damned_institute | Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

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Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

[From here.]

It was chilly out in the courtyard, making Lloyd glad for the odd but relatively warm clothing he'd found himself in when he woke up. He could have stay inside the building, he knows. His nurse had told him he had a choice of several rooms he could eat his lunch in, if he wanted. The cold felt good, though, and the tree he was sitting against felt solid and comfortable. He still felt lost, but trying to get straight answers from the nurse was frustrating. The man had retreated to let him eat in peace, promising to come back when Lloyd was finished and he'd had a chance to "clear his head." The teen was just fine with that.

Lunch itself was actually pretty good. He'd gotten a chicken sandwich, and his spirits lifted a little when he saw that there was a brownie with it. It had taken him a minute to figure out the box with juice inside, having never encountered anything like that before, but after that it was easy to just settle down and enjoy his food.

Well, for the most part. Worry for his Dad still ate at him, and he had no idea where any of his friends were. He still felt a little off, too, like some intangible part of him was missing or weakened, but he chalked that up to leftover side effects of whatever it was Yuan had done to him. He was confident that would disappear soon enough, once he finished recovering. He already felt well enough that as soon as he was done eating, he was determined to leave. If his doctor had his things, he'd ask for them first, and maybe he could talk to some of the other people here, see if they knew anything that could help, but one way or another, he needed to find his friends and make sure his Dad was all right.

[To here.]

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Sasuke also seemed to be taking a more casual approach to their meal time and settling down. Lee could appreciate it. He didn't want to be tense the entire time, and this allowed him a little more ease.

His name dropped caused Sasuke obvious confusion. Lee shook his head, a little amazed. "I do not see how you could be so in the dark about it." A moment, and then he winced. "Apologizes, that was not meant to be a joke."

He took a sip of his juice, trying to gather his thoughts. "The man claimed to be Uchiha Madara, but we have since found irrefutable proof that Madara is dead. We are very much in the dark about him, except we know he is very, very strong. From what I last remember, all the shinobi were being called to join in the fight against him. Only Gai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun, and Killer B-san were battling him directly."

"As for why he is allied with Kabuto... I can only assume it is because they have the same goal in mind."

What Lee didn't see and what Sasuke hadn't seen were apparently hugely different things, all of Sasuke's literal blindness aside. The apology for phrasing was waved aside with an impatient swipe of Sasuke's sandwich in the air, Sasuke's expression taut with increasing shock and confusion. Not only was there -- an Uchiha who wasn't an Uchiha (and honestly, given the history of his clan, Sasuke was beginning to suspect that that should have been the least startling piece of information), but Naruto had gotten strong enough to be among that list of elite fighting him?

How much time had passed since Sasuke had last seen the shinobi world, that Kabuto was in a position to pose such a threat and Orochimaru's name was nowhere to be mentioned?

"What goal is that?" He asked finally, picking the most immediate concern. There were many things he could surmise from any overt goal of Kabuto's without betraying (or betraying even more) how far removed he had been from the situation this whole time. Lee made no mention of Uchiha other than not-Madara: that hadn't escaped Sasuke's attention.

And therein lie the big question. Lee took a bite out of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully, hoping to buy some time. Not enough. He shook his head, brows creasing in doubt.

"I do not know," he said simply and quietly. He should have had more information, and would have if briefings could have stood to be a bit longer, but a shinobi was a soldier who did what he was told and had little room to ask question. Sometimes it was better to ask before doing, but there was not time when the war had been sprung upon them.

"I only know that we were given very little time to gather our allies and assemble into teams. Then the enemies started to attack." Lee glanced up from his sandwich, trying to read all that he could in Sasuke's expression and form. "Tell me, did you know of Kabuto's ability, the Edo Tensei?"

There was the wall Sasuke had expected to run into: even if Lee had been privy to the inner workings of his enemies' minds, he likely couldn't share it with someone who was in all likelihood set to be his enemy as well. Unless Rock Lee had changed a great deal over the intervening years, it was more than likely that he genuinely didn't know enough to make it worth telling, especially with what sounded like a surprise attack. It didn't make the lacklustre response any more satisfying.

Sasuke finally remembered his sandwich in time to take a bite right as Lee asked a question that made him wish he hadn't. When had Kabuto learned and stolen the Edo Tensei? Chewing through what felt like a mouthful of sand, Sasuke's frown deepened until finally he found his juice box and fumbled it open for a too-sweet sip.

"The Edo Tensei is Orochimaru's pet technique," he said, and then honestly: "I was unaware that Kabuto had mastered it. It requires a great deal of chakra and an intimate knowledge of sealing techniques. Whom has he revived?"

Sasuke at least seemed to manage to absorb his unfortunate lack of knowledge on the enemy. It wasn't really Lee's place to know that information, however. He was still only a mid-ranking shinobi, one of many. Gai-sensei would have told him the full truth if he had known, but even that jounin had not been privy to information that perhaps only the Kage's gave out at their own discretion. If they even knew at all.

It was surprising to see Sasuke frown so deeply, but Lee knew he could not blame him. It was all news to the missing-nin. Nothing would be easy to swallow.

Oorochimaru's own technique. That explained its complexity, though it really was amazing that Kabuto had managed to perfect it as he had. Lee tensed, eyes dropping to his hands full of sandwich and resting on his knee. "... A great deal of people." He took a deep breath, then looked back up with blank seriousness. "I myself, along with Gai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, and Sakura-chan fought some I am certain you are familiar with. One Zabuza and Haru-san."

Even what little Lee had been able to say was more sitting on the surface than absorbing: the players, both on Akatsuki's (or was it Sound, with Kabuto involved? but then where the hell was Orochimaru?) and Konohagakure's side. Konohagakure's alliance with the other village was in and of itself another thing that was difficult to swallow, between the old and older blood lying between villages.

Kabuto learning the Edo Tensei, that excessively showy and destructive jutsu -- another thing that was not quite absorbing. But Lee moved on with barely a pause into something that made Sasuke's gaze snap back up in the direction of the Konoha-nin's voice, because while the Edo Tensei was theoretically manageable with study, resurrecting a great deal of people required more chakra than Kabuto had.

And bodies -- was that why he'd kept such meticulous track? And how --

"How did he get access to their bodies?" He demanded, frown growing no less deep. "You must have an article of theirs to use the Edo Tensei, and we buried them --"

We, back when Sasuke had belonged to any we beyond the clan --

"... they would have been difficult to access," he concluded, voice drifting into slower contemplation. "He had to have planned on a large scale." And then, finally, another thought: "How much time has passed since I left Konoha?"

Lee frowned deeply at Sasuke's words. He did not often grow irritated with others unless they were being purposefully difficult but today seemed to give Lee enough excuse to make an exception. "I would not know! I assume he was either very diligent in his research, or else he took up grave robbing in his spare time."

Lee was the last person to look to for a peek in the mind of a half-crazed shinobi. He wasn't power-hungry or consumed by hatred for any village. If anything, he would have thought Sasuke would have known, having been a comrade of Kabuto's for a time.

"As for time..." An odd question to ask, but if Lee did his math correctly... "It would be over three years, now. The exact number of months escapes me, but it is nearing my eighteenth birthday and I was nearly fourteen when you left." So perhaps closer to four years now. My, how time did fly...

For a moment, Sasuke had indeed forgotten where Lee stood in the chain of information. Clearly Konohagakure had not changed its ways to any noticeable extent when it came to sharing the truth with those who fought its battles: that, more than anything else, reminded Sasuke that when he returned to the shinobi world he was more likely to end up at the other end of Lee's taijutsu than next to it. The knowledge was shelved with the same determined neutrality as every other thought of his former comrades over the past few years in Sound, next to every illusion of his erstwhile teammates Orochimaru had seen fit to conjure.

"He collects bodies in his spare time," Sasuke corrected in passing, before focusing on the latter of what Lee had to say. He'd known time had passed, indeed had suspected a significant amount of it had gone by between his arrival here and that of other shinobi. But to know that a solid year had passed, at the very least ...

"In that time, have you spent time with other Konoha-nin? Have you noticed any of them disappearing unexpectedly?" Or was there simply no evidence at all of Landel's kidnappings?

Lee's face screwed up in disgust. "That is a revolting hobby."

To desecrate dead bodies was completely unpardonable! To think that such despicable person could remain hidden in plain sight within Konoha as long as Kabuto had was sickening. Lee sighed, wondering how his village could be so successful in some areas and yet so negligent and wanting in others. He was rather patriotic; Gai-sensei had battered all his students with long-winded sermons on Keeping Alive the Spirit of Fire endowed in any proper shinobi of Konoha. But this kind of oversight hit Lee's pride in his village rather hard if he allowed himself to dwell on it.

Returning his mind back to the conversation, Lee took a bite of his sandwich and waved a hand in dismissal, again not caring that Sasuke couldn't even see the gesture. "I have seen them as often as ever. The only one who ever disappears is Naruto-kun, but it is generally on village business."

It seemed an odd question. It was time for Lee to get some answers. "Why do you ask?"

... well, yes, he chose to join Orochimaru of his own free will, what sort of person do you expect him to be? -- that was the response that flashed through Sasuke's head most immediately, with the accompanying desire to raise a sardonic eyebrow to express what he thought of Lee's apparent naivete regarding his opponent. The necessity of repressing it lay in the fact that, irrespective of the quality of his information on his enemies, Lee was still a quantity worth knowing and a shinobi worth an alliance in a place like this. That, and Sasuke didn't know the other ninja well enough to be quite certain of what Lee might have expected in a man like Kabuto, and there was little time to discover it. The stir amongst the staff gathering at the door was enough proof: shift was ending soon.

It was too soon for Sasuke's tastes, especially given the answer he'd just received. If only Naruto had been at Landel, that might have made sense: from the intelligence Sasuke had of Jiraiya's movements, a lapse in their presence would have been common enough. In fact, if there were someone Sasuke might have chosen to take in order to avoid notice, Naruto might well have been one such choice, especially with the nine-tails in tow.

But Naruto had said he couldn't feel the kyuubi's chakra at all, here; more blatantly obvious, others whose absence would have been missed had been here. It made no sense whatsoever -- could Landel control time in other worlds?

"Other shinobi have been here," Sasuke replied, searching for a concise way to explain things. "Mostly Konoha-nin. All of my former team, my replacement on it, and a handful of others. Some have been here multiple times."

A pause, and then deciding that there was no other conclusion to draw: "As have you. But you bear no memory of it, do you?"

Lee was so intent on the conversation he hardly recognized the signs of a shift change coming up.

Lee blinked, unable to believe that. After all, everyone had been busy preparing for the war up until now. Other than Naruto and Gai-sensei, there should not have been even one shinobi absent from the village.

"I do not see how that can be possible." Simple and honest. But there were always explanations as to why Sasuke could be mistaken. after all, even if the voices seemed the same it's not like Sasuke could seen them to make certain. "Perhaps you were misled as to their identities."

And for himself, Lee could only shake his head, though he realized a moment later that Sasuke couldn't see that, either. "Now, that is truly impossible! I know of all the places I have been in the past and this place is not it. There is no memory to speak of, because I was never here before to make it!" This he believed with one hundred percent sincerity.

Edited 2012-10-05 06:22 (UTC)

Sasuke had to remind himself that Lee was new to the Institute and, like all the others before him, simply wouldn't be able to see that the impossible was more than possible but daily here. There a moment's darkness that passed over Sasuke's face at the notion of fakes -- he had met a fake here too real, had believed in it himself too fully to know anything other than that what he knew was what he knew. It had been more than two years since he had last seen Sakura, Naruto, or Kakashi, but there were ways to know them that were impossible to quantify to someone else.

He was Sharingan-born: there were always ways to know.

"You were here," he said, voice cold enough to cut across Lee's excessive confidence. Even as he spoke, he could hear the spread of the faintly hollow cheer of the nurses spreading across the field, ushering patients back inside. "You were only here for a day and a night. Others have been here more than once, for longer periods of time, and with each return nobody remembers the last time they were here.

"But I know them."

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Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

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