"So Sasuke, i've been waiting to ask"
"Go on, ask...i just hope it isn't about why the hell animals don't turn when bitten"
"I...hadn't thought about that honestly, but no. It's about this" Billy pointed at the crest on the shoulder of the shirt Sasuke is wearing.
"I saw that in almost every outfit you had since we met. Does the red circle have any specific meaning?"
"This, it's our clan's crest" Sasuke said explaining that it is the shape of a fan.
"Clan?" Daryl asked slightly confused, what the hell brought a clan to the discussion.
"Yeah, like a big familiy getting way back to a shared ancestor, so close families living in one land for generations, that's a clan"
"Where?" "Japan"
"That's far" "yeah"
"Why a fan?" Billy asked, for someone who can make things disappear? He was curious to know more about his origins.
"You won't like me going on and on about our beliefs and teaching. shortly, it signifies the action of the fan that fanned the air strengthening the fire in turn, a philosophic aspect"
"So that is the place where you get your training yeah?"
"Yea, ninja was a serious profession in our clan"
"Ninja? That ninja?" Daryl looked at him but couldn't really find the word he wanted to say.
He would usually scoff at that but not now, not at someone who did that impressive knives throw in one breath.
"Actually we called ourselves shinobi, that's the official name but i didn't want to confuse you"
"And you did what? Trained for the apocalypse? Guess Japan is safe having a whole generation of people like you" Daryl snickered thinking about a bunch of similar-looking people screwing walkers all around but...something changed when he said that.
The man smiled, but it wasn't a happy or casual one, it felt wrong as fuck.
"Guess we will never know, i'm the last Uchiha alive" Sasuke said tossing a branch to the fire, it brightened his eyes briefly, enough for Billy to glimpse at the pain they hold.
Billy knew it wasn't right to ask about the pains of people but he came to see Sasuke as the little brother he never had.
He wanted to know him better, to help him if possible.
"The walkers?" He asked, but he can't imagine similar men in great numbers just...disappearing suddenly or even being defeated by walkers which Sasuke harvested around all the time.
"Nah, way before this shit happened, i think i was 6 years old back then?" Sasuke spoke, trying to remember.
"Yeah it was about that time when everyone in the clan got massacred, shit happened so fast, so suddenly..." Daryl felt a knot in his throat, he considered himself to be a man who had gone through some real shit.
Shitty abusive parents, a brother who didn't seem to care. Tough childhood filled with suffering and survival.
But losing every damn person at the age of 6? He can't imagine how that must've felt.
"Haha you looked so serious guys, i just felt it was a good story, you know. To pass the night, Maybe it was heavier than necessary"
"Boy, are you saying that, you lost...everyone when you were 6?" He couldn't believe it.
No he just didn't want to, the boy who joked around, seems silent most of the time, shouldering things like he is the adult here that is trying to protect them from the harm.
Had lived that kind of tragedy when he was so young.
"Hah, yeah...nearly two hundred people who lived in the clan lands. My parents, neighborhoods, old people who used to walk around every morning greeting us with smiles, kids who used to run along with their biggest dream to grow and become a shinobi...Everyone bearing the name Uchiha.
They were killed in one night. Let's just...leave it at this, i think i could use some other kind of shitty story. Better than talking about such a messed-up past" he sighed rubbing a hand through his hair, every time that memory resurfaced, it messed with his head badly.
"It doesn't matter anymore, i had already killed the man who did it. It's over now"
Billy's hands tightened so hard his nails nearly drew blood on his palm.
Sasuke recounted everything in that usual bland tone, but there was pain, overwhelming pain in the way he spoke.
He never knew the boy had a past like this, and he didn't know what to do.
He wanted to ask how that happened, how he survived, why they were killed, who exactly did that. But he couldn't bring himself to do that.
And Daryl just picked a drink by his side and took big gulps, trying to ease his throbbing heart, this run and meeting with those people just exposed him to a whole different view of the world.
He didn't want to believe any of this but...he knows a hurt man when he sees the expression on the guy's face, that emptiness in his eyes when he was talking.
"Way to fucking camp, i think i brought the emo buried in me" Sasuke chuckled seeing the looks on their faces. Especially Billy.
Everytime he talked about his past, related memories surface again like he was reliving them.
Sasuke's that became his now.
And not only that, Yuri's incident too. The man and brother who was killed in a sick game.
He just tried to change the subject as fast as possible, he wasn't good with emotional things. And obviously the other two shared that with him.
Soon they started talking about other things, Daryl even shared few stories about his brother.
How they beat the crap out of a drug dealer at one point. His first hunt in the wild and how he lost his way once in the forest wandering for days and having to wipe his ass with a posioned oak.
Which made Billy laugh his ass off at that, stating the one time his friend in the army got stung near the balls by a snake while taking a dump in the woods.
An hour later Sasuke glanced at the two men sneezing beside him, leaning on a tree.
He wasn't going to carry a grown man in a fucking princess style to their tents so he just dropped warm covers on them, swept bug repeller around and left to scout the area.
...
Sasuke kept going through their inventory mentally as he strolled around, Their current armory would suffice.
The group is being armed with few firearms, having backups too in the Humvees and the rest were kept in his storage seal.
Their last run resulted in a great haul.
8 Humvees, one intact chopper, weapons and ammo found inside the soldier tents and in the cars, enough fuel.
14 rifles. 10 shotguns, 7 revolvers, 24 pistols, RPG, 2 grenade launchers. And a machine gun with two of its belt magazines full.
2700 ammo of Different calibers
Military knives, 8 grenades, axes, and other blunt weapons, some clean riot gear and shields.
And food is no more an issue for now.
Daryl was here so the camp should be few miles away at best.
He still wasn't totally sure about going there, his group was doing just fine and he didn't want more eyes on him, untrustful eyes.
Though he knows, he will need more humans to help in the upcoming events beside...
The tragedies the group met in the show.
It was depressing how tragedies struck them one after another, breaking every little thing they built again and again.
He feared that plot forcing itself on him but also wanted to help change that, especially for one old man wearing a fishing hat who he always liked in the TV show.
That old man was just the kind of father/grandfather he had always dreamt of having when he was a little kid.
He remembered Yuri nearly dropping the show in that episode he was killed. The little girl dying at the barn and a few other things...
It had been many years since he watched the show with Yuri after all, that guy was a big fan of it.
And while he remembers some key figures, the plot details are lost to him, other than the protagonist Rick, the drama between his friend and wife, the farm where Shane died and the wife'e death in a prison.
Everything else seems blurry. Still it was enough to keep a note of some things.
Just enough to remember that there was a maniac with a club at some point who caused the group a tragedy, killing that funny and brave Asian guy, the club maniac that fans came to like...
Obviously cause they weren't on the receiving end of his cruelty.
He joined the army before seeing what happened with that guy but Sasuke made a note to eliminate him on sight.
He won't leave a wild card messing around.
' and the tank Rick used to hide in when he got stuck chased by a horde in Atlanta, i need to retrieve it and any other military-grade weaponry '
Yet the issue stood the same, he can't leave Ciri and others, anything can go wrong and he didn't want to regret it because of his greed.
Thus Sasuke just planned to head there with them when he unlocked the necessary amount of chakra, as simple as that.
As long as he keeps Ciri, Katniss, Billy and his people nearby, he can protect them, And everyone else.
That was his goal in this world, to make a change, to do something for the good people who are just trying to survive in this shithole.
And to be remembered for the good deeds he did. By those he comes to cherish.