=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Look I keep telling you, I'm not
your next leader,” Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, as his
fatigue threatened to turn into a full blown headache. “Sasuke
dealt the finishing blow to Orochimaru. I'm sure he'll clear
everything up when he wakes up. It's been a while since the battle.”
Hideo, the sour faced ninja beside him
who had started all the Nidaime nonsense, tensed with wariness.
Harry ignored him and entered the small
room that Sasuke had been taken into.
Hedwig turned amber eyes to him from
her spot on Sasuke's bed frame and hooted at him.
Around Harry's neck, Trouble stirred
from the light slumber that he had fallen into and then hissed at
Harry, “She says no one came by to bother him.”
“Not even to check up on him?”After
a bit of back and forth between the animals, Harry turned to Hideo
with a frown. “Where are all the doctors? Why haven't they come in
to check up on Sasuke?”
“Kabuto was in charge of Uchiha-san.
He never allowed anyone else near him.”
“Kabuto is dead,” Harry pointed
out. “Look if someone needs medical attention, then you should give
them medical attention.”
“I will inform the medics of your new
rule,” Hideo assured him with a bow.
“It's not, never mind.” Harry
sighed in annoyance and stopped beside Sasuke's bed with a frown as
he placed his right hand on Sasuk'e shoulder. “Enerverate”
Dark, tired eyes blinked open and
Sasuke sat up with a jolt.
Harry took advantage of of his
tiredness. “I need your help to sort some things out. I need you to
tell Hideo here, that I'm not Orochimaru's successor,” Harry said
with a smile that brooked no argument.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
Harry explained, “They found us on
the battleground and I had been talking to Trouble,” he motioned to
the snake absently. “I suppose it was an easy mistake to make, but
I would like it to be fixed.”
Sasuke stared at Harry for a long
moment before turning to Hideo. “How can there be any doubt as to
who he is?”
Harry relaxed, glad that the
misunderstanding would be resolved soon.
“Unlike Orochimaru, he's got the
snakes on his side,” Sasuke said with a flash of red in his eyes.
Trouble hissed with incredulous laughter. “I
think he just made you sound like an even better leader.”
Sasuke turned to Harry, ignoring Hideo
with a dismissive look. “Get search teams out. With all the
manpower in Sound, it will be easy to find Itachi.”
Harry stared at him. “What?”
“We need to find Itachi.” Sasuke
narrowed his red eyes at Harry. “You owe me.”
“We?” Harry said just as Trouble
reared up and hissed incoherently at Sasuke. Hedwig puffed up, her
amber eyed fixed on Sasuke with disapproval.
Sasuke glared, his body tensing as
though he was about to move.
Harry didn't give him a chance. He
frowned at Sasuke's unconscious form and lowered his right hand with
a sigh.“New plan. Let's not ask Sasuke anything. Ever.”
From behind him, Hideo sounded relieved
as he said, “Of course, Nidaime-sama.”
Harry frowned. He was back to square
one and no closer to getting out of the position.
“He would have been even angrier when
he found out that there aren't any free search parties,” Hideo
said.
“Who are they searching for?” Harry
couldn't help but ask even as hoots and hisses filled the air in a
steady conversation.
After a moment of hesitation, Hideo
answered.
Harry gaped. “So all that talk about
experiments, they were being literal about it? And the search teams
have gone out to collect more people to be experimented on?”
“If Kabuto asked for anything, we
needed to deliver. It was Orochimaru's orders. We swore to follow our
Kage's orders, no matter what,” Hideo said with a steady gaze at
Harry.
Even though he suspected what Hideo was
implying, he couldn't help asking, “So if I were to order no more
experiments on people?”
“Then as our Nidaime Otokage, we
would have to follow you,” Hideo said.
“I'm not your leader though,” Harry
pointed out.
“You killed Orochimaru and you have
the approval of the snakes,” Hideo said.
Once again Harry corrected him, “Sasuke
killed Orochimaru.”
“No one would accept him as our
Kage,” Hideo said. “We've seen his character in the few years he
spent here.”
“Isn't there anyone else around
here?” Harry asked. “Surely there must be more suitable
candidates for leader. Someone who is not a stranger who doesn't even
know which country he is in.”
“We suspected that if Orochimaru ever
lost his position, then Kabuto would take over. They took pains to
ensure that anyone who got too popular was sent out on long-term
missions far away from Grass Country.”
Harry frowned. “Who were you? Your
position, I mean?”
“I was one of many who assigned
missions to everyone in the village,” Hideo replied. “I'm not
leader material,” he added as though he knew what Harry was
thinking.
Undeterred, Harry pointed out, “But
people listen to you.”
“I've already declared you as the
Nidaime,” Hideo said. “Because when I saw you, the only person
standing on that battlefield as you declared Orochimaru was dead, no
one could be Nidaime.”
“Congratulations.” When Hideo
blinked in confusion, Harry continued, “You've been promoted to
leader. That's an order. And you have to follow my orders, right?”
“That's not how it works,” Hideo
said, his lips twitching in amusement for the first time since he
started talking to Harry. “Not here in Sound. Orochimaru made a
show of issuing all orders in public. And news of you would have
spread, they'll expecting you to give out your first public orders.”
“So I have to order you to be leader
in public?” Harry said with a nod of his head.
“The only way I could take up your
position is if I defeat you in battle,” Hideo said. “If you don't
take the position of Nidaime, then Sound might get stuck in a civil
war.”
“I'm not really getting much of a
choice here, am I?” Harry muttered in annoyance.
“You do. If you choose to leave, no
one will be able to stop you,” Hideo said. “No one would go
against the one who killed Orochimaru and Kabuto.”
“I didn't kill either of them!”
Harry said in annoyance even as his thoughts buzzed. The thought of
him being the leader was ridiculous. But the thought of a civil war
sounded horrible. He looked at Hideo with a considering frown, “How
many search teams does this place have?”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This story is going a bit differently from my original plans for it. But I'm sort of intrigued to see just how it goes from here.
Hope you guys had a good Monday,
Polar
No comments:
Post a Comment