Chapter 13

Sasuke was getting tired of waiting. Had he not known that Hakoda was still gathering info on him, he would have thought that his plan was to make him act irrationally.

Impatience was something he always struggled with and right now his patience was being tested. It had been a week since he attacked the water tribesmen at the docks and three days since he 'met' with the disguised water tribesman at the tea shop.

He had snuck back to the docks yesterday, confirming that they were still there and that they had set up camp there. It's unclear to him how long they were going to be there but he had a plan for them and it would be a shame if they left before he could accomplish it.

'It seems like I'll have to act earlier than expected.' He thought, sitting on the rooftop of the highest building which was at the edge of the town. Putting that aside, he decided to focus on the other matter at hand.

He wasn't an idiot to not know about the rumors. He was a hundred percent sure that nobody had been present all the times that he was practicing his jutsu so that rules out that option.

He had already thought on this and the answer was very clear to him. The only person that knew about him being a 'fire bender' was the ship captain.

What confirm Shen as the one who started the rumor was the fact that upon coming to this town, his original idea was to lay low so he stuck to physical training over jutsu. When the rumor began to circulate, he had yet to use any jutsu other than the transformation jutsu.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flashback

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After waking up from his trip to the spirit world, he had decided to hold off on ninjutsu and focus on body development, lest he cause his own downfall.

There were two reasons other than that behind his decision. First was the fact that he needed his body to be as fast as possible to effectively maximize his sharingan. The other reason was to keep a low profile, even from Shen.

Currently, he was painting on small strips of paper. To a normal person it seems that he was painting but anyone who was familiar with shinobi would realize that this was a fuinjutsu seal.

While he wanted to focus on physical training, he also had to practice some sealing disguised as calligraphy. He was making more exploding tags while thinking.

'Would a chakra sealing tag work on a bender. Chakra and chi maybe be similar but they're vastly different. Chi is purely spiritual energy while chakra is its combination with physical energy...'

This was also one of the reasons why he had more chakra than Sasuke did at this point. His spiritual energy merged with Sasuke's own energy there increasing the amount of chakra he had. This can be fully utilized by training the physical body to keep up with the growth, which would lead to a much larger chakra reserve.

While this was going through his mind, Shen quietly walked out from what is assumed to be his bedroom, making as little noise possible before heading to the exit. He gave a short glance at to Sasuke. Seeing that he was practicing calligraphy, he chose that moment to slink away with nobody being the wiser.

Unfortunately for him, the moment he moved out of his room, Sasuke was already aware of his movement. He stared at the door Shen exited from before returning to his 'painting'.

Meanwhile, Shen had managed to quickly trek all the way to the edge of town where people barely ever went to. It was like a deserted beach with a lot of trees. When he got there he surveyed his environment as if searching for something.

His search came to an end when he spotted a red hawk with what looked like straps on it, perched on a tree branch. Stretching out his arm, the hawk flew from its position before resting on Shen's forearm.

He then proceeded to open the cylinder strapped to the back of the hawk, bringing out of it a rolled up paper. He took some time to read its content before rolling it up again and storing it in his robe. He took out another rolled up piece of paper, then sealing it in the container on the hawks back.

He shook his arm gently, giving the hawk the unspoken order to deliver its message. Not bothering to look back after sending away the hawk, he made his way back to the town, not noticing the hidden figure watching him from above. On his shoulder was the messaged hawk but it looked a bit different. It's eyes now had a red color with a strange pattern in it.

The figure fished out the message from the cylindrical tube, scanning the sheet with his glowing red eyes. His body language showed no difference, making it difficult for anyone watching him to deduce his mood.

'.....'

Finished with that, he put the sheet back in its container before sending the hawk back on its way with no interruptions this time.

'Now, let's see where you're going next.' The figure thought, discreetly following Shen's trail.

Later that evening, Shen returned to the house, only to see Sasuke still 'painting'. He sighed in relief and also confusion.

'That's one weird kid...' he thought, carrying the bag of groceries he bought on the way home as a cover story. He had spent the whole day implanting ideas in people mind and covering his tracks.

Had Sasuke heard that, he would have scoffed. Even a genin can track him down. Sasuke, although sensing Shen's movements made indication that he was aware of his presence.

Seeing that Sasuke didn't even react to his entrance, he paled as he realized that he wasted money on a cover story when he wasn't going to be interrogated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flashback End

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He hadn't noticed the shadows clone tagging along with him every where, intercepting his messages and spying on him.

When he killed the assistant captain on the boat, Sasuke was aware that the captain was present but hiding. At the time he wondered why he didn't come out but chalked it up to fear. Fortunately, he wasn't close enough to hear what was being said so he wasn't aware that Sasuke was the one who blew up the ship.

His presence there and also the fact that he didn't confront him but instead acted like nothing happened was what stirred Sasuke's suspicions.

He and his assistant were fire nation spies, reporting anything of interest and value to the firelord, allowing them to take action. They were the fire nation's eyes and ears in this town and at sea seeing as how some people tend to be loose lipped when talking to someone they think they'll never see again.

Their current target of interest being Sasuke. With his sketchy background and killing of the captain's assistant, eyes were on him. They were currently planning on how to capture him alive and bring him to the firelord.

Shen's plan, as he had written in detail was to build a good relationship with Sasuke while poisoning his reputation with others, leaving Shen as the only person for Sasuke to turn to when he needed help.

Emotional manipulation.

It was a decent plan and it would have worked...had it been tried on a normal child.

From Shen's point of view, Sasuke mostly ignored his existence altogether, making him a bit desperate. Sasuke asked nothing of him so he couldn't use that chance to build anything.

Even the fact that he was living under Shen's roof and that he had nowhere to go if Shen kicked him out didn't make him feel any form of debt to Shen. Something Shen couldn't bring up seeing as how he needed to be close to him. It was all so frustrating for him for the past two years.

At least one spy was dealt with. A grin crept on his face as Sasuke's sharingan caught sight of a familiar figure making his way through the busy streets. There he was, walking with no disguise other than earth kingdom clothing.

'So you finally come out, Hakoda...'