[closed] you give me hell but i'll make it

[chokuto]

WHO: Team Seven kakashi who
WHERE: Mainly the Gallows, Shadowlands, misc other areas
WHEN: Early to Mid November
WHAT: Sasuke went to jail (shocking), Naruto and Sakura bust him out; later, Sasuke and Naruto reconvene to have a very necessary conversation
WARNINGS: Event-specific CWs including blood, branding, captivity, violence

Comments

@acknowledgement, @craters

[chokuto]

[The Hierarchy finds him on the outskirts of Serene, alone. He doesn't resist their initial request of accompaniment on grounds of criminality. Sakura's conversation about an audience with the Hierarchy still bright in his mind, he considers this an opportunity not to waste. It is only partway to the Gallows, a descent down barren hills into bleak ruins, that Sasuke realizes their destination — an area of Stygia he's trespassed briefly in survey but never entered. By the time he turns to escape, it is too late.

The barrier is immaterial, so he doesn't feel it; only the vanishing of chakra, like threads unraveling when he grasps at the weave, tells him what is wrong. He's not overcome easily. It takes five guards and the combined effort of twenty minutes to knock him down prone into the dirt. Whatever sin he's committed in the eyes of the Hierarchy, it must be considerable for them to care this much. He thinks he has been struck at least once over the back of the head, but he hasn't lost consciousness, powerless eyes straining to monitor and memorize his surroundings even through the glassy smear of pain. He is wide awake when they first press the hot iron to his arm — upon the bicep of his severed left. The sound he makes is through his teeth, half-snarled and livid. The brand aches to the same hard pulse of his heart. Then, mercifully, the world clips out.

Eventually, his mind returns, and with it is the worst headache he's experienced since those first years attempting use of the Sharingan's raw power. He closes his left eye; somehow, though the Rinnegan remains inaccessible behind the barrier that shrouds the Gallows, the dōjutsu feels like the dull ache of a wound. It must have something to do with its permanent activity. The connection has been blocked but not detached. He notices, next, the shackles on his bare ankles, joints red and inflamed; his clothes are in tatters where he's been dragged across the ground some distance into the iron-wrought bars of a cell; his sword and phone are predictably missing.

Sasuke lifts his head, looking into the ruinous room for clues of the guards who watch him, echoed voices telegraphing their approximate locations. Pain is suppressed to background noise. If it takes time to puzzle a way out of this situation, he has the patience and training to wait.

He's not counting on anyone else's help.]

[acknowledgement]

[Wincing, he gingerly pulls on a jacket. The skin across his chest, a minefield of burn scars—charcoal black to bloody red to raw pink—disappears from sight beneath the upward pull of the zipper. Unfortunately, there’s little to be done about the sorry state of his face other than wait for the flesh to knit back together. Naruto will need to avoid going out in public for the next day or two, depending on how long it takes for Kurama’s chakra to heal the damage. Aware that his teammates are likely growing suspicious of his continued absence, the blond decides to rest for a few hours before making the journey to the Shadowlands; at least behind his door he can lick his wounds without worrying about Sasuke or Sakura dropping in on him.

Don’t start, he thinks sternly before Kurama can comment on the situation. It’s been a common argument between them for a month now. I’m fine.

You’re stupid is what you are. The concern is painfully obvious in his bijū’s voice. You know this is going to come to a head. You keep delaying the inevitable, hoping for some miracle that’ll have made the deception worth it. But it’s going to hurt them when they find out.

Naruto doesn’t respond, though his mouth twists unhappily at the truth of the words. The dead weight of his repeated failures is beginning to drag on him, unspooling the loose threads of his emotional and mental stability. He can’t remember the last time he felt so tired. At least the war was over in a shockingly brief period; the nightmare of the Netherworld has spanned week after hopeless week. If he doesn’t find evidence soon that everyone can return home—

It happens abruptly. Neck cartilage shifts and pops loudly as his head snaps up. Sasuke’s gone. Just like that, Naruto can no longer sense his best friend through dual resonance, the spiritual connection that has linked them ineffably since the Sage of Six Paths bestowed power upon them both. Before he’s consciously aware of moving, the jinchūriki is vaulting out the window of his ramshackle Stygia apartment. Booted feet land light as a cat on the street below, startling pedestrian Restless, and then he’s racing at full speed in the direction of the Harbors.]

Close the clinic.

[Bursting into the makeshift space, Naruto stares hard at Sakura—completely ignoring the female patient she is with. Said patient shies away from the blond at his tight, aggressive tone, glancing between the two shinobi nervously. A cursory look informs Naruto that the young woman seems to be suffering from hives. Judged against the current circumstances? Unimportant.

(That he would consider very little more important than Sasuke’s safety is irrelevant.)]

Sasuke disappeared. He was in the city, but then…

[An impatient and frustrated look is shot at the patient.]

[craters]

（ that it's a serious matter was never in question given his manner of entry and the brusque dismissal of her patient, to say nothing of the (chakra burns, she identifies immediately) licked along his cheeks. days old, and barely healing. it's not a suspicion she ever wanted proven correct, and just as she's opening her mouth to say something, his next words make something unpleasant curdle in her stomach, and she meets his eyes with a barely perceptible nod.

but instead of replying to him in any verbal manner, she ushers her patient to her feet, pressing a tin of cream in her hands and giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. her doctor's manner stays firmly affixed as she gives the woman a warm smile. ）

Come back in three days, okay? Remember what we discussed about the shellfish.

（ the woman picks up her things and scampers out past naruto, skirting around him as if in fear. sakura is already peeling out of her long white coat and gloves. she taps out a message on her phone to ask someone else to swing by and supervise just in case, and then she takes naruto firmly by the arm and steers him out of the tent.

her mind is struggling beneath the hawk's cry of old panic and guilt and fear. disappeared... that could mean any number of things, but something capable enough of subduing sasuke beyond naruto's senses... she reaches up to rub her fingers across the byakugō, as if reassuring herself of the presence of its deep pool of chakra. ）

I should heal you first, before we do anything else — we'll need you at full strength.

（ she isn't going to ask about it, she doubts naruto's singular focus on the matter of sasuke would even drive him to answer her. but there'll be time enough for questions later. ）