Explaining the entire story about the Raikage to the girls was a harder task than he had anticipated. First, they didn't believe him. When they did, they started panicking, and ultimately, when he calmed them down, they jumped at him, asking what they should do now.
Killing a Kage of a hidden village wasn't like hunting a roadside bandit, after all. Wars had started over smaller things.
"Sigh, just calm down, both of you, and listen to me. Nothing will happen if they don't know who killed the Raikage. Did you say the Raikage only came looking for Lady Tsunade because his men were infected by poisonous insects?"
"Yes…" Hinata nodded her head.
"That's it then. He came, but Tsunade refused to help. The Raikage had no other option but to look for help from somewhere else…"
Hinata, hearing this, paused, pursed her lips, and tried to say, "But that's not what—"
"We know that, but those people in the Cloud don't. So as long as the official statement goes, Lady Tsunade never helped the Raikage; he had to go and look for help somewhere else. And then what happened to him and his men, we have no idea… Is that clear?" Sukuna interrupted Hinata, making sure his words drilled into their heads.
"Yes…" Karin nodded. If it was possible to shirk responsibility, then sure enough, do it.
Hinata hesitated a bit—it was her nature. However, she too realized that feigning ignorance about this matter was the best option they had. So she nodded as well.
"Good…"
Sukuna did not take them out immediately.
Before the distortion could open again, he stepped back, eyes sharp, voice low but firm. "Before we leave this place, does anyone have any questions?"
Hinata straightened at once. Karin, still close to him, tilted her head but said nothing.
"Hm… what is this place?" Hinata asked after pondering for a while.
"It's my special jutsu. A space-time jutsu. Anything else…"
"Hm… what if Kurenai-sensei or Lady Tsunade asks what happened?"
"Leave that drunken old lady to me. As for your sensei, say exactly what I told you. You don't know anything."
"O-okay…" Hinata nodded, albeit a bit uncertain.
"Once again, no one hears about this," Sukuna continued. "Not what happened here. Not how you survived. Not me. If they know, this could lead to war. And believe me, no one wants war. So keep your mouth shut…"
Hinata blinked. "N–Not even Lady Tsunade?"
"As I said, leave that old lady to me," he replied calmly. "And Hinata… especially not your clan."
That made her stiffen. She understood what that meant. Politics. Consequences. Blood.
"Our story is simple," Sukuna said. "You both woke up alone in the forest. The Raikage and his men were gone. You don't know how. You don't know why."
Karin crossed her arms. "And if someone presses?"
"I know how to press harder…" he answered without missing a beat. "Send them to me."
'Are you some kind of thug…' both Karin and Hinata thought at that moment…
Silence settled.
Hinata hesitated only a moment before bowing deeply. "I promise. I won't say anything. To anyone."
Sukuna studied her for a long second, then nodded. "Good."
The space twisted again.
When the world snapped back into place, they found themselves on a charred open land. Nothing was left there—no forest, no rivers, no stones. Only ashes.
Sukuna had burned all evidence to the root.
Hinata nearly stumbled. Karin caught her by the arm.
"They're alive," Shizune breathed, who was a little further away, relief flooding her voice.
Tsunade's eyes moved instantly to Sukuna. Sharp. Glaring, but not questioning. All questions and answers had already been dealt with before he went to Hinata and Karin.
"Tsk, done playing with your two little girlfriends…" she huffed, annoyed by how the earlier events had unfolded.
Both Karin and Hinata immediately blushed at this.
"Why, you jealous…" Sukuna eyed her from the side, almost ignoring her presence, which grated on Tsunade.
However, Tsunade kept her mouth shut, mostly because she couldn't say anything—at least regarding this matter. Before burning the entire section of the forest with all the evidence, Raikage's corpse included, and going to bring back the girls from the Kamui Dimension, he had already struck a deal with Tsunade.
More like forced a deal with her. A very one-sided Binding Vow which permanently shut both Tsunade's and Shizune's mouths about this matter in any and all forms, and in return, Sukuna would not kill them.
He laid out the terms cleanly. No mention of the Raikage's fate. No mention of Kamui. No mention of his role in any of it. Silence—absolute and permanent.
Now, they only had eye contact. No words needed to be exchanged.
Karin had to bite her lip at the rising tension.
Once Hinata and Karin were checked over—bruised, exhausted, but alive—Sukuna finally spoke again. "Go back to the rest of Team 8, and then you…" he turned to Tsunade.
"You should go to Konoha."
Tsunade turned sharply. "That wasn't part of our deal."
"It's a medical emergency. Go as a doctor if you don't intend to go there as a Leaf kunoichi," he replied evenly.
Shizune looked between them. "Lady Tsunade… he's right."
Tsunade scowled, folding her arms. "And after?"
Sukuna met her gaze. "After that, you're free. If you want to leave again, I won't stop you."
She opened her mouth to refuse; however, the terrible scene from earlier came back to her mind—the little devil cutting and burning everything like a demon from hell.
"…Tch," she clicked her tongue. "I really hate little brats."
Hinata looked confused but relieved. Karin leaned closer to Sukuna and whispered, "Be honest. What did you do here?"
"Me…? What could I possibly do?" he shrugged back.
Karin wasn't having it, though. About one kilometre of her surroundings was burned to a crisp, and he was saying he did nothing.
'Hmph, who's he trying to fool?'
As they prepared to move, Tsunade glanced once more at the ruined battlefield, then at Sukuna. Her voice dropped, heavy with meaning. "You realize what you've done, right…"
"I did what was necessary. Nothing more, nothing less," he stated simply, and then, just like he arrived, he vanished with a flicker.
-x-
By the time Sukuna finally returned, Team 7 looked like a group of people who had been dragged across half the Land of Fire by sheer anxiety alone.
Kakashi was leaning against a tree, arms crossed, visible eye narrowed in tired suspicion. Naruto was pacing back and forth, muttering loudly to himself. Sakura sat on a rock, arms folded, foot tapping. Sasuke stood apart, back against a trunk, expression dark and sharp.
The air twisted.
A flicker of space folded in on itself, and Sukuna stepped out as if he had merely gone for a short walk.
Silence.
Then—
"WHERE WERE YOU?!" Naruto roared, pointing so hard he nearly toppled forward.
Sukuna blinked. "Somewhere away from here… I somehow feel it wasn't a bad choice now."
Sakura shot to her feet. "You disappear for hours without a word and just show up like that?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"
Kakashi sighed. "You vanished completely. No trail. No signals. Care to explain?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You found him, didn't you…"
"Found who?" Sukuna asked innocently.
"Itachi," Sasuke snapped. "And Kisame. Don't play dumb. We searched for you all over the place—you weren't in any of the toilets. You went after him, didn't you?"
Naruto jabbed a thumb at him. "Yeah! You totally ran off to fight some scary S-rank bad guys without us! That's not fair!"
Sukuna was baffled—not that the knucklehead was wrong, a mystery on its own, but how he came to that estimation.
Sukuna raised a brow. "That's… a very specific accusation."
Sakura squinted. "He's smiling. He definitely fought them."
"I'm not smiling."
"You were… you always smile like that when you did something."
"Oh, I did something alright. I took the most satisfying dump of my life so far…"
"Ewww… you're nasty," Sakura scrunched up her face.
"Don't change the topic. You found Itachi, didn't you?" Sasuke cut in, asking with righteous fury.
"I did not fight Itachi," Sukuna said flatly.
"Ah ha… meaning you did find him…"
"No… I never said that."
"But you meant that."
"I mean nothing. Stop putting words into my mouth," Sukuna chided, looking at both Sakura and Naruto.
Sasuke took a step forward. "Then where were you?"
Sukuna paused. Just long enough to make it worse.
Naruto gasped. "SEE?! He hesitated!"
"I had stomach trouble," Sukuna said. "It got… intense."
There was a beat.
Sakura's eye twitched. "You disappeared across the entire countryside because of a stomach ache?"
"No… I disappeared because the said countryside doesn't have a single clean toilet."
Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sukuna."
Naruto crossed his arms. "You expect us to believe that you didn't go chasing after Itachi when we literally found proof he was here?"
"Yes."
Sasuke's voice was cold. "You expect me to believe that."
Sukuna met his gaze calmly. "I didn't fight him. I didn't find him. I didn't see him. And I didn't chase him."
"…You're bad at lying, brother" Sakura muttered.
"I could also be a very bad brother. Wanna see..."
"Nope, thank you…"
Kakashi studied him for a long moment, then exhaled slowly. "Whatever you were doing… you're alive. And that's what matters right now."
Kakashi did find signs of fighting on Sukuna—nothing on his clothes or skin. Both were completely spotless. However, that was the problem. After an entire day of searching, how could Sukuna look like that? Only possible if he had recently changed clothes and bathed, right…
Still, Kakashi decided to say nothing for the time being. He was safe. That was what mattered.
"Fine… now let's get moving. We at least have a little lead. Thanks to Sasuke and Sukuna here," Kakashi sighed, quieting his genin down.
xXx
A/N : Vow Merchant Sukuna back, and of course we all see what could be the consequences of this action of his would be.
As for Where I take it from here, that will come.
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