9.

Huddled in a boat to reach Wave country undetected, the mist was thick and almost opaque, the perfect camouflage. 

"Tazuna, tell us more about your situation at Wave and the people behind this," Kakashi demanded, his tone leaving no argument. 

Pensive, the old man sighed. "Like I said, as a bridge builder, I am directly in the way of Gatou who wants to take hold of Wave for trading advantages. If the bridge is built my people are free. Gatou, already one of the richest men in the Elemental Nations, will leave my people dirt poor and has continued to rob us with his thugs. It's no secret his wealth is from illegal operations such as human trafficking and drug cartels." 

As Sakura conversed with Tazuna to the confusion of a blank-faced Naruto, Sasuke listened in as well to pick up on any important information being shared, legs crossed and elbows propped up on his thighs. 

"Sensei, why doesn't Konoha help Wave financially?" Sakura asked. 

"Well, to put it simply, there are no benefits for Konoha. If Wave had something to offer we could possibly work out a trading deal of sorts but it must be mutually beneficial." Offended, Tazuna sent Kakashi a dirty look that he expertly ignored. "Although, if we do manage to guard Tazuna long enough for him to build the bridge, Wave would be in our debt. That could prove useful for the future." 

Naruto furrowed his brows. "That doesn't sound so nice." 

"It doesn't but it's the reality of things, isn't it? Wave isn't actually our problem as Konoha shinobi." 

To explain his views so bluntly and without the flowery language usually embedded in such a direct, cold answer, Sasuke's inkling was confirmed that a part of Kakashi disapproved of such remiss on Konohagakure's behalf. Perhaps he wasn't as loyal as Sasuke initially thought. As he had confirmed his participation in the Third Great Ninja War he must have witnessed many innocent citizens get caught in the crossfire of Konohagakure's machinations and therefore had an understanding that the village operated on the basis that it was the priority. 

"Your village doesn't sound too nice." Tazuna distressfully looked between the three genin and jounin in a new light. 

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. "Surely, you don't mean that, do you? All hidden villages generally have the same system implemented in order to protect their people. You understand that a village must always place their people first, seeing as you lied about the mission ranking and could have potentially sent unassuming chuunin to their deaths if Team 7 weren't assigned this mission." 

The old man became silent at his sensei's harsh rebuke. 

"Sensei, why don't we just kill Gatou?" 

Everyone else on the boat winced. 

"Erm, Sasuke you can't just kill people who are in the way," Kakashi carefully said. 

Why was everyone looking at him like he was crazy? "If we kill Gatou he can't hire more shinobi to assassinate Tazuna." 

"Our mission is to act as bodyguards for Tazuna, not kill whoever we want to." 

"It would make things easier," he grumbled disdainfully. 

"The thing is, Sasuke, we don't know what the ramifications of killing such an important man is. If we kill Gatou on the basis of his illegal operations we need proof of it first. Assassinations also need to be approved by the Hokage." His voice sounded, flatter, deader like he had recited the line countless times. "Shinobis are tools who must carry out their mission to the best of their ability—and while I am a jounin with a lot of authority, I can't make a decision that could dramatically change the political landscape alone. We don't even know if killing Gatou could change anything. For all we know, somebody even worse could take over his company and exploit Wave instead." 

"All we can do is guard Tazuna and fend off any shinobi or low level thugs that try to harm him," said Sakura, resolutely. 

"Precisely—which is why I'm going to have to amp up your training once we get there." His sensei's sadistic streak returned. "Oh I'm going to enjoy running you to the ground everyday." 

All three genin shivered and scooted away from the jounin who was nodding his head evilly. 

Sasuke closed his eyes and exhaled. 

Stealing Gatou's money would make it possible to evenly distribute the millionaire's wealth amongst the supposedly destitute citizens of Wave. Not only would it cease further assassination attempts on Tazuna's life but also solve the issue of Wave regaining their wealth if Konohagakure refused to aid them financially. It wasn't like half of Gatou's current wealth wasn't from the island anyway; the people would be taking back what was rightfully theirs. Still, he had a feeling his sensei wouldn't take to his opinion so kindly and chose to refrain from expressing his view further. 

Growing up, Itachi had read Sasuke many revolutionary ideas while gently combing his fingers through his hair in his soft, calming voice that exuded safety and comfort.

Sasuke was all too familiar with terms that shouldn't be spoken too loudly, ideologies that depicted ideas of rising up against the bleak despondency of the shinobi system. Books on philosophy, ideal utopias where nobody had to follow orders of a single person—a dictator, the books had labelled Kages. Granted, such books had mostly been written by civilians who had never truly entrenched themselves into the shinobi scene, usually living in the comfort of their peaceful homes yet surprisingly, the Uchihas had many books on such ideas. Kept hidden in their private library alongside their genjutsu scrolls, it was an open secret that Uchihas were… revolutionary. 

Madara Uchiha, the man who sought peace after centuries of fighting against the Senju, was known to have extreme views on unachievable utopias that seemed beautiful on the surface however were executed through brute force—it was why he began losing support from the Uchiha clan. His methods were too violent, too radical when their centuries-long war was over and they now had Hashirama Senju, a man who believed peace could be maintained through diplomacy such as strong relations with clans and other villages. 

Nonetheless, once Madara decimated one third of Iwa's forces any hope for alliances was dashed aside. 

Any attempts at explaining his reasoning—which was to force Iwa to submit so Konohagakure could rule everyone and stop large-scale conflict—had failed and fear of the warmongering Madara Uchiha increased. 

Sasuke knew all of this because his mother was a descendant of Izuna Uchiha and therefore owned Madara's journals. So Sasuke knew Madara was not actually as deranged as people made him out to be—he desperately wanted peace due to his horrific, grief inducing loss and went about it in wrong ways that ultimately led to his demise. 

Eventually the taunting had raised the man's ire and without his own clansmen backing him up, forced his hand to desert the village. Seeing Tobirama Senju, the man who murdered Izuna Uchiha, Madara's last brother, being groomed to be the next Hokage, caused him to snap. There was no even distribution of power when the two previously warring clans founded Konohagakure together. Madara thought Hashirama was 'different from the rest'. 

("How cute," Shisui had said with a conspiratorial wink while reading the journal with Sasuke. "Our ancestor must have had an itty bitty crush.") 

Seething, he had fled and thought to himself, "so this was their ploy? To trap the Uchiha?" He had predicted that from this moment, the Uchiha clan would be unfairly prosecuted. A Senju who was still wary of Uchihas being Hashirama's successor was the nail on the coffin for Madara. 

Nobody in the clan knew how Madara controlled the Kyuubi and challenged Hashirama to a fight to the death. Some whispers of him stealing his brother's eyes to achieve a level higher than the Mangekyo Sharingan was silenced immediately in fear of giving the villagers even more reasons to distrust the Uchihas. But the village, seeing the vast destruction of the landscape in the newly dubbed 'Valley of The End' and heard of the now deceased clan head able to tame the strongest tailed beast, began fearing the Uchiha regardless and the pride of their being: their Sharingan eyes. 

Itachi, despite being heavily loyal to the Hokage at the time with such profound love for the village he had sworn to protect, enjoyed reading books of different systems that could be implemented and fantasised about a world where he no longer had to kill for a living. However, he was staunchly loyal to the current totalitarian government and despite his reservations he would, with minimal resistance, do what they ask of him. 

Sasuke thought he knew just like how he knew the sky was blue and their clan crest was a fan: that Itachi Uchiha's passion and love for Konoha was infinite. 

Sasuke never understood shinobi whose views of the village were fanatical. The forbidden books labelled such views as "propaganda" and he had to agree. What was so amazing about their village to elicit such pride? He decided to be a shinobi to avenge his clan, not to be disturbingly patriotic and wax poetic about the Will of Fire Sarutobi loves to drone on about. That must have been why Kakashi was so intent on looking from a perspective that would give Konohagakure the upper hand. 

Idly, longingly, Sasuke pondered over living a life where intense, fiery emotions stirred from within at the thought of his home village, a life where he had his clan by his side—because he would do anything for this village if his family fought for it too. They were gone though and buried with them was the loyalty that should have been past down to him. 

Sasuke was always an outlier, a plain-looking puzzle that never seemed to fit in no matter how hard you tried to force it to. A mess of contradictions. A spectator in a sea of hopeful protagonists. His rough edges would never smooth out to please anyone. Where everybody awed at shinobi roof-hopping as kids, all he could do was stare with detached apathy. 

(He should be dead. He should be dead. Why is he alive? Why is he alive?)