's why you what, Kenta?" But Sasuke knew the answer. The blade nicked the boy's throat. "You were fun. Don't make me kill you," he said this as though it weren't already a forgone conclusion.

The boy's content demeanor soured. "You see? This is him talking," he criticized. "I'd let you be yourself."

"Let me?" Sasuke mimicked threateningly.

"You're be better off with out him," the boy snapped, oblivious.

Kenta hissed as Sasuke drove the sword point in deep enough to open skin. "What did you do?"

"Only what's best for you," Kenta rasped defiantly.

Sasuke twisted the point a quarter turn.

"It's too late anyway. They'll be at your house by now. He's dead."

Sasuke's left eyebrow twitched. Naruto made it pretty clear to him that he wouldn't be returning. He didn't need to be reminded of it by some useless boy. "You took a hit out on him too." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

Kenta sighed with satisfaction when Sasuke slowly let him down and dropped his unsheathed sword to his side.

"I-" But Kenta never got to finish that sentence. Sasuke cut off his next words with a hand held tight over the boy's mouth and a sword thrust straight into his heart. Kenta's small, insignificant body twitched as Sasuke twisted the blade, opening the wound, and let the blood gush free. The warm metallic scent of it filled his nose. Kenta's muffled cries were like white noise, of no importance, and scarcely heard outside the thundering in Sasuke's head.

The assassin stared, a mix of hatred and apathy, directly into Kenta's eyes almost as if he wished he could see just so he could watch the last dying light drain from his former lover's face.

--

There was little recourse left to him but believe the boy. So Sasuke headed home. There was a limp in his gait and a fire in his lungs as the injuries weighed more heavily on his body than they should. He hadn't been ready. And he'd ended up in this situation because of Kenta, because of Naruto.

But reasons didn't matter.

Only getting home, only if it were true.

For now he simply moved forward, ever closer to his house and Naruto.

He was too focused on his goal to do more than throw a hand up in the way of the garrote when it came flying at him.

With barely a thought, he grabbed the wire and sent an electrical current jolting through it. Almost instantly, the wire went slack and fell limp to the dirt around him.

In the next moment, he was out of the ligature's path and facing the new enemy with his katana unsheathed.

Several new wires sprang out and tried wrapping around his feet and he avoided nearly all of them. The cords shifted fluidly, more like water than metal, and one slipped its way around his leg.

Six daggers flew at him at once and Sasuke countered each with rapid deflections with his blade. He wrenched his side awkwardly and drove the rib deeper into his lung. Then there was a push to his shoulder, followed by an awkward swing of leg meant to catch him in the face. Sasuke caught the thin ankle with his free hand and yanked, landing the woman roughly on her backside.

She manipulated more of her strings and ensnared Sasuke's sword-less arm. She was like an expert musician, graceful and deadly in everything she did.

Sachiko.

That fool Kenta had hired Sachiko.

Sasuke sneered and tilted his body towards his bound hand and quickly formed some seals. The placement of his arms saved him from the garrote, and as skilled as she was, Sachiko relied too heavily on it.

Sasuke had the advantage. He'd been trained as a ninja first and had a slew of techniques meant for battle that she did not.

The dragon flower jutsu caught the woman unawares, causing her to lose control of her wires and giving Sasuke the half-second he needed to get free. Swearing, he dashed into the cover of trees, knowing he needed to do whatever he could to buy time. The jutsu had done as much damage to his insides as it had to the world outside.

This fight shouldn't be so hard.

Quickly, he created a clone to help confuse Sachiko and sat down against a tree trunk to rest. His lung burned and breathing had become difficult, but there was no time to spare worrying. He stifled a cough that dribbled blood over his chin and onto his chest.

He needed to get home.

If it was true, if it was true . . .

His chest felt too tight to breath and he knew it wasn't just from his broken rib.

The wires snapped back to the woman's fingers with a whir and a crack.

There were several minutes of complete, thoughtful silence.

Sasuke dropped his chakra levels low to conserve his energy.

If that useless boy were right, if Naruto really was at the house, he'd need to stop Sachiko from getting there.

He needed to stop her here and now.

There was a gentle shift in the air and the twang of a garrote pulling taut.

"C'mon Taka," Sachiko wheedled. "It's nothing personal."

Sasuke scowled. It was very much personal. Sachiko was taking jobs outside the network; she would've known exactly whom she'd have to fight.

All Sasuke would need was one chidori nagashi and she'd be out of the picture. Even less than that, a Goukakyuu no Jutsu would be more than sufficient. But he had little energy and more importantly, little speed left to deal with her. He had to be careful, had to be smart.

"Just give it up," the woman teased, taking uselessly silent steps. "What are you fighting for anyway? The boy? That's a lost cause. He's long dead by now."

Sasuke sneered. Naruto was a hardly a boy and certainly not dead. He would have known, even if Naruto were halfway around the world, he would have known.

Sasuke had his clone speak for him. "You don't even know where he is."

Sachiko scoffed, unladylike. "Really? And you think the kidnapping of the only doctor from a sleepy little town goes unnoticed?" She snorted, even more unladylike. "Little towns gossip."

Sasuke grimaced furiously.

"That means nothing." Refuted the Sasuke clone.

"By itself . . . " Sachiko made a high, ambiguous noise. "But the house has been watched. He's there."

Sasuke's spirit spiked warm and painful at once, but he squelched it. There was no time.

"If you'd even attempted to fight him, I'd know," the clone insisted.

"Ha!" Sachiko chortled from a different side of the open field. "I'mnot going to fight him. Were you hit so hard in the head that you've forgotten I work with a partner?"

For a moment, Sasuke had actually forgotten about Toshio.

"I took care of him," The Sasuke clone retorted arrogantly, referring to the large, dead assassin.

"Toshio?" The woman asked skeptically, and not worried at all. "No. I don't think so. I sent him off not too long before you showed up."

Her voice was teasingly singsong and confident. Sasuke cursed. Toshio couldn't be the hulking assassin, then. It was last night that he'd dealt with that man.

With only silence as a response, Sachiko was encouraged to go on. "Give it up. Nobody turns Toshio away." A wind ruffled through the trees, blowing leaves across the ground and hitting Sachiko with muffled little smacks. "He's not much use in a fight, but the little tyke's just so darn cute."

Sasuke groaned.

A kid. Of course.

The perfect foil for Naruto.

Sasuke could tell the woman was coming too close; a distraction was required. He sent out his clone and made a quick series of seals. In an acrid puff of smoke, the moody Hebiaya appeared.

"I need you to get a message to Naruto," Sasuke forced out against the increasing pain.

The snake hissed. "Where is my payment."

Sasuke buried his hands in the dirt and slammed the back of his head against the tree. He coughed violently and a significant amount of blood spewed out of his mouth.

The sounds of chase were evident behind him; the clone was doing a good job of diverting Sachiko.

"You'll get one if you deliver the message," Sasuke told the snake.

Hebiaya slurred disapprovingly and thought for an interminable minute during which Sasuke wanted to throttle him. Unfortunately, his strength was waning too fast to do that.

Warily, the serpent asked, "What is this message?"

"Tell Naruto that an assassin is after him." Sasuke took a raw, strangled breath. "It's a kid."

"And where would I find him?" The snake said haughtily.

The clone disappeared suddenly in a blink of chakra and Sachiko screamed in frustration.

"The house," Sasuke replied with an economical use of words. He felt the rush of oncoming danger.

Hebiaya lightly rustled the leaves he sat in, flicking his tail in disapproval. "Very well."

"There you are." Sachiko's lilting voice declared.

Sasuke clutched the sword tight in his trembling hand until the knuckles hurt. There he was, bleeding out and his chakra draining fast, with a recalcitrant snake on his right and a woman after his life on the left. Sachiko pulled the garrote tight until it hummed.

"Go!" Sasuke ordered the snake as he laboriously pushed himself to his feet.

Hebiaya hissed indignantly and vanished.

"Too late," Sachiko remarked cheerily. "But don't worry. I'll make it quick." Sachiko tuned the wire, plucking it like a harp string and making it sing.

Sasuke faced her with his sword in his hand, steady as he sent the last of his chakra down the blade for one brief, finishing strike.

It crackled and sparked off the tip of his blade, blue and bright like the dying embers of fireworks.

--

Sachiko was right.

It was quick.

And it left him bone weary, so tired he wanted to close his eyes and take a good long sleep, maybe forever. He was disgusted with himself that such stupid, insignificant flies should take so much out of him. But he dredged up a little bit more, that last bit of chakra, of will and power he didn't think he had and reached out into the darkness.

On the very periphery of his senses he felt it, faint but undeniably there.

Naruto.

Naruto and Na-chan and Hebiaya and someone he didn't know, all mixed together and unclear. All of it hazy, like the omnipresent fog of his adopted homeland, but there.

He closed his eyes and let his head fall back. The cool autumn air, thick with the scent of earth and rain and the hint of winter to come, swept over him.

Then he smiled, that almost but not quite, but maybe wanted to be, smile and his heart, for once, was calm.

--

END