Chapter 3

Sasuke didn't spend the night at Hargeon, upon his separation with Natsu and the others, he went around to gather some information, then he left.

One of the information was the number of Elemental Nation's people on the Earth Land; whether they simply a merchant, tourist, or they had taken citizenship.

During his time wandering Elemental Nation, he heard rumors and stories about people, who migrated to the Earth Land, well, often due to the crime they committed, therefore, they escaped the mainland to escape the punishment.

The relationship between the nations was neither good nor bad, however, there were a couple of dealings that had been made in the past; such as criminals from each other should be handed over or be returned to their respective origin, otherwise, it could lead to a much bigger conflict.

Some were returned, some were not, claimed to be 'missing' or 'unknown', but it's not a mystery that the Earth Land just simply didn't want to hand over them.

Why? There were many guesses, but one of them no doubt was money, it cost heavy expense to arrive here, and any common people would have sacrificed their months of saving, let alone had any left to guarantee their protection.

So, those who had not been returned either super rich or super deep in connection, either way, they were once a big criminal.

But it could be they were indeed missing, as far as Sasuke knew, the Earth Land was vast, even bigger, or at least equal to the Elemental Nations, anyone could have hidden in any God-knows areas, fitting for anyone to settle and start a new life.

But Sasuke wasn't one of them, he didn't have the plan to stay, or at least he didn't know, for him who had no purpose in life other than finding that purpose itself, it was clear there was no roof he had in the mind yet.

What exactly could he call home? A place of memories? A place of friends? A place of a family? A place of most comfort?

He didn't know, he was at loss, for his purpose for revenge had been settled, now what's left for him to recollect?

As his thought meandered to his acts of revenge, he wanted to laugh bitterly, it was nothing but a joke in his life.

Everyone played with his life like he was their pawn to utilize, well, it's not all their fault, he was part of the problem too for being short-minded.

The so-called seed could grow in new soil, he thought whether there was a soil left in this world that would willing to accept him?

Not due to his crime, but due to his own stupidity.

...

A crackle of woods, slowly burned piece by piece by the gentle fire.

Sasuke leaned upon a tree, a piece of paper in his hand, the pen in the other hand moving about.

Contemplating, studying, reminiscing, thinking, and training were his entertainment, since childhood he wasn't feeling any comfort to play with the others, everytime he was only interested in going home and met the big brother.

O the heroic big brother, the caring big brother, whatever we could play today together somewhere?

Then the big brother would come to the excited toddler, he took him to the forest and they would hunt together.

Making a fire camp, building a tent, throwing shurikens...

At the other time, the big brother would push his two fingers, then he would poke the toddler's forehead.

The toddler grumbled, he knew what that meant, and so the toddler would run to his room with a childish temper.

A small smile crept across Sasuke's corner of the lips, however, it soon faded as he heard unnatural sounds within the woods; distress for help.

Sasuke stored the paper and extinguished the fire, he stood up then chased after the sound.

When he arrived there, he saw a man, a rather weak-looking man was surrounded by wild boars, large as cows.

The man clearly didn't have the will to fight against those boars, his legs were shaking, he was hugging his briefcase so close to his chest.

One boar charged at the man, he shrieked at the scene, Sasuke immediately threw a kunai hooked with a string on its' base, the kunai jabbed the boar's head, stopping it on its' track and alerted the other boars.

Sasuke didn't waste any time, he threw more kunai and every single of them hit the boars, anywhere on their bodies, then Sasuke surged electricity from his hand, the currents traveled and shocked those boars instantly, they were terrified as the result and immediately escaped the area, and Sasuke let them be.

"Hero! Thank you! Oh, I thought I was going to die!!!" the man wiped his sweat, his tears could be seen flowing the moment he saw Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded, then he scanned the man, said, "It's strange for a man with no preparation would wander into the forest, especially at night."

"Oh, terrible day for me, terrible..." the man weakly whined.

Based upon his story, he was originally riding a carriage, but the wheel was bust and he was in a hurry, so he left the carriage and decided to walk to Hargeon to get another carriage, he thought the distance would be shorter if he took the forest, and he was right, however, he didn't predict those wild boars would surround him.

"I am a messenger, I need to deliver these documents as soon as possible..." the man said.

"I can accompany you to Hargeon, however, we separate afterward," Sasuke said.

"Bright idea, but we may want to hurry..." the man said with a hint of fear in his tone, it seemed he was afraid Sasuke would leave him behind.

Sasuke nodded, listening to the sign of urgency, he spun and started to make his way back to Hargeon. They were crossing the woods and attacked by a couple of beasts, but it's not a hassle for Sasuke.

"Those weapons you use, you are a shinobi?" the man said, surprised in his tone.

"Yeah," Sasuke didn't bother to say much, not even thought of asking how he knew; if he knew, then he knew.

"My boss is the owner of the Merchant Guild, very rich, in fact, he had a dealing with many foreign people, including people of Elemental Nations..." then the man proceeded to praise this boss of him a little bit too much.

"I see..." Sasuke nodded, and he was annoyed.

"I also once visited the nation, very lovely, but last time I heard, there was some kind of war going on, was that true?"

"Kinda."

"Are you here to escape the war?"

"It's over."

"Over? You mean it has finished? Then what's next?" The man curiously wrinkled his eyebrows.

"It's..." Before Sasuke could explain, he heard another noise, it's a rush footstep, someone had been running in this forest.

Was there someone else in distress? But he didn't hear a yell for help, besides, the rhythm of the pace rather random.

Due to listening to the sound, Sasuke had slowed his pace, including his abrupt pause, these were noticed by the man.

"W-what happen?" the man said, nervous and sweating.

"... Nothing, let's continue," Sasuke glanced at him, then proceeded to continue, however, he did decrease their pace.

After a while, the man seemed to become more nervous, said, "We... we may want to speed up a little."

"it's quite dark, I am afraid you will lose me," Sasuke said, he wasn't lying, the woods were quite dense, and it was cloudy up above, he didn't have a problem with his sight, but the man definitely did.

But he also didn't do it due to his concern, but he wanted to know what happened with that person who made a dash in the woods, yet he or she didn't yell for help if they were in trouble.

"You don't have to worry about me, besides, if... if we increase it just a little bit, I may still be able to follow," the man said, Sasuke could sense the panic in his tone.

"..." Sasuke went silent, but he didn't pause, then as if the confirmation, he increased the pace again.

All of a sudden, Sasuke paused, and he made a turn, looking in the direction of his left.

The man, upon seeing his act, also stopped, looking jumpy like a scaredy-cat, he also turned his gaze, following Sasuke's.

At this moment, Sasuke cast Shadow Clone, and it hid behind the tree, fast enough to not make the man noticed.

He knew from Naruto that Shadow Clone turned out to have a very useful function, which one of them was information relay as soon as they dissolved.

Naturally, using it to produce clones for someone with heavy usage of chakra like Sasuke would be not efficient, however, if it was simply just for gathering information, it definitely worth the price.

'Heh, I guess I gotta give it to you...' Sasuke silently chuckled, then he said to the man, "nothing, it's my misconception."

The man patted his chest in relief, and they continued the journey back.

...

Meanwhile, clone Sasuke made its way toward the other person, it was also a man, younger than the man, but not by far, his face looked frantic.

Sasuke checked his situation, in his hand was a sword, dripping with blood, his eyes were furious, looking right and left.

"Where is he?" the man said out of his gritting teeth.

"Problem?" Sasuke jumped down the tree and landed a bit further from him, the man rose his sword in reflex.

"Who are you?!" he shouted.

"None of important, I saw you looking like this and simply curious," Sasuke lifted his both hands.

"..." the man went silent for a while, still staring at Sasuke as if he wanted to tear him, then he said, "have you seen a man?"

He described the appearance of someone he was looking similar to the man with the original Sasuke at the moment.

"What has he done?" Sasuke didn't answer him, and he asked with a non-caring tone.

"The man was the enemy spy, there were two of them and they managed to steal the documents from me, I managed to kill one, but this man escaped to the woods..." he said with a gloomy complexion.

Sasuke squinted his eyes, it seemed things were more complex than he thought, he shouldn't make a careless move here to trust whose parties, first, he had to find out what documents were those, and he should ask both of them.

"It's a document to which revealed a movement of a dark guild called Eisenwald, our source says they had acquired a dangerous item," the man said, "the document had all the details; if I don't submit it to the Magic Council, it will make my statement less solid because it had the sign of our spies within Eisenwald."

"Got it, I help to search for him, two men are better," Sasuke nodded.

"Most thankful, you promise you a reward if you can help me," the man said.

Sasuke's clone departed and disappeared in a puff of smoke, but he had summoned another clone before.

Information flowed into Sasuke's head, he didn't stop on his track, didn't even glance at the man behind him.

"By the way, why the documents are so important?" he said, "but if you don't want to answer, it's alright."

"It's not that I don't want to answer, but it is classified, I am very sorry..." the man lowered his chin.

"No, it's alright, was it some kind of dealing?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"The item must be very important that a businessman would regard it as classified."

"You're right."

"Was it expensive?"

"Yes, it almost cost a fortune for my boss."

"Then it must have also been rare."

"Yes, extremely rare."

Sasuke kept asking, even the questions were unrelated to the original topic such as 'what is your favorite food' or 'what type of woman you like', all were easy questions to answer.

And finally...

"Who is your boss, what group he associated with, and what item is that?"

"My boss's name is Grim Reaper, the group he associated with is Eisenwald, and the item we acquired is called Lullaby."