Moons of Red Chapter 24

Sasuke got back home alone from the academy, which was a first...ever since Hatorri had come into his life, the man made sure to do everything to make him feel happy and not neglected. Why wasn't he there to greet him? The young Uchiha was wondering if something hadn't gone awry or something of the sort. He felt worried for Hatorri.

Home was unusually quiet today, and he slowly entered the kitchen, his heart clenched. What if Hatorri had gone the same way he had come? What if he was all alone again... Sasuke could not even dare himself into thinking about what would he do with out Hatorri. He was almost like the family he so longed for...that was taken away from him.

'Hatorri!' he yelled urgently, worry seeping in his shout. He almost dreaded the lack of reply...

'Up here!' came a yell back.

Sasuke stood there, shocked. Hatorri was still here. After a whole minute, in which the boy regained his usual coldness, he went upstairs and straight into Hatorri's room.

He gaped. No, seriously, he GAPED.

'What the hell are you doing?'

'It's a perfect fit! I couldn't help myself!'

'You left the door open and you forgot to walk me home!'

' But it was so dusty! I had to clean it up...every nook and cranny...'

'I thought you had disappeared.'

Hatorri's obsessed smile dropped.

'I'm sorry, Sasuke.' he said softly, meaning it. ' I got carried away...I will warn you next time I decide to be an idiot.'

They stood like that, silent, for several minutes. It was strange for Sasuke to see the man being so gentle and in such a intimate, homey way...the way only close family were. He found himself forgiving him almost immediately. Maybe he was being too selfish? Hatorri was his own person and needed to do his own stuff from time to time, right?

'Why are you dressed like a Warlord?' Sasuke finally broke the silence, feeling the need to lighten up the mood.

If one thought about it, Hatorri had managed to do what all others failed- namely warm Sasuke up. In a total of three months, he had managed to rub off on Sasuke, making him more of a human being ( at least at home) and less of an Uchiha with a ten feet ice cube of a pole up their ass.

' I was cleaning the shrine and I saw it. It was so red and Shiny I couldn't keep my hands to myself.

His voice was excited, childish and pleading. And he was 19 years old. Dressed like a Warlord.

'You do know this probably belonged to an exalted Uchiha Ancestor and that they're probably turning in their graves just by seeing how you dishonor their battle attire?' Sasuke wasn't glaring too hard at the now puppy-eyed man. He didn't even care if these were his Ancestor's battle garments. At least Hatorri has polished them and they were as good as new.

Sasuke sighed. He could see how much the young man wanted to goof about in them. He could see the respect for the craftsmanship of the armor and he KNEW that he wanted the armor. And Sasuke was the king of the castle, as Hatorri had once put it, concerning their bachelor pad.

' You can keep the armor.'

' You're my little brother, Sasuke!' Hatorri stated joyously, suddenly tightly hugging the poor boy with all his might. ' I can die happy now! Sanada Yukimura! Here I come!'

Hatorri darted out of the house and then a battle cry was heard, as he had probably started training for some odd reason.

Sasuke still stood there, shocked. Hatorri had called him his little brother.

They were family now.

Hatorri was in the gardens, armed with a broom and practicing his best Sanada Yukimura impression. Blood was obviously thicker than water, because, just like his cousin, he had the same urge to imitate his favorite character. To cut a long story short- nothing new under the sun.

Unbeknownst to him, someone was watching him in the shadows of a tree. And that somebody was greatly amused by how skillfully he brandished that broom. His battle cries were very realistic even though his opponents were...thin air.

Mitarashi found him to be too cute and funny for his own good.

Sasuke also watched how Hatorri was playing Warlord in the gardens. It seemed fun and a good way to practice one's skills. He smirked. It was nice to have someone to share daily life with. It was nice to have family.

'Sasuke!' Hatorri shouted.

Said boy appeared outside.

'Hn.'

'You should go find an armor, too you know!' Hatorri was grinning like a mad man.

'So we can play Warlord together?' Sasuke asked in a sarcastic manner.

'Yep!' cue foxy grin.

'Hn.'

'Aww...c'mon! You can even pick your favorite weapon and we can do duels and win Experience points!'

'Hatorri, you finally lost whatever marbles you had.' Sasuke stated seriously, frowning at the preposterous idea of the two actually playing Warlords when so many ANBU were watching. His parents were turning in their graves, he was sure of it!

After a few more moments Hatorri renewed his "training" with passion. He wasn't half as bad.

'I'll go get the mop and then I will wipe the garden with you.' the boy said half-seriously and went back inside to fix himself sandwich.

An ANBU appeared in the Uchiha Compound to find the most interesting scene of one Sasuke Uchiha clad only in his shorts giving one hell of a beating...with a mop... to a young man clad in red Warlord armor and wielding a ….broom.

The Hare ANBU stood there and simply gaped, though his mask hid that fact.

'Excuse me?'

'HAVE MERCY!' whimpered Hatorri, both him and Sasuke not really noticing the ANBU, mainly because a few minutes prior to his arrival Hatorri had dumped a bucket of water and a now half naked Sasuke (his clothes left to dry) was wiping the garden with a mop induced Hatorri.

'I don't think so!' said a smug, angry Sasuke.

'Excuse me!' the Hare ANBU repeated more forcibly, causing the two of them to freeze on their spots. "The Hokage has requested your immediate presence. I am to escort you to his office.'

And then he just stood there, staring at the two of them. Sasuke suddenly became very smug. He left Hatorri on the ground and went to dress himself.

Hatorri panicked. He was trying swiftly to remove the heavy red Warlord's garments but to no avail.

'Sasuke! Help me! I can't take this off!'

'I thought you really liked the armor! I guess I'll just have to take it back.' this was heard from Sasuke's room as its window was opened.

'What! No!' Hatorri panicked even more. He just had to wear this all the way through Konoha. He felt ridiculous.

In the background Mitarashi Anko fell off her spot on the tree into the bushes bellow from laughing silently, though only the Hare ANBU seemed to have noticed.

Finally, after what seemed to be forever (20 minutes) the doors to the Hokage's office opened up and Hatorri and Sasuke entered.

The surprise was great to say the least.

'Hatorri-sempai!' two small hands embraced the armor clad young man. It was Hannah. She adored Hatorri.

'Konnichiwa, Hannah-Chan!' He smiled at her. He then turned to the rest.' When did you guys arrive?'

' A week after you and the rest disappeared.' Answered Helen.' We've been trying to get here from Snow country for the last two months. We were lucky to have our packs with us.'

'Can anyone please tell me what is going on?' Romero looked at them with irritation. They hadn't mentioned anything about ...well...anything. Not that they had any way of knowing weather it was relevant or not, but oh well.

'Simply put,' Hannah started, reverting back to her usual emotionless self, ' Hatorri-sempai, Leader-sama, Tifa-sama, Fia-sempai and others disappeared suddenly. And it seems they have ended up here, though not at the same spot.'

Hiashi was watching the exchange silently. He was also wondering what the hell was going on.

'They were transported from our reality to here. Just like us. The same pattern and everything. The thing is that we don't know WHAT exactly is this pattern.'

They all were listening intently to Hannah now.

' Hatorri ended up here in Konoha, because of Sasuke. Tifa and Char-Lee supposedly ended up in Suna and as far as I'm concerned Fia and the rest could be anywhere ranging from Naruto's stomach to Orochimaru's lair.'

Hiashi was about to ask how the three Hyuuga-look-alikes fit into all of this (whatever it was) but Hannah beat him to it.

'My brother, sister and I were in the Alps, thus explaining why we were in the Snow country. Romero is still a big mystery to the puzzle. Too many pieces are still missing. Still. Hiashi-sama?' The man nodded.' We come from a different reality where this entire one is but a story from a manga, a comic book. We are here by some fluke of Fate. We ask of you to take us into your custody, seeing how the three of us have Byakugan and miraculously learned how to use Juuken over the course of arriving in this reality. I know this may be much to take in but it is better to be with the Hyuuga than to cause problems with our incompetence. That is why we made our way here as soon as we found out WHERE we were.'

'I will discuss the issue with the Elders with Hokage-sama's permission.' Hiashi looked at Hiruzen who nodded.' And I would also like to know more of this...manga you spoke of.'

'Hiashi-san, I think you can interrogate them on your own at the Hyuuga compound but right now we have one more thing to address.'

'Make that two, Hokage-sama.' Hannah added, eying Hatorri strangely.

'Very well.' he agreed, though not knowing what she meant by that.

'As you may as well guess, whatever happened here is a triple S-class secret.'

They all nodded.

'In this case, I would like information on the up-coming Chuunin Exams. Hatorri-kun was kind enough to tell me that Orochimaru is planning to raid Konoha with the aid of Suna.'

Hatorri gulped. Helen and Simon glared at him.

' You know, you may have just about killed everyone, Dobe.' Simon said spitefully.

'Language, Older Brother.' Hannah said icily, a dreadful warning sipping from her voice.

'Yes, Sister Dearest.' Simon obeyed timidly.

'Since Hatorri-sempai was kind enough to kill us all in advance, I would also be kind enough to fill any holes he may or may not have left.'

Some 20 minutes later, the Hokage had all the dreadful information he needed to prepare his ANBU, including several premade advices about how to go about things right under Danzo's nose, including things like informing his most loyal ANBU into the BIG SECRET. A very important decision was made to try and contact Tifa and Charlie somehow to prepare them for what was to come.

'Now that we have discussed thoroughly the issues of our first matter on hand...' the little Hyuuga-look-alike was now staring intently at Hatorri.' Why are you wearing Uchiha Bleeping Madara's infamous Armor?'

Shock.

Confusion.

'Eh?'

'You didn't know it was his?'

'I found it this morning!'

'And you spend the entire day playing with it...' Sasuke mumbled for good measure. He wanted to destroy the armor now. Since it was Madara's.

'But it looks like Sanada Yukimura's armor!' Hatorri tried to justify himself.

Helen and Simon burst into laughter.

'I can't believe it!'

'Blood is thicker than water!'

Hiashi frowned at their anti-Hyuuga-ness. Hiruzen was confused. So were Romero and Sasuke. Hatorri was blushing like a schoolgirl with no panties on.

After the laughter died down, Hannah explained dutifully what was going on.

'Hatorri is not a big manga fan but he is a fan of games like the Sengoku Musou series. His favorite playable character is Sanada Yukimura, the infamous Warrior in red. The Sengoku Musou series were based on Japan's (one of the countries in our reality) history during the Feudal Era.'

'You know, Hatorri,' Sasuke started.' Since you did walk with the armor all the way here, its yours.'

What he was actually saying was 'Since you didn't know it was Madara's you're better off using it to desecrate his name that me destroying it.'

'You look good in it, though.' Helen winked playfully.

Poor Hatorri.