Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are a number of ways to enter a room.

Some are designed to fill you with awe, to make you stand up and take notice. Others are methods to fill your heart with fear, to back away and keep your distance. It would be near impossible to list them all.

But while they might seem endless, there are three that are the most memorable.

The first - and consequently most common method - is to enter the room as if you don't have a care in the world, though those who choose this route are often the people who care most.

It requires taking on liquid movement, a smooth boneless stroll that allows a slow sliding entrance into the room. Hands in pockets, head held low, shoulders slumped - it makes for an unnoticeable picture. Feet seem to wander aimlessly, but always manage to end up where their owner intends to be. It's a walk that the casual observer dismisses without second thought.

The savvier watcher is instantly wary, on guard. No one walks with that much carelessness unless they mean to. It's a carelessness that hides a truth.

Such observations are often correct. The cause of such behavior is usually something as harmless as being self-consciousness about their choice in clothing. That being said, it's only the savvier watcher that will catch the exceptions, and it's the exceptions that are most dangerous.

Another method, one that contrasts sharply with the first, is the dynamic entry. This is the kind of entrance strongly favored by the brighter people. The social butterflies. By those who seek to make it very clear that they own the room they've walked into. They'll burst in, the air around them crackling with excess energy - and with every movement they make they announce themselves. Maybe they call out to a friend or even a person they've never met before, though such a call is often times much more along the lines of a battle cry. A shout of greeting that declares presence.

They immediately sweep any prior conversation or interaction under the carpet to be forgotten and ignored, directing all attention to themselves. It's an art that creates an atmosphere for those easily caught up in the storm - to bask in.

In short, they're obvious, loud and attention grabbing. And unfortunately, this occasionally ties in with rude behavior. But only occasionally.

The least common - and least welcome - entrance can be colloquially referred to as a 'stalk'. One strides in, casting glares about, just daring anyone who glances at them to try something, try anything, because they're the people filled with anger. The kind of people spoiling for a fight. They need to let out that niggling mixture of rage and despair that hides their deep-set fear. A mixture of emotions has been weighing down their soul, and they can't think of a better way to do that than by ruining someone's day.

They walk in long strides, eating up the ground, stomping like gravity has tripled its influence over their soles. It's a scene not to be missed, unless you're not interested in dealing with a bad attitude, in which case you should make a quick exit.

You'll feel it as they enter the room - a palpable stink of petty anger and malice surrounding them. Swirling about like a hurricane waiting to take its next victim. It permeates the air and thickens it, like humidity. It prompts everyone to do their best to just look away, to make it someone else's problem.

A rather potent bystander effect.

Sasuke Uchiha is well known to be a genius. Given that, it shouldn't be surprising that he managed to pull off all three at the same time.

When he walked into the bunker that day, his stride screamed of purpose. There wasn't doubt in a single observers mind of what he had come there for that day. His presence was overpowering. It filled every corner of the room, driving away all ambiguity.

It was odd, then, that though his stride was purposeful, it also held that looseness that denoted a careless lethality. His arms hung freely at his sides, and his cloak swirled around him. Every step was chosen with great care as he stalked across the room. He was fluidity in motion, like water sliding down a frosted pane. His forehead, wrapped in bandages, was unwrinkled, his face showing little.

He didn't throw glares about. Kept his gaze fixed dead ahead, dark eyes betraying nothing. Yet, the air around him was unnaturally still, like the calm before the storm. Beneath his cloak his shoulders were tensed like steel cable, wound tight like spring ready to jump into action at the drop of a hat. And his intent practically steamed into the air. It wasn't anger that leaked from him, nor was it malice.

It was a sense of pure death.

The sound of a knife sliding between vertebrae and the muffled puff of a final breath and the heat of a crematorium and the chill of hell all bundled into a package of distilled hate. The entrance was, quite simply, impressive.

It was rather unfortunate for Sasuke that his older brother cared little for such theatrics. Though he would admit he was not above them himself, because while there are many ways to enter a room, there are just as many ways to present yourself to a new arrival. And they are all as subtly important to establishing power as the next.

Having the higher ground helps. Having a throne - even one plain and without ornamentation - helps even more.

Itachi Uchiha had both.

Of course, a throne is only as useful as how you present yourself as you sit in it. A man who cowers in his throne, who curls into its depths as others approach, only looks smaller for it. His own position, his seat of power, dwarfs him.

Itachi did not cower. Itachi had never cowered. The idea of shrinking from something was as alien to Itachi as the concept of offering mercy, and he had done neither so far in his short but eventful life.

So Itachi sprawled in his throne. While Sasuke's looseness was nearly betrayed by his eager tenseness, Itachi's stance screamed complete and utter ease. His feet were crossed in front of him, one hand cradled in his cloak, the other propped in the air. Fingers curled inward like a lion laying down its head. His spine was straight, flush against the back of the throne. It was a posture as natural to him as breathing.

Itachi had also never hunched.

For Sasuke, the worst was always his brother's face. Sasuke, though his features were schooled, still held a kind of promise in his eyes. A minuscule frown at the edge of his mouth that only those familiar with him could detect. Itachi's, by contrast, was empty. There was no hint of emotion in his face. His features were perfectly maintained; a blank wall would be easier to read. The only bit of life in him was in his eyes - though dreadfully empty, there was still a glimmer of interest… and disdain.

In short, his entire being, even in repose, carried that subtle hint; danger simmered just below the surface.

It was unfortunate that this display was wasted, since Sasuke cared as little for this presentation as his brother had for Sasuke's own.

And so, for the first time in three and some years, the last surviving Uchiha stood in the same room, facing each other with little but hatred between them.

The fight began before Sasuke even realized it. Itachi had snared him with his Sharingan - the powerful doujutsu spinning rapidly - as soon as he'd entered the room. But even within the genjutsu, Sasuke was anything but helpless. His own Sharingan was now filled with even more raw power than his genius brother, and it spun counter webs of cold chakra even as it was clouded.

What followed only took a minute of time in reality, but for the brothers, it seemed as if nearly ten had passed.

"That Sharingan…" Itachi spoke with the kind of familiarity that made the dull hate Sasuke maintained for his brother throb. "How much do you truly see with it, I wonder?"

Sasuke smirked, even as he strode forward.

"How much do I see?" he shook his head. "I see your death, Itachi."

The older brother shifted in his throne, tensing for the fight to come. His lips curled upward ever so slightly. An expression that could be mistaken for a smile.

"My death?" he said with a hint of mirth in his voice. As if he found the very idea laughable. One hand came free his cloak. "Well then, Sasuke. If it is my death you see..." He stood up, hand falling out of his cloak.

"Show it to me."

Sasuke smiled.

Faster then most thoughts could comprehend Itachi was behind Sasuke. The younger boy swung out blindly, aiming for Itachi's head. Three years had changed him greatly, though they'd not been kind enough to grant him foresight. Itachi's arm came up in an instant and stopped the strike cold, but Sasuke had been ready for that: in fact, he'd planned for it. His katana whipped over his head, aiming to bite into Itachi's shoulder and cripple his arm.

It was not to be.

Itachi's hand shot out in a blur of speed and caught Sasuke's wrist in an iron grip. Once again stopping him mid-movement.

In response, Sasuke's knee came up.

A blow aimed at his brother's groin, but Itachi caught that too. His shin rattled from the harsh impact. A knife flipped out of Itachi's sleeve into his blocking hand, and he drove it at his brother's head, attempting to buy himself a moment to disengage.

The chokuto shifted, and the kunai rang off of it. Sparks shot into the air, and Sasuke glared from behind the trembling steel.

Itachi took a moment to reassess his opponent. That had been unexpectedly skillful. Or quite lucky. Either way, alternate methods were required. So Itachi released the sword. And before Sasuke could even think about striking, Itachi's hand flashed forward and seized his brother by the back of his cloak. Dragging him forward and off balance.

Then he launched himself into the air.

Sasuke swung, a wild blow meant to deter his sibling, but Itachi ignored the fruitless action. Spinning sharply about, Itachi's heel shot out and struck Sasuke square in the face, knocking him back several meters.

The Uchiha grit his teeth even has he fell, his chokuto flying out of his hand, before Itachi planted another foot in his chest and pushed. He kicked him clean across the room, continuing the motion to execute a flawless backflip simultaneously. During which a second, seemingly negligent, kick flung Sasuke's sword into the ceiling, where it stuck fast.

Itachi flowed to the ground, his cloak settling around him once more as Sasuke hit the concrete and bounced like a sack of tossed sandbags. Which is to say, poorly.

As Itachi watched, Sasuke rolled to his feet, settling into a familiar stance even as he skidded backwards, not all his momentum spent. His hands flashed through signs that the Sharingan had embedded in the clan-killer's memory, and internally Itachi winced. It was as if Sasuke hadn't improved at all since their last meeting.

"Chidori!"

Dancing lightning wreathed Sasuke's hands, and he raised his head, staring at Itachi while his tomoe whirled madly. Making eye contact, he yelled and broke into a dead sprint, covering ten meters in barely a moment. It was all Itachi could do, even with his unmatchable control, to keep from rolling his eyes. This? This was the best Sasuke could do? His mind rolling with disappointment, he leapt into the air, handily avoiding the one-hit-kill as Sasuke blew by beneath him.

He found Sasuke waiting for him on the ceiling, his face stretching in the kind of grin that only his victims ever had the misfortune to witness.

Itachi's Sharingan minutely widened. 'Unexpected,' he thought in surprise.

Sasuke's sword - abruptly regained - made a sick shlick noise as it plunged into his brother's chest, shattering one of his ribs, popping a lung, piercing his heart and exiting from his back in a spray of blood, nicking his spine as it did so. Itachi gasped as his chest cavity rapidly filled with blood, and plunged back towards the ground, Sasuke atop him the whole time.

He landed with a very final thud against the cool floor.

Sasuke kept the blade lodged in Itachi's chest, unwilling to risk his brother escaping. Besides, if he removed it immediately, blood loss would take his brother prematurely… and he needed a word with him first.

"This is your last chance, brother. The last chance you'll ever have. Why did you really leave me alive? The truth. Out of all the clan… why me?" Rotten bitterness tainted Sasuke's every word.

Itachi didn't answer. Instead, he gave his brother a small, undetectable smile.

"It seems you've become… strong, Sasuke."

His hand, quavering as the life left his body, reached up towards Sasuke's face, index and middle finger extended. Sasuke's eyes widened. The motion, so familiar, and rooted in better times, startled him. He could hear Itachi, could see him now below him. The Itachi that had been a brother to live up to, an Itachi that hadn't murdered everyone important to him. But the fingers didn't touch his forehead, and the apparition didn't speak. Instead, the hand pointed to his right.

'Foolish little brother. Look over there. I'm not what you should worry about,' a voice echoed in his head.

Sasuke looked.

There was Itachi, seated in his throne, staring back at him.

Sasuke's head snapped back to the figure beneath him, even as the shadow clone dissolved in a puff of chakra that manifested in a swarm of red-eyed ravens, cawing and swirling about. He was left kneeling, his blade stuck into the ground, with little to show for his efforts. Looking up, he met his brother's eyes again.

The Sharingan spun, and the world spun away with it.

The sword once more burst from Itachi's chest, spilling blood across his lap as he lurched, the metal gleaming in the dim light of the bunker.

'Again?'

Though Sasuke couldn't see it, Itachi gave his little brother a bloody smile, his brilliant white teeth be-speckled with dark liquid. It was the first time he had truly smiled in three years.

'Now that… is much better.'

Sasuke's genjutsu had been magnificent. Itachi had been wholly convinced his brother was standing before him, consumed by his hatred and unwilling to act decisively in light of Itachi's own illusion. His brother had thrown exactly what he had expected to see in his face. making him believe it entirely. He'd fallen for it completely.

It had been a long, long time since he'd fallen prey to a genjutsu.

His smile widened as blood trickled down his chin. Sasuke, still hidden behind the throne, was speaking to him.

"I've avoided hitting any vital areas. So Itachi, tell me… WHY WAS I LEFT?!"

'Foolish little brother. Live. Cling to your pathetic life. Fear me. HATE me. And when you have the same eyes as me, come before me.' Itachi's own words, spoken a lifetime ago, came to him, and his mouth hardened.

Sasuke, unsatisfied with his brother's silence, pushed the blade forward a few inches. He twisted it slightly as he did.

"WHY?" he demanded.

If there wasn't a meter of very sharp steel piercing his lung, Itachi might have sighed. His brother was still far too concerned with the why. Thinking too much instead of concentrating on the now. He should have been focused on the fight.

Disappointed, though glad that Sasuke had made some progress, he dispelled the illusion.

Sasuke realized it in that instant. Before the clone had even begun to melt into crows and the chair fade away, he spun about, a chidori crackling in his hand. Except it clearly wasn't the chidori, because instead of rushing Itachi Sasuke pointed at him and a beam of lightning shot forward, straight for Itachi's face.

Itachi cocked his head to the side and lighting flashed by. It missed his face by centimeters and blew through the stone of the throne, leaving a clean hole. If it had been true lightning and not pure chakra, he would have been left with severe flash burns.

He raised an eyebrow.

"I can see, Itachi! This isn't the same pair of eyes I had when you humiliated three years ago!"

The shattered wrist bones twisted together, liquid fire in his veins. It had all been useless. The curse mark, with which he had effortlessly crushed a sound-nin. Useless. The chidori, which had drawn blood from an invincible opponent: useless. His speed, which had kept him alive against the rage of a living desert. Useless.

There was a voice in his ear, a voice he dreamed about, a voice he despised with the entirety of his existence. A voice he had dedicated his life to silencing.

A voice that wasn't even strained as it held him against the wall, grinding shattered bones and crushing his trachea.

"You don't have enough hate." It sounded so amused. Perhaps it was. Sasuke did his best not to understand the minds of the insane. "And you know what, Sasuke? I'm beginning to think…" It came closer. Its warm breath, the breath of a murderer, brushed his ear, and he felt as if he would vomit.

"You never will."

Itachi had been wrong. Sasuke had more than enough hate now.

He flew at his brother, and Itachi ducked back. He smashed against the stone of the throne, kicked out, and took his brother in the gut. Sasuke's breath left his lungs in a single huff of air and he doubled over. But even as he curled in pain he lunged, and his forehead crashed into Itachi's face, snapping the elder brother's nose.

Itachi started, blood pouring down his face, and lashed out. A flat hand strike to his brother's solar plexus that sent Sasuke hurtling backwards into the wall with enough force to crack the toughened concrete. Sasuke slumped, momentarily insensible, and Itachi rose from his seat, straightening out his nose will an audible snap as he did so. The flow of blood stopped, and Sasuke dimly raised his head at the sound.

"Well done, Sasuke," Itachi said, stepping forward. "It would seem you've finally learned the power of hate." As he took the final step down the short flight of stairs, he gave his brother a grim look, Sharingan flashing. "But it's still not enough."

Sasuke struggled to his feet, glaring.

"Do you truly want to know why I spared you, Sasuke? Why I killed everyone else and left you alive. To suffer a miserable existence filled with hate and fear?"

Sasuke was silent. For a moment. Then he spoke.

"I know you didn't kill everyone. You couldn't have."

Itachi only stared at him in silence, an eyebrow raised in response. Sasuke answered the unspoken question.

"Even you, Itachi, couldn't have killed the entire Uchiha police force alone. When we spoke 'That Night' you said that if I awakened the Mangekyō, there would be three with its power. Which means that there is another Uchiha with the Mangekyō Sharingan. Who is it?"

Itachi had stilled once more, completely unreadable. "Is, Sasuke? Don't you mean was?"

"No. I know you didn't kill him. Which means that he must have helped you that night. And no true Uchiha, would have stood by as his family was slaughtered. So, after I kill you, I shall kill him too. So tell me, who is it?"

Itachi said nothing. Watching Sasuke with calculating eyes before giving the Uchiha equivalent of a shrug. "I suppose there's little harm in you knowing. His name is Madara Uchiha."

Sasuke froze, his eyes wide with realization.

"Madara?"

"Yes. The ruler of the clan, before the days of the Hidden Leaf. He was the first to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. He and his brother Izuna. They killed those most important to them and gained a terrible power. When you were young he returned to the Hidden Leaf, and sought me out. He explained to me a plan he had, to purify the Uchiha, to destroy the arrogant and navel-gazing fools that the clan had become. Uchiha, he said, should not be concerned with village politics. Of gaining more influence amongst weak ninjas in a weak village. They should be trying to increase their personal power."

Sasuke choked, his throat clenching but nothing emerging. Itachi continued.

"I agreed."

Those two words dragged Sasuke back from his shock.

"But… that still doesn't answer my question, Itachi!" Sasuke yelled, starting off quietly but his voice steadily gaining in volume. "Why was I left?!"

Itachi, staring at his brother, maintaining constant eye contact, spoke in a heavy, slow voice.

"The Mangekyō Sharingan is a powerful tool… but it has a price. Once awakened, it moves steadily towards darkness. Its visual prowess fades, and in the end it becomes nothing. Sasuke, I have been using it only when necessary for merely eight years, and yet it has almost completely taken my sight."

Sasuke started at that. Itachi was nearly blind? Why would he reveal such a weakness to him?

Itachi continued.

"There is only one way to keep the Mangekyō Sharingan from complete darkness. Madara was the one to discover it, of course. He was always the first. When his sight was taken from him, he desperately sought the light, and in his madness, stole his younger brother's eyes. They gained new light in him, and he was left with a Mangekyō Sharingan that would never lose its visual prowess. And that brother, is the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."

A surge of chakra flew from Itachi, hitting Sasuke squarely.

Yet another genjutsu. He saw a vision, a man laid on a tatami mat as another leaned over him. A hand groped out, like a worm from a hole. And as Sasuke watched, horrified, it settled over the leaning man's face. The forefingers and thumb circled his right eye.

"Forgive me, brother."

There was a horrific squelching noise and the kneeling man began screaming. The genjutsu vanished, and Sasuke stepped back completely horrified, while Itachi watched him intently.

'That is the legacy of my clan?' Sasuke thought.

"That is the legacy of our clan, foolish little brother." Itachi echoed Sasuke's morbid thought. "Many Uchiha throughout the ages have tried to gain the infinite power of the Eternal Mangekyō, but many failed sacrifices have made it clear that it can only be attained by the sacrifice of a brother's eyes. Thus, it is the destiny of all Uchiha siblings to live with a future of hate. Of fratricide. For one will always gain unspeakable power, and leave the other with nothing but empty sockets."

"That, Sasuke, is why I let you live."

The younger Uchiha reeled. "My whole life… you let me live… told me to grow powerful because-"

Itachi's face stretched, nightmarish. An impossible parody of his normally stoicism. His mouth went up, and his eyes widened, leaving him with a hellish grin. Madness flickered in his Sharingan, the ragged pupil itself spinning with the tomoe around it.

"You are my spare, Sasuke! Yours are the eyes that will deliver me from darkness! And today I will claim what is rightfully mine!"

The world cracked, falling apart like a shattered glass pane as Sasuke fell to his knees, gasping with the shock of foreign chakra retreating from his body. The genjutsu was gone. Itachi had dismissed it.

He looked up, and in a fit of déjà vu found Itachi staring at him from his throne, having remained there for the whole of their 'fight'.

"You see now, foolish little brother. Why I have brought you here. Why I blinded you with hate."

Sasuke clenched his fists and rose to his feet, but Itachi kept talking.

"You've come here before me, alone. You have abandoned all of your friends and comrades; and you didn't even have the sense to kill them before you did. At least then, they would have empowered you. Now, you have no support. Now, there is no one who can save you. Not even yourself. Without the Mangekyō Sharingan, you stand no chance against me."

Sasuke's hands came up, reaching for the bandages wrapped around his forehead. As he slowly undid them, he spoke.

"Didn't you just say, Itachi, that the Uchiha should live to increase their personal power?"

Itachi silently nodded.

"And that is what I have done. I have become more powerful than you know, Itachi. My friendships have made me strong, I know that. I'd be an idiot not to recognize that. But severing them… cutting the bonds I made… it required much more strength to do that!"

The bandages fell to the floor, forgotten. Sasuke's Sharingan blazed.

"Now, I don't need anyone's help! I can kill you myself! I don't care if I'm your spare, Itachi! I don't care if the only reason you kept me alive was for my eyes! I'll show you what a mistake that was!"

"Chidori…"

Lightning crackled with the sound of a thousand chirping birds, and Itachi sighed. "This again, Sasuke? The same tricks-"

"…Nagashi!"

The lightning streamed from Sasuke's hand, flowing towards Itachi in a solid wave of electricity. The elder Uchiha leapt up and forward, flying over the bolts of deadly chakra.

Sasuke had been ready for this. A summoning scroll - wrapped around his right forearm - popped shuriken into existence between his fingers, and he sent them upwards in a hail of gleaming metal, his arms working faster than normal eyes could follow. Of course, Itachi had no normal eyes. His Sharingan whirled madly, tracking every single one of the incoming stars, their paths as clear as day to him. Ten shuriken of his own fell into his hands from a hidden sleeve within his cloak.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu," he murmured, and then flung the ninja stars. There was a puff of smoke, and ten shuriken became thirty times that number midflight.

Sasuke had thrown around five hundred shuriken. A mere three hundred shuriken thrown by Itachi flew down to meet them, and the air was filled with an unbelievable din as the stars clashed together, throwing sparks everywhere and ricocheting with abandon.

Not a single one struck either of the Uchiha brothers. Itachi's throw had deflected all of the shuriken that would have hit him, sending them flying away into the walls and floor of the bunker. More than once, a star struck one with then fell into another, rendering all of them useless.

'Big brother! Will you help me with my shuriken?' A familiar motion, an eager smile; a tap on the head, an adorable frown.

'Not now, Sasuke. Maybe next time, okay?'

Through the deafening noise that would have made a dozen ninja-tool craftsmen weep, Itachi kept coming. Falling towards his brother. His shuriken expended, Sasuke fell back, buying himself a couple meters as his hands sped through signs.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

The grand fireball roared from Sasuke's pursed mouth, incinerating any lingering shuriken and ready to engulf Itachi. The elder Uchiha grimaced, his Sharingan writhing as three tomoe morphed together into a single sickle-like shape.

"Amaterasu."

Divine flames and blood flooded from Itachi's right eye, and a whirlwind of black struck the fireball as he fell into it. The unnatural flames burned a hole straight through the heart of the conflagration, an eye in the storm, through which Itachi fell. Sasuke's eyes widened as his brother burst from the firestorm unharmed and seemingly cloaked in black fire, his fist cocked back. The Amaterasu put itself out, whipping away in an instant, and Sasuke desperately jumped back, trying to dodge to telegraphed punch.

'Too slow.'

He made it barely a foot before Itachi landed and struck in the same motion, hammering his fist into Sasuke's face. The younger Uchiha was sent airborne with the force of the blow as Itachi sunk to the ground, tiny flames licking at his cloak and metallic ashes, a reminder of the shuriken hail just moments before, settling around him. Sasuke's cloak, torn from his body by the powerful punch, fluttered to the floor in front of Itachi.

Itachi rose as Sasuke smashed to the ground.

Absently, he reached for the clasp on his cloak, about to undo it… before simply reaching down and sweeping the flames off the hem with his hands. The fire guttered itself out on the cold floor of the bunker. As it did so, Sasuke rolled into a handspring, getting back to his feet. He stood panting, his cheek already forming an impressive bruise.

Itachi turned his head fractionally, staring at him. Sasuke stared back fiercely, meeting his brother's eyes without fear. Both of their Sharingan spun lazily. Exploratory threads of chakra wove through the air before others severed them.

Ordinary genjutsu had no place in the fight anymore, Itachi saw. Sasuke was in his element now, and destroyed any attempt at an illusion before it started. And a Tsukuyomi was not necessary, at least not yet.

Itachi took a step forward. In response, Sasuke unsheathed his sword.

In the moment it took the blade to clear its scabbard, Itachi charged. One hand was forward, curled like a claw, aimed for Sasuke's face, and the other went behind his back, steadily making hand signs. He didn't want his younger sibling seeing them.

Sasuke swung, the blade not yet fully removed from its sheath, and the scabbard was flung forward, cloaked in lightning. Itachi weaved, though not enough as it tore a substantial chunk from one of his sleeves, baring his left arm. As he did, he jumped forward, his right hand sweeping down.

Sasuke met him in the middle, blocking high with his left hand and driving his blade forward with his right. It punched through Itachi's gut, spearing him. The mass-murder wavered, dissolving into a flock of crows. From out of his shadow, cast low by the dim light of the bunker, another Itachi stepped.

A knife in hand.

Sasuke blinked. He'd never seen someone kage-conceal a person, much less in the shadow of themselves. He hadn't even bothered to track Itachi's shadow with his Sharingan. His hesitation nearly cost him his arm. Itachi thrust forward with the kunai, hoping to stab into the joint and disable the sword-wielding limb. Sasuke frantically parried with his suddenly free left hand, bringing it down and knocking the knife off course, before grabbing the hand that had held it and swinging his sword down to take it off.

Itachi dropped the kunai and kicked it as it fell, embedding it in Sasuke's thigh. Sasuke flinched, and Itachi used that opportunity to knock the sword away from him.

It was flung deeper into the bunker, far out of Sasuke's reach. Itachi moved in, his hands a blur as he did his best to pummel his bladeless brother. Sasuke defended himself, diverting or blocking most of the blows, and landed a solid punch on Itachi's gut. The elder brother fell to his knees, his breath stolen, and Sasuke brought his foot up for an axe kick. As it fell, Itachi seized it with his right hand and shot up, sending Sasuke cartwheeling backwards. He caught a flash of Itachi weaving more hand signs. What little he saw told him all he needed to know. It was some sort of clone jutsu.

Sasuke rolled out of his cartwheel and both brothers settled, aching from their brief spar.

"Taijutsu is pointless, Sasuke. You won't be able to beat me with that," Itachi said.

"And I've neutralized your genjutsu, Itachi. Your greatest weapon is gone!" Sasuke yelled back, as he reached down and yanked the kunai from his leg. Blood spurted, before a touch of fire-infused chakra sealed the wound.

"That, Sasuke, is a foolish misconception." Itachi's voice, always level, came from directly behind Sasuke. He spun, his newly acquired kunai held high, and decapitated his brother with the lightning infused edge. As the body slumped, Sasuke noticed something strange about its chakra. When it melted into a puddle of water, his suspicions were confirmed.

'A water clone? Why not another shadow clone?' thought Sasuke. He turned back around to face his brother again, but the man was gone.

'Where-' thought Sasuke for a moment, before being cut off by his own screaming instincts. He glanced up, and found Itachi perched upside down on the ceiling, his cloak falling down around him like some obscene flower.

There was no time to dodge. The kunai came up, but Itachi fell like a meteor, kicking the small blade away and smashing Sasuke to the floor, crushing his diaphragm under a knee. His hands pinned Sasuke's to the floor, and the younger Uchiha was left helpless and wheezing, unable to move, locked beneath his brother.

Itachi bent forward, his eyes spiraling. The sickles of the Mangekyō Sharingan emerged again, and he looked deep into Sasuke's eyes, their faces nearly touching. Sasuke's vision was fill with crimson and black, and he felt faint with fear. But not so faint that he couldn't spit in his brother's face.

Itachi spoke without irritation, his voice like a blade wrapped in bandages. "Enough of this."

"Tsukuyomi."

Oh god not again. Ohnonononononooooooo-

Blood splattered across polished wooden paneling. It would never come out, nevernevernevernever, the blood was there to stay, it would be there until his parents came back and they were never coming back because he had killed them killedthemkilledthem. In the night in their beds without warning. Out in the middle of the entrance hall their mumbled screams bouncing off the walls. He'd dragged the bodies out there for Sasuke to find vomit building in his throat.

He'd waited till he'd seen Sasuke coming home and then cut their throats there so the bodies would be fresh, be warm, a gift to his foolishlittlebrother. And Sasuke had arrived. His screams had torn a hole in Itachi's heart and he could never fill it nevernevernever. He'd be empty for as long as he lived. Sasuke had come home and he'd seen the fear in his brother's eyes. Heady off its scent and he couldn't wait just couldn't wait until the little idiot's eyes were ready because he was going to rip them right out of his squawking fool skull.

Not right this was all wrong. Red sky, blood moon, trees made of crows, squirming and cawing and rotting. Worms and maggots no ground no earth just death and decay, grinning skulls and nibbling rats.

Not real not real notrealnotreal.

False.

Fake.

Lies.

Sasuke woke up.

The Tsukuyomi blew apart like so many leaves in the wind, like a window exploding, and Sasuke was awake.

Itachi flew backwards, straight into the air as if propelled by a cannon, as Sasuke's hand shot from his weakened grip and took him straight in the chest. Blood poured from his left eye, dripping down towards Sasuke, like crimson rain. His chakra pulsed, quivered, distorted and wracked. Sasuke's Sharingan took it all in. His brother hit the roof and bounced, falling back down towards Sasuke, still stunned. With his chokuto missing, Sasuke took the next best option. He spun to his feet, kicking the murderer with all of his considerable strength dead in the chest before he could hit the ground.

Itachi sailed across the room, smashing into the throne on which he had waited for his brother. The chair was wrecked with the force of the impact, sending up a great cloud of decades old dust. When it settled, Itachi was once again sprawled in the throne. A sprawl that was nothing like the imperious way he'd been seated when Sasuke had entered the room. This was the sprawl of someone who was barely managing to staying conscious as they slumped in their seat. He struggled to his feet, holding his face and by large his left eye, as if trying to cradle it.

"Impossible," he slurred his words; something that Sasuke had never heard him do. "Impossible. No one could have broken the Tsukuyomi."

Sasuke smirked, "That is the power of the hate that you gave me, Itachi. With it, nothing is impossible."

Itachi, trembled but slowly regaining his poise. He stared at him with one eye, blood leaking from under the hand that hid the other.

"Perhaps I have underestimated you, little brother. To break the Tsukuyomi…" he straightened, his trembling ending as the old Itachi, the one with a glacial face and imperious eyes, returned. "I will have to end this quickly."

Even as he said this, Sasuke watched him with whirling red eyes. His brother's posture may have improved, but his chakra still quivered, rolling and unstable.

Sasuke grinned.

'He's unsettled. The backlash of chakra from Tsukuyomi snapping has hurt him.'

He now had the upper hand in this fight.

But Itachi, Sasuke knew, was still extremely dangerous no matter how weak he seemed. Even as he spoke, the air around him changed, becoming charged with dreadful finality. His mouth, and its permanent semi-frown, became even more severe.

Itachi burst into action, weaving signs with impossible speed and sprinting straight at Sasuke. Sasuke gave him no time to get closer: he reached for the summon scroll wrapped around his left hand. Two fūma shuriken burst into existence, and Sasuke hurled them at his charging brother, one high and one low.

Itachi hopped, going almost completely horizontal and shooting between the two oversized shuriken as they whirled above and below him. A flawless dodge.

Not good enough.

Sasuke pulled, and the wires he had attached to the shuriken broke them apart in an explosion of hurtling steel. Foot long blades pounded themselves into the concrete walls of the bunker, and a single one struck Itachi in the upper thigh. He crashed to the ground, his grace destroyed by the painful injury. Sasuke laughed.

"That Tsukuyomi has ruined you, Itachi! You can hardly fight!"

He began weaving signs as his brother clumsily rolled to his feet, yanking the blade from his thigh as he did.

"Perhaps you'll have more luck with this! Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Sasuke's fireball emerged once more, and Itachi took his brother's advice. He leapt straight into the air and over the fireball, completely avoiding the wash of deadly flames. Sasuke jumped towards him, more hand signs forming as he did.

As his brother cleared the fireball and came into view, Sasuke yelled.

"Chidori!"

Itachi saw the lightning coming and with a burst of chakra propelled himself up, above the attack. Sasuke shot by below, and the chidori punched a hole in the roof of the bunker. Itachi, falling once more, landed on Sasuke's back and jumped off his brother, residual momentum allowing him to leap out of the newly made hole and into the light of day. Sasuke followed him a moment later.

Sasuke found the roof of the bunker more enormous than he'd imagined. Three massive stone slabs, dozens of meters tall, two side-by-side and another taller one across from them formed an enormous set of standing walls. The roof seemed only more massive by their presence.

Itachi had retreated farther away from the hole, waiting for Sasuke to emerge. When he did, his frown became even grimmer. He spoke as Sasuke landed, something that sounded suspiciously like regret echoing in his voice.

"I had hoped that it wouldn't come to this, Sasuke. I would prefer your eyes intact, after all - but you leave me no choice." Both of Itachi's eyes, still in the sickle-like shape of the Mangekyō Sharingan, suddenly strained; painful looking cataracts spontaneously formed in them.

He looked to be in agony, but breathed out all the pain with a single word.

"Susano'o."

Crimson chakra tore out of Itachi's body, forming into an imposing skeletal figure around him. Ribs became sheathed in flesh, and flesh clothed in armor. The warrior towered over Sasuke, a massive shield held in one hand and glowing eyes staring at him from beneath a low helm crafted in the image of some kind of monstrous demon.

Sasuke took a step back.

"This is Susano'o. The ultimate technique of the Mangekyō Sharingan!" Itachi's voice emerged from within the massive construct. Sasuke could vaguely see him within, masked by the whirling chakra.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke fired a fireball straight towards the voice. The rolling chakra flames smashed into the Susano'o and whirled away, leaving behind nothing to mark their touch.

'Hmm... Not good.'

Susano'o moved. An enormous fist came down, intent on crushing Sasuke. Moving quick the younger Uchiha dodged back. It hammered into the roof of the bunker, breaking yet another hole into the inner chamber. Sasuke sprinted away towards the edge of the roof, intent on using the cloud of dust to mask his retreat. He needed time to come up with a plan to beat the armor.

He didn't get it.

"Amaterasu!"

Sasuke heard the invocation and dived forward. He didn't see anything pass him, but when he looked back, the forest around the bunker was on fire, alit with unnatural black flames. He ran on even as he felt an invisible heat pursuing him. The forest to his right was constantly being caught in Itachi's deadly gaze as dark flames moved from tree to tree, consuming it in a dark death. The heat, even from some distance, was nearly unbearable.

This wasn't working. He'd be caught soon enough. Time to change tactics again.

"Chidori!"

The lighting jutsu smashed another hole in the bunker, and Sasuke dove through. Once more inside, safe for a moment, he desperately assessed the situation.

Low on chakra. His brother shielded by incredibly potent armor. The forest outside completely on fire, cutting off any escape attempt.

'Wait.' Sasuke's thoughts caught on that. 'The forest is burning. The heat- it's perfect. I just need to help it along a little.'

He looked up, and found the Susano'o staring down at him though the hole he'd made.

'Uh oh.'

He rolled to the left and the hand that would have crushed him swept by, making a palm print in the floor. As he dodged, black lines raced over his skin, originating from the cursed seal on the nape of his neck. His skin turning a sickly shade of purple, and the whites of his eyes went black. His Sharingan remained amongst the changes, the only mark of familiarity in the suddenly alien face. As he regained his feet, he faced the roof, making hand signs.

"Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu!"

A stream of flames, shaped in the image of a dragon, burst through the roof of the bunker effortlessly and shot into the darkening sky. It narrowly missed the Susanoo, giving Itachi a fantastic view of his brother's technique.

The Susano'o, and Itachi with it, paused, staring at the outpouring flames. It shifted its stare back down through the newly made hole at Sasuke.

"You'll have to aim better than that, Sasuke," Itachi's voice was almost puzzled.

Sasuke just smirked, before running through the hand signs again.

"Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu!"

The jutsu burst from the roof five more times, shooting into the sky like a pyromaniacs most wonderful dream. Each cleanly missed the Susano'o.

"If you are trying to weaken the roof, Sasuke, that will not work. The Susano'o has no true weight, being a chakra construct. You should know that."

Sasuke fell to his knees, the marks of his curse seal receding. "I know that, brother."

And then he collapsed, seemingly unconscious.

Only he wasn't. Sasuke heard the hum of the Susano'o, ever present, recede a little. Then entirely.

The sound of footsteps filled his ears. Unsteady footsteps. Itachi was coming closer. He'd been fooled by the gambit, his Sharingan telling him (correctly) that Sasuke was nearly entirely out of chakra. That Sasuke's system barely had enough to pull off an intangible bunshin. Itachi was coming to take his eyes. Cautiously, but it wouldn't be enough.

'Perhaps this technique will look familiar to you, Sasuke. It certainly helped me the night we met.'

Sasuke used the substitution that Orochimaru had taught all those months ago, when he'd still been the man's apprentice. He created a raw chakra copy of his body, a skin from which to slither, and simultaneously utilized a shunshin to get to the roof through one of the many holes. The technique had tricked him once, in the Forest of Death, and now it tricked Itachi. He could tell, because the Susanoo didn't reappear and tear the roof to shreds looking for him.

He had barely three seconds to make it to the tallest point around before the substitution melted into slimy raw chakra. That point was the top of the hundred-meter tombstone-like slab of concrete adorning the roof of the bunker.

It took him four. When he was there, he looked back, and found Itachi staring up at him from far, far below. It had begun to rain.

"You're out of chakra, Sasuke. This battle is hopeless. Give up, and give me your eyes." Itachi's voice reached him easily despite the distance.

Sasuke couldn't help but laugh. "You're right, brother… I am out of chakra, yes. But Itachi, you've handed me my victory. Look up!"

The sky, once cloudless and blue, was filled with baleful black clouds and turbulent winds. The weather had rapidly taken a turn for the worse. The intense heat of the Amaterasu filled forests and the shocks of Sasuke's fiery dragons had formed instant storm clouds. Lighting danced among them, crackling in anticipation.

"I don't need much chakra for this jutsu, Itachi! It brings down the rage of the heavens upon whomever I wish! I merely direct it."

Itachi flinched back. Even from so far away, Sasuke saw it. He was glad that his Sharingan would remember that flinch for the rest of his life.

"This is Kirin!"

The Susano'o began to rise again. But even the Mangekyō Sharingan isn't faster than lightning.

"Now, vanish with the thunder!" Sasuke flung his arm down, and an enormous bolt of lighting came with it. Guided by what little chakra he had left and leeched from the clouds, it swept down in an instant and struck Itachi as the Susanoo sprung up around him.

There was a clap of thunder, a wash of pressure, an intense smell of ozone, and the bunker exploded in a hail of concrete, dust, and static, flattening the trees around it for hundreds of meters.

Sasuke fell, his footing vanishing in an instant. He landed amidst the ruins, lumps of concrete and charred earth below and around him, and crumpled to his knees, before slowly falling totally prone. Managing to pull his head up he found his brother lying on a sizable piece of debris not too far away, still as the stones around him. Blood poured from the traitor's eyes, his mouth hanging slack. His red and black cloak was torn to shreds. It had fallen open, forming a cross-like shape as what remained of the arms stretched to the sides.

Itachi was dead.

He lay his head back down.

'It's… over.'

His eyes, the Sharingan fading from them, slowly closed: exhaustion, no longer held back by unhealthy amounts of adrenaline, was finally taking consciousness away.

For a moment, he luxuriated in the silence, the relief of his brother's death. Rolling over, he stared up into the sky. The artificial storm clouds, their purpose now spent, were slowly were breaking up. The sun peeked through, and the warmth of it began to lull Sasuke into an exhausted sleep. His family had been avenged, and now he could rest.

'It's finally over.'

There was a wet cough.

"So, this is the death you were trying to show me?"

Sasuke's eyes snapped open. His head came up. Soon, the rest of his body did too, lurching to his feet.

Itachi, still lying flat on his back, had turned his head to look at him. His eyes were open, but they saw nothing. The pupils were so torn and dimmed that they blended into the rest of the hereditary Uchiha onyx eyes, making them a blank slate. There was a small smile on Itachi's face.

To Sasuke, this was the most unbelievable thing he'd ever laid witness to. He had almost expected Itachi to survive the Kirin, truly. His brother was one of the best shinobi the world had ever seen. But to see him smile…

To smile like that, at him, at Sasuke…

He couldn't understand.

Itachi didn't move, but he still spoke. His words were ragged, the voice of an old and dying man. "I'll admit, you have become strong, Sasuke. Far stronger than I thought you would in such a short time. I am impressed."

Sasuke tried to flare his curse seal, to pump more chakra into his weakened body, but Itachi stopped him. Not with a blow, or a jutsu, but with mere words.

"Stop, Sasuke. There's no point. Even with the Susano'o-" he choked, coughing up blood that smelled like smoke, and Sasuke stopped, the curse seal receding. He wanted to hear this.

Itachi regained his voice, the blood flow ceasing, "Even with the Susano'o, I am already dead. That was a fine jutsu."

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing. Itachi was complimenting him? The man who had killed their parents was telling him 'well done'?

Impossible. It had to be.

He stared at Itachi, indecision and confusion overpowering him. They were aided in no small part by exhaustion. He could barely keep his feet.

Itachi broke Sasuke's paralysis as easily as he'd caused it, "Come here, Sasuke. There's something I need to tell you."

Sasuke's feet carried him forward. He wasn't sure if he was in charge of them or not. He reached Itachi, and leaned down before his dying brother. A memory flashed before his eyes. Izuna, leaning over his sickly brother Madara, much as he was doing. He banished it with a thought. Itachi was in no condition to take anyone's eyes. Not anymore.

"Sasuke. I am very proud of you."

'What?'

"You have surpassed all of my expectations."

'No. No… this is impossible.'

"I know now that you have the power. It is up to you to defeat Madara. You must end the cursed legacy of the Uchiha, and lead our clan out of the darkness."

Sasuke stared down at his brother. A single tear formed in his eye: the turmoil in his mind could not be contained behind a façade much longer.

"Sasuke…" Itachi was struggling to form words. His right hand twitched, and slowly rose from his side. Sasuke instinctively flinched away, but it continued regardless. Slowly, the index and middle finger extended.

Itachi's fingers pressed against his brother's forehead, the touch so light Sasuke could barely feel it.

"I'm sorry. There won't be a next time."

And with that, Itachi died.

Sasuke stared at the body beneath him for what seemed like an eternity.

'He's dead.'

'He was your brother.'

'He killed the clan.'

'HE WAS YOUR BROTHER.'

'Your revenge is complete.'

'Was it worth it?'

Yes…

No…

Tears leaked from Sasuke's eyes, though his expression remained unchanged. The clear sky mocked him by not joining in.

Even after all the pain Itachi had put him through, all the fear and hatred. All the years of isolation and training, after making him leave all comfort behind in his quest to become strong enough, after trying to take his eyes… Itachi was still the only family Sasuke had left. And in killing him, Sasuke had become truly alone.

He felt an intense pain in his eyes.

'Surely I'm not crying that hard?'

It couldn't be the Sharingan. He was completely out of chakra. But… it felt so like it…

Sasuke glanced to his right, wincing through the pain in his eyes, and found a puddle of water there, a memento of the brief storm that had killed his brother. He scrambled over to it, and stared within, fascinated.

His eyes had changed. The Sharingan had indeed activated, but it looked nothing like it usually did. The iris had turned a pitch black and a bright red shape, like two six pointed stars. One within the other, sat within its darkness. A small trail of blood had run from his left eye, making its way to his chin.

The Mangekyō Sharingan.

Impossible. Itachi had been that dear to him? Sasuke didn't know whether to laugh or keep crying.

And when he heard something behind him, he became even more confused. It sounded just like Itachi. Which was impossible, since Itachi was dead.

"Those are fine eyes, Sasuke."

The world exploded, a sliver firestorm running down everything in its path and wiping the universe clean.

Sasuke woke up.

Itachi was sitting on top of him, a knee pressed into his chest. Sasuke's hands were pinned to his side: duplicates of his brother kneeling on his forearms rendered them helpless. Sasuke barely notice this.

He was too focused on the fingers just inches from his eyes.

"Sasuke."

'No. Fake. False. Dead. This can't be happening.'

"Please forgive me."

The fingers pressed in. There was a popping noise, wet and too loud. Half of Sasuke's sight went suddenly, abruptly, horribly dark.

He screamed. He had never experienced anything like this pain before. Burning agony swept through his head, and he screamed again. The world had become red and black, the color of his Sharingan, and his vision swam.

He saw Itachi flinch above him, saw the hand draw back. It was clenched, covered in thick red blood. Itachi reached into his sleeve with his free hand, and withdrew a jar, filled with a murky yellow fluid. He screwed the cap off and dropped the eye (Sasuke's eye) into it. It sunk straight to the bottom, staring back at him. Seeing him.

A Mangekyō Sharingan. His Mangekyō Sharingan. He recognized it.

He felt sick. Whether from the pain or something else, he didn't know.

"Please forgive me, Sasuke."

The same thing again, the same dead voice. Sasuke glared as hatefully as he could with a single eye.

'Itachi.'

"Why?"

Itachi paused momentarily, "The Tsukuyomi?"

Sasuke nodded. It hadn't taken him long to figure it out.

He had never left the Tsukuyomi. His escape, the battle with Itachi, his victory: It had all part of Itachi's genjutsu.

Itachi surprised him by actually answering, "I needed you to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. I had hoped my death would do. So I showed you it."

"An illusion." Sasuke snarled. "A lie."

"Reality is what people think it is. Everyone lives in their own mirage, bound by beliefs and vague concepts. What you saw was just as real as anything else you have seen. It did happen. You were marked forever by it. Your new eyes are proof of that. Can you really call it a lie, then? An illusion?"

Sasuke stayed silent, unable to argue with his suddenly living brother.

"I am sorry for this, Sasuke. But one day soon, you will understand."

He began to reach down once more with a claw-like hand.

"Why? To defeat Madara?!" Sasuke began struggling once more, but Itachi's hold was too firm, and the pain in his head distracted him.

The hand stopped before his eye. He could see nothing but it.

"I can help you defeat him, Itachi!" he pleaded. "Why are you doing this? Let me help you kill him!"

He couldn't see Itachi's face, but from his voice he thought he might be smiling, "We are each other's spares, Sasuke. It was always going to end like this. So, don't worry, foolish little brother."

"Soon enough, you shall see."

Then Itachi's hand dug in, and Sasuke knew no more.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Refusal: Part 1

Itachi was the first one to break the silence.

"You are not Pain," he said, his mouth twisting. "You have the same eyes, but you are not him."

The pierced man inclined his head, but remained silent.

"What do you mean, Itachi?" Kakashi asked. He had oriented himself so that he could watch both the new arrival and the Uchiha simultaneously: he still wasn't sure what Itachi would do now.

"I have met Pain before. He was not this man. He had similar hair, and the same eyes, but he was a different person."

"And what are those eyes, anyway?" Sakura spoke up, near the rear of the group. "They're pretty strange."

"That," Itachi said, "is the Rinnegan."

"The Rinnegan!?" Kakashi's eye went wide. The other one remained closed; his headband was raised, but his Sharingan was still hidden.

"What, what? What's the Rinnegan? Kakashi-sensei, what's the big deal?" Naruto's teacher was as alarmed as the blond had ever seen him: his mask was doing nothing to actually mask his shock.

Kakashi didn't answer. Instead, at that moment the purple-eyed man ran through a series of hand-signs. All of the shinobi watching sprung back: it was a terrible idea to rush someone who was in the midst of forming an unknown jutsu. However, their precaution was unneeded: the man slammed his hand down onto the roof, and in a puff of smoke five more figures appeared, standing in a v-formation.

Kakashi cursed. That had been like no summoning he had ever seen: the hand-signs certainly hadn't matched one. Now, the enemy had been able to summon reinforcements.

The new arrivals were eerie, pale in the bright light of the mid-day sun. They all wore Akatsuki cloaks, some tattered, as if by recent fighting. In addition, they were also all pierced by the same bizarre rods as the first arrival: metal was stuck into them indiscriminately across their face and body, ignoring any discomfort it would have caused.

With the exception of a single bald one, their hair was uniformly orange, looking out of place on their pale, papery skin, and they all shared the same unnatural purple ringed eyes. Six sets of them, all staring with the same intensity at the group.

Kakashi felt a chill jolt down his spine. What were these things?

He heard Itachi behind him, speaking with the same steady passivity. The man really was a genius at hiding his emotions if this didn't unsettle him in the slightest.

"The Rinnegan, Naruto, is the most powerful doujutsu this world has ever seen. It is said that in ancient times, the Sage of the Six Paths possessed it, and with its power he-"

"Became God," interrupted one of the new arrivals. A body stepped forward from the v-formation. It had the least intrusive piercings of the group: only three bars through its noise, and spikes protruding from its lower lip. Its ears, however, were positively full of metal studs.

"Pain." Itachi inclined his head respectfully. "That is not quite how I would have put it."

"It is irrelevant how you would phrase it, Itachi. It is the truth, and that is all that matters. Now, tell me. Madara claims you have betrayed our cause. Why have you done this?"

The man's voice was deep and steady, almost like Itachi's own. But unlike Itachi, every word was filled with absolute confidence, and overbearing will. He did not even deign to look at anyone other than the Uchiha, seemingly not even viewing them as threats.

'Madara?' Kakashi's eye got even wider. The man in the mask was Madara Uchiha?

"I have not betrayed anyone," Itachi responded, his face settling back into its traditional neutrality. "I'm just acting selfishly now. For the first time in ten years, I have decided to be my own man. I am not moving against you, Pain. My dream is no different from yours. I simply wish for peace, and I simply wish to leave."

"You know I cannot allow that. You know too many secrets, Itachi. And where would you go? The Leaf will not receive you well, I imagine." Pain looked genuinely curious, though his eyes became no less intense for it. The rest of the orange haired men stared blankly, unfocused.

"I am not going back to the Leaf. That is reserved for my brother."

"And I can not allow that either. Madara has ordered me to retrieve Sasuke if at all possible."

"That won't happen." Itachi's voice didn't change in the slightest, but the amount of killing intent he projected would have knocked out most genin. Pain brushed it off like it was nothing.

Akamaru whimpered. Kiba patted his partner's head, not taking his eyes off of the cloaked men for a moment.

"I see. That is unfortunate, Itachi. I assume, then, that you will not help me capture the Kyuubi?" As he spoke, he turned towards Naruto, staring right at the Jinchūriki with an emotionless gaze. Naruto stared right back, determination etched on his face.

"No." Itachi turned to Team Hebi. "Get Sasuke out of here. I don't care where you take him, as long as it is away from here."

Karin and Suigetsu shared an uncomfortable look. Juugo didn't take part in it: he'd been staring at the ground for the last few minutes, controlling his breathing and desperately trying to keep his curse from overwhelming him.

"Uh…" Suigetsu spoke, hesitant. He was all too aware that Itachi could turn him into a puddle without even trying. "You know we're not going to bring him to Konoha, right?"

Itachi smiled. It was terrifying. "You may think that. But Sasuke doesn't have any eyes, so he won't get far without you. And considering that Naruto Uzumaki will be coming after you three, it will just be a matter of time until my brother is retrieved."

"You seem very confident that the Nine-Tails will escape me, Itachi." Pain raised his hand, pointing it at Itachi. The Uchiha stiffened; readying himself to avoid whatever was coming. He began flashing through hand-seals, not taking his eyes off Pain for a second. A genjutsu wove itself over Pain, clouding the eyes of the man who had raised his arm. To him, it would appear as though Itachi had vanished in a swarm of crows, prompting him to begin to search while Itachi attacked directly.

The other purple eyes stared at him. The lead Pain continued speaking, undeterred.

"But I wonder: how good are his chances without you?"

Itachi was fast: one of the fastest in the world, in fact. He could catch an arrow mid-flight, outrun the wind, and even grab a single raindrop out of a storm.

But the Mangekyō Sharingan isn't faster than lightning, and not even Itachi was faster than thought.

'Shinra Tensei.'

An unstoppable force, a wave of manipulated gravity, shot out of Pain's body, cratering the stone on which he stood for a meter around, and struck Itachi full on. Itachi flew back, reeling from the blow, and less than a second later hit a telephone pole, long since disconnected from any sort of wiring but still standing, while traveling somewhere around six hundred miles an hour.

Itachi exploded through the pole and kept going, only slightly slowed. Shortly afterwards, he hit something else: a rather large tree, planted in the outskirts of the town. A normal human would have died instantly (again, since a normal human would probably not have survived destroying a telephone pole with their body), crushed against the unforgiving bark.

But Itachi was a shinobi, and an Uchiha besides that, so instead of dying the red glow of his Susano'o sprang up around him, blunting his impact against the tree.

Thus, Itachi did not die: he was merely shoved several feet into the centuries old wood, breaking a couple of his ribs, snapping his left leg and almost cracking his spine, before the normal operations of gravity asserted their dominance over him and sent him plummeting into a thirty foot free-fall.

The Susano'o faded away, Itachi's blurred mind unable to keep it maintained through the intense pain in his back and the burning in his eyes. He hit the ground, a landing that broke both his right arm and wrist as he crashed to the grass awkwardly, stunned.

'What?' Was all Itachi had time to think. 'No signs; no warning; no chakra. What hit me? How…'

Red flashed across Itachi's vision as he tried to haul himself to his feet. He had to get back. He had to protect his brother. His Susano'o wasn't rising. He couldn't feel his legs. Itachi fell to the ground, his hands going limp. His eyes, the Mangekyō still worthlessly whirling, slowly closed.

'Sasuke. I'm sorry.'

Pain lowered his hand and turned to face Naruto, who took a step back.

"One down."

###

'Oh my god.'

To everyone on the roof of the townhouse, it looked as if Pain had merely glared at Itachi and instantly sent the deadliest Shinobi the Leaf had produced in a long, long time on a short flight and a shorter fall, without taking a breath or moving a single muscle.

Pain lowered his arm. "I do hope that none of the rest of you are possessed by the same foolishness as Itachi." He said, scanning the ranks of the ninja before him. "Some must die so that others can live in peace. Will Itachi be your sacrifice? Give up Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, and you will not be harmed."

No one said a word.

Pain frowned. "Naruto Uzumaki, come forward. If you do not, I will begin killing everyone here, one by one. Starting with-" and he turned, his hand pointing at Kakashi, "-the Copy Ninja."

Naruto stared at the roof, his fists clenched. He didn't want to look up at the man with purple eyes.

Itachi Uchiha had been untouchable. Naruto had never been able to hurt him, never even been able to make him pay attention to him. And this man, Pain, he'd taken out the Uchiha with about as much attention as Itachi had ever given Naruto himself.

Naruto wasn't afraid to fight against overwhelming odds. He's spent his whole life spitting in the face of the impossible. But his friends, the people standing besides him now, they hadn't. None of them were even close to Itachi, not even Kakashi-sensei. If they fought, they would die. Naruto could feel it.

They would die because of him. Because he was too much of a coward to lay down his own life when it really counted.

Naruto's hands relaxed, and he stepped forward.

"No, Naruto!" Sakura went forward as well, grabbing him by the arm. He turned to her.

"Sakura," he said with a sad smile. "I have to."

"No you won't!" She was tearing up; the realization filled her with self-loathing. All she could do was cry? "You can't do this! We can fight! We will help you! Don't go with him! What about Sasuke?!"

At this, Naruto turned back to Pain, his expression fierce. "Pain. If I go with you… you'll leave Sasuke alone. Swear it."

The Rinnegan stared back at the blond teen, weighing him. "I cannot promise that. I have been ordered to retrieve him as well."

Naruto gave the orange haired man a grim smile. "You have to. You need me more. I'm the Jinchūriki. He's just…" he swallowed, his determination wavering. The weight of his words was slowing his tongue. After a moment, he regained his courage. "He's just an Uchiha without eyes. You don't need him. Not at all."

Pain gave a slow nod. "Perhaps… you are right. If you leave here with me, I promise you, I will not pursue Sasuke Uchiha."

Naruto grinned. "That's great. That's all I needed to hear." He took another step forward. Kakashi stood helplessly to the side, staring without seeing. He was about to lose another one of his students, and there was nothing he could do about it. This man, alone, had taken out Itachi Uchiha without effort. He had five companions, all with the Rinnegan, all likely as powerful as him. Logic determined that sacrificing one ninja so the rest could live was the wisest course of action, even if that ninja was a Jinchūriki.

Kakashi's heart broke for the fourth time as he made the decision to save as many as he could.

'Those who give up their missions are trash. Those who disobey the rules are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.'

But who would be abandoned here? The group, or the individual? To save Naruto would doom everyone else; to save everyone else would doom Naruto. Kakashi's head sunk to his chest, and his visible eye stared straight ahead, unseeing.

"B-bullshit."

The voice, so quiet that it wouldn't have been heard but for the dead silence punctuated by Sakura's crying, stopped the world in its tracks. Kakashi's head rose, and turned in confusion. Sakura's tears froze, but she didn't turn around.

Naruto stopped dead, one foot mid-step, and cranked his head around.

"Huh?"

Hinata stood at the back of the group, her hands clenched in front of her. She was trembling, visibly jittering, and her head hung low, her long bangs obscuring her lavender eyes.

"I s-said-" her face came up, and there was a fierceness there that Naruto had never seen. Hinata had always been quiet, invisible and polite. What was this?

"That is bullshit."

Unnoticed by anyone else, Suigetsu took a step or two back. If the last few weeks had taught him anything, it was that he should always be wary of scary girls. And this girl made Karin look like a puppy.

Hinata walked forward, her stride strong. The trembling was still there, but now it wasn't fear, or embarrassment. It was pure, unadulterated fury. Her Byakugan slowly activated, pushed by her lack of control, the veins behind her eyes spiraling out and making her look even more fearsome.

"This is what you will do? This is your nindō? This is what-" she choked, before continuing as if nothing had happened. "This is what I d-decided to be? Who I decided to follow? No. This IS BULLSHIT!" Her voice got steadily louder, and by the end of her short rant she was directly before Naruto, mere feet from him.

"Hinata- I- he-." Naruto was stammering, while Hinata just glared at him. With the Byakugan active, the stare terrified him into silence.

"What happened to never giving up? What happened to never running away? What happened to never going back on your word?" Her voice had gotten calmer, but not by much.

Kiba gaped from where he'd been standing next to Hinata. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Since when had she grown a backbone regarding Naruto?

Shino merely pushed up his glasses. Beneath his collar, there was a small smile. He had seen this coming. Naruto was speechless.

Sakura wasn't. "Y-yeah!" She yelled, her voice not quite recovered from her tears. "What happened to that crap about 'It doesn't matter how strong my opponent is'? You said that if they tore off your head, you'd just stare them to death, Naruto. What are you doing now, huh? Just giving yourself up!?"

Kiba joined the fray. "You didn't give up against me three years ago, idiot, and I was kicking your ass! You seriously think we can't beat this guy? Don't be a moron!"

Sai smirked. "I knew you didn't have a penis, Dickless, but I thought you at least had a heart."

Kakashi, Yamato, and Shino said nothing. Team Hebi just watched, stupefied. They had no idea what was going on.

Naruto stared in amazement as his friends berated him. "But- you guys… he's going to… I can't-" A quiet voice struck him silent once more.

"Naruto." He looked down at Hinata, who was still standing rather close to him. "I know you don't want any of us to get hurt. And I'm glad. But please-" her gaze hardened. "You can't stop believing in yourself just because things get difficult. No matter how much pain you've been in, no matter how much suffering you endured, you always got back up and always kept going. Don't stop now."

Her eyes dropped, and her voice grew weaker, but Naruto could still easily hear it. "I've spent my life t-trying to catch up to you, and now… I won't let you throw yourself away when I'm so close. You won't leave me behind, not ever again."

Naruto stood, staring at Hinata in a whole new light. The rest of the group, except her, stared at him, hopeful.

"Remarkable." An unwelcome voice interrupted the moment. "I have never before seen a Jinchūriki with such powerful bonds. Tell me-" Pain continued, with the same note of genuine curiosity in his voice that it had held before he had struck Itachi, "do they know of your… affliction?"

Naruto turned, but his friends answered for him.

"What, about the fox?" Sakura's voice had finally dried up, and now she sounded dismissive, almost scolding.

"Yeah, we've known for a while," confirmed Kiba.

"Naruto is merely the jailor of the beast. To hate the container of something dangerous is completely irrational." Shino spoke in the kind of monotone that both Hinata and Kiba had learned to recognize as his form of dry humor.

Hinata spoke more slowly, and looked at Pain as she did, fearlessly meeting his strange gaze. "My father… he once said that what was done was done. That the Kyuubi was the Kyuubi and Naruto was Naruto, and to hate one in place of the other was as pointless as hating the sky for a storm, or the ground for an earthquake."

Naruto blinked. He hadn't known that Hiashi Hyuuga had felt any particular way about him, but he'd assumed it had been the same wary disdain of most adults he didn't know.

Pain blinked as well, an unusual symmetry. "It is a pity, Naruto." He said, slowly stepping back into the ranks of the other cloaked bodies. "A pity that you have made so many friends. No matter: their sacrifice will doubtlessly teach you the meaning of Pain."

Naruto froze. Kakashi didn't. He was filled with the kind of rage that he thought the last twenty years had burned out of him. He had stood by and just watched as Naruto had tried to hand himself over.

He hated himself for that. But he hated Pain even more. Kakashi would be damned before he hesitated like he had again.

"Scatter!"

Naruto, Sakura, and Sai dove to the left, attempting to make it to the tree line around the village for better cover. Yamato followed them, determined to protect Naruto. Two of the Paths of Pain pursued them: though the team didn't know it, these were the Preta and Deva paths.

Team Hebi glanced at each other and then stepped backwards, falling from the roof. They sped into the forest, headed towards where Sasuke was lying unconscious. Karin directed them. Two Pains leapt into pursuit: the Human and Naraka Paths, which stayed to the treetops, close behind the former experiments and disciples of Orochimaru.

Team Eight stayed on the roof, falling into defensive positions. Kikaichū spread out from Shino's sleeves, emerging from hidden holes across his body. Hinata slid into a Jūken stance, one that she herself had invented. Kiba tossed a look, and a pill, at Akamaru, and then settled into a low crouch, growling. Kakashi stayed with them, trusting Naruto to Yamato. He finally opened his left eye: the Mangekyō Sharingan stared out, red and spinning. Two Pains remained to face them: the Asura and Animal Paths.

Somewhere in the forest, Itachi Uchiha hacked up blood.

###

"So, what's the plan?" Suigetsu sounded out of breath: he couldn't believe that Hebi was part of this lunacy. The leader of the Akatsuki, a man with the same eyes as the Sage of the Six Paths, was after them. What could he do against something like that? This wasn't his fight.

"We're getting Sasuke, and then we're getting out of here." Karin's voice, filled with determination and empty of fear, snapped him out of his mild panic. Of course: Sasuke was what mattered right now. He had to save the man who had saved him, and helped him retrieve the Kubikibōchō: he owed him that much at least.

At least that Pain guy probably wouldn't be after them. He'd seem pretty focused on that blond kid, the Jinchūriki (whatever that was).

As Suigetsu thought this, an orange haired blur landed in front of him, crouching as it hit the ground to reduce the impact (which still cracked the earth under it). As it straightened up, it became clear that it had long, flowing orange hair, two extremely thick rods through each of its cheek and one diagonally through its nose, a scratched out forehead protector (the same as all the other bodies), and a small, arrogant smile.

Distantly, Suigetsu was also aware of a roar and a crash somewhere behind him, and Karin screaming: apparently, Juugo had finally lost control, or found another enemy, and the forest was paying dearly. He was only distantly aware because he was too busy laughing inside.

Him and his big mouth (or thoughts, whatever). It was going to get him killed.

Grinning wildly, Suigetsu decided that if he was going to die, he wasn't going to go out like that pussy Itachi. He was going to die like his brother had, like the ninja of the Seven Swordsmen always did: putting up one hell of a fight.

Pain dropped a sharp piece of the same kind of metal that was stuck into its face into its hand and lunged at Suigetsu. Suigetsu laughed, and swung his enormous butcher's blade of a sword with both hands. The black metal plunged through Suigetsu's chest, exploding from his back in a welter of water. Suigetsu's chop, on the other hand, hit nothing important: the Pain ducked, and the sword whistled through the air over its head.

Its hair, on the other hand, wasn't as quick as the rest of it. Thrown up by the speed of the dodge, the blade of the late great Zabuza Momochi chopped off a great clump of it. As the hair fluttered to the ground the metal in Suigetsu's chest, and the hand clutching it, was drawn farther in, trapping it in solid water.

With a smile that was moving rapidly away from arrogant and into annoyed, the Pain lashed out with the hand that wasn't buried in Suigetsu and struck him with a powerful uppercut. Suigetsu's head exploded, water flying everywhere but mostly upward.

The body continued as if nothing had happened, bringing the Kubikibōchō around in a diagonal slice. The Human Path jumped back, dodging cleanly but also giving time for Suigetsu's headless body to take several steps back, orienting itself and bring its sword around in a ready stance.

The Human Path cocked its head to the side. A moment later, Suigetsu's own sprung into existence.

Sticking out of his hip.

"Hey, that's all you got? I thought you were some sort of god or something." Suigetsu said, as his head slowly slid back towards its proper position atop his shoulders, slipping up his torso as it did so. "What happened to all that good shit with Itachi? C'mon, show me more."

Suigetsu didn't think it was a very good idea to taunt the leader of the Akatsuki, but he also figured that he was probably going to die anyway. So, what the hell?

The Pain stared at him, but didn't speak.

"Ah, not a big talker either. Leave that to the other guy too, then?"

It did not respond.

"Okay then-"

Suigetsu didn't get to finish his sentence. The Path rushed him, and he stopped as he swung his sword in a horizontal chop, trying to take it in the torso. The Pain went into a slide, breezing beneath the sword, and kicked Suigetsu's legs out from under him.

Literally, as they exploded in a cloud of water as he did it. Suigetsu's upper body fell, and the Human Path caught him by the head before he could hit the ground. Suigetsu was left dangling, a body without legs being held in the air by his face.

Before he could even think about swinging the Kubikibōchō, the Pain lashed out, chopping through his sword hand with its own free hand. The blade fell to the grass of the forest floor, landing with a dull thump.

"Okay." The hand holding him muffled Suigetsu's voice, but wasn't going to stop him from being a smartass. "That was pretty good. But what're you gonna do-"

Once more, the Path interrupted him. Suigetsu suddenly felt incredibly weak, as if something deep within was being tugged on. It felt like chakra exhaustion, but thousands of time worse.

'Oh shit!'

The Pain had some kind of draining ability he used on contact. Like Samehada, but far, far more effective. Fortunately for Suigetsu, he knew just how to avoid something like that.

Don't touch it.

Suigetsu's body liquefied, and the Pain was left holding nothing, his hand not even damp, as the puddle that had once been Suigetsu's legs and body combined and slid away into the forest, concealed by the grass and the shadows of the trees above.

The Kubikibōchō went with it, the water defying all reasonable physics and carrying it along. The Pain pursued momentarily, but the sword spun at ankle level and it jumped back, taking to the trees and analyzing the puddle as it steadily formed back into Suigetsu, butcher's blade hefted over his shoulder.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Suigetsu grinned, showing his sharp teeth.

Instead, the Human Path turned around and fled, heading back towards the town.

That worked too, he guessed.

In the same moment, an enormous presence whooshed over his head. Suigetsu looked up, and found nothing there, except a girl in a pale lavender outfit sweeping by overhead, carried along by something that he couldn't spot. Behind her, a boy in a white cloak and a large dog the same color as its owner's clothes chased after her, yelling and barking in synchronicity.

And as suddenly as they'd appeared, they were gone.

Suigetsu blinked, his eyes widening.

'That,' he thought, 'is definitely not my problem.'

He turned around, and found both Karin and Juugo gone. The sounds of forestry being destroyed, however, continued from deeper in the greenery. If anything, it'd gotten louder.

He wondered if they were having as much luck as he was.

###

Karin wondered if Suigetsu was having as much luck as they were.

She and Juugo had barely made it a hundred feet into the forest before they had been attacked, and Suigetsu had vanished. A monstrous man, almost as tall as Kisame, his face marked by and upside-down V of metal rods and with wild, spiky hair, had leapt from a nearby tree and kicked Juugo through another, sending him flying off into the forest.

Karin had run after him: she couldn't hope to take one of these men, who all share the same strangely turgid chakra, on her own.

Juugo had immediately let himself be taken over by his curse, his skin going stony and sanity fleeing from his eyes. One of his arms had become an axe-like protrusion, the other fashioning itself into a crude cudgel, and he'd grown rudimentary wings which sped him across the forest floor.

It was barely enough. The Pain was big, and far stronger than he looked, even with his physique. Several times, he and Juugo had clashed, and although his speed and sense of self-preservation had kept him from any real injury, Juugo hadn't been so lucky, and he'd come away from every encounter with more and more wounds. Wounds that rapidly healed, but they were slowing him down nonetheless. Karin had managed to avoid making herself part of the fight so far. With these opponents, it didn't matter whom she got in the way of: she'd be dead either way.

Another tree fell, and she winced. Juugo wasn't the most accurate person. Even if she stayed here, she'd probably be hit by accident eventually anyway. She could feel that Sasuke was close. So was Suigetsu, but his presence seemed more diffused: she couldn't focus on him with so much chaos around her. The town from which they'd fled felt like a vortex of dueling chakras.

Sasuke was less than a couple trees away. But she knew that the moment she moved for him, she would lead the Pain right to him.

So for now, she watched.

Juugo went for the Naraka Path again, roaring, the axe cocked above his head. The Pain swept low, another one of the strange metal rods in his hand, and stabbed Juugo through the shoulder. The berserker stumbled back, and the Path took the opening, his hand flashing out and taking Juugo around the throat.

Juugo was effortlessly lifted off the ground, yelling futilely. Then he suddenly stopped, staring over the Pain's shoulder, as if there was something terrifying there. Any other time, Karin would have been fascinated to see such a look of confusion and terror on the berserker's face. It looked utterly alien with his current features.

But she didn't get a very good look at it, because something else caught her attention at the time. Juugo's throat, grasped by the Pain, had turned into a gaping maw and was devouring the hand that held it, closing on it like a bear trap. The Naraka Path flinched, and tried to pull away, but was held fast by the unnatural jaws. It said something, in a deep rumbling voice, and Juugo laughed in its face.

Whatever the Pain had said, this was the moment she needed. Karin bolted from behind the tree she'd been hiding, up into the forest and headed for Sasuke. She heard screams of rage behind her, and a terrible crunching sound. Karin didn't look back.

She found Sasuke in the crook of a tree branch, his head slumped, his eyes closed. He looked more peaceful than she had ever seen him before, and the sight of it made her slow. A smile crept onto her face. Even now, the sight of Sasuke made her feel safer. It probably would have been better if he were conscious, though.

She bent over him, picking him up. She struggled a little. Karin had never been the most physical ninja, focusing completely on her medical and sensory jutsu. Speaking of which: what was that chakra?

She turned, Sasuke in her arms. There was a weak chakra, not three hundred feet away. Juugo and the Pain were still fighting, but she could feel Juugo slowly fading. He was weakening, probably from loss of blood. His wounds didn't heal that fast.

And she felt Suigetsu, more solid, heading right for Juugo and Pain. Karin grimaced. He would just have to do his best to keep Juugo alive. Because if her suspicions were correct, getting to the steadily weakening chakra in the distance was far more important for all their survival.

Taking Sasuke over her shoulder, she set off through the trees, moving as quickly as she could.

'Please, Suigetsu, Juugo…' she pleaded, her face twisting as she abandoned them.

'Don't you dare die.'

###

Juugo was starting to think he was going to die, and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

In some ways, death would be a release. He would no longer have to worry about hurting others. He would no longer have to worry about persecution, imprisonment, and power he didn't understand. But if he died, then Sasuke probably would as well. Or worse.

He hadn't been able to save Kimimaro. His friend had died without him even knowing of his passing. Died alone, and died saving Sasuke.

He could not let that sacrifice be in vain, so before he died, he could at least do Sasuke the favor of killing this bastard.

Juugo panted, leaning against a tree. He was too damaged: the proto-curse stage had weakened, withdrawing most of its influence. Only half of its face remained grey, his left eye staying a sickly yellow. His hands quivered, desperately trying to mold into weapons, tools, anything to kill the thing in front of him, but they couldn't manage it.

There was a black rod stabbed through his shoulder, and another through his hand. There were countless pieces of the stuff peppered throughout his body, shrapnel from where the Pain had blocked his attacks with the things and they'd been destroyed. The metal was cold, even in his skin, and it was doing something to his chakra.

His rage had melted away, replaced by pain, and he could hardly move. His hand was fumbling with the rod his in his shoulder, trying to draw it, but he couldn't summon up the strength to pull it out.

The man with purple eyes stared at him. One of his hands was little more than a mangled stump, barely bleeding. He didn't seem to notice. "Where is Sasuke Uchiha?"

Juugo growled. Who did this man think he was? "I don't know." He paused, some of his vitriol fading away along with more of his chakra, as something cold and sluggish pushed it aside. "And even if I did," he amended, "I wouldn't tell you anyway."

The Pain came closer, his remaining hand reaching for Juugo's throat. The cursed man tried to push himself forward, tried to strike the strange-eyed man one last, time, but his legs betrayed him, and he fell to his knees, exhausted. The hand clasped around his throat, and lifted him into the air. It was cold and clammy, the hand of a dead man.

There was a trembling in the air, a roar, and an enormous head rose out of the ground in a burst of purple light. It was demonic looking, even more so than Juugo imagined he looked most of the time. Its eyes were the same ringed purple circles as the man in front of him.

"Tell me: where is Sasuke Uchiha? If you lie, you will die."

"I don't know where he is," Juugo muttered. The fight was literally draining out of him. "You know as well as I. You saw Itachi take him."

"Perhaps. But I find it hard to believe that you truly know nothing."

And that was true. While the first Pain to arrive had surveyed the group and paid Itachi little mind as he fled with his brother, confident that he would return, Juugo had watched where Itachi had gone. He knew, better than Pain at least, where Sasuke was.

"Believe it, then. You will get nothing from me."

The Pain shrugged.

Juugo felt something building in his throat. It wasn't vomit: he'd experienced enough of that after his massacres to recognize that sensation intimately. It was as if something was pushing itself up out of his stomach. Something that was just like a tongue, but certainly wasn't, burst from his mouth, extending towards the demonic face as its own mouth began to slide open.

'Uh oh.'

A hand reached from the demonic mouth, as pink and slimy as the tongue-that-definitely-wasn't-a-tongue that was coming from Juugo's, and grabbed ahold of it. A boiling sensation shot through him, as if burning mercury making its way down the strange appendage.

'Oh, that can't be good.'

The Pain was speaking, its voice full of finality.

"And now, I pass judgment."

"Oh. So this one can talk."

Juugo knew that voice. It was arrogant and dismissive and oftentimes foolish, but he couldn't have been gladder to hear it.

An enormous sword, gleaming silver and black and curved like a butcher's knife, filled his vision, interposing itself between him and the Pain. The hand released his throat and darted back.

"Too slow!"

There was a sick schlick sound, and suddenly Juugo's face was sprayed with cold, long coagulated blood. He fell, the grip around his neck gone, and crumpled against the base of the tree, breathing heavily.

His hand, adrenaline finally getting some grip on him, tore the rod in his shoulder out in a rush of pain and a feeling of relief, and more blood splattered the grass; this time, it was warm.

Suigetsu was standing in front of him, a shit-eating grin on his face. He held the Kubikibōchō in a defensive grip, his hand pressed against the flat of the blade. He looked worse for wear: his features were ill defined, slush-like, but he was definitely doing better than the man behind him. The Naraka Path was kneeling on the ground, one arm clenching the wrist of the other. Which was where that arm ended.

The missing hand was on the ground before Juugo, twitching.

Suigetsu turned around, facing Pain. Juugo focused on pulling the metal rod from his hand: he could still feel it filling him with cold chakra.

"You know," Suigetsu's tone was cockiness incarnate, "for a god, you aren't much. I expected more of a fight from you guys, but so far, you've done nothing but disappoint me. I mean, I meant to take the whole arm, but still…"

The Pain just stared at him. "I have severely underestimated you," he said, his features twisting into a severe frown. "I should have focused on the Kyuubi." He got back to his feet, ignoring his missing hand. "I will not be pursuing Sasuke Uchiha anymore. The risk is too great. Take him, and leave."

Juugo smiled, the curse receding even farther. Sasuke was safe.

The Path stepped back. The demon emerged from the ground once more, and Juugo tensed, getting ready for the strange hand once more. But it didn't emerge. Instead, the mouth dropped, and the Pain stepped back into it, the face swallowing him.

The demon sunk back into the ground, and Suigetsu and Juugo were left in the forest.

Suigetsu turned to him, slowly. His face was perfectly still.

'What. The fuck. Was that?" His voice was completely calm, and Juugo almost chuckled. Almost. He still felt all too empty to try something like that.

So instead, he shrugged. "I have no idea," he said. "Let's just find Sasuke and get out of here."

Suigetsu nodded, and they both walked deeper into the forest, Juugo limping, towards where they'd seen Itachi heading with his younger brother.

###

A minute and some earlier, Kakashi watched as four of the bodies left the rooftop, including the one that had felled Itachi. That one went after Naruto, as well as another, stockier one. Two remained on the roof with him and Team Eight: the one that been the first to arrive, and another, medium sized, bald, with an enormous piece of metal sticking out of its chin, spikes from its crown, and wearing a maniac's smile.

He wondered at the apparent differences between the Pains. Did each of them have a separate consciousness, or were they all under the control of one man? If it was one consciousness, how was he splitting his attention between the different bodies?

His Sharingan told him that they all had the same chakra: how was whoever was controlling them not being overwhelmed by input? Were they sharing vision, or was the controller nearby, observing and directing? No, that was unlikely, considering that two had gone into the forest. That would break the line of sight. So how-

One of the Pains, the smiling one, made its move, and Kakashi's thought process leapt into overdrive. Now was the time for fighting and surviving. Figuring out exactly how this technique worked took second priority.

The bald Pain brought up its arm, and Kakashi tensed, ready for another inexplicable pulse of energy taking one of the team from the roof and smashing them into the forest.

That was not what happened. Instead, the Pain's arm split open, like a rapidly blooming flower, revealing within a clutch of chakra constructs that looked a lot like missiles. Kakashi blinked.

'Uh oh.'

The missiles launched, fire and smoke streaming from them, and headed en-masse for the group, at least thirty of them. Simultaneously, the other Pain weaved signs and slapped his hand down, summoning, in a puff of smoke… nothing.

Hinata stepped forward and assumed an upright pose as Kakashi's eyes narrowed. There was a strange aura at the spot where the Pain had summoned something, but he couldn't detect anything obvious. He didn't have time to, anyway. Hinata began moving her arms, a circular motion that brought them around her entire body. Chakra sparked at her fingertips, and even as the missiles shot forward, she yelled.

"Shugohakke: Rokujūyon Shō!"

The air around Hinata was suddenly alive with thin beams of chakra, emanating from her fingertips. The circular motion, up till then merely graceful, became deadly as the chakra lingered, spread, and intersected, forming a sphere of deadly energy around the Hyuuga.

The missile barrage smashed into it and disintegrated, the missiles themselves cut to pieces, some detonating and others merely falling apart. Even the shrapnel of the blasts was caught in the deadly net and disposed of, becoming little more than vapor.

The dust cleared, and Hinata stopped moving her arms, letting the chakra fade away. Then, she started, jumping right and looking left, her hands coming up once more. She had spotted something the rest of them couldn't see with her Byakugan.

A moment later, she was snatched off her feet by something slimy and flexible, carrying her away from the roof and into the forest.

"Hinata!" Kiba yelled, and he threw himself after her, Akamaru close behind. Before he lost sight of them, Kakashi finally sighted what had grabbed Hinata: a giant chameleon, nearly invisible even with the Sharingan looking right at it, with the same eyes the other Pains possessed. The Rinnegan.

Both it and Hinata vanished into the forest, with Kiba and Akamaru close behind. Kakashi turned back to the Pains: Kiba could handle that thing.

The bald one, while he had been distracted, had moved forward, charging him and Shino, an oversized drill springing into place of its right arm, the left becoming shorter, the hand bending back and letting some sort of barrel emerge. The summoner had jumped into the air, gaining distance, and was making more hand signs.

Kakashi glanced back at Shino, and the Aburame nodded back. Without hesitation, the Hatake launched himself upward, swiftly approaching the airborne Path. A Raikiri sparked into his hands, and he drove it forward, hoping to gut the Pain.

Said Pain abandoned its hand signs and struck out, a sharp metal bar falling into its hand as it did. The bar hit Kakashi in the shoulder, his Jōnin vest taking most of the impact. However, it still managed to punch through even without leverage, and Kakashi felt a prick as it pierced the muscle. The metal was incredibly cold.

His Raikiri, on the other hand, hit the Pain as it desperately leaned left. It tore through its side, leaving a gaping hole, taking a substantial chunk of flesh just above the right hip. On any normal person, it would have been a debilitating, if not instantly fatal, injury.

The hole did not spray blood. There was no yell of shock. The summoner acted as if nothing had happened. Its leg swung around, taking Kakashi in his already injured shoulder and sending him flying back towards the roof, spinning wildly. He smashed into it and rolled to his feet, his head spinning.

Okay. The Pains ignored injuries that weren't life threatening. He could work with that. It was just like Kakuzu all over again. Kakashi glanced to his left, and found Shino pinned beneath the bald Pain, its arm cannon leveled at the boy's head. There was a glow building in it, and the Pain was still smiling, a mad look in its eyes.

Shino, as always, seemed expressionless.

Kakashi moved to knock the cyborg off the Aburame, but the other Pain landed in front of him at that moment, striking out with another rod. Kakashi blocked, redirecting it, and winced. His injured shoulder was hampering him.

He struck out, a lightning fast kick, and the Pain leapt over it, bringing around a hammer blow meant for Kakashi's head.

With the Sharingan, he saw it coming a mile away, and stopped it cold with a painful elbow block that should have shattered the Pain's hand: instead, it landed as if it hadn't been hit (again) and came for him (again).

He spared a glance for Shino, just in time to see the other Pain shoot the Aburame in the face. It was not a beam of energy, as the glow had made him assume; instead, it was a solid slug, the size of a child's hand, which smashed Shino's head apart like a dropped watermelon.

There was no blood. Kakashi was unpleasantly reminded of his own opponent. He heard the sound of shattering wood off in the distance.

The Aburame's body exploded into a swarm of Kikaichū, which promptly covered the Pain that had shot them from head to toe. The real Shino made his presence known in the same moment, bursting from the stone rooftop beneath the feet of the Pain Kakashi had been fighting and catching it with a blow to the gut, right next to the injury Kakashi had already managed to give it.

The Pain went airborne, and Kakashi followed it, smashing it back into the roof with an axe kick.

It bounced with the impact and rolled away, Kakashi chasing it. Shino, on the other hand, went after the man he had covered in insects. His hand came up, directing the Kikaichū, and the insects swarmed with new purpose around the man.

A red and black blur smashed into Shino, sending both tumbling over the edge of the roof and deeper into the town. Kakashi's Sharingan caught the whole thing in excruciating detail: another Pain, this one with a small smile and a diagonal nose piercing, had buried its knee in Shino's side as the boy leapt forward. It had come from the forest.

That, he supposed, meant two things. Either the team Sasuke had put together was enough to fight off two of the Pains; or that the team Sasuke had put together had lasted about three minutes against them.

Kakashi didn't want to place a bet either way. Both options weren't exactly good news. He was left on the roof with the Path that had first arrived, while the bald one writhed on the ground, blind, its chakra rapidly being sucked away even without Shino present. The one that wasn't covered in insects stared at him, the Rinnegan weighing him, and then turned and retreated, moving towards where Shino had fallen.

Kakashi chased after it following it as it jumped down to street level.

He was not prepared for the side of the building he'd just descended to explode, and a scuffed up Naruto with a small hole in his stomach to emerge from the rubble, sailing through the air.

The Pain he was chasing, however, apparently was, because it turned on the spot and kicked Naruto square in the back, sending him back through the building, two more walls, and into the field that he'd been fighting across.

Kakashi stared, eyes wide. At least that answered one of his questions. Either all of these bodies were sensor types, or they shared fields of vision. It was the only thing that would have allowed for a trick like that. The summoner turned and came at him again, and once again he was enveloped in a taijutsu brawl.

Pain was fast, and it was strong. It felt no fatigue, and its eyes seemingly took everything in. Its footwork was incredible, and its blows were always sure.

But Kakashi was Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja, the Man of a Thousand Jutsu, and in his thirty years he had seen more taijutsu styles, combinations, and techniques than he cared to remember, and while Pain's was certainly deadly, it was nothing particularly special, especially since the wound in its hip was finally beginning to slow its footwork. Against an experienced Jōnin like him, it would only be good as a stalling action, delaying the inevitable.

Which, Kakashi realised, was exactly what it was for. This body was stalling him, waiting for something. He realized exactly what that something was when a weight smashed into his back and bore him to the ground, crushing him into the concrete.

He rolled over, and found the bald Pain standing over him once more. The man was still covered in bugs, but significantly less than before. That was probably because of the prongs that had emerged all over his skin: electricity sparked from them, recently discharged. It had covered itself in an electric sheet, frying the Kikaichū.

Its cannon, unchanged from when it had attempted to kill Shino, was leveled at Kakashi's head. The Copy Nin smiled in the face of imminent death, his right eye scrunching up while the Sharingan stared, spinning. A Raikiri sparked in his hand.

The cannon fired.

The Pain's arm exploded as the Kikaichū clogging the cannon prevented the projectile from escaping it.

It was an old trick, Kakashi thought as he surged to his feet, the Raikiri ahead of him, but old tricks were often the best. Though he doubted Shino had thought he would ever get to use that particular trap twice in his life.

He buried his lightning covered arm in the Pain's chest, driving it up and out, and the man practically exploded, his spine and front coming apart in the strike. Instead of blood or organs, gears and metal poured from its chest, springs and screws flying in every direction. It was both bizarre and disgusting. The Pain hit the ground in two halves, its smile never leaving its face, and its Rinnegan dimmed, the rings becoming heavier and the purple darker.

A steady line of Kikaichū poured from its wrecked arm, forming a protective clump around Kakashi. He let out a long-suffering sigh, and shuffled about, facing the summoner as it stared at him, seemingly with some shock.

Kakashi smiled once more, settling into a relaxed stance.

"One down."

###

When everything kicked off, Naruto jumped off the side of the building, and Sakura followed him. Yamato followed her, and Sai followed them both. They reached the ground, a stretch of field that prefaced the forest, and broke into a run towards it. In there, Naruto's shadow clones, Sakura's strength, and Yamato's Mokuton would all become far more useful against an isolated enemy.

They didn't make it, but not because they didn't reach the forest. They didn't make it because the forest moved.

An enormous force blew over their head, the very air trembling with it, and suddenly the trees that had looked like such a haven flattened themselves like toothpicks. For a hundred meters, the forest became flat, a sea of logs and leaves, and Team Seven plus Yamato stopped, astounded.

They turned around and found Pain settling to the ground about thirty feet away, one of his other bodies following him. This one was stockier, with spikes emerging from the bridge of its nose and beneath its eyes and lips.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Give yourself up." The lead body spoke again.

Naruto just laughed. It was a nervous one, but a laugh nonetheless. "Like hell. I can't just give up. What would Hinata think of me then?"

Sakura looked at Naruto cockeyed. Just yesterday, he wouldn't have placed any more stock in what Hinata thought than he would for any of his other friends. That had apparently changed.

Pain cocked an eyebrow. "Ah yes. The Hyuuga girl. That was a fine speech she gave you. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing what is happening to her now?"

He gestured behind him, and Team Seven looked up just in time to see Hinata snatched up by an invisible kidnapper and carried into the forest, on the other side of the building.

"Hinata!" Naruto took a step forward, but Sakura restrained him.

"Naruto. She'll be fine. Look, Kiba's going after her," she spoke forcefully. He needed to focus on the here and now. It had taken all she had and more to beat Sasori, all those months ago, and she'd still only survived because of Elder Chiyo. Even with these four to two odds, she was still incredibly wary of this Akatsuki leader.

Naruto seemed to control himself, but then his head snapped back to the Akatsuki leader, furious. "You bastard!" he cried, and ran forward, a clone popping into existence besides him. A Rasengan formed in his hand, whirling, and he leapt into the air, bringing it straight down on Pain's head.

The air distorted, the Rasengan stopped and then faded away, and Naruto was thrown back, crashing to the ground and tumbling into Yamato, who caught and steadied him.

Pain, who hadn't moved at all, stared at him. "This is foolish," he said. "You cannot hope to win. You are simply delaying the inevitable."

Naruto just snorted, getting back to his feet. "People have been calling me a fool all my life." He called back. "You're no different from any of them. We'll take you down, and bring Sasuke home."

Pain shrugged, a helpless gesture. "Well then, Nine-Tails," he said.

"Show me."

Naruto grinned and put his hands in a cross. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted, and several dozen clones popped into existence around him. They all charged at Pain, shouting various battle cries.

Yamato put his hands to the ground, sending branches and roots racing through the soil, twisting about each other, towards Pain.

Sai put his ink to a scroll, calling out, "Chōjū Giga!" A moment later, three lions, made of swirling chakra-laced ink, burst from the parchment and threw themselves into the air, racing towards Pain.

Sakura stood at the back of the group, hurling kunai. Just because she was the medic, just because it was her job to die last, did not mean she couldn't contribute.

The second Pain stepped back. The orange haired man stood stock still, his eyes sweeping the field. One Naruto clone, impetuous, pulled ahead of the rest and cocked a fist back, preparing a haymaker. Several of Yamato's roots burst from the ground and twined around his ankle, locking him in place. The ink lions swept down, roaring, their fangs exposed and their paws drawn back for devastating swipes. A dozen kunai sped towards his chest, ready to fill his ribs with steel.

He took all this in, and spoke two words, the air around him pulsing with terrible power.

"Shinra Tensei."

The kunai flew back towards where they came, spinning wildly, forcing Sakura and Sai to duck. Naruto was nearly stabbed in the arm. The lions above him exploded outward in a wash of ink, splattering the grass before Team Seven with black. The roots twined around his ankles, making their way up his body, shattered. Chunks of wood shot everywhere, their original form completely destroyed.

The clone battalion flew backwards, tumbling over the grass, disappearing in puffs of smoke. The one that had thrown itself forward had touched Pain's cheek, a mere brush of the knuckles, before it had been pushed back. Pain hadn't even blinked.

Naruto stared. Sai stared. Yamato stared. Sakura frowned. No way she was getting close to that.

"O-Okay." Naruto said. "Let's try something else."

"That won't help you, I'm afraid." Pain said, taking a step out of the small crater that had formed around him. He began moving steadily forward.

Yamato spoke. "Split up," he commanded. "Spread out. Don't let yourself get caught in whatever that is all at once. And keep an eye on that other one. We don't know what it can do."

Everyone nodded, and broke. Naruto ran to the left, Sakura to the right. Sai fell back, preparing more ink beasts. Yamato held his position: trees, massive constructions of the Mokuton, sprung from the ground around him, forming a primitive fort.

Branches split off from it, headed for Pain, who had redirected his walk towards Naruto. The Akatsuki leader gestured with his hand, and the branches were smashed into the ground, fragmenting and shattering like porcelain. Yamato stared: no one had ever destroyed his bloodline attacks so easily.

Many more shadow clones popped into existence around Naruto, and several began forming Rasengans. Pain broke into a run.

Sakura watched, looking for an opening. As she did, Sai sent more ink monsters: this time, they were tigers instead of lions. She wondered what the difference was. Maybe he just enjoyed the variety.

The second Pain was moving as well, catching up to the apparent lead Pain. He drew abreast of it just as they both entered the field of shadow clones. Pandemonium broke out almost instantly. Clones threw themselves forward, sacrificing themselves to sharp rods of black metal and vicious kicks from both Pains, trying to buy openings for any of their Rasengan wielding duplicates.

But anytime there was a break in the Pain's defenses, the air pulsed again, and the charging clones were sent flying back into their own ranks, popping more of their own with the momentum of their bodies before being dispelled themselves.

As that quarter of the field quickly filled with chakra smoke, Sai's tigers sent themselves after the Pains. The stocky one, as if seeing them coming even though his back was to them, spun about, his palms out.

Sakura smirked. They had one of them now.

Except instead of being mauled by the ink tiger, a blue ring sprung up around the Pain. Wherever the tigers touched it, they turned to ordinary ink, covering the Pain in even more black, but leaving him completely unharmed.

Well, that was just fantastic. Apparently he could absorb chakra. Now she and Sai were mostly useless, their abilities neutralized by this man's powerful jutsu.

She hoped Naruto had a plan.

###

Inside the field of clones, Naruto had come up with a plan. A stupid, stupid plan (not that there was anything wrong with that), but one that he was pretty sure would work.

The Pains were dispelling his clones too quickly, with sudden strikes that accomplished their only purpose, but that weren't very strong on their own. They were just meant to break clones, not a real person. Willing away the Rasengan he'd been holding onto, Naruto made his way through his clones. They gave way for him, somehow recognizing that he was the original. He still didn't know how they did that.

Finally, he found his target: the stockier Pain was whirling about with a rod of metal and a glowing blue hand, both of which dispelled whatever clone they touched (or, in the rods case, stabbed).

Naruto grimaced. This was gonna suck.

He threw himself forward, acting like one of his clones trying to buy a Rasengan hit, and the Pain reacted as he thought it would have, spinning about and stabbing him in the gut with its metal rod. But Naruto didn't dispel. Instead, he reached down and grabbed hold of the hand holding the rod, drawing the Pain closer to him.

Purple rings looked at him in shock, before there was a spark of realization. But by then, it was too late.

From all sides, clones dog piled the man, some with Rasengans and some without. They bore him to the ground, punching and kicking and stabbing, as many getting dispelled as joined the pile every moment. Naruto grinned, staggering back and holding his stomach. The wound was unnaturally cold: it felt like ice water had been injected into his veins.

A hand clapped down on his shoulder. He froze, turning his head.

The other Pain was right behind him, glaring. There were no clones back there: he vaguely had memories of the man pulsing and drawing them all towards him for a vicious spree of stabs and kicks. He'd been more focused on the memories of the man in front of him getting multiple Rasengans pushed into his chest simultaneously.

"Impressive," Pain said. "You would use yourself as a pawn in your own strategy. Your dedication is commendable."

And then Pain spun and threw him. Midflight, Naruto felt something push out from the man and weave itself over him, helping him along. He also felt of his clones pop from the sudden pulse of force.

'Uh oh.'

Naruto was blown through the air, crashing into the side of the townhouse, the building he'd jumped down from, and exploded through the stone wall. He flew through the interior, too fast to make out any details, and smashed through another wall. This one seemed to be a bit harder than the one before it.

'OW.'

He barely had time to comprehend what was on the other side of the building (was that Kakashi-sensei?) before something kicked him the back, hard, and sent him flying back towards another stone wall.

He blew through that one. And the one behind it.

Naruto hit ground, soft and grassy ground, and rolled and tumbled across it until he smashed into something even more unyielding than the walls, finally coming to a stop. He looked up, and found Pain staring down at him. He had crashed into the man's legs, and the Rinnegan wielder hadn't given an inch.

"Will you surrender? You cannot fight Pain unless you comprehend it, and I am sure that you do not," the man said.

Naruto chuckled, the sound broken. Blood flecked from his mouth, splashing the man's feet.

"Ha." He said. "No way. After that? You should just give up on me giving-"

Then his head lolled to the ground, and he passed out.

###

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out. Her teammate was sprawled unconscous at Pain's feet, blood trickling out of his mouth. The man was just looking down at him thoughtfully. A moment later, someone echoed Sakura's cry.

"Naruto!" Sakura turned, and found Hinata and two Kiba's sprinting out of the forest.

Both of the Inuzaka's were covered in some sort of horribly shiny slime, but the one in front looked… chunky, for lack of a better word. He was splattered all over with red and purple fluids, and so was the one behind him. They left a shining trail of the liquid through the grass, the stuff sliding viscously off of them.

Sakura blanched. "Oh my god, Kiba, what happened?" The Kiba she had addressed, the one in front, barked. She turned to the other one.

"Don't worry about it," he said, looking as though he wished he could follow his own advice as something greenish dripped from his hair. Shaking his head, he looked at Pain, who was still staring at Naruto. "What happened here?"

"Naruto's down. We've got to get him. I can heal him, but I'll need cover." Sakura said, her voice not at all informing anyone around her of the uncertainty she felt.

Sai made himself known. "I can handle that," he said. "Just get Dickless out of there."

Kiba and Hinata nodded, and broke into a run, headed for Naruto. Sakura followed them. Sai stayed behind, and began an elaborate drawing, his brush flying over the scroll. Yamato, seeing what the team was doing, fell back to support Sai.

Pain looked up from the unconscious Jinchuuriki, his gaze narrowed. "More of you. Why do none of you ever surrender?"

None of the Konoha shinobi gave any response. Instead, the Kiba's growled, and Hinata just shouted.

"Jūho Shōshiken!"

Twin lions, made of seething chakra, formed around the Hyuuga's fists.

She charged straight in, her mouth set in a determined line, while Kiba and Akamaru split up and began circling Pain while Sakura watched, waiting for Pain to drop his guard.

"Pointless," the man said. But instead of raising his hand and blasting Hinata away like Sakura feared he might, he dodged, a minimalistic movement that let the Lion Fist blaze past him as he pulled yet another metal rod from his sleeve. How many of those did he have?

Also, why hadn't he used his jutsu?

Hinata altered her punch, her left hand going down and striking the rod as it went for her unprotected abdomen, snapping it in half. She spun, another fist rising to strike Pain in the head, and he swept back, the chakra brushing his face. Simultaneously, both Kiba and Akamaru leapt into the air, spinning.

"Gatsūga!" The Inuzuka and his partner spun faster, becoming a practical tornado in the air, and both went straight for Pain, hoping to catch him between them. As they did, more and more of the liquid flew off of them, splattering the field.

'Seriously, what is that stuff?'

Pain ceased his retreat, and Hinata leapt forward. As the Hyuuga and Inuzuka converged on Pain, his hands came up, as if bracing something to the sides of him. He spoke.

"Shinra Tensei!"

The shockwave came once more. Hinata flew back, violently slamming into the ground, the chakra around her hands petering out. Both Kiba and Akamaru were tossed away in opposite directions, making similar yelping sounds. They crashed to the ground on all fours and slid back, snarling but unable to keep their footing.

Sakura charged, one of her fists already pulling back, with two bunshin at her side.

If her hastily constructed theory, brought together in the last ten seconds, was correct, then this would work. Probably. Pain, from what she had seen, hadn't constantly been using his jutsu since the fight had begun. When he had been fighting Naruto's clones, he hadn't simply destroyed them with its powerful pushes. There had always been a delay before the next blast, between five to ten seconds, even when he had a perfect opportunity to use it.

All jutsu had drawbacks, no matter how powerful they were. Perhaps Pain's was a cooldown of sorts, a period during which he had to wait before he could use it again. Or maybe he was just conserving chakra, and she was about to become intimately acquainted with the ground.

Pain's head snapped up, his eyes seeming to absorb every detail. He ignored the clones, staring directly at her. She felt, in that one second, that he had analyzed everything about her.

She tried to imagine what he might have been thinking about as he saw her charging at him. Female. Not especially muscular. Had stayed out of the fight till then. No doubt a medic-nin, then. Desperately attacking as her friends were blown away. "Futile," he would call it, or something pretentious like that. He didn't even look at her clones: she felt that he saw right through them.

One hand came up, the palm extended and ready to block her blow. In Sakura's mind's eye, she could see the whole thing play out, as Pain would have envisioned it. She would crash into him, her hand stopped cold by his. His other hand would sweep forward, one of those metal poles gripped in it. The pole would punch into her gut, crippling her. She would fall, stricken. Naruto would be free for the taking as the other Konoha ninja recovered. He would have won.

Sakura grinned, a sadistic smile that drew her lips back from her teeth into a vicious snarl, and in the frozen moment before her blow landed as chakra surged through her body towards the point of impact, she saw Pain frown.

He started to move, but not quite quickly enough.

Sakura fist slammed into Pain's palm. The hand bent backwards, horribly broken, and there was an ear-piercing snap. Pain's palm was suddenly face up, parallel to his forearm. The force of the punch ran up his arm, and his shoulder dislocated with a horrible crack.

The Rinnegan widened. Sakura grabbed his forearm, ignoring the brush up his flopping hand against her wrist. She pulled back her other fist and channeled chakra to it. A lot of chakra. Pain brought up a knee, a black rod sprouting from it. She blocked it with her own, wincing at the impact, the sound of metal scraping against her shin bone. Blood ran down her leg.

'A medic must be the last to fall.'

Pain hammered her knee again. More blood flew.

'A medic must never fight on the front lines.'

She responded by crushing his forearm in her grip, pulping the bone completely. Shards cut through her gloves, poking her hand.

'A medic must dodge, not engage.'

Pain's other fist came forward, aimed for her face. Sakura crashed her forehead into it, refusing to give an inch. As blood trickled down her face into her mouth, she smiled: it seemed her big forehead was good for something after all.

'FUCK. THAT.'

Pain's eyes hardened, and he began to speak, his voice heavy.

"Shinra-"

Sakura shouted, all of her fear, pain, and rage expressed in a single word.

"SHANNARO!"

She buried her fist in Pain's gut.

The grass for several meters around them blew back, flattened by the impact. Their hair rippled in an invisible wind. Sakura twisted her fist, and Pain flew.

Sakura had once punched Naruto over three hundred feet when he had pulled a particularly stupid trick on her. Kakashi had joked that it was probably some sort of world record for 'distance punched'.

Sakura knew, without a doubt, that she had just shattered that record.

She panted, leaning over, her hands on her knees. She had put a lot into that punch. She hissed at the sight of her shin: it was split open, a rough and deep cut that exposed a glimpse of white bone. Blood ran freely from it: her boot was getting wet.

Kiba and Hinata had regained their feet, and they sprinted over to her. Well, Kiba sprinted: Hinata was limping, though it didn't slow her much. Sai was following them, with a small grin. Hinata was smiling, beaming even, an enormous smile the likes of which Sakura had only seen on Naruto before, despite the cut on her cheek that ran a small stream of blood down her neck.

Kiba was just staring with an odd mixture of respect and fear.

"Holy shit, Sakura."

Sakura giggled. It looked like she might have broken Kiba too. Then her smile faded, and she turned back towards Naruto.

Sai held out his scroll, showing her a beautiful drawing of an enraged dragon. "Good job, Ugly. Will I be needing this?" He said.

Sakura nodded, her face grim.

"C'mon." She said. "We have to hurry. He'll be back."

Kiba shot her a look, and then pointedly turned to look at the forest, where Pain would have landed. "Really?" He sounded skeptical, and Sakura didn't blame him.

"Really. He's Akatsuki. If he's at all like Sasori, that's only going to slow him down." She confirmed. "Kiba, Sai, get ready for him. Hinata, help me with Naruto. We've got to get him on his feet again."

The normally shy girl nodded, and she and Sakura bent over the blond while Kiba and Akamaru scanned the woods.

Green chakra sprung up around her hands, and she ran it over Naruto, mending broken ribs and sprains, closing contusions. The blond didn't stir: by all appearances, he was completely out cold.

'Naruto, you'd better wake up soon.'

###

Kakashi wasn't having a good day. Neither was the town, for that matter, though that was pretty much completely his fault.

Now if this thing would just hold still-

The Raikiri smashed through another wall, the Pain swirling away from the resulting rubble, and Kakashi sighed. Another black rod, which his Sharingan told him was full of Pain's chakra, swung for his arm and he pulled back, knocking it away with a kunai before going on the offensive again. The rod went up, but at the same moment a foot shot out and took Kakashi in the lower chest, tossing him backwards into a skid on the hard concrete street.

He was panting; his chakra fluctuating and his Sharingan eye fluttering, but the Pain had it almost as bad.

It was twitching, and the Rinnegan it held shone with intermittent brightness. Kakashi didn't know what that meant, but over the past minutes, through all the brief but vicious fisticuffs, interrupted summon attempts on both sides, and waylaid traps, he had begun to think of his opponent less and less as a man, and more and more as a chakra construct, or a puppet.

It didn't talk, it didn't flinch: it stared ahead with eyes that looked more dead than alive on an unchanging face. And it ignored everything Kakashi had landed on it. Its left arm was split open along the forearm, the result of a poorly parried kunai, but the wound barely bled. There were several shuriken in its chest, pinning its cloak to it, but it paid them no mind either.

But the man, construct, thing, was twitching, and in Kakashi's years of experience when something began twitching it was usually a sign it was starting to break down. Kakashi himself had twitched a lot after his father's death, after Kannabi Bridge, after October Tenth: he knew the signs. Neither of them would last much longer in this battle, but Kakashi had made a living on fighting to the point of exhaustion and beyond, and right now he wasn't even close to the "exhaustion" part of that process.

However, it was still an enormous relief when something green shot at the Pain's head with blurring speed. The thing leaned back, letting the blur sail over its head, but the slight pause as he regained his balance, gave Kakashi enough time to rush forward and plant his foot in its face, sending it flying backwards and destroying yet another wall.

The dull green and black blur landed, and resolved itself into Shino Aburame. The boy definitely looked worse for wear: his sleeves were shredded, exposing most of his arms, and there was a clean hole in his hood, which Kakashi instantly realized must have been created by a very near dodge involving one of the Pain's unusually sharp metal weapons.

However, his posture was strong, and even as he slid to a stop he flung his arm out, sending a swarm of ravenous insects after the Pain that pursued him over the short wall from where he'd come, making it throw itself into an effortless cartwheel that set it down by its injured companion.

And so, ten seconds after Kakashi had mentally told the Pain to hold still, dammit, he found himself standing side by side with Shino as they watched one Pain, this one with longer hair and an affixed arrogant smile, help the one Kakashi had been slowly but surely taking apart to its feet.

"Shino, you okay?" Kakashi didn't gasp, but he was getting there.

The Aburame nodded. "I am mostly unharmed. Why? My opponent fought with a style focused on getting him into physical contact with me, one that my Kikaichū were perfect for countering. However, I could not fight him effectively either: he was too agile."

"So you brought him here?"

"Well, I had hoped that with your speed, you could end him." The hooded boy glanced at him. "Perhaps I underestimated your opponent's prowess, Kakashi-sensei?"

As the two Konoha shinobi talked, the Pain's stared at them. Then, for the first time since the encounter had begun, the summoner spoke. His voice was exactly the same as the other one's, which Kakashi (who would not be ashamed to admit it) found extremely creepy.

"It's no use. The Nine-Tails has been neutralized. None of the others with you could hope to fight my Deva Path." There was supreme confidence in that voice, and not a little arrogance. Pain sounded completely sure of himself.

Kakashi stiffened. "Others?" He asked. "What others?"

The Pain's face didn't change, as usual, and neither did its voice.

"The Hyuuga." Hinata. "The Mokuton user." Yamato. "The artist." Sai. "The dog boy." Kiba. "And the medic." Sakura.

"Even now, they are engaging my Path, but none of them can stand before the power of a God. I will teach them the meaning of Pain, take the Kyuubi for my own, and soon the world itself will comprehend. Perhaps, if you go now, you could save them from themselves, though I doubt they would-"

The Pain froze, and in an eerie reminder of Itachi, the first emotion Kakashi ever saw on his opponent's apparently emotionless face was shock. He immediately guessed at what could have happened, the only thing that could have brought something like this about, and his eye slowly turned up in a smile.

"The power of a god, huh?" he said, silently chuckling as a real smile formed under the mask. He wondered who had broken the 'god's' delusions.

He had his money on Yamato. Perhaps his former rookie had crushed the other Pain under a storm of unstoppable, rapidly growing tree roots: Kakashi knew that witnessing that had put a similar look on his own face more than once. Or maybe Naruto had buried a Rasengan in the man's gut.

The Pain's eyes snapped to him, the Rinnegan filling his vision, and suddenly Kakashi felt far heavier. Shino moved to support him, and in that moment of distraction, both of the Pains turned and leapt away, headed for the forest.

Shino went to pursue them, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Don't," Kakashi said. "You couldn't take both of them, and I'm in no condition to follow. Let's get back to everyone else: we need to regroup."

Shino paused for a moment, before nodding. Kakashi smiled (again), before collapsing (again), falling onto the Aburame's shoulder.

'Maybe that took a bit more than I thought.'

Kakashi drifted into unconsciousness, his eye shuddering closed.

'I hope everyone's okay.'

Chapter Text

Refusal: Part 2

Chapter Text

Regrouping

It was unnerving, Kisame thought, the way that Itachi walked. Itachi was unnerving in many ways, though Kisame (of course) never gave away that he found that his partner was extremely unnerving in any way.

Itachi was a man who approached every situation with the same kind of ruthless pacifism: he and Kisame had crossed whole countries relying on his genjutsu to make them seem like nothing more than fickle ghosts or half-imagined daydreams to any that they had crossed. Unless a fight was absolutely necessary, Itachi had steered away from it, and more than once he had kept Kisame from simply taking the easy option.

For Kisame, violence was always the easy option. He couldn't understand Itachi's casual distance from obstacles. Every lesson he'd suffered in life had taught him that killing people was always the simplest solution.

But when it became necessary, Itachi was the most vicious ninja that Kisame had ever had the pleasure of working with. And as a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kirigakure, he had had the dubious honor of working with some of the most psychotic, sadistic, brutal murderers that the ninja world could produce. Within that group, Kisame had been the best: more sadistic, more brutal, and more unpredictable. It was why he was the only one of his generation still alive.

And yet, Itachi made all of his former comrades seem like pathetic children, emulating what they had read in storybooks.

The Uchiha had ice running through his veins. He didn't fight men: he killed them. Kisame, better than anyone, knew the distinction. Itachi did not give his enemies the honor of single combat, or the thrill of knowing his name before they died.

He simply attacked. One look in his eyes, and the 'fight', as it was, ended. His opponents died before they even realized it had begun. The only epilogue was a slit throat or cremation.

Kisame had only seen this method fail twice in his time with Itachi. Once had been when they were in Kumo, the Land of Lightning. In the midst of gathering information on the Jinchūriki of the Hachibi, a squad of patrolling ninja had stumbled them upon.

The battle had been short, and Kisame would probably not have remembered it but for one detail: as he had struck a man down with Samehada, the blade chewing on the fool's shoulder as it bore him to the ground, he had looked up and seen Itachi face off with a rather tiny kunoichi. They danced around each other for several moments, before the Kumo-nin had lunged, attempting to skewer Itachi on her katana.

Itachi had simply pointed at her, a simple movement of just two fingers, and she'd frozen, trembling. He'd stepped forward, a kunai palmed, reaching for her throat, and the woman had abruptly unfrozen and swung wildly for his head.

Itachi had ducked, but the backswing had taken him in the shoulder… and he'd exploded into a flock of crows. The next moment, the Kumo-nin's blade was in Itachi's hand.

As well as buried in her back.

The second time had been in Konoha, not long after. The incident had been eerily similar: a squad of pissed off ninja encountered mid-recon, and a woman who had taken it upon herself to go up against Itachi alone: with genjutsu, of all things.

Moronic. He'd turned her illusions back upon her, and gone for the killing blow.

But unlike the Kumo-nin, she had ducked the fatal strike, evading death by inches. She'd survived the rest of the battle as well, though perhaps only because he and Itachi had left due to the lack of any Jinchūriki in the village.

Distantly, Kisame wondered what had happened to the woman with the striking red eyes. She had been good enough to survive Itachi: he doubted that she'd come up against a more deadly foe since him.

At any rate, Itachi was frequently unnerving. But at the moment, he was being far more so than he had ever been so before. Despite the fact that he had no eyes (that he had dug them out himself), he was navigating the forest as if he'd been born there. Kisame's assistance was apparently unnecessary.

Perhaps he had some sort of jutsu that mapped the area around him? That sounded like something Itachi would do: the man was usually prepared for nearly every contingency. Kisame wouldn't ask. That would be betraying ignorance, and therefore weakness.

Even after all his time with Itachi, he had never been comfortable with revealing anything like that to the man. Perhaps ironically, the Uchiha had always reminded him of a shark, who would fall upon the wounded or lesser as soon as he smelled their handicap, despite his behavior to the contrary. However, they couldn't just keep traveling in silence. Even Kisame couldn't handle that kind of tension. So he fell back on the only thing that he felt comfortable with in situations like this.

Humor. Or at least, what passed for humor from people who'd grown up in the Bloody Mist. In that, though Kisame didn't know it, in that he and Suigetsu were very much alike.

"So, Itachi," he said. Though he knew the Uchiha couldn't see him, he smiled anyway, a wide grin that revealed far too many inhuman teeth. He was sure that the eyeless man knew exactly what he looked like anyway. "Was it really necessary to be so… dramatic?"

Itachi just shrugged. Kisame took that as unspoken permission to continue. The Uchiha was like that; a conversation with him was always just as much small gestures and facial tics as words. Once, long ago, when Kisame had been attempting to figure his partner out, he'd theorized it was because the Uchiha had grown up talking to people with the Sharingan: dramatic facial expressions weren't needed when dealing with such powerful eyes.

Or maybe Itachi was just perpetually cold. Kisame couldn't exactly rule that possibility out.

"I mean, you just pulled them out, right in front of them. And at the end, 'You'll have to take them.'" He grinned. "Just so calm. Loved it, really. Probably traumatized the pink one, though. She was looking a little squeamish. I thought she might faint!" Kisame loudly snorted. "Some medic ninja."

Itachi's silence continued. Kisame didn't really care.

"I have to ask: where'd you come up with that? I mean, earlier, when you were fighting Sasuke, were you thinking to yourself, 'How can I terrify my little brother's teammates? I know! I'll rip my eyes out in front of them! It's flawless!'" Kisame shook his head. "This is why I like traveling with you, Itachi. Always so entertaining," he said.

"Actually-" Itachi said. Kisame stopped. It was rare that the Uchiha actually reciprocated in this kind of game. "I didn't come up with it. My cousin did."

"Huh?" Kisame didn't see where this was going.

"Weeks before I killed my family, I found my cousin on the outskirts of the village. Or rather, he found me. His name was Shisui Uchiha, and he was one of the few in our clan's history who had unlocked the Mangekyō. His father was one of the rare men in the village that was truly respected by the Nidaime Hokage."

Itachi sounded almost wistful. "He was assassinated near the end of the Third War. An assassination that Shisui, despite his best efforts, failed to stop."

Itachi paused, before shaking his head, dispelling old memories. "He was frantic, and for good reason. His right eye was gone: stolen, he said. The Uchiha had been planning a coup for several months, one that would decapitate the leaders of the village and install us as its head. When he had failed to convince his own family to stop backing the coup, Shisui went to the man who would be the one to put it down: Danzō Shimura, a man with a private army of broken killers at his beck and call."

Itachi didn't turn to face Kisame: he just kept walking through the forest, his stride as steady as his voice. As Itachi spoke, Kisame just became more and more silent. He had never heard anything like this before.

"When negotiations there failed as well, Shisui became desperate. He planned to use his trump card. The Kotoamatsukami: one of the most powerful genjutsu in existence, overpowering even my own Tsukuyomi." Itachi paused, and Kisame wondered why he was revealing this now. The idea of a genjutsu more potent than the Tsukuyomi was frankly terrifying.

"He intended to use it on my father. To convince him that it was not necessary for the coup to go forward. It was likely he would have failed, but he never got the chance. Danzō did not believe that peace with the Uchiha was possible. And so, Shisui was ambushed. Danzō, and several of his lackeys, attacked him in the dead of night."

Itachi smiled for a moment. It chilled Kisame to the core. "Shisui singlehandedly killed seven ROOT ninja that night. But in return, Danzō took Shisui's right eye. Shisui fled, and found me. He knew that Danzō's men would be after him. And as he told me, he would not allow both his eyes to fall into that man's hands. So, he gave the other one to me."

There was a lull as Itachi maneuvered under a low-hanging tree branch, during which Kisame began to feel something that wasn't quite sympathy for his partner. He didn't know if he even could feel that anymore, but he was intimately familiar with the slow realization of betrayal, and this story reeked of it.

"Just as I did back there, he pulled it from its socket and handed it to me, without flinching. A true Uchiha: one that I had to drown not five minutes later. That was the day I received my Mangekyō Sharingan, thanks to Shisui Uchiha. Since then, I have always hoped that I could repay him, in any way, for what he had done for me."

Itachi turned around, his empty sockets becoming apparent to Kisame. "The least I could do, I think, was experience what he did. It's a small thing, but every step counts when scaling such an obstacle."

"Uh…" Kisame really didn't know how to respond to that. "So, a memento then?"

Itachi shrugged, seemingly completely without care. "I suppose you could call it that." He said. "Though it also served as a rather effective message."

Kisame had regained some of his confidence. "Oh? And what message was that?"

Kisame could tell that, even without his eyes, Itachi was giving him an incredibly dry look. "Really, Kisame? I know you aren't as stupid as you act. Tell me: how do you think Konoha ninja, who for the past decade have heard little of me but horror stories of effortlessly decimated high-level ninja and entire clans slaughtered silently in the dead of the night, will react to tales of me removing my own eyes without hesitation? And to the fact that I have replacements, which might even be more powerful then my own?"

Kisame stood still, gazing at his partner. His smile, which had steadily slid away as he listened to the tale of Shisui Uchiha, spread back across his face. He began chuckling, a laugh that started out low and darkly amused and quickly escalated to near hysterics.

"Itachi, you're going to make someone shit themselves back in your village, you know that?" he said, trying not to double over with the force of his laughter.

All Itachi gave away was a wry smile that merely turned up a single corner of his mouth, but from him that spoke volumes. "I don't doubt it," he said, before turning and continuing on his way into the forest.

Kisame followed, still chuckling, wiping at one of his eyes. "Ripped his own eyes out!" he said in a mock falsetto. "They'll talk about you for years! They'll probably think you're crazy! Well-" he corrected, smiling even wider, "crazier than you already are."

"Do you really think that, Kisame?" Itachi asked, and there was something subtly different in his voice. Something hard. Kisame didn't backtrack, but, recognizing the new angle of the conversation, sharpened his concentration.

He snorted. "Of course you are, Itachi. You just ripped your own eyes out, and then gave them to your brother, a kid who hates your guts and would like nothing more than to see you dead. Not to mention, you just fought off 'Lord Pain.' So now you've got a homicidal sibling and a pissed off god to worry about. I'm pretty sure they're going to have to redefine 'crazy' when it comes to you."

Itachi sighed, stepping over a fallen log. How was he doing that? "If that's the case, why are you still with me then, Kisame? Shouldn't you be heading back to Amegakure? Back to Madara?"

Kisame remained silent. They'd had this conversation before. Itachi continued. "He has what you want, after all."

"I want no part in that," Kisame said. His smile was gone once more. He wasn't angry; merely pensive. "A world of truth… heh." He shook his head slowly, a sad look in his beady eyes. "It's a nice thought, but it's impossible."

"Only impossible if you don't accept it," Itachi said. "You could be happy, Kisame. I would understand if you left me now. I wouldn't mind. I can make it to Tanzaku Gai on my own. I'm sure I could find someone there to take pity on a young blind man until Karin arrives."

There was that wry smile again. Itachi had shown more emotion in the last two days than Kisame had seen him express in all their years together. Instead of making him seem more approachable, it had just made him more unnerving; it was out of character for the stoic Uchiha.

And when ninja began to act out of character, bad things were usually about to happen.

"You could even kill me now, and bring me to him. I'm sure that would make him happy," Itachi said.

The ex-Kiri ninja snorted. "I didn't come this far to just leave you now; or to kill you."

Quietly, Kisame wondered if he even could kill Itachi, even crippled as he was now. He didn't doubt the Uchiha had made preparations. Though what those could possibly be, he couldn't say. "And as for being happy…" Kisame trailed off. He really didn't know what to say to that.

What made him happy? Fighting excited him; killing enthralled him. The thrill of the hunt, that final sense of pursuit; the scent of blood, filled with panic and anger; the sound of gasps and screams. Could he spend the rest of his life like that, though? Moving from battle to battle? Could that even be called living?

Kisame didn't know. He'd fought all his life, and he suspected he'd fight for the rest of it, no matter how long or short that life turned out to be. He didn't know anything else but survival and combat.

"…I don't know," he finally said. "But that's not something I have to worry about now. Now, all I have to worry about is you being healthy enough to go through with your crazy, nebulous, suicidal plan."

Itachi nodded his head, a silent response, and continued into the forest. Kisame lagged slightly behind, lost in thought.

'Itachi… my life may have been a lie, but the Uchiha have always given me purpose. First Madara, and now you. I wonder: it that my life? To serve the Uchiha clan, is that the point of my existence?'

…

'I don't know. I'm not sure I want to, either. But I do know this. I won't betray you, Itachi. You're different: you are not like my comrades in the past. You're forging your own path, and I'd like to see where it leads. I may have been known as Kirigakure's "Monster of the Mist"… but it seems I'm not so terrible after all.'

'I'll follow you, Itachi. Until the end.'

###

"So let me get this straight."

"Okay."

"Right. So, Pain hit you with his jutsu, which basically broke every bone in your body."

"Right."

"Then the Kyuubi healed you, but instead of taking over your mind it just yelled at you to get up and fight. Which you did. Without its help."

"Yep."

"And then, because of the strain put on your body by the fox healing you, not to mention everything you'd gone through before that, Pain managed to defeat you despite the fact that he couldn't use one of his arms, or his jutsu."

"Well, uh, when you put it like that-"

"But Hinata showed up, and managed to nearly defeat Pain by herself, taking heavy damage, before another body showed up and took her down as well."

"Yeah! It was-!"

"And then, Itachi showed up, fought him to a standstill, forced him to retreat, didn't try to kidnap you, and collapsed. After which both you and Hinata passed out."

"Uh-huh. But I totally didn't mean to-"

"Then when you woke up, everyone was back here, and Itachi was awake. And then, Kisame Hoshigaki showed up, who also didn't try to kidnap you, before leaving just as quickly and coming back with Sasuke."

"Yeah. And then-"

"Itachi placed a genjutsu on him, compelling Orochimaru, who had survived inside Sasuke's body, to burst out, after which Itachi killed him, leaving Sasuke unharmed and free of Orochimaru's influence."

"Which was freaking-"

"And then, finally, before leaving, Itachi dug out his own eyes, handed them to Sakura, and left with Kisame?"

"Pretty much. He told her that Sasuke would know what to do."

"…"

Kakashi didn't know if this was just the best day of his life, or just the strangest. Best, because he, his team, and several other Konoha ninja had gone up against the leader of Akatsuki, and not a single one of them had died.

Everyone (except for Naruto, of course) had at least one or two broken bones. Hinata wouldn't be able to move without assistance, as would Shino. Sakura, Sai, and Yamato would probably have chakra exhaustion for a couple days, and as for himself, he just wanted to sleep for a week.

But they were all alive.

It was a miracle, and not a minor one either. If Pain really was a god, there was an equally powerful one watching over them. So, any way he looked at it, today had been a really, really good day. But on the other hand-

"Oh, and I barfed up a crow," Naruto said, his face twisting in disgust.

Kakashi closed his eye. He almost didn't want to know. Eventually, a slow, wary "What?" emerged from his mouth, like a timid animal checking outside its den.

"Yeah. It was pretty nasty. Weird thing, though: it had a Sharingan. Itachi said it was a Katoatsumayumi or something like that. He said he might need it."

"Kotoamatsukami, Naruto. He called it the Kotoamatsukami," Sakura chided, running her hands over Hinata's side. The Hyuuga had suffered not-insignificant internal damage in her fight with Pain, and she winced with every pass. Slowly though, the pain was becoming dull.

Naruto snapped his fingers. "Right! That's it! Good memory, Sakura! I wonder what it does…" he murmured, looking off in the direction Itachi and Kisame had been.

The dust cloud was slowly settling, but visibility was still exceptionally poor: none of the Konoha ninja could see more than two hundred feet except for Hinata, but she was too low on chakra to regularly use her Byakugan.

"Something bad, if Itachi wanted it," Sakura replied, refocusing on Hinata. After the fight, the dark-haired girl had quieted down: apparently, she was done being extroverted for the moment. Now, she seemed content with stealing glances at Naruto as he scanned the dust cloud.

Sakura sighed. Apparently, despite what the events of the day, some things hadn't changed. It was kind of gratifying, actually. The idea of a Hinata that was bold was unnerving.

"Hey, come on Sakura, that's not fair. He saved Hinata and me. Without him, we'd be…" Naruto trailed off, then shrugged. "Well, it wouldn't be good."

"Yeah. He saved you, Naruto." Sakura said, finally finishing with Hinata, who gave a soft "Thank you" as she got back to her feet and wandered over to Kiba, who was wincing every time he took a breath. "And he also killed his entire family. And took Sasuke's eyes."

"Yeah. But then he gave us his! I mean, that's got to mean something! He said to ask Sasuke when he woke up. Maybe we should…" Naruto turned to the Uchiha, who was still lying on the ground, completely unconscious.

His breathing was even, but the dried blood on his face made him seem more damaged than he was.

"No." Kakashi interrupted, breaking from staring at the ground and trying to figure out the bizarre events of the day. He'd worry about them later. "We're not waking him up till we're back in the village. Sakura, he needs time to rest, right?"

Sakura nodded, biting her lip. "Right. And anyway," Kakashi glanced at the insensible Uchiha, "I don't want to give him another chance to run for it. Even without eyes, it would be trouble to catch him."

"Oh come on Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke wouldn't-" Naruto tried to interrupt, but Kakashi turned and stared at him, and Naruto suddenly realized that Sasuke would. He'd run before, and besides his new handicap there wasn't much keeping him from running again: particularly after his brother had beaten him so soundly.

Perhaps it actually would be better to just keep him out of the way until they were in Konoha.

"Well then, why did Itachi save us?" he said, moving back to what Sakura had said. The last hour had severely changed his beliefs about Itachi Uchiha. He didn't know what to think of the cold man now, who apparently sought world peace; and who believed that Naruto was one who could bring it about.

Who, nevertheless, had burned a man to death without hesitation, and stolen his younger brother's eyes.

Sakura shrugged, a motion that betrayed her exhaustion. "Who knows?" she said. "Maybe he just wanted you to owe him. Or maybe even he doesn't want that man's insane plan carried out." She shivered. "Honestly, how can he believe that? How would killing so many people possibly bring peace?"

Kiba spoke up, no longer wincing with every breath: Hinata had at least enough chakra to help him with that. "The guy's name was Pain, Sakura. I doubt he's especially reasonable. I mean, he was some sort of crazy body-jumping maniac. His eyes were purple. What more do you want?"

"That coming from someone whose sensei has red eyes. Come on, Kiba, odd eye colors don't necessarily mean insanity," Sakura said.

Kiba waved her off. "Kurenai-sensei doesn't count. She's a girl."

Sakura froze, slowly turning to look at Kiba, who had suddenly gone just as still, his instincts screaming at him that he had just wandered into extremely dangerous territory.

"And what does that mean?" she said, sounding unreasonably calm.

Kiba twitched, one of his eyes developing a sudden tic. "Uh, well… 'cause all girls are already-"

Sakura still had a sprained ankle, several ribs that were only mostly healed, and the rest of her body was covered in bruises and scrapes. Nevertheless, less than a second later Kiba was laid out on the ground, a vivid red handprint extremely visible on his face, and Sakura was standing over him, shaking one of her hands out.

Akamaru whined, but didn't do anything to defend his partner.

"…Anyway," Kakashi said, seemingly ignoring his student's bout of probably-justified violence, "we should get out of here. Now. We don't know where Sasuke's team is, and they could have avoided the fight entirely. If they come here fresh, we might be in trouble."

Naruto nodded, and walked over to Sasuke as the rest of the team made their way to their feet (including the still-stunned Kiba, who was helped up by Shino). Naruto bent down and slung the Uchiha over his shoulder, unknowingly imitating how Itachi had carried his little brother away from the recently destroyed Uchiha bunker.

He turned back to the group, an enormous smile on his face, and gave a thumb up. Might Gai would have been envious of the enthusiasm in the motion.

"Alright then!" the Uzumaki said, the light of the setting sun behind him throwing his bright hair into sharp contrast.

"Let's go!"

"Not so fast."

There was a rumbling voice, and the entire group turned to find a tall man with bright orange hair striding towards them. Kakashi recognized him as one of the members of Sasuke's new team: he hadn't caught his name before the fighting had started, however. The settling dust had concealed his approach, and now he was only thirty feet away from the Konoha ninja.

Kakashi took stock of his own injuries. Chakra exhaustion. Shallow shoulder wound. Sprained wrist. Without Sakura, it would have been far worse. At any rate, he'd fought in conditions far more painful before; the rest of the group, probably not.

Yamato was out as well. His Mokuton wouldn't be of any help here: he was way too low on chakra. So was Sai, for that matter, even if the pale boy wasn't occupied carrying the body of the seemingly deceased Pain. If this man was here to reclaim Sasuke, then-

"I'm here for Sasuke," the man said.

Ah. That was that then.

"Like hell we'll let you take him!" Naruto yelled, swinging around even with Sasuke on his shoulder, causing the Uchiha's head to sway. "We didn't come this far just to let someone-"

"I'm not here to take him," the man said, his voice quiet.

"Huh?" Naruto quieted down as well, just watching the man with wary eyes.

The man shook his head, a gentle movement, and as he spoke he drew closer to Naruto, eventually coming to within several feet of him. "I'm not here to take Sasuke. I'm just here for him. It would be dangerous for me not to be."

"Dangerous?" That was Sakura again: she'd always been naturally curious. "Why?"

"Two reasons: one, if I'm not, I might just kill all my teammates." The man spoke without emotion, and Sakura drew back a little. Why did her questions always get such dangerous answers?

The orange-haired man continued, used to such reactions. "Two," and here his mouth turned up in a humorless grin, "if I don't go with Sasuke than Itachi Uchiha will kill me, my teammates, and then his brother. So it seems like the best thing to do."

Kakashi stared at the man, measuring him. His Sharingan may have been covered, but he was still a veteran jōnin: reading body language was second nature to him. And everything about this man screamed sincerity.

"Well, uh…" Kakashi said. The man understood his intent, and responded.

"Juugo," he said.

Now Kakashi had a name to go with the face. "Well Juugo, what do you mean by that?"

"The first or second part?" Juugo responded, a rather deadpan expression on his face.

"Both, preferably." Kakashi was just as deadpan.

"Well, the first reason is because I have a curse, you see. It causes me to go crazy and kill everyone around me." The tall man said, sounding far too reasonable for what he was saying. "Sasuke is the only one who can keep me calm. Something about his chakra stabilizes me."

Kakashi smiled. "Well, that's good. We wouldn't want any insane rampages on the way back to Konoha, would we?" He sounded totally carefree. All of the other Leaf shinobi paled: not even Naruto and Sakura could tell if their sensei was being serious or not.

"The second reason," Juugo continued, "is because about ten minutes ago, Itachi Uchiha saved the life of one of my comrades and then told her that she would meet him somewhere in three days time, that she would bring my other comrade with her, and that I would go to Sasuke and travel back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves with him. And that if we didn't do this, he would kill all of us, slowly, painfully, and repeatedly, and then he would do the same to Sasuke."

He paused, looking thoughtful. "He probably could have just said that: Karin cares even more about Sasuke than I do."

"You weren't there when she met with him?" Kakashi asked.

"No. I was unconscious. Whatever that jutsu that destroyed the town was, I barely managed to survive it. Karin told me when I woke up. Then she healed me and sent me here. It's my job to make sure Sasuke is safe, and that he makes it back to Konoha." The big man shrugged. "Beyond that, I honestly don't care what you guys do. I just think it's best for me to be around Sasuke."

"…Huh. Where was Itachi going to meet her?" Kakashi was fishing for information. Knowledge of Itachi Uchiha's whereabouts in a couple days time would be extremely valuable.

"She didn't know, except she did. I don't know how: Itachi did something to her with his eyes, apparently. She just knew that she had to meet him somewhere, and that I had to get back to Sasuke. So I did; now I'm here."

Kakashi just stared at Juugo, his mind whirling. He couldn't decide if this was a trap or if Sasuke truly had a teammate that cared enough for him to simply follow him back to the village. Juugo saw his stare. "I understand if you don't trust me. In fact, I expected it. Nevertheless-"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto spoke up once more, his voice filled with just as much sincerity as Juugo's. "You say that you're Sasuke's friend, and that's good enough for me! Any friend of Sasuke's is a friend of mine!"

Juugo looked at the blond, a confused look on his face. "What about Orochimaru?"

Naruto just waved him off, a careless look on his face. "That doesn't count. Sasuke killed him. Well, kinda. Anyway, he wouldn't do that to a friend." He said.

Deep inside Naruto, something cracked, but he ruthlessly suppressed it, crushing the dissenting voice that was yelling, 'Yes he would, he tried three years ago,' underfoot like an eggshell.

"So!" he said, a bright smile on his face concealing the turmoil inside him. "Want to carry him? The bastard's gotten pretty heavy!" He handed the Uchiha off to Juugo, who took the body as if he were handling something made of porcelain. Seeing such a large man act so delicately made Naruto want to laugh, but he held it in: he liked Juugo, even though he'd only met him three minutes ago. There was just something about him.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't call him that," Juugo said, his voice a little quieter.

Naruto's smile dimmed a little, but he maintained most of his enthusiasm. "Yeah. Okay." He turned back to Kakashi, who was watching Juugo with a look that very clearly stated that he was officially being watched. Not out of overt suspicion: that was just how ninja operated.

You didn't let an unfamiliar face into your group right away, particularly when that face had probably been experimented on by Orochimaru and apparently occasionally flew into killing rages.

Naruto saw the look in his sensei's visible eye, but ignored it.

"So!" he said again.

"Can we go now?"

###

"Karin?"

"Yes?"

"Why the hell are we walking away from where Sasuke is?"

Karin sighed. "Do we really have to have this conversation again, Suigetsu?" She was striding south, into the forest. Suigetsu was held in her palms, a couple pounds or so of extremely dense water that had taken on the appearance of the belligerent teen's face.

As they walked, a steady stream of water collected around them, trailing after Karin's heels. It was like a mobile river.

"Maybe," Suigetsu said, his voice burbling. "I just don't get why we're cutting and running like this. I doubt those Leaf ninja are in better shape than us. They're gonna take Sasuke back to Konohagakure, remember? You really want that to happen? We should head back and-"

"Of course I don't!" Karin snapped, and Suigetsu shut up for the moment. "But we don't really have a choice, do we? Do you want to be killed by Itachi Uchiha? Do you want him to kill Sasuke?"

"You know I don't," the head burbled. "I don't think anyone's stupid enough to want that. But I think he might be bluffing about that. Why else would he need you? He must have been more hurt than he looked."

Karin paused. Suigetsu might have been right. Itachi Uchiha, from what little she knew of him, was a master of composure: he could have easily been hiding a debilitating injury. However…

"No, I don't think that's it." She said, staring off into the distance, thinking hard about Sasuke's older brother. "It's not just him being hurt. If that were the case, he wouldn't need someone like me. I think…"

She paused, trying to pull her thoughts together. "I think it has something to do with Sasuke's eyes."

"Huh?" Suigetsu said intelligently.

"I've been thinking about it. You saw Itachi's eyes, right?" Karin asked.

If Suigetsu had been more than a head, he would have shivered. He'd seen Itachi's eyes, all right. They'd been like chunks of ice stuck in the man's head, obsidian flint that stared and judged, that sucked in all light and reflected nothing. In other words, they'd been fucking creepy.

But they'd also been greying in some spots, milky in others, and there had been some significant cataracts along the edges. They had been the eyes of an old man, not a twenty-something year old.

"Yeah. I saw them. They looked a little… strange. Old," Suigetsu said, trying to respond respectfully. He wasn't sure he'd be able to pull himself together again if Karin punched his puddle apart at the moment.

"I was thinking the same thing." Fortunately, the redhead was apparently lost in thought: she probably wouldn't hit him right now. Karin rubbed at the recent bite-mark on her shoulder, which was still dribbling a bit of bright blood. "There was something wrong with them. They seemed damaged."

"So?" Suigetsu was getting impatient. And uncomfortable: spending so long as a puddle got disconcerting after a while. A lack of defined sensation, of shape, became freaky no matter how many times it happened.

"So, he took Sasuke's eyes. That's not something he would do unless he had a reason. If he just wanted to be cruel, he could have just removed some limbs," Karin said, her face twisting in distaste at the thought of Sasuke losing limbs to his older brother.

"He was pretty prideful about his eyes," Suigetsu pointed out. "Maybe he was just trying to humiliate him. Take away what he found important." Suigetsu knew all about that. More than enough: Mangetsu had taught him everything he knew about degrading an enemy, and Mangetsu had been a master of assassination techniques.

Nothing was as degrading as being killed without having a chance to fight back.

Karin shook his head. "No, that's not it. He had the eyes preserved, in that jar. He would have just destroyed them if he wanted to hurt Sasuke. I think-" she paused. "I think that Itachi is going to replace his eyes. With Sasuke's."

"What?!"

"Well… they're brothers, so genetically, they're probably compatible. They both have pretty powerful Sharingan, as well: I know for a fact that Sasuke was starting to become just as proficient as Itachi when it came to doujutsu. It was all Orochimaru would talk about whenever he visited. So it stands to reason… that Itachi took his brother' eyes so he could use them."

As she spoke, Karin began to look more and more disturbed: she hadn't considered the full meaning of her words until she'd said them out loud.

Suigetsu just stared up her from her hands, his features vanishing as the water swirled of its own violation. The swishing made a sound that sounded a lot like a sentence.

"That's fucked up. You're fucked up for thinking it up. And Itachi…" he paused as Karin looked down at him with growing anger. "Itachi is just fucked up enough for that to really be his plan. Goddamn. If I knew all Uchiha were so bent, I probably would have-"

"Just shut up!" Karin yelled, and tossed the water to the ground in front of her, where it quickly rejoined the mass of chakra imbued liquid that had been following her. As she did, it made a sound that sounded infuriatingly like a raspberry.

Karin growled and kicked at the water as it reformed, but it was pointless: within five seconds, Suigetsu stood there, looking as if he'd never been scattered over a mile or so of dusty wasteland.

He cracked his back, which she knew to be an imitation meant to annoy her and nothing more: the Hozuki didn't actually have a spinal cord, after all.

"Ah," he said, sounding satisfied. "That's so much better. Thanks, Karin," he said with a smile full of sharp teeth. "Now, where did it land…" he muttered, turning around and wandering north. Karin huffed and followed him.

"Where did what land?" she asked, still irritated.

"My sword!" Suigetsu said, a whine in his voice. "I lost it when that jutsu hit me. I know it's somewhere around here: there's still a bit of me attached to it."

"It's just a stupid sword, Suigetsu. Come on. We have to get going," Karin said, turning back towards the forest.

Suigetsu turned around. His expression was uncharacteristically flat. Karin stride faltered, and she stared at him.

"We're getting my sword," he said, and then kept moving away from the forest, northward. Karin sighed and followed him. As they walked, she planned.

They had a long trip in front of them, and Itachi was waiting at the end of it. Itachi, who still had working Sharingan eyes. Itachi, who was Sasuke's older brother, and therefore genetically compatible. Itachi, whose eyes, after a bit of fixing up, would serve just as well as substitutes for Sasuke as Sasuke's would for him.

Oh yes. Karin had a lot of planning to do.

###

Guarding the gates of Konoha could be called a lot of things.

Boring was one of them. Interminable could be another. If one wanted to use stronger language, then "fucking mind-numbing" would work quite well.

It wasn't a job for the faint of heart; there wasn't much a ninja found worse than having to sit in place, for six. Whole. Hours. It was enough to drive most men and women mad.

Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuke weren't most men. They were, in fact, two of the most accomplished and least ambitious chūnin that Konoha had seen in a long time. Which was why when they were not tagging along on A-rank missions they were, more often than not, guarding the gates of Konoha.

They had to have something to do, after all.

Guarding the gates, despite its implications, was not a very important job. No enemy ninja worth their hitai-ate would ever attempt to get into the village through such an obvious entrance. So, any ninja posted there would spend their shift watching civilian traders, genin, and other chūnin enter and exit the village; and when you've seen one team of squabbling, brightly dressed children with an exhausted sensei blow past you, you've seen them all.

So, whenever Kotetsu and Izumo did gate duty, they tended to either play cards or simply chat in-between bouts of watching the people who passed them. They often made a game out of it, guessing occupations, personal dramas, and other such intimacies.

As they were doing now.

"She's looking for her long lost brother," Izumo said, glancing at a tall woman with flowing black hair who swept past them, doing her best not to look hurried and barely succeeding. "He was a fisherman's son, and when he was young he saw a skirmish and decided then and there he would be a ninja. So his family sent him off, but now his sister's come to find him. The family needs money, and they're hoping he has some."

"Nah," Kotetsu said, leaning back and idly scratching at the bandages around his noise. "That's not it; not money problems. Look at her. That's a nice dress. I bet she was engaged to some merchant when she was young, and she's here to meet him for the first time."

Izumo turned to look at his friend. "Really?" he said. "Arranged marriage? Seriously?"

"Says mister 'Fisherman's Son'."

"It's just… why do you always say that it's an arranged marriage?" Izumo asked, shaking his head.

"I don't!" Kotetsu indignantly said. "Where'd you get that idea?"

"Oh, I don't know. It's just that every single woman that passes us is apparently here to get engaged, or they already are. What's up, Kotetsu? Marriage on the mind?" Izumo asked, idly tracking the woman as she walked deeper into the village. She really did have a nice dress, among other things.

"No!"

"Tch. Of course. Who would marry you, anyway? I'm sure you have so many prospects," Izumo laughed.

"Hey! It could happen!" Kotetsu acted hurt, but they'd had this conversation many times before: by now, the whole thing was just another routine.

"Yeah. Keep dreaming. Okay, wait: I got this one," Izumo pointed to an older man, with grey hair and broad shoulders. He was probably about fifty, but he looked quite strong for his age. "He's… he's a writer."

"A writer? What gives you that idea?" Kotetsu asked, staring at the man as he slowly made his way into the marketplace just off of the main entryway.

"Dunno. He makes me think of a writer, though. I bet he's here to see if his new book bombed or not. He's written a bunch, but he's sure this newest one is the best." Izumo sounded quite sure of himself. Kotetsu found himself nodding along with him.

"Yeah, yeah. He tries to write these epic dramas, but they always come out sounding too fancy. So with this latest one he's dumbed it down a little. He's hoping more people will like it. Then he can write what he really wants to." He said, staring intently as the man vanished into the crowd. Izumo turned to glance at him.

"Where'd that come from?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, I guess…" Kotetsu said, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know. It was just there. You know, this is the first time in a while we've agreed on someone," he said with a grin. Izumo just kept staring at him.

"Have you started your book yet?" he asked.

Kotetsu paused for a second, before relaxing and leaning back in his chair again. His hands began to brush against the bandage wraps on his face: a nervous tick he'd had since he was a genin. He didn't enjoy discussing his idea of writing a book with Izumo: it always just reminded him of how much work the process would be, and how little of that work he had done.

"Nope. But I'm gonna get around to it. Just as soon as I know what I want to write."

"You've been saying that for like a year, man. You should just write it. Get it out of your head." Izumo said, trying to sound casual.

"It's… it's not that easy." Kotetsu responded, shaking his head. "I mean, I know what I want to write, I just can't get it to-"

"Kotetsu. Come on. Trust me. The sooner you start, the better. I mean, you should probably finish it. Just in case." Izumo said, his casual facade beginning to break a little.

Kotetsu turned, his hands no longer playing with his bandages. "What do you mean, 'just in case'?" he said. Now he was the one trying to sound casual.

"Nothing," Izumo said, trying to backpedal. Kotetsu was having none of it.

"Bullshit," he flatly stated. "What do you mean, 'just in case'? What're you thinking?"

Izumo hesitated, before sighing. "It's just… it's nothing. But ever since that mission with Asuma…"

"Ah," Kotetsu said, sounding a little uncomfortable. He knew exactly what Izumo was talking about. The last mission they had been on with Asuma had ended with the jōnin's death. "What, you're scared of dying now?"

Izumo shrugged. "Not that dramatic. Just more… aware, you know?" he said, pausing with a thoughtful look. "I mean, we're still just chūnin, and, well, Asuma was Asuma. He was the Sandaime's son, he was in the Twelve Guardian Ninja; he was training the new Ino-Shika-Chō formation, too. He was a freaking badass."

Izumo shrugged again, unable to hide his discomfort. "And still, that Akatsuki guy took him out like it was nothing. And all we could was watch."

Kotetsu frowned. "That's not fair. We were fighting that other one. If-"

Izumo interrupted him with a small laugh. "You couldn't seriously call that a fight, could you? He was playing with us: if he'd wanted us dead, we'd have been dead. I think he just wanted to see if Asuma could kill his ass of a partner." He chuckled, a bitter sound. "Surprise. He couldn't."

Izumo slumped down while Kotetsu watched him. He hadn't known that his friend had felt this way at all.

"Izumo…"

"What?" The other chūnin turned his head slightly towards his friend.

"You're being an idiot."

Of all the things Kotetsu could have said, that was probably the last thing Izumo had expected.

"Huh?" Well, that sounded intelligent.

"Come on. Be serious. We're shinobi, man. It's not really a job you go into expecting to live forever." Kotetsu looked almost angry now.

"Wait-"

"So Asuma bit it. Yeah, it's sad. But you know what? His students didn't sit around afterwards angsting about how their sensei was dead. They went out there, a week later, and they killed the bastard who'd done it. Hell, I heard the Nara did it by himself. That's being a shinobi. Not-" he swept his arm towards Izumo, "starting to think you should have your affairs in order because maybe the next mission will be your last. I mean, that's barely living. Besides…"

And now he smiled, "You really think you're gonna die with me there? Hell no! So long as we stick together, that'll never happen."

Izumo just stared at his oldest friend. "Kotetsu…" he said.

"Yeah?"

"You really don't want to write that book, huh? You should put that in there: it was pretty good, for a dumbass," Izumo said with a small smile.

Now, Kotetsu was the one chuckling. "Pfft. Like anyone would read that. No way. Plus, wouldn't that be making myself the main character? Can't have that," he laughed.

Izumo put his hand to his chin, acting as if he were thinking deeply. "Yeah, you're right," he said, seemingly coming to a conclusion. "No way would you be the main character. A supporting guy, maybe. You'd pop up every once in a while and do something stupid. Every good story needs a couple of them."

"Hey!" Kotetsu said cheerfully, the gravity of their previous conversation completely forgotten. "If that's me, then you'd be my sidekick. You'd be way too serious all the time: that'd be your routine. You would always follow me around and nag me."

"What! Why do I have to be the nagger?"

"Admit it. You'd be perfect for the part."

"I don't nag!"

"Yeah? What about that escort mission a week ago, with the old VIP? You were always like-"

Whatever Izumo had been like on that mission a week ago never left Kotetsu's mouth. At that moment, there was a puff of smoke, a whoosh of displaced air, and a small green toad appeared on the road in front of the gate. It sat there for a moment, before croaking loudly. Then, it opened its mouth wide.

Kotetsu and Izumo stared.

A hand, scuffed and bleeding, shot from the mouth and grabbed the ground, digging into the dirt with an iron grip. A soaked, bedraggled body followed, pulling itself out of the toad's mouth in a lunging movement. It wore a light beige uniform with an underlying mesh, with a torn red vest hung over the rest of the outfit. When the man was entirely out of the toad's mouth, he flopped to the ground, gasping, facing up towards the sky.

His left arm abruptly ended about half a foot above where the elbow would have been, blood slowly seeping from the ragged amputation. His body was covered in small puncture wounds, scrapes, and bits of torn cloth, and his remaining arm looked like it had been severely burned.

The man let out a relieved breath, a long, low sound, and turned his head to look at Kotetsu, who gazed back, eyes wide over his bandages.

'No way.'

"Hey," Jiraiya of the Sannin said. He smiled, an enormous, shit-eating grin that made his face seem twice as wide, and blood dribbled from between his teeth.

"Could you go tell the Hokage I've returned from my recon?"

Chapter Text

Interlude One

The forest is a quiet place. It is a kind of expectant silence: the silence that lies in wait, hidden in a dark corner. The silence that others stumble upon. A silence that denotes significance. A significance that is always realized too late.

So while the brook babbles and birds chirp and the leaves of the trees whisper to each other in the wind, there is nevertheless a silence. The silence, however, soon begins to retreat.

It starts with simple sounds. Grass, being crushed underfoot. The muted squeak of sandals gripping to moss. The slow, nearly silent pattern of breathing. A boy, dressed in a loose fitting blue kimono, into which is tucked a strange flute-like instrument, steps onto the low bank around the brook.

He stands there for a moment, taking in the stream. A single bright brown eye scans across the trees, flitting from one to another. His long, shaggy hair hides the other. It is just as brown. He looks rather bored.

One of his hands involuntarily twitches as he finally finds what he is looking for. A kunai, stuck fast in the bark of a tree, with four lines on its side.

"There it is," he mutters to himself. He reaches down, and pulls the instrument from his kimono. Bringing it up, he presses his lips to it and blows.

A bubble, ephemeral and quivering, emerges from the other end. It floats into the air, bobbing in front of the boy. He bends forward, his lips inches from it.

He whispers, his voice soft. "Hotaru. Come meet me."

The bubble floats up into the sky, away from the oppressive silence. The boy in the blue kimono watches it go for a second, an unsure look on his face, before looking back at the kunai. He sighs, and leaps from his side of the brook to the other. Landing smoothly, he ambles forward. He reaches the tree, and grasps the kunai in one hand.

He yanks it free.

For a moment, the silence grows more oppressive than ever… and then it vanishes entirely.

At the same time, there is both a puff of smoke, a splash, and five men appear around the boy in the same moment. One forms from beads of mist caught in the grass. Another showers from the tree above. One strides out of the river, as if he'd been there all along. Yet another steps out of the tree, where the kunai had been planted, melting away from the wood.

The last is simply there, when he hadn't been before. The boy's visible eye widens slightly. The man has moved so fast that he barely noticed his arrival.

The three men who have formed of water are all wearing masks, along with the one who had stepped out of the tree. All of their masks are uniformly white, with four lines on the forehead, but each has a unique marking. One has a green curve under each eye slit. Coloring cut another diagonally: half white, and half yellow. The third has particularly slanted eyes, and red, wave-like decoration along the bottom. The fourth is simple: merely two slashes of dark blue, moving from the temple past the eyes.

The last man, the one who has appeared without warning, wears no mask. He looks to be in his late thirties, and has a craggy face, dark eyes, and a neatly trimmed goatee. A straight scar runs across his left eye, from underneath his hitai-ate, nearly to his mouth.

He speaks, his voice hard, but not demanding. "Utakata," he says. The men in masks stand completely still, tensing.

The boy in the blue kimono, Utakata, nods. "Tsuguri," he says, and he somehow makes the sharp name rolling and blunt.

"Are you ready to come with us? Back to Kirigakure?"

"In a moment," Utakata says, his features once more set in a bored expression.

Tsuguri, the man without a mask, the leader of the group of hunter-nin, raises an eyebrow. His scar twists in a manner that Utakata finds mildly fascinating.

"A moment?" he asks.

Utakata nods. "I'm waiting for someone." His voice is flat, but there is a hint of something warm in it; appreciation, perhaps. The scarred man is silent for a moment. He doesn't stare at the boy in the blue kimono, but he doesn't take his eyes off of him either.

"Someone?"

Utakata's mouth curves up into a small smile. "My apprentice," he says.

Tsuguri makes a thoughtful noise. "That girl?"

The boy pauses for a moment, before nodding. "Yes."

"I thought you didn't want to be her master," the other ninja prods.

"I changed my mind," Utakata drawls.

"Any particular reason?"

Utakata turns away from him, looking out into the forest, and also presenting his back. It is a trusting gesture.

"Yes." He does not elaborate, and Tsuguri does not press further.

They wait in silence for a moment, before the hunter-nin speaks once more. "You aren't as angry today."

Utakata turns back to him and gives a wry smile. "You noticed?"

"It would be hard not to."

The boy in the blue kimono shrugs. "My mind wasn't the only thing that changed since our last meeting."

"So I see," the man with the goatee says. He smiles warmly. "I really am glad, you know."

"For what?" Utakata asks, puzzled.

"That you have decided to return. Your presence in the village will do much to stabilize it. You don't realize the uncertainty losing our last Jinchūriki inflicted upon the people of Kiri. At first, we feared you had been taken."

"Taken?" Utakata asks again. The way Tsuguri had said it; he made it sound more like a curse than a statement.

"Jinchūriki have been vanishing, you know. The other villages try to hide it, but there aren't many left. Only Kumo's and Konoha's are still active," Tsuguri says.

"Hmm." Utakata makes a noise that somehow manages to scream non-commitment. A moment later, the other hunter-nin stiffen, and there is a shout.

"Master!"

A girl, the same age as Utakata, with flowing blonde hair and teal eyes, bursts out of the forest. There is a bubble floating in front of her. She has been following it.

"Hotaru," Utakata sighs. "Please don't call me that."

"Oh, sorry master. I forgot. Are we going now?" She pauses, taking in the masked men surrounding the boy in the kimono. "With them?"

Utakata kneads his head with his hands, but underneath it he is smiling. "Yes, Hotaru. We're headed for the Village Hidden in the Mist. I'll be training you there."

"Great!" Tsuguri silently wonders how this girl could be so enthusiastic about traveling with men who only a couple days earlier had held her hostage.

Utakata turns to him. It is an unspoken signal. Tsuguri nods in response, and the masked men take to the trees, vanishing in a moment. Tsuguri himself turns, and begins walking north.

Utakata looks back at Hotaru, smiles, and then follows the scarred man.

Hotaru grins, lighting up the whole forest even as twilight falls upon it, and runs after him.

Chapter Text

Recovery: Part 1

Sasuke walked through the tiled halls. It was unnaturally quiet. There were no other midnight travelers, and his footsteps made no noise: it had been a long time since Sasuke had accidentally made noise while moving. Now, he needed to think about it to make sure people knew he was coming .

And today, he saw no need to. Assassins were supposed to be silent, after all.

He approached a door at the end of the long corridor. It was simple: thick and wooden, just like every other door in this place. There was no dramatic engravings, no gravity to it, to mark what lay beyond. Rasping sounded from behind the door: weary, pain filled breathes, each sounding like it could be the last.

Sasuke raised his hand, his fingertips sparking with lightning. A surge of his will, and the lightning extended, flying forward and through the door.

He heard a muffled intake of breath, and a solid sounding thump. Stepping forward, his sword flashed from its sheath at his back: the door was cut to pieces in an instant, falling to the floor of the chamber in dozens of tiny chunks of wood.

He passed under the frame, keeping his hand extended, the lightning steady. His chokuto, he kept rested on his shoulder: a sign of carefully controlled carelessness.

What he found on the other side was precisely what he had expected. Orochimaru, withered and hunched, sitting in his bed, his hands pinned to each other by the lightning that had run through them both.

The Sannin hissed, though he didn't seem surprised. "As I expected, it's come down to this." He did his best to seem like he was ignoring his hands, but there was far too much sweat running from his stringy, false-looking hair to effectively pull off the deception.

Sasuke smirked. "There's nothing more you have to teach me, Orochimaru. Now, I will show you my dedication. You will finally see how heartless I can truly be."

Orochimaru smirked back, his features trembling. "Even heartless, you will never be able to defeat Itachi as you are, Sasuke. There is still much you could learn from me."

"Wrong." Sasuke began his inexorable walk forward: the lightning pushed against Orochimaru's hands, and the man's eyes widened. Struggling, he forced the pierced extremities to the side of his body. Sasuke's shaped chakra moved forward with him, and eventually buried itself in the slatted wooden wall.

"I'm stronger than you now, Orochimaru; far stronger than you realize. At this point, I see no reason to go along with this farce any longer. You won't be getting my body. In fact, you won't be getting any other bodies. Today, I end you."

He drew closer, getting to within striking distance of the Sannin. The man stared up at him. The snake-like vertical pupils in his eyes were quivering. The lightning blade had pushed his hand back into the wall, uncomfortably twisting his torso.

"You see, Orochimaru, I'm an avenger. It is my destiny to avenge my clan; but it is not just my clan that I care to avenge. A man who roots around in the bodies of others, who discards human lives like so many broken tools, who desperately attempts to gain the province of those greater than him… a disgusting man like you has given me many, many people to avenge in my time here. And now, all those voices who cried out for justice in you prisons and pits... I will answer them!" Sasuke said, his voice growing steadily more agitated.

Sasuke bent close to Orochimaru, the man rendered helpless by his trapped hands and infirm body, and stared into the Sannin's eyes, his Sharingan whirling.

"These are your last breaths. I suggest you spend them wisely." His voice was calm again, but the Sharingan told a different story.

Orochimaru stared back, naked fear plain in his dull yellow eyes. He took a shuddering breath. But instead of speaking, he merely slowly blinked.

When the eyes opened again, they were flat and lifeless. There was no fear: just a silent, chilling menace.

And then the man spoke.

"Sasuke. You truly have failed."

Sasuke froze. That was not Orochimaru's voice. Orochimaru's voice was weak and raspy, its foundations shattered by years of brutal experiments. It had long ago surrendered humanity. This voice was strong. This voice was healthy, and utterly calm.

This voice belonged to Itachi Uchiha.

"Did you truly believe, foolish little brother, that you would triumph so easily?" Even as Sasuke watched, Orochimaru's eyes changed. The dull yellow fled, replaced by a steady, creeping red, which rapidly overtook the pupil shrank, becoming a solitary black orb.

And three tomoe, dark and unmoving, spun into existence around it.

Sasuke staggered back, the lightning blade sinking into his hand. Orochimaru, speaking in Itachi's voice and seeing with Itachi's eyes, stared at him, expressionless.

"That you could win without hate as your sole weapon?" The pale face, cracked and matted with sweat, rendered pale and semi-translucent by infirmity and illness, sloughed off. Beneath, Itachi's aristocratic features became apparent.

Sasuke's brother stepped from the shell of Sasuke's former teacher, his eyes red and disappointed.

"I told you to hate me, Sasuke. I told you to gain the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan. And you defied me. Are you truly so ignorant? Did you think I spoke lies?" Now, it was Sasuke who was retreating, and Itachi who was steadily walking towards him.

Sasuke's throat was frozen with fear. How could he be here?

'Genjutsu!'

"Kai!" he yelled in a hoarse voice, bringing his hands together. Itachi didn't slow, and the world didn't shatter away. This was no genjutsu.

"I have never told you anything but the truth, Sasuke." Itachi continued speaking.

Sasuke threw himself forward, aiming his sword for Itachi's chest, and the man effortlessly knocked it aside with the flat of his hand, before striking out in the same manner. Sasuke spun back, his cheek stinging, tasting blood in his mouth.

"I did not lie to you when I told you why I killed our parents." Sasuke pulled three kunai from a pouch on his hip and flung them at his brother.

The older Uchiha didn't look away from Sasuke's eyes: both his hands came up, catching two of the kunai by their wrapped handles completely without effort, and he tilted his head mere inches to the side to allow the third one to fly past his face, ruffling his hair.

"I did not lie to you when I told you should have worked on your aim." He flung both the kunai he had caught, making them collide in the air and sending them flashing towards Sasuke's forehead and gut.

Sasuke brought his blade up and deflected both of the kunai in a single fluid sweep, the sound of ringing steel unusually loud. There was a fraction of a fraction of a second that the sword interposed itself across his vision. In that time, Itachi vanished.

"And I did not lie to you when I said I would train you another day."

Sasuke turned, and his brother's fist filled his vision.

There was a flash of impact, and Sasuke's head rang as he fell back, blood running from his nose. He hit the ground and threw himself into a roll, gaining distance. When he came to his feet, Itachi was gone again. Sasuke spun about, his sword unsheathed and lightning crackling in his hand. He was no longer in Orochimaru's lair.

Now, he was home.

Crows, their feathers pitch black and their eyes red, roosted on every inch of furniture. The dresser, the table, the mantelpieces; the kitchen table was covered in them. As were the bodies of his parents, rotten and cold, that were seated at it. Crows perched upon them as well, digging their talons into his father's broad shoulders and his mother's dirty black hair.

"This is your training." The voice came from behind him, and Sasuke instinctively ducked. A tanto flew over his head and decapitated his father's body. The man's head hit the table with a thunk, and the crows flocked to it.

Desperately trying to ignore the sound of tearing flesh as the birds devoured his father's head, Sasuke spun about. Itachi still eluded him: he couldn't see his older brother anywhere.

"You were gifted such magnificent eyes, Sasuke." The voice came again, and with it, a fūma shuriken. Sasuke leapt to the side, crashing into the wall, and the enormous spinning star buried itself in his mother's body, tipping over the chair she was seated in and sending both crashing to the floor.

The crows clustered around it, abandoning what was left of Sasuke's father's head: Fugaku Uchiha stared at his son, his empty sockets full of accusation.

Sasuke stared back, numb.

Itachi burst from the wall behind Sasuke, his arm wrapping around the younger Uchiha's throat and yanking him back flush against the wood. Sasuke struggled, his legs kicking, but the hold was too firm. The crows abandoned his parent's bodies and took to the air, massing before him. Gradually, they began to form a familiar shape.

"Eyes that you have not earned." Itachi appeared in front of him, his form born from the crow's own. The body under the cloak rustled, but the face was all too real.

"You did not have the hate to kill your closest friend, Sasuke. And for that, you have failed." He sounded almost disappointed.

"I have more than enough hate!" Sasuke roared, lashing out at the man in front of him. He couldn't reach: his vision was going hazy, the pressure of the other Itachi's arms pressed against his neck filling his head with white noise.

"Really?" Itachi said. "If that's the case-" Itachi gestured, and Naruto Uzumaki burst through the wall behind him. The blond charged Itachi, and the Uchiha placidly turned to face him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, and pushed a Rasengan forward, burying it in Itachi's chest. The man burst into a flock of crows, and the Uzumaki was left stumbling forward, his technique still going.

It ground into Sasuke's chest, pressing him against the wall with unbelievable force and stealing away the skin of his torso, before Itachi dropped from the roof and slammed Naruto to the ground. Sasuke hacked up blood, and looked down at the moron. The blond was squirming, trying to punch, stab, kick, do anything to the man atop him, but Itachi had him securely pinned.

"Then here is your chance," Itachi finished, and the one behind Sasuke released him. He stumbled forward, lightning covering his hand once more. He stared down at Naruto who looked up at him, snarling. Itachi watched them both with glacial eyes.

"Sasuke! Come on! What are you doing? Get him off me!" Naruto yelled, his voice grating. Sasuke bent down, pressing his hand forward. "He's right there! You don't need to be stronger than him anymore! We can beat him! Together!"

"No." Sasuke mumbled, dragging his eyes back up to Itachi. "You're right, Naruto. I don't need to get stronger." The chidori flashed forward, and stabbed deep into Itachi's throat.

"I'm already more than strong enough!" Blood spilled out, covering Sasuke's hands and splashing into Naruto's hair. It was warm, and slippery. Sasuke's hand made a horrible sucking noise at he withdrew it from his brother's throat.

Itachi fell back, and Naruto rose to his feet. "Wrong again," he said.

Suddenly, it was Itachi standing before him, and Naruto on the floor, gasping and struggling, his hands pressed against the emptiness that should have been his throat. His eyes, blue and fading, locked on Sasuke's for a moment, and his whole body stilled.

Impossibly, even with his trachea vaporized, he spoke, his voice betrayal itself.

"Sa…su…ke." And then he fell back, his eyes closing, and the blood stopped pumping from his throat. Sasuke stared, his mind flooded with a feeling he couldn't possibly begin to identify.

Itachi slammed him against the wall, one arm pressed against his neck. The other one held the kunai that was stuck deep into his stomach. The wound burned. Sasuke coughed up more blood, splattering Itachi's face: the older Uchiha didn't flinch.

"Always a failure. Never quite good enough," the man said quietly, his Sharingan slowly warping, the tomoe disappearing and being replaced by horrible black sickles.

Sasuke stiffened at the sight of the hated eyes. "You couldn't stop me. You could never stop me. You couldn't save your friends. You couldn't save our family." Itachi bent in closer, sounding disgusted. "You couldn't even save yourself."

Sasuke went slack, the weight of Itachi's words crushing him. His brother continued, relentless.

"No, you don't deserve those eyes, Sasuke. Their power belongs to someone who will be able to use it, and that person is certainly not you." Itachi released the kunai, leaving it in Sasuke's stomach, and the hand came up, shaped like a claw and pressing against Sasuke's face. He could see nothing but it.

"Itachi! Wait!" Sasuke shouted. His brother ignored him.

"Now, Sasuke: give me your eyes." And the hand pressed in.

"Itachi! Brother! Stop!"

Itachi didn't stop.

"Please! Sto-!"

There was a terrible burning pain, the sound of something deep within his head ripping, and Sasuke screamed.

He didn't wake up.

###

Tsunade Senju, the Godaime Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the only female among the Densetsu no Sannin, and the Strongest Woman Alive, considered the papers in front of her. She'd been staring at it for nearly fifteen minutes, and she still couldn't wrap her head around the import of it.

It didn't help that half the people mentioned in the mission reports were now in the hospital.

Two S-rank missions in one week; one retrieval, and one recon.

The first: a multi-team effort, comprised of five of the most experienced young ninja that Konoha had to offer, two of its elite jōnin, and the Kyuubi Jinchūriki.

The second: carried out alone, deep in enemy territory, by perhaps the single deadliest man left in the Village Hidden in the Leaves after the death of the Sandaime Hokage.

Both successes, though neither had accomplished their primary objectives.

The Uchiha Retrieval mission: a failure on the surface. Itachi Uchiha had escaped to pursue the Hidden Leaf's Jinchūriki once more: except not, because according to that Jinchūriki himself, the man had had ample opportunity to capture him and had chosen not to.

Indeed, Itachi Uchiha had assisted the team chasing him in repelling the leader of Akatsuki, the very man that was the goal of the second mission.

Helping his pursuers was a confusing change of pace for an S-Rank criminal, but not necessarily an unwelcome one. And consequently, the Uchiha Retrieval mission had succeeded in a fashion after all: Sasuke Uchiha, absent from Konoha for three years, had finally been returned to it.

Battered and hypnotized into unconsciousness, and missing his eyes, but returned nonetheless.

The second mission had come far closer to being a complete failure. Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboko, had barely returned from Amegakure, the village that had been the subject of his reconnaissance. Tsunade still didn't know what had happened there.

Only that Jiraiya had come back covered in severe burns and scrapes, a hole in his leg, missing his left arm, and that when she had seen him as he was dragged into the hospital, she had been more enraged she had ever been in her life.

Tsunade ignored the twinge in her chest and focused on the files once more.

The Retrieval Mission had encountered eight missing or foreign ninja, ranging from A-to-S-Rank.

Itachi Uchiha, who, after seemingly being killed by a single, invisible jutsu, had assisted the Leaf team against the leader of Akatsuki. In addition, his psyche profile was going to need updating: the genocidal Uchiha apparently wished for world peace, and did not want his brother dead.

Sasuke Uchiha, who had been unconscious for the duration of the team's interactions with him, waking only briefly to be removed from the area by Itachi.

Juugo, no last name, who even now was comfortably ensconced in the most secure wing of the hospital, guarding Sasuke Uchiha; attempts to move him had gone… poorly, and so Tsunade had determined that so long as the large man stayed by the unconscious Uchiha, he would be permitted to remain in the village.

Karin, no last name known, who had not been encountered again after the destruction of the Uchiha settlement and much of the surrounding area: however, Juugo had claimed that she had been heading somewhere soon afterwards to meet Itachi Uchiha. Where, and for what purpose, he did not know.

Suigetsu Hozuki, who had apparently been accompanying Karin when she left. He, Karin, and Juugo had called themselves "Hebi", which Sasuke had formed from several of Orochimaru's experiments, with the goal of taking down his brother.

Kisame Hoshigaki, who had departed before the hostilities had begun, returned after they had ended, and then left again in the company of Itachi.

Orochimaru: the strangest encounter, considering that it had been reported that Sasuke had killed him. However, Itachi had corrected that apparent discrepancy: he had removed Orochimaru from Sasuke's curse seal (rendering it harmless in the process) and then killed Tsunade's old teammate himself.

And finally, and the most worrisome, a man that had simply identified himself as Pain; a man who had controlled five other bodies simultaneously, and who possessed the legendary Rinnegan, the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths himself.

A man who had single-handedly engaged Itachi Uchiha, the Konoha Retrieval Teams, and Team Hebi, and would have emerged victorious if not for the surprise interference of Itachi after the man had seemingly exhausted himself fighting the other parties. A man whose apparent goal was to bring peace to the ninja world through the destruction of innumerable lives, by forging the Bijuu into a weapon capable of leveling whole nations.

If these were not official after-action reports, then Tsunade would not have believed them. This was the kind of story you heard in a book that cared more about drama than believably, not from some of your most trusted shinobi.

But she'd heard it straight from the source, and if she knew one thing about a world that was rapidly getting more complicated, it was that Naruto Uzumaki couldn't lie to save his life.

###

Sakura snickered. The snickering soon developed into a muted chuckle, and Sakura brought her hand up in an attempt to slow it.

It was in vain. A second later, she burst into true, real laughter, her entire body shaking with it. She just couldn't stop, despite the flare of pain in her ribs every time she took in another breath.

Naruto stared at her, his face the very picture of despair and desperation.

"Only you, Naruto," she managed to say, almost choking on her words as the laughter threatened to overwhelm her again. She winced as a particularly sharp spike of pain shot through her ribs. "This would only be a problem for you."

"Come on, Sakura!" he said, his face twisting. " "I don't know what to do! I mean-" He twisted his head around, as if he was looking for eavesdroppers and then bent in, whispering. "What the hell do I do? I've never even- I mean- I can't-!"

Sakura's laughter gradually dropped off, and except for the errant chuckle, she was serous once more. "Why do you think I would know, Naruto? This is your problem. Go discuss it with her: I'm not going to help. You'll have to figure this stuff out eventually."

"Can't eventually be in, like, a couple years?" Naruto asked, desperate.

Sakura shrugged. "Apparently not. Which reminds me: have you visited Jiraiya yet?"

When the tracking team had arrived back in the village, they had not presented a pretty picture. Two days moving at high speed through the thick forests of the Land of Fire, with every single one of their members either exhausted of their chakra or somewhat seriously injured, had left them a rather pathetic spectacle when they'd finally reached the gates of Konoha.

The next couple hours had been a bizarre mix of urgent and incredibly dull: debriefings, arguments over where to put Sasuke Uchiha, visits to the hospital, bed rest… it had seemed surreal that only forty-eight hours earlier, they had all been in the toughest fight of their lives.

Naruto had been discharged from the hospital the day after he'd arrived. Despite the muttering of the various medic-nin responsible for treating him that pervasive cellular damage across the entirety of one's body wasn't supposed to heal in three days, let alone without treatment, he'd had been let out anyway.

There was no reason for him to stay any longer: aside from a nasty case of boredom, there was nothing physically wrong with Naruto.

However, despite being discharged, Naruto still hadn't left the hospital. Too many of his friends were still there. Sakura, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were still in residence, despite Sakura's excellent field treatment. It would be sheer idiocy to let any of the ninja who had been seriously injured fighting against the leader of Akatsuki simply wander the streets of Konoha. The pace they had set to get back hadn't helped matters: Naruto knew that Kiba, at least, had popped a rib or two out of place as they returned to Konoha.

So, Naruto had spent the last few hours visiting his friends, with two notable exceptions. The first was Sasuke Uchiha, who still hadn't woken from whatever his brother had done to him, and besides that was being guarded by both a contingent of ANBU Black Ops and Juugo, who had stuck by the Uchiha for the entire time Naruto had known him.

The second was Hinata Hyuuga, and that was because Naruto was terrified of talking to her.

"Stop trying to change the subject, Sakura! That perv hasn't woken up yet: he's probably too busy having weird dreams."

Naruto hid it better than most thought him capable, but the relief he felt whenever he realized that Jiraiya was alive, that Pain had lied, was the best sensation he'd ever had. If Iruka Umino was Naruto's older brother, than Jiraiya was the closest thing Naruto had ever had to a grandfather. If he had lost him…

Naruto shivered, and redirected his attention back to Sakura, who was trying not to laugh again. He wished she wouldn't do that. This was serious business.

"I can't help you, Naruto," she said. "It wouldn't be fair. And maybe he's awake by now? You really should go check, if you aren't going to-"

"No! No, I'm going to! I mean," Naruto rubbed the back of his head, doing his best to grin but only looking sick, "-what kinda guy would I be if I didn't?"

He backed out the room slowly as Sakura stared at him. "But, uh, you might be right. I'm gonna go see if Pervy Sage is up yet!" And with that, he was gone, and Sakura was left alone in her room.

She turned to look out the window. It was a beautiful day in Konoha. The sun was shining bright, and the streets flocked with people going about their daily business. She spotted a man dressed in all black, probably an ANBU messenger, jumping across a nearby rooftop.

She sighed, thinking of her just-departed teammate.

"Idiot," she muttered, not really meaning it.

Sakura didn't know what to think anymore. The last few days had been so… busy.

Itachi Uchiha had stolen Sasuke's eyes, and then given his own to Sakura, who of course had handed them over to Tsunade as soon as possible. She didn't know what the Hokage would do with them, but after spending two days carrying them around in a jar, she would be happy to never see them again.

She and her friends had fought the leader of Akatsuki, and had nearly defeated him. Sakura herself had even landed a solid hit on him. But in the end, if it hadn't been for Itachi, then they would all be dead. Pain would have taken Naruto, and enacted his crazy plan to bring peace to the world.

Sasuke had been brought back to the village. Naruto had finally done what he'd promised to do three years ago. Sakura wished that she could just be happy that Sasuke was back, but she knew better: now that the Uchiha had returned, it was only going to get more complicated. She just wished she could talk to him.

She didn't know what to expect out of that conversation, but she desperately wanted it anyway.

And apparently, Hinata loved Naruto. Sakura had known about the girl's crush (honestly, who hadn't?) but she hadn't thought her affection had gone that far.

The thought brought a smile to Sakura's face. Whatever the next few days brought, she was assured one thing: watching Naruto try to figure that out was going to be the most hilarious thing she'd seen in her life.

Plus, she doubted Naruto would be asking her out again anytime soon.

Sakura lay back. The sooner she was healed, the sooner she could leave. And the sooner she could leave, the sooner she could see her parents (though she really wasn't looking forward to that conversation), and Sasuke.

She closed her eyes.

###

Jiraiya opened his eyes.

Light was spilled across his face, bright sunlight. Not in Amegakure anymore, then. There was little sunlight to be had there. He looked to his left, and confirmed it: Konoha, vibrant and colorful, sprawled out beyond his window. He turned his head, looking back up towards the ceiling. Pale... something. That color that could only be found in a hospital that couldn't decide whether it wanted to be white or dim yellow.

Idly, he wondered why his pillow was so scratchy. He was one of the Sannin; didn't he deserve a more confortable place to rest his head?

Like that girl back in Amegakure. The one with the cow necklace. She would certainly have been comfortable to rest on. What had been her name?

He couldn't remember. He'd kidnapped her husband, and he couldn't even do her the courtesy of remembering her name.

Huh.

He turned to look back out at Konoha. It had been a long time since he'd been in one of the village's medical facilities. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been forced to go to one. He hadn't been seriously injured since Naruto had punched a hole in his sternum all those months ago.

Though, he considered, looking down at where his left arm should have been, that streak had come to an end.

Ah well. Even if all of him hadn't made it back, at least he'd made it back. If he had died there, with Yahiko… his knowledge would have died with him. Pain would have become near impossible to stop. And…

Wait. Naruto.

Oh no.

Oh no.

His head was clearing. Now, the room seemed starkly white, and the throbbing where his arm should have been became persistent and violent. Jiraiya tried to throw himself from the bed, but he was too turned into a halfhearted flop that twisted his covers about his body and carried him half off the bed. He slid to the floor, his whole body protesting every motion. He wasn't even close to fully healed.

Pain had gone after Naruto. His student might be in Pain's possession even now. There was no time to lose. He was probably already too late. How long had he been unconscious? It could have been days. Naruto might already be-

Oh god. He'd failed again. Tsunade, Orochimaru, Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, Hiruzen, Minato… and now Naruto too.

How pathetic. He hadn't even managed to die alongside them.

"Hey, Pervy Sage! You're awake! What're you-"

Jiraiya's head snapped up. Naruto had just walked into his room. He was looking down at him, obviously confused. He wasn't bandaged; all of his limbs were attached. He looked perfectly fine.

"Naruto?" His voice was too high pitched. How was he here?

"Uh, yeah? You okay, Jiraiya-sensei? You look a little out of it."

Jiraiya stared. He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. "Naruto. You… you're okay?"

This did not help Naruto's confusion. "Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I be? And why are you out of bed? You land on your head or something?"

Jiraiya laid his head back on the floor. It was not any more comfortable than his pillow had been. "I thought… what happened? Didn't Pain-"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto snapped his fingers. "You fought him too, right? He said something about that." He rubbed the back of his head. "Nah, I'm fine. A couple people got pretty messed up, though. Kakashi-sensei still hasn't woken up: he used a lot of chakra. And Hinata-"

He shook his head. "Eh, the point is, everyone's fine. And you too! That bastard didn't get a single one of us!"

'Genjutsu?' Jiraiya considered: this seemed too good to be true. Perhaps he'd been captured after all? He doubted it. He distinctly remembered Gamatate's reverse teleport from Myōboko; arriving at the gates of Konoha. Being a smartass to the chūnin on duty, if only to relish the look on their faces before he'd fallen unconscious.

And if 'Madara' had access to a genjutsu with the complexity of the Tsukuyomi, or something like it, he would have had ample opportunity to place it before Jiraiya had escaped…

Wait. No, that was muddled thinking. There was no way he'd be able to tell if he were trapped in something like that. How was he going to-

"Hey!" Naruto lightly kicked him in the side, not nearly hard enough to actually hurt, but certainly enough to get his attention. "You're freaking me out, Pervy Sage. Get off the floor!"

He looked up at his student. If this was a genjutsu, there was nothing he could do about it; best to play along for now, then.

"You fought Pain?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto said. "It was pretty intense, but everyone turned out okay! But he, uh…" he paused, looking disturbed. "He said you were dead. So I mean, when I got back here, and you were already in the hospital…" He rubbed the back of his head again.

Jiraiya really needed to make sure that Naruto got control of that habit. It was too distinctive: if Tsunade ever saw fit to send him on an infiltration mission (though god knows why she would) it would give him away to anyone familiar with him.

"I guess I'm just really glad you're here," Naruto finished, looking uncomfortable. "I mean, you weren't waking up, so…"

"Okay." Jiraiya was starting to get a handle on the situation. He pulled himself from the floor, untangling his blankets. The hospital garb he was wearing barely fit him. He couldn't put any weight on his right leg. "Okay," he said again. "You fought Pain. And you're here? How?"

Naruto grinned. "Oh come on! Have a little faith in your student! He was pretty tough, but-"

"No." Jiraiya's voice cut off Naruto's like a brick dropped on a cockroach. "I believe in you Naruto. You know I do. But Pain… he was on a completely different level. Even with backup, there's no way you could have beaten him."

Naruto's smile faded away a little, but he still looked happy. Jiraiya wondered why. "Yeah. You're right. He had me beat. Hinata too."

Jiraiya wondered what the Hyuuga heiress had to do with this.

"But… Itachi Uchiha saved us."

Okay. This definitely wasn't a genjutsu. No way any half-decent illusion would have something so weird in it.

"What," was what Jiraiya said out loud.

'So that was what he meant. I can't believe it,' was what he thought to himself.

"Yeah. I couldn't really believe it at first either. But he showed up and chased Pain off. The guy only had three bodies left by that point, and Itachi killed one of them. And then he did something to the other one, I think it was a genjutsu, and after a minute Pain just left."

Naruto gave Jiraiya a strange half-smile, something that looked just a bit too subtle for his face. "You'll never guess what Itachi did next, though."

"Oh yeah?" Jiraiya didn't think so. After the last couple minutes, nothing could surprise him anymore.

"He gave us his eyes."

Well. Jiraiya had been dead wrong. He just stared down at Naruto as he slowly sat down on his hospital bed. His leg jolted in agony, but he ignored it.

"He-"

"Yep." Naruto confirmed Jiraiya's unvoiced question. "Took them right out, and handed them over to Sakura. Then he left."

Jiraiya finished sitting down. He was glad about that: he was pretty sure he would have fallen over otherwise.

"…Huh," he said. He couldn't really think of anything else that would cover how he felt.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Go get Tsunade, will you? I think we gotta talk about some things. Tell her I'm ready to deliver my full report."

###

When Naruto led Tsunade into his master's hospital room, he expected some sort of tearful reunion. While Jiraiya had never really explained to him the intricacies of his relationship with the Godaime, they were teammates. To Naruto, that guaranteed relief, at the very least. He knew that if Sakura had been hurt the way Jiraiya had, he would have jumped her the moment he was let into her room, injuries be damned.

That was not what happened.

"Disobedient idiot!" the imposing blonde woman yelled as she strode into the room. Her face was twisted in a truly terrifying frown. Naruto, at her side, froze: he knew exactly what that expression meant. "Didn't I tell you not to die? And now look at you!"

Tsunade sounded genuinely furious. Naruto began to consider a tactical retreat. A plan that evaporated when he saw Jiraiya's reaction: the other Sannin just stared up at his teammate, a wide grin splitting his face. If anything, he was the one who looked relieved.

"But princess, I didn't! Look! I'm fine!" Jiraiya attempted to pound his chest with his left arm: the stump that cut off above where his elbow should have been flailed for a moment, and then stilled. Jiraiya glared at it, betrayal clear on his face.

"Well," he amended, "mostly fine. It could have been much worse." His grin began to shrink. It faded entirely as Tsunade took another step forward, murder on her face.

"Don't you dare," she hissed. "Don't you dare joke about this, Jiraiya. You nearly died. Even after you got back, you were already so- the shock alone-" She choked on her words, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "I… god… I bet that you wouldn't make it back. So don't… don't…"

Jiraiya's face softened. He sagged. Whether in relief, or something else, Naruto couldn't possibly tell. "You really were worried about me?"

"Of course I was!" Tsunade snapped. "How could I not be? You were my teammate, and I just sent you off to die-"

"But I didn't." Jiraiya's voice was strong, and his eyes were hard. It cut through Tsunade's own, and the room was silent for a moment.

"Look," he said, in the same tone. Naruto stared. He almost never saw his master this serious. "We can discuss this later. But right now, I've just returned from an extremely informative recon mission. I learned things there that everyone here-" he glanced meaningfully at Naruto, who unconsciously straightened, "-should know."

Tsunade glared at him, before her eyes lost some of their hardness. She sighed, the most pained sound that Naruto had ever heard her make, and said, in a voice that somehow explicitly promised future beatings while still retaining some trace of understanding, "Very well, then. Jiraiya, report."

The Sannin's face went grim.

"I entered Amegakure without being detected. It hasn't changed much from when we were there last, Tsunade. Still rainy, still miserable." He paused, an indecipherable expression on his face. "But the people… the people are much happier, now."

"Really?" Naruto interrupted. Tsunade glared, but didn't snap at him: inwardly, she was probably asking the same question. "Why? What changed?"

"Pain," Jiraiya said.

"What?!"

Jiraiya nodded, looking thoughtful. "Pain is the man who rules the Hidden Rain Village now. He deposed Hanzō long ago: how long exactly, I wasn't able to find out, but most of the younger chūnin had never served under anyone else. Hanzō was just a memory."

"How could they be happy with a guy like that in charge? He's a maniac! There's no way!" Naruto gritted his teeth.

Jiraiya shrugged. "In many ways, Naruto, Hanzō was worse. Under him, the Land of Rain was the battleground that the Hidden Leaf and Stone fought on during the Second and Third Great Wars. Ame may have been an ally of Iwa, but that didn't change the fact that the civilian casualties were horrendous. Pain took over sometime after the wars, and since then there has been peace. The village regards him as a god."

"That's crazy," Naruto said flatly. "A guy like that, being a god…" He shook his head in disbelief. Jiraiya watched him, seeing if he would say more. When it became clear he wasn't going to, the sage continued.

"At any rate, I infiltrated the village, and interrogated some unlucky chūnin. I got most of my information from them. One of them, I sent back to the village."

Tsunade nodded. The intelligence division had been pleasantly surprised when a toad had popped up in nearby pond and spit out an unconscious Rain ninja the day before. Even now, Inoichi Yamanaka was preparing for a session with the man.

"The other, I used as a disguise."

"How'd you do that, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked, his face eager. Tsunade turned to him, her brow twitching.

"Naruto," she said, unnaturally calm. The blond instantly took notice. "Shut up, or leave."

Naruto shut up.

Jiraiya watched, trying not to chuckle: he was pretty sure that Tsunade would be after him next. After a moment, he began speaking again.

"Soon after I was discovered." Tsunade stiffened: for her, this was where the story became truly interesting.

"By a woman. 'The Angel', the villagers called her. I knew her by another name, though. Konan."

"I know that name," Tsunade said, her lip twisting.

Jiraiya nodded, his face somber. "Yeah. Do you remember those orphans? The three we encountered just after Hanzō had let us go? They approached us after the battle, asking if we were shinobi. They took our bread."

Realization dawned on Tsunade's. "She gave me a flower," she muttered, before refocusing on Jiraiya. "That little girl? With blue hair? She is this 'Angel' of Amegakure?"

"Yes. And the others were there as well. Well," Jiraiya corrected himself, "Yahiko was. I didn't see Nagato anywhere: but the fact that Pain possesses the Rinnegan cannot be a coincidence."

Naruto, having gone a whole minute without talking, finally burst. "He was your student, right?" Tsunade, despite, her earlier threat, ignored him. She was too busy pondering the ramifications of Jiraiya's former students being worshiped by Amegakure.

Jiraiya turned his head towards him. "And how could you possibly know that?" Suspicion was too strong a word to describe his tone. But it was close.

"He told me. While we were fighting. He called you 'Jiraiya-sensei'. That was when he said you were dead."

Jiraiya chuckled. "Well, I don't blame him for thinking that. He did tear my arm off. But I'll get there in a moment. Right now, I need to tell Tsunade about Pain." Naruto grit his teeth, but remained quiet.

Tsunade cut in. "Naruto has already told me a lot."

"Oh?" Jiraiya cocked his head. "What do you have so far? I'll fill in anything that's missing."

Tsunade glanced at Naruto for a moment. He took this as his cue.

"Pain isn't just one guy. He has six bodies, and they all have the same weird eyes; Itachi called it the Rinnegan. But-"

"The bodies aren't the same." Jiraiya completed the sentence.

Naruto grinned. "Right. I only really fought two of them, but they used totally different styles. One of them absorbed chakra, and the other had some sort of invisible blast, or wave. It was like… pulses, I guess. And they both used these weird black rods as weapons. They were really sharp; and cold."

"I fought one who could absorb chakra." Jiraiya confirmed. "He was shorter than the others, right? Two big spikes in his cheeks? More under his lips?"

Naruto nodded, and Jiraiya continued. "But none of the Pains I engaged had any sort of power like the second one you described. What did he look like?"

"Uh… he had three things through his nose, and two in his lips… and lots in his ears. Spiky hair, too. Kinda like mine, actually." Naruto unconsciously rubbed his head.

Jiraiya slowly closed his eyes. "I thought so," he said. Regret weighed down his words. "That was Yahiko."

"So he's Pain?" Tsunade asked.

"That," Jiraiya said, "is where is gets confusing." He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "In Amegakure, I engaged three of the Pains. I managed to defeat them, and I thought that was the end of it."

He gestured to his missing arm with a bitter smile. "That was how this happened. I let my guard down for a second, and another one blindsided me. Even in Sage Mode, I barely knew what hit me."

Tsunade hissed under her breath. She had only seen her teammate use that technique twice before, but she knew how incredibly dangerous a person became once they mastered natural energy. The idea of an opponent who could catch Jiraiya completely off guard while he was utilizing it was frightening; Pain really was a dangerous threat.

Jiraiya pretended that he hadn't heard the noise; Naruto didn't understand it.

"Hey, what's Sage Mode? That sounds pretty cool." Naruto allowed himself a moment of thought, and his eyes widened. "Hey wait, is that why you're called-"

"Not now, Naruto. We'll talk about it later, okay?"

Naruto kept his mouth open for a moment, and then closed it. He shrugged. "'Kay." He hadn't really expected an explanation right away. "But hey, you're definitely gonna tell me. No way this old lady'll let you out of the hospital right now: you're stuck here. You can't just run off."

Jiraiya smirked. "Sure. Tell yourself that, kid. Hope it makes you feel better. Maybe in-"

Tsunade's snarl silenced him, along with the intense glare. "Over my dead body will you be leaving this place anytime soon, idiot. You better get ready for a long stay."

Both Jiraiya and Naruto involuntarily shivered.

"Uh… anyway, that's when I found out that Pain had six bodies, not just the three. Definitely an unpleasant surprise. And with one arm, well…"

There was an awkward silence. Tsunade just closed her eyes and bit her lip once more, while Naruto stared at the floor, his fists clenched.

'I would have died,' hung unspoken in the air.

"So." Jiraiya said, trying to dispel the atmosphere. "One of those new bodies was the one you described, Naruto: a man who was certainly Yahiko. However," Jiraiya frowned, "when I asked if he was actually Yahiko, he only said that Yahiko had been dead for a long time."

He grinned. "Very cryptic. I'll have to put something like that in my next book."

Tsunade ignored Jiraiya's aside. "But if Yahiko is dead, then who is Pain? And how did you escape?"

Jiraiya's grin vanished. "I have a theory about Pain's true identity. All of the bodies both Naruto and I encountered shared Nagato's eyes. The Rinnegan. I don't see how someone could have fabricated five more pairs of Rinnegan without there being even rumors about such research, so it stands to reason that Nagato has, in fact, found some way of spreading the power of the Rinnegan to others."

"So Pain works for Nagato?" Tsunade said.

"No." Jiraiya shook his head. "I believe Pain is Nagato."

Seeing the looks of confusion he was receiving, Jiraiya sighed and palmed his head with his remaining head.

"Okay, listen. I believe 'Pain', as Naruto and I encountered him, is some sort of strike-force, or elite unit, that Nagato uses. They're not actually individuals. They're more like puppets. And they're not chakra constructs. In fact, I think they may be-"

"Corpses." This time, it was Naruto completing Jiraiya's sentences. He frowned at the look he got from both of the Sannin. "What?"

"What makes you think that?" Tsunade said, disgust in her voice. She had heard of human bodies being used as living puppets before, but this was on a wholly different level.

"Since when do you use the word 'corpses'?" Jiraiya said with a bemused grin.

"Hey! It's not that fancy a word! C'mon Pervy Sage, I'm not that dumb!" Naruto yelled, before realizing what he'd just said. He went red. "Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything, Naruto," Jiraiya said with the same smile, before making a gesture that clearly said 'get on with it'.

Naruto huffed, before turning to Tsunade. "I took out one of Pain's bodies right before he took out me." Jiraiya perked up at the word 'me', but Naruto continued. "It was weird: it barely bled, and its skin felt… well, gross. Like a dead body's." He shrugged. "So I mean, is it that unlikely that this Nagato guy, if he's the real Pain, uses some sorta puppet jutsu or something to control them… it… himself?" He frowned. "Man, that's confusing."

"If so…" The Hokage considered. "That would be far beyond any sort of jutsu of that nature that I've ever heard of. Even the elders of the Sand Village need to be near the puppets they're controlling. And Jiraiya, I doubt that this Nagato was following you around the whole time. You certainly would have noticed, right?"

The sage shrugged. "Almost definitely. But there's another problem."

"Oh?"

"Pain sees through all of the Rinnegan simultaneously: I confirmed that much, at least. So visually, Nagato wouldn't have to directly observe the fight. However, the issue of how he would imperceptibly channel chakra to them is still an odd one."

"Actually…" Tsunade put her hand to her chin, thinking deeply for a moment. "Hey, Naruto, you said they all used the same weapons? Black metal rods?"

"Yeah? But what's that got to-"

"Well," Tsunade said, "I know that we haven't started our investigation on the body you brought back, yet, Naruto. But I'd be willing to bet my hat that all those rods in his face aren't just for decoration."

"What do you mean?" Naruto didn't see where this was going. Jiraiya did, but he kept quiet.

"Naruto, were you ever hit by one of those things? The rods?" Concentration scrunched up Tsunade's face dramatically; Jiraiya idly noted how adorable it made her nose look.

"Well, yeah, but-" Once more, Tsunade cut off Naruto's fumbling answer.

"Did it feel strange? Was there anything odd about the metal?" She was so close; she could feel it.

"Well, yeah, actually. It was really… cold. I got stabbed by one; it felt like it was filling me up with ice." The memory of the sensation made Naruto flinch. His hand unconsciously went to his stomach. It was throbbing, a ghostly pain.

Tsunade grinned. "That's it. It's those rods. Nagato must channel his chakra through them, somehow. That's how he directs Pain."

"Huh." Jiraiya sounded impressed. "I'd clap, but considering…" He shook his head, but he was smiling. "Okay. So we've figured out Pain. Doesn't really change the fact that he's still enormously dangerous, but it's something."

"Yeah. Makes that thing about Yahiko being dead for a long time make a lot more sense. Nagato must have used his body afterwards. That's… kind of messed up." Naruto looked disturbed by his own logic, as did both of the other people in the room.

"Hmm… so Nagato is definitely Pain, then. And we understand how he utilizes this bizarre puppet jutsu of his. But that doesn't explain how you managed to escape while so injured, Jiraiya. What happened after you lost your arm?" Tsunade had a look on her face somewhere between dread and dreadful curiosity. It was extremely odd.

Jiraiya took a deep breath, and told them.

###

Jiraiya took a deep breath, and winced. A bead of sweat ran down his jaw.

"What the hell are you!?" he shouted. Standing on the surface of the great lake that surrounded Amegakure, clutching his missing arm, with two toads fused to his shoulders, Jiraiya shouted all of his pain, confusion, heartbreak, and undeniable rage up at the six figures imperiously staring down at him.

"We are Pain, that's all." The lead body, the one that Jiraiya knew was Yahiko, narrowed his eyes, gaining a cruel aspect that Yahiko never had in life. "We are God."

All six of the bodies tensed, ready to leap down upon the one-armed Sannin. Jiraiya coiled as well, preparing for a counterattack. Even with one arm, in Sage Mode he was still nothing to trifle with.

Both parties stopped cold as a bizarre sound filled the air. It sounded like a generator heating up, or water running over stones. But it was neither of those things. It was wrong, the kind of noise never meant to be produced in the natural world: high pitched and low, thrumming and monotone.

A ripple in reality formed, and a man in an Akatsuki cloak stepped out of it. He had a strange orange mask that seemed to spiral out from his right eye.

Jiraiya had no idea who he was.

"Ah," The man said in a darkly amused voice. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

The man who was clearly Yahiko turned to face the man while the rest of Pain watched Jiraiya. The Sannin merely watched, confused. Who was this new arrival?

"Of a sorts. What is it, Madara?" The voice was no longer imperious, now it was almost deferential. Respectful. Pain was addressing the man with the clear air of a servant.

'Madara!?' Jiraiya stared. He could only think of one man with that name whom someone like Pain could possibly be subordinate to, and the implications frightened him. If Madara Uchiha was in charge of the Akatsuki, the organization may have been more dangerous than anyone had suspected.

"I need your help, Pain." It wasn't a command; not that blunt. But it certainly wasn't a request: definitely the words of a commander. "Itachi Uchiha has betrayed me."

"Really? What a shame." Pain didn't seem anything other than sincere.

"It is. I regret that it has come to this, but it can't be helped. However, I have good news as well." Now, the masked man sounded almost gloating.

"Oh?"

"I have located the Nine-Tails."

Now, all but one of the bodies had turned to face Madara. Only one watched Jiraiya. "Out of his village? How far?"

"Hardly more than three-hundred miles away. And almost completely undefended. Its only escort is two jōnin and a rather uninspiring tracking team. I have no doubt you could easily defeat them, despite the distance. Unless… is that Jiraiya of the Sannin?" The masked man peered down at the Toad Sage, who glared up at him.

"It is." There was nothing in that voice.

"Ah. What a reunion that must have been. He hasn't worn you out, has he?" Madara's tone, in the other hand, was clearly calculating.

"No." There was that pride that had infected the orange-haired man's voice since the beginning; that endless confidence.

"Good. I'll take care of him, then. Keep him here for a moment, will you? I'll be right back," The man said, stepping forward and taking hold of the shoulder of the first body that Jiraiya had encountered: the summoner. With a twisted noise, they both whirled out of existence.

Yahiko turned back to Jiraiya.

The man's eyes were narrowed. Despite the blood dripping from the stump of his arm, he looked more threatening than ever. "The Kyuubi, huh? You're going after Naruto, now?"

The man cocked his head. "Ah yes. Naruto Uzumaki. He is also your student, isn't he?"

The Sannin nodded, his teeth grit.

"Well, this should be interesting, then. Two disciples of the same master battling, however brief it will be. Tell me, how is his control over the Kyuubi?"

Jiraiya didn't answer. He just launched himself upward. None of the Pain's made a move, simply standing there as he alighted on the ledge.

"He'll beat you, Pain. I believe in him. He'll do what I couldn't manage." The toads on Jiraiya's shoulder shared a glance.

The man stared at him, five sets of unblinking eyes. "Actually… I don't think he will. I will capture the Nine-Tails, and craft my weapon." He smiled grimly.

"I shall teach the world pain, and bring peace. You are lying, Jiraiya-sensei." He paused, and Yahiko stared up at the sky for a moment, an invisible signal, before refocusing on his former teacher.

"And you know it."

And before Jiraiya could respond, or fling himself forward, all of the Pains exploded in puffs of chakra-smoke, vanishing from Amegakure. Jiraiya growled, his phantom arm throbbing. He stared forward, his remaining hand clenching.

"Jiraiya-boy, we've got to get out of here." The vivid green elder toad on Jiraiya's shoulder spoke in a strong rattling voice, his tone harsh. "This will probably be our only chance."

"I've got to get to Naruto," he murmured.

"Do you know where he is, hmm?" The other toad, this one dull purple, didn't couch her words. "I don't think so. You can't throw your life away here. I'll go back to Myōboko and prepare a reverse summoning."

"I wouldn't do that, honey. If that masked guy comes back, Jiraiya-boy may need us. Jiraiya, you should summon Gamatate. We'll make sure he gets here quickly." That was the first toad again.

"You don't get it. I need to get to Naruto. I need to follow Pain." Jiraiya's voice didn't change, but he somehow still managed to sound dangerous.

"I'm afraid that won't be happening." The baritone behind him caused Jiraiya to spin about, splattering a small crescent of blood from his missing arm.

The masked man stood there, standing with his head cocked and his arms crossed. He'd appeared without a sound.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin. I'll admit, you could have been a real problem for my plans if you'd kept meddling. But now…" He shrugged. "Well, let's just say it seems you won't be."

"And what would those 'plans' be?" The white-haired man asked, invisibly tensing. Apparently, whatever transportation jutsu he was using was more versatile than it had first appeared: there had been no noise to mark his arrival this time.

The masked man chuckled. It almost made Jiraiya smile: if any chuckle could ever be described as evil, it was this one. It had been a long time since he'd gone up against someone with that certain… megalomania.

His apparent former student notwithstanding.

"Oh please. Give me some credit at least, Jiraiya. Do I really seem like the type to just explain my plans in detail to my opponents? I may as well just tell you how to defeat me." One of the man's hands came up over his mask.

"I wouldn't stop you," Jiraiya offered, chuckling along with the man.

Without any sort of warning, he sprung forward, an oversized Rasengan suddenly in his hand. The jutsu carved away the concrete in front of him, and engulfed the man in a wash of deadly chakra.

The chuckling didn't stop. Jiraiya's eyes widened as the man emerged from the back of Rasengan, his hand reaching forward. The ball of chakra cleared 'Madara' entirely, and then a gloved hand locked itself over Jiraiya's face.

He came to a sudden, and painfully jarring, stop.

"Well." The dark voice hadn't lost any of its amusement. "That was easier than I thought it would be."

A bizarre sensation covered the whole of Jiraiya's body. It felt like he was being sucked down a drain, or thrown in a washing machine. Everything twisted, and his vision began to go dark.

Fukasaku chose that moment to punch the masked man in the face.

Despite the elder toad's diminutive appearance, senjutsu was coursing through his veins, dramatically increasing his strength and durability: the tiny fist hit like a runaway train. There was a shattering sound, and the man rocketed back, reeling from the blow.

He hit a wall, and went through it. Not in an explosion of concrete: he simply passed through, like a ghost. Jiraiya was left standing stunned, shaking his head from side to side as he tried to shake off the unearthly sensation that for a moment, he'd been somewhere else.

Somewhere chilly.

"Thanks, Pops. I don't know what that jutsu was, but-"

"Nevermind about that that, you moron!" The shrill voice of Fukasaku's wife Shima ripped through Jiraiya's thanks. "Just get Gamatate! And then out of here! He's gonna be back!"

"Hey, don't rush him, Ma! We should find out who this guy is first. If that's all he's got, then-"

Fukasaku was interrupted by a truly ridiculous amount of unusually hot fire detonating the wall that the masked man had passed through, showering the spot where Jiraiya had been standing with molten chunks of concrete and smatterings of superheated rebar.

Fortunately, he wasn't standing there anymore: the moment the wall had begun to deform, the Toad Sannin had dived to the left, off of the narrow ledge he and the man had been standing on, falling towards Amegakure's great lake.

Jiraiya landed, sinking minutely into the water to reduce the impact, before straightening up.

He heard someone behind him cough.

Jiraiya spun, and found the masked man coolly regarding him amidst a considerable amount of rubble, as well as two enormous brass pipes, both twisted out of shape. His spiraling mask, once immaculate, was now covered in cracks: chunks had fallen away from the left side, revealing another glaring Sharingan.

Jiraiya wondered why he had hidden away the second Sharingan.

"That," the man said conversationally, "was inconvenient. So those frogs aren't just decoration, then?"

"WHO YOU CALLING A FROG?!" Shima shrieked, and Jiraiya flinched.

"And they talk too. Wonderful. I have always wanted more screeching amphibians in my day."

If he hadn't known that it would have gotten him punched by two irate elders, than Jiraiya would probably have been laughing, despite the seriousness of the situation. So instead he suppressed the laughter, and tried to get some answers instead.

"Who are you?" he called, bringing his arm up in a defensive stance.

"Haven't you figured it out?" the man said. "You are Jiraiya, Konoha's most efficient spy. Surely the information you have is more than enough?"

Jiraiya shrugged, the toads on his shoulders bobbing with the motion. "Perhaps. But I'd prefer you to confirm my suspicions."

"Which are?"

The Sannin sighed. "That you are Madara Uchiha."

The man stared at him, both of his Sharingan spinning. "You are correct. I am Madara Uchiha."

"Well, you see, that's where I'm a little uncertain." Jiraiya grinned. The man had wandered into his trap.

The man stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Jiraiya said, "Madara was one of the deadliest shinobi the world has ever seen. And he took that title for two reasons: the first was his ruthlessness, and the second was his unstoppable Sharingan. Now, don't get me wrong, that intangibility you used was certainly tricky, but it's not really his style, you know? If I was going up against him, he probably would have smashed me with something big and flashy by now."

"Well, I am quite old now. Perhaps I've just shifted my focus to not getting hit," the man said, his eyes narrowing.

"Maybe." Jiraiya sounded unconvinced. "Or maybe you're just trying to cash in on a famous name to lend yourself a bit more credibility. Just who did you take those eyes from?"

"I assure you, these are my eyes." The man sounded dully furious.

"Really?" The Toad Sage's voice was more skeptical than one of Tsunade's debt collectors learning that the Legendary Sucker had the funds to pay. "Show me something impressive then, 'Madara'."

The man reached to his side and wrenched a jagged piece of rebar from the ruins that surrounded him, his grip imprinting his hand in the metal. "Against you? An old man with one arm? Don't make me laugh."

"Well, if you are who you say you are, you can hardly call me old, 'Madara'." Jiraiya smiled. "C'mon then. Let me show just what this 'old man' can do."

The masked man charged, his Sharingan spinning rapidly. Jiraiya shifted slightly, sliding one foot back, and then threw a low punch, aiming for the man's gut.

The clenched fist slid through the man's chest entirely, exiting from the top of his head. 'Madara' continued forward, moving through the Sannin. Jiraiya followed his fist into the air, breaking contact with the water. When the man finally finished passing through the sage, Jiraiya threw a kick backwards.

It passed through the cloaked man's shoulder, and a gloved hand came up towards the foot. A moment later, the foot came clear and the hand grasped it, making solid contact. Once more, the sage felt that strange somewhere else sensation, and the world twisted.

The masked man grunted, confident in his victory. The toads couldn't reach him from this angle.

Jiraiya grinned.

A shadow clone burst from beneath the water, its fist aimed for the man's groin.

The hand holding Jiraiya's foot suddenly lost its solidness, and the shadow clone sped up through the man's body, making contact the whole way. Meanwhile, the real Jiraiya landed with barely a ripple, the strange sensation gone. He leapt backwards, landing about twenty feet away.

The masked man spun back and stabbed the shadow clone in the lower back with the sharpened piece of rebar he had grabbed, dispelling it in a puff of smoke.

"Thought so. You can't be intangible and use that sucking thing at the same time." Jiraiya gave an evil grin. "Not impressed, 'Madara'."

The man stared. "You," he bit out, "are far too annoying for your own good."

Jiraiya guffawed. "Well how did you think I survived this long?" he laughed.

Then he staggered, his vision shaking.

'What?'

"You moron," one of the toads on his shoulder hissed. He looked over to where his left arm should have been. It was no longer dripping blood. That wasn't good.

The man in the mask, who definitely wasn't Madara Uchiha, watched attentively.

"You're weakened," he surmised. "Certainly not as unaffected by the battle with Pain as you've been trying to seem. This will be over soon."

Jiraiya snapped his head up, snarling. "Don't count on it."

He made to charge forward, gathering natural chakra for a crushing blow, before Fukasaku slapped him. Hard.

"What the hell are you doing, Jiraiya?" No honorific; no pet name. The elder toad sounded pissed.

Jiraiya looked over, shocked. This allowed Shima to slap him as well, even harder. "Why are you still here, moron?!"

"Whuh?" Jiraiya couldn't understand what was going on. Why wouldn't he be here? Madara Uchiha was right there! This might be his only chance to-

Wait.

Wait.

That wasn't Madara Uchiha. And… and Naruto… Pain was after Naruto! He had to… oh god, why was he still here?

The world sharpened, a blur that Jiraiya hadn't even noticed vanishing, and the masked man cocked his head. "Ah. You've broken the genjutsu. That's a shame."

"What did you do to me?" Jiraiya croaked. Everything felt weaker: his legs were trembling.

"Oh, hardly anything. Really, I helped you a little. Where's my thank you?"

"What?" Jiraiya staggered again, trying to keep his feet. The formerly defined world was starting to blur again. His limbs felt like they were made of lead; it was difficult to focus enough chakra to his feet to stay on the surface of the lake.

"Assisted you. Took your existing anger, and magnified it. Took your adrenal rush, and used it to banish your pain. Took your pride, the delusions of glory you felt at the idea of defeating Madara Uchiha, and blinded you with it. I had hoped you would simply fight until you dropped, but…" The Uchiha imposter shrugged.

"Bastard," Jiraiya hissed. He could feel it: despite the effects of Sage Mode, blood loss and shock were finally getting to him. Everything seemed sluggish.

'Madara' didn't respond. He just charged again, his rebar pole held before him like a lance.

Jiraiya tried to leap away, slowed by his failing body. He wasn't fast enough. The pole punched through the meat of his thigh, scraping off the bone, and more blood splashed into the water.

He grunted, more annoyed than pained, and kicked towards 'Madara's' head, tearing the pole from the masked man's hand. His foot went straight through, the man not even bothering to duck.

Jiraiya spun and landed, trying to keep his distance. His newly impaled leg impaired him: he staggered across the water, barely keeping his feet. 'Madara' slowly followed him, looking for an opening.

The man's hands sped through a simple set of signs, one that Jiraiya had seen dozens if not hundreds of times before. He knew what was coming next. For a second, his hand drifted to the pouch on his lower back, and his eyes widened as he felt a familiar weight there.

He'd almost forgotten about that scroll. A plan began to form in the Sannin's mind. "Shima," he said, his voice low. The purple elder looked at him, concern clear in his eyes, and he rapped the scroll twice. For a moment, the toad's eyes widened, before her mouth became a severe line. She nodded.

The masked man observed the moment of communication, and brought one of his hands up to where his lips would be.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." 'Madara' sounded almost bored.

The enormous ball of fire, spitting superheated chakra in every direction, certainly wasn't. It seemed almost unformed, rough. Jiraiya distantly wondered if it was because the man's mouth was obscured.

The fireball roared over Jiraiya, flash frying him in a wash of shaped chakra and boiling steam. The toads on his shoulders popped, the intense heat and pressure destroying them in an instant.

The masked man watched, his head cocked, his eyes focusing. He paused for a moment, and then turned slowly, following something only he could see. His eye fell on a piece of inconspicuous rubble.

The rubble exploded in a puff of smoke. Jiraiya burst from the white cloud, his leg leaving a trail of blood across the water. It was clear he hadn't entirely cleared the fireball: his long white hair was scorched, and his forearm was smoking.

'Madara' began to slowly walk forward: his opponent was reaching the point of exhaustion, if such a messy kawarimi was all he could do. The next few seconds would decide the battle.

The Sannin turned and watched the man's approach, careful not to look into his eyes again. He reached down and pulled the rebar from his leg, wincing. More blood spurted across the lake's surface.

"Jiraiya!" Shima yelled.

'Madara' leapt forward, both hands extended. Jiraiya threw the rebar forward and dove down, underneath the water. The metal pole passed through the masked man and he landed where Jiraiya had been a moment before, both of his Sharingan scanning the murky water.

A moment later, he found what he was looking for. He jumped once more, thrusting his hand below the water.

###

Tobi dragged Jiraiya up by the throat. Water and blood dripped from the man, and he looked extremely groggy.

"Bastard," he hissed again, and 'Madara' invisibly smirked.

"So I finally have you. I'll admit, I'm disappointed, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya glared at the masked man, his eyes foggy. "Naruto will stop you."

The man just laughed. "I doubt that. I imagine Pain is capturing him even now. It's over: after this, I'll send someone to claim the Hachibi and Rokubi, and this business will come to a close. Perhaps Sasuke? If Pain does bring him back, he would be the perfect catspaw."

He refocused on Jiraiya, watching as the man feebly squirmed. "No matter. It's time I ended this." Then, he noticed something.

"Where are the toads?"

The next moment seemed an hour long.

A white scroll interposed itself over Tobi's vision. It was plain, without ornamentation, with red frill on the sides. A tiny purple hand clutched one edge. There was a single symbol on it, surrounded by a ring.

Four lines. One long one, running in a slash from the top of the circle to the bottom. Another, branching off from the first about halfway down, forming something like an upside down Y. And two smaller dashes of ink, like commas, on either side of the top of the first slash.

Kanji. 'Fire'.

"Here. A gift from Itachi." Tobi heard Jiraiya's voice. It was no longer weary. Now, it was sharp: an unsheathed sword.

He attempted to use kamui.

He was too slow.

"Burn."

The world went an awful, flickering black.

Tobi screamed.

He staggered back, releasing his hold on Jiraiya and allowing the Sannin to drop to the water. Distantly, he heard the puff of a summoning jutsu, but the sound didn't truly register in his mind.

He was much more focused on the feeling of his face melting.

He had thought that half of his body being crushed beneath unforgiving stone was the worst pain he would feel in his life. The pressure… his ribs snapping, his organs popping and being pushed to the side, one of his lungs unable to take air in, every breath feeling like another suffocation… he had been convinced, in the months it had taken for him to recover, that he would never feel another pain like that in his life.

He'd been proven dead wrong when he'd watched Kakashi put his lightning sheathed hand through Rin's chest. And now…

The Amaterasu was in his eyes. He could feel it. They were boiling away. The rest of his head was faring no better. He was already blind: the Sharingan was tough, but this was Amaterasu.

Only one possible thing to do: any other action would lead to his death.

'Izanagi!'

The world went grey, and then snapped.

He found himself standing thirty feet away from Jiraiya, where he had been before charging the man with his rebar pole. Half of his vision inexorably turned dark: he could feel his left eye closing, his control over it gone.

The Toad Sage blinked. "Huh. Didn't see that coming."

Tobi shook his head. The phantom sensation of his eyes melting stayed with him. He settled for glaring at Jiraiya, wishing that his remaining eye was capable of casting the Amaterasu so he could pay the man back a hundred-fold.

The man ignored the hateful look, and just shrugged in response. "As much as I want to know how the hell you did that, I've already wasted far too much time here." He panted, out of breath even from just a short sentence.

Tobi snarled. "You-"

Jiraiya gave a flippant gesture with his remaining hand. "See ya."

A small toad, plain and green, jumped from beneath the water, its mouth impossibly wide, and swallowed the man whole. Its momentum carried it slightly into the air, and then it vanished in a puff of smoke as it hit the water.

The man in the mask stared at the empty patch of lake for a moment dull, fury steadily growing in his throat. Then he turned, and began to stagger back towards the ominous skyline of Amegakure.

###

"From there, Gamatate took me to the gates of Konoha." Jiraiya gave a wry smile. "At that point, I'd already lost a lot of blood. Wasn't thinking straight. It seemed like a good idea to freak out the guys on duty at the time."

Tsunade stared. "That's quite the story, Jiraiya."

"I'll say!" Naruto, as usual, was quite enthusiastic. "You actually managed to hurt that weird mask guy, Pervy Sage? I couldn't even touch him!"

Jiraiya shrugged, trying and failing to look humble. "Oh, it was mostly luck. I was just lucky that I had the stasis scroll containing Itachi's Amaterasu on me."

"That does remind me," Tsunade said, rather sternly. "Why did you have that scroll on you?"

"Ah…" Jiraiya scratched his leg, wincing. "Well, you never know when something like a couple pounds of Amaterasu will come in handy. I didn't think I'd end up using it on someone, though; or as a distraction to get away." He shrugged again. "But hey, it worked."

Tsunade palmed her face. "I'd prefer you tell me when you bring something that dangerous into the village Jiraiya, sealed or not."

"Sorry," Jiraiya said, clearly not sorry.

"Nevermind that, though. So, this masked man-"

"Tobi." Naruto suddenly said. Both of the Sannin looked at him. "Uh, I mean, that's his name. Tobi. Or at least that's what he called himself."

Tsunade clicked her tongue. "So this 'Tobi'… he claims to be Madara Uchiha?" Jiraiya nodded, and she continued. "And you're fairly sure he's not?"

"Well, he could be." Jiraiya said. "But I managed to get away from him with one arm, while going into shock, and did some serious damage in the bargain. So even if he is Madara, which I doubt, he's not nearly as powerful as the Madara Uchiha that went toe to toe with Hashirama all those years ago."

Tsunade nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"I wonder who it could be, then. He claimed to be an Uchiha. If there are any that are unaccounted for…" She shrugged. "Well, we might be able to find someone who went missing in the last few years before the clan died. Doesn't really matter, though. We should focus more on the existing threat."

There was a moment of silence.

"What's their next move, you think?" Naruto asked. "Akatsuki, I mean. They didn't catch me, and I think Itachi hurt Pain pretty bad. So what're they doing next?"

"I don't know. Not right now, at least." Jiraiya turned to his student.

"Listen, Naruto. I need you to leave for a couple minutes, okay? Go visit your friends: I'm sure they're a couple you haven't seen yet, right?"

Naruto just looked confused. "Well, yeah but…" Realization slowly dawned on him. "Hey! You're not trying to get out of explaining what Sage Mode is to me, right? Jiraiya-sensei, you swore!"

Jiraiya chuckled. "No, it's not that, Naruto. Tsunade and I just need to discuss something. Come back in like half an hour, and I'll give you all the answers you could ever want. Just get out of my hair for a minute, will you?"

Naruto shivered. He'd seen what Jiraiya could do with his hair. After a moment of consideration, he scrunched up his face. "Fine." He said. "But I'm holding you to that, Pervy Sage! When I get back-"

"Yeah, yeah, I shall reveal the incredible secrets of Sage Mode to you. Now, get out of here." Jiraiya waved him off.

Naruto harrumphed, and strode out of the room, internally sighing.

Now he didn't have any sort of excuse not to visit Hinata. He took a deep breath, and took off down the hospital's corridors, heading for her room.

The Sannin watched him go, both noticing the invisible straitening of his spine. Tsunade wondered what it was about. Jiraiya just grinned. He knew that tiny movement.

The void that Naruto left behind wasn't filled. Not immediately. For the moment, there was silence. Jiraiya lay back, relaxing with a groan. Talking for so long had left him a little out of breath. His leg had begun to ache again, joining his missing arm.

Tsunade turned to look at him, her brow furrowed. She made as if to speak, before closing her mouth again. Jiraiya simply waited.

"I thought that it was the last time," she finally managed to say.

"What was the last time?" Jiraiya said, looking out the window at the sunlit village.

"When… when you walked away. When you said goodbye. I thought… I really thought that it was your last goodbye." Tsunade's voice nearly cracked on the final word, before she managed to reassert her iron authority over it.

Jiraiya turned to look at her. "I came back, though." He sounded nothing but patient.

"I know that!" Tsunade snapped. "But Jiraiya, I couldn't… you just went off into the sunset, like some stupid character in one of your books, and all I could do was sit there and watch! I knew, knew, that you wouldn't come back. I don't know how. And I…"

She looked away from him suddenly, her hair whipped by the violent motion. "I couldn't do anything. I just let you go! Off on your next adventure, like any other time!"

She bit her lip again. Her fists clenched at her sides. "I hated it. I hated myself. I swore, after Naruto brought me back that I wouldn't be that helpless ever again, like I was with Dan. And then I just let you-" She cut herself off abruptly, looking terrified.

Jiraiya stared at her as her voice choked, and she blinked heavily, shaking. Her shoulders trembled.

His remaining hand came up, beckoning.

"Princess, come here." His voice was soft. Tsunade slowly walked to his side, barely managing to stay on her feet.

She reached his bed, and his hand sought out hers, gently taking it. Running his fingers over her palm, he reached up and took hold of her forearm, drawing her down. Tsunade stared at him, unresisting.

As she drew closer, Jiraiya's hand came up, caressing her chin and moving around the side of her neck. His hand came to rest there, the rough, warm palm against her neck. His thumb sat in the indentation right below her earlobe. She shivered. Their faces were close now, only about a foot apart. Tsunade was transfixed. Jiraiya stared directly into her eyes, and spoke.

"Tsunade. I swear: I won't leave you again." His voice managed to sound both solemnly serious, and wryly humorous.

"That was my last goodbye."

Tsunade gazed at him for a moment, her throat constricted. After a second, her head dropped, and she tried to chuckle. It barely managed to escape.

"You know…" she choked out, "I swore that if you came back, I wouldn't let you keep your cool anymore."

Jiraiya chuckled. "Seems I can't help it. But it's me, the Gallant Jiraiya. What did you expect?"

This time, Tsunade did laugh. She bent forward, pulling her teammate into a close hug. Jiraiya's arm wrapped around her neck, securing her there.

They remained like that for a long time. Finally, Tsunade pulled back.

"So," she said, blinking away an errant tear, "what do we do now?"

Jiraiya grinned. "Oh, I have a couple ideas."

Tsunade looked at him in something like disbelief for a second, her lips twitching. He quirked an eyebrow.

The Hokage threw back her head, let out a real laugh again, and a dozen years fell from her face with it.

Chapter Text

Recovery: Part 2

Chapter Text

Urban Warfare

The streets of Tanzaku Gai were quite a remarkable place. On the surface they were no more impressive than the thousands of streets like them that one could find all across the world. The more open areas of the town, the main thoroughfares, were cobbled, a soothing tan monotony of bricks and compressed gravel.

The back alleys, the purely pedestrian areas, and the hidden corners of the small town were much less pleasing to the eye. They were paved in blank, ugly concrete, long stretches of bland, unmarked street. Ironically, it was these streets, despite their out-of-the-way nature, that were the most traveled. This was because the majority of the cheaper gambling halls, brothels, and other such entertaining places were placed out of the way, out of sight; the flood of casual tourists that regularly swept into Tanzaku Gai would have to look to find them if they didn't want to place their money into the hands of the larger casinos.

However, even the least savvy traveler eventually tired of Tanzaku's rather expensive gambling halls, and sought out the less ritzy places. This search carried them into the back-alleys, and thus, despite their unappealing aesthetic, the hardly paved streets of Tanzaku Gai were marked by uncountable footsteps: the only memento of many desperate, lecherous, despairing, or foolish people.

Karin could feel every single one of them.

Most ninja could suppress their chakra presence if the situation called for it. Whether it was to keep from projecting fear, or bloodlust, or normal lust, or a thousand other things that could give a shinobi away, it was a simple task. Genin learned it in the academy nearly unconsciously as their increasing affinity for chakra made them all the more aware that if they listened when their friends weren't regulating themselves, they could feel things.

No child wants their friends and family to have a vague idea of their mood all the time. And so, by the time they graduated, it was the rare shinobi that didn't bother to put the minimum effort into concealing their chakra as they went through their life. Shinobi like Naruto Uzumaki, for example.

To Karin, it had never been enough anyway. She'd always been all too aware whenever people were around her whether they were projecting or not. But civilians never even tried. Or more accurately, just didn't know how. It was the rare non-shinobi who was sensitive enough to sense others moods just from their chakra, and so for the most part, those without training tended to splatter their emotions all over themselves and others.

And in this case, the street. From a distance, Tanzaku Gai had felt like a field of fluttering fireflies, dim due to the distance and their own flickering nature. But up close, it was no longer a field. Now, it seemed more like a pool covered in tenuous, clinging moss; moss that told a vivid story.

Here had been someone so consumed with anger that looking at the tiny patch of concrete still made a part of Karin's stomach drop in anticipation. There was a slimy patch of lust and impotence: it made her lip curl in disgust. Behind the redhead, stuck at the head of a hasty patch job that gave a ragged stretch of the middle of the street a paler shade of grey, there was a strange marking of something like fear, but that carried a touch of… hope? Chakra, even hypersensitive as Karin was, could only carry so much.

The redhead likely wouldn't have noticed any of this leftover emotion if she hadn't been stretching her senses to their fullest.

Itachi Uchiha was close.

His chakra was almost overwhelming, in a strange, precise way. It wasn't massive, or bizarre and turgid, like Pain's had been. It was almost worse: a spike, a shard, of ice that sped down the street and drove itself into Karin's chest, making her heart stutter. As she'd drawn closer to it, the sensation had only become worse.

Karin missed a step as she walked down the street, stumbling forward as the near physical weight of the chilling strike staggered her. Someone caught her arm.

She looked to her left, giving a shaky smile to Suigetsu as he held her arm. His hand felt strange: malformed, and cool to the touch. He gave her a toothy grin back, but he looked just as uncertain. He had never seen her react to any chakra like this.

Since his outburst outside the town, he and Karin had traveled in silence. The Uzumaki didn't know how to look at the Hozuki anymore. For the entire length of their time spent together, he'd acted capricious, vindictive; there had been no indication he cared any more about Sasuke than he did about the birds that followed Juugo around. Now, given how he'd reacted to her attempt to put off retrieving workable eyes for Sasuke, she was sure that had been a façade. She made her way back to her feet, shaky but standing once more.

Itachi was close, and so were his eyes.

Karin turned a corner, the wall inscribed with crude, colorful graffiti, and she realized that the signature had been far closer than she'd thought. It was practically right in front of her. The road they'd been following had branched back onto one of the main streets, the pleasant cobblestone paths. People of all walks of life, well dressed, barely dressed, old, young, and everything in between, strolled along the thoroughfare.

Several turned to look at the bedraggled young girl emerging from the extra-large alley… and then turned away when they saw the lanky boy hefting an enormous sword standing next to her. Anyone with a weapon like that was none of their business.

A younger couple lugging a small child, babbling and excited, tugging along a bright green plush frog, sped up slightly. Other's followed their lead. A tall man with pale skin and spiky black hair stopped talking to a rather portly merchant on the other side of the stall. He leaned back and casually put his back to a wall, beady eyes analyzing the redhead.

Karin didn't care about them, and she knew that Suigetsu didn't either. Her attention was focused on the rather plain, if pleasant, looking building about a block away from her alley entrance. It had a simple wooden entrance with a sliding shouji door, lending it a certain ambience of simplicity and homeliness.

The rest of the entrance was defined by varnished wood and impressively ornate kanji, and in general the whole establishment calmly emanated class. Itachi's chakra was definitely emanating from there.

But…

"What?" Suigetsu asked, seeing her pause. It was the first word he'd spoken to her since they'd entered the town.

Karin spoke back, hesitant. "It's just… I didn't think he'd be in a place like that, is all."

"Huh?" Suigetsu looked where she was. He snorted. "Well, I'm sure everyone enjoys some now and again."

"Sure, but…"

"Ah, come off it Karin. Sasuke went to plenty while we were with him, right?" Suigetsu walked into the street, and for once Karin was the one following him.

"I guess," she said, trailing after him.

Inwardly, she realized that she shouldn't let her suppositions surprise her so much when the reality turned out to be different. But she never would have guessed that Itachi Uchiha would have been lurking in a teashop. It was too domestic. She couldn't picture one of the last of the Uchiha resting on a tatami mat or in a wooden booth, idly sipping at his tea, delicately holding a plain porcelain cup. It was just strange to imagine someone so lethal doing something so normal.

But, she supposed, Itachi couldn't spend all his time brutalizing his brother and fighting off leaders of S-ranked missing-nin. And maybe he spent that off time drinking tea. As she drew closer to the shop, she also drew herself closer to Suigetsu.

"You know the plan?" She didn't whisper, but her voice was certainly hushed. Irrationally, she was afraid that Itachi, who she now knew was less than thirty feet away, would somehow hear their conversation.

Suigetsu didn't share the same fear. "Yeah, yeah. Hand me the tags, will you?" He gestured impatiently, and Karin reached into her back pouch, slowly drawing out three slips of rough paper. Two, she handed to Suigetsu. One, she held onto.

Fuinjutsu was not Karin's greatest strength. That was, of course, her sensory skills and medical jutsu. But in the modern age of shinobi, being a proper doctor was just as much about seals as it was about chakra control and mending wounds. Seals to look inside bodies. Seals to stem bleeding when making precise cuts. Seals for more mundane but nevertheless important purposes, such as regulating heartbeats or keeping a patient unconscious; and, more rarely, seals for making sure that someone didn't move while they were being operated on.

Paralysis seals.

Karin knew enough to get by: more than the average medic-nin did, certainly. Her time with Orochimaru had taught her that at least. But spending two days, moving at high speed, while doing her best to craft one of the strongest disabling seals she had ever pushed herself to make… it certainly hadn't been easy.

She definitely wouldn't have been able to manage it moving at Sasuke's pace. Even now, Karin felt herself somewhat irrationally hating the small slip of paper that had eaten up so much of her time and chakra. Though she also somewhat loved it, because it was that tiny slip of paper that would let her and Suigetsu retrieve Itachi's eyes.

The other paper Suigetsu now held was not as esoteric. It was merely a storage scroll, and the moment it was in Suigetsu's hand the pale boy's butcher cleaver of a sword vanished into it. He looked pained, before refocusing on Karin.

"Make sure to place it on his neck," she said, heading for the main entryway. Suigetsu followed close behind her. "It'll work fastest from there."

She reached the door, and bent down next to it, pulling out a canteen and placing it on the ground. She kneeled, and shot a look at Suigetsu, who looked irritated.

"I don't like the idea of just slapping it on him," he said. He began to melt down, his form compressing. The water that made up his body shaped itself into a tinier and tinier cube, his features slipping away as it did. "And I really don't like you carrying me around like this." By the time he said this, he was little more than a hyper-compressed pillar of water, barely a foot tall and two or three inches wide.

Karin unscrewed the extra large water bottle, and Suigetsu obligingly toppled into it. The redhead struggled for a moment to close the bottle back up, before finally managing it as Suigetsu surged down to give her another centimeter of space. Both seals she had handed him bobbed within, inactive.

One of the few people who had remained on the street after the remains of Hebi had made their appearance blinked, and looked down at the bottle of water he was holding. A horrible paranoia stole itself over him. He threw the water to the ground and ran in the other direction.

Karin, ignoring the onlooker, hefted the bottle, over one hundred pounds shoved into a total space of barely two square feet. Without chakra augmentation, she would have stumbled backwards with the weight. As it was, her arms trembled slightly, before she shoved the bottle in the crook of her elbow, trying to carry it naturally. Her robe hid most of it.

"It'll work," Karin murmured. "Trust me." She heard the Hozuki mutter something from within the plastic – no doubt calling her sanity into question – but dismissed it.

Then she snapped her head to the side. There had been a flare of chakra deeper in the town. For a moment, something slimy had drawn up and out, before snapping back into itself, disappearing completely. Now, there was a void.

None of the civilian signatures around the flare disappeared, and Karin didn't hear any sounds of far off destruction. As quickly as the chakra had appeared, it had vanished. She stretched herself to the fullest, trying to ignore the pulsing ache of cold from within the shop. But she still couldn't feel anything from where the flare had originated.

Whatever it had been, it was gone now.

Shaking her head, Karin turned back towards the shop. If it wasn't going to affect them or Itachi, then it was none of her business. It was possible there were other ninja in the town, but if that were the case, it just made her current goal more urgent. If they were able to hide themselves so completely, it would be best to just stay out of their way.

Though for a moment, that chakra had felt so familiar.

Taking a deep breath, she placed her free hand on the door and gently pulled it aside.

###

"So… you ready to talk yet?"

Jiraiya didn't answer. He just kept staring out his window, taking in the sight of the Hidden Village outside.

Naruto fidgeted. Ever since he'd gotten back from his rather short conversation with Hinata, he'd been waiting in anticipation for the Toad Sage to acknowledge him. It hadn't been long: only a minute or two. But for that whole minute Jiraiya hadn't turned towards his apprentice, and Naruto was beginning to get impatient.

The Sannin sighed. It wasn't a weary sound; it wasn't much more than a deep breath. Nevertheless, it prefaced a conversation, and Naruto instinctively sat up a bit straighter. Jiraiya turned to him, his face looking tired but his eyes looking younger than Naruto had ever seen them. He wondered what the pervert and the Hokage had discussed while he'd been gone. He didn't see any sign of Tsunade anywhere; she had left before he'd gotten back. But his sensei seemed much happier. As if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

It made Naruto feel lighter too. He'd never been gladder that Jiraiya had escaped Pain. Seeing him like this, younger and smiling, was invigorating.

"So… you wish to know the incredible secrets of Sage Mode! The art that gave me, the Great Toad Sage of Myōboko, his incredibly awesome, and not at all contrived, title?!" Jiraiya boomed, before trailing off with small, hollow cough. He rubbed the stump of his arm, but Naruto's smile didn't fade. It would take more than a missing arm to bring down his master.

"Uh… yeah?" Naruto said, letting his amusement show on his face.

"Hmmph," Jiraiya hmmphed. "I don't know. Such an unenthusiastic response… you might not be ready, Naruto. Being a sage is a huge responsibility, you know. You have to have your entrance choreographed down to the last second. Are you sure that you are willing to go to those lengths?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "'Course, Jiraiya-sensei. I'll put together the most amazing, fantastic, awesome, jaw-dropping entrance you've ever seen. Now," he leaned forward, "tell me! C'mon! Is it some sort of jutsu?"

Jiraiya chuckled, before his face straightened out again. His tone shifted over to serious, and Naruto began to give his full attention: it wasn't often that Jiraiya gave him a simple, flat out lecture about something, but he always learned a lot when he did.

"I guess you could say that, Naruto. Though it's more of an alteration," he said.

"An alteration?" Naruto asked. He was completely invested in the lesson.

"A jutsu, whether it be genjutsu, ninjutsu, or taijutsu, is when a shinobi molds their existing chakra, or influences another's. It doesn't matter if they're doing it so that they can breathe fire, or punch through stone, or change their shape. They are manipulating their own chakra to do it. Even in the case of a genjutsu, when you add your own chakra to another's system to mess with them, you're still using your own chakra."

Naruto nodded his head. He knew all this already.

Jiraiya gathered his thoughts. "So, a jutsu uses up your own chakra. But something like Sage Mode is completely different. Instead of using your chakra, you are altering it."

"Huh?" Naruto wasn't lost; not yet, at least. But he definitely needed clarification.

"It's actually pretty simple when you think about it," Jiraiya said, frowning. "How much do you know about natural energy?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side. It was all Jiraiya needed to know.

"I'd be surprised if you did know anything about it. It's not exactly common knowledge," he conceded. "Simply put, natural energy is the energy created by everything on this world," Jiraiya said. "It doesn't matter if it uses chakra or not. Every plant, animal, person; even inanimate objects such as mountains and dirt can generate natural energy. It's the presence of life that causes it to be created."

Jiraiya hesitated, before shrugging. "Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's all you really need to know if you want to harness it."

"Harness it?" Naruto asked. He was bent forward again, eager. He could tell this would be where it would become interesting.

"Sage Mode is achieved when you take in natural energy and use it to augment your own chakra; mix it into your system. It makes you much stronger and faster. Your skin can become as hard as steel, and if you're as good as I am you'll start to sense energy around you. Not just natural energy, too. It makes you a fantastic sensor."

"That's awesome!" Naruto was, as always, enthusiastic. "How do I learn it?"

"I learned it from the toads of Mount Myōboko."

"Huh?"

"The ones you have a contract with, Naruto." Jiraiya deadpanned.

"…I knew that," Naruto said, blushing.

"Uh-huh." Amongst other things, Jiraiya was also a master of sarcasm, and at times like this, it shone through.

"So, I just gotta go to the toads and ask them to train me?" Naruto asked.

"It's dangerous training," Jiraiya warned. Naruto frowned for a moment, before his master continued. "I don't doubt you're ready for it. It will hardly be the first dangerous thing you've done. But I'm gonna warn you now: you'll need a lot of patience and discipline if you want to master it."

"Will it make me stronger?" Naruto asked seriously.

Jiraiya blinked at him, a wordless question. Naruto stared back. The Sannin was slightly confused. His student wasn't usually so solemn.

Naruto saw his teacher's confusion, and tried to explain. "I mean…" he scratched the back of his head before he found his voice again. "Listen, Pervy Sage. When Pain came after me…"

He shook his head. "I wasn't good enough. I managed to take out one of his bodies, and I only did that because I let it stab me. I can't exactly just go around getting stabbed over and over next time we meet." He silently chuckled at his own rather morbid joke.

Jiraiya noticed the 'next time', but didn't say anything. After all, it was a foregone conclusion. Nagato was hunting the Jinchūriki, and Naruto was one of them. It was almost certain they would meet again, and it wasn't likely that that meeting wouldn't be a fight.

"So I mean, I need to get stronger. And quick. We were really lucky this time, and no one got too badly hurt… but Hinata and Sakura and Kiba… I mean, I'm basically the only one who met Pain and isn't still in the hospital. So next time, I need to be ready. If Sage Mode is going to help me beat him, I don't care how hard it's going to be. I'll do anything it takes to protect my friends!" Naruto grew more and more impassioned as he went on, and Jiraiya sat back, impressed.

"Well, it'll definitely make you stronger, Naruto, if that's what you're looking for." Jiraiya shifted. "But don't go crazy, okay? It took me a while to get Sage Mode down, and from what you've told me, you dealt Pain a pretty significant blow: you and your friends. He's not going to be ready to pull anything for a while yet."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment. "Don't use your clone trick."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked. Shadow clone training was an incredibly helpful, if tiring, tool; he couldn't understand why his master was telling him to avoid it.

"Taking in natural energy is dangerous. Too much, and some pretty nasty things can happen. Until you have the process mastered, I wouldn't rely on your clones. They might speed you up, but the risk wouldn't be worth it," Jiraiya explained. "Like I said: you have time. And you're not afraid of a little hard work, right?"

Naruto wordlessly shook his head.

"So just be a little patient on this one. Trust me. It'll be worth it."

Naruto sighed. "I know."

They sat in silence for a moment, before Naruto spoke up again. He did so slowly; he was almost positive he was going to regret what he was about to say.

"So…" He wasn't stammering, but it was damn close.

"Hmm?" Jiraiya perked up: ears trained by years of perversity detected something in Naruto's tone, and he reacted accordingly.

"Um… there's this girl…" Naruto didn't get to finish.

"I knew it!" Jiraiya crowed triumphantly, uncaring of the pain in his stump.

"What? What?! How could you know?" Naruto demanded, flushing red.

"When you were in here earlier! I know that look anywhere! You were thinking about her!" Jiraiya said triumphantly.

"No way! You're bluffing!" Naruto said, standing up.

"No way, kid. You don't call me that for no reason, you know!" He tapped the tip of his nose discreetly. "I've been around a long time; I've picked up a thing or two. So," he leaned back, grinning widely. "Who is it? That pink one? Sakura? You been chasing her a while-"

"I wasn't chasing her," Naruto said, embarrassed. His teacher snorted.

"Yeah, right. You were pining after her. Lovestruck. Besotted. Smitten. I could go on, but you get the point." Jiraiya was still grinning. "So, it's her?"

"Uh… no." Naruto spoke quietly; he was suddenly all too aware of how annoying it must have been to be Sakura while he was 'chasing her'. No wonder she'd hit him. He probably would have too.

"Oh?" Jiraiya said, not actually surprised. If that had been the case, Naruto would have been strutting more, and not self-conscious and unsure. "The Hyuuga, then?"

"Huh?" To call Naruto's reaction over the top would have been an understatement. His eyebrows looked like they were desperately trying to escape to the back of his head.

Jiraiya chuckled. "C'mon Naruto. Don't take me for a fool. Both times you've been in here that 'Hinata' girl has been the first person you talked about. So, spill. What happened? No way you went after her. You're way too brainless for that."

Naruto's face made it quite clear he resented what his teacher's assertion, but after a moment, he was forced to come to the same conclusion.

Fighting? Sure, he could do that. Noticing a crush? He had a better chance of making friends with the Kyuubi.

"Uh… well…" He rubbed the back of his head again, trying to figure out the best way to say it.

"Spit it out!" Jiraiya demanded. For him, this was extremely serious business. He'd nearly lost hope for his student in the years they'd traveled together. The number of broken hearts he'd left behind… hearts that he hadn't even known had existed.

"She said that she loved me," Naruto muttered.

Jiraiya stopped his antics for a second. "Really?"

"She meant it, too. I went to talk to her while you and the old laday were doing… whatever you were doing. She's… serious." Naruto was growing redder and redder.

"You actually went to talk to her?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah?" Naruto looked at his master, who was staring at him. He looked impressed. And a little amused. "What?"

"Nothing. That's just much more mature than I would have expected of you, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "I'm glad you did that. So, you two talked?"

"Yeah. It was, I mean, it was nice, but still a little, I dunno. Weird. I don't really…" Naruto hesitated again, before pressing on. "I mean, what should I do?"

Jiraiya opened his mouth, and Naruto interrupted. "And I swear, if you say something pervy, I'm shoving a Rasengan down your throat. And then, I'm telling Tsunade."

Jiraiya closed his mouth. This time, his brow actually creased in thought, and he remained silent for several seconds. Finally, he shrugged.

"I'm not the best person to ask, you know," he warned.

"Yeah," Naruto shot back. "But you're the only one I can ask."

Jiraiya hummed for a second, before throwing his hand up. "I got nothing," he said, still grinning a smile that made Naruto know he was silently laughing at him. "Best thing I can say? Take it slow."

"Take it slow?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." The sage settled back, readjusting: his arm was starting to ache again. Or at least, the place where his arm should have been. "Get to know each other. Talk more. Find out her likes and dislikes. Hell, go on a couple dates."

His eyes suddenly went wide. "Don't go to that ramen place."

"Eh?! But Pervy Sage-" Naruto whined.

"Naruto." Jiraiya fixed his student with the kind of look that denoted a life or death decision. "Please, for the love of all that is good and kind in the world. Do not take her to eat ramen with you. If she sees how you inhale that stuff…"

The sage shivered. "Trust me. It's a bad idea."

"Alright," Naruto conceded. "No ramen," he said, even though something inside him screamed desperately before he stomped it down. "But... I should just… take it slow?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Jiraiya said. "Are you doubting your amazing master?"

"I dunno," the blonde said. "It just sounds too simple."

Jiraiya smiled. "Sometimes, it is just that simple, Naruto. Trust me. Just spend some more time with her. You'll see what I mean."

Naruto sighed. "Okay. But if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

His master snorted. "If this goes wrong, you got no-one but yourself to blame, kid. Don't try to drag me into this thing."

Naruto chuckled, before growing a bit more serious. "Uh… there's another thing I need to talk to you about, actually."

"Oh yeah?" Jiraiya was relaxing again.

"When I was fighting Pain… the Kyuubi talked to me."

Jiraiya stopped relaxing. "It talked to you? You didn't initiate contact?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It was weird. I mean, normally I have to go to it if we want to… talk, I guess. But then, I was just knocked out, but it was there anyway."

"Naruto." Jiraiya looked grim. "That's not good."

"Yeah. I thought so. Jiraiya-sensei, is the seal…" Naruto looked just as grim as his teacher; but underneath that, there was undeniable fear.

"It's getting weaker," Jiraiya confirmed. "You haven't been using the fox's chakra, right?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not since I fought Orochimaru. And that was months ago."

There was a moment of silence, and master and student considered the implications of Naruto's conversation.

"I don't get it," Naruto finally said in frustration. "Why is this happening? Why is it getting weaker?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "The Yondaime designed your seal so that you could use the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto. You know that. It leaks its chakra into your system over time. There's nothing you can do about that: no matter how much I tighten the seal, it won't stop some from getting through."

His remaining hand came up, cupping his chin. "But I doubt that he realized that the Kyuubi's chakra would loosen the seal as more came through." Jiraiya refocused on Naruto. "I'll tighten the seal more; but that's only a temporary fix. We're going to have to figure out how to keep the fox in its cage, or else this will just keep happening."

Naruto shivered. "I can't… I won't let it out."

"I know, Naruto," Jiraiya reassured him. "Don't worry: we'll come up with something. You don't have to worry too much now. It'll be months, maybe even years before the seal degrades to that level."

Naruto nodded, his face grim, but worry still gnawed at him internally, and the toad sage knew it.

"So!" he said enthusiastically, trying to distract his student.

"Tell me about this girl."

###

The teashop was crowded, and Karin couldn't understand why. Itachi's presence was so obvious. How all of these people managed to blithely sit around, drinking their tea and making polite, quiet conversation when something so dangerous was emanating from right next to them…

She would never understand civilians. She knew that they couldn't feel him, but that didn't make them seem any less ignorant.

As soon as she had opened the door, a woman, older than her but still quite young, dressed in an understated grey outfit that screamed 'service', had made a beeline towards her.

Karin wondered if it was to help her, or to tell her (politely, of course) to leave; even after a cursory effort to clean up, the redhead still looked exhausted, and it was obvious she'd been doing some traveling. Hardly the kind of person that a place like this wanted.

"Hello! My name is Izumi! Would you like to take a seat?" The woman looked Karin over, her nose wrinkling. "Or maybe a bath?"

Oh, they were going to get along great.

"I'm looking for someone." Karin pasted a neutral smile on her face, the kind that said, 'Listen, I may be filthy and tired, but the sooner you help me the sooner I'll be out of your perfect, shiny black hair.'

Izumi apparently understood exactly what the smile meant, because she immediately doffed a similar one. Her voice became unnaturally sweet.

"Of course you are. Who is it?" After a brief pause during which she tapped her lip, she bent in and loudly whispered, "A man, I presume?"

Karin's eyebrow twitched. Violently. "Yes," she bit out.

She shifted Suigetsu minutely. She knew that he was laughing at her in his tiny plastic prison.

"What does he look like?" Izumi's smile had moved from cooperative to shark-like.

If she hadn't been trying to stay somewhat unnoticed, Karin would have punched it off.

"He's tall, but not huge. Rather thin. Black hair…" She struggled for a moment. Itachi could be under a henge, in which case any description she gave of him could be for nothing. Then again, if that were the case, there was nothing she could do about it.

"Last I saw him, he was wearing a cloak. Also black, with red clouds."

"Oh!" Izumi's hand came up in front of her mouth. "You must be talking about Itachi!"

Karin stared.

'She knows his name?'

Briefly, she considered the idea that Izumi was Itachi, before disregarding it. The Uchiha wouldn't get anything out of impersonating a serving-lady, after all.

Izumi kept talking. "Well, he doesn't wear that cloak anymore. You're here to see him?"

"He's here?" Karin asked. She already knew he was, of course, but apparently Izumi knew his name: and if she knew that, who knew what else Itachi had told her.

"He's practically a regular customer by now!" Izumi confirmed. "He's spent most of the last two days here. I don't blame him, what with his condition, but-" She looked around conspiratorially before leaning in with a grin, "I'm not complaining."

Karin idly wondered if it was just something about Uchiha men. Also…

'Condition?'

"Can you take me to him?" she asked.

Izumi waffled for a second, but Karin knew what her answer would be.

"Sure," she said, and without another word turned and strode deeper into the building. Karin, silently huffing, followed her. Suigetsu quietly sloshed with every step.

They moved past several tables, most of whose occupants did their best to ignore Karin. The redhead didn't really care about that: in her condition, she preferred to be ignored.

Izumi reached the back of the establishment, and Karin was faced with another set of sliding doors. Private rooms. Unsurprising, really: she doubted Itachi thought it safe to sit around in the open. People besides Karin were searching for him, after all.

Izumi slid the door open, somehow making it look effortlessly graceful. How you did that by opening a door, Karin didn't know, but it made her hate the girl just a little bit more.

"Excuse me? Itachi? Someone is here to see you." Her tone had lost the false sweetness it had held while she was dealing with Karin. Now, it was genuinely cheerful, and… gentle?

"Who is it?" Karin stiffened at the unseen voice. That was, without a doubt, Itachi Uchiha.

Izumi turned to her, a questioning eyebrow cocked. Karin spoke over her, stepping forward.

"Karin," she said.

She could almost hear the cold smile. "Ah. You've finally arrived."

Karin finished stepping past Izumi, brushing her hand against the doorframe as she did so, and found herself looking at Itachi Uchiha's back. The man was seated on the floor, atop a comfortable looking tatami mat set before a low-lying hardwood table.

Izumi had been correct: he was no longer wearing his Akatsuki cloak. However, the cloak he was wearing was functionally identical to it: simply plain black, with a crimson lining. There was only one real difference. A hood was pulled up over his head, hiding his hair, and though Karin couldn't see it, she knew it fell before his face, concealing his features.

No doubt another measure taken to keep those he didn't want to find him from doing just that. As she took another step forward, he lifted a hand. She heard him take a sip from the cup clenched in it.

Itachi set the cup down. "Izumi, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to her alone." He sounded perfectly pleasant. Karin shivered. No one like him should be able to mask themselves so well.

Izumi bowed so hard Karin wouldn't have been surprised if it had cracked her back. "Of course, Itachi. Please, just call if you need anything." She smirked at Karin, and then backed away, closing the door as she did so.

It was silent for a moment. Karin stared at Sasuke's brother's back, and Itachi sat perfectly still.

"Please," he suddenly said. "Take a seat." He gestured to the mat across the table from him.

Karin didn't sit down. Instead, she strode forward, unscrewing the water bottle as she did. Itachi didn't react to the sound.

"So," he said. "What is your plan?"

Karin grit her teeth, but didn't respond. Instead, she upended Suigetsu, and the seal he was holding, on the Uchiha's head. The liquefied Hozuki formed a hand into existence as he fell. It held one of the seals. He slapped it down on Itachi's neck-

And the Uchiha disappeared. Karin blinked.

"How amusing."

She spun around, and found Itachi leaning against the closed door. He was holding his tea again, and he took a sip as he watched her, his eyes unseen beneath the hood. There was a puff of smoke behind her and a muffled splash. Suigetsu had retrieved his sword from the storage tag. Karin could feel him reforming.

The redhead didn't move. Itachi cocked his head. "That was it?" he asked. It sounded like an honest question.

There was a sudden hissing noise, and the Uchiha stilled. Karin grinned.

Itachi dropped his tea.

The door exploded.

Itachi nearly managed to escape the blast despite having less than a second of warning. He threw himself to the side, away from the negligible shrapnel and shaped chakra.

Still, an arm of his cloak was shredded, and he started bleeding from his right leg: a piece of wood was buried in it. The blast from the third and final tag, which Karin had attached to the door, did its job admirably.  Itachi's cup of tea was caught in the wave of force and shattered, an unusually clear sound in the cacophony of the explosion. The fragments were thrown into the far wall, narrowly missing Suigetsu. What was left of the tea splashed there as well.

Suigetsu finished reforming, and hefted the Kubukiribōchō over his shoulder. Itachi rolled to his feet, the hood falling back from his head. There was a moment of silence as the Uchiha rested on one knee, looking towards Karin and Suigetsu who both stared back, astonished.

Karin sucked in a breath, and the patrons of the teashop began screaming. She barely paid them any attention.

Itachi eyes were gone. There were just empty sockets in their place. He was undeniably blind.

"What the fuck?" Suigetsu, as ever, made his feelings on the new development quite clear.

"What… did you do?" Karin asked, astonished. She'd never thought this would have happened.

Taking Itachi's eyes: yes, hopefully. Finding that they were gone when she found him: never.

"I," he said almost ruefully, "was enjoying that tea." Then, he shook his head.

Karin continued to stare.

"I removed them, of course," Itachi calmly stated, as if he hadn't said anything. He was still looking- no, not looking, because he couldn't see, he didn't have anything to see with - right into Karin's eyes.

"Where are they?" she asked desperately, having to speak up over the sound of the shop emptying. The tourists had clearly decided that there were better places to have their tea.

Itachi cocked his head. "In Konoha."

Karin froze. "What?"

Itachi spoke relentlessly, giving her no time to think through what he had said. "I removed them after the fight with Pain. Then-"

Suigetsu rather abruptly interrupted him. "Do you still have Sasuke's?" He grinned.

Itachi, unaware of the Hozuki's intimidating teeth, wordlessly reached into his undamaged sleeve and withdrew a familiar looking jar.

Karin felt a chill go down her spine. She had nearly destroyed Sasuke's eyes. If the tag had been placed just a foot or so to the left…

Her thought process was cut off just as abruptly as Itachi's words had been when Suigetsu charged, his blade pulled back for a decapitating strike.

"Suigetsu-" Karin yelled. They needed Itachi alive! His eyes-

'Wait.'

'Itachi's eyes are gone. He did it himself.'

'And now they're in Konoha.'

Karin's eyes went wide. "Don't!" she finished her shout.

Itachi watched Suigetsu come for him, staring at him as if he could see even without eyes. After a moment of consideration, he ducked, the blade whistling diagonally over his head.

Suigetsu followed the motion, setting up for an overhead chop, but Itachi jumped back as it fell, moving him into the shop's main sitting area. The blade made a minuscule cut in the material over his shoulder, but didn't touch his skin.

Karin stepped forward as the Hozuki did, spinning into another strike. "Suigestu, stop!" she yelled again, but the boy barely listened.

The Kubukiribōchō came in sideways, intent on biting into Itachi's side as the Uchiha regained his footing from his dodge. The blind man stilled, before snapping one arm up and leaning back in the same motion. His palm hit the underside of the blade, forcing it up, and it shot over his head, snipping away hair. The Uchiha spun and planted a foot in Suigetsu's gut, sending him flying back. He struck a table and liquefied, his top half sliding along the top and his bottom half under.

Suigetsu emerged from the other side of the table whole once more, his butcher's blade hefted in a ready stance.

Karin reached his side at the same time and slapped him hard enough to liquefy his head, rather ruining the image.

"Hey!" he managed to burble as soon as his head reformed. "What was that for?!"

"Stop fighting, you idiot!" she yelled. There was a moment of calm as Suigetsu stared at her, uncomprehending, while Itachi remained motionless.

Karin turned to the Uchiha. Sasuke's eyes were still in his hands. She forced herself to not look at them.

"You gave your eyes to the Leaf?" she asked, her voice firm.

"Yes," he answered calmly. She hated that.He was blind. How could he be so composed?

"Why?" she demanded.

"For Sasuke, of course."

Karin rocked back on her heals, and Suigetsu's mouth dropped open. His sword slowly dropped to his side.

"You gave Sasuke your eyes?" Karin didn't understand. Not at all. "But… he wants you dead. You want him dead! Why- I don't-"

"I have never," Itachi murmured, "wanted Sasuke dead."

"Oh yeah?" Suigetsu stepped forward, the Kubukiribōchō raised once more. "Funny way of showing it, then."

Itachi didn't respond. The sound of people fleeing down the street had finally died down, and it absence made the silence all the more apparent.

"I need his help," he finally said.

"And so you took his eyes?" Karin said, scoffing. She was careful to stand behind Suigetsu: the Uchiha had proved himself dangerous even without eyes.

"Yes." Itachi was completely sincere. But Karin's doubt only grew.

"It is a secret of the Uchiha. A way of strengthening the Sharingan; through the exchange of two sibling's eyes." Itachi kept talking, raising the jar that held Sasuke's eyes as he did so. "Why do you think I took them with me, instead of simply destroying them? You're a medic-nin: I'm sure you had suspicions."

So she had been right. Itachi wanted her to implant Sasuke's eyes in him. But…

"You… you're trying to make Sasuke stronger?" she said. It didn't make any sense. Why had he brutalized his brother like he had, then?

"As I said: I need his help." As always, Itachi didn't give any indication to his emotions. Karin wondered: if he was telling the truth, did he feel guilt?

'No. He's probably below that.'

"With what?" Suigetsu asked, suspicion clear in his tone. His voice broke Karin out of her momentary musings.

"The true leader of the Akatsuki is an Uchiha. He and I have a history." Itachi shook his head. "He needs to die. But I can't hope to attend to him by myself. I'll be needing my brother's assistance."

That would be the masked man, then. What kind of 'history' did he and Itachi share? Hadn't Sasuke's brother killed his entire family?

And if he hadn't, how had Sasuke not known about this survivor? Did Itachi want him dead to make a clean sweep? But then why empower Sasuke?

Karin remained silent while Itachi finished, as questions swirled through her mind.

"So, what, you're just conscripting Sasuke to help you take this guy out?" Suigetsu spoke up again. "You think that if you power him up, he'll just drop everything and help you?" Suigetsu chuckled, aimlessly swinging his sword in what he imagined was a menacing manner. "If you haven't noticed, he's kinda focused on killing you. And I doubt ripping his eyes out has endeared him to you."

Karin wondered when Suigetsu had learned the word 'endeared'. Maybe spending time around Sasuke had been better for him in more ways than one.

Itachi shrugged. "I'm confident I can change his mind, if only for a time." And then his face grew hard. "But you don't need to concern yourself with that. All that matters here is the question of what will be done with these." He gestured to Sasuke's eyes with his scuffed hand.

"I would like you to give me Sasuke's eyes, Karin."

"No!" she responded, without even considering the possibility. How could this man even believe she would help him, after what he had done to Sasuke?

Itachi didn't flinch. "I would urge you to reconsider."

"In what world would I help you?" the redhead hissed.

Itachi sighed. "Please, think. I have not harmed Sasuke; not permanently, as least. In fact, he will be stronger than ever, in due time. And I have not wronged you personally. There is no reason for you not to help me."

How could he not understand that taking Sasuke's eyes had set Karin against him? How could he not understand how monstrously cruel that had been to his brother?

And not just that... "And how the hell can you know he'll get your eyes, huh?" she yelled, no longer worrying about her composure. Her chest felt heavy. Everything was going wrong.

And… there was something slimy in her mind.

'What is that?'

Concentrating on the bizarre, slick chakra that had suddenly made itself apparent to her senses, Karin nearly missed Itachi's answer.

"He will." The Uchiha spoke with absolute certainty. "I have ensured it."

"Really?" Suigetsu glared at the elder Uchiha. "And what have you done to fucking 'ensure'-"

Karin's eyes went wide, and the rest of Suigetsu's bitter words became muffled, as she turned inward, focusing. The slick chakra had suddenly been joined by a monstrous, echoing one. It felt like the sea, swirling into an infinite abyss. It and the slime had clashed against each other for a moment; and now both were approaching her position rapidly.

"-'cause I don't fucking think that a-" Suigetsu was still going, Itachi watching him with a stoic expression, when Karin finally opened her mouth.

"Get down!"

Itachi went down without hesitation, cradling Sasuke's eyes beneath him. He hit the wooden floor, and put his burned arm over his head. Suigetsu turned towards Karin with a confused expression on his face just as she threw herself to the ground, beneath one of the tables.

"Wha-" was all he had time to say.

The wall behind him exploded.

Not like the door had when Karin had placed the tag on it. The wall bent inwards for a moment, futilely fighting the pressure lain against it, if only for a moment. Its resistance was so brief that it was imperceptible. And then it shattered, chunks of concrete and wood throwing themselves away, filling the world with deadly shrapnel.

The vast majority of it missed both Karin and Itachi. Safe on the floor, the mild hurricane of debris rolled over their head, blowing their hair back and shredding Itachi's hood, but leaving both of them mostly unharmed. Had Suigetsu, who had remained standing, been anyone other than a Hozuki, he would have been so dead that the very definition of 'overkill' would have had to be expanded.

Fortunately, he was a Hozuki, and so instead of dying a horrifically messy and unexpected death, he was merely rendered down into a decently large puddle, one that splattered itself over a couple meters of what had once been a rather respectable teashop, but was rapidly turning into a perfect example of why urban warfare was avoided throughout the Elemental Nations.

Two figures entered along with the debris that had once been a wall, grappling with each other. The first was a tall man with spiky black hair and blue skin wearing a non-descript black cloak who held a mass of bandages from which protruded dozens of hungry-looking spikes. It was unmistakably Kisame Hoshigaki.

The second was a leaner, paler man. He was also in a black cloak, but that was where his similarities with his attacker ended. His features were delicate, but blunt: he looked more like a doctor than a fighter, a look that was accentuated by the oversized round-rimmed glasses he wore. This man had gone by many names over his life. Most of them he'd chosen for himself. But he had always preferred the first one that had been given to him: Kabuto.

The two men slammed to the floor amidst the rubble, and there was a flurry of motion. Kisame struck first, darting forward and crashing his forehead into Kabuto's, rocking the smaller man back with the force of the blow. But Kabuto responded almost immediately, slashing his glowing blue hand across the arm that held him.

Kisame's arm fell limp, and Kabuto slithered from it, his body elongating bizarrely. Kisame struck at him with his other limb, but the angle was too awkward and he barely grazed Kabuto's face. Rolling along the ground away from the large blue man, Kabuto sprang to his feet, one hand relaxed but ready at his sides, and the other adjusting his glasses farther up his nose. A casual smirk was already making its way onto his face.

In the same moment, Kisame rolled backwards, sweeping his squirming sword from the ground and regaining his feet in the same motion. He settled into a ready stance, the blade set horizontally in front of him, and grinned. His left arm hung slack: Kabuto's touch had disabled it.

Karin looked up. Itachi didn't, but he did pull himself to his feet, forming a rough triangle out of him, Kisame, and Kabuto. As he stood, he slid Sasuke's eyes along the ground towards Karin, who grabbed them with both hands, a shocked look jumping onto her face.

Suigetsu squirmed on the ground, tiredly reforming. If he'd had a mouth, the sheer amount of horrifying curses would likely have melted all of the teashop's occupant's ears.

And so, three seconds after Karin had given her warning, a formerly well-put-together teashop was in need of drastic and costly repairs, two of the most dangerous missing-nin in the world were facing off against the apprentice of another, and Karin found herself more confused than ever.

"Kabuto?" she gasped, pulling herself from beneath the table, wincing as she did so: a fleck of stone had grazed her arm, and opened up a shallow but lengthy cut. It was already healing, but it stung viciously.

The pale man languidly turned his head towards her, and his smirk grew into a shining grin as it did. "Karin," he said, sounding perfectly cheerful. "How surprising to find you here."

'Kabuto," Karin said again, her voice dropping from questioning into disgusted, "what did you do?"

She wasn't asking about the wall of the teashop, though that probably would have been a reasonable question. Her horrified response was directed at Kabuto himself: specifically, the scales that crept up onto his face, moving from his left arm. They were cracked, flaking… but they were clearly intact and alive, and they lent that side of his face a bizarre chapped look.

Snake scales. And, as Karin stared, she saw another disturbing feature. Kabuto's left eye was yellow, the pupil vertically slit.

He looked just like Orochimaru.

"Oh, this?" He gestured casually at his face. "Just some improvements." Kabuto's grin was vanishing, and the smirk was returning.

But unlike before, this smirk was cruel, and psychotic. The former Leaf ninja's eyes burned with cool madness behind his glasses, and Karin took a step back. Suigetsu finally finished reforming behind her, and she bumped into him as he did.

"Huh," he flatly said, reaching down to retrieve his Executioner's Blade from the floor as Karin moved to his side. "That was annoying."

"And the Hozuki too!" Kabuto truly sounded delighted, even as he bit out the consonants in Suigetsu's name with unneeded precision. "Wonderful! There are so many tests we must catch up on!"

Suigetsu stiffened. But before he could open his mouth, Karin spoke again.

"Why are you here?" she demanded, trying her best not to give any hint of the fear she felt. Kabuto's chakra was twisted, slimy; he no longer felt at all like a human being.

The man in question lowered his head, his glasses glinting in the sunlight that poured in through the recently demolished wall. "Not for you, I promise," he said, though every syllable somehow sounded more deceitful than the last. He jerked his head towards Itachi, who had finally deigned to raise his own.

The motion, rapid and without warning, looked distinctly inhuman, and tossed Kabuto's matted hair about, revealing more scales higher up on his temple.

"Just him."

"Hm." Itachi spoke. "Kabuto Yakushi." He did not sound surprised. "Come to avenge your master, I presume?" Kisame, who had remained silent, grinned.

Kabuto giggled.

Itachi frowned, while Karin took another step back. Suigetsu just snarled and pushed forward, making a square out of the triangle the missing-nin had formed.

Soon, the giggling escalated into manic chuckling. And then, Kabuto threw back his head, stretched his mouth farther than any ordinary jaw could go, and began laughing hysterically. The sound was deranged, and run through with a hissing note, one that made itself apparent in the beat between exhalations.

Itachi shifted, shuriken falling into his left hand. Kisame and Suigetsu both raised their swords.

Karin looked down, and found her foot pressing a familiar piece of paper to the floor. She immediately bent to pick it up, not taking her eyes off any of the others in the room.

Kabuto finally wound down, bring a hand up to wipe at his eye. "Heh." He let out one last deep chuckle. And then, he snapped his head towards Itachi, his eyes wide. "You think Lord Orochimaru is so easy to destroy?!" he hissed.

Itachi made no response, but that didn't deter Kabuto from continuing. "You cannot dream of the power he has!" he said, clenching his left hand and staring at it, fascinated with the play of veins below the surface. "He is immortal! One so weak as you could never hope to kill him, with your limited perception!"

He threw his hand aside, glaring at the Uchiha, before shifting his inhuman stare to Karin. "You can understand, can't you?" He sounded almost pleading, and it only made Karin back farther away from him. "Why I would want, need, that kind of power? How else can I remain in this empty world long enough to-!"

He froze, his eyes twitching in their sockets before he slowly closed them. Kisame and Suigetsu traded glances, before realizing it and quickly looking away. Kabuto took a deep breath, his left hand tightening, and when he opened his eyes again they were flatter.

"I apologize," he said flatly. "I am still… adapting." The familiar smirk returned, and Karin didn't know whether to be relieved or more frightened. "That was unprofessional." He turned back to Itachi.

"Itachi. I'm sorry to have burst in on you like this. Truly, I only intended to check in on you. It appears my impulses got the better of me." He sighed. "Ah well. I won't be making that mistake again."

Kabuto peered closer, frowning. "Hm. A shame about your eyes. Although…" His head whipped towards Karin, and his tongue darted out.

The redhead flinched. "Is that Sasuke I smell?" Kabuto asked. Karin looked down, and found the jar containing his eyes still clenched in a death grip in her hand.

'He can smell them through the container?'

"How morbid," Kabuto grinned. "I believe I understand now, Itachi. I must commend you for your ruthlessness."

"I did what was necessary," the stoic Uchiha said, and Suigetsu snorted.

Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "Justification?" he chuckled. "How you have fallen. To think Orochimaru-sama still wants you as a vessel."

"Enough of this." Kisame stepped forward. "While I'll admit this has been amusing, and I particularly enjoyed that laugh of yours," he grinned, "this is the part where you die, and Samehada eats what's left."

Kabuto coldly chuckled. "Funny," he said. "I was about to say something similar." He made a simple one-handed sign.

Three massive snakes burst from the floor of the teashop, brightly colored with jaws wide, and flung themselves towards Kisame.

"Hah!" He flung himself forward, swinging his sword and slamming one of the summons to the ground with a brutal blow. "About time!"

Things escalated quickly.

Karin jumped back, distancing herself from the fight. As she did, Suigetsu charged straight at Kabuto, pulling his sword back for a blow that would slice the snakelike man in two. Itachi flung a trio of shuriken forward, spaced awkwardly, and began running through signs.

He took a deep breath.

Kisame continued to entertain himself with the oversized summoned snakes. Their hisses had rapidly moved from menacing to panicked. Kabuto grinned, barely raising the corner of his mouth, and moved.

He jumped, horizontally spinning into the air, neatly dodging two of Itachi's shuriken as they shot below him. The third, set to strike him just behind the ear, he caught by guiding his left hand's pinky into the circle at the center of the star. His foot also came up, and crashed into Suigetsu's face, obliterating the Hozuki's features.

Kabuto released the shuriken from his pinky at the same time, sending it flying directly towards Karin. She yelped, and threw her arms up in front of her face. The ninja star dug into her forearm, and she winced as blood began to run down her arm towards the paper she clutched in her hand. Both of her forearms were now slick with a thin layer of her own blood.

Suigetsu came on, uncaring on the blow the head, but also unable to completely alter his blade's path to account for Kabuto's new elevation. So instead, he let go of it.

The Kubukiribōchō flew out of Suigetsu's hands, slicing through the air below Kabuto like a runaway windmill. It sliced away a decent amount of material from the back of Kabuto's cloak, missing his body completely, before burying itself in one of the shop's intact walls, sticking fast.

Kabuto's eyes widened behind his glasses; Suigetsu bared his teeth. He thrust his newly freed hand forward into Kabuto's face. Suigetsu's hand, already lumpy and lacking definition, struck Kabuto square in the face and liquefied, spreading itself over the man's features.

"Gotcha!" he snarled.

Kabuto landed and jumped back, getting away from the Hozuki. The water on his face, however, began to squirm and move of its own accord. Rushing forward, it began to try and shove itself down the man's throat, or push itself beneath his eyes.

Kabuto made an annoyed noise, and a thick yellow material began to speed over his face, keeping the water from suffocating him or invading his eye sockets.

Karin stared. She recognized the material.

'That's chitin. Like Kidōmaru's!'

What little was left of Suigetsu's water on Kabuto's face retreated, making its way back to where it had come. Kabuto stared forward, most of his head encased in the dull yellow chitin, blocking his vision. But not his hearing.

Itachi Uchiha exhaled the deep breath he'd taken merely a few seconds earlier.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."

The Uchiha's grand fireball incinerated a table in between him and Kabuto. The man twitched his head towards the oncoming conflagration, and began making signs even as the chitin around his head cracked and fell to the floor.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" His face finally was completely uncovered, and a volley of water shot from his mouth, shaped in image of a dragon.

The dragon and the fireball collided and destroyed each other, filling the room with steam. Karin's glasses fogged over, and she squinted, trying to get a better look at whatever was happening. The slimy chakra surged, and her eyes went wide.

Kabuto flew from the opaque mist straight at her, his mouth set in a crazed grin, and Karin screamed. He struck her and flowed around her, and in less than a second Karin was secured in a tight hold around her neck. Kabuto could kill her with the slightest twitch of his arm. He stood behind her, and she could here his breathing, harsh but leveling out.

There was a murmur, and the steam burned away, revealing Suigestu, Itachi, and Kisame all standing nearby. The Hozuki's face was twisted in rage, while Kisame looked delighted, covered in blood that his sword eagerly licked at.

Itachi looked calm, but Karin could feel his chakra, and from that, she knew he was agitated. Why would he be worried?

"Now, Itachi," Kabuto said, and Karin could hear him grinning. "Please, carefully consider what you do next. It would be a shame to kill someone as unique as Karin."

"Let go of her, you slimy son a bitch," Suigetsu hissed, but Kisame's hand clapped down on his shoulder before he could do anything else.

The boy turned around, ready to verbally tear into the larger man, and Kisame punched him in the face hard enough to turn most of his upper body to liquid. He bent down towards Suigetsu's lower body, which crumpled into the puddle.

"Hey," he grinned. "Don't get so worked up." He straightened up, turning to his partner. "Well?" he asked. "What do we do? I'm pretty sure you need that girl, Itachi."

"Kabuto," Itachi said. "I would appreciate it if you released her."

"Oh?" Kabuto cocked his head to the side, amused. "And what would you be willing to-"

He froze, his mouth remaining open, mid-speech. His eyes darted down to Karin, still secure in his grip. She looked up at him, and smirked.

She drew her hand away from the hole in the back of his cloak… and the patch of flesh it exposed, directly over his spine.

Kabuto's eyes tried to narrow, failed to do so, twitched horrifically, and then he fell backwards, Karin gracefully stepping from beneath his slack arm. The man toppled to the floor, landing without an ounce of grace, and stayed there.

Karin bent down and wiped the blood from the cuts on her arm on the lower part of Kabuto's cloak. He didn't react. Suigetsu, who had managed to pull himself back together once more, stared, along with Kisame. Itachi seemed to be surprised as well, however much of a minor miracle that may have seemed.

"What?" Suigetsu asked, before chuckling loudly. "What the hell?"

Karin smiled, and kicked Kabuto over onto his side in response. The tag she had handed to Suigetsu, something that had seemed like hours ago but had barely been ten minutes, sat upon Kabuto's spine.

As soon as he saw it, Suigetsu moved straight from chuckling to full blown laughter. And despite how evil it sounded, Karin couldn't help but quietly and exhaustedly join him.

"Heh," Kisame got in on the act, even as his toothy grin grew wider. "Didn't see that coming," he chuckled.

"What happened?" Itachi asked mildly, and suddenly Karin was aware that despite how well he masked it, the Uchiha was blind. He couldn't see the tag.

"Your little medic paralyzed him. Looks like some kinda tag," Kisame said. "Pretty nice, I gotta say."

"Hn," Itachi grunted. Karin almost felt like sighing. Whatever else he was, he was certainly Sasuke's brother.

Suigetsu, still laughing, moved to retrieve the Kubukiribōchō. He yanked it from the wall, and turned back to Kabuto. "Okay," he said, done laughing.

"I'm gonna kill him now."

"Hey, hold up," Kisame said. "Who says you get to kill him?"

"I do," Suigetsu said, completely serious. He strode towards Kabuto, hefting the Executioner's Blade over his shoulder. "It's simple. I called it: so I kill him. Plus," and he became rather grim as he said this, "he and have some unfinished business."

Kisame looked to Itachi, who was frowning. He shrugged. "What do you think, Itachi?" he asked, not really sounding like he cared what the answer would be.

"I believe," the Uchiha said slowly, "that he may be useful."

"Hm?" Kisame wordlessly asked.

Karin felt something behind her; a spasm of chakra. She jumped forward, putting herself closer to the rest of the group, and they all stilled, watching her.

Then, there was a sickening, liquid noise, and all attention was redirected to Kabuto. The man's mouth fell open, growing wider and wider, impossibly so, and something began to push itself up out of the depths of his throat.

The glint of glasses became apparent.

Suigetsu's eyes widened. "Oh what the fuck-!"

Kabuto burst from his own body, squirming across the floor of the teashop, writhing away from the group. He spun around, his teeth bared, and Karin saw a flash of elongated fangs.

The shell of himself he'd left behind, with the tag still affixed to it, slowly decompressed, falling flat and beginning to melt into an odorless, colorless skim upon the hardwood.

"Impressive," Kabuto spat out. "I underestimated you, Karin." He grinned, becoming genial once more, even as he stared up at them from the floor, spread out on all fours. "One more thing that I'll be sure to keep from happening again."

He straightened up, standing on his feet again. "Now, while this has been fun, I'm afraid I can't afford to play with you anymore." He shot a look at the Uchiha. "Itachi. I'll be seeing you again."

Then, before anyone else could react, he brought his hands up in a single seal, and caught fire. Starting from his feet and burning rapidly upward, the flames consumed him completely, leaving nothing behind. And so, a moment later, Kabuto was gone. And so was his chakra.

Karin blinked. So did Suigetsu. Kisame just grinned. And Itachi…

Itachi sightlessly watched the spot where Kabuto had once stood, before sighing heavily and turning to Kisame.

"So," he asked, "what happened?"

Kisame didn't look at Itachi. He was busy moving his arm around; trying to figure out how to undo whatever Kabuto had done to it. "Little snake ambushed me outside. And I was keeping a low profile like you asked, Itachi. Hell," he smirked, gesturing at Suigetsu and Karin, "they walked right past me. I don't know how he figured it out."

"Or why he attacked," Itachi murmured.

"How did you hide from me?" Karin asked Kisame, curious beside herself. She doubted he would respond at all.

He turned to her and grinned; making it clear that Suigetsu was still an amateur when it came to using his intimidating teeth. He waved his sword high with his working arm. Its mouth was still visible, and its tongue flipped out for a moment.

"Samehada," he said proudly.

"You used your sword to hide yourself?" Karin raised an eyebrow.

"Heh." Suigetsu laughed. "I never even thought of that." Karin turned to him, and he answered the unspoken question. "Samehada eats chakra. I bet Kisame had it gorging on him. And it's probably why this place is still standing at all."

"Ah, you flatter me, brat."

Suigetsu grinned at Kisame. "I'd be stupid to underestimate someone who could use Samehada at all, you know."

Itachi shifted, and the subtle motion shut down all conversation in the room. He looked towards Karin.

"You still have Sasuke's eyes?" he asked.

Karin calmly brought them up. "Of course." She'd been careful to make sure Kabuto hadn't had a chance to grab hold of them when he'd taken her hostage.

"Where were we?" he asked. If Karin didn't know better, she'd think he was trying to be funny.

"I'm pretty sure I was just telling you I would never give you Sasuke's eyes," Karin said.

"Oh yes." No, he was trying to be funny, in some horribly opaque way. Karin didn't know whether to find it amusing or sad.

"Hm… What could I say to convince you?" he asked. "I would prefer this be done without coercion, after all."

Karin stared at him for a moment, suddenly aware that however agreeable he and Kisame had been for the past few minutes, they were still incredibly dangerous criminals. In retrospect, she was astounded Itachi had asked her at all.

"What would you say to convince me?" she asked.

"Simply that everyone benefits from you doing so. I would regain my sight, you two would have a powerful missing-nin in your debt," Itachi said. Karin was still doubtful.

"Let's say, purely hypothetically, that I implant Sasuke's eyes in you," she said. Suigetsu shot her a disbelieving look. "What happens to us? What happens to Sasuke?"

Itachi made a thoughtful noise. "You would have to remain by my side after the implantation process."

Karin sucked in a breath, and he put up a hand disarmingly. "No more than a week or two: it will not take long for the eyes to acclimate. But I will need a medic-nin nearby in case there are complications, and you are the most competent available to me."

"And Sasuke?" Karin asked. The implications of spending 'a week or two' in Itachi's presence was a frightening one, but depending on his answer…

"I will ensure that my eyes are implanted in Sasuke," Itachi said. Karin didn't doubt that he could manage it.

However…

"But your eyes are…" Karin trailed off. "Your eyes are damaged?" She grabbed her head suddenly. "But then why did we even…".

Suigetsu broke in. "You used a genjutsu on us, didn't you?" he asked. Calling his frown thunderous would be calling Kisame large. It simply didn't do either of them justice.

Itachi frowned. "So you noticed. Unfortunate."

"Why?"

Itachi sighed. "I was anticipating this moment. I had hoped that by making your motivation for finding me into taking my eyes, rather than Sasuke's, I would be able to alleviate your hostility towards me when I revealed that I had already given them to him."

Karin felt the outrage and practicality warring in her head before practicality won out. "It doesn't matter right now," she said, shaking her head. "What does matter is that your eyes are damaged."

Itachi smiled. Karin took a step back. "True. You'll just have to trust me when I say that that won't be an issue." He was definitely amused.

Karin didn't think Itachi transferring his blindness to his brother was especially funny. However, Itachi continued speaking. "The Sharingan will heal itself: yet another genetic quirk. I'm sure you of all people are familiar with such things."

She traded a glance with Suigetsu, who mouthed 'Are you crazy?' at her quite energetically. She looked back at Itachi, who waited patiently, watching her with empty sockets, and Kisame who stood with one arm slack, watching the whole affair with his perpetual grin.

She couldn't trust him. A week ago, she wouldn't have trusted him. But that was before she had seen the Uchiha's other side.

The side of him that, despite all evidence that he would do the opposite, had gone out of its way to protect Sasuke. The side that had made the man put himself at great personal risk just to keep Pain off of their backs. The side of him that had made the Uchiha abandon Akatsuki. Itachi was not a simple man, but in this one case, she felt that he was telling the truth. She could feel the sincerity practically rolling off his chakra.

Karin sighed. Loudly. Suigetsu flinched.

"Allright," she said, fervently hoping she wouldn't regret her decision.

Itachi didn't smile. Instead, the whole of his face instantly became less severe, the lines relaxing. Kisame's grin grew wider.

"Excellent," he said. Then he sighed and turned to Kisame.

"We won't be coming back here, will we?" he asked.

Kisame looked around, taking in the devastation, his gaze lingering on the ashen remains of the table Itachi had incinerated, before moving on to the sizable hole in the wall.

He chuckled.

"Nope."

###

Two days after Itachi and Kisame had met Karin and Suigetsu within Tanzaku-Gai, Tsunade sat in her office, looking out over the village. It was a peculiar fact of the Hidden Villages that each of their Kage's offices were exposed to the Village at large, instead of being tucked away in a secure location.

Suna's Kazekage was installed in the highest building in the village. While that building only had several windows from which the Kage could look down on the village, 'several windows' was far more windows than most dwellings in Suna had.

The office of the Mizukage had shifted its location many times over the last few decades. At first, such impermanency had been due to the Yondaime Yagura's growing paranoia, and general lack of trust for his subordinates. Then, it had been because there had been no office of Mizukage at all. After the installment of Mei Terumi as Godaime, the Kage's office had been moved to the tallest spire in the village; identical to the Kazekage in all but material.

Iwagakure somewhat broke this mold. The Tsuchikage was placed in the tallest stone tower, yes: but calling that tower exposed would be a mistake. Of course, there was a reason that Iwa was the only village whose Sandaime was still alive, and in power. Ōnoki the Fence-Sitter was not the kind of man to leave himself open to assassination attempts.

Kumogakure held true to the pattern: the Raikage sat atop the village, able to see the whole of his domain through a panoramic window.

And finally, Konoha. While the office of the Hokage sat far back in the village, closer to the monument than the outer walls, it was still the tallest building in the village, and from their office, the kage could look down upon the whole village. Oddly enough, despite this seeming uniformity, each of the Kage had established their structures as they were for different reasons.

The first Kazekage had needed a line of site beyond Suna's imposing walls. Otherwise, he would have risked starting tornadoes inside the village, which he obviously couldn't allow.

Mei had established herself in the tallest building so that she could always keep an eye on the village, and on any young men entering through the front gate. That, and she always held the fear that one day she would wake up, and find the whole thing on fire again. Looking down on it every day, however tedious, eased her mind.

The first Tsuchikage had had purely practical reasons for taking his place in the tallest tower. From there, he could easily fly to any point in the village after taking a small jump.

The Raikage as well, despite the whisperings of megalomania, had made his home at Kumogakure's tallest point for a very good reason. The closer he was to the clouds, the easier it was to call down their lightning.

Hashirama Senju, Konohagakure's Shodai Hokage, had the simplest reasons for placing the office as he did. He liked the view. At the moment, so did his granddaughter. It was a good distraction from the troubles brewing right behind her.

"Tsunade?"

The voice pulled her out of her quiet place. Tsunade sighed, and turned around. Konoha's Elder Council, two-thirds of the long dissolved Team Tobirama, watched her with unreadable eyes. Perhaps her grandfather had had irritating elders to deal with as well? Was that why the view was so fantastic?

"We would appreciate it if you didn't drift off like that, Tsunade," the woman on the left said. Koharu Utatane leaned forward, her mouth set in a line. "You're not quite that old yet."

Tsunade snorted. But her amusement didn't last.

"I am still rather dubious of your decision, Tsunade," the man sitting next to Koharu said. Homura Mitokado adjusted his glasses. "The Uchiha boy. He is dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Tsunade asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, he left the village of his own will. That alone should have been more than enough to brand him a missing-nin," the man said, sounding reasonable. "I understood that you held off on doing so as a personal favor to the Jinchūriki, but-"

"Naruto," Tsunade interrupted.

"What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Homura. He is a shinobi, like any other in this village. You will talk about him as such," Tsunade said calmly. It wasn't the first time she had had this conversation.

Homura shared a glance with Koharu. "Of course. My apologies." He continued. "While I acknowledge that you did not officially declare him missing-nin as a favor to Naruto, that does not change the fact that he spent three years out of the village, under the tutelage of the man who killed Hiruzen."

"Before killing him himself," Tsunade pointed out.

"Attempting to kill him," Koharu cut in, interrupting Tsunade. "According to the tracking team, Itachi was the one who finally put him down."

"Still, that proves that he at least had no malicious intent towards the village. So far, his actions have all helped it," Tsunade argued. "He left, and then devoted his life to killing two of our most dangerous renegades. Hardly something worth punishing, wouldn't you think?"

Koharu grew subtly but noticeably frustrated. "That doesn't change the facts that he left. You must not be so forgiving, Tsunade!"

Tsunade slowly stood up, and Koharu sat up straight, recognizing that she had gone too far.

"Listen to me," the Hokage said. "Sasuke Uchiha, purposefully or not, has done this village a great service. The least we can do in return is give him shelter. He is blind. Itachi, whatever his intentions, has taken his eyes."

Homura leaned back, his features softening. Tsunade continued.

"He is, for all intents and purposes, harmless. And," she smiled, "what do you think Naruto will do if you send him back out of the village?"

Koharu slowly massaged her nose. "Go chasing after him, undoubtedly."

Tsunade nodded. "Exactly," she said. "For the time being, keeping Sasuke in the village in the best option."

"I disagree," a cracked voice spoke up.

Tsunade sighed again. Konoha's shadow had joined the meeting.

Danzō Shimura limped into the room, his stick clicking against the ground with every step.

"Danzō," Tsunade said, suppressing her sigh. "I don't recall inviting you."

The man looked down on her with a single crinkled eye. "I invited myself, Tsunade. Now, tell me," he said, finally deigning to sit.

"What's this I hear about allowing Sasuke Uchiha to remain in the village?"

"As I just finished explaining," Tsunade said, trying not to grit her teeth, "I see no reason not to allow him sanctuary here, considering the service he has done us."

"Service?" Danzō said. Tsunade gave up on suppressing her gritted teeth. She hated when the man did this, feigning ignorance, forcing her to outline her decisions in excruciating detail so he could pick them apart.

"Severely weakening Orochimaru, allowing Itachi Uchiha to finish him off, and tracking down Itachi himself in a bid to kill him. Granted," Tsunade crossed her arms across her chest, "the attempt failed, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored."

"Hmm." Danzō's rattling voice filled the room with cloying condescension.

Tsunade just waited. Homura shifted minutely.

"I believe you are making a mistake, Tsunade," Danzō said.

'Big surprise,' Tsunade thought. Even she would have bet that.

She didn't say that out loud, of course. Instead, she said, "Oh?"

"The Uchiha are a dangerous clan. Prone to madness, and grudges." Danzō shook his head and stood back up, beginning to slowly pace back and forth before the Hokage's desk. His cane repeatedly tapped on the floor.

"Sasuke may be back in the village now. But he has no tie here."

"He has Naruto," Tsunade spoke up, curious where Danzō could be going.

The old man made a dismissive sound. "The Jinchūriki? Whose lung he vaporized three years ago? Hardly a stable bond."

"If you knew Naruto, you wouldn't say that."

Danzō turned to her. "Alas, I haven't had the pleasure. Hiruzen was adamant I not influence the boy."

Tsunade scoffed.

"At any rate, we are not discussing him right now. We are discussing the Uchiha." Danzō came forward, and bent towards Tsunade, carefully enunciating each word. "And he is a danger to the village."

"How could he be?" the Hokage said. "He's blind."

"He won't be for much longer," Danzō said.

Tsunade blinked. "What?"

"Why do you think Itachi sent his eyes back with him?" Danzō asked.

Tsunade blinked again. She chuckled. Danzō watched her, unamused.

"Danzō… I never believed even you could be so paranoid," Tsunade laughed. "Itachi blinding himself, to give his eyes to his brother? The brother who wants him dead?"

Danzō remained steadfast as Tsunade continued to laugh lowly.

"Sharingan, when implanted in another, are capable of unbelievable things," he said, fighting a subtle twitch in his left arm.

Tsunade waved him off. "Please. No more of this nonsense. Who would even give him Itachi's eyes?" she said.

"Your apprentice."

Tsunade sobered instantly. When it came to Sakura, she had to remain on guard. "She was only released from the hospital yesterday."

"And already, she is hinting at her motives," Danzō muttered. "She cares for that boy, despite what he's done. She and the Jinchūriki both. Left to their own devices, who knows what they will do for him?"

"First, you claim that Sasuke is a danger," Tsunade said, her eyes narrowing. "Then that his teammate's concern for him is."

Danzō shifted discretely.

"You are being unusually blunt today, Danzō. Something has you worried, and it's not just our blind Uchiha." Tsunade leaned forward, steepling her fingers.

The bandaged man remained silent.

"I could just order you to tell me, you know," Tsunade said mildly. "I am the Hokage; I doubt even you would disobey such a direct order."

Danzō shot her a look with his single eye, and Tsunade shrugged. He had started this: even the Shadow of Konoha couldn't expect to approach the Hokage with so little tact and expect to not be received in kind.

Danzō remained silent for a moment longer. He looked to his left and shared a brief look with Koharu. The woman's wrinkled mouth firmed, and she nodded. Danzō turned to Homura, and got the same look.

He looked back at Tsunade. Sighed. Opened his mouth.

"He's concerned about me, of course."

It was not Danzō that spoke.

Tsunade's head turned to the left so fast that a normal woman's neck would have broken. Homura and Koharu had similar reactions. Danzō just closed his eye.

"And it's not just that, of course. He's worried about why I sent Sasuke back here. And worried why he came with such powerful eyes alongside him." The voice continued, as its owner moved away from the side of Tsunade's desk, and the open window there, towards the center of the room.

All of its occupants merely stared at the man as he steadily walked forward.

"So many worries. But can you blame him?"

Itachi Uchiha reached the center of the Hokage's office, and turned around to face the woman and her counselors. The empty sockets that had replaced his eyes made themselves apparent.

The man's mouth turned up into something that could probably be mistaken as a smile.

"With so many secrets, he must always worry whether one will come out."

Chapter Text

No More Lies

Sasuke Uchiha did not look like he was sleeping peacefully. It was nothing obvious. His face was not twisted in pain, his eyelids did not flutter, but there were signs.  His lip curled up every once in a while. His breathing was rapid, off-tempo. It alternated beneath deep pulls of air and sudden inhalations. His hands tensed, gripping unseen weapons or straightening into imaginary stabs.

Naruto stood by his bedside, watching with closed fists. There was nothing he could do, and he hated that. The last few days had seen nearly everyone released from the hospital. Sakura was up and about, bustling around the village with Ino as if nothing had happened.

The same could be said for Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. Naruto had seen Kiba around: apparently, he had enlisted Kakashi-sensei to help in his training, though Naruto doubted his eternally late teacher would actually show up to many of these sessions.

Shino, he'd found no sign of: as always, the Aburame was elusive. Kiba had claimed he was back with his clan, doing… something. The Inuzuka had been vague. Naruto was pretty sure that he hadn't really known either.

Hinata, he'd seen a little of. She'd left the hospital mostly healed, but still in need of bed rest. For the moment, she was stuck in the Hyuuga compound, getting exactly that. Naruto didn't know whether to be glad or disappointed that this made it far more difficult to see her. He had settled for a mixture of both.

But despite the rest of Naruto's friends leaving in decent health and good spirit, Sasuke remained in the hospital. He still hadn't woken up. Naruto did know how he felt about that. It was just like three years ago. The last time Sasuke had met Itachi. Naruto was willing to bet it was for the same reason too.

He'd seen how strong Sasuke had gotten; and his speed: ridiculous.

So of course Itachi had used genjutsu to reduce him to this coma-like state. It had worked so well last time. Though, Naruto noted, last time Sasuke hadn't had nightmares.

The silence of the room was cloying. It was cloudy outside, making the room seem dim despite the artificial lighting. Everything was cast in a shade of grey. Besides the harsh sounds of Sasuke's occasional gasps, there was nothing else in the void that seemed to be formed out the greyness. Even the lighting's muted buzz seemed to appreciate that it was watching over something that demanded silence.

Naruto hated that kind of silence. He'd been subject to something just like it for most of his life. Whenever he'd been alone. Even the muttering of the villagers had been preferable to the empty noise, so he began to speak.

Sasuke might not be able to hear him, but Sasuke hadn't listened to him for most of the time they were together anyway, so what did that matter Not being heard had never stopped Naruto before. Along with many other things, it just made him try harder.

"Hey," he said. Then he winced. That was all he could come up with?

But what was there to say?

Naruto sighed, eerily reminded of a talk he'd had with Hinata a few days ago. The thought made him shiver: he and Sasuke were not like that. Though technically, neither were he and Hinata…

He pushed the thought from his mind, trying to focus on his friend.

"Heh," he chuckled to himself, scratching the back of his head. "I suck at this, huh Sasuke?"

He sighed again.

"Sasuke, I wish... I really wish you'd just wake up, you know? I just want to talk to you." He watched a fist tightened, and amended his statement. "I want to help you. I don't know what went down with you and Itachi, but it can't have been good."

Naruto shifted a foot back. "I don't know what to think of him anymore, honestly. I mean, he helped me and Hinata, and he says that he's after world peace-" another chuckle. "How crazy is that? He kills your whole family, does all this to you, and he's after peace? How can he justify that?"

He sighed once more. It seemed to be becoming a habit of his. "I dunno. I guess, I wish you were awake. I already said that, I know. God, I'm glad you're not awake, actually. You'd have torn me a new one by now. But, it's like…"

Naruto grinned momentarily. "We brought you back. That promise I made Sakura? I actually did it!" He sobered up quickly. "But we didn't bring you back. Right now, you're just some guy. Some unconscious guy. It doesn't feel like we actually won at all."

Naruto pondered for a moment, his hand actually coming up to his chin. He nodded. "It feels like Itachi won."

He shook his head. "It's not fair. I mean, all that training you did, all the training I did, and he still gets away with it. I mean, he gave us his eyes, but Sakura says that since he had yours, he's probably going to… you know, use them."

He made a face. "Who does that? I mean, I guess Kakashi-sensei has a Sharingan, but that's different. He was given that. Itachi just taking yours…"

Naruto's own fist tightened, but he laughed. "I don't even know what I'm saying. I came here to talk to you, and all I can talk about is Itachi. I really am bad at this."

He raised his hand up, looking at Sasuke lying prone in bed. Slowly, he extended his fist towards the Uchiha.

"I mean, we always talked better with our fists, right?" He smiled. "That's why you're my friend in the first place, you know? You always got me, even if you didn't want to."

He laughed again, and there was no bitterness in it. "Too bad for you. Now you gotta deal with me, whether you like it or not."

Naruto's face slowly firmed, and he let his hand drop to his side. "I'm not going to just let you slip away again, Sasuke," he said, his eyes hard. "If it comes down to it, I'll help you deal with Itachi. I don't care if he really is after world peace. What he did to you, it's unforgivable."

He shifted slightly. "I'm leaving the village real soon. For some crazy training. It's gonna make me a lot stronger: when I come back, I think we'll be about the same level. Hell, maybe I'll even be stronger than you," he smirked.

"Then, you can deal with Itachi however you want. And I'll just do what I've always done."

"And what is that?"

The voice cut through Naruto's own, and he spun around, hands dropping towards his pouch of kunai by pure instinct. He set himself between Sasuke and the new arrival, his teeth bared and the knife raised.

There was a moment of calm. The light flickered. Naruto's eyes just grew harder.

"Protect people," he snarled.

Itachi Uchiha just cocked his eyeless head.

"A noble goal," he murmured.

"But what if you come to the point where you cannot?"

###

"Why are you here?" Tsunade slowly stood up, pushing her desk away from herself as she did. It scraped horribly along the wooden floor, but having enough space to avoid any oncoming attacks was more important than preserving the hardwood. Though the scratches were a terrible shame.

Koharu and Homura slid out of their chairs simultaneously, turning towards Itachi and putting themselves to the side of the desk at the same time. Koharu's wrinkled mouth was tightened in a severe display of disapproval; Homura merely looked irritated. Danzō took one step back, before turning to face Itachi as well. He bent slowly to retrieve his cane, not taking his eyes off the Uchiha.

"I made a promise to someone," the man said, apparently untroubled by the show of solidarity from the veteran shinobi in the room.

"Sasuke?" Tsunade asked. Itachi didn't seem to care she was fishing for information. Instead, he just shrugged.

"His comrade," he said.

A member of Hebi, then; Karin or Suigetsu, who had yet to be accounted for.

"And what was that 'promise?'"

"That I would ensure Sasuke had my eyes implanted in him."

Tsunade rocked back on her heels. That had been the last thing she would have expected the Uchiha to say. The councilors shared a meaningful glance.

'Wait...' the Hokage slowly realized.

'Danzō was right?'

The man in question rapped his cane against the floor. "Absolutely not," he rasped.

Itachi turned his head to Danzō, sightlessly staring him down. The man didn't give an inch. Tsunade couldn't decide if he was brave, or just being stubborn.

"Sasuke will be given my eyes," Itachi said.

"Why?" Danzō asked, a whiff of condescension in his tone. "Because you demand it?" He shook his head. "How childish, Itachi. I never thought-"

"What you think," Itachi said mildly, "has never mattered less to me. I came here to make sure that Sasuke would receive my eyes. That is the only outcome there will be."

He spoke with absolute confidence. If Itachi had said that the clouds would vanish and the sun shine down, Tsunade would have found herself believing him.

How he managed to instill this into his voice as he stood blind and alone against four of Konoha's veterans, she would never know.

"And if I killed you now?" Danzō said. Tsunade took a step forward, opening her mouth. This was going too far. There was too much unexplained. There was something obvious that she was missing: Danzō and Itachi were hiding something from her. Their talk wasn't the kind of talk a missing-nin and a village elder were supposed to have.

And the fact that Danzō had somehow known why Itachi had removed his eyes-

Itachi's response cut hers off. "There would be no point."

Danzō stiffened. "Ah," he said, sounding disappointed. "Merely a clone."

"Shisui's eye still serves you well then, I take it?" Itachi said in a level tone.

Danzō hmmphed. Tsunade stared at his back. She began to grit her teeth. The meaning of this conversation was going right over her head, and the fact that her subordinates knew what she didn't was starting to piss her off.

Meanwhile, the bandaged man walked forward, bringing his hand up. "If you cannot come before us in person, Itachi, then there is no point in this. Now-" he raised the cane, ready to bring it down on the shadow clone's head. "Begone."

"I wouldn't do that," Itachi said. Danzō froze. The Uchiha's hand came up and pulled the collar of his cloak down, exposing his collarbone and the space just below it.

Danzō's eye widened. He very carefully took a step back, and Tsunade hissed, seeing what he had. Itachi's chest was covered in paper tags, familiar emblems emblazoned on all of them. Explosives.

The Hokage's mind immediately went into overdrive. If she immediately activated her seal, then she would survive the blast. But what to do about the counselors? She couldn't save them as well-

Though if Itachi had wanted them dead, he would have set off the tags by now, instead of revealing them.

Tsunade fractionally relaxed.

"If you disrupt me, then these tags will go off," Itachi said. "So please: let me speak my piece, at least."

Danzō didn't say anything. Tsunade seized the opportunity to take control of the exchange for the moment.

"You want us to implant your eyes in Sasuke?" she confirmed. Itachi just nodded. Tsunade followed it up with the ever-logical question.

"Why?"

"I need Sasuke's help," he said.

Tsunade laughed. "And you blinded him?"

Itachi didn't react. "Yes. It was necessary."

"Necessary?" Tsunade asked, serious again.

"For the development of his Sharingan. Though it's more than that. His shall become mine, and mine his. And we will both be the stronger for it," Itachi said. Tsunade stared at him.

"And why," she said, incredulous, "would I allow you to grow in power? Even if you did us a service by saving Naruto from Pain, you are still a traitor to Konoha."

Itachi shifted dramatically. He didn't look at Danzō; it was nothing so obvious. Nevertheless, the whole room became colder, and everyone present knew that the ice filling the office was aimed solely at the one-eyed man.

"You haven't told her?" Itachi said quietly.

"Konoha's previous affairs are not her business," the man said stiffly. "If you will recall, she was busy exploring the bars and gambling halls of the Elemental Nations at the time. Hardly-"

"She is the Hokage," Itachi murmured. His voice was filled with true emotion: disappointment. "How is this village to reach peace if people like you," he said, finally deigning to turn towards Danzō, "do not allow its own leaders to learn from the past?"

Tsunade looked between the two of them. "Enough of this dancing," she said flatly. Then, directly addressing the older man, "Danzō. You and Itachi have had prior dealings, haven't you? Don't take me for a fool."

The man looked like he'd just been forced to swallow a lemon. His lips became straight as a razor, and his visible eye shut tightly for a moment.

"Yes," he finally said, the word sharp.

"Regarding what?" Tsunade asked. Itachi remained silent, watching the conversation from the sidelines.

"The extermination of the Uchiha Clan," the bandaged man said. Homura flinched. Tsunade stared, speechless.

She turned back to Itachi, her hair whipping with the motion. "You did it under orders?"

Itachi nodded. "The clan was planning a coup: they intended to kill Konoha's leadership, and install my father as the Hokage. Negotiations failed."

Itachi's pause held more in it than Tsunade had ever thought could have emerged from the stoic mass-murderer. "I was assigned to deal with them, in exchange for Sasuke's life."

Danzō remained still throughout Itachi's explanation. When Tsunade turned to him, he placidly did her the same courtesy. His eye remained closed, though it twitched occasionally. It was clear he was thinking furiously.

"Exchange?" she hissed. "Danzō. What did you do? Sarutobi-sensei would never have condoned such-"

"And that is why he is dead. That is why the Leaf is in the position it is in," the man interrupted her. Tsunade stared at him, her brow twitching in fury, but he spoke on nonetheless.

"He was too peace-loving to kill his student when he had the chance, and Orochimaru became one of this village's greatest threats. He did not have the conviction to cripple the Stone in the Second War, and so they remain an ever-present irritant at our borders. He capitulated to Kumogakure with the Hyuuga, and even today the Land of Lightning considers us cowards who back away at the first sign of battle."

Danzō's grip tightened on his cane, but his voice remained unruffled. "How do you think he would have dealt with the Uchiha? Parley: empty words. What they wanted, he could not have given them. And then, when they had burned down his tower and slaughtered our ninja, then he would have dealt with them. The Village would have been drastically weakened, far more than what just the Uchiha's absence has done to it!"

He pounded his cane into the ground, his posture rigid. "Perhaps you have forgotten, Tsunade, but we are shinobi. We do not trade words! We trade blood, and iron. We obey orders. Itachi here," he gestured to the stock-still Uchiha behind him, "is the truest shinobi this village has produced in ages! When the time came, he did not question. He did not allow his heart to endanger the village! He listened, and he acted. The Leaf owes everything it has today to him!"

The office was silent for a moment. Danzō breathed out, steadying himself, and placed his cane back down.

"I did what was necessary. Something that Itachi apparently understands, considering what he has done to the brother he sacrificed everything to save." Danzō turned to the Uchiha in question. "Wouldn't you agree, Itachi?"

The blind man remained silent. Danzō made a dismissive sound. "As I thought," he said. He turned away, back towards Tsunade.

"No."

Danzō froze. His back stayed to Itachi as the Uchiha continued.

"The death of the Uchiha was necessary, Danzō. That is true. Just as what I have done to Sasuke is. But…" Itachi's voice became frigid. The councilors took a physical step back. Tsunade and Danzō remained unmoved, even as the cold billowed against them.

Itachi took a step forward.

"It was you who made it necessary," he said, his voice biting. "It was you who stole the eye of Shisui Uchiha, one of the last loyal Uchiha in the whole of the village, because you believed that its power was better placed in your hands than his. He was the last man who could have aborted the coup without bloodshed, and you murdered him."

Itachi took another step forward. "It was you who went behind the Hokage's back and bartered the life of the clan against my brother's. And that, the murder of my friend, the bargaining of my clan's life: that was not necessary until you made it so."

And another step.

"Do not perpetrate such illusions of nobility. Do not erect such a self-sacrificing facade. It was the Uchiha who were sacrificed, not you. It was Shisui who was sacrificed, not you. You claim that you had to make the difficult decisions, the choices the Sandaime wouldn't, or couldn't, have made. But it was you that caused those decisions to become necessary in the first place."

One last step. Itachi was barely a meter from Danzō's back.

"You have spent so long hidden away, detached from the consequences of your actions. The ends and the means to reach them have become separate to you. You cannot expect to pursue your goals with such-" and then Itachi froze, staring at Danzō with wide sockets.

His words died in his throat, and he lowered his head.

Danzō spoke. He sounded genuinely regretful.

"You are letting your emotions cloud your judgment," the one-eyed man murmured. "Making excuses, attempting to justify your actions."

He sighed. "What happened to you, Itachi? Has your time away from the village dulled you so?"

"I have never been away from Konoha," Itachi countered, his voice quiet. "The Leaf has been in my heart and mind, always. It is how I survived the last ten years."

He raised his head back up, his sockets staring at the back of Danzō's head. "But I am not thirteen anymore, Danzō. It's no longer so easy for you to impress yourself upon me. What I have seen, and what I have done, has shaped me more than you ever hoped you could."

Danzō sighed again. "That is a shame. If that is true, Itachi, then I really did fail. It would have better to wipe out the Uchiha wholesale, regardless of the danger to the village. Having a broken weapon such as yourself loose outside its walls… just look at what it has done to your brother-"

"Enough of this!" Tsunade snapped. She whirled on Danzō, and while the man didn't shrink back, there was a definite stiffening of his spine. "You stole the eye of one of the Uchiha?" She glared at his bandages. "It's under there."

The elder man remained silent. Tsunade's amber eyes narrowed, sharpening. "Isn't it?"

Despite her tone, it was not a question.

Danzō opened his mouth, and Tsunade stomped her foot hard enough for the wood under for a meter around to shatter, revealing the concrete bones of the tower. Homura and Koharu both jumped back; Itachi's clone didn't even flinch.

"No lies, Danzō," the Hokage hissed. The man's mouth shut, and pursed intensely. "No obfuscation. The truth, now."

There was silence, quickly broken by the older man's hard voice. "Yes," he admitted. "For the good of the village. The doujutsu of the Uchiha has been mine for some time now."

"And why," Tsunade asked, "didn't you tell me? As Hokage, knowing the strength of my ninja is paramount. What else have you been hiding?"

This time, Danzō remained stubbornly silent. Tsunade snorted, and turned back to Itachi, who had listened to the whole confrontation without making any sort of movement.

"You want us to give Sasuke your eyes?" she asked. The clone respectfully nodded.

"So that he can 'help you'?" she said, making it clear how much she doubted the idea.

"Yes."

Tsunade sighed: it was the same sound she'd made when Naruto had convinced her to come back to the village; the same sigh she'd allowed out when she'd decided that just because he might be able to bring her brother and lover back, didn't mean Orochimaru didn't deserve a spine-shattering punch.

Capitulation.

Her hand came up, pinching the bridge of her nose, and she leaned back against her desk. The counselors, silently bearing witness, fidgeted uncomfortably, while Danzō watched the whole thing like a statue of a one-eyed hawk.

"With what?" the Hokage asked.

Itachi told her.

###

"You're crazy," Naruto whispered.

Itachi shrugged. He didn't deny it.

"Why do all this?" Naruto asked. "It doesn't make any sense. If you want this guy dead, why not just come back to the village? Get help here? If you had to kill the Uchiha because they were going after the Old Man, why not tell Sasuke the truth? Why did you do what you did him that night? He didn't deserve that."

Naruto's voice got louder, and the kunai in his hand sliced through the air as he gestured wildly. "No one deserved that! You, what you did, you ruined him! I mean, I'm me, and even I noticed!"

'You're why he left.'

He stopped his wild movements, his lip twisting. "I just, I don't-"

"Naruto," Itachi said calmly, and the blonde went quiet for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The hospital room was silent but for the flickering noise the lighting made.

Naruto's hand tightened around the kunai he held low at his side, but he made no attempt to raise it.

"Please. Let me talk to Sasuke, and then you'll have the answer to all your questions. Better yet, you'll have it from Sasuke himself, should he choose to share them with you," the older Uchiha said.

Naruto raised his head and opened his eyes. "So you're here to tell him now?" he asked.

Itachi wordlessly nodded.

"How?" Naruto asked. "He won't wake up."

"I know," Itachi said. "I ensured that he wouldn't." He stepped forward, and Naruto invisibly tensed.

"I'm not going to hurt him," the Uchiha promised, not slowing down his approach. "I'm never going to hurt him again."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly at the unmistakable promise in Itachi's statement. He struggled with himself for a moment, looking as though he would raise the knife again, before exhaling roughly and going limp.

Itachi stepped forward, but before he pushed past the blonde, Naruto turned his head and looked directly into where the Uchiha's eyes should have been. The intent stopped Itachi in his tracks.

"If you do…" Naruto whispered. "I don't care if you're a clone, Itachi. I'll find a way to hurt you worse than you can imagine."

"You could do nothing worse to me that I haven't already done to myself," the Uchiha murmured.

Naruto snorted, unimpressed. "Don't count on it." And just like Itachi had held promise in his words, so too did Naruto. He stepped aside, and Itachi brushed past him, coming to a stop next to Sasuke. Naruto watched him with wary eyes, but he made no move to stop him.

The elder Uchiha looked down on his brother with unseeing sockets, silent and still. Naruto wondered what he was doing. What he was thinking.

After a second, Itachi sighed and his hand came up, slowly moving towards Sasuke's face. Two of the fingers extended, the middle and index, and as Naruto watched they pressed against the younger brother's forehead. Itachi closed his eye sockets, and Sasuke's breathing suddenly became regular. The room was quieter than ever, and Naruto watched.

And waited.

###

Sasuke stumbled backwards.

This was different. This dream was different.

He was in the Uchiha compound. Just inside the main gate. It was a sunny day; the cloudless sky creating a sense of infinity above. The distant sound of birds earned a moment of his attention, but he directed his focus onto the street in front of him.

He'd walked here a thousand times, and he would have a thousand more if Itachi hadn't turned this whole place into a bad memory. Here was where his aunt had snuck him sugary candies in the evening. There was where he had run along the walls, full of childish confidence that he wouldn't fall. And that even if he did, his brother would catch him.

But they weren't here, of course. Everyone who should have been here was dead, or worse. But it was far more than that. There was no Orochimaru here. No Itachi. No Naruto or Sakura or Kakashi or father or mother. Or anyone. He was alone.

This wasn't a dream.

He'd realized it slowly. As Itachi had taken his eyes for the third time, he'd begun to suspect, through the agony and screaming and unheard pleading, that something was wrong. The fifth time, he'd been sure. This wasn't real. The sixth time, he'd thought it genjutsu. But that wasn't right - he would have broken out of it by now.

Both times that the Tsukuyomi had been used on him, Sasuke had had no dreams. His sleep had been an abyss; he hadn't realized for some time how long he'd been in the darkness, when he finally woke up. He didn't know why this time was different. It wasn't real, and it wasn't a genjutsu. Thus, Sasuke had come to realize that it must have been a dream.

This realization (of course) had not granted him any sort of peace. No control.

It was just one more thing he couldn't do anything about, and that realization had sent him even deeper. But this place… it was different.

"Sasuke."

That voice. Behind him. Slightly above him. It was always that voice.

'Why?'

Itachi had won. He'd taken his eyes. There was nothing Sasuke could do now.

The only thing to do was live through these nightmares, and wait to die in his waking hours, whenever they came. What hope did he have in either world? He was powerless in the dreams, and even awake, alive – he was blind now. Helpless. Like he always was, in the face of his brother's immensity.

He couldn't hope to beat Itachi in either state.

But… this wasn't a dream.

And here, Itachi hadn't taken his eyes yet.

Sasuke whirled around and brought his fist to his brother's face with every ounce of his strength.

There was a snapping noise, and Itachi stumbled back, his hand coming up to his nose. Sasuke didn't give him a chance to collect himself. He stepped forward, growling, and hammered his fist into his brother's gut: one strike, lightning quick, and then another, twisting his fist.

Itachi's lungs emptied, and he doubled over slightly. Sasuke's other hand came up and smashed down on the back of his head, gripping the scalp. Sasuke threw his brother down like a rag doll, slamming Itachi's face into the street. He went airborne with the force of the strike, and his legs came up as he ground Itachi's face into the ground. The pavement exploded, and Itachi was left in a small crater, blood pooling around his head.

Sasuke moved into a cartwheel, his hand still pressed down on Itachi's head, and came back to his feet. As soon as he did, he kicked his brother in the side, flipping him over onto his back. Itachi's ruined face gazed up at him, his features a mess of mangled flesh and blood.

His nose was completely destroyed. Only his eyes were recognizable, flat onyx staring up at him.

Itachi's mouth opened, irrespective of the blood that trickled onto his teeth. "Sasuke," he said again.

Sasuke didn't know if his brother meant to say more after that, because he raised one of his legs and stomped on Itachi's throat with all his considerable strength, crushing his brother's trachea. Whatever the elder Uchiha had been about to say died with an empty whine of escaping air, and Sasuke bent over, grinding his heel.

He panted, and looked down at the body. Itachi stared up at him with untroubled eyes. He didn't look like someone who had just had his throat crushed. Sasuke hated that. Hated those eyes, hated how peaceful they looked. Itachi didn't deserve to die with peaceful eyes.

"Please-" The voice was behind him again.

Yelling wordlessly, Sasuke jumped into the air and spun towards the voice, catching his brother in the temple with a vicious roundhouse kick. As Itachi stumbled back, Sasuke steadied himself once again and darted forward, his teeth bared.

He buried his fist in Itachi's face. Again. And again.

Sasuke drove his brother back, smashing punches against his head and torso. Itachi reeled from the assault, and Sasuke shot forward once more and swept his legs from under him. But before his brother could hit the ground, Sasuke redirected his foot and punted Itachi in the kidney, sending him tumbling along the street.

The older Uchiha hit the ground and rolled, coming back to his feet. A thin line of blood ran from a cut on his forehead, as well as from his nose, and patchwork bruises marred every inch of his face.

"I understand-"

"NO!" Sasuke yelled, sprinting forward. Lightning sparked into existence at his fingertips, and he ran his hand through Itachi's chest, feeling his brother's ribs and organs boiling away before the electric lance. His hand burst from his sibling's back, and Itachi slumped into him.

Instead of more words, only blood emerged from his mouth, hacking out and spattering onto Sasuke's shoulder. Uncaring, he yanked his fist from his brother's chest, catching a flash of the blood that had replaced the lightning.

"You don't talk," Sasuke snarled. He pushed the limp body forward, and it crashed back onto the street, sprawled as blood ran from the hole in its chest.

"You die."

"If that's really what you want," Itachi said, standing on one of the walls that surrounded the compound, looking down on him. "But I hope you'll forgive me: I need to talk to you anyway."

Sasuke looked up at his brother, his face twisted with hatred. He reached down and grabbed Itachi's mauled body, throwing it at the living form of it perched on the wall. The corpse spun slightly before striking its living counterpart in the chest, and Itachi fell back, out of sight.

Sasuke charged, kicked the wall into stone dust, and found Itachi sitting cross-legged on the other side, now looking up at him.

"I have lied to you many times, you know," he said conversationally.

"I know," Sasuke said as he stalked forward, his voice filled with the kind of hatred that only ten years of devotion to the art could produce. "You lied to all of us! You lied to mother, and father! You lied to Shisui, the ANBU!"

He reached Itachi and kicked him in the face, sending his brother tumbling back with a split lip and bleeding temple. "And you lied to me!" he roared.

Itachi came to a stop, stretched out painfully on the ground. He slowly pulled himself to his feet and Sasuke moved closer. "True," he said, spitting blood. "But there were more."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks for a moment. "More?" he scowled, tone gnarled with contempt.

Itachi nodded. "I lied to you that night as well," he said calmly.

Before he could say anything more, Sasuke rushed him. His hands closed around his brother's throat, and he fell forward, carrying them both down towards the street. Itachi skidded along the ground for a moment, Sasuke on top of him, before they both ground to a stop. Sasuke's hands were still wrapped around Itachi's throat, steadily but surely applying a crushing pressure.

"More lies?" Sasuke hissed. He shook his brother, Itachi's head cracking against the street. "Why!?"

"To protect you," Itachi whispered, the words struggling to form under the pressure.

Sasuke stopped strangling him.

'What?'

A voice murmured in his ear. It was Itachi's, but it wasn't the one pinned beneath him. A memory. Fogged by pain and drugs and shock, but a memory all the same.

'I will always love you,' his brother had whispered to him. 'I am so sorry for what I have done.'

Sasuke's hands drew back, and Itachi took a deep breath.

"I did kill our clan, yes. That was not a lie," he wheezed, but his words were all too understandable. Sasuke watched him with morbid fascination.

"But when I told you that night, that I had done it to test my capacity, to see what I was capable of…" Itachi stared into Sasuke's eyes, and the younger brother couldn't help but think that it was the first time in such a long time that he had seen his brother's eyes without the Sharingan activated.

"That was a lie," Itachi said.

Sasuke took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Then why did you?" he asked, struggling to keep himself under control. "If it wasn't to 'test yourself', what possible reason could you have to have done what you did?"

"I did it under orders."

Sasuke froze. His eyes widened, his body unresponsive to his screaming mind, head, everything. He toppled back, off of Itachi, onto the unrelenting concrete. His brother stood up.

Itachi now loomed over Sasuke, shading him from the sun. Sasuke barely noticed, staring up at the sky without seeing it at all.

It wasn't a real sky, but what did that matter?

'Orders.'

'He did it under orders.'

Sasuke shifted his eyes slightly to the side, looking at Itachi. This time, he did see what he was looking at.

"Whose?" he asked, perfectly calm. Itachi looked down at him, expressionless.

"Whose?" Itachi echoed his brother's question.

"Who ordered the death of our clan?"

Itachi sighed. "I wish I could lie to you again, Sasuke," he said, his face twisting into a strange pained expression. "But that wouldn't accomplish anything."

He remained silent for another moment. Sasuke waited.

"Two men," Itachi finally said.

"Who?"

"One, I already told you about. Madara Uchiha." Itachi pronounced the name as if it were a particularly bitter drink. "The other, well, you don't know him, and hopefully won't for a long time. His name is Danzō Shimura."

Sasuke didn't say anything. He just shifted his eyes away from his brother, staring back up at the sky.

"Sasuke?"

His brother didn't respond.

'Two more to kill,' he was subconsciously deciding.

Then, Itachi said something rather stupid.

"It was the only way to save you."

Sasuke screamed.

Itachi flinched, and his brother kicked his feet from under him, rolling back on top of him.

"SAVE ME?!" Sasuke bellowed, bringing a fist down and smashing Itachi across the face. The elder Uchiha's head snapped to the side, before Sasuke's other fist caught it and rolled it back the other way.

Sasuke didn't stop. Punch after punch, he pummeled his brother into the ground. With every strike, he screamed once more.

"YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SAVED ME?!" It didn't matter that this wasn't real: his Sharingan had activated, spinning so quickly that the tomoe all seemed to form one continuous black circle.

"YOU KILLED THEM ALL! YOU LEFT ME ALONE!" Itachi didn't flinch at the spittle that escaped Sasuke in his rage.

The younger brother paused for a second before striking Itachi in the center of the head, slamming him back into the street with a loud crack.

"Worse than alone!" he continued to yell, but his voice had started to choke. An errant tear escaped one of his eyes, but he didn't try to wipe it away. He was too busy brutalizing his brother, punching out the internalized agony, the uncontrollable fury flooding through him.

"I had nothing! You took all of it!"

He reared back, raising both fists high. "You left me one thing!" He brought his hands down on his brother's face, further flattening it.

"KILLING YOU!"

He kept punching, and with every strike he let another choked sob of a word escape him. Sasuke's knuckles were stinging and broken, caked with blood, some his brother's – most his own.

He didn't care.

"And now-!"

Another hit. Itachi's face was beginning to look like it had gone through a belt-sander.

"I don't even have that!"

Sasuke stopped, raging and crying in the same breath, and let his hands fall to his sides. The knuckles were ruined by his sloppy punches, but whatever they had suffered, Itachi's face had gotten it a hundredfold. Sasuke stared down at the body under him, and blood dripped steadily from his hands onto the street, joining the coagulating puddle leaking from his brother's cranium.

He stayed like that for an eternal moment, straddling the body of his brother, heaving in pained and unsteady breaths. A hand on his shoulder pulled him away from the momentary limbo, and back to his feet.

Sasuke turned around and looked Itachi in the eyes again. His arms were too heavy to lift. His feet felt as though they were filled with lead. His heart begged to stop beating.

"I'm sorry," his brother said.

Sasuke gave up.

He slumped forward, his feet surrendering, his whole body going limp. His knees struck the street first, the rest of him falling like a dead weight-

Itachi bent down and caught him, his grip gentle.

'He's a liar.'

"No... no." Sasuke's voice was quiet; it was shaking with every emotion, the air in his lungs shuddering, his entire self on the verge of collapse. "No...!"

"Sasuke..."

Sasuke's head whipped upwards, his expression contorted with unbridled rage. "Don't tell me you're sorry! I..."

'I don't want you sorry, I want you dead.'

His voice gave out on him, despite his fervent struggles. His fingers clawed at Itachi's flesh, the steadfast grip that held his abdomen to keep him from falling.

'Just let me fall, goddamn it! Let go-'

Sasuke felt his body trembling beneath the weight of something, no- everything, it was most certainly everything-

"I don't want... I don't want to hear it!" Sasuke found his throat constricted, every fiber pulled close, a lump forming, and then he was- "You… can't just…"

He was- "Apologize… I won't hear it!"

He was crying. "Who do you think-!"

The younger boy found his raking grasps on Itachi's arm becoming limp. His whole self was emptying, pouring out. His eyes stung, but he couldn't bring himself to stop them.

Sasuke couldn't do this. Not like this, and not here. Not with his brother's sincere apology ringing in his ears. One day, Sasuke would hate him once more.

Not today.

Sasuke had never cried like this – never emptied himself so, not for so long. At first it was simply the salty trails of tears, and then his throat let a trail of air through – the gasp of air becoming a choked, tearful cry.

And then, so suddenly he didn't even realize that he had started, Sasuke was wailing. Itachi did little more than clutch his little brother close, but the contact was comforting, and Sasuke cried.

And as he did, the emptiness within him ebbed, becoming an eternally cold anger.

'He killed them all!'

It drained away, leaving him with nothing but a deep, burning sadness.

'He killed them all.'

The grief crystalized, and he was relieved.

But through it all… he hated.

Sasuke always hated. It lay atop everything else, bobbing with the storm, boiling with the rage, freezing with the anguish.

And yet…

Relief that Itachi, that his brother had finally returned, colored the hate. Dulled it.

Relief that even with his family gone, he wasn't alone any more; even after all the bonds he had severed, all the friendships thrown away, all he had sacrificed, his brother was still there – he'd been there all along… that relief paled the hate, and disarmed it.

But hate survived. Hate lingered.

Hate that his brother hadn't revealed this to him sooner. Hate that he was relieved in the first place, that it affected him: hate that even after all he'd done, he still was the same whimpering child. But the hate finally drowned in the relief, like a struggling, flailing man finally slipping beneath the waves, and Sasuke gave himself over to it.

The Uchiha brothers stayed as they were for a long time; its passage had little meaning in the genjutsu as it was.

Finally, Sasuke pulled back, and Itachi did as well. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes were warm. He looked like he had back before the clan had died.

Sasuke felt himself suppressing something that could tentatively be labeled a smile at the sight. He didn't want to smile. Itachi didn't deserve a smile, he deserved to be dead.

But Sasuke couldn't kill him now. Couldn't kill him here, and probably couldn't kill him even if he was standing right in front of him. How could he kill the brother who loved him?

So instead, Sasuke frowned.

"I still don't understand," he said. "There's still so much… it doesn't make sense."

"What do you want to know?" Itachi asked. "No more lies: I won't lie to you again, Sasuke."

Sasuke sat still for a second, gathering his thoughts. Itachi watched patiently.

The younger Uchiha had dozens of question, but he settled for-

"Three questions," Sasuke said. "For now, at least."

Itachi waited.

"Why was the clan's death ordered?" Sasuke asked, without stuttering.

"Our father had planned a coup," Itachi answered without pause. "The Uchiha would decapitate the leadership of Konoha, and take over ourselves."

"Why?" Sasuke struggled to remain in control; to remain calm. He needed to hear this.

Itachi shifted. "Ever since the Kyuubi's attack, the Uchiha's power had decreased steadily. As the years passed, it bled away: the military police lost authority over ANBU in the village, and fewer and fewer Uchiha were sent away on missions."

He sighed. "The leadership of the village had stopped trusting us." At Sasuke's unspoken question, he continued. "Madara Uchiha had the power to control the Nine-Tails. When it attacked the village, suspicion naturally fell upon the Uchiha, particularly since it had been contained in a Jinchūriki beforehand."

"Really? Who?" Sasuke asked. Itachi shrugged: he didn't know the container's identity.

"At any rate, I was the one who reported the coup forming in the first place. But I never believed that things would have escalated as they did." He looked uncomfortable for a moment, before falling back into his normal stoic expression.

"And how did you taking care of the coup 'save me' in the first place?" Sasuke bit out, trying to remain calm. His fists clenched, but he managed to remain in control.

"Danzō approached me, behind the back of the Sandaime. He told me that I had to make a choice: the village, or my clan." Itachi shook his head, as though the motion itself would dispel old memories.

"If I chose the clan, the Uchiha would die – down to the last man, woman and child, and be remembered as traitors for as long as Konoha stood."

"And if you chose the village, I would be spared," Sasuke murmured, and Itachi nodded.

"Did mother and father know?" Sasuke asked, before wincing at the inanity of the question. Itachi didn't react to the movement.

"They didn't," he answered, before hesitating. "But they did approve."

Sasuke looked down. Once more, relief and hatred fought a brief war within him. This one also narrowly ended in relief's victory.

Narrowly.

"Okay," he said quietly. The brothers remained quiet for a second, before Sasuke spoke up again.

"Second question, then," he said, his face growing grim. "Why the lies?"

Itachi sucked in a breath, staring at his brother. Then, the impossible happened.

He averted his eyes. Sasuke's own widened considerably. He'd never dreamed that Itachi would ever do something like that.

"I was selfish," his older brother whispered.

"Selfish?"

Itachi kept talking, not making eye contact with Sasuke the whole time.

"I didn't want you to grow up hating the village that you would be protecting. I like to think that was merely practical. But it was more than that."

'Hating the village that demanded the death of my family.'

"Hatred…" Sasuke quietly said, and Itachi swallowed and nodded.

"It was the only way I could think of keeping the honor of the Uchiha intact," he said, his voice soft. "I had to die, and you had to be the one to do it, Sasuke."

Sasuke took a deep breath but didn't say anything, allowing Itachi to continue.

"I had to make you hate me. Not Konoha. And the Tsukuyomi was the best way. The most efficient."

Sasuke chuckled mirthlessly, and Itachi flinched. "Yeah," he said. "It was certainly… efficient."

'Curse me. Hate me. Run… and live.'

"Even that was another lie," Itachi spat, and now there was unmistakable a note of loathing in his voice. "I took every atrocity of that night, imagined or real, and made it a hundred times worse. When I look back, that was my first mistake."

"Your first?"

Itachi shook his head. "I've made more mistakes than you can imagine, Sasuke. That was merely the first."

"The second Tsukuyomi," Sasuke muttered. Itachi nodded, his lips pursed.

"I don't understand," Sasuke said, and now the coldness in his voice had intensified. "I was already set on killing you. Why did you show me their deaths again? What could you gain?"

Itachi stayed quiet. Sasuke stared at him, his eyes hard.

"I joined the Akatsuki because in the wake of the massacre, I truly did believe that its leader's aspirations were possible," Itachi said. Sasuke watched him, confused and slightly angered at the change in topic, but he didn't interrupt.

"I was a different man then," Itachi continued. "Colder. Broken, even, though I hesitate to apply such melodramatic labels to myself.

"The ends began to mean more to me than the methods to achieve them. The death of the Jinchūriki, nine individuals, and whatever thousands of others after them, in exchange for peace? A world where I would not have to create more orphans, for the sake of the many?"

Sasuke's gaze grew somewhat murderous, and Itachi spoke faster. He didn't look worried, but he clearly realized that his chance to speak to his brother on open ground was slipping away.

"It seemed a decent trade to me," he finished.

Itachi shook his head again, while Sasuke watched him with empty eyes.

"At any rate, I was certainly unstable. And while I was aware of it, I was convinced that it wasn't altering my actions; that I was still in control."

'Unstable?'

"I was wrong."

Itachi's voice, flat and pained, brought Sasuke out of his brief regression. The coldness melted away, replaced by confusion.

"When we met in that town, I was happy. Happy to see you," Itachi said with a twitch of his lips. "But then, when you tried to kill me with that chidori…"

Sasuke winced at the memory, while Itachi just looked at something that wasn't there.

"I was angry," Itachi said, as if coming to a decision.

"That I'd tried to kill you?" Sasuke asked, alarmed. He couldn't picture Itachi angry. His brother had always been cold, even when he'd been warm.

"No," Itachi shook his head again. "Angry that after planting hate in you, something I was sure would motivate you, angry that after seven years to train to kill me, you would attempt something so pathetic."

Sasuke bristled, but he still didn't attack his brother. He still wanted to hear what he was going to say.

Itachi sighed. "I have always known that your talents are greater than mine, Sasuke." At Sasuke's look of disbelief, he continued. "Mother and father never noticed, because I did my best to hide it from them. I did not want you to lose your innocence at such a young age like I had, so I protected you. But even so, during those few instances when I helped you train, I was astounded at your progress, time and time again. What took me weeks, you would learn in days, with minimal help, and your eyes..."

He sighed again. "The power of the Uchiha has always stemmed from the strength of our emotions. Love, hate, anger, happiness, you felt these things more acutely than any other member of our clan. The day of the massacre, when you unlocked your Sharingan at age seven, when even I had only been eight when I had done so, it was simply a vindication at the end of a long line of observations."

"I... on the day of the massacre?"

Itachi tilted his head slightly in confusion before a flash of understanding, then shame flew across his eyes. "You do not remember," he whispered. Sasuke rocked back. His brother sounded horrified.

Itachi looked down. "Another error. You most probably suppressed the memory." He shook his head, the ghost of a chuckle escaping him. "I spent all those years…"

Itachi realized that Sasuke was staring at him, his eyes wide, and he immediately regained his composure.

"It doesn't matter. Either way, I know now that both Tsukuyomi's were a mistake. The first one, well, there is no point in wondering at what the past could have been. But I don't believe that using it on you did any good, Sasuke."

Itachi closed his eyes. "I'd foolishly hoped, even in the wake of our parents death, that you wouldn't grow up too quickly, that you could still have a childhood, and I smashed any chance of that, afraid that you wouldn't redeem our clan through my death."

He opened his eyes. "That day; you announced your presence, you charged at me. With a famed assassination jutsu, yes, but right at that moment I knew I'd failed in a way more fundamental than I could understand. That everything had gone wrong. You weren't strong, and I didn't understand why."

Itachi stood up, and actually began pacing. Sasuke watched him, astonished. His brother was showing more emotion than he'd ever hinted at before.

"I thought maybe the first lesson hadn't taken. That-"

'You don't have enough hate.'

Sasuke remembered the voice, the murderer's breath, and his mouth parted in shock.

"You thought that if you reminded me-"

"That you would devote yourself to my death," Itachi confirmed.

The brothers remained quiet for a moment.

"You were right," Sasuke said.

Itachi whirled on him, his gaze sharp and cold. "I was wrong," he barked. "You left Konoha, left your comrades, and sought out Orochimaru. You partook of poisoned power, instead of developing your own. Everything went wrong after that day."

He quieted down, hanging his head. "And once more, it was all my fault."

Sasuke didn't contradict him.

Itachi eventually spoke, his voice more level. "That day changed me," he admitted. "I decided that if I had been wrong about myself, and you, what else had I been mistaken about?"

He shook his head. "All of my plans needed to be reconsidered. The Akatsuki needed to be reconsidered. My partner needed to be reconsidered. Madara needed to be reconsidered."

Itachi blinked, deliberately and slowly. "I came to the conclusion that I'd been wrong about more things than I'd been right. It was sobering, and necessary. I don't want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't been given a reason to reconsider."

Sasuke remained silent. "It was all a mistake?" he finally muttered.

Itachi gave him a sour smile. "Didn't I tell you, once upon a time, Sasuke, that being a genius was a great burden? My accomplishments may be spectacular, but so are my failures."

He closed his eyes. "And the last ten years have been nothing but a string of them."

"Then… if that day changed you so much…" Sasuke faltered, and morbidly chuckled. "We've reached the third question."

He straightened up. "Itachi, why did you take my eyes?" he asked, tone blunt. Itachi's answer would decide whether their next meeting would be a repeat of their last one.

His brother took a deep breath.

"I had hoped not to, but was the only way to ensure Konoha's survival," Itachi said.

Sasuke's Sharingan spun into existence, and Itachi closed his eyes. The younger brother stood up, stock-still

"Again?" he murmured venomously.

Itachi nodded, not showing any hint of what his brother's reaction had done to him. The Sharingan narrowed..

"Why must the Uchiha make all the sacrifices for that village?" Sasuke demanded. "What has-"

"The Uchiha have made such sacrifices," Itachi interrupted, "because it is we who have put the village in the position of needing sacrifices in the first place."

He had stopped pacing, and now he turned to face Sasuke head on. "It was Madara who unleashed the Nine-Tails on Konoha that day, nearly seventeen years ago. He survived the wrath of Hashirama, and even today, he haunts the village, the unpleasant ghost of an unwelcome past."

Itachi stared at Sasuke, and the younger brother's hateful indignation only grew at the look in his older brother's eyes. Itachi believed he was right, with all he could give.

"My goals haven't changed, Sasuke. I will still protect Konoha to my last breath, and I will redeem the Uchiha. And to do that, Madara must die."

"You think you can just blame Madara for our clan's death?" Sasuke hissed, stepping forward, his hands clenching. "After what you did to our parents? Our family?"

"It was his fault that the Uchiha took the path they did," Itachi calmly stated. Sasuke ground his teeth.

"And it was you who ensured that that path ended in their deaths!" he shouted, and Itachi flinched.

"I had no choice." Itachi voice was quiet. He refused to make eye contact.

Sasuke stepped forward, and seized Itachi by his cloak, dragging him closer. The older Uchiha didn't resist.

"No choice?" Sasuke growled. "No choice? You could have stood by your family! By our father! If the Uchiha really were planning a coup, planning to fight the village for disrespecting them... they might have been right to! And the Leaf killed them for it!"

He shook his brother, but Itachi didn't respond, merely watching him with narrow eyes; Sasuke went on.

"If that's the truth… why should you have any loyalty to that rotten village, huh?! It forced you to kill our parents, not Madara!" Sasuke's eyes went wide, and his lip curled up into a twisted snarl. "Konoha killed my clan. Not you. It was-"

"No," Itachi said, and Sasuke snapped back to his brother, glaring at him, the Sharingan wide and whirling. Itachi spoke, his voice hard. He stared his brother in the eye the entire time.

"Konoha did not kill the Uchiha. Madara set them on the stand. And I was their executioner. You cannot blame the village."

"Why not?!" Sasuke yelled in his brother's face. "If I can't kill you-" Itachi's eyes went wide at that statement, "Who is there to blame?! Who do I-?!"

"No one!" Itachi shouted in his brother's face, and Sasuke fell back, astonished. He'd never heard Itachi so loud.

He hit the ground and scooted back slightly. Itachi loomed over him; he looked almost crazed.

"You cannot blame Konoha! You must not blame the village! Whatever its faults, the Hidden Leaf is this cruel world's best chance at peace!" Itachi yelled, advancing on his brother. Sasuke scrambled backwards.

"Like your friend," Itachi spat. "Naruto Uzumaki! For someone with such powerful eyes, Sasuke, you don't see anything! He stayed by your side no matter what, even now! A person like him only comes along once in millennia! And you would throw that all away, just for revenge?!" he spat.

Sasuke shook his head: he'd only heard his brother spit his words like he was one day, long ago, when the clan had confronted him about Shisui's suicide ('Murder', a voice reminded him).

"The idiot?" he spat back. "The dead last? What can a person like him-"

Itachi cut him off with a sweep of his hand. "A boy who has known the worst loneliness someone can suffer and came out the other side smiling? A man who gathers powerful allies around him without even trying? A Jinchūriki who is not a tool, but a person?"

He clenched his fist. "You don't see how momentous he is? If you can't see that, you're truly an idiot!"

Sasuke surged to his feet and threw a punch at Itachi's face. The older brother caught it, and Sasuke bent in close, trying to push his sibling's defenses out of the way.

"You think Naruto has known loneliness?!" he yelled in Itachi's face. "You, who took my family from me at the whims of men who should be dead?! You don't know what loneliness-"

"Has Uzumaki allowed his loneliness to break him?" Itachi asked. "To sever his ties from his home, his friends?" He shook his head. "No."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Sasuke screamed. "As soon as I get out of here, he'll be the first to die! He means nothing to-!"

"Fool," the man who had killed the Uchiha down to the last man, woman, and child hissed. Now, it was Itachi whose voice was poison.

Sasuke froze, suddenly aware of how dangerous his brother was.

"Enough of your self-pity, Sasuke," Itachi said, his voice as hard as granite. "We do not have time for it."

He continued, his voice quiet and deadly. "I realize you feel things more strongly than I. That is the curse of your eyes. But-"

Itachi's own Sharingan finally appeared, and the brother's Uchiha stared at each other with spiraling red eyes.

"You must not let your emotions rule you," he said, taking a deep breath and releasing Sasuke's hand.

The younger Uchiha immediately punched his brother in the face. Itachi skidded back, but he didn't flinch at the blow. He just stared at his brother with pitiless eyes.

Sasuke snarled, and took a step forward. Itachi didn't budge. He just watched him. Sasuke stared back, twitching.

"Stop it," he said.

Itachi didn't.

"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled. "Don't just…" He bared his teeth. "Fight me, dammit! Stop just…"

"You have to learn control," Itachi said. He stepped forward, into Sasuke's reach, but his brother didn't strike out.

"Our clan could have chosen a different path. It's true. Madara's influence could have been burned away." Itachi's nostrils flared. "But all the Uchiha have ever done is react. There was no growth, no development! There was no moving past old grudges: they only built new ones! And eventually, they collapsed under the weight of all that pettiness!"

"How can you talk like that?!" Sasuke roared.

"Because it is the truth," Itachi said.

"Bullshit!"

"No!" Itachi yelled. "Do you think I would have killed our family if it had been any other way, Sasuke?! It came down to them: the old, the bitter, and the blind, and you. You, who had the potential to become the greatest of the Uchiha! Who hadn't been poisoned by their stubbornness!"

Sasuke backed away, gaping, and Itachi stepped forward, animated. "It was the only choice!" he yelled. "You have to see. I need you to see!"

"Why?!" Sasuke yelled back. "So I can just be another tool?! So you can kill Madara?!"

"No." Itachi's hand clapped down on Sasuke's shoulder, and he stiffened. He hadn't seen his brother move. "Not as a tool."

The Sharingan flashed. "As my brother. As the only one who can help me right the wrongs that man has done his own clan!"

"Then why take my eyes?!" Sasuke yelled, knocking Itachi's hand away. His hands, ruined as they were, still managed to curve into fists.

"It was the only way!" Itachi said again. "Everything I've done has led to this point, Sasuke! I'm sorry for that, but it was the only way! When you came into the compound that day, I hoped that I'd be able to make you understand! But the hatred I selfishly placed in you made that impossible! And so, it became clear: either you would kill me and take my eyes, or I would spare you again and take yours!"

"So what?" Sasuke snarled.

Itachi paused. "Do you remember what I told you about the Eternal Mangekyō?"

'When his sight was taken from him, he desperately sought the light, and in his madness, stole his younger brother's eyes.'

Sasuke's face said everything that Itachi needed to know.

"Madara stole his brother's eyes," his older brother reflected. "The Mangekyō: I believe it is a poison. It grants power, true, but that power is corrupt. Ever since I acquired it, my own mind has been suspect. What I did to you only served as more proof to me."

Sasuke glared, but didn't interrupt as Itachi continued.

"I have been planning this since we last met, Sasuke. My last betrayal of you. But it was the best way."

"What you do mean?" Sasuke hands began to unclench.

"After I took your eyes, I took my own as well."

Sasuke blinked, his rage melting away. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.

After a moment, he managed a quiet "What?"

"The Uchiha have maintained a legacy of hate and sacrifice since time immemorial. That has always been our way." Itachi sighed, his shoulders losing the rigidity that had always been there. "And I am tired of it."

"Itachi… I don't…" Sasuke said, staring at his brother.

"I removed my own eyes, and gave them to the retrieval team from Konoha: to your old teammate, Sakura."

Itachi's eyes were hard, but his voice wasn't. "Even now, I am negotiating with the village leaders. My eyes shall become yours. Your eyes shall become mine. The Eternal Mangekyō, shared, not stolen."

Itachi smiled. "And together, we will kill Madara, and ensure the Uchiha name does not expire in infamy."

Sasuke stared at his brother, his mind awhirl and his mouth slightly open. Itachi looked up at the not-sky.

"My time's almost up," he remarked. "The clone has run out of chakra. I won't be able to keep this genjutsu going much longer."

He looked back down at his brother. "Sasuke," he said. "It doesn't matter if you forgive me or not. But don't let your pain, the hatred I caused to grow in you, to blind you from what must be done. Madara has to die if the world is to have a chance at peace."

Sasuke closed his mouth. His eyes narrowed. "I don't forgive you, Itachi," he said. "There must have been another way. Just because-"

Sasuke's voice died as Itachi stepped forward and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him close. Their foreheads bumped into each other, but neither brother seemed to notice.

"Sasuke."

Warmth.

"That doesn't matter."

Family.

"Forgiveness is beyond me. If you must have your revenge, have it on me, its architect. Don't misplace your hate."

Itachi closed his eyes.

A pause. He shook his head

"Make the right decision," he asked.

"I leave it to you. Just know: no matter what you do…"

Acceptance.

"I will always love you."

Itachi vanished.

The street vanished. The sky vanished. The light vanished.

Once more, the dark surrounded Sasuke.

The dark that robbed him of his senses. That penetrated him, bound him to it, and whispered to him of death and hatred and futile revenge. The darkness that followed him for the last ten years, lurking around the corners, beneath his feet, in the steel of his shuriken and kunai and in the shadow cast by his fire and lightning.

But this time, he wasn't alone. This time, even if he was a hypocritical bastard, his brother was at his side.

Sasuke closed his eyes.

###

"You can't believe that will work," Tsunade muttered.

Itachi shrugged. "It must," he said. "Madara is the Uchiha's problem. For the crimes he has perpetrated against the village, even more so. "

He stared at the Hokage, his expression unusually solemn, even for Itachi Uchiha. "Forgive the presumption, Lady Hokage, but I am a killer. I have always been a killer, and I will always be a killer. And unfortunately, I believe I have made my brother one as well."

He smiled. "It is the least we can do, then, to kill the right people."

Danzō cut in. He had remained quiet throughout Itachi's explanation, but he could no longer contain himself.

"Tsunade," he bit out. "I strongly recommend against this. Increasing the power of that boy will not end well for the village. Even if Itachi believes he can set him against the Akatsuki-"

"It is not a matter of 'belief'," Itachi interrupted; Danzō glared. "Sasuke will make the right decision: I trust him."

"He will make the right decision because the man who slaughtered his family 'trusts him'?" Danzō shot back, his tone dry enough to evaporate a small lake. "You truly have fallen, Itachi, if you maintain such fantasies."

The Uchiha did not counter Danzō's attack, merely sightlessly watching the Hokage. Even without eyes, the microscopic fluctuations of his jaw told Tsunade all she needed to know. It was up to her. She never thought she'd see the day where someone like Itachi Uchiha would turn to her for a verdict.

The Hokage sighed. She hadn't agreed to the position under the delusion that she wouldn't have to make controversial decisions, but this one could very well determine the future course of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

If Itachi was telling the truth (and Tsunade, however incredulous she wanted to be, believed that he was), then Konoha would gain two powerful allies, even if only one of them could operate openly as a shinobi of the village. The Mangekyō Sharingan was powerful, plain and simple, and having two sets of them would be an undeniable boon to the village. But if he was lying, or manipulating the situation towards his own ends (something that Danzō of all people had convinced her was unlikely), then there would be three mad Uchiha running around the Elemental Nations, all with the Mangekyō's considerable power, and it would be directly her fault.

And yet, it somehow all came back to someone that wasn't even here, hadn't even been discussed.

Naruto.

Tsunade knew, in her gut, that he would be the one to determine if this turned into a fiasco or not. Naruto was Sasuke's friend, even if the Uchiha had tried to kill him last time they'd met. And Naruto would do anything for his friends.

Not to mention, the kid was annoyingly persuasive. She could probably sort everything out by just shoving the two of them in a room together for a couple days. By the time Sasuke came out, he'd probably be hugging everything in sight and declaring that he would be the next Hokage.

Or it would be a bloodbath the likes of which Konoha had never seen.

Tsunade stifled a chuckle, and Homura cocked an eyebrow at her. She coughed and settled in a thinking pose, her hands clasped in front of her.

The problem was that Naruto was leaving, and soon. Jiraiya had told her that he was ready for Sage training, and she was inclined to agree (though she found the idea of a Jinchūriki Sage to be frankly terrifying). She had no idea how long it would take, and delaying his departure would be unthinkable. He needed to be ready as soon as possible, in the case the Akatsuki made another attempt on him.

Tsunade pinched her nose and made her decision.

Even if Itachi's plan didn't work, or was crazy, or went wrong in a thousand horrifying ways, she trusted Naruto. And if anyone could make sure Sasuke stayed in Konoha, it was him. She would just have to make sure the Uchiha didn't do anything stupid before Naruto got back.

"I'll do the procedure myself," she decided.

"Tsunade…" Koharu muttered, but she didn't say anything more.

Itachi nodded his head respectfully. "Thank you, Lady Hokage. I promise, you will not regret this decision."

"I sincerely hope not," Tsunade said. She clenched one fist. "Itachi. I've placed a lot of trust in you. More trust than you probably deserve."

She pursed her lips. "When will you be ready to take orders?"

The Uchiha stiffened. His spine, if it were possible, became even straighter. "At anytime, ma'am."

"Good," Tsunade nodded. "I assume you're keeping an eye on Sasuke?"

Itachi nodded. Tsunade idly wondered how long it would take her to figure out how Itachi would be keeping an eye on his brother.

"In that case, lay low. If the surgery is successful, and Sasuke regains his sight -you said about two weeks?- then return here. We'll develop a plan to hunt down Madara then."

"He may take action during that time," Itachi warned.

"And could you do anything about it?" Tsunade shot back. "No. You said that Pain would probably take some time to replace his losses. And Jiraiya assures us that he managed to destroy, or at least render ineffective, one of Madara's eyes."

Itachi's eyebrows shot up. He hadn't known that. But the small tic was the only sign of his surprise.

She sat back, one hand coming up. "We have a period of grace. Use it: when you come back into service, however covert it will be, I want you at full strength."

Itachi was still for a second. Finally, he closed his sockets and inclined his head.

And then he vanished, not even a puff of smoke indicating his disappearance. The explosive tags that had been affixed to his chest fluttered to the floor, inert.

"This is a dangerous road you've set us on, Tsunade," Homura muttered.

Tsunade turned to him in mild surprise: he was usually the more reserved member of the council. "This could go wrong for the village in too many ways to count. It would be safer just to neutralize them both right now," he continued, his brow furrowed.

"Maybe," Tsunade said. "But I'm curious."

"Curious?" Danzō shifted slightly, readjusting his cane. His hand was still in an iron grip on it.

"Oh come on," Tsunade smiled. "Don't you want to see how this turns out? It's not every day something so dramatic happens. This could shift the entire power-balance of the hidden villages. And behead the Akatsuki."

Koharu frowned. "You of all people shouldn't be gambling on such an optimistic outcome. These are the Uchiha. They are dangerous."

Tsunade shrugged. "Maybe."

"You didn't tell him about Jiraiya's suspicion, though," Homura noted.

Tsunade smiled. "There was no need. Whether this man actually is Madara Uchiha or not won't matter to Itachi, or to Sasuke. He has still done exactly what they believe he has done, regardless of his identity."

She stood up, and the councilors did as well.

"Now," she said, "I'm going to go visit my new patient: check his condition. I doubt that we were the only ones Itachi visited. And-"

She turned slightly, and her countenance shifted to something just shy of fearsome. Her brow crumpled, and her nose flared slightly.

"Danzō. We'll be having a talk."

The bandaged man gave nothing away, merely slowly closed his one visible eye.

"Very well."

###

"Well, this is disappointing."

Kabuto lowered his head slightly, but didn't bother to do much more. His master knew him well enough to recognize the thin line between disobedience and dangerous casualness that the bespectacled man constantly tread, and right now he was on the correct side of that divider.

"My apologies, Lord. I was unprepared. Your gifts are still influencing me unduly."

There was a rasping chuckle. "That does not surprise me. In fact, I must commend you, Kabuto. You have handled yourself well, considering what a drastic change you have undergone."

Orochimaru sat back in his bed, holding his chin thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, that doesn't change anything. Both of the Uchiha are out of reach now: and this homunculus will only last so long."

Kabuto shifted slightly. Orochimaru's head snapped towards him, like a striking snake. "Yes?"

"They may be out of reach for now, yes…" the former spy said.

"You have a suggestion?" Orochimaru hissed, amused. He had always enjoyed these verbal games with Kabuto.

"Well, I have made improvements to that jutsu while you were away, Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto said. "I had intended to use it as a bargaining chip with the Akatsuki. But I believe it would be better served to deploy it now."

Orochimaru leaned forward. "Yes…" he whispered. The Sannin smiled, and the temperature of the room dropped by several degrees. "You never disappoint, Kabuto. Begin making the necessary preparations."

He leaned back again, his smile only growing wider. "I leave what you collect to your discretion. But please," his tongue lashed out momentarily, "pay some mind to our targets, yes? I wouldn't want Sasuke to be… disappointed."

Kabuto turned, and the overhead lighting glinted off his glasses, hiding his reptilian eyes. His lips drew back, revealing what could only be called fangs.

"Don't worry, master," he said, striding away from Orochimaru's bed. "I have been giving this quite a lot of thought. Trust me."

He turned back, allowing Orochimaru to catch a glimpse of his rather manic grin.

"No one will be disappointed."

Chapter Text

Ten Days

The darkness didn't disappear when Sasuke woke up. If anything, it only grew deeper.

He couldn't see. The reality of his blindness suddenly became inescapable. He was completely helpless; disoriented, blind, and prone.

Sasuke didn't panic; he refused to let it happen. Nevertheless, he felt his blood pounding in his head for a moment, the clarity of his pulse astounding in the emptiness that he found himself stranded in. It took a moment for him to reassert control.

'My eyes shall become yours.'

Itachi. His brother. Shared eyes.

Sasuke slumped, his whole body relaxing. If Itachi was telling the truth, this darkness was only temporary. It would be replaced by the kind of power that he could only dream of. The Mangekyō, without its blindness or the madness Itachi had spoken of. And if his brother was lying, then there was nothing he could do about it anyway. He'd be right back where he had been before their fight, sans eyes.

For now, all he could do was-

There was a subdued noise: the sound of someone minutely shifting their stance. Sasuke's head snapped towards it. It took him a second to realize the motion was pointless.

He didn't speak. Neither did the other person in the room. That didn't matter. Sasuke knew who it would be anyway. Who else could it be? But he still didn't speak. Didn't acknowledge the one he knew was patiently waiting by the side of his bed. Maybe if he ignored him for long enough he would leave.

Sasuke doubted it.

The silence quickly became interminable. There was nothing in the world except the sound of his breathing, the rustling of cloth, and the flickering of a light overhead.

Naruto, as always, broke it first. Sasuke's darkness remained, but now it seemed undeniably familiar as Naruto's voice echoed within it.

"Hey."

He hadn't expected anything less. Sasuke didn't respond. Naruto waited for a moment, before continuing.

"I know you're awake, Sasuke."

He still didn't bother to respond. What was there to say?

He heard a snort. "Fine. If you're going to be that way." There was a pause, and more rustling. Naruto was scratching something. "Your brother was just here."

Sasuke continued to do his best to will himself back into unconsciousness. He didn't want to talk to his former teammate right now. Or ever again, really: that bond was severed. Repairing it, even if it could be done, would be pointless.

"He said he was going to talk to you. Figures he'd use genjutsu to do it, though."

Unconsciously, Sasuke found himself stiffening slightly. How had he known-

Naruto sighed. "I'm not stupid, Sasuke. He poked you, and then popped a couple minutes later. What else could he have been doing?"

Sasuke relaxed again. He heard something outside his room: a muffled groan.

"Oh," Naruto said, sounding unconcerned. "Looks like the ANBU are finally waking up."

He took a deep breath and let it out in an aborted chuckle. "Your brother's really something, huh Sasuke?"

To that, Sasuke finally deigned to respond. Playing dead clearly wasn't working.

"Hm."

The monosyllable managed to convey a small essay's worth of information on what Sasuke thought of his brother.

He could feel Naruto's smile. "Yeah. Thought so."

Sasuke didn't think he'd ever hated his brother as much as he did his former teammate right at that moment. How did he manage to get under his skin so well? It had been less than a minute!

"You know, I came in here to talk to you," Naruto said, unconcerned with the outwardly calm Uchiha laid out in front of him. "But it was almost easier when you were asleep."

He pondered for a moment. Sasuke tried not to think about the fact that he knew what Naruto pondering sounded like. An audible gap in his speech: when he'd just been out of the academy, there'd been a "hmm" accompanying it.

"Nah. It was easier when you were asleep," Naruto concluded.

Sasuke didn't grace that with a response. But he did shift his head slightly against the pillow. It was too coarse. Not that he was picky when it came to what he slept on.

"It doesn't matter right now, I guess," Naruto said. "I just came to say I was glad you were back anyway. And that I was leaving."

Naruto remained silent after that. "So I guess I'll see you later. When I get back-"

"Why?"

Naruto paused. Sasuke couldn't tell what kind of silence it was: disbelieving, or contemplative. He didn't ask. After what seemed like an hour, Naruto spoke.

"Why what?" He actually sounded curious.

"Why-" 'are you glad I'm back, idiot: the last time I saw you I try to kill you' "are you leaving?"

He heard Naruto shrug: arms brushing against the side of his jacket. "You were unconscious for a lot of it. But after Itachi took you away, there was a pretty big fight."

That's right. There had been someone; with a deep voice, standing above him. And then Itachi had taken him somewhere. He hadn't been able to tell, blind and drugged as he was.

Naruto continued talking. "Everyone came out okay, but some of us got pretty messed up. The leader of the Akatsuki was there. He would have gotten me if it weren't for Itachi."

"And?"

"I need to get stronger. So that next time he comes for me, I can keep anyone from getting hurt."

'But not for revenge?'

"So I'm leaving. For Sage training. I don't know when I'll be back. But when I do…"

Naruto's hands pounded together, the sound harsh and loud to Sasuke's starved senses. "I'll definitely be stronger. Maybe even stronger than you."

Three years ago, Sasuke would have known exactly what to say to that.

'In your dreams, idiot.'

But now, the words didn't come to him. Didn't spring automatically from his lips, as they would have. Should have. He was glad. Maybe he actually was free from Naruto after all.

"Hm."

Sasuke froze.

Why had he said that? Why had he said anything?

Naruto laughed. "Yeah. But you'll see." Sasuke heard him take a step back. "I'm going now. Gonna make sure that Juugo hasn't freaked out too much."

Sasuke shifted. Juugo was here as well? Why? Had he followed him? Of course he had. For whatever reason, Juugo needed to be around him.

"I'll see you, Sasuke."

The Uchiha didn't respond. He was still trying to figure out why ever had in the first place, moments ago. He heard Naruto leave the room.

Once more, he was alone in the dark, with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company, and despite Sasuke's seemingly apathetic stillness, he had plenty of company.

###

"You made a mistake."

It had been only a day since Itachi's return to Konoha, and Tsunade once more found herself in her office having a conversation she wasn't especially enjoying. Danzō shifted in his chair, hunching farther forward on his cane. He frowned severely, his whole face crumpling with the motion.

"The Uchiha-" he said, his voice uncompromising.

Tsunade cut him off with a single raised eyebrow: an eyebrow that very clearly said, "I will punch you out of this office if you talk back." It would truly be a shame if she had to ruin the pleasant, sunny day outside with a rain of bandaged geriatrics and broken glass.

Danzō's frown only grew darker, but he subsided, leaning back and sitting straight up in the chair. He gave away no sign of what was going through his head. His breathing was even; his eye still. Tsunade had no idea what he was thinking, but she could guess.

"The Uchiha are another issue altogether," she continued, steepling her fingers. "You did what you felt you had to. The fact that you were likely wrong to do so doesn't change that. Taking action against shinobi intending to assassinate the Hokage is hardly treasonous, after all."

Danzō didn't even pretend to relax, which didn't stop Tsunade's expression from flattening out, or her from leveling a truly terrifying glare at the aging man.

"But," she growled, "However much you thought it was justified, ordering the slaughter of the Uchiha wholesale was hardly rational. Why only keep Sasuke? Surely there were some Uchiha who were unaware of the coup."

Danzō remained as still as a statue, his eye closed.

Tsunade leaned back and crossed her arms, unimpressed. "I think I know why. The Uchiha may have been planning a coup: it hardly matters now anyway. But it was a convenient excuse."

Her eyes narrowed. "I think you wanted the Sharingan, Danzō."

The elder man finally responded. "And you don't think that such a doujutsu would be better kept in my hands than in the hands of unstable traitors?"

Tsunade chuckled. "That wouldn't be your decision to make. That would have been Sarutobi-sensei's."

She bent forward with a glacial smile. "You have always claimed that you live for the village, Danzō: that no matter how suspect your actions seem, you are trying to help Konoha."

"Whatever I do, I do for the good of the Leaf," Danzō rasped.

Tsunade didn't chuckle. She laughed.

And then, with a wide grin that revealed her shining teeth, she spoke.

"You see?" she said, a predatory look worming its way into her eyes. "Right on cue."

The Hokage leaned back again. "But now, I don't think you've been helping the Leaf. I don't think you had the Uchiha killed with the good of Konoha in mind."

Danzō stood up, trembling. "How dare you," he hissed. Tsunade cocked her head. "You, who abandoned the village in its hour of need. Who only came back at the whim of a boy who had no right to be anything beyond a weapon for this village: a weapon that Sarutobi allowed to rust beyond all usefulness," he continued, his voice striking like a snake on every syllable.

His hand tightened on his cane, the wood audibly creaking. "How dare you make such accusations? I have been with Konoha since nearly the beginning. I fought along the Nidaime; I watched him ensure that the Leaf would survive long enough for its next generation to bloom. I stayed in its shadow, content to be the roots of the mighty tree that Konoha has become," he spat, his visible eye wide.

"I have spent the last fifty years ensuring that that tree remains tall: remains healthy. If I must prune some of its branches to ensure that, who are you to say-"

"That you were selfish?" Tsunade interrupted, and Danzō froze, staring down at her. She glared back up at him, unwilling to show anything but derision.

"Selfish-" he said, with a mocking tone in his voice, before Tsunade cut him off once more, crushing his counterpoint like she would a brick wall with a finger.

"Yes. Selfish." The Hokage stood up. Internally, she had briefly debated doing so: staying seated would have made her look more in control of the situation.

Unfortunately, the man in front of her was simply too infuriating for her to do so.

Tsunade kicked her chair back, and began slowly walking around her desk. Danzō remained unmoved.

"You didn't want the Sharingan for the good of the village. You wanted it for yourself," she said, barely keeping her voice from transforming into a snarl.

"The village-" Danzō said, his tone patient.

Tsunade snapped.

"No," she hissed. Danzō's eye went wide, and his mouth closed abruptly.

"There have been no Root agents with Sharingan implants distributed into the ANBU. There have been no academy students losing fragments of their life and waking up the next day with oddly perceptive eyes."

"The Sharingan is hardly so easy to implant," Danzo muttered. "And even if I had, the Uchiha boy-"

"You didn't even try," Tsunade growled.

She finally finished rounding the desk. Her hands were curling and uncurling into fists. Danzō, steadily gazing at her, still refused to take a single step back.

"You made no attempt to make the village stronger, Shadow of Konoha," the Hokage said bitingly. "There have been no offers of replacement surgery for blinded shinobi."

Tsunade reached Danzō. "There have been no mysterious donations."

She buried a finger in his chest. The stoic man flinched: not at the contact, but because the force of Tsunade's poke could easily be equated to being stabbed with a knife.

"You have hoarded the power of the Uchiha. You have not shared it with the village. Instead of strengthening Konoha, you have empowered yourself." Her hand slipped up, moving towards the bandages adorning his face.

Danzō stiffened, attempting to raise his own hand to intercept hers, and found that he couldn't move. Her poke had paralyzed him. Tsunade's hand reached the bandages over Danzō's right eye, and then harshly tore them back. A Sharingan glared out, its tomoe whirling. The pale flesh surrounding it only accented the blood-red iris. It darted, lightning quick, and focused on Tsunade, who glared back at it.

"Itachi told me what your Sharingan could do, Danzō," she said with deadly seriousness. "What the Sharingan of Shisui of the Body Flicker is capable of."

Her gaze didn't waver, and Danzō stared back, the tiniest bead of sweat forming on the back of his neck. He had underestimated her.

"So tell me…" the Hokage said, her lips drawing back and revealing teeth. "Would it be for the 'good of the village' to use it on me?"

Danzō didn't dare move.vDidn't dare answer.

From this distance, Tsunade would be able to sense any use of his Sharingan, even if the eye gave away no visual cue of its activation. Which it certainly would.

And as soon as she sensed or saw any evidence of genjutsu use, she would be able kill him in at least a dozen different ways, none of which he'd be able to counter without resorting to the Izanagi. Her strength and medical jutsu simply made her far too lethal up close.

The bandaged man winced, and Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"I'm going to offer you a deal, Danzō," she said quietly, her hand still uncomfortably close to his face. The older man nodded slowly, outwardly calm.

"You will check into the hospital tomorrow. Nothing serious: you've just been bothered by a rather persistent cough, and want to make sure you'll be able to remain fit for duty, just in case." The blonde's lips turned up slightly into something that could, should the definition loosen enough, perhaps be called a smile.

"I will remove Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan."

Danzō took in a deep breath through his nose, but didn't interrupt. He could see Tsunade's hand in the corner of his Sharingan's vision: the ghost image, brought about by minute muscle twitches, of it plunging forward into his temple was deeply unsettling.

"Once Itachi returns, I will pass it off to him: I'm sure he'll find a use for it. You will also release to me all the Sharingan you no doubt have stored away. I don't know why you haven't seen fit to release them to the Village, but that will end tomorrow."

Danzō gritted his teeth.

"You will agree to this."

"Tsunade," he carefully rasped. "You are making a mistake. Trusting that boy-"

"You seemed to have no problem with trusting him with the death of his family, Danzō. You will agree to this, or I will remove it now," Tsunade growled. Danzō's eye went wide, and he instinctively flinched back slightly.

Tsunade's hand darted forward, forming a claw around his eye. There was a potent silence.

"Choose, Danzō," the Hokage said quietly. "Anesthetics, or none. Prove yourself a true servant of the Leaf, or expose yourself as a traitor."

The Shadow of Konoha stared at her, stock-still.

"You really believe that the Sharingan will do more good for Konoha in the hands of Itachi?" he asked. His voice wasn't incredulous: that would be an exaggeration. But he clearly found the idea ridiculous.

Tsunade didn't back down. Her amber eyes were clear, and her hand was rock-steady. "I believe it will do more good in his hands than yours, yes. You're not even an active shinobi, Danzō. How long has it been since you left the village? Five years? Six?"

As was his habit, Danzō didn't answer. He merely stared at her.

"This is not a matter of the Uchiha anymore, Danzo," Tsunade said. "This is about the strength of the village. Strength you have denied it."

She shook her head slightly.

"No more games. Choose."

If the silence a minute before had been potent, this one was cloying. Unusually, Danzō was the one to break it.

"I have never been…" he said quietly, "nor will I ever be, a traitor to Konoha." He sighed. "If you truly believe this is for the best, Tsunade, I will comply."

Tsunade made to back away. Danzō stopped her.

"However."

Her gaze snapped back to him, and he stared at her with flat eyes.

"Know that I will not forget this, Lady Hokage," he murmured venomously, and then turned and left the room without another word, readjusting his bandages as he did.

Tsunade wordlessly watched him go, trying to ignore the sudden cold feeling in her gut.

###

"Did you hear about Sasuke?"

The boy in eye-searing green spandex relaxed slightly, lowering his raised right hand infinitesimally.

"I have heard he has returned to the village several days ago," he said formally. "But I have not heard much else."

His opponent, a teenage girl wearing red pants with far too many pockets, a plain white vest, and an oversized green scroll which strapped to her back, continued to circle him.

"Did you know that he came back blind?" she asked, eyes darting over the boy's stance, looking for an opening.

Rock Lee lowered his arm even farther, his impressive eyebrows rising. "I did not!" he said, shocked. "How could Sasuke have lost his-"

Tenten moved.

Her hands blurred out, and over a dozen shuriken whipped towards her teammate; four sets of three, set at various heights and angles. Another pair went out as well, but these two were wrapped in steel wire, guided by the ring and middle finger of Tenten's left hand. They whirled forward, their flight path almost completely unpredictable.

Lee's wide black eyes went even wider and he darted out, striking nine of the shuriken out of the air with lightning-fast punches. Another set of three buried themselves in his leg, stopping with a clang as they hit the weights there.

He raised the limb high, carrying the embedded shuriken with it, and stomped down hard on the pair of guided stars, burying them deep in the ground.

The steel string jerked forward, but Tenten didn't fight the momentum. Instead, she let herself fall forward, moving into a roll. There was a puff of smoke, and when she came to her feet about a meter in front of a shocked Lee, she brought an extra-long tanto with her, swinging it in a diagonal upward strike.

"Tenten!" Lee exclaimed, pulling his head back slightly. The blade whistled through his hair vertically: the upended bowl that masqueraded as a haircut didn't look any worse for it. "Trying to distract me?!"

He struck out, an elbow aimed for Tenten's temple and the smaller girl brought up her own elbow and switched the grip on her blade, bringing it down in front of her face to block the hit.

Lee's elbow struck the steel, but Tenten's forearm, pressed against the other side, prevented the blow from budging the short sword. But as usual, Lee was faster. Even as Tenten blocked his elbow strike, he dropped and swept his foot out, taking her from her feet.

"How unyouthful!" he exclaimed as she hit the ground and rolled away, her breath leaving her in a single audible "whoof".

There was a hissing. Lee looked down, and found dozens of small white tags covering the ground around him. He didn't allow himself to be shocked. He just jumped.

Lee's leap carried in an easy forty feet into the air, far out of the range of the considerable explosion which engulfed the patch of grass he'd been standing on. But even forty feet in the air, he could still easily hear the booming voice of his mentor.

"Wrong, Lee!" Might Gai yelled, striking a familiar pose and smiling at Tenten, who had rolled back to her feet and was spooling out more and more of her weapon scroll.

Neji Hyuuga, standing next to his teacher with his buttoned-up robe flowing slightly in the wind, just crossed his arms and lowered his head, sighing.

"Tenten is merely making the best of her arsenal!" Gai grinned, the sight blinding. "She knows that she is not able to move quickly enough to take you by surprise: and so, she distracted you beforehand, so that she could make the first move of the battle!"

The Hyuuga began to slowly inch away, his feet imperceptibly shuffling towards the edge of the training field.

The light emanating from Gai's teeth (though, considering that they could probably illuminate a small amphitheater, calling them 'teeth' was looking more and more erroneous), intensified. He seized Neji in an incredibly enthusiastic combination of a hug and a headlock, his other hand audibly tightening into a solid fist.

"She is acting as a true shinobi! Deception, subtlety! Such things are the HEART of youth!" Neji closed his eyes tightly as his air was cut off, murmuring something that Tenten could barely hear. She rolled her eyes.

Tenten could feel Lee's tears falling on her, even as he descended from the sky, his leg raised for an earth-shattering axe-kick.

"Of course, Gai-Sensei!" he wept. His hands were occupied: they were busy writing his sensei's words down in a small green notebook. "How could I forget such truths!?"

Tenten looked up, considering. If she blocked Lee's kick, then he would be vulnerable for a moment in the air. Then again, Tenten doubted she had anything in her scroll that could block Lee's kick.

Decision made, she jumped back, pulling out an oversized kunai with a long chain run through the handle and a large, dual-edged scythe. Lee hit the ground a moment later, and Tenten nearly lost her footing.

Saying the field exploded would be a fair description of the havoc Lee's kick wreaked on it. For ten feet around the boy with a terrible haircut, the earth cracked, dirt and grass thrown about in a youthful detonation.

Tenten blinked. Lee emerged from the rubble, whirling like a top. The orange of his leg warmers seemed to form a continuous circle around him; a bright ring that promised concussions to anything that entered it.

The weapon expert cast the oversized kunai out, the chain trailing behind it, and ducked. She spun the double-bladed scythe over her head in a protective motion as she did. If she was going to lose this spar, it would be because one of Lee's kicks had connected: she had to do everything in her power to keep that from happening.

The chain hit Lee's leg and wrapped around it, but the boy kept coming, and Tenten skipped back, one of her hands coming up with its index and middle finger extended. She concentrated, her forehead wrinkling, and her chakra surged.

The chain cast about Lee's leg didn't outwardly change in any way. It didn't glow, or explode in a puff of smoke, or any of the other things that often signified the activity of chakra. Nevertheless, Lee's whirling kick suddenly came to a painful stop as he was thrown to the ground, hitting hard enough to leave a dent in the field and rolling, his motion not even close to being spent.

Neji blinked, and subtly activated his Byakugan.

He snorted.

Gai, having released his stoic student after Lee had returned from his short flight, turned his head towards the Hyuuga with a questioning look.

"It's a chakra weight," the Hyuuga explained, his hard voice carrying an unmistakable note of amusement.

Gai grinned and snapped his fingers. He turned back out towards the field, bringing his hands up to cup his mouth.

"Tenten!" he boomed. "You grow more and more resourceful every day!"

She shot a smile at her teacher and teammate, before refocusing on Lee, who was slowly rising, completely unable to lift his right leg. He made it to a knee, and then found himself unable to go any farther.

"Are you going to give up, Lee?" she asked, striding forward. She hefted the scythe in her hand, swinging it idly.

"Tenten!" Lee yelled, incensed. "I will never give up! Do not say such things!"

Tenten loomed over him, resting the scythe on her shoulder. She kept far enough away that he couldn't reach out and grab her: with his leg pinned to the ground, his range was severely constricted.

"Really?" she asked. "Even when you don't have a choice?"

Lee looked up at her, eyes wide. "Err…" he said. Then his face brightened, before relaxing as he did his best to look casual. "So, how did Sasuke lose his sight?"

Tenten stared down at him, her face rapidly shifting from perplexed into a wide smile.

"Lee, that's not how you distract people," she said, suppressing a giggle.

"What have I done wrong?" he frowned.

Now, Tenten couldn't help but giggle. "You have to do it when your opponent doesn't expect-" she began to explain.

Lee hurled three shuriken at her shoulder; the ones he had pulled out of his leg weight. Tenten gasped and ducked, leaning back slightly. Her foot slid forward. Lee moved with inhuman speed, seizing her by the ankle.

Tenten swore. Loudly. It was a particularly un-youthful phrase. Gai gasped. Neji shook his head ruefully. Lee looked scandalized, but that didn't stop him from yanking Tenten off her feet and rolling on top of her, pinning her under his own, heavier body.

His right leg still refused to move, but now that was just as much an obstacle to Tenten as it was to him.

"Now: do you surrender?" Lee grinned. He was practically sitting on top of his teammate, his elbow inches from her face.

Tenten stared up at him, frustration plain on her face, before sighing. She rolled her eyes again, dropped her scythe, and nodded.

"YOSH!" Lee sprang off of her, and immediately fell back to the ground, forgetting that his right leg still weighed many times the rest of his body over. Tenten winced at the sound of the impact.

Neji tried to keep himself from smiling. His mouth twitched. Gai frowned thunderously at him, and the Hyuuga took a quick breath and blinked, straightening up: his features were unreadable once more.

The older jōnin snorted, and then looked back to his two former students.

"Well done, Tenten! You fought well!" he said. She thanked him with a sunny smile, simultaneously bringing up her hand and releasing the weights on Lee's leg. The green boy jumped to his feet, and stared at his teacher with wide, eager eyes. Gai stared back, his face expressionless.

His lip trembled, and he closed his eyes. A single tear escaping one of them.

Then, he spoke.

"LEE!" Gai bawled, not even bothering to wipe away the sudden flood of tears.

Lee broke down as well. "GAI-SENSEI!" he cried, sprinting forward, his arms wide.

"LEE!" Gai went to meet him.

"GAI-SENS-OW!" Lee yelled, his head stinging. He turned and found Tenten tossing another pebble into the air: the one she had bounced off his head lay on the ground.

She raised an eyebrow. Lee smiled at her.

Gai reached him less than a second later, and swept him into a rib-cracking hug. "MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT!" he roared, unable to contain himself.

"YOU HAVE LEARNED THE ART OF DECEPTION AND SUBTLETY! I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE PROUD OF YOU!" More tears came, both from Lee and Gai. Neji averted his eyes, staring up at a bird that flew by.

"YES, GAI-SENSEI!" Lee cried, shaking with enthusiasm. "I WILL USE THIS POWER FOR GOOD! I PROMISE! I WILL SERVE THE LEAF WITH ALL MY SUBTLETY!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

Neji shook his head and walked over to Tenten, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, watching the display. He extended a hand to help her up. She just looked up at him, and then patted the ground next to her.

He raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and eased down next to her. They spent the next few seconds in silence, watching their teacher and teammate make ever more extravagant promises of what Lee would accomplish with his newfound "subtlety".

"That's not going to work, you know," the Hyuuga said bluntly.

"Can't a girl dream?" Tenten shot back, smiling.

"There are dreams, and then there are delusions. Conditioning Lee to cease thatbehavior falls into the latter category."

Tenten shrugged and uncrossed her legs, leaning back and turning her head to watch her other teammate. She idly shifted her legs. Neji looked away as well, staring up at the sky.

"So…" he gradually said, attempting to pick up the conversation once more.

"Hmm?" Tenten turned to him, reluctantly tearing herself away from the sight of Lee doing a series of one-handed handsprings around their sensei.

"Sasuke Uchiha's eyes were stolen, weren't they?" Neji asked bluntly.

"Yeah," Tenten confided. "Sakura told me. How'd you find out?"

"Lady Hinata was surprised at the cruelty of his brother," Neji answered, frowning. "You don't sound very worried, though." The frown intensified. "You know more than me."

Tenten shrugged, than looked around. Confident that no one else was present in the field besides Gai and Lee, who would probably foil any attempts at eavesdropping anyway, she leaned in.

"Not many people know this," she said quietly, "but Itachi Uchiha came back to the village about a week ago."

Neji's eyes widened, but he didn't interrupt: he'd speak once Tenten was done.

"He showed up blind as well, and then demanded that Lady Tsunade implant his eyes in Sasuke: he'd sent them back with the team that went after him."

Neji leaned back, his brow furrowed. Tenten went on.

"So, Sasuke won't be blind for long: Lady Tsunade did the operation almost immediately after Itachi left. He's still recovering in the hospital, but Sakura-"

"Ah." Neji finally interrupted. "That's where you're getting all your information."

Tenten nodded. "Right. Sakura actually helped operate on Sasuke; she's been keeping him company ever since."

Neji chuckled. Tenten smiled apologetically.

"Yeah. He's kinda… moody, apparently. But someone has to do it…" she trailed off.

Neji turned to her, his silence a clear question. Tenten shook her head.

"It's nothing. She's just been quiet lately. I'm worried-"

"She might be spending too much time with him?" Neji asked.

"Maybe," Tenten shrugged, looking troubled. "I don't know. Something is wrong. None of us know what, though."

Neji grunted. "I'll talk to Lady Hinata about it. Perhaps she'll be able to do something."

"She doesn't know much more than we do," Tenten warned. Then, she let out a small laugh. "Speaking of Hinata…"

Neji huffed, his frown becoming the kind of expression that often scared the smaller children around the village.

His teammate giggled. "Thought so."

"It's very… inappropriate," he disdainfully said.

"Maybe," Tenten said, barely restraining her laughter at Neji's obvious discomfort. "But you have to admit, it could be pretty romantic."

"What." Neji's eyebrows shot up, and he slowly turned towards Tenten. She backed off slightly, laughing, raising her hands.

"Hey. C'mon. Think about it. Quiet girl meets loud guy… princess meets orphan…" she teased. Neji grew more and more still with each example.

"Lady Hinata is…" he bit out, and then paused, searching for the rest of the sentence. He wasn't able to find it.

Tenten watched him with unabashed amusement. "Naruto's becoming a hell of a guy lately, you know," she said. "Did you hear he's off learning some super secret technique from the Toad Sage himself right now?"

Neji wrinkled his nose. "Knowing him, he's probably just goofing off."

###

A day later, Naruto managed to prove Neji wrong.

"So… it's like swirl ice-cream?"

Fukasaku shot Jiraiya a look that very plainly said, "Where did you find this kid?" before turning back to Naruto.

"Err… what?" the small green toad asked, at a complete loss for words.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, grinning inanely. "Well, you know," he said, making a vague motion with his arm. "You've got my chakra," he explained. His other arm came down, and he began to move it around the other one, which was still in motion. "And then you've got natural energy."

He brought his arms closer together, moving them in a circular motion alongside one another. "And then I combine them, and they make a whole new type of chakra. Like how in a swirl ice-cream," he drew his arms back, going through the whole example again as he continued speaking, "you've got vanilla ice-cream, and then chocolate ice-cream, and then you combine them together and get a new flavor!"

He finished, grinning widely. If Fukasaku had had a nose, he probably would have pinched it.

Jiraiya just stared at his student, his remaining arm propped on his chin. "That…" he slowly said, "is the dumbest accurate analogy I have ever heard."

"Hey!"

"Hmm," the tiny green toad to Jiraiya's left admitted. "But it does work. Well done, Naruto. Would you like to try it now?"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto crowed. He was excited, and with good reason.

He'd spent the last week practicing how to sit still with Jiraiya.

A week. Sitting still.

Naruto was honestly surprised he hadn't snapped and murdered the old hermit, considering how bored he had been. It hadn't helped that Jiraiya had been doing his best to distract him by constantly reading aloud from his books, and occasionally substituting names and features with more familiar ones.

Suffice to say, Naruto now knew more than he'd ever wanted to know about the etymology of the word 'quiver'.

The pervert had claimed it was so that Naruto would learn how to concentrate at all times; so that he could remain still and gather energy even in high-pressure situations, but Naruto suspected that, sometimes, his master just enjoyed screwing with him. However: now, he finally had a chance to actually put his boring, boring training to use.

"So… I just sit still and gather natural energy, right?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded. Fukasaku shot him a questioning look.

"Okay!" Naruto cheered. He plopped down on the spot and closed his eyes. A moment later, and he became utterly still. It was as if a particularly lifelike statue had replaced him.

Fukasaku hopped closer to Jiraiya, scurrying up his body and coming to rest on his broad shoulder.

"Are you not going to use the oil, Jiraiya-boy?" he asked quietly, doing his best not to disturb Naruto.

Jiraiya chuckled. He spoke loudly, having no such compunction about his student being distracted. He knew that it would take nothing short a raging Bijuu to unsettle him now.

He'd made sure of that.

"Nah, Lord Fukasaku. No offense to your method, but I don't think the oil is best for Naruto," he explained.

"Oh?" the small green toad asked, glancing at the silent boy. He could feel him probing at the natural energy around him; Naruto could sense it, Fukasaku could tell, but he wasn't sure how to take it in.

"Myoboko oil may be good for helping to utilize natural energy," Jiraiya said, attempting to cross his arms before realizing that he would need two to be able to complete the motion, "but it's a shortcut, plain and simple. Do you remember how I treated it when I began my sage training?"

Fukasaku chuckled. "I do. You practically bathed in the stuff."

"And that was my mistake," Jiraiya said solemnly. "I chose speed over thoroughness. Even today…" He shook his head. "I mastered a flawed method. I didn't want to make the same mistake with Naruto."

"Interesting," Fukasaku murmured. "So you've ensured that he's already reached the point of being able to take in energy without any assistance."

"Exactly." Jiraiya nodded. "It's all on his own merit: he's got better discipline now than I ever had at his age." He gestured with his remaining hand, and Fukasaku followed the motion. "Look. There's all the proof you need."

Fukasaku stared.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. They were still the same sky-blue… but the pupil was distended horizontally. Natural energy swirled around him, an invisible maelstrom, and he carefully stood up, looking around him in wonder.

Everything was so bright. Color dominated everything: the sky was vibrant, filled with hues that Naruto could swear hadn't been there a moment before. Every sound was crystal clear, as if it had come from right beside his ear. The slight breeze on his skin chilled every pore.

It was completely overwhelming, and incredibly wonderful.

"Whoa," he murmured. "This is…"

Jiraiya grinned. "Good, Naruto!" he said. "You're getting there already!"

Naruto turned slightly, facing his teacher. "So, this isn't-?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nah. You're close, though. Right now, you're in-between being human and being a Sage. I bet it's pretty confusing, huh?"

Naruto looked around, amazement clear on his face. "I… guess," he said. "Everything's so loud."

"Thought so," Jiraiya said. "You've got the senses, but your body hasn't compensated yet." He struck a thoughtful pose. "Though, let's see if you're augmented yet."

"Huh?" Naruto was having trouble concentrating. The world had instantly become thousands of times more distracting with his increased senses.

"Here." Jiraiya tossed him a kunai. Naruto caught it, unable to look away from the play of light across the darkened steel. Normally, a kunai like this shouldn't have reflected any light, but he could see it anyway.

Weird. He looked up at his teacher, a questioning look in his inhuman eyes.

"Try to stab yourself," Jiraiya said with a wide smile.

"Wuh?!" Naruto balked.

The older sage sighed. "Trust me. I want to see how well your body has integrated the natural energy. If you're far enough along, you'll be fine."

"And if I'm not?" Naruto demanded incredulously.

Jiraiya shrugged, Fukasaku bobbing with the motion. The tiny toad looked like he couldn't decide whether to frown or grin, and so had settled on alternating between both.

Naruto stared at his teacher, and then at the knife in his hand. He shot another look at Jiraiya, who just made a "get on with it" motion. Gulping, Naruto reversed his grip on the knife and held it over the back of his left hand: above the ghost of an old mark that had been left a lifetime ago by a near identical weapon.

Grimacing, he pushed down. The feeling of the warm steel on his hand wasn't unpleasant. And it was definitely better than the pain he had been expecting.

Naruto gaped at the kunai. He pressed harder, and was rewarded with a twinge of pressure… but the knife didn't penetrate his skin.

Jiraiya smiled widely. 'Fantastic," he said.

"That…" Naruto smiled, "is so cool."

"It is pretty neat, huh?" Jiraiya said. "And you're not even finished yet."

Naruto looked up at his teacher. The man was beaming. "How do I-"

"Practice," Jiraiya interrupted. "At this point, all you can do is get better at integrating the natural energy into your system. Right now, you're doing it imperfectly. Sit back down, and try again. Once you've made a bit more progress…"

The older Sage grinned savagely. "Then, we'll get into the real stuff."

###

"You've been way too serious lately, you know?"

Ino panted and twisted her head towards the indolent voice, one of her eyes sliding shut, threatening to be covered completely by the puffy bruise developing above it.

Chōji watched her, horrified by the small trail of blood running from her temple. Shikamaru just remained cross-legged on the cratered and burned ground, one hand on his chin and the other curiously poking at the slash along his elbow. He was staring at her, his dark eyes questioning.

"What do you mean?" she asked, pulling herself back to her feet. Her leg ached, but it was still fully functional. There wasn't any blood getting into her eye, so her head injury was nothing to worry about. And she still had plenty of chakra. Though she was definitely out of explosive tags.

"It's unusual," Shikamaru said, somehow managing to sound supremely unconcerned while telling her the exact opposite with his eyes. "You're not normally so…"

He stopped, and chuckled. "Well, I was going to say 'pushy'."

Ino scowled. Shikamaru ignored it and continued.

"Not usually so 'driven', to borrow a term from my mother," he said, his face twisting slightly in amusement.

"What do you care?" she said. She let her hand brush against the back of her pants: she was also low on kunai, apparently.

Shikamaru grew severe, and she felt a flash of embarrassment. "I always care," he said.

Chōji finally spoke up. "Ino. Come on. Asuma-sensei told us to look out for each other. What kind of team would we be if we didn't?" He stepped forward. "Let's take a break for a minute, huh? I mean, I'm honestly kinda scared of you right now: you lasted almost five minutes against the both of us, alone."

He shivered dramatically, and Ino couldn't help but smirk.

Chōji saw it and smiled. "Yeah. I say we take a break, maybe go get something to eat-"

"You'd be paying," Shikamaru interrupted, and the larger boy deflated considerably. "And anyway," he shot Ino another look, "she hasn't answered my question yet."

"You didn't ask any questions," Ino fired back. Shikamaru froze, visibly running the conversation back through his head. He winced, and Ino's smirk grew wider; beating Shikamaru at any of his verbal games was always its own reward.

The Nara recovered quickly, rolling his eyes. "Fine," he said. "What's gotten into you, huh?"

"Oh come on." The Yamanaka began circling her two teammates: Chōji gulped, following her movements, while Shikamaru remained on the ground, staring straight ahead. "You already know what it is."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Fine. But I think you're being irrational."

Ino glared at the back of his head, having circled all the way around behind him. Shikamaru didn't notice.

"What happened to Sakura is hardly what you can expect from a normal mission. It's not like the next time we get sent out-"

"We'll run into the leader of the Akatsuki?" Ino asked bitingly.

Shikamaru paused. "No," he said shortly.

Ino snorted. Shikamaru decided that now was decidedly not the time to make a comment on how unladylike it sounded: he was pretty sure she was seriously considering stabbing him in the back.

"It's never that simple, Shikamaru," she said, almost having completed her circle. "You should know this better than anyone. You can never tell when a mission might go bad."

Shikamaru didn't let the barb, intentional or not, ruffle him. All he did was lower his head.

Chōji was looking back and forth between his two teammates worriedly.

"True," the Nara said. Ino suddenly stopped circling, jerking to a stop.

Shikamaru continued. "We're shinobi. Every time we go out, we put our life on the line. Even if the risk is not apparent at first, there's no excuse to believe otherwise."

Ino began to struggle against the shadows holding her in place, looking around wildly. Shikamaru pulled his head up, pinning her with his intense eyes.

"But what you're doing is reckless," he said, hauling himself to his feet and ambling towards the Yamanaka. "You're overreacting; pushing yourself too far."

He reached Ino, and his own shadow cast itself out, flowing over the grass and latching onto hers. Another one withdrew from the dark mass, sliding back into the forest at the edge of the field.

"You wanted to spar both of us at the same time, Ino," Shikamaru said, his hands in his pockets. The blonde glared at him, frozen in the same position. "But we're a team. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation. We fight together, not against each other."

He bent forward, his hands remaining in his pockets, and Ino was compelled to do the same. "Stop worrying," he said quietly, his face close to hers. "Chōji and I won't let anything happen to you. I swear it."

"Don't be such a jerk, Shikamaru!" Ino said, trying to squirm. "I don't need protecting! Just because I'm a girl-!"

"It's not cause you're a girl, Ino," Chōji said, walking forward. Shikamaru released the Kagemane, and the blonde jerked, suddenly back in control of her own body. "It's cause you're our teammate."

He smiled. "We know you'd do the same for us. It's what makes us so good. We look out for each other." The Akimichi grew a bit more solemn. "So you shouldn't worry so much about getting stronger. So long as we stick together, you don't have to worry about anything."

Ino stared at him for a moment, before letting out a deep breath. She shot an accusing look at Shikamaru. "That's the only reason you agreed to this, isn't it? To lecture me?" she asked archly.

The lazy boy cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe," he admitted guilelessly. "But I also wanted to try something out."

Another Shikamaru strolled out of the forest, its posture identical to the one that had been talking to Ino. Ino and Chōji stared at it. It stared back, clearly bored.

"Kage Bunshin?" Ino asked, astonished. Creating shadow clones was rather chakra intensive, and Shikamaru had never been one to have enough to throw around freely enough.

The Nara shrugged. "It's not very practical," he said. "They drain me like you wouldn't believe. I have no idea how Naruto uses them like he does."

He smirked. "But if I have time to set up, they definitely come in handy."

The clone rolled its eyes, and Shikamaru's smirk became rueful. "'Course, actually making them do anything is about as troublesome as making them in the first place," he said, glaring at his double.

The bunshin shrugged: the motion, of course, looked exactly the same as Shikamaru's had. "Don't blame me," it said wryly.

Shikamaru just waved it off. "Yeah, yeah. Get out of here, why don't you?"

The clone popped without further ceremony, and Ino was left staring at her teammate. The grass rustled in a slight breeze.

"So…" the Nara said.

"Hypocrite!" Ino shrieked.

Shikamaru stumbled back, eyes wide. "Err… what?" he asked, doing his best to look innocent. He wasn't sure what Ino was angry with.

The Yamanaka began ranting, uncaring of the increasingly terrified looks she was receiving from her teammates. "Oh, look at me! I'm Shikamaru! I'm so cool and smart! I came here just to teach my teammate a lesson about how we should rely on each other and work as a team and I freaking show up with a fancy new jutsu!"

She leveled a finger at Shikamaru as she slowly walked towards him. He trembled. Chōji was slowly backing away: his friend was on his own this time. "You," she seethed, "will teach me that."

Shikamaru blinked. "Uh… Ino… I mean, does your Shintenshin even work with-"

"That. Doesn't. Matter." Ino had reached Shikamaru, and she poked him harder and harder in the chest with each word

The Nara helplessly cast a glance at Chōji, who just shook his head. He looked back at the blonde.

"Well, Ino, I mean… it won't really be helpful for you to-"

"SHIKAMARU!" she screeched.

He yelped, and just like that the brief argument was over.

###

"So you finally talked to Naruto, huh?"

Hinata flushed bright red, hunching down and picking at her dango, fruitlessly trying to distract herself.

Kiba just laughed. Loudly. Akamaru barked at him, and he quieted down slightly, but his snickering lasted several more seconds.

"Kiba… It's not funny…" Hinata muttered, and the Inuzuka sobered almost instantly, though he couldn't quite keep his face straight.

"Sorry, Hinata." He waved one of his hands. "You're right, you're right. But I mean…"

He chuckled again. "I just talk about it and you go so red." He leaned forward. "How did you even manage it? Honestly?"

Hinata continued to play with her food. "I don't know," she said quietly. "I really don't."

Kiba sat back, crossing his arm behind his head. His face softened.

"Spur of the moment, huh?" he said, before smiling, exposing his elongated canines. "I can appreciate that. Instinct, right?"

Hinata remained silent. Kiba cocked his head to the left. His smile slowly left both his eyes and his face.

"If you don't want to talk about it…" he probed.

Hinata just shrunk farther back. "I would appreciate that," she said quietly.

Kiba shrugged extravagantly. "Okay," he said. Simple, to the point, and loyal: an Inuzuka through and through.

"What do we talk about then?" he said, the grin returning, if a little smaller from its absence.

Hinata stopped retreating from herself, returning to an upright pose. She finally managed to move one of the dango from her plate to her mouth. "I don't… oh!" She paused, smiling. "How is your training with Kakashi-sensei going?" She began to lightly nibble on the sweet while waiting for Kiba's answer.

"Terrible!" Kiba dramatically raised his arms high and slammed both them and his head into the table, the picture of abject despair. The effect was somewhat ruined when he tipped over a bowl of soy sauce, which spilled all over his elbow. He shifted his head to look at the stain, and then shrugged. The jacket wasn't as expensive as it looked.

"Really?" Hinata murmured, covering her mouth.

"He never shows up!" Kiba said angrily, frowning in a manner he imagined was somewhat ferocious, but which truly only made him look constipated. No one had ever dared to tell him this: Hinata because she was too kind, Shino because he didn't really care, and his sisters and mothers because they found the sight of their little Kiba trying to look dangerous too funny to put to words.

Akamaru barked, and Kiba turned to glare at him, before amending his statement. "Okay, so he sends his nin-dogs instead." He shook his head. "But that's almost worst! They just spend every day…" he trailed off, bring his hand up unintentionally.

"Kiba?" Hinata asked.

"I mean… I spend every day… beating the crap out of them! Yeah!" Kiba said, sounding like he wished he could believe it himself.

His large white companion stared at him, looking more incredulous than any dog had a right to look. Kiba crossed his arms and looked away, resuming his frown. Hinata just watched the both of them, finally finishing her first dango. She swallowed daintily and continued to stare.

After a second, Kiba sagged. "Alright," he muttered. "They've been kicking the shit out of me."

Kakashi-sensei's nin-dogs?" Hinata qualified.

Kiba nodded shakily. "Yeah. I mean… they're pretty good. Pretty much what I should have expected, but still…"

"How…" Hinata trailed off. She'd seen Akamaru fight many times, but it had always been alongside Kiba. She couldn't really see any number of other dogs, even if they were nin-animals, taking on her teammate and his partner.

"They have a lot of tricks," Kiba admitted. "I mean, I don't underestimate them or anything… but they're quick. And mean."

"Mean?" Hinata inquired, trying to decide if she really wanted another dango. The last one had been a little sweet.

But maybe with a little soy…

Kiba winced. "Let's just say… they definitely picked up Kakashi-sensei's sense of humor."

Hinata tilted her head inquisitively. Kiba just shook his, his expression worth a little more than half a dozen words.

So, seven.

'Trust me. You don't want to know.'

"Uh… okay," Hinata slowly said, not sure if she wanted to know why Kiba was subtly shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Anyway!" Kiba exclaimed, obviously eager to change the subject, "Have you seen Shino around? I mean, I've been keeping my eye out, but it seems like he's been holed up in his compound for the last week or something. I got no idea what he might be up to-"

"I have been tending to my Kikaichū." The monotone voice emerged from directly behind Kiba. The Inuzuka froze, slowly turning his head towards the noise.

Shino was sitting in the booth behind him, staring down into his salad. Hinata blinked. She had eyes that could see through walls, and she had no idea when her teammate had entered the restaurant.

"S-Shino?" Kiba stammered. Neither him nor Akamaru had smelled the Aburame coming. How did he do that? "When did you-?"

"I arrived about ten minutes ago," Shino quietly said. "I waited another seven for someone to come to take my order. When no one seemed inclined to, I sent my Kikaichū to retrieve something." He picked up his fork and poked at the assorted greens in front of him, covered in a dark sauce. "I am glad they brought back this salad, though I am somewhat disappointed. Why? Because it has no-"

"Melons?" Hinata asked timidly, lifting one of the very fruits from her side of the table. For reasons she would never understand, Kiba had gotten an assorted platter: one that he had barely dug into.

Shino paused. "Yes."

"Err…" Kiba erred. "Shino, I mean, if you want to sit with us, you should just… you know, sit with us."

Shino languidly transferred booths, sitting down next to Hinata. "I appreciate that, Kiba."

Hinata wordlessly passed him the melon, and he took it without comment, before cracking it with a precise tap of his fingers.

"Glad you came, honestly," Kiba said, stretching out, secretly glad he still had leg space since Shino hadn't chosen the spot next to him.

"Oh?" Shino said, focusing on distributing an equal amount of melon across his salad.

"Yeah, we were just wondering what you were-"

"Up to this week?"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Stop doing that."

"Stop doing what, exactly?"

"You know what I-"

"Mean?"

Hinata giggled. Kiba gave up, dramatically throwing his arms back. Akamaru panted in approval.

"Whatever. What were you-"

"Well," Shino said, and both he and Hinata ignored Kiba's strangled cry of indignation. "As I said, I have been attending to my insects. Why? Because our last mission made it clear that there were still flaws in my strategy."

"Flaws?" Hinata politely asked. She hadn't seen much of Shino at all during the snafu the retrieval mission had become: an oversized chameleon had seen to that.

"I am slow," Shino said ponderously.

Kiba grinned. "That's bullshit, Shino! When you need to, you can pick it up. Hell, you took on one of those freaks hand to hand, and you came away with barely a scratch."

"As did he," the Aburame intoned. "Even with the advantage of my insects allowing me to dictate the pace of the fight, I was unable to lay a hand on him. Why? My opponent was simply too agile. I could not predict his movements, and the Kikaichū could not compensate."

"So…" Kiba drawled.

"You've been breeding faster insects?" Hinata quietly asked, having determined that adding more soy sauce to her dango had been a partial success. It was no longer too sweet, at least.

But it had tasted less like dango, and more like soy sauce. Not the best compromise.

Shino nodded. "Precisely. I predict that it will increase my efficiency significantly. Particularly in the event I need to utilize taijutsu. Why? The Aburame live in harmony with our hives. Traits from our Kikaichū often-"

"Okay!" Kiba spoke up, cutting Shino off. He'd never really been comfortable with Shino talking about the influence of insects: it wasn't a matter of disgust, but merely discomfort. The irony that his relationship with Akamaru was much the same had never occurred to him.

"It looks like we've all been getting stronger!" he said, ignoring Shino's glare and pounding a fist into his other hand. Akamaru barked enthusiastically. "The next time we see that purple-eyed bastard, he's in for a surprise!"

Then, in a distinctly un-Kiba moment, he stopped and thought about what he'd said.

"Wait a minute… sorry Hinata. I forgot-"

"Oh! Don't worry, Kiba," the Hyuuga heir exclaimed, sitting up. "I've been training too!"

Kiba looked at her cockeyed. "I thought you were on bed-rest?" he asked innocently. Shino probed at his salad with his fork, trying to determine if he could manage to eat it without unbuttoning his collar. He disliked doing so in public places, particularly around strangers.

Hinata lightly blushed. "I was," she said. "But… I… well…" The stammer had returned.

She gave up, frustrated. "I was bored."

Kiba laughed. Akamaru joined in in his own way. Shino just smiled beneath his collar.

"So who did you wrangle into-"

"Neji."

Kiba blinked. "Really?" he asked, suppressing a faded memory of Hinata staring into a pitiless pale face and coughing up blood all over bandaged hands. He only partially succeeded. His hand tightened imperceptibly.

Akamaru panted and nudged it, and he looked down at his fist. Shaking his head, he allowed it to relax. Hinata continued, not having noticed Kiba's brief reaction.

"Yes. He's been helping me with my training for the past year or so. We've made real progress in the last week!" she said, her face lighting up.

"Oh?" Shino asked. He'd somehow managed to begin his salad without moving his collar. Kiba stared.

'How the hell did he do that?'

While Kiba stared at her teammate, Hinata elaborated. "I'm nearly able to complete the Kaiten," she beamed. "With just a little more time, I'm sure I'll be able to use it."

Kiba stretched out, cracking his knuckles. He turned to Hinata. "You're still working on the Kaiten?" he asked. "Why? You've got that kickass Rokujūyon Shō thing, right?"

Shino nodded, and Kiba's head snapped back to him. Yet more of his salad had disappeared.

The Inuzuka's mouth dropped slightly open. Shino ignored him. "I agree," he said quietly. "Yours is certainly the superior jutsu."

Hinata blushed intensely. "I-I don't think so," she stammered. "The K-Kaiten is more contained. It doesn't use nearly as much chakra."

She fidgeted for a moment, before speaking again. "Not to mention… the Eight Trigrams can't be used non-lethally. It cuts everything in the area. The Kaiten is a much better defensive jutsu."

"I don't think those missiles thought that," Kiba chuckled.

Hinata's blush grew even more pronounced, but she shook her head. "That d-doesn't matter," she muttered. "I'm main house. All the heirs have learned the Kaiten. It's tradition."

Kiba yawned. "That's fine," he said with a wolfish grin. "When you take over the clan, you can make your jutsu the new tradition."

Hinata made a sound that fell somewhere between "meep" and "oh".

With that, the team fell quiet. Kiba watched Shino carefully, waiting for the quiet boy to begin to pick at his salad again. Hinata looked down at her lap, trying to banish her blush.

Shino sat silently. Internally, he was laughing in a way that could only be described as maniacal. He wouldn't be picking up his fork until he was sure his louder friend was looking away.

And even that would only be a feint, in case the Inuzuka took it upon himself to be more subtle than usual. Kiba would never discover the secret to Shino's eating habits.

Unusually, he was the one who ended up breaking the silence.

"Have either of you seen Sasuke?"

Kiba, who had leaned back with his arms behind his head, shifted slightly. "Nah," he said casually, belaying the sudden low-lying tension. "Know he's still in the hospital, though."

Hinata spoke up. "Sakura's been keeping him company," she said slowly.

Kiba shifted to look at her. Shino seized his chance.

"Oh?" the Inuzuka asked carefully. Something about her tone had bothered him.

Hinata nodded. "She's been… strange." She hesitated halfway through the sentence, as if afraid that the words would bite her once they were freed from her mouth. "Quieter." The Hyuuga shifted. "I'm worried about her."

"Do you think-" Kiba started to ask, before Hinata shook her head.

"I don't know," she murmured.

"It has something to do with him."

Hinata blinked. So did Kiba. They both turned to their teammate. He stared back guilelessly.

"Shino?" Kiba asked, perplexed.

"Sasuke is dangerous," the Aburame carefully elaborated.

"What?" Hinata asked quietly. "Shino, what do you mean?"

"He left the village," the usually silent boy continued. "He is selfish. Impulsive. He spent the last three years in the company of Orochimaru. This makes him dangerous. Why?" He shook his head slightly. "I shouldn't have to tell you."

"Yeah, but…" Kiba started to say before he trailed off, because the feral looking boy really had no idea what to say next. What could he say? Everything Shino had said had been the truth.

"Sakura cares for him. He was her teammate: it is understandable. But-" Shino pushed his glasses up slightly. "It does not make him any less dangerous. In fact, perhaps it makes him even more so," he finished.

And then, he returned to his comfortable silence, while the rest of Team Eight fell into a distinctly uncomfortable one. Both Kiba and Hinata found themselves wondering what their distinctively pink classmate was doing at the moment.

And if she was safe.

###

There was a crow on the windowsill, and it was staring at her with unblinking black eyes, the gloss of its feathers a stark contrast to the bright streets outside. Sakura stared back.

She'd spent most of the last ten days in this room, but this was the first time she had seen the crow. She wondered why that was. Was she just inattentive, or had it been hidden that whole time? Or had it just arrived? Whenever it had gotten here, she knew what it meant.

Itachi was still watching his brother. She found the concept disturbing, for obvious reasons.

What did Itachi think, she wondered. What did he think when he watched Sasuke in this dim room, clean white bandages around his head, lying in bed day after day? Did he feel regret? Or cold satisfaction? Or nothing at all?

Her master had told her some of the details of her meeting with the rogue Uchiha. That Sasuke's brother wanted to help him. That Itachi had done what he'd done for Sasuke's own good. That he would come back from this better than ever.

Sakura found her hands clenching at the thought. She leaned farther back in her chair, set at the side of Sasuke's bed.

'Bullshit.'

If Itachi wanted to help Sasuke, he wouldn't have killed his family. He wouldn't have torn his eyes out and put him in a day's long coma. He wouldn't have slipped in here a little more than a week ago and knocked all of the guards' unconscious so he could have a chat with his brother. Naruto had told her what the visit had been like. Had told her how focused Itachi had been, even blind. She didn't especially care.

Juugo shifted on the other side of the room, moving slightly in the corner, and Sakura glanced at him before relaxing. The quiet boy had refused to leave Sasuke's side since Itachi's visit. He'd been one of the one's unconscious in the hallway, in Itachi's wake.

Sakura was convinced he felt guilty. That he'd failed to protect Sasuke.

But she didn't refer to Juugo as "quiet" in her head for no reason. She wasn't sure: he rarely spoke. She wished that he would. The silence around Sasuke sometimes became crushing.

Ten days. Ten days, and they'd barely exchanged a word. Sakura had started to think that Sasuke might truly have left them behind.

And that thought filled her with such anger that for the first time in ten days, sparked by a combination of heartbreak, dull-rage, and righteous fury on Naruto's behalf, Sakura spoke to Sasuke about something that wasn't related to his new eyes.

"Are you really going to do this?"

Juugo shifted once more, but didn't say anything. Sasuke remained silent, staring up the ceiling. His breathing didn't change: his shoulders didn't stiffen.

But even though it had been three years since they'd truly spent any time together, Sakura still knew Sasuke, and she could tell he was listening.

"You're really just going to ignore me?" she asked again, not caring that Juugo was in the room. There were things that needed to be said.

Sasuke, of course, didn't respond. Sakura laughed. It wasn't really a laugh.

"You talked to Naruto. He told me."

Silence remained, opaque. But it was shifting. The light's dull buzz was being filled over by something cloying.

"What's the difference between us? We're all Team Seven, you know. What's the difference between me and him?" Sakura asked, her tone not really making it a question. It was a dull recital, a statement of fact: Naruto and Sasuke were different from her. They had connected on a level she didn't really understand, except for on one night.

"Did he just catch you on a good day?" she continued, not really listening to herself.

'Thank you.'

But thank you for what?

"Did you decide that that day was the annual "Sasuke Acknowledges his Teammates" day? Am I going to have to wait another year to talk to you?" Sakura felt bitterness, subtly jagged, biting at her.

She didn't bother to resist. Perhaps she was entitled to a little bitterness.

"Sasuke. Answer me."

Sakura didn't expect an answer.

"We're not."

Sakura blinked when she got one. Sasuke hadn't moved. She couldn't even be sure he'd spoken.

Until his mouth began to move, and she realized that yes, Sasuke was speaking to her.

"We're not Team Seven. Not anymore."

Sakura smiled. "I don't think that's true."

Sasuke didn't respond for a moment.

"I cut ties. We are done," he finally said. He didn't sound uncertain: it was too subtle for that. But the eternal confidence that had always infected his voice was ragged. Almost gone.

"Teams don't cut ties," Sakura said, staring out the window. "It doesn't work like that. We're comrades. Friends. That's not something you can just throw away."

"And yet I have." He sounded so cold. How could he bear to think like that? Speak like that? She would have found it exhausting.

"Maybe." Sakura found herself shrugging, even though she knew Sasuke wouldn't notice. "But I don't think so. I think that you'll come back."

She could tell that had thrown him off. Secretly, that delighted her like nothing else had.

"I…" he paused. "I'm already in the village."

Sakura turned to him. "But you're not back," she said. "You're still convinced that you've left for good. That we're not your friends anymore: that you don't belong in the village."

"You aren't," he growled halfheartedly. "And I don't. As soon as my eyes… Itachi's eyes acclimate, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Sakura interrupted him. Juugo shifted uncomfortably once more. "Leave the village again? Naruto will just hunt you down. And I'd help him."

"Then I would kill him. And you." He sounded completely serious. And yet, to Sakura, there was a sort of pathetic desperation there that hurt her more than the last three years had. She wanted to pity him. But she didn't dare. The only thing Sasuke would never tolerate was pity.

So instead, Sakura just shook her head. "You don't understand, Sasuke. Even if you leave, we'll keep doing this forever. You can't kill Naruto. You can't kill him anymore than he could kill you."

"I would. I will."

"He's coming back soon," Sakura pointed out. "Will you kill him then, when he comes to visit you? You know he will."

Silence, but for the buzzing of the lights and the muted chatter of the streets outside the hospital.

"You could have killed him at the Valley of the End. He told me, you know. You could have pierced his heart. But you didn't. And you won't."

She scooted her chair forward slightly, bringing herself closer to him. "And I think you know why."

"Shut up," he muttered, finally deigning to shift under the covers.

"You can't kill Naruto. And you can't leave us behind. However you want to avoid it, you belong here, Sasuke. You belong with people who want to help you."

"With the people who murdered my clan?" he hissed. "With the village that executed my family?"

That gave her pause.

"If I remember correctly, Itachi killed your family," Sakura eventually said, trying to remain calm.

Sasuke snorted. "Under orders. It makes no difference. This place is directly responsible for the death of the Uchiha. I have no interest in staying here."

"Not even for us?" Sakura said quietly.

'Not even for your new family?'

"No," he said shortly.

"Then what will you do?" Sakura asked reasonably.

Sasuke didn't answer, but Sakura didn't stand for that. She leaned forward farther.

"What. Will. You. Do?" she said quietly.

Sasuke's silence said more than he ever would be willing to.

'I don't know.'

Sakura leaned back. She'd never seen Sasuke so unsure. It was plain as day. He had no idea of anything. Should he stay in the village? Should he avenge his clan? Remain with his friends? Make more enemies?

Sasuke didn't know, and now, Sakura knew that he didn't know.

She stood up, out of the chair. Juugo glanced at her. She moved to leave the room, stopping at the door.

"Sasuke…" she said over her shoulder. The prone Uchiha stiffened slightly.

"Please."

And then, she left, with only the creak of the door closing to mark her passing.

Chapter Text

Interlude 2

The rain stops. In the Amegakure, the Village Hidden in the Rain, the rain almost never stops. The ceaseless downpour is a constant companion. It is the civilians' comfort, and the shinobi's shield.

The rain almost never stops but for two reasons.

The first is if an enemy manages to fully infiltrate the village. This has happened rather recently: many of the ninja still remember the shock they felt as the rain petered out, and the sun shined down on the metallic spires of the village for the first time in months. But while it had been a shock, the rain's cessation had also brought with it a sense of grim satisfaction. If the rain was stopping, then that meant that Pain had taken a personal interest in the infiltrator.

And that meant that the infiltrator wouldn't be an infiltrator much longer: but instead, a statistic. Indeed, the downpour had started back up about an hour later, and the village had backed down from its state of alert, confident in the return of its god.

But now, the rain is stopping again.

Which means that either another doomed shinobi has entered the village…

Or that god wants to speak to the people he is protecting.

Of course, Pain never addresses the ninja of Amegakure personally. Many of them are secretly grateful for this: the man who had saved the Village Hidden in the Rain may have been their protector, but that doesn't make him any less frightening. After all, the presence of a god is far more terrifying than any man's can be.

Which was why when thousands upon thousands of delicate origami cranes burst from the tallest tower of Amegakure, sharp in the newly revealed sunlight, the people of the village are neither surprised nor alarmed. Most of them are, in fact, gleeful. Even if it is only a fleeting contact, any sort of interaction with the Angel of Amegakure is considered a blessing, certain to bring good luck in the dreary days to come.

And the Angel contacting what seemed to be, no what is the whole of the village at the same time, that is a blessing indeed.

In the streets, on overhanging causeways, on balconies, in some canals, the people of Amegakure crowd together, ninja and civilian alike waiting in eager anticipation for the Angel's message.

The cranes descend on the village, each seeking out a single person. Not everyone gets a bird of their own: those who haven't been directly gifted press towards those who have. Even if some feel a lingering bitterness or contrition -for surely they've done something wrong- for not receiving a crane, they are still desperate to know god's message.

There is a moment of anticipation: the whole village falls completely silent. Then, by some invisible signal, every single piece of origami unfolds simultaneously. The older members of the village, the ones who have received the Angel's words before, stare in the shock. The younger ones stare at them.

This is no ordinary message.

The Angel's handwriting is an elegant, flowing script. Letters mold into one another, but the whole thing always manages to be completely, beautifully comprehensible. The Angel is businesslike, but never brusque. The Angel never sounds disappointed, but nevertheless manages to shame the people of Amegakure into believing they have done something wrong.

But these origami, laid flat and shaking in people's hands, do not contain any of that.

The handwriting is unmistakably different. Mechanical, almost stenciled: not a single space is wasted, not a single letter given too much time or even slightly out of place.

And the contents…

All over Amegakure, pressed by the impatient and the curious, those who have received cranes clear their throats and speak, their voices quivering.

"People of Amegakure," they say, unable to believe what they are reading.

"For the last fifteen years, you have all lived in my village, leading a peaceful existence. A peace bought by my will, and secured for you."

There is a hush as the entirety of Amegakure suddenly comprehend exactly what is in its hands. This letter is not from the Angel.

This letter is from Pain.

"For this peace, I am grateful."

Many stop at this point for a moment, choking on the word that comes next.

Their god is grateful: grateful for their safety.

"However."

And now many villagers bring themselves back under control, their emotions wrestled into submission by the finality of the lone line.

"This peace must soon come to an end."

At this, there is a substantial uproar.

Not of fear, though of course, many can't help but feel a chill race down their spine at the prospect of Amegakure's damp tranquility coming to an end. Of zeal. A zeal that only grows as the letter goes on, its readers growing more and more enthused.

"I have been working. My ambition, with which I intend to finally share Amegakure's peace with the rest of the Nations, has neared completion."

There is a collective intake of breath.

"I require a mere three things to complete this ambition. Two will be obtained in time: the last is the most crucial, and the least attainable.

And as such, I do not have the luxury of waiting, as I have all these years.

This final thing, I must draw to Amegakure.

Its name is Naruto Uzumaki, and within him lies the key to this world's salvation."

The ninja of Amegakure that survived Hanzō's reign stand at less than two hundred. Of these, only thirty-seven know the name "Uzumaki".

The fact that their god intends to bring one of them to the village leaves several of them with bad tastes in their mouths. None of these ninja are reading the letter, however, and so the message from Amegakure's god continues without waiting for them to overcome their past bitterness.

"I will bring Uzumaki here."

No one doubts the letter's words. If a god wants something done, it is done. That is the power of his will.

"For a single night, Amegakure will be witness to a battle. A battle the likes of which it has never seen before, and never will after.

When this battle is done, when the rain has begun once more, Uzumaki will be mine."

And despite the fact that it is their god claiming the man, several people shiver.

"You, the people of Amegakure, must not be here when this battle begins."

Confusion instantly reigns.

"I have always protected this village. But it is possible," and here, the words actually ceased their mechanical nature for a moment, leaving some readers staring at the paper incredulously.

Their god doubts?

"No, it is likely. Likely that this battle will damage the very village I have sworn to protect.

This is no obstacle: Amegakure has been rebuilt before, and it shall be rebuilt again. But you, the people of Amegakure, cannot be rebuilt. Cannot be replaced. And so, I tell you today: within two days, your home will become a site of incredible destruction. Please, do not regret this: from this destruction, hope, hope for the entire world, for humanity itself, will be born."

People look around. And indeed, they all feel the same thing. A lingering sadness that their home will likely be destroyed, and an unmistakable vindication that their faith is finally going to be rewarded.

"For these two days, my Angel will move you to a shelter I have created outside of the walls of the village. And when you return, we, and the entirety of the Elemental Nations, shall finally know peace."

One or two readers break down, relieved tears momentarily recreating the rain, and are forced to pass the letter to others with shaking hands, despising themselves for their weakness.

"Follow the Angel. She will lead you to your salvation. Shinobi of Amegakure: ensure that the people of this village remain safe while I am occupied. You are their sole protector now."

A thousand jaws firm, and two-thousand hands tremble in anxiety and anticipation.

"Now, go. And know that when this is over, you will be the first to see my new world."

And as each speaker finishes each letter, the paper folds itself into a crane once more, and slowly, ever so slowly, begins to depart from the village.

The people, in turn, begin their mad scramble to secure everything of value and follow their Angel to safety. The exodus from Amegakure has begun.

On the highest balcony of the highest tower in Amegakure, a pale man watches the controlled chaos. Of course, he can't actually see it. But he transcended such limited senses long ago. The eternal rain of the village tells him everything he needs to know about his people's evacuation.

The upper torso of a woman with blue hair and sharp amber eyes floats next to him, pieces of paper flaking off of her. She shows no outward signs of fatigue, but the pale man can tell she is tired. They are simply too familiar to each other for it to be otherwise.

She is speaking to him. He draws his senses away from the rain for a moment to fully listen to her.

"Do you really think that Uzumaki will threaten the village?"

He doesn't respond immediately. His thoughts have been devoted to this very question for the past week When he finally does answer, he speaks with absolute confidence, tempered by undeniable wariness.

"Uzumaki alone may not be much a threat. I could neutralize him without incident."

The woman sighs. "But he won't be alone."

The man nods. "Precisely. No matter what Madara says, the boy will not be arriving alone. The bonds I saw were too strong for that." He pauses. "And that does not account for the Kyuubi."

"You really think it may be that strong?"

"It couldn't be anything but. Each Bijuu has been more powerful than the one before: it stands to reason that the Kyuubi will be truly formidable."

The man doesn't draw himself up: he's already been standing perfectly, unnaturally straight. But his voice grows cold.

"I will defeat it. But I may have to push myself, and the village would suffer in the crossfire. This is the safest course of action."

"Nagato…"

Nagato Uzumaki shakes his head. "Don't worry, Konan. Just rest: in two days, we will decide the future of the world. You must be ready."

The woman bites her lip, but remained silent. The rain is the only sound in the world until the man speaks once more.

"It's all coming to a head," he mutters, turning away from the village that has elevated him to godhood.

"Soon, all this will end."

Chapter Text

Repetition

Another afternoon in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, which of course meant another couple piles of the paperwork that the village inevitably generated.

Tsunade sighed, leaning back in her somewhat beaten chair and massaging her forehead. She wished she knew where Shizune had hidden her sake this week. Her former apprentice we just too damn clever when it came to hiding places: it had been almost a month since Tsunade had seen a drop of the stuff.

Though maybe that was for the best…

The Hokage snorted, pressing herself back into the mass of minutiae. She must have been really far gone, to start to consider a lack of alcohol a good thing.

It wasn't all bad, she reflected as she perused an academy initiative, headed by a certain Iruka Umino, to teach dispelling genjutsu to the more advanced students: Tsunade didn't remember much about the man besides his distinctive scar, but he certainly seemed like one of the more levelheaded of his colleagues. She signed off her approval.

The village hadn't experienced a crisis in a while: always a good thing. Both Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha were no longer missing-nin. Danzō's surgery had gone off without a hitch. In addition, about twenty Sharingan had been turned over to the village: Tsunade couldn't believe how many that Danzo had been hiding away.

Shizune was now in the possession of the doujutsu. She was the only person Tsunade trusted to be able to hide them effectively enough while the Hokage decided exactly what to do with them.

ROOT's leader had been quiet lately. Tsunade couldn't decide if he had decided to bide his time and plan a revenge for a suitable moment… No, that was definitely what he was doing. It would be naïve to believe anything else.

It was a pity that Danzō directly controlled a decent portion of the village's ANBU: Tsunade would have seriously considered decommissioning the elder man and forcing him into retirement if that weren't the case. But while Tsunade didn't enjoy the political game, that didn't mean she was exempt from it. And such a drastic move on her part would merit an equally drastic response from him.

So for now, it was Danzō's turn to make a move. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too petty about it.

Tsunade gazed at her desk, groaning under the stacks of forms, and amended her thought. If there was any justice in the world, Danzō's revenge wouldn't create more thrice-damned paperwork. How had her grandfather gotten anything-

No. That was also a naïve thought. Hashirama had been a wartime Hokage for the length of his time in office. He wouldn't have had to worry about such things.

Probably just as well, Tsunade considered. She wouldn't have put it past her grandfather to turn official forms into potted plants. His attention span had never been the most impressive. At least it was a nice day outside, despite an unusual heat wave. The sun shining down, leaves gracefully filling the streets, birds distantly chirping-

Her office exploded.

Not into fire and rubble, thankfully. There was a loud pop, and white smoke rapidly obscured everything as a mild wind swept through the small space. When the smoke drifted away, three things became clear.

One, that there were some new arrivals in the Hokage's office.

Two, that the new arrivals were, respectively, a small green toad, a small purple toad, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Naruto Uzumaki, who was wearing a rather bright red coat with a low-lying black flame decoration.

Three, that the mild wind that had come with all the air being sucked out of several meters of space had upset the precarious piles of paperwork on Tsunade's desk, sending several pounds of the stuff to the floor in various states of disarray.

Tsunade stared at the new arrivals. Jiraiya and Naruto stared back, the first grinning proudly and the second almost smirking. Both realized that Tsunade wasn't exactly thrilled at about the same time: when a vein in her forehead began to pulse violently.

"Jiraiya…" she muttered, burying her head in her hands, "Do you always have to have a dramatic entrance?"

The older sage shrugged. "Comes with the territory, princess."

"Yes… yes it does," Tsunade muttered to herself, before looking up and meeting her teammates gaze. "Just like my paperwork."

The man turned nearly as white as his hair. "Ah… well, you see…"

The Hokage snorted. "Doesn't matter. So, you really are back so soon. I thought you might have been kidding when I got that message yesterday."

"Hey!" Naruto interjected. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Tsunade turned to the younger man, her face turning from fierce to friendly. "Nothing, Naruto. It's impressive. A sage in less than two weeks? Practically unheard of. You should be proud."

"Oh trust me, he is," Jiraiya murmured.

"Ha! You're just jealous!" Naruto declared.

"Jealous?" Jiraiya shouted, acting grievously offended. "Of what? Your manners, or your fashion sense?"

"What?! At least I-"

Whatever Naruto's doubtlessly clever rebuttal was, it never managed to escape him. The sound of a toad slamming its face into its hands was somewhat loud, almost like a solid clap, and it stopped both he and his master in their tracks.

"Honestly," Shima said, patting her husband on the back as he shook his head, at a loss for words. "Jiraiya, you become more and more childish every day. And you! Naruto! You're a sage now: try to have a little decorum, if you please! We've had this buffoon representing us for years: a change of pace might be nice!"

Now, it was Jiraiya who let out a strangled, "Hey!"

"Enough!" Tsunade's hand went up, and both the toads and the sages went silent. "You're spooking the ANBU."

Darkly dressed men in simple animal masks, all of which somewhat resented being referred to as "spooked", slunk back into the shadows. They had been drawn by the noise, and stayed for the show.

"Pfft," Jiraiya pffted. "What doesn't spook the ANBU?"

"I know what does," Tsunade said. "Teleporting into my office without warning and ruining my paperwork."

"…Okay, fine," Jiraiya acquiesced. "No more unexpected teleportation."

"Thank you," Tsunade said.

Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them, blinking. His brow furrowed.

"This isn't the first time this has happened, is it?"

Tsunade sighed. Jiraiya just looked uncomfortable.

"Okay then." Naruto decided that it was none of his business.

"So! I'm back!" he declared, trying to change the topic.

"Yes, Naruto, I can see that," Tsunade said. She turned to the more diminutive arrivals. "But if you don't mind me asking, why are the elders here?"

Fukasaku shrugged. "We're just here to see him off."

Jiraiya chuckled. Tsunade looked to him, but he just waved her off.

Nothing," he laughed.

"What?" Shima croaked. "An old woman can't say goodbye to her newest sage?"

Jiraiya just laughed again. "It's not that, and you know it."

Fukasaku chuckled as well. "He's just remembering his own return, Shima."

"Oh, yes!" Shima turned to Tsunade. "Did you ever get the blood out of your blouse, dear? It looked like it was terribly stained…"

"It was fine." Tsunade waved off the old toad's concern. "I'm rather good at getting blood off my clothes, you know."

Jiraiya snorted. Naruto just tried to look like he knew what they were talking about. He didn't, of course. It was just as well. If he'd known all the details of his master's return to Konoha after his own sage training, he likely would have lost what little reverence he had for the man. Particularly if he heard about the bit with the funnel cake.

"Anyway," Jiraiya said, trying and failing to look serious. "Tsunade, I can officially say that Naruto has finished his training."

Tsunade just shrugged. "I can see that for myself. Were there any complications? Finishing so quickly…"

"Err…" Naruto looked slightly uncomfortable turning to Jiraiya. The older man just pursed his mouth and shrugged, and so the blonde turned back to the Hokage.

"Well…" Naruto slowly said. "I had a little problem. But it's not really that bad. I figured out a way around it."

"Oh?" Tsunade leaned forward. It was pretty much what she had expected from the Jinchūriki: Naruto wasn't the type to back away from problems. He'd spent his whole life fighting them, after all.

"It's the damn fox's fault, actually." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "There's enough of its chakra in my system to keep grandpa and grandma here," he gestured at Shima and Fukasaku, who smiled at the appellation, "from fusing with me to take in natural energy."

Tsunade sat back, a question obvious in her raised eyebrows.

"It's no big deal, though!" Naruto assured her, quickly bringing his hands up. "The only thing is I can't take in energy while moving. So I just use shadow clones to get the job done instead."

"Hmm." Tsunade didn't look skeptical: just curious. "So you can't stay in Sage Mode forever then, if you can only gather as much energy as your clones can."

It sounded like a question, but it wasn't, and Naruto knew it.

He paused before responding. "Yeah," he admitted, looking a little embarrassed. Inevitably, he perked up, lighting up the office with he gleaming teeth. "But I'm working on it! Soon, my clones'll get so efficient it'll barely matter!"

"I wasn't doubting you, Naruto," Tsunade said good-naturedly. "I just needed to be sure."

There was a momentary pause as a mollified Naruto opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and settled for grinning.

"Okay," he said, before looking around.

The gesture didn't go unnoticed.

"Eager to be somewhere?" Tsunade asked with a small smile.

"Eh?" Naruto turned to her again, fidgeting slightly. "What? No! I mean-"

The Hokage chuckled. "Naruto, if you want to go, just go. I'm sure Sakura will be happy to see you."

"Sakura? But-"

"She's with him. She's barely left his side since you did."

Naruto smiled. "That's good. That's good for him."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. Naruto saw it in his peripheral vision, and rolled his eyes.

"Don't start that again, Jiraiya-sensei. Just 'cause you're handicapped, doesn't mean I won't beat the crap out of you."

"What?" the white-haired man said, bringing his hand up in an eerie imitation of his student's earlier movement. "I didn't say anything!"

"Yeah, but you were thinking it!"

The tall man snorted. "I get no respect around here. And you know I'm right."

Naruto's face went red, but he didn't say anything more to his master.

Tsunade laughed. "Just go, Naruto. We can get the other stuff out of the way later."

"Other stuff?" Naruto asked innocently.

Tsunade glanced meaningfully at one of the many stacks of paper on her desk. Now that the Jinchūriki was back in the village, he'd have to finally fill out the forms he'd been dodging ever since he'd returned from the pursuit assignment.

Naruto had never left a room as quickly as he did then. The window banged shut, the wind of his passage slamming it closed. The Hokage laughed again.

Shima just chuckled. "If that's everything, I think we'll get going too."

Fukasaku bowed slightly to the Hokage, his diminutive frame shrinking even more, and then turned to his older student. "Just remember, Jiraiya. Keep an eye on that kid."

Jiraiya nodded respectfully, and the elder toads vanished from the office in a flash of smoke and another, smaller rush of wind.

There was a moment of quiet as the two Sannin stared at each other.

"He's gotten a lot faster," Tsunade said, bringing one hand up to cup her chin. "I barely saw him leave."

"I think Naruto will surprise you, Tsunade," Jiraiya said seriously. Tsunade perked up, suddenly paying much more attention to her former teammate's words. Jiraiya rarely sounded so sincere.

The sage continued. "He's grown a lot. More than either of us realized, I think." He paused. "He reminds me more of him every day."

Tsunade stiffened slightly. "Really?" There was no question who he was.

Jiraiya nodded. "Really. It's eerie. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that he's gone."

"Huh." Tsunade rested her head on one of her hands. "That's…"

She laughed. "That's good. That's fantastic, actually. Maybe I can pass of this hat sooner than I thought."

"He's got a ways to go," Jiraiya cautioned, though he sounded like he barely believed himself. "He's still missing something."

Tsunade made a dismissive sound. "How long do you think, then?"

Jiraiya blinked and shifted. Tsunade stared at him.

"Honestly," she repeated. "How long do you think?"

"A year. Probably two," Jiraiya said slowly. "Assuming that this business with Akatsuki gets sorted out before then. He'll be ready then."

"Hmm." Tsunade grinned. "Well, we'll just have to make sure it, then."

Jiraiya smiled back. "You sound so confident. I mean-"

"Of course there's something we don't know," Tsunade interrupted. "There always is. I just get the feeling…"

She frowned slightly, leaning back and crossing her arms. "I just get the feeling it won't matter this time."

"I wish I had your confidence, princess." Jiraiya sounded subdued.

"I'm surprised you don't." Tsunade stood up, walking around her desk. "What's wrong, Jiraiya? I didn't want to say anything while Naruto was here, but you look…"

Wrong was on the tip of her tongue, but it was too strong for her to use, and so she waited for the other Sannin to fill in the gap himself. The large man didn't answer her question immediately, but when he did, it was in a quiet voice, completely unlike his usual boasting tone.

"I've been thinking a lot," he murmured.

"About?" Tsunade pressed. She finished rounding her desk, and walked slowly towards Jiraiya.

"Nagato." A moment of hesitation, completely unlike him. "Pain."

"It wasn't your fault." It wasn't supposed to be a comforting platitude: Tsunade spoke flatly, making it a crushing statement.

"How can you know?" Jiraiya, however, didn't seem to care. He tilted his head up, looking away from her.

Tsunade reached him, and grabbed hold of his remaining hand, gently holding it in both of hers. "What could you possibly have done that caused him to become what he did?"

Jiraiya was silent, staring at the ceiling, unwilling to look at her. His hand was cold.

"I don't know. That's what worries me." He finally looked down at her, expressionless. "I should have stayed with them. None of this would have happened. Nagato wouldn't be walking around in Yahiko's body, using him as some sort of… some sort of puppet. Akatsuki probably wouldn't even exist."

"Maybe." Tsunade didn't sound anything but understanding. "But you can't change the past. There's no point in agonizing over what you could have done."

"But don't you see?" Jiraiya rebutted quietly. "Nagato and Naruto… they're the same." He took a deep breath. "I put all my hope in Nagato, thinking he would be the one to save this world. And now, I don't know what happened to him, but I don't think he'll ever be saving anything, no matter what he says."

Another breath, this one shuddering. Tsunade just listened. "I did the same with Minato. But it didn't matter. He died." He closed his eyes slowly, heavily. "And now, with his son…"

"Jiraiya."

Tsunade's voice, strong and clear, sliced through Jiraiya like cold steel. He jerked his head down, meeting her hard amber eyes.

"You're being an idiot."

"…Hey," he said weakly, trying to muster up some offense.

Tsunade snorted. "Don't 'hey' me if it's true." She poked him in the chest: somewhat like she had Danzō a week earlier, but with a lot less nerve damage. With each word, she repeated the action.

"You. Are. Being. Dumb." Each poke was more violent than the last. Jiraiya winced at the last one: he couldn't tell if it was the words or the feeling of his ribs straining.

"Nagato was Nagato. Minato was Minato. And Naruto is Naruto," Tsunade said warmly.

She smiled. "Don't worry about him. You haven't done anything wrong. And if you really are that concerned, don't be. You said it yourself. Soon enough, he'll be the one teaching us new tricks."

Jiraiya stared.

"He's really rubbed off on you, huh?"

Tsunade's smile didn't fade. "As if the same hasn't happened to you. You're just getting too wrapped up in the past to notice."

"I'm pretty sure I take offense to that." His lone arm freed itself from the hand that had remained on it, and snaked itself around the Hokage, drawing her into a close hug.

"I never did have the best bedside manners," Tsunade chuckled.

"Oh?" She could hear Jiraiya's eyebrows go up. "So I'm a patient now?"

"Only if you want to be," she said.

Jiraiya laughed.

###

About a kilometer away, Naruto was being faced with the hardest decision of his young life. He'd reached a midpoint.

If he went west, he'd be at the hospital Sasuke was recovering at in five minutes or so.

But if he went east… he'd be at Ichiraku's in about three.

He was frozen on a rooftop, indecision nailing his feet to the wood.

Ramen or Sasuke?

If he went to Ichiraku's first, then he could eat on the go. But if he were eating on the go, he'd be a lot slower. Plus, who knew what Sasuke could get up to in the ten minutes the detour would take from him. Cold sweat ran down Naruto's face as he considered the consequences of his craving for sweet, sweet noodles.

Knowing the Uchiha, he might burn down the building just as Naruto got there. It would be just his luck. And then Tsunade would banish him for property damage and Naruto would have to go chasing after him again and Sakura would be so-

"Naruto?"

Huh.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Sakura's voice rung out from the street below him. He looked down and found her standing there, staring up at him with an expression somewhere between perplexed and amused. A couple people walked by, mostly ignoring the scene: in Konoha, seeing shinobi shout at others on rooftops wasn't exactly uncommon. Particularly when they were teenagers of the opposite sex.

"You're back? What are you doing up there?"

"Uh…" Naruto blinked, quickly trying to come up with an incredibly solid lie, one that would convince Sakura he had been certainly not been trying to decide between visiting his recovering friend or his favorite food.

He failed.

"Nothing."

Sakura tilted her head. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," Naruto confirmed with an incredibly sincere expression.

"You look like you're sweating," she said curiously. She shifted a bag in her left hand, moving her fingers into a more comfortable grip.

What was with the bag? Also: he was actually sweating? Jeez, he hadn't thought he was that nervous…

"Well… this coat's… pretty warm?" Naruto said, crossing his arms and wishing that there were a gust of wind to show off the bright red outfit. It was the kind of clothing that deserved to billow dramatically when worn.

Unfortunately, today Konoha was rather warm, and there wasn't a single breeze to cool the streets. It was part of the reason there were so few passerby: most of the civilians had elected to stay in, away from the dry heat. So instead of billowing dramatically, Naruto's coat just hung around his body like a drape. Pretty to look at, but not especially conductive to looking nice, or keeping him from overheating.

"It's pretty nice," Sakura noted. "Where'd you get it?"

"The toads gave it to me!" Naruto said. "They made the same kinda thing for the Yondaime! Pretty cool, huh?"

Sakura blinked. How did toads make clothing? They didn't even have thumbs.

"That is pretty cool, Naruto. Come on down here, okay? I don't want to shout all day."

Naruto nodded and leapt off the roof silently, landing in front of Sakura and kicking up a very small cloud of dust. He rose to his feet with a questioning look.

"What's with the bag?" he asked guilelessly, angling his head as if trying to get a look inside.

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed, holding it up. "I got takeout!" She reached in and withdrew something wonderful.

Naruto stared. "Is that…?" He thought he could feel a single tear trying to escape one of his eyes.

Sakura stared at him, cocking an eyebrow. For a moment, she looked scarily like Tsunade. "Are you okay?"

"That's… ramen," Naruto whispered reverentially.

"Err… yeah? I knew you were coming back today, and I figured you would come see Sasuke first thing, so I got some cup ramen so that-" Sakura suddenly stopped talking. She squinted.

"Naruto, are you… crying?"

Naruto sniffed, wiping away a rogue tear. "Sakura… you don't get it. I've been eating snails and bugs for weeks. Everyday, it just got slimier and… and wrigglier… Pervy Sage looked like he enjoyed it… I can't even…"

He rushed forward, pulling Sakura into an enthusiastic hug. "You're the best!"

"Whoa!" Sakura tried to back away, but Naruto's grip was like iron. "Hey! Let go of me, you idiot! It's just some noodles!"

"Just noodles!?" Naruto pulled back, grinning widely. "Sakura, I think you just saved my life. Don't say they're 'just noodles'!"

Despite herself, Sakura couldn't help but smile back. "Okay, fine. They're not just noodles."

Then, her smile grew sharp. "But if you don't let go of me, fancy new coat or no, I'll snap you in half."

Naruto stiffened and carefully released his grip on the pink-haired girl, backing away a foot or two to be safe.

"Anyway!" Sakura said brightly, tossing him the ramen pack. Naruto snatched it out of the air with the beginnings of a glazed smile forming on his face. "How've you been? Besides the… food."

The way she said it made it clear that giving what Naruto had been eating the title of 'food' was a questionable decision at best.

"Great!" Naruto said enthusiastically. "I learned a ton!"

Sakura slowly began walking, and Naruto followed her. She was headed in the direction of the hospital, where she'd originally been going.

"Yeah?" she asked. "I didn't get much out of master about what you were up to. I know it was studying 'Sage Mode', whatever that is, but she didn't really explain the specifics."

And just like that, Sakura managed to keep Naruto jabbering happily about his training all the way to the hospital.

###

By the time they had reached their destination, Sakura knew all she would ever want to (and more) about the sights, sounds, and 'delicacies' of Mount Myōboko, Jiraiya's extremely questionable teaching methods, and how 'awesome' Naruto's new technique was.

"So wait," she asked, pushing open the door and giving the receptionist a friendly nod. The woman didn't nod back: she looked like she hadn't slept in a long time. "Go back a little. If you mess up, you turn to stone?"

"Yep!" Naruto said cheerfully. "There're a bunch of statues around up there; Pervy Sage told me that they were people who'd messed up taking in natural energy."

"And you weren't worried that would happen to you?" Sasuke was on the fourth floor: Sakura reached the stairwell that went up through the whole of the building as she said 'happen', and carefully pulled the old metal door open, wincing at the creak.

"Nah." Naruto followed her through the open door. "Jiraiya thought of that, at least: he was super careful to make sure I was real good at concentrating before he let me take in energy or anything like that."

"Well, that was responsible of him."

There was a stretch of silence as they walked up the stairs.

When they finally reached their floor, Naruto was the one to open the door, motioning Sakura through. His coat was almost caught in the door as it closed behind him.

"So, how's he been?" he asked as he fell in besides his teammate, finally bringing to the fore what had been on both their minds.

Sakura hesitated. "Moody."

Naruto just snorted. "What else is new?"

"He's… he doesn't really know what he's going to do, Naruto," Sakura said carefully. "I've never seen Sasuke so… unsure. Not since..."

She trailed off, but Naruto already knew what she was going to say.

'Since the last time Itachi came to Konoha.'

"Don't worry about it!" the blonde said cheerfully, doing his best to dispel the sudden silence. "He'll be able to see any day now, right? Like, less than a week? Once he's got his eyes back, he'll cheer up. You'll see!"

Then, he grinned. "Plus, I'm here now. If he doesn't do it himself, I'm gonna beat that moodiness out of him!"

All of Naruto's boasts didn't do a damn thing to conceal his own uncertainty from Sakura. But she didn't comment on it. How could she? The whole situation was completely… she didn't even know what to call it.

Sometimes, it just felt so… hopeless.

She pulled ahead of Naruto. They were close to Sasuke's room now. It was just around the corner.

"I swear, Sakura," he said.

Sakura turned the corner. Sasuke's door was just ahead. She reached out and grabbed hold of the handle, hesitating. She turned back to Naruto.

He just smiled. "It'll all turn out okay."

He spoke with such conviction that for a moment, Sakura allowed herself to believe him. She opened the door and stepped through, Naruto right behind her. Sasuke was asleep. His whole body was relaxed in a way it never was while he was conscious.

There was a flash of disappointment, and then a sudden burst of undeniable wariness. Sakura's whole body tingled with danger sense. Something was wrong. He'd been awake when she'd left. She turned, and found Juugo slumped in a chair set in the corner, apparently dozing.

"Sakura." She heard Naruto behind her. He sounded the same way she felt.

"Do you-"

His words were suddenly cut off, and he gasped quietly. Something hit the floor with a flat sound: Naruto had dropped his ramen.

He was choking. It was the unmistakable sound of someone being strangled.

Sakura's eyes went wide. She began to turn around, and caught a flash of something starkly white hanging from the ceiling, its arms wrapped around Naruto's throat.

"Well. You're here sooner than I thought you'd be."

The voice stopped her from completing her turn. She slowly shifted her head back towards Juugo, but Juugo was gone. Instead, there was another man there, who hadn't been there before. A man wearing a distinctive orange mask.

Sakura let go of her bag.

"No matter," Tobi said casually. "I was just about to be on my way."

Sakura didn't think. She just charged.

If she had her way, Tobi would have both set a new airspeed record within Konoha, and accrued several hundred-thousand ryo's worth of property damage as he smashed through several dozen walls.

Sakura didn't get her way.

The man in the Akatsuki cloak didn't even flinch, and Sakura's straight-arm went right through his chest without a hint of resistance. He stared down at her, his head cocked to the side.

"You seem angry," he said calmly.

Then he twisted back.

Sakura's eyes went wide. She jumped back, bringing her arms up into a protective position. One of Tobi's legs leapt forward and kicked under her guard, sending both of her arms up. Then the other shot out and buried itself in her face.

It was like getting hit by a falling tree.

Sakura flew back, spinning. The world was spinning. Everything had suddenly gotten a lot darker. Her vision flashed red and black. She hit the ground with a muffled thud, rolled back to her feet, and immediately staggered sideways. For a moment, she considered passing out. She was pretty sure that kick had given her a concussion.

Sakura fell, her balance lost, and sunk down on one knee, giving up on keeping her feet. She breathed heavily, furious, and glared at Tobi. One of her eyes was swelling shut already. The world was getting blurry.

She forced it back into focus. She couldn't afford for it not to be.

Naruto was behind her, struggling with something. After a moment, he gave a roar of effort, and a pale thing bounced past Sakura, making a liquid sounding thud as it hit the floor. It slid to a stop at Tobi's feet, before slowly pulling itself up. It was the plant man, Zetsu. Unmistakably. But the flytrap was gone, and he was completely white: the black half had vanished.

"Ow!" it whined. "Jeez! A little rough, don't you think?"

Naruto just wheezed: the heavy, uncertain breathing of a man whose windpipe had been recently constricted.

"Who're you calling… rough?" he panted, sounding enraged. "You're lucky I didn't tear your head off!"

If it were possible, Zetsu grew paler. Tobi made an unconcerned 'tsk' noise, and slowly walked over to Sasuke. A kunai flipped out of his sleeve. He came to a stop next to the bed.

There was a moment of heavy silence.

"Get away from him." Naruto was hissing. Sakura had never heard him sound so angry.

Tobi didn't visibly react.

Sakura couldn't see past the mask, but she knew the man was wearing a mocking smile under it. Her head pulsed, a burning ache swelling through it, and she closed her eyes tightly for a moment.

"I don't believe I will."

Sakura gritted her teeth, the sound unnaturally loud in her head. She could feel a pounding there: everything above the neck felt thick, hypersensitive. A monster of headache was forming. She couldn't tell if it was because worry, or rage, or because of that vicious kick.

Behind her, Naruto took a step forward.

"Ah." Tobi raised the kunai in his left hand, bringing it against Sasuke's neck. The Uchiha didn't react, completely unconscious.

"Don't be so hasty," the man said, almost merrily. "Let's talk a little, shall we?"

Sakura slowly rose from the floor, pulling herself to her feet. She idly rubbed at the impressive yellow bruise on her cheek: it immediately began to fade.

Her headache didn't. In fact, it just got worse.

"You won't hurt him," she snarled. Every word tasted like copper.

Tobi cocked his head.

"And who will stop me?"

"Who do you think?" Naruto took a step forward. The air in the room began feeling heavy. His urge to do violence was palatable. Sakura took a deep breath, steadying herself, and finished standing up, only to stagger as the world spun once more.

Tobi chuckled. "So dramatic." He pressed the kunai forward, into Sasuke's throat. A drop of blood leaked over the shining steel point. Sakura blinked. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly.

"Don't worry!" the man said carelessly, lifting his other hand high, even as the knife drew another drop of blood from Sasuke. "I'm not here to hurt him."

Naruto took another step forward. Sakura stayed rooted where she was. The world was still spinning. Just staying on her feet was an ordeal. Her head ached. She brought a palm up and pressed it against her temple, soothing green chakra playing over it. The side of her head was wet.

Fighting was out of the question for now. Until she could heal herself, all she could do was watch.

The masked man dropped his open palm, the one unoccupied by the knife, to Sasuke's forehead. He brushed the bandages there.

"I'm just here to take him."

There was a pause. The sounds of the outside world faded away.

Sakura sucked in a breath. The pounding grew more intense. It seemed to fill the world: Konoha resonated with her unsteady heartbeat.

'No.'

'He can't leave again.'

"Like hell-"

Naruto rushed forward, fist cocked back.

"-are you going to take him!"

His hand sailed straight through the orange mask. Tobi cocked his head to the side.

Naruto didn't care about the man's apparent intangibility. He just kept swinging. Punching away at nothing. And punching.

And punching.

Before there was a moment where he overextended, where his body fell just a little bit forward, and his fist cleared Tobi's body-

And the masked man rocketed forward and headbutted him in the face in a single violent motion, not moving either of his hands the entire time. There was a harsh grunt, and Naruto fell back, an ugly bruise already marring his forehead. Zetsu laughed.

'Useless. You're being useless. DO SOMETHING.'

Sakura took a trembling step forward. The pounding grew worse.

Tobi looked away from the reeling Naruto, and towards her. She could see a single dark Sharingan staring out of his mask. It slowly spun, regarding her impassively: she was a bug at the bottom of a jar.

"Oh?" its owner said curiously. "You're still up? I thought you'd at least be taking a nap."

Sakura's lip curled back into a snarl. She couldn't help it. This man…

"Why?" she asked, spitting blood.

"Why?" Tobi aped back in a high-pitched voice.

Sakura's snarl grew. "Why are you taking him?" She took another unsteady step forward. "Are you stupid? Do you think we'll just let you? That you can just walk into and Konoha and-"

The masked man laughed. "You think Konoha will stop me?" He laughed again, lower. He took a step forward, away from Sasuke. The knife stayed in his hand. "You think Konoha will step in to help your poor little Sasuke?"

Naruto pulled himself back to his feet. "Of course! Why wouldn't the old lady-!"

"Oh! Your Hokage?" The man chuckled, raising his hand and cupping the lower half of his mask. "You think the decision would be hers to make?"

"Of course!"

"Then you are naïve." The man's voice lost all trace of humor. He stood ramrod straight, glaring at Naruto. His Sharingan lazily rotated.

Naruto froze. The pinwheel eye transfixed him. Sakura watched, her eyes boring into the sides of Zetsu's grinning head. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and the smile shrunk slightly.

If she could have seen herself in a mirror, Sakura likely would have terrified herself. 'Murder' was too light a term for what she looked ready for: 'burning down the continent' would have better suited the expression on her face.

"This village killed the Uchiha. Slaughtered them down to the last man, woman, and child. I know: I helped them do it." The man laughed. "Itachi was so brave, taking the sins of his family onto himself. Voluntarily accepting exile, even. But even he needed help, and that's why he came to me."

Tobi chuckled darkly. "What a hypocrite."

"Hypocrite…?" Naruto couldn't look away.

"He says he will bear the Uchiha's burdens, and then he passes responsibility for them onto me? He says he will exterminate our clan… and then he leaves his brother behind?" The masked man slowly shook his head.

"He was never willing to go all the way. That's why he will fail."

Sakura shook her head: the pounding was getting louder and louder.

"Even if... even if you think that..." Her words weren't coming to her easily: the world seemed to be moving like it was underwater. "He's Itachi. He won't just let you... he cares about Sasuke..."

She barely agreed with herself, but it was the truth. Itachi did care about Sasuke. Even if he didn't deserve to.

The man chuckled. "Oh, I know. I'm counting on it. He and I have unfinished business, after all."

Sakura shook her head: the pounding was getting louder and louder. Sasuke was bait? That couldn't be it. Just for Itachi...

"But… that's got nothing to do with-" Naruto closed his eyes.

"Konoha not helping Sasuke?" The darkly humorous tone was back. Tobi slowly shook his head. "You think this village won't leap at the chance to finally be rid of the Uchiha for good?"

He laughed lowly. "Face it: we're a dangerous breed. Don't you see what we've done? Sasuke killed Orochimaru. Itachi killed his whole family. I founded this village-"

"Liar," Sakura spat.

"Oh?" Tobi glanced at her. "Jiraiya's been sharing his insipid theories then?" He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I am Madara Uchiha. Believe me, or don't. It will have no effect on what is coming."

"Which is?" Naruto growled.

Tobi laughed again: a real laugh, not the low chuckles he'd let out before.

"As if I'd just tell you. That would ruin the surprise!" He laughed again. "Honestly: wouldn't you rather not know? It's far more exciting that way."

Naruto had nothing to say to that. Sakura did.

"I don't care about any of that," she said, taking another shaking step forward. Tobi refocused on her. "I just want to know why you're taking Sasuke."

The masked man reared back, cartoonishly shocked. "Who wouldn't want him?" he exclaimed. "Sasuke here has great potential. So young, and already he will have the Eternal Mangekyō…"

And now, Sakura swore she could hear his grim smile. "And of course, there's that hatred of his. He and that other one," he gestured vaguely with the kunai to where Juugo had been lying, "they make fantastic weapons. You just give them a target, set them loose…"

His tone became almost gloating. "It happened with Orochimaru. It happened with Deidara… it almost happened with Itachi. Sasuke will be a powerful tool for the Akatsuki. The next time you see him, I doubt you'll even recognize him. Amegakure changes people, you know."

Sakura's eyes went wide.

It was like Orochimaru all over again. This man was going to take Sasuke away, twist him, turn him against the village. And, she realized as Tobi took a step back, she couldn't do a thing about it. She still had trouble standing.

But Naruto…

Naruto had been still the entire time Tobi had been talking. Completely motionless. His eyes were still closed. Tobi reached out, and once more his hand was on Sasuke's forehead. The knife stayed at his side.

'No!'

Sakura lurched forward, and fell to her knees.

"Naruto." Her voice sounded hollow. "Stop him."

Tobi began twisting. Sasuke began twisting. The room was going dark. Sakura could barely keep her head up. Naruto looked up, and his eyes opened.

They were gold.

He didn't speak. He just moved.

Sakura saw the Sharingan widen, and the masked man jerked his head to the side. The kunai came up, and Naruto swung.

His fist missed, grazing the Akatsuki member's face. Tobi had been too quick. The knife struck Naruto's shoulder and cleanly broke, the handle ripping itself away from the masked man's hand.

Then, there was a pause, a surge of unseen energy...

And a fourth of Tobi's mask shattered: the lower right side, just under his eye. Naruto completed his punch.

The masked man reeled. Sasuke vanished.

He was gone. Tobi hadn't taken his hand off him the whole time.

'No.'

Pale white fluid dripped from under the shattered part of the mask. Tobi slowly turned his head back towards them.

Half of his jaw was gone: torn away, leaving behind a pale, unnatural looking goop. It clearly wasn't skin.

Sakura couldn't look away. Whoever… whatever Tobi claimed he was, he certainly wasn't Madara. She doubted he was even really human.

Somehow, even with almost half of his mouth gone, he spoke. Sakura could see his tongue moving through the gap in his jaw. It looked so ordinary compared to the ruin of his lower face.

"Well," he said, staring Naruto in the eye. The Jinchūriki glared back, shocked and enraged.

"Nice try."

Then, he swirled out of existence. Zetsu, eyes wide and mouth open, fell back into the floor and vanished.

Sakura saw something black flit across the corner of her vision, and then vanish in a flash of gleaming feathers. She couldn't say if it was real or not, but it would have been strange to have hallucinated a crow.

Naruto's eyes faded to blue, and he slumped, gritting his teeth and balling his fists. Sakura thought she saw blood leaking from underneath his fingers. He looked over at her.

His suddenly familiar eyes grew large.

"Sakura! Are you-"

Sakura gave up the battle, and allowed her head to drop. She could feel herself slipping away.

Sasuke was gone.

Chapter Text

Departure

"You know it's a trap."

"Of course."

Kisame Hoshigaki stopped pacing. Samehada came to a stop. He'd been idly swinging it back and forth, keeping himself occupied. "I can't talk you out of it? The last time you and Pain met… and, well, he won't be alone this time."

Itachi Uchiha smiled. The bandages over his eyes rose slightly with the motion. He stood up from the overturned log he'd been sitting on. "This time will be different." He tapped his bandages knowingly.

The Swordsman grinned his unnerving, tooth-filled grin. "You're more stubborn than you look, Itachi."

"I imagine you would be dead if that weren't the case."

Kisame laughed. He turned to the clearing's two other occupants. Karin and Suigetsu stared back.

"I assume you're coming as well?"

Suigetsu scowled. "What makes you think that?" Karin sighed and pressed her hand to her face in exasperation. She turned and flicked the Hozuki in the temple, hard.

"Of course we're coming," she replied impatiently.

Kisame snorted. "I don't get it. You two," he gestured at Itachi, "this guy, the Kyuubi brat… people get so attached to that kid."

Itachi's smile barely shifted: he was used to comments like that. Karin took a step forward.

"Sasuke saved me." Karin gestured at Suigetsu. "Saved both of us. It would be wrong not to return the favor."

Kisame shrugged. "If you say so," he chuckled. He looked back at Itachi. "I assume you want me to-"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," the Uchiha confirmed. "Time is of essence, after all."

Kisame slung Samehada over his shoulder. "Well, let's go then. I'll need some ocean for that kind of teleportation, and the nearest connecting river is a couple kilometers from here."

Suigetsu blinked, hefting his butcher's blade of a sword out of the earth, where he'd planted it. "We're going to use the sharks?" he asked, almost eagerly.

Karin looked at him, cocking an eyebrow. "Sharks?"

Suigetsu grinned. "Oh yeah. You'll love 'em, I'm sure. They're moody, they're quiet, they got positively hypnotic eyes… it'll be like we already saved him."

Kisame chuckled and Itachi smiled again, but Karin grimaced.

"Still," she said slowly. "It's just the four of us. Six if we reach Sasuke and Juugo, and that's only if they're not..." She blinked and suppressed a shiver. "Impaired. How are we going to-"

"It won't be just the four of us," Itachi said calmly, slowly rising from the log he'd been seated on.

"Huh?" Suigetsu's eyebrows asked all the questions that he didn't. Itachi looked up at the steadily darkening sky. The sun was beginning to think about setting. He couldn't see any of it.

"If I know Naruto at all," he slowly said, "we'll likely meet him there."

###

"Sakura!"

Sakura snapped awake.

Oh god. She'd passed out. How long had she been unconscious?

Naruto was kneeling next to her, his eyes huge: glasslike. She could feel blood on the side of her face. Still wet: it hadn't been long at all. Sasuke had probably been kidnapped less than a minute ago. She shot up, and then winced at the pounding in her head. That was a concussion for sure. Tobi's kick had been brutal: she was lucky her head injury wasn't worse.

"Sakura." She turned to Naruto. He just stared at her, completely still, frozen in shock. "He took Sasuke."

"I know, Naruto."

He shook his head. "Are you okay?" He reached out, almost cupping her face. "Your head…"

She pushed his hand away. "I'll be fine. I just need a minute. I can fix this. It's nothing."

"You passed out! That's not nothing!"

"I'm okay," Sakura ground out, slowly pulling herself to her feet. Naruto rose with her, holding her arm, supporting her. "We need to…" Her vision blurred momentarily, and she shook her head viciously, clearing it. "We need to go to Tsunade. Quickly."

Naruto looked pained. He let go of her arm. "She won't let us."

Sakura looked at him, bewildered. She must have been hit harder than she thought. "Naruto?"

He wasn't looking at her.

"Tsunade won't let us go after him."

Sakura blinked. "Naruto… you can't be serious. You… he was lying. Saying things, trying to mess with us. The Hokage wouldn't-"

"No." Naruto was standing stock still, his hands clenched at his sides. The right one had stopped bleeding, the nail-punctures already healed. "He's a piece of shit… but he was right." He shook his head again, like someone trying to dislodge something.

"Tsunade, she'd let us go after him. Eventually. But it would be too late by then. Sasuke'll be…" He trailed off and looked up at her. His eyes were hard. "I'm going now. That bastard told us where he was taking him: I'm going after him. Both of them. Now."

Sakura just stared. Her head hurt, but she couldn't help but think about what Naruto was saying. Sasuke had been kidnapped, right out of Konoha. The village that had killed his family. The village that, if she was being completely honest with herself, he had every right to hate.

She and Naruto... They were Sasuke's family, his new family. But he was so fragile right now. Sasuke had no idea where he was going; he didn't know what he wanted.

She and Naruto just weren't enough. He could go either way. If he'd stayed, he probably would have rejoined the village. But if he was gone… if the only man with him while he was so fragile was 'Madara'…

He would grow to hate Konoha. He would try to destroy it. It was inevitable. And his only other bond to Konoha besides them was his brother.

Itachi didn't want Konoha destroyed. And he didn't want Sasuke dead. He would probably go after his brother as well. He wanted him safe, just like Naruto did.

But Sasuke probably still wanted Itachi dead. And even if he didn't, he had almost no reason to trust him. Itachi had killed his own family on the village's orders. He'd tortured his little brother into a coma with his genjutsu: he'd ripped out Sasuke's eyes. So if Sasuke weren't retrieved before he had a chance to decide, it would be too late.

He would be gone. The Sasuke that they had been trying to save would be dead.

How long would it take? A month? A week? A day? Would Tsunade let them go after him so quickly? Where had Sasuke been taken? What had the masked man said?

Amegakure.

He was in Amegakure. The base of Akatsuki: the village that had almost claimed one of the Sannin's life.

"No," she said out loud. Naruto kept eye contact with her.

"You… Naruto, you..." Sakura bit her lip. She could feel herself trembling. "Master... Tsunade wouldn't let us go after him. Not soon enough. But…"

Naruto frowned. "But?"

"But she'd be right!" Sakura broke. She stopped caring about the aching in her head. "Sasuke's gone! And by now, he's at Akatsuki's main stronghold!"

She froze.

"It's a trap." It was so obvious. How had she-

"What?"

"It's a trap." Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath. "It's a trap for you. Tobi, he took Sasuke because he knew you'd go after him!" She took another breath. The world seemed to made of paper, flat and lifeless; colors crudely drawn on. "You can't go!"

She couldn't believe what she was saying. Neither, apparently, could Naruto.

"What?" he said quietly. Then, he took a step closer to her. His voice grew even quieter. "I have to go, Sakura. Sasuke's there. If I don't go, we'll never see him again. He'll come back like he did when he was with Orochimaru."

His bright-blue eyes narrowed: they were the only things in Sakura's world that looked alive. "No. He'll be even worse. I can't let that happen."

"But, Naruto…" Sakura brought her hand up to her head, and green chakra played around it. Her headache began to recede. "He's not… Naruto, he's not…"

Naruto's face went flat. "He's not worth it?"

"He's not worth you!" Sakura angrily blurted, the words choking her. "You'll just be doing what they want! If you go…" Her vision began blurring. It wasn't her concussion causing it. "If you go, I'll never see you again."

Naruto just stared at her, torn. He slowly closed his eyes: other than that small movement, he was completely still.

"Thank you, Sakura."

'Sakura… thank you.'

Sakura's eyes went wide. The past and the present overlapped a moment, and she was young and cold and shivering and alone once more.

"But I can't just let him go like that. If I can save him, I have to try."

Naruto opened his eyes: they were gold again. "And with this, I'll have a chance. I know Akatsuki's weaknesses. I can…"

He paused, his mouth moving soundlessly before closing again. Finally he spoke once more, his voice cracked. "It doesn't matter if it's a trap. If there's a chance, I have to try."

"Naruto." Sakura stumbled forward. Naruto backed up, out of her reach.

She reached out. She hadn't been able to stop Sasuke from leaving. He'd just walked away. And now…

"Naruto. Don't you dare. Don't you fucking dare-"

Her teammate's face twisted into a parody of his normally bright smile: this one looked like it had been painted on, and the paint had begun to flake away.

"I'll see you soon," he lied.

And then he vanished, moving so fast Sakura could barely track him. The windowpane shuddered with his passing. She was left alone in a silent room, her hand grasping at nothing.

Sakura stared at the spot where Naruto had been a moment before. He was gone. Just like Sasuke.

At that moment, all she wanted to do was demolish the hospital. Wall by wall, brick by brick. Then the village. Then the rest of the Nations. And then kill her self-sacrificing idiot of a teammate, before the Akatsuki could.

Sakura took a deep breath. She would not cry. Crying was the last thing she needed right now. Neither was doing her best to destroy Konoha building by building until the terrible weight in her chest vanished. Her head was clear. Her concussion was gone. She needed to think.

No. Now wasn't the time to think. She needed to stop him.

Naruto wasn't out of the village yet. He was fast, but he hadn't been holding still long enough for his Sage Mode to last long. She could catch up. But she had no idea where he was going, which direction he was headed; and unless she found out as quickly as possible, she would be too late.

How could she-

Sakura snapped her head up, and she ran, faster than she thought she ever thought she would be able to. She knew how she could find Naruto.

###

The windowpane rattled again, and the hospital room was suddenly apparently empty, except for a spread of crimson droplets on the off-white floor. Apparently.

The blood from Sakura's head wound slowly began to draw itself into the ground. Then, a face, simple and pale, looking like something a child would create with clay, began to pull itself from it. Slowly, its features became more defined. The forehead grew broader, the chin sharper, the mouth a bit shorter, and the nose more angular.

A pale, stringy substance sprouted from the scalp, slowly bringing itself down the back of the white thing's head. It began to change color: slowly, it went from a sickly white to a bright pink.

An off-white Sakura Haruno pulled herself from the floor of the hospital like a weed sprouting from the earth, stretching as she rose, working muscles that hadn't existed a moment before. Her skin began to shift, spreading out and changing shade, until it looked just like her day wear.

Not-Sakura finished rising from the floor. She glanced around, taking in the empty chair in the corner in the room.

She strode over, her walk exactly like the real Sakura's, and sat down in it, watching the rest of the room.

Two more pale lumps pulled themselves up from the floor, rapidly changing in shape and color. Soon, it seemed like the hospital had sprouted a bizarre sunflower and a drooping, misshapen, dark-blue duck.

Not-Sakura grinned.

###

"Sakura? Would you like to come in- is that blood-?"

"No time!" Sakura barked, breathing heavily. Sweat ran down her neck: she'd been running as hard as she could, rocketing across the rooftops. "How far can you see?" she asked harshly.

Hinata Hyuuga flinched at the pink-haired girl's severe tone. "I… I'm sorry?" she asked politely. Her hands, clasped behind her back, fidgeted slightly. Something was wrong. Sakura looked almost frantic, and there was dried blood running along the side of her face

Had something happened with Sasuke? Had he-

"Your Byakugan. How far can it see?" Sakura barked. Hinata didn't flinch again.

"Umm… a couple kilometers, I guess. I've been working on improving it, but it's still not at its-"

Sakura grinned fiercely. "Perfect. Find Naruto."

Hinata blinked, suppressing a blush. "Naruto? Is he…" She smiled. "He's back in the village? Where is-"

Sakura cut her off again. "I don't know. He's in trouble: I need to find him. Right now."

Naruto was in trouble?

Hinata activated her Byakugan in an instant, without saying another word. The world expanded.

She strained, trying to filter all the information. Konoha was noisy, for lack of a better term, even on a day like today. There was so much to see, so many people going about their business, children playing in the streets, woman doing their laundry, genin practicing with shuriken while their sensei watched lazily, Iruka-sensei smiling, the Daimyo's wife's cat slinking along a thick wire between two buildings, the Hokage…

Oh my. Well, Naruto certainly wasn't over there.

ANBU on the rooftops, birds in the sky, two pecking at each other, Neji, practicing in the courtyard, destroying small stone walls with powerful blasts of air from his palms, a woman crying in her living room while listening to the radio, a dog sliding under a drain-pipe, the first leaf falling from a tree, a workman tumbling off a roof, and a shinobi shooting from a nearby window to catch him.

A boy with luminous chakra and a flowing cloak with flames along the bottom, flying across the rooftops so fast that Hinata had trouble seeing him. A boy with spiky blonde hair, and a determined expression of his face.

"Found him."

Sakura bared her teeth in something pretending to be a smile. "Take me to him. As fast as you can."

Hinata nodded. She didn't know what was happening, but it was clear Naruto needed help, and doing that was as natural a decision as breathing.

###

Neji paused, twisting his head towards the compound entrance.

Something was wrong. He didn't know what it was. He could just feel it.

Three years ago, when he had beaten dead-last Naruto Uzumaki into a bloody wreck, closed all of his tenketsu, and then promptly had his jaw broken in return, Neji had been forced to seriously reconsider his stance on concepts such as fate. The truth of his father's death had only reinforced this examination.

Now, he thought himself a much more balanced person. If what Naruto had accomplished, if what Hinata was becoming, had taught him anything, it was that it was foolish to apply labels like "fate" or "destiny" to everything in life. There was no limit on potential, only on how far people were willing to go to unlock it.

But just because someone could change, just because a slave could become a free man, or an idiot a Kage…

That did not mean that fate didn't exist.

Neji activated his eyes.

And now, in a way that dug directly into something deep inside him, he could feel. Something was happening: something important. Destiny was shifting. There was an undeniable change, and it probably had something to do with Hinata and Sakura sprinting away from the compound as fast as possible, in clear pursuit of something unseen.

Neji's arms dropped to his side, falling out of his stiff jūken stance. He took a deep breath. Something was changing, and if Hinata was part of that change, he had to be with her. That was his duty, after all.

He turned and broke into a run.

Destiny was shifting, and beneath his stoic exterior and excuses as a member of the Branch House, Neji didn't want to be left behind.

###

"Huh."

Chōji's voice, muffled by what seemed like several pounds of beef that he had stuffed in his mouth, drew Shikamaru's attention away from Ino, who was explaining in vivid detail why she believed that Kakashi-sensei was probably the most handsome of any of the village's jōnin.

("Why else would he wear that mask all the time?")

He may have been a little desperate to be distracted.

"Huh?" he echoed, languidly turning his head towards his large teammate. Ino huffed, annoyed at his sudden escape: she'd just been getting to the good stuff.

Chōji swallowed loudly, and pointed. "They're going a little fast, don't you think?"

Shikamaru turned, and caught a glimpse of Hinata Hyuuga and Sakura Haruno blazing across the rooftops on the other side of the street. They were going fast. Really fast. It was quite unsafe, actually.

He shrugged. Whatever was going on, it was probably too troublesome to get involved in. It wasn't like the village was under attack or anything. In fact, it probably had something to do with-

Neji Hyuuga shot by, clearly chasing after them.

Ino squealed and shot up. "Check please!"

"Hey!" Chōji groaned. "Ino, c'mon! I'm not done yet. What're you-"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ino said excitedly.

Both of her teammates stared at her without an ounce of comprehension, and Ino rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Boys."

She pressed both of her hands down on the table. "Look: Sakura and Hinata just ran by. And Neji is chasing them!"

Her teammate's stares didn't get any less bewildered.

Ino stared back, cocking her eyebrow. "Nothing?"

Shikamaru glanced at Chōji, who just looked back and shrugged.

"C'mon!" Ino stamped her foot.

"Ino…" Chōji muttered. "We have no idea what you're talking about."

"It's Naruto! Obviously!" she snapped back.

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow as high as it could possibly go without injuring his forehead.

"Naruto?" He blinked. "Oh yeah. He should be back, around now." He blinked again, more quickly, and put his hands up. "Wait a minute. You think-"

"Sakura's taking Hinata to him! And Neji's trying to stop her!" Ino sighed dramatically. "We have to follow them!"

Chōji looked at all the uneaten food on the table before him, and sighed. "Fine." He grinned. "But you're paying for my next meal."

"Done!" Ino agreed impatiently. She turned to her other teammate, who still hadn't moved from his booth, bonelessly slouching. "Shikamaru, make a shadow clone!"

He looked up at her. "I think I'll sit this one out, myself. I'm not really-"

Ino bent down and seized his ear, looking him in the eye. "Shikamaru. You're coming. No negotiation. Think of it as education: you need to see what real romance looks like."

The Nara winced. "I doubt Naruto will ever be a 'romantic' kind of guy."

Ino snorted. "You'll see. Now, get up and make a shadow clone: we've gotta tell Tenten! She's been waiting for this!"

Shikamaru slowly, very, very slowly, pulled himself out of the booth. "Why don't you do it?"

"'Cause you're still better at it! Seriously, now!"

Shikamaru sighed, and ran his hands through several simple signs. There was a puff of smoke, and another Nara appeared. This one looked even more bored than the original.

"Where is she?" he asked lazily.

"Training ground twelve, with Lee. It's not that far. Go and tell her where we're headed, all right? And quick!"

The clone nodded and ambled out the door. Ino clicked her tongue, and it took off: even Shikamaru's clones knew that sound was a bad sign.

She turned back to her teammates. "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

And so with a giggle, a groan, and a sigh, Team Ten joined the chase.

###

"Akamaru, did I just see that?"

Kiba turned to his companion, who gave him the dog equivalent of a shrug. He'd seen the same thing. Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuuga had leapt over the alley they were wandering through… followed closely behind by Neji. And then, less than ten seconds later, the entirety of Team Ten had flown past as well.

Something was up.

Kiba blinked, almost audibly. He shook his head. "I'll go after them. Could you get Shino? I have the feeling he's gonna want to see this."

Akamaru barked. Kiba stared at him, and then slapped himself. "Right. Dog." He grinned from under his hand. "Okay. You follow them. I'll go get Shino."

The large white dog huffed in amusement, and then sprinted up the walls of the alley, leaping onto the roof and out of sight.

Kiba's grin widened and he took off in the other direction, towards the Aburame compound. He didn't know what was going on, but if so many of the Rookies had already been dragged into it, it was probably gonna be good.

###

Sai was rather perturbed. There was something strange going on in the village below.

High upon Konoha's walls, he was the only one with the proper view to see what was happening down there. Someone was running. And being chased in kind.

Someone wearing a bright red coat.

Sai looked around. There were no patrols nearby: this part of the wall bordered the main road, and ANBU had jurisdiction down there. He was the only one able to see the chain of people going after whoever was down there. He glanced down at his sketch. It was only half finished.

He shrugged. He could always complete it later. Right now, something odd was happening, and he felt curious.

A moment later, there was a large ink eagle in Konoha's sky.

###

He was being followed.

Konoha seemed almost empty today. The streets were nearly deserted: the sun was bearing down relentlessly, soon to set, and most of the village had given up the day. He only saw the occasional shinobi as he blew across the rooftops. They never saw him. He made sure of it.

But he must have messed up somehow. He must have made a mistake, because he was being followed. About a half dozen chakra's licked at his senses, behind him. They weren't catching up, but they weren't being left behind either.

They were all familiar: particularly the one at the front. Sakura was after him, which meant he had to push himself even faster. He needed to get out of the village before she could catch him.

Sage Mode chose that moment to run out.

Naruto misjudged the next leap, his body no longer humming with natural energy, and nearly ended up planting himself face-first in a brick wall. Only an impromptu handspring saved him, and then he was off again.

If he'd been in the right state of mind, he would have made a shadow clone, or several dozen: either as decoys, or to stay behind and gather more energy. Naruto wasn't in the right state of mind. Sasuke had been kidnapped.

He'd been so close. He'd been back in the village. Orochimaru was dead. Itachi wasn't trying to kill him. For once, everything had been going Naruto's way, and now he was gone. Stolen, right before they could become a real team again.

So Naruto wasn't in the right state of mind. He was almost manic, driven by something he didn't fully understand. Even with Sage Mode gone, he still made his way towards the borders of the village with every ounce of his strength.

(It never occurred to him that he might have wanted to be caught.)

He had to preserve the first bond he'd ever made. His first real friendship. If he didn't…

Naruto couldn't imagine what would happen if he didn't. But it was okay. That wouldn't happen. He'd save Sasuke. He would save him if it were the last thing he ever did.

###

Sakura got within shouting distance of Naruto when he was forced to slow down as he scaled Konoha's great walls. She started screaming at him. She barely knew what she was saying. Pleading. Threats. Promises that she knew were impossible.

Naruto ignored it all. He only stopped for a moment, right as he reached the top of the wall.

He only stopped when Hinata asked, in something that was both a shout and whisper, "Naruto?"

Then, he looked back, for the briefest of seconds. Sakura couldn't see his face from the bottom of the wall. Hinata could, and what she saw scared her more than she thought was possible.

###

He stopped about a mile outside Konoha, panting. Exhausted. Naruto had run faster that day than he'd ever moved before. He still felt like it hadn't been fast enough.

He didn't waste any time. Shaking from exertion, he brought a trembling hand up to his mouth and bit down hard on his thumb, before running through several signs.

"Kuchiyose jutsu," he wheezed, and slapped his hand down on the grass.

There was an explosion of smoke, and a diminutive green toad appeared. It stared up at him expectantly.

Naruto grinned unconvincingly, trying to mask his desperation and exhaustion. He bent down to the summon's level, dropping into a squat. "Hey. Gamatate, right?"

The toad just cocked its head wordlessly, before nodding.

Naruto's grin grew a bit more genuine, and he breathed out, straightening up. "Great. I need to get to Amegakure, right away. Can you take me there? Pervy Sage said you were the best toad teleporter, and he tends to be right about those kind of things…"

Gamatate blinked. Then, he spoke.

"Amegakure?"

Naruto blinked back, shocked. The toad was about the size of his head, but its voice was incredibly deep and gravelly. It sounded like Gamabunta, if Gamabunta had been smoking real tobacco in his showy pipe.

"Er… yeah? It's kinda emergency." He drew himself fully up, his breathing evening out.

"You're Naruto, right? The newest sage?" Gamatate asked ponderously.

The brittle grin returned. "That's me!" Naruto drove a thumb into his chest, doing his best to imitate himself. "Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Number One Unpredictable Ninja, and the new Toad Sage! So, could you-"

"You know what happened to your master in Amegakure, right?" Naruto had the feeling that if the toad had eyebrows, he'd be cocking them.

"He nearly met his death," the summon continued. "When I picked him up, he was missing an arm and going into shock. If his teammate weren't the best medic-nin in the world, he almost certainly would have died."

He inflated his throat for a moment, before bringing it back to normal, like a nervous tic. "Do you really think going there is the best idea?"

Naruto looked down, his eyes blank in disbelief. Not for a single moment during his flight from the village had he imagined this might happen.

"I…"

His voice died.

What was there to say? Naruto wasn't stupid.

Going to Amegakure was a terrible idea.

Sakura had said it was a trap. She was probably right. The timing of Tobi kidnapping Sasuke was too perfect for it to be otherwise. If he hadn't wanted to bait Naruto, he would have done it before the Jinchūriki returned to the village, let alone walked into Sasuke's hospital room. Tobi wanted him to come. Wanted him to be forced to face Pain again, on his home turf. Could he do what his master couldn't? He knew Pain's secrets. He knew his techniques, his weaknesses: he even knew his true identity.

But even if he got Sasuke (who was still blind) to help him, could he beat the man who'd almost killed his master? Probably not. Naruto held no illusions. Jiraiya was still a better shinobi than him in ways he couldn't even understand. But he had to try. It was his life versus Sasuke's soul, and he would trade it in a heartbeat.

For the first time since Sasuke had been taken (impossible: it was only ten minutes ago), Naruto allowed himself to laugh.

"No," he chuckled. "It's an awful idea. But I have to go. My best friend's there. If I don't go, he'll die." He sobered. "No, it'll be worse than that. He'll turn against Konoha. He'll lose himself."

He looked down at Gamatate, and his eyes were hard. "I won't let that happen."

The tiny toad stared up at him, before shrugging. "Alright then," it ground out. "In that case-"

"NARUTO!"

The man in question spun around, and promptly had the life scared out of him.

Seeing Sakura Haruno leap from the trees and head straight for you at something approaching the speed of sound was the kind of thing that took years away from someone. Naruto leapt to the side in a panic, and his teammate's flying tackle missed. She struck ground and rolled, barely missing Gamatate, who croaked in alarm and jumped high into the air, alighting on a nearby branch.

Naruto hit the ground at about the same time that Sakura got to her feet. He skidded along the slick grass, before turning over just in time to see his teammate stalking towards him.

"Naruto, I swear. I will break your back and then figure out how to fix it." Sakura's eyes were wide, the pupils dilated. She looked, for lack of a better word, fierce.

The specificity of the threat made Naruto pause as he scrambled to his feet. "You're not going to stop me!" he said, panting. "I won't just let Sasuke go like that!"

"And I don't want you to, Naruto!" Sakura was crying. Naruto's heart jumped. "But I'm not going to let you go like that!"

She charged again, and Naruto flipped over her, already facing her when he landed.

"Sakura, please! I have to do this! I know you understand! Sasuke is-"

Sakura threw herself forward, one arm raised for a jaw-breaking punch. Naruto ducked it, feeling the air next to his head deciding that it just wasn't interested in occupying that space anymore.

"I know, Naruto! But you can't just throw yourself away for him! Going to Amegakure alone-!" Sakura raised her other arm, ready to bring it down on her teammate's head. "It's suicide! I won't let you!"

Alone.

Alone.

Naruto froze, dropping his guard. "Sakura."

His teammate froze as well. She dropped her fist, wiping away some of her tears with her other hand. "What?" she almost snarled. She was close enough that Naruto could hear her labored breathing: she'd really been ready to knock him out.

"Come with me."

'Then take me with you!'

Sakura blinked. Both of her hands dropped. She stepped back, almost tripping over her own feet. "…What?" she whispered.

Naruto stepped forward, back into her personal space. "Come with me. If we both go… it's not a long shot anymore. We can save Sasuke together. We could do it."

Sakura was still staring at him. Her tears hadn't dried yet. "I… Naruto…" she stuttered.

"If she's going, I'm going too."

Naruto spun, and found Hinata behind him. She'd been sneaking up on him.

(As he did with many things, Naruto didn't think about the implications of this.)

"What?" he asked intelligently.

Hinata stared at him with fearless eyes. "I said: if she's going, I'm going too."

Naruto stepped away from Sakura, bringing his hands up. "But… Hinata. It's gonna be…"

He stopped. What was he saying? It was going to be dangerous? Hinata was a ninja, just like him. What did danger matter? Why didn't he want her to go?

"…It's a Team Seven thing," he finally decided. "Sasuke is our responsibility. You shouldn't put yourself in danger just because-"

"Naruto."

Hinata's voice was soft, but it still shut Naruto up like a slap across the face. She took a step closer to him.

"Don't you remember what I told you?"

Hinata had told Naruto a lot of things recently. But one stuck out in particular: she'd whispered it, staring up into his eyes, in a situation he couldn't help but find similar to this.

'You won't leave me behind, not ever again.'

That had been… what, two weeks ago? A lifetime ago.

Naruto swallowed loudly. "I remember."

Hinata smiled. "I…" She stammered for a moment, before narrowing her eyes slightly. "I love you," she said forcefully, as if the words had been sticking in her throat. "And I have to protect the people I love. If you're going to go fight Pain again, I won't let you go without me."

"Well spoken, I think."

Sai dropped out the treetops, as if he'd been there the entire time.

Naruto blinked. "Sai?"

The pale boy ignored his startled reaction. "I believe I'll come as well." His mouth stretched, and his eyes closed. "After all, I can't let you just go off and get captured, can I?"

"I… what?" Naruto shook his head. "No way! It's gonna be way too…" He looked back at Hinata. "I mean… you shouldn't just-"

"I agree."

Sakura spun around, startled. Neji Hyuuga strode out of the woods behind her, wearing a truly frightening frown that was only exaggerated by his straining Byakugan.

"Going to Amegakure is foolish. You would be unlikely to succeed."

"How did you-?" Sakura asked. There was no way he'd been close enough to hear their conversation a moment ago.

"The Byakugan. I was reading your lips," the jōnin said flatly. "As I was saying, I believe pursuing Sasuke Uchiha to be a poor decision."

Naruto stepped forward, opening his mouth. Neji's hand came up, the fingers lightly extended.

"However," he said grimly. "I know you, Naruto. And I know there is no way I'll be able to talk you out of it. And while I could simply disable you and drag you back to Konoha…"

Naruto crossed his arms and snorted, making it clear exactly how "simple" he thought that process would be.

"I do not believe Lady Hinata would approve of that," Neji continued. The lightly blushing Hyuuga heir stared at her bodyguard, her mouth ever so slightly open. "As such, it appears I have no choice but to accompany you as well, if only to keep her safe from your foolishness."

Naruto stared at him for a moment, unraveling his words. "You want to come to protect Hinata?"

Neji didn't nod. His glare just grew more intense.

Naruto smiled. "That's… that's fine. In fact, I'd like that." He rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, I'd prefer that none of you come, honestly…"

Sakura glared at him, and he put his hands up. "But I can tell that's probably not gonna happen," he said, looking happy despite himself.

"What's not gonna happen?"

The voice rang out from the tree-line, and Naruto, along with the rest of the ninja's in the clearing, looked up. They found Team Ten there perched on a thick branch: Shikamaru slumping against the tree, Ino crouching farther along the branch, and Chōji plopped down with his legs hanging, watching the proceedings with interest as he idly munched on a bag of chips.

There was a disbelieving pause.

"Ino." Sakura spoke up, and her best friend shifted her gaze to her, cocking her head inquisitively at the serious tone.

"Sasuke's been kidnapped. Naruto is going after him."

"What?" the Yamanaka shrieked, shooting up. Shikamaru's eyes widened, and he pushed himself away from the tree, looking down into the clearing with sharp eyes. Chōji's head rocked back. He dropped his chips.

"What… have you told anyone?" Ino yelled, while Chōji stared forlornly at the base of the tree.

"No."

"Why the hell not?!" The Yamanaka jumped down from the tree, shortly followed by Chōji. Shikamaru didn't move.

"Are you crazy? Just chasing after him like that…" She paused. "How do you even know where he is?" she asked quickly.

"The guy who took him told us," Naruto spoke up. He shared a glance with Sakura, who bit her lip. "It's a trap."

"And you're just going to walk into it?!" Ino yelled, whirling on Sakura. "How stupid are you? Why aren't you stopping him?!"

"Ino…" Sakura said slowly. "It's a trap. But if we don't go, Sasuke is…"

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. Ino watched with wide eyes: Shikamaru was still observing everything with his sharpened gaze.

"He'll go bad," Sakura said simply and calmly, looking her blonde friend in the eyes. "He'll go bad so quickly that the next time we see him, we won't even recognize him. Right now, Sasuke's at a crossroad: we have to make sure he makes the right decision."

Ino blinked.

She didn't know Sasuke very well. She'd never known Sasuke very well. He'd always been an icon rather than a person to her: when he'd left the village, she'd really only noticed because of the effect it had had on Sakura.

But Sakura did know Sasuke. And if she said he would go bad, he would go bad. Ino believed her friend. And even if Ino didn't know Sasuke personally, she did know that he was strong. If he went full missing-nin… that would be trouble for everyone.

The Yamanaka blinked again, and made a decision.

"Then I'm coming with you," she said firmly.

Naruto, standing behind Sakura, quietly facepalmed.

"I don't think-" Sakura began, almost perfunctorily, before Ino cut her off.

"Hell no. If you're going to do something so stupid, there's no way I'm going to let you do it without me." The blonde grinned. "Plus, we've really been stepping up our training the last few weeks," she said, indicating her teammates with a broad wave of her hands. "We're ready for-"

"The man who put us all in the hospital is going to be there," Sakura said quickly. "It's going to be-"

Ino's grin just got wider: she was beginning to look distinctly vicious. "Perfect. Then I'll help you get some payback."

Shikamaru, still in the tree, sighed loudly. "This is-"

"Troublesome?" Ino shot up at him, still grinning.

The Nara jumped down, landing in a crouch and slowly rising. "No," he said, frowning. "Dangerous. We'll have to be careful. We'll need a plan…"

He smirked. "I guess it's a good thing I'm coming."

Ino rolled her eyes dramatically. She glanced at Chōji, who just nodded back seriously. Of course he was coming. Team Ten looked after its own, after all.

There was a sudden sniffing noise. Sakura snapped her head to the side.

'No way.'

"Yosh!"

Rock Lee blasted out of the undergrowth, a dazzling smile on his face. His bowl-cut was full of twigs, but he didn't see to care.

He was, however, crying a steady stream of shining tears.

"Such… such YOUTH!" He leveled his thumb at Chōji, who just blinked back, bemused. "Putting yourself in harm's way to protect your comrades… throwing yourself into the jaws of a dangerous enemy…"

He sniffed again, his tears threatening to overwhelm him. "I cannot let you do such a thing alone! I will come too!"

As Sakura tried to explain to Lee that no one was doing this alone, considering that there were already more than half-a-dozen people who had decided to follow Naruto to Amegakure, Ino shot Shikamaru a narrow glare.

"You knew he was coming," she hissed. The Nara just shrugged. Ino stopped glaring, but she was barely mollified. "If Lee's here, where's Tenten?"

"Here." The voice came from right behind Ino, and she spun around, startled. Tenten giggled. "Sorry. That never gets old."

Neji stared at his teammate. "Hmm," he grunted. "You have gotten faster."

"Did you think training with Lee was just for show?" the weapon's master playfully shot back.

Naruto finally spoke up, having been watching the arrivals with wide eyes.

"Did everyone see me leave?" he demanded incredulously.

"I did not." Shino strode out from behind a tree at the edge of the clearing. "However…"

Akamaru followed right behind him, with a grinning Kiba seated on his back.

"Several did," Shino finished saying, adjusting his glasses.

Naruto threw his hands up. "And I bet you wanna come too?"

Shino wordlessly nodded. Kiba's grin just grew wider.

"Hell yes!" he said, pounding his fists together. Akamaru panted in agreement. "We've been training our asses off," he continued, patting his partner. "And I want a rematch with that crazy-eyed asshole: it sounds like you're going right to him."

Naruto looked around. Every single one of the Rookie Nine, plus Team Gai and minus Sasuke, filled the clearing. They had all stopped talking to one another, and were staring at him with expectant eyes.

He looked at Sakura, who just raised an eyebrow at him. Naruto hung his head.

But when it came back up, he was grinning shakily.

"Alright!" he said, trying to wipe away his smile and failing. "I guess…" he chuckled shortly. "Okay. If you really want to come, I won't stop you. It's going to be dangerous-"

"And why the hell do you think we're coming?" Sakura demanded, Ino nodding along with her. Rock Lee almost broke down again, bravely wiping away his tears. "Of course it's going to be dangerous! That's why you won't go alone!"

She smiled, looking around. "Naruto… we…" She lost the words.

Hinata stepped forward, picking them up. "We're all behind you," she said calmly.

Naruto looked back at all of his friends.

He smiled, and this time it was real.

"Alright then!" he yelled, his whole face lighting up. "Amegakure, here we come!"

He spun around. "Gamatate, you still around?" he shouted up at the trees. Sakura stared at his back, a smile working its way onto her face. Naruto was back.

The small toad poked its head over a branch, looking down at the assembled shinobi.

"You got it all worked out, then?" he croaked.

"Yeah!" Naruto paused, his face twisting for a moment. "Actually, wait, one sec."

He turned to Sai. "Oi, Sai," he said. "Could you do me a favor and send some of your animals to-"

"The Hokage, yes," Sai said.

Naruto stared at him. Sai stared back.

Nothing in particular happened for about five seconds.

"… Are you gonna do it?" Naruto finally asked.

Sai's face didn't change by a fraction. "I did it a couple minutes ago."

Naruto blinked. "Oh. Okay then. They're going to-"

"Inform her of the situation?" Sai smiled. "Yes."

Naruto stared at him cockeyed, before shrugging and turning back around.

"So… yeah!" Naruto he shouted up at Gamatate. "I'm ready! So let's-"

"Great," Gamatate intoned, hopping down. "I can only take three at a time, though."

His throat began to swell. Larger and larger and larger, until it was bigger than his entire body. And then it just kept expanding.

"So," the toad said, unimpeded by his enormous throat. "Who's going first?"

###

A rat scurried through the streets of Konoha, black and shifting.

Its fragile ink surface exploded when a pale hand reached from the ground and closed around it, crushing it out of existence: the message it carried was lost in the filth of the gutter.

A pitch-black hawk winged through the steadily darkening sky. It never saw the torn-away antenna that flew from a rooftop and speared it through the chest: the message it carried stained the laundry of an unfortunate woman who'd forgotten to take down her blouses.

Sai's messengers died an inglorious death, and Zetsu sunk back into the earth, maintaining his vigil.

The village couldn't know its Jinchūriki had gone until it was too late.

###

"Well," Tenten said flatly. "That was disgusting."

Gamatate just stared grumpily at her, and she quickly retracted her statement.

"But it was definitely… the best… toad's mouth I've ever been in?" she said slowly.

The tiny amphibian just gave an unimpressed croak and then vanished in a flash of smoke, leaving the Konoha-nin alone on the muddy shore.

Tenten shrugged, and then joined the rest of her friends in staring at the village that they'd decided to follow Naruto to.

Kiba was the first to break the silence.

"It's spiky," he said, sounding almost impressed.

Tenten couldn't help but agree. If she'd ever seen a village that screamed, "Probably pretty evil," Amegakure was the place.

A stretch of dull metal spires (which, as Kiba had noted, were quite spiky in places, and covered in extruding pipes in others) set on a concrete crescent in the middle of a rather stormy lake, around which a veritable curtain of rain poured down, stirring up the water even more. Tenten found it hard to believe people lived there.

To her left, Neji frowned and activated his Byakugan, at which point his frown only grew deeper. Tenten knew that look: that was the "perplexed and more than a little bit annoyed" frown.

"Lady Hinata," he said briefly, the message unspoken.

Hinata glanced at him, before activating her own Byakugan and staring at the village. She blinked, and her eyes narrowed.

"The rain…" she said quietly.

"Indeed," Neji responded, his brow furrowing even more.

"What? What is it?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between the village and the Hyuuga.

Neji crossed his arms, maintaining his frown. "The rain is imbued with chakra: very potent chakra." He cupped his chin. "It's a smokescreen: even the Byakugan cannot pierce it."

Shikamaru placed the tips of his fingers together. "Hmm. Troublesome," he muttered, sinking to his haunches. Ino nudged Chōji, who just rolled his eyes.

"Finding Sasuke will be difficult, then." He glanced at Sakura. "If he's even here."

"He's here," Sakura said with the kind of certainty that made Shikamaru's neck stiffen. "I know it: Tobi was telling us the truth about that, at least. He wants Sasuke for more than just bait, after all."

Shikamaru just "hmmd" again, but he didn't sound nearly as doubtful. "If you say so," he said.

He closed his eyes. "Alright. If we want to have the best chance at succeeding, we need to find Sasuke as quickly as possible, and then leave. Staying here wouldn't be worth the risk."

Naruto nodded in agreement, while Tenten glanced at Lee, who was still staring unblinkingly at the village.

"Lee?" she whispered. "Is something-"

The green boy blinked, then looked at her and smiled. His teeth didn't shine. "What? No, nothing is wrong, Tenten!" He looked back at the village, his smile vanishing. "I just have… a feeling…"

He shook his head. "It's nothing."

Tenten watched him worriedly, before turning back to Shikamaru.

"-which is why we should split up," he finished saying.

Tenten blanched. "What?"

The whole group, who had all been listening intently to Shikamaru, turned to her. She blushed under the sudden attention.

"I mean…" she said. "Isn't that…" She glanced back at the foreboding village. "That doesn't sound like a good idea."

Shikamaru shrugged, watching her carefully. "It's just logistics," he said. "If we travel in too large a group, we'll be easily detected, and we'll likely get in each other's way if it comes to a fight." He stood up. "Also, we have three sensors, and twelve people," he said, gesturing. "Two Byakugan, and a Sage."

"So what are the groups going to-" Sakura started to say, before Naruto interrupted her.

"I'll go in alone," he said.

The pink-haired girl spun towards him, a furious scowl working it's way onto her face, but she stopped when she spotted his placating grin and upraised hands.

"Easy, Sakura!" he laughed. "I actually thought it through this time!' Then, he sobered. "Listen: Pain's in there, and he's after me. He shouldn't really care about any of you guys. I'll be my own group: if I manage to find Sasuke, that's great, but if not, I'll keep that bastard off of you guys while you look for him."

Sakura looked at with worried eyes. "Do you think you can manage that? The last time-"

Naruto laughed again. "Trust me: I'll do better this time." He winked. "Promise: I've got a couple new tricks."

Sakura frowned.

"Okay then," she said grudgingly, before stepping closer to him. "But you better swear, Naruto: if you think you're in over your head, you come to us. We didn't follow you here just so you fight alone."

Naruto nodded seriously. "Don't worry, Sakura. I'll be careful."

Sakura stepped back.

"Alright," Shikamaru cut back in. "Naruto will go in by himself, then. Let's get the other teams sorted out, and then get this thing going: the sooner, the better." He exaggerated a shiver. "That place is giving me the creeps."

There was a chorus of agreements, and ninja settled in, their minds set on saving their lost comrade. In the distance, Amegakure loomed, soaked and rusted, an implicit challenge. Behind it, the sun gave a final feeble gasp, and set.

Chapter Text

The Night

Sasuke didn't know where he was.

He wasn't in his all-too familiar hospital bed. Instead, he was propped up against something hard and cold: a metal wall, with a concrete floor beneath him. His arms were secured at his sides by a stretch of thin steel wire wrapped around his body, digging painfully into his skin; his legs were free.

He was still wearing the simple cloth shirt and pale, baggy pants the hospital had given him. No shoes, though. The floor was just as cold as the wall.

"You're awake."

Slowly, he turned his head towards the voice. It was vaguely familiar, but didn't immediately speak again. His bandages itched. He could hear a steady sound outside: rain, pouring down, creating a constant fuzz of background noise.

"Nothing to say, Sasuke?"

No. He didn't have anything to say. It was clear what had happened. Someone had kidnapped him. He didn't particularly care who, or why.

"I'm disappointed. Has Itachi really beaten you into submission so easily?"

'Itachi.'

Sasuke's hands tightened into fists.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he said flatly, laying his head back against the wall. The man who had kidnapped him chuckled.

"That, I believe, is where you're mistaken."

Sasuke didn't bother to respond to that.

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked.

"No. And I don't care."

His eyes (Itachi's eyes) itched suddenly and furiously. The darkness that had been his world for weeks flickered. Sasuke didn't care about that either.

"I am Madara Uchiha."

If Sasuke could see, he would have blinked. As it was, he merely stiffened dramatically, his head coming away from the wall.

"You."

"Me," the man confirmed.

Sasuke paused. This changed everything.

"Why did you take me from Konoha?"

He heard Madara snort. "Why did I take you away from the village that slaughtered your family? I was told you were intelligent, Sasuke."

"You didn't do it out of concern, Madara." Sasuke's voice was tense. He began to subtly test the wire constricting him.

"Oh? Why couldn't I?" The man's tone made a mockery of the sincere question. "After all, Sasuke, you're one of the last Uchiha. Shouldn't I look out for my own?"

"If you looked out for your own, then you wouldn't have allowed my brother to kill our clan."

"Is that what he told you?" Madara's question was somewhere between shocked and smug: his words clung to Sasuke like black oil. "That I helped him?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Yes. And that it was your fault that they died."

The man laughed. "And you believed him? The man who murdered your family tells you someone else was to blame, and you trusted him?" He laughed again. "Perhaps I was mistaken, Sasuke. It seems you-"

"Shut up," Sasuke snarled.

Madara paused. There was a shuffling sound, and when his voice came again, it was from right in front of Sasuke: the man was bent down, his own head mere inches from the younger Uchiha's.

"Oh dear," he crooned. Sasuke trembled in rage. "You want to believe him, don't you?" The voice receded: the man was standing up. "You want to believe that your dear brother Itachi was a blameless martyr. That he took my sins as his own?"

He kicked Sasuke in the gut. Hard. The bound teen retched.

"Pathetic," the man hissed, uncaring of Sasuke's choking. "How can someone so weak call himself an Uchiha?"

Sasuke's head jerked up towards the man, his features twisting in hatred. "Who are you calling-"

"The boy who stood by while his family died?" the man shot back. He kicked Sasuke again, harder. "The boy whose brother has beaten him at every turn?" Another kick. "The boy who is too," another kick, "frightened," and another, "-to face the truth?"

Sasuke coughed, and a thin stream of blood ran from his mouth. He didn't look away from where he knew the man's face was. "Truth?" he wheezed.

"The truth," the man said. He took several steps back, his sandals shuffling against the concrete floor. "The truth that Sasuke Uchiha is alone. That his brother cares more about the village that murdered his family than him: that his brother tore out little Sasuke's eyes and gifted him his own-"

There was a rush of air, and the man was suddenly in front of Sasuke, at his level again, so fast that he was barely aware of the change before Madara began speaking again.

"-in a transparent attempt to secure his loyalty."

Madara's hand brushed against the bandages wrapped around Sasuke's head.

"It's remarkable, you know," the man muttered. "I will give Itachi credit for that. Even I, the greatest of the Uchiha, did not replace my brother's eyes with my own, though there would have been little point. You and he are the first I can recall ever choosing to trade them."

Madara's smile was almost tangible. "But of course, you didn't choose, did you, Sasuke?" He clicked his tongue. "Itachi chose. Like he always has."

Sasuke didn't say anything. Madara sighed.

"You can't just remain in denial, Sasuke." He chuckled. "I won't let you."

"I'm not-" Sasuke shook his head, knocking Madara's hand away. Itachi's eyes were still itching. "-in denial," he snarled.

"Oh?" Madara's voice drew back.

"If you think I don't hate Itachi for what he's done…" Sasuke voice choked. His jaw clenched, his nose curling into a sneer.

"Then you are a fool," he finally spat out. His whole body was tense with rage: the world was growing colder. There was a metallic taste in his mouth.

"I hate him more than I ever have. He's done nothing but…"

'I will always love you.'

Sasuke trailed off.

Done nothing but what?

He began talking again, without even realizing it. His ancient ancestor, watching him from somewhere in the room, was forgotten.

"He killed my family."

'It was the only way to save you.'

"He took my eyes."

'After I took your eyes… I took my own as well.'

"He showed me. Over and over and over…"

'I had to make you hate me. Not Konoha.'

"So why shouldn't I hate Konoha?" Sasuke stirred, his voice rising. "Why shouldn't I hate the village that slaughtered my family-"

'The Hidden Leaf is this cruel world's best chance at peace!'

"What use is peace?" Sasuke spat to himself. "What's the point of a peace bought with my family's blood?"

"None."

Madara's booming voice snapped Sasuke out of his reverie, and for a moment he cast his head around. It seemed to have come from every direction.

"Konoha used your brother. Just like your brother has used you."

Sasuke shook his head. "Itachi…" He shook his head again, viciously. "Itachi hasn't used me. He's-"

"You said you weren't in denial, Sasuke." This time, Madara's voice very clearly came from right beside Sasuke's head. "And yet, here you are again, making excuses for your brother. The brother who has murdered your family and stolen your eyes."

The ancient man sighed. "Why would you defend such trash-"

"Because he's my brother!" Sasuke shouted.

The room was silent for a moment.

Sasuke breathed heavily, his chest straining against the wires holding his arms at his sides. His head thumped back against the cold concrete of the wall.

"Is he?"

Sasuke slowly raised his head.

"I'm trying to help you, Sasuke." Madara was crouched down in front of him: he could feel the man's eyes burrowing into his skull. "I'm trying to make you understand."

"That man is not your brother."

What? Of course Itachi was his brother. Sasuke had never doubted that. It was just a terrible truth: the man who had killed his family had been one of the most crucial parts of it.

"What are you-" Sasuke muttered, before Madara cut him off.

"Brothers do not fill each other's lives with misery. Brothers watch out for each other: Brothers empower each other. Brothers protect each other." Madara's voice dropped. "Do you know what happened to my brother, Sasuke? Do you know about Izuna?"

"Itachi… Itachi told me you stole his eyes." Sasuke shook. "He showed me, before he stole mine."

"He told you I stole them?" Madara didn't sound angry. Just somewhat saddened. "I did not steal Izuna's eyes. I was offered them. He gifted them to me on his deathbed."

Sasuke's eyes burned again, his head pounding with them. He ignored the feeling shifted his whole body forward slightly. "Why?"

He couldn't imagine what would drive someone to give away their own eyes.

'Just like Itachi has.'

"To protect me. I was going blind, Sasuke. You, fortunately, will never have to experience the Mangekyō Sharingan without the benefit of a sibling's eyes. It is an intoxicating power… but a very, very dangerous one."

Madara sighed. "I fell prey to it: in my drive to save our clan, I used my eyes until they were on the brink of blindness."

"And Izuna-"

"My brother saved me. Saved us all. Without him, there would have been no future for the Uchiha. Without him, there would be no Hidden Villages today! The Senju would have held the world in an iron grip, had not our clan been there to keep them in check."

The Senju. One of Konoha's founding clans. The Uchiha's old rival. Sasuke, as he had for the last two weeks, warily watched the darkness that had covered his world.

Could Madara be telling the truth? No. He couldn't be. Because the Uchiha were gone.

And in the bunker, when Sasuke had asked Itachi who had helped him slaughter the clan...

'His name… is Madara Uchiha."

Itachi was a liar. But would he have lied about that?

"Izuna is a true example of how the children of the Uchiha should treat each other," Madara continued. "His sacrifice-"

"Was wasted," Sasuke said venomously.

Madara went silent in an instant. "Oh?" he said mildly.

"If Izuna sacrificed himself so you could save the clan, you've done a poor job of it."

Madara laughed. "I was defeated by Hashirama, Sasuke. I was lucky to be alive after that battle: hardly in any position to help the clan that turned its back on me for the Senju-"

"And so you wasted Izuna's sacrifice," Sasuke said.

Madara didn't respond to that. Not immediately. Sasuke took the opening.

"And today, the Uchiha are gone. All that's left of them is you, Itachi, and me. A relic, a murderer, and an avenger." The younger Uchiha laughed hollowly. "You destroyed your own clan with your hypocrisy, Madara. You returned, and when they weren't to your liking…"

He gritted his teeth, the sound deafening in his head. "When my family wasn't to your liking, you helped my brother murder them. And now, they're gone. The Uchiha are all but extinct: we will be the last."

"That is where you are wrong."

Sasuke snorted. "Really? I imagine you're a little old to be having children. And somehow, I doubt that either Itachi or myself will be reviving the clan anytime soon."

Madara laughed deeply. "Your thinking is so limited, Sasuke." Sasuke felt him lean in.

"I won't be making new Uchiha. I'll bring them back."

Sasuke froze. The hair on the back of his neck rose. The itching in his eyes abruptly disappeared.

"That's impossible."

'The dead are supposed to stay that way.'

"Is it?" Madara laughed again, barely a chuckle. "I have lived for nearly a century, Sasuke. That alone should tell you something. But consider this: my organization has been gathering the Bijuu, one by one. A greater collection of power than the world has ever seen, or ever will again. Do you think it's been done without a purpose?"

"You're crazy," Sasuke whispered.

He remembered the Kyuubi. That wasn't a force that could bring back the dead, that could create or recreate life. The fox burned with a familiar hatred. It bleached everything around it red with its rage. Something like that couldn't possibly be turned towards an impossibility like a resurrection, no matter how much chakra it possessed.

"Oh, I assure you, I am very much sane." Madara tapped something that made a dull 'thonk' sound. "In fact, I occasionally find myself thinking that everyone else must be insane, to continue living in this hopeless world."

"What-?" Sasuke murmured.

"But that's besides the point," Madara finished. The fact of the matter is, Sasuke-"

He was interrupted by a terrible creaking noise. A door, long rusted, swinging open on ruined hinges.

"Ah, Konan." Madara's tone immediately shifted: his voice dropped, and there was an undeniable sense of authority suddenly permeating the room. "That means-"

"He's here." 'Konan's' voice was like flint: Sasuke had never heard a woman sound so cold.

"Already?" Madara murmured. "Even for him, that's faster than I expected. I don't suppose he's alone?"

Sasuke didn't hear anything except for the subtle sound of hair brushing against fabric. 'Konan' was shaking her head.

"That's a shame," Madara said flatly. "But still, hardly shocking. How many?"

"At least five, plus the Jinchūriki," 'Konan' said lowly. "But I would not be surprised if there are more: the rain can't cover everything."

Sasuke frowned. A Jinchūriki had come to Amegakure. That could only mean one person.

"No matter. The village is ours: we'll isolate them while Pain deals with the Kyuubi," Madara said, confirming Sasuke's suspicions.

Naruto had come after him.

"Shall we, then?" 'Konan' asked.

"In a moment," Madara said. "Go on without me: I will join in soon enough."

Once more there was the sound of hair brushing against fabric, and then a great shuffling sound, like someone had dropped a dozen decks of cards. A moment later, the room was silent once more.

Madara sighed. "It seems I have to go, Sasuke. But please, just remember." The ancient Uchiha's voice sounded nothing but truthful. "I can bring your family back."

There was a twisting sound, like water running over pebbles, or an ancient generator heating up. Then, Madara chuckled.

"I almost forgot."

Something hit the floor with a dull thud, and Sasuke flinched towards the noise. A moment later, something else also struck the ground: instead of a dull thud, it crumbled, the sound unmistakably rock shattering.

"Your friend really is remarkable, if rather subdued at the moment. I would suggest not waking him: there's no telling how he would react."

Juugo. Juugo was here too.

Madara laughed, and then he was gone. Sasuke was left truly alone, with only an unconscious berserker and his own ever-present darkness to keep him company. His ancestor's words echoed in his head, filling the abyss. His eyes began to itch again, and the darkness flickered.

Sasuke sighed.

###

Five large hawks winged across the low clouds, drawing steadily closer to the imposing skyline of Amegakure and the curtain of rain surrounding it. Against the black of the newly born night, they were nearly invisible. If one had looked closely, it would have become clear that these were no ordinary birds. Shifting patterns, black and white artistry: ink given life was what was drawing closer to the Village Hidden in the Rain.

If one had looked even closer, one would probably notice that the birds weren't traveling unburdened. They were carrying people: two to each bird. Four of the birds were carrying the same person: a blonde, wearing a bright red coat.

Three of those copies were seated cross-legged, completely unmoving. The fourth, the original, was talking to someone with bright pink hair.

"Naruto, I really don't think this is a good idea."

The blonde in question glanced at Sakura with a small grin. "Maybe not. But it'll definitely get his attention, right?"

Sakura sighed, staring pointedly down at the lake speeding by hundreds of feet below them.

"It will do that," she admitted, before looking back at him. "It's a bit of a drop, though," she said carefully. "Are you sure you'll be-"

Naruto's grin grew. "Trust me, Sakura. I'll be totally fine."

She frowned, but nodded. "Okay then. If you're sure. Lady Katsuyu, will you be okay?"

The small slug perched on Naruto's shoulder nodded. "Don't worry, Sakura," she said softly. "I'm tougher than I look: so long as Naruto doesn't land on me, there won't be a problem." She gave Naruto a look that could only be called reproachful.

The Jinchūriki smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "I'll be a careful."

"How can you be 'careful' about something like this?" Ino called from a nearby bird.

She'd been eavesdropping on the conversation, occasionally glancing back at the slug on her own shoulder, her face torn between worried and thankful.

She appreciated the summon, but she also couldn't help but notice that she could feel it through her top, and it was rather wet.

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm about to find out, huh?"

The birds reached the rain.

The water hit the shinobi like a tidal wave, instantly drenching them. Sakura's hair plastered itself to her head, as did Shikamaru's, his distinctive pineapple dying an ignominious death. Ino's frown deepened, her hand unconsciously going to her ponytail. The slug on her shoulder was instantly forgotten: a little slime hardly mattered anymore.

Chōji just shrugged.

Hinata looked up infinitesimally for a moment, before setting her straining eyes on Amegakure again: the village proper was less than a hundred feet away.

Naruto flinched at the sudden cold. His clones didn't. The slugs perched on each of the ninja's shoulders all luxuriated in the rain: Katsuyu was certainly the only one enjoying the weather.

Sai glanced sharply down at his birds. The eagles had immediately begun to run, the swirling ink that gave them shape slipping and sliding.

"They're breaking down," Sai called from the front of the pack. "Naruto, you must go now."

"Got it!" Naruto shouted back. The clone traveling with Sai exploded in a puff of smoke, and the Uzumaki took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were completely alien, the pupil horizontal and the iris gold. Orange pigmentation spread around his eyes.

"Remember, you guys gotta find Sasuke! This whole place…" He cocked his head, before shaking it. "Crap. It feels real weird. I can't sense anything down there."

He smiled, the orange around his eyes crumpling strangely. "Hinata, I'm counting on you!"

The Hyuuga nodded forcefully, desperately holding back a blush. Naruto couldn't help but notice that the rain was making her hair practically gleam, despite how soaked it looked.

He grinned at her, before turning to Sakura. He raised two fingers to his head, bumping them against his hitai-ate, already gleaming with rain. His clones stood up.

"See ya."

And then, he and his duplicates dropped off the side of their birds, plummeting towards the village below.

###

In Amegakure's tallest tower, an emaciated redhead slouched alone, his entire being projected into the pounding rain outside the room he had called home for so long. Nagato's eyes, closed in concentration, widened slightly, raising wrinkles on his pallid forehead.

'Multiple chakras… clones. And he's falling?'

###

Six seconds. That's about how long it took Naruto and his clones to cover the five hundred or so feet between Sai's birds and the ground.

A lot can happen in six seconds.

In the first, Naruto's careless smile vanished, replaced with a grim line cut across his face. Now that Sakura was gone, he could stop smiling.

In the second, a mass of white paper cranes gathered on a pipe protruding from one of the taller towers.

In the third, one of the cranes flattened out, and an amber eye peered out of its surface.

In the fourth, the air next to the crane distorted, and a man in an off-white mask covered in chaotic swirls appeared next to the gathering of origami, gazing out into the darkened sky with a whirling red eye.

In the fifth, twelve ringed eyes snapped open, and six cold bodies pulled themselves up.

In the sixth, three Naruto's hit the ground, spread out across a square kilometer of the Village Hidden in the Rain. The soaked concrete streets around them shattered with the impact, shock waves emanating out for meters around the crouched ninjas, creating an obvious crater.

And a second after that, the seventh, all of the Naruto's shot to their feet, standing at the center of the crater with nothing to show for it but a damp cape. Like a switch had been flipped, the rain stopped, its pounding dying away. All of them took a deep breath and shouted, their voices echoing across the dripping streets, rebounding through damp alleys, seemingly filling the whole village with its blatant challenge.

"NAGATO!"

###

"He jumped." Madara spoke without an ounce of inflection, leaning back against the soaked iron of the tower. He looked distinctly unimpressed.

"Fell, more like it," Konan said coldly, looking out over the village. Her eyes tracked five dark shapes moving across the sky, closing on the center of the village.

"You see them?" she asked rhetorically.

"Tch." Madara pushed himself away from the wall. "That can't be all of them. They wouldn't commit their entire force to an attack from the sky."

"They may be counting on the Kyuubi as a distraction," Konan pointed out, scanning the streets of Amegakure for the free-faller. She couldn't see him.

There had been three blondes. Now, they could be just about anywhere in the village. The rain had stopped, though. Nagato must have been confident in their location.

"Perhaps," Madara noted. "Still… it won't do to ignore the possibility." He cupped the spot on his mask where his chin would have been. "I'll leave these to you: if Pain couldn't see another group, they must have infiltrated the village from below."

"You're leaving them to me?" Konan asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Do you think they may be too much?" Madara said sardonically, staring at her with a single rotating eye.

"Hardly." She looked back at the airborne ninja. "I'll take care of them."

Madara didn't nod. "Good. I'll be going hunting, then." He began to swirl out of existence, his mask, as always, the last to go.

The last sign of his departure was a mocking, drawn out, "Good luck."

Konan stared at the empty space for a moment, before turning back towards the oncoming Konoha-nin. She sighed.

Her face peeled away, revealing plain white paper beneath.

###

Naruto looked around, taking in the street he'd ruined.

Once, it had clearly been a marketplace. Awnings extended rusting carts, balconies, balconies hung with soaked, abandoned laundry. There was a railing to his left, and past it, a canal, filled with hollowed-out boats sloshing with rainwater. There was a wooden entryway leading into a darkened building festooned with flyers and menus to his other side. Not too long ago, this whole place had been bustling with life.

And now, it was completely and utterly empty. Or at least, that was what his eyes and ears told him. Naruto extended his other senses, and immediately rocked back, blinking. It was just like it had been on Sai's birds, but a thousand times more obvious. The whole village was humming with chakra.

Not natural chakra either, the kind that everything generated, filling the world with comfortable contours. Amegakure felt wrong.

Every surface, every inlet, even the air itself, was completely saturated with an unbearably thick, completely alien, chakra. It made breathing difficult if Naruto focused on it: if he looked hard enough, the world began to seem murky, as if he were watching it through a warped glass.

He'd felt this chakra before. In his stomach, and throughout the rest of his body, when he'd been stabbed by a cold, unforgiving metal rod. This was Pain's chakra.

Now, more than ever, it was clear to Naruto that Amegakure was Pain's village, in a way that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. The man had covered his entire home in his own freezing chakra. Pounded his essence into it, painted it on every surface, soaked the bones of his village with his bitter life-energy. It was terrifying: like suddenly waking up and realizing you were trapped inside an iceberg. An iceberg that was closing in around you.

But at the same time, Naruto couldn't help but be amazed. The kind of dedication, will, and persistence it must have taken to create something like this was unbelievable. Now, if only all that dedication had been turned to something that didn't make it impossible for him to find Sasuke quickly.

Pain's chakra rendered any attempt at sensing deeper into the village impossible. Naruto's sixth sense only went out about fifty feet before the thick, soupy chakra rendered it so much white noise: it was almost deafening, and it was definitely annoying.

The silence in the wake of the rain was almost as overwhelming as the water itself had been. And Naruto, of course, hated silence.

"Anyone there!?" he shouted, looking around.

No one answered. Was the whole village like this? Empty and cold?

Naruto shivered, and shrugged. He took a step forward: standing around wouldn't get him any closer to Sasuke.

Hopefully Hinata and Neji would have more luck.

He cast a glance up, but between the looming buildings on all sides and the dark clouds filling the sky, he couldn't catch a glimpse of the birds that had dropped him off. If it weren't for Sage Mode, he probably would have been lucky to even see that. The whole village was pitch black

"Katsuyu?" he asked.

The slug peeked out from under his collar, watching him innocently with her eye-stalks.

"Yes?" she murmured.

"You'll tell me if anything is going on up there, right?"

"Of course!" The slug paused, and then blinked. "Oh dear. You have terrible timing."

"What?" Naruto stopped. "What is it? Are they-?"

Katsuyu's voice was very, very quiet. "Don't worry about them, Naruto. Worry about yourself. Sakura can handle it."

Naruto turned, and found a lone figure standing in the street in front of him, staring at him with unblinking eyes.

His throat dried slightly. "Ah. Gotcha."

Katsuyu retreated back beneath his collar, while Naruto stared at the solitary figure warily. He didn't recognize her.

She was short, barely five feet tall. Her hair was a short, messy orange, and fell around her head with little regard for how it looked, with the exception of hasty-looking topknot. Her features were extremely delicate: small mouth, small noise, and a small jaw. In another life, Naruto might have considered her cute, but a couple things ruined the image.

Primarily her papery pale skin, the multitude of black rods buried in her face like metal teardrops down her cheeks, and the billowing black cloak she wore loosely, a red cloud proudly emblazoned on the front.

And most importantly, the ringed eyes, dull purple in Amegakure's night, shining with an eerie inner glow. She didn't take those eyes off of him as she slowly bent down and tapped a finger on the soaked street. Ink spread out in a spiraling circle.

Naruto didn't try to stop her. This was why he was here, after all. He made the best bait.

There was a puff of smoke, and suddenly the street was much more populated. Five more cloaked figures had appeared, drawn by the summoning. Four more men, and another woman.

They all wore the same cloaks. They all had the same pale, corpse-colored skin. They all wore a hitai-ate, with Amegakure's symbol scratched out. They were all studded with pitch-black rods that seemed to absorb what little light there was.

And they all had the same glaring ringed eyes. But each of them had a distinguishing feature.

One man was completely hairless: none on his head, none on his face. Not even eyebrows. His cloak's sleeves were ripped off, revealing his rod-filled arms. Another, easily the tallest, had his forehead protector wrapped around his right upper bicep, and crossed his arms as he glared at Naruto. His hair was shorn short, almost in a buzz cut.

The other women, the one who wasn't the summoner, looked almost completely average in every way. Lithe body, slender arms, thin neck: her hair was the only thing that really stuck out. It flowed down and around her back, ending a foot or two below her shoulder blades, just as orange as all of the other's.

One of the other men was fat. There was no other way to put it. His cloak was bloated: multiple chins hung from his neck, and his fingers were stubby and wide. His hair hung like a mop on his head.

But his features were sharp, his nose like a knife, and the viciousness of his face was only enhanced by the glaring Rinnegan.

The last man, Naruto had already met. The man who had once been Yahiko but was now someone else entirely stared at him expectantly.

"Nagato," Naruto said calmly.

"Naruto Uzumaki," the pale man said. "I'm glad you've come." He stepped forward, the other bodies falling in behind him. "Will you surrender? I will return Sasuke Uchiha to your friends if you do."

Naruto just rolled his inhuman eyes. Pain nodded slowly. "As I thought. Very well then." His body language didn't change at all: his hands remained at his sides, his shoulders relaxed.

But the other Paths began to spread out behind him, forming a rough wedge.

"Shall we begin, then?" he said lowly.

Naruto grinned, and slowly reached up, rubbing the back of his head. "I'd love to, but…"

His hand dropped, but his grin just got wider. "I'm just a clone."

And then he exploded in a puff of smoke. A second later, a humming sound filled the street. The Rinnegan went wide, and the Deva Path turned.

Just in time to see a red and orange blur headed for his face, a swirling ball of energy pushed out in front of it.

The Deva Path fell back, looking mildly concerned. The corpulent man with multiple chins and mop-like hair leapt forward, interposing himself between the Rasengan and Pain. There was a horrible grinding noise, and the man's chest exploded, showering the rest of the Paths with something that looked a lot like oil.

The thing that had once been Yahiko raised its hand.

"Shinra Tensei."

Both the wrecked body of the Path and the Rasengan-wielding blur rocketed backwards, destroying a restaurant and filling the street with dust and rubble. The Deva Path stepped forward, his features twisting in annoyance.

"So, Naruto Uzumaki… are you ready to stop playing games?"

The rubble didn't answer.

The petite woman with a hasty topknot smashed face-first into the street less than a second later, her once-cute features obliterated by the unyielding concrete.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Naruto Uzumaki said. He slowly stood up, his knee still planted on the back of the woman's head.

He smirked. "Are you?"

###

"We need to find someplace to land."

Sakura shivered, looking away from the pitch-black streets of the village. She'd given up on actually spotting Naruto a while ago, but had continued staring. The air above the village was freezing, but at least the rain had stopped.

"Sakura?"

She shook her head and looked over at Sai, whose bird had drawn up alongside hers.

"We need to get out of the sky," he said calmly.

"Why?" Ino called out from the back of the flock. "Won't it be easier for Hinata to spot Sasuke from up here?"

The pale heiress spoke up. "It would be," she said softly, her voice barely raised and yet carrying itself through the chill air effortlessly. "But I believe we've been spotted ourselves."

Sakura followed her line of sight, and saw something that she could have honestly said she would never have expected.

There were a lot of things she wanted to say about the flock of razor-white paper airplanes flocking through the sky towards her and the rest of the ninja perched on Sai's birds. Some of them were expletives: others were reasonable questions. Who had had the patience to fold all these planes in the first place? And then waste them by throwing them above the village? Was there a technique for something like that? And, since it was obvious she was missing something, what the hell were the paper constructions?

But Sakura didn't really manage to enunciate any of that. She was too busy staring at a hobbyist's dream taken flight. So instead, all she got to express her many questions was a single, flat, barely audible word.

"What."

"Hinata." Shikamaru didn't sound in the least bit ruffled. Especially compared to Ino, who was gaping at the birds, with Chōji peering curiously over her shoulder. "What are we looking at here?"

Hinata strained, the veins around her eyes pulsing. "I have no idea," she admitted. "They have chakra. All of them, spread out. There's something connecting them together…"

"Is it a disguise? Or an attack?" Shikamaru was frowning intensely, his hands wandering towards each other.

Hinata shook her head. "Neither. Or… both, maybe."

"Bad." Shikamaru cricked his neck. "Sai. Can you take us down? I'd rather we not be up here when those things-"

'Those things' suddenly accelerated rapidly, closing in on the Konoha ninja with unbelievable speed. The streamed around the birds, surrounding them on every side, and then maintaining their speed, along with the sudden perimeter.

"Oh crap," Chōji murmured.

Ino stood up, staying steady on the flapping bird. Her hand ghosted across her leg, fingering the kunai held there. "What are they doing?"

Another mass of the airplanes headed towards the birds, drawing closer and closer together as they approached. Their forms lost consistency: lines went soft, wings folded out, and the fleet turned into a mass of paper floating in the air, the lines between each sheet indistinct.

Then, the mass defined itself. Arms, torso, a head: a recognizable upper body grew out of the floating lump. Blue hair slid into existence, and two amber eyes snapped open.

"Turn back," the flying legless paper woman said.

Sakura blinked.

"Say what?" Ino said, just as baffled as her pink-haired friend. Which is to say, very baffled.

"Turn back." The woman slowly scanned them, her eyes as cold as the rain had been. "I'm giving you all one chance."

"To abandon Naruto?" Hinata asked quietly, watching the woman intently with her Byakugan.

The figure inclined her head. "If you want to look at it that way, yes."

"We would never," Sakura hissed.

"You'll trade your life for his?" The woman watched her with piercing eyes. Her flawless brow creased. "Or do you think that you can come to a place like this without consequence? That you can enter Pain's domain and leave with your friend without paying a price?"

"No one is being left behind," Sakura said firmly. "We're just here for Sasuke. We get him, and then we leave. It's that simple."

The woman laughed, high and clear, but her eyes remained cold. "Refreshing." Her mouth turned down into a perpetual frown. "A shame to prove you wrong."

She sighed, extending her arms. Flaps of paper floated off of them, swirling around her like a miniature storm.

"My name is Konan. Remember it, because I will be the last person you ever meet."

And then, she shattered into a thousand fluttering cranes, and the paper airplanes all swept inward at once, dull in the darkness of the low clouds.

Shikamaru shouted a very rude word. Sai frowned thunderously, and all of his birds shot in separate directions: the Nara's forward and up, his own down, Sakura's straight at Konan, Hinata's backwards and at the same upwards angle as Shikamaru, and Ino and Chōji's straight down at a ninety-degree angle, the Yamanaka shrieking in surprise and anger the whole way.

Hinata's bird was tagged first: the paper planes were simply too fast, shooting upward as quickly as the hawk rose. They were also deceptively sharp. The planes tore through the ink-construct's wing, and it fell to the side lamely, flapping desperately with its remaining limb. Hinata clung to its back, a chakra-grip keeping her from plummeting off into the village far below.

Shikamaru's bird escaped the enclosure of airplanes entirely, as did Ino and Chōji's. The Nara shouted Hinata's name, watching her bird fall steadily lower, towards the village.

Sai's bird completely avoided the fleet of suicidal razor planes. He himself was not so lucky. Crouched low on the bird, the pale boy was nevertheless struck by several of the constructs. One buried itself an inch into his left shoulder, and another sliced by his right arm, opening up the world's worst papercut along the length of it.

He winced, but didn't allow the stinging cut to break his concentration: his hand came up, a brush clenched in it, and with a flourish he unleashed another hawk, which immediately made its way towards Hinata.

Sakura had the hardest time of it. Her bird sent her straight at Konan, who remained floating, watching impassibly. She was barely touched by the razor planes, twisting around them and crushing one in her hand as it sent itself straight at her face.

But her hawk was utterly torn apart by the constructs. It made it less than ten feet before it was sliced to strains of ink, falling through the black sky. Sakura didn't fall with what remained of the bird. She jumped, high, even as the animal fell apart below her, and cocked her fist back.

Konan didn't even try to dodge. Sakura's fist buried itself in the paper woman's chest, and she rocked back in the air.

And nothing else. Konan didn't scream, or go pale, or do any of the other things people were supposed to do when someone put an arm through their chest. She just slowly tilted her head down, staring at Sakura, who hung hundreds of feet in the air by her arm, stuck in Konan's body.

Sakura stared back up, and it slowly occurred to her that this had not, perhaps, been her best plan.

"It'll take more than that," Konan said flatly. Then, she began to hiss.

Ink swirls slowly whirled into existence across her body, before lighting with an internal flame. Sakura's eyes went wide, and she bared her teeth.

The woman's entire body was made up of explosives. And she'd just punched through it.

'Definitely not my best idea.'

"Sorry Sakura!"

Sakura and Konan both looked up at the booming yell, just in time to see an equally monstrous hand sweep down and slap Sakura sideways, tearing her arm out of Konan's body. Sakura tumbled through the air, barely aware of what was happening around her. Her head was ringing, and her arm was covered in a simply horrific number of small, nearly invisible cuts.

Papercuts. She'd gotten papercuts from Konan's paper body.

Sakura laughed. Sai caught her at about the same time, his bird swooping below her, and he stared at Sakura as she fell into his arms laughing like a loon.

"Papercuts!" she wheezed.

Sai just watched her with a single cocked eye. It occurred to Sakura he might have been wondering if Chōji's slap had done more than knock her loose from Konan. He shrugged, and put her down. Apparently, possible concussions didn't matter at the moment.

Sakura looked up. Shikamaru's bird was circling, harangued by a few scattered planes: the Nara was plucking them out of the sky with a kunai whenever they came close, unable to bring his shadow's into play due to the height. Ino and Chōji were both safe, away from the flock of birds. The Yamanaka was staring down at her with an incredulous look: her larger companion's arm was extended, the hand grown to enormous size.

It was still right next to Konan, who had remained where she was, staring at Sakura.

The woman exploded.

Chōji hissed loudly, drawing his hand away. The back of it was burned and bleeding, but it didn't look like anything Sakura wouldn't be able to fix. Hinata pulled up next to them, secure on her new hawk.

"We have to go," she said, clinging just perhaps a bit too tightly to the birds back. "There's no way we can fight her up here."

Sakura nodded back, before turning her head to Sai.

"Of course," he said tightly, watching the planes that remained swirl through the air in delicate patterns, holding off on attacking for the moment. Sai made a subtle gesture, and the birds all turned as one, descending deeper into the village.

The planes didn't follow them. Instead, they coalesced behind the flock, as if they were watching them go.

"What are they doing?" Sakura asked, shaking her head out. The buzzing finally vanished. Her right arm was slick with a thin film of her own blood: she barely noticed.

Shikamaru's bird swooped down beside her and Sai, closely followed by Ino and Chōji's, who was cradling his hand.

"They're holding back," the Nara said, watching her carefully, checking for any signs of injury. "I don't understand why, though. If they came at us again-"

"Oh shit." Ino suddenly cursed.

Sakura saw Sai stiffen in the corner of her vision and turned, looking towards the front of the bird. Dozens of copies of Konan were rising out of the village before them, flocking from the streets and pipes set in the taller buildings. And they were all flying right at Sakura and the rest of the Konoha ninja.

"Down!" Shikamaru barked. "Now! As low as possible!"

Sai didn't say anything. Didn't make a movement. But a moment later, every one of his birds dove straight down, their occupants clinging desperately to their back. Sakura noticed, in a strange flash of clarity that was almost carried away by the speed of their descent, that her blood was running into the eagle, mixing with the ink.

"Not good. Not good not good not good-" Chōji was practically chanting, still holding onto his hand as he watched the wave of paper women approach.

"There," Sai's voice was calm, despite the air pushing his cheeks back as they fell. Sakura glanced at him, not daring to tear her grip from the bird's back.

"That roof will do," he said flatly.

Sakura followed his gaze, and found the only flat building for what seemed like blocks around. It was just as tall as the towers around it, but except for a single enormous pipe sticking up out of the middle, its roof was completely leveled-out concrete: the safest place for them to land.

The birds leveled off suddenly, the g-force sending Sakura's hair fling back, and all of the hawks flung themselves forward, towards the roof… which was when several paper clones burst from the buildings in the street below them, and flew straight up at Sai's birds.

Shikamaru was the only one who was looking down at the time. He stood up silently. Ino glanced at him then looked down as well.

She went pale.

"Well," Shikamaru said quietly. "Time to leave."

The rest of the shinobi stood up as well, Sakura somewhat shakily. The clones struck the birds a second later, and exploded in a horrendous din, the sound echoing through the streets. The hawks were torn to shreds, raining ink on the village.

Their riders didn't follow. They had all jumped.

Shikamaru hit the roof first, the twenty-foot fall barely fazing him. He rolled onto one of his knees, immediately stopping with his hands clasped together. His shadow, extremely faint in the darkness of the cloud-covered village, writhed around him.

Chōji landed second, his lower body growing and bringing him closer to the roof. The concrete cracked at his impact, but remained steady. He was holding Ino in his oversized left hand, and as he landed he released her, letting her alight with a soft tap upon the roof.

Sakura landed fourth, not bothering to roll. She hit the roof flatly, spreading the impact out between her legs and uninjured arm, and immediately sprung to her feet, headed for Chōji.

Hinata was the last to reach the roof. She tumbled off her bird, barely avoiding the blast of the exploding clones, flipping through the air with the shockwave. She hit the roof and skidded, leaving a trail of ink along it, before finally stumbling to her feet and arresting her momentum.

And so Sai's infiltration group, which had been doing a shockingly small amount of infiltrating, found itself on a flat roof in the middle of Amegakure, watching as what seemed like hundreds of paper clones circled the building, watching them with intense amber eyes.

"Huh," Chōji murmured, watching thankfully as Sakura ran a glowing green hand over his own. "Could have gone worse."

Hinata rubbed her back, wincing: there was a rather nasty scrape running the length of it.

"We're not done yet," Shikamaru murmured. The other ninja fell into a rough pentagon, each facing a different direction, with him at the center.

Konan's clones were flying around the building, like a shoal of sharks circling a wounded whale.

"They might take out the base of the building," the Nara warned. "If they do, we have to be ready to change positions, quick. Sai, can you-"

"I don't think she will," Sakura cut in, watching the clones warily. The remaining paper airplanes had joined them, and Amegakure's night sky was slowly vanishing, replaced by a whirlwind of paper, blue hair, and piercing eyes.

"Oh?" Sakura couldn't see him, but she knew Shikamaru was staring at her with his head tilted to the side. "What makes you think that?"

"This is her village," the medic said slowly. Konan seemed content to let them talk, for now: the clones weren't attacking quite yet. The sound of thousands of sheets of paper brushing against each other was nearly deafening as they continued to surround the building.

"I doubt she wants to destroy it," Sakura finished.

"Correct." All of the clones stopped and spoke at once, and Sakura flinched. The sound was amazingly loud. "But I am willing to do what must be done, even if it denies my people their homes."

And with that declaration, the circle tightened, and clones began rushing in.

The first dozen to charge forward were impaled by shadows springing up across the roof, running the clones through and ripping them to shreds as they expanded. Chōji growled, his hands growing, and he swatted several out of the sky, smashing them to pieces on the roof and flinging the remains off to detonate harmlessly over the village.

Ino began lobbing kunai, hissing tags affixed to their handles. Wherever they struck the circle, the clones dispersed, scattering like spooked insects and circling around to approach from another angle.

Hinata took a deep breath, her eyes focusing intensely. She barely moved an inch, flowing around the clones who came at her. But wherever she touched them, they reverted to ordinary paper, falling into disorganized piles across the roof.

Sai sent out more hawks, much smaller this time, and unsheathed his tanto. The ink animals harassed any of the clones who approached the side of the roof he faced, and any who made it past them were promptly decapitated or stabbed in the vitals.

One attempted to fly beneath his guard, its arm slimming down into the unmistakable shape of a paper sword. Sai kicked up, knocking the blade clean past his shoulder, and sliced it and the clone's head off in a single motion. His other hand darted out and seized the sword before it could revert to simple paper, and flung it into the circle of clones, slicing two in half and taking another's leg with its preternatural sharpness.

Sakura wasn't nearly as fancy as Sai. She just demolished any clone that got close to her. As soon as they got within reach, they were transformed from women into scattered sheets of paper in less time than it took to draw a breath. It was crude, but very, very efficient.

Shikamaru covered all of his comrades' backs. Any clones which slipped through their defenses were instantly skewered without mercy: any which began to hiss were seized and thrown back into the mass, taking out some of their own.

And yet, it was all barely enough. Less than twenty seconds later, the Konoha shinobi were already on the edge of being overwhelmed.

"Crap." Shikamaru hissed as a paper shuriken skimmed his shoulder, not penetrating his vest but filling his ear with its whistling. "We can't keep this up."

Sakura grunted, seizing a paper clone by the arm and flinging it into three of its compatriots, reducing them all to loose sheets. "What are we supposed to do?!" She pounded another into the cement, the explosive tags that comprised its core sputtering and tearing, emitting smoke and little else. "There's too many!"

"Chōji! Get us a little space!" Shikamaru shouted, throwing a kunai with a little too much force. His shadow, trailing along below it, split into dozens of tendrils and tore apart every clone the knife passed, leaving a momentary hole in the circling wall.

"Got it!" the Akimichi shouted, standing up to his full height out of the crouch he had dropped into to make up for his oversized arms. He brought his hands together, frowning intensely. Then, he roared with effort, and shot up, his entire body hugely expanding until he towered almost thirty feet in the air. Sakura imagined she could hear the building creaking.

"Get away!" Chōji shouted, the sound almost deafening, and then he swept his hand before him, wiping a swathe of clones out of the circle.

Several exploded against his hand, but besides a wince, the monstrous Akimichi barely reacted: he just gritted his teeth, shouted again, and swung once more, scattering even more clones. The circle broke, the Konan's retreating in a flurry.

Ino threw one last exploding kunai, then turned to her normal-sized teammate as Sakura panted, Sai shook out his hand, Hinata took another deep breath and lowered her hands, and Chōji heaved above them all, growling at the swarm of clones which continued to surround the building from a safe distance.

"They'll come again," The Hyuuga said, frowning mildly. "The real one hasn't participated yet: she's hanging back."

Ino shot a look at Hinata, and her face lit up. "Hinata!" she said quickly. "You can see which one isn't a clone?"

The heiress jumped a little at the suddenness of the question, before focusing on Ino. "Of course!" she said. "She's very distinctive: the Byakugan-"

"Nevermind that!" Ino waved her off, turning back to her teammate. "Shikamaru! Do you think-?"

"It's too risky," he interrupted, shooting her a look. "If you miss…"

"Then I miss!" Ino shot back. "But if it works, we find Sasuke!"

"What-" Sakura said, before realizing exactly what her friend was talking about.

Konan was a member of Akatsuki. Konan had been waiting in this village. Konan probably knew where Sasuke was.

Nevertheless... "Ino, can you make that shot? Your Shintenshin-"

"Is a lot faster now!" the blonde interrupted again. "I've been practicing!"

There was a moment of silence. Sai eyed the clones: it looked like they were forming up for another attack.

Shikamaru sighed. "Fine. Go for it."

Ino nodded, and marched over to Hinata. "Point me to her," she ordered, placing her hand on Hinata's shoulder. The other cupped in front of her face: half of the distinctive mind-transfer seal.

Hinata nodded, her Byakugan straining for a moment. The clones swirled again, picking up speed. The Hyuuga's arm came up, above her head, and then fell like a hammer, fixing on a single point.

"There!"

Ino's brow furrowed.

"Shintenshin!"

The Yamanaka suddenly slumped backwards, and Hinata had to reach out and grab her before she could hit the floor. The circle of Konan's slowed down. Then stopped. One of them fell apart in a flurry of paper.

Chōji panted. "Did she get her?"

There was silence. Sakura watched her unconscious friend, wondering what was taking her so long.

"No."

The cold voice cut through the night air, and one of the Konan's glided to the front of the pack.

"What a shame," she said quietly.

The circle broke. Every single one of the clones charged inward, not even maintaining any pretense of a perimeter. Shikamaru cursed.

The clones were done playing around. They flung themselves at the roof, exploding on impact, tearing away great chunks of concrete and filling the air with concussive bursts. Sakura jumped back, barely avoiding a nasty fall as a bit of roof crumbled away below her feet.

Chōji bellowed and picked up Shikamaru, hoisting him up in the air. The ground beneath him was buckling. Sai followed him, leaping onto the Akimichi's shoulders. The giant reached for Ino, who was still being held by Hinata.

One of the clones broke from the group dismantling the roof and flew right at the Hyuuga at the same moment.

Hinata's Byakugan was still active. She saw the clone coming as clearly as if it were right in front of her.

She was nearly fast enough. The Hyuuga spun on her toes, tossing Ino to Chōji in a single, fluid motion. And then she continued spinning, bringing her arms in close. There was a faint blue light, and she picked up speed, rotating ever faster.

The clone reached her, ink swirling across its cloak. Hinata shouted, her voice almost breaking.

"Kaiten!"

It was almost enough.

The Heavenly Rotation burst out, half-complete, carving a divot in the roof and wiping the clones' face away.

Its loss of facial features didn't stop the copy from exploding.

Hinata was thrown backwards, the Kaiten taking the brunt of the blast, but not able to completely protect the heiress. She tumbled across the roof, dazed, and then went right over the ledge, one hand catching on the lip and holding on with a frantic grip. She swung into the side of the building and grunted, the air knocked out of her.

"Hinata!" Sakura shouted.

Chōji's eyes went wide and he lurched forward, moving for the Hyuuga. Sakura blew right past him.

"Chōji!" she shouted. "I've got her! You get Ino out of here!"

Chōji paused, then nodded, turning and running for the edge of the roof, the ground crumbling away beneath him. More paper clones flung themselves at him, but whichever ones he didn't manage to swat out of the air Shikamaru picked off with kunai, a grim look seemingly stuck on his face.

Chōji leapt off the roof, the whole structure shaking with the force of his jump, and Sakura lost sight of him and his passengers. She refocused on the dangling Hyuuga.

Hinata's hand slipped back: the roof was still covered in rain-water, the concrete slippery. Even with chakra, she was having trouble holding on. Sakura leapt forward, landing on the edge just as Hinata's hand finally slipped off the roof entirely.

She stuck herself fast to the roof and snatched at Hinata, barely managing to grab her hand as she tumbled back into a long, long fall. Sakura couldn't even see the street below. There was only darkness down there.

"Hinata!" she shouted down at the heiress, who stared up at her with fuzzy eyes. "Hinata, are you okay?!"

"I'm…" The Hyuuga shook her head. Blood was matting her hair, darkening it further. "I can't…"

She started to slip out of Sakura's grip. The medic's hand was still covered in her own blood: it was making holding on to Hinata even more difficult.

"Hinata!" Sakura screamed. "Snap out of it!"

Hinata's head jerked towards her, suddenly alert. Her grip tightened.

"I'm okay." She panted, on the verge of hyperventilating. "I'm okay."

Sakura smiled. "You're okay?"

The heiress shook her head again. "I'm fine. Pull me up-"

The Byakugan went wide.

Sakura jerked her head up, just in time to see another paper clone headed straight for them. Time slowed to a crawl.

There was no way she could dodge it. If she tried to pull Hinata up, it would blow up the both of them. If they both went to the side, the blast would still reach them.

But if she dropped her and jumped back… Hinata was still stunned. There was no way she'd be able to stick to the side of the building, and even if she did, she'd be a sitting duck for the other clones Sakura could hear behind her.

Left, right, up… nowhere to go.

Only one choice.

Down.

'Oh, this is such a bad idea.'

Sakura screamed in frustration and kicked down and forward, front-flipping off the edge of the building. Hinata screamed with her as Sakura's momentum carried the both of them off the lip, out into the black night.

As she flipped downwards, Sakura caught sight of the clone hitting the side of the building and exploding, sending more rubble tumbling down towards the streets of Amegakure after her and Hinata. And then, everything became rushing wind and impenetrable darkness as they fell into the void.

"Katsuyu," Sakura murmured, holding Hinata tightly and placing her own body between the Hyuuga and the oncoming ground. The girl had evidently given up on staying conscious: the exploding clone had done more damage than had been apparent.

"Yes?" the slug on Sakura's collarbone murmured back, clinging fearlessly to her.

"Do what you can."

"Of course."

Their hundred-and-some foot tumble was going to come to an end sooner rather than later.

Sakura hit something: a balcony, an arch, or an overhang. She didn't know what it was in the dark. All she knew was that it was hard, and that hitting it while traveling at about half her terminal velocity hurt like nothing else had in her life. She smashed right through it, and then hit something else even harder, crashing through the air, coming ever closer to the street.

The world was going black and red.

One final obstacle. It was made of wood: a cart, or something like it, placed by the side of the street. Sakura reduced it to matchsticks, landing with a thunderous boom and an explosion of splinters.

There was a moment of silence, heavier than the darkness that cloaked the rain-soaked streets. But silences were made to be broken.

"Ow."

Sakura pulled herself up slowly, gently setting Hinata to the side. Very, very slowly, she put one hand to her head to combat the horrendous headache.

"Goddamit."

Everything ached.

"Shit."

Everything burned.

"FUCK."

But nothing was broken.

That didn't stop Sakura from muttering some of the most virulent curses she knew as she slowly pulled herself to her feet. Hinata stirred.

"Lady Katsuyu?" Sakura bit out. "Are you-"

She turned, feeling something damp on her back. She reached back, twisting to look.

Katsuyu was crushed along her entire backside. The slug had put herself between Sakura and the street. She was unmistakably dead.

Sakura stared.

"You didn't have to do that," she choked out, tasting blood.

Another slug slithered from Hinata's collar, slightly smaller than it had been before.

"I disagree," it said politely but firmly. "If I hadn't, you would probably be in much worse condition."

Sakura sighed, then winced: even that small movement shot pain down her back like a fiery whip.

"Yeah," she whispered, trying to ignore the crushing pressure in her chest. "Thanks."

"A little premature for thanks, don't you think?"

Sakura turned, favoring her left leg heavily, and found Konan floating in the air behind her.

The real Konan. Patchwork wings flowed out behind her, and she held a long paper sword in her right hand. She looked like an avenging angel.

Sakura chuckled. "Ah, crap."

She shuffled backwards, Konan watching her imperiously the whole time, and bent down next to Hinata, shaking her lightly. Hinata shifted, but didn't rise.

"Lady Katsuyu," Sakura said, sounding exhausted. "Please get her on her feet again: I'll buy you time."

"It may take a minute," the slug said quietly, sitting on the back of the Hyuuga's neck. "Will you be-?"

Sakura cracked her neck.

"I'll-"

Then her knuckles.

"Be-"

Sakura Haruno smiled, her green eyes bright in the abyss of Amegakure's streets.

"Fine."

She settled into a relaxed stance, her entire body aching, her muscles burning, and her head pounding. None of that mattered. Hinata was behind her, and Hinata was vulnerable.

Sakura would be damned if anything happened to her. Her smile widened, and her hands tightened into fists, her gloves creaking.

"C'mon," she snarled.

Konan swept forward, her amber eyes cold, leading with her paper sword.

###

"This place sucks."

Shino glanced at his teammate, who was shuffling along the catwalk, his hands in his pockets.

"It is rather unyouthful," Rock Lee said slowly, carefully stepping over a protruding pipe. He smiled, glancing down at the dark water running below them. "However, it is doubtlessly the finest sewer system of any village!"

Kiba just groaned. Akamaru made a chuffing sound that reminded Shino greatly of a chuckle. It was indeed an impressive sewer system. A pity about the smell.

Neji's omnipresent frown intensified. "We're nearing the surface. I can't see any farther than that: the chakra screen resumes there."

The second infiltration team had taken the opposite path as Sai and his hawks. Rather than moving in from high above the village, they'd done the exact opposite and approached from below. It was fortunate that Neji's Byakugan had revealed the extensive undercity necessary for this approach.

It was unfortunate that said undercity had eventually diverted into a sewer as the team made their way closer to the center of the village. Now, they were all slowly making their way along an old, rusting catwalk, with barely enough room to have two walking side by side… and the guardrails were suspicious at best.

Considering the nature of the near-black liquid running along below them with a constant muffled rumble, Shino found that somewhat distressing.

"You guys don't get it," Kiba whined, sounding more like a dog than a peeved teen. "It's the smell. I can barely handle it."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Stop complaining. It's not that bad."

"Hey! Just cause your nose isn't as awesome as mine, doesn't me you can just-"

"Is Akamaru throwing a fit?" Tenten pointed out. The dog looked back at her, panting slightly, and shook his head. "See?" she said with a triumphant air. "You could learn from him you know!"

"Stupid dog," Kiba muttered. Akamaru whined. "Making me look-"

Neji stopped in his tracks, and Kiba bumped right into his back.

"Hey? What's the-" he protested, briefly, before the jonin slapped his hand over his mouth.

"We're not alone," Neji hissed, motioning back to stop the rest of the party in its tracks.

"Quite right."

The baritone emerged from the darkness ahead of them, shortly followed by a cloaked man in a mask. He stepped forward, the catwalk subtly ringing with every step.

"I was wondering where I would find the rest of you," he said slowly. "And here you are: scurrying through the underbelly of the village." He paused, staring at them. Neji could see his single visible eye, slowly rotating. The rest of his face was hidden behind a white mask, splattered with seemingly random black markings.

The Byakugan couldn't see through it. The whole thing just registered as a solid clump of chakra, stuck over the man's face, masking his features. Neji wondered how he'd done it.

"Like rats," the man finished, taking another step forward. Neji raised his hands; beside him, Lee did the same. Tenten and Shino, at the back of the group, leapt straight up and stuck themselves to the ceiling, Shino's coat falling down around him.

Kiba and Akamaru jumped left and right respectively, sticking themselves to the sides of the sewer. The enormous white dog snarled, and his partner did the same.

"So, little rats." The Uchiha came to a stop, leaning casually against one of the railings, uncaring of the array of shino watching him from every angle. "What do you do now?"

"Maybe we'll just take you down here, huh?" Kiba suggested, his elongated fangs all too obvious. "Do everyone a favor and put you out of their misery." Akamaru barked, his eyes slits.

The man chuckled. "The only one being put down today is you, Inuzuka." He pushed himself off of the railing. "And your mutt."

Kiba didn't respond. He just charged, along with Akamaru.

"Gatsūga!"

Neji slowly closed his eyes.

'Idiot.'

The masked man shifted as slightly as possible to the left, and Akamaru blew right by him. Kiba readjusted, setting himself straight for the man's chest, and Tobi spun, lifting his leg high, and stomped the Inuzuka straight through the catwalk with the horrific sound of tearing metal, spiking him down into the sewage below.

Neji fired a blast of air from his palm, tearing away the railing as it sped along the catwalk. Tenten unleashed a hail of shuriken, trailed by Shino's insects, which flowed along the walls of the tunnel, darkening them further.

It was an impressive showing, but none of it touched the masked man. Though the walls and catwalk behind him were completely torn apart, he simply phased through every single single thing thrown at him.

Neji blinked. Despite how it looked, parts of the man's body simply vanished wherever an attack made contact: chunks of his chakra system disappeared, transforming him into a patchwork figure. How could he survive something like that?

"Hmm," the impossible man muttered. "Is that really all you can do?"

Lee stepped in front of Neji, his arm stiff. "If that is what you think, perhaps you would like to try me?" he challenged, lowering his hand, the palm extended.

The masked man crossed his arms and snorted. "If you insist, I suppose I…"

He trailed off, then held up one of his hands.

"Wait."

"Huh?" Lee's hand lowered slightly. "Do not think you can distract me! I have been practicing my subtlety! There is no way you will-"

"Not you," the man said abruptly, turning his head to the side, as if listening to something. His arms slowly fell to his sides, and he straightened up, while the Konoha shinobi watched, confused.

"Well," he slowly said, his tone on the knife edge of curiosity and annoyance. "It seems today is your lucky day. I have something else to attend to."

He took a step back, towards the edge of the wrecked catwalk. "Oh. But before I go…"

Tobi ran his hands through two quick signs, tilting his head up. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."

Team Gai and Shino leaped back, along with Akamaru, watching as an enormous fireball burst from where the man's mouth should have been, rocketing up into the roof of the tunnel. It struck with a tremendous roar, lighting up the dark for hundreds of feet in either direction, and the roof crumbled, tons of concrete crashing down and ruining the path forward.

The man in the white mask waved as the rubble fell around him. "Perhaps later," he said mockingly, and then vanished, leaving behind nothing but the din of the collapsing tunnel.

The rubble finally stopped falling, the new obstacle settling, and for a moment there was silence.

A silence which shattered when Kiba exploded from the sewage, swearing viciously and covered in something that defied categorization, but smelled like the product of a thousand years of constipation.

"You son of a bitch!" he shouted, sprinting up the wall, leaving behind a viscous trail. "I'll-!"

He blinked, taking in the devastation wrought upon the tunnel, and turned to Shino, watching him from the ceiling.

"Hey!" he called up, his face twisting in confusion. "What happened? Where'd he go?"

"He left," Shino said flatly, inspecting the rubble. He'd lost several insects in there.

"He just left?" Kiba shot back. "What the hell?! That doesn't make any-"

Neji cut in, wrinkling his nose. "He said he had something else to attend to." He glanced at Tenten, who shrugged, storing her weapon scroll. "I have no idea what he meant," he finished.

Kiba just blinked again, considering the new information.

"That guy's an asshole," he decided.

Tenten laughed, and Kiba chuckled with her.

"Anyone got anything that'll wash this shit off?" he asked, gesturing to himself.

"Kiba, I don't believe that is the kind of thing that washes off," Lee offered.

Kiba sighed. "Dammit."

Akamaru whimpered, pacing along the wall towards his partner. Then, he took a long, obvious sniff. The dog immediately groaned and backed up, putting as much space between himself and his partner as possible.

"Oh c'mon, Akamaru!" Kiba groaned. "It's not that-" His nostrils flared, and he wobbled on his feet, almost falling off of the wall.

He shook his head viciously. "Okay. That's pretty bad." Then he sighed again. "Let's just get the fuck out of here. Maybe the rain will clean it off."

"Agreed," Neji said. "There's a path around the rubble, over there." He gestured vaguely to the left. "Let's get going."

At that moment, a small slug slithered from his collar, alighting on his shoulder. He looked over at it, blinking. "Lady Katsuyu?"

"You need to hurry!" the slug insisted. "The other team has been seperated! Sakura is in terrible danger!"

"What?" Lee practically shouted, his voice rebounding off the walls. "We must go now!" He seized the slug, bringing it in close to his face. "Lady Katsuyu! Show us the way!"

"Of course!" the slug murmured. "Though if you would mind not squeezing so tightly-"

"Oh!" Lee loosened his grip. "My apologies! But please! We must hurry!"

"Just continue down the path," the slug said, much more calmly. "I will direct you once you're closer."

And so, Team Gai and two-thirds of Team Eight set out once more, moving along the walls and ceiling of Amegakure's sewer, deeper into the village. But despite Katsuyu's warning, all of them were thinking the same thing.

'What did that guy have to 'attend to?''

Chapter Text

Dreams and Deals

Tobi laughed.

"Of all the people I expected," he muttered, cupping his mask as if trying to hold in the chuckle, "you would be the last."

"Oh?" The voice slithered down the corridor, slipping along the pipes and damp concrete walls. "Did you think that I really hadn't taken precautions for this?"

Tobi shrugged, leaning against the wall, uncaring of its slickness, and crossed his arms. "I suspected. There was something wrong with the boy's chakra… it must have been your mark. How did you manage to hide it, I wonder? From your own teammate, even?"

The darkness didn't answer, and Tobi pulled himself away from the wall, sighing.

He narrowed his eye. "I expected Itachi to arrive first. But for some reason, he hasn't, and with you here, that complicates things."

"Hmm… so Itachi is coming too, is he?"

Orochimaru slipped out of the shadows, smiling widely. Someone wearing a heavy cloak, with skin as unnaturally pale as the Snake's and round, overly cleaned glasses that gleamed even in the dimness of the tunnel, trailed behind him.

"Perfect," the Sannin hissed. "Both of them here at once."

Tobi cocked an invisible eyebrow. "You seem confident. His eyes will likely be even more powerful, you know."

The snake's grin didn't fade. "Oh, I know. As I said." He spread his arms wide, gesturing mockingly. "Do you really think I haven't taken precautions?"

Tobi didn't laugh again. He just stared, his eye lazily rotating. Orochimaru looked back, smirking. The masked man made a thoughtful sound. "Do you know who I am?"

"Madara Uchiha," the Sannin shot back.

"And that doesn't surprise you?"

The smile faded slightly, but Orochimaru's slit eyes still gleamed with inner amusement. "Certainly. Though I'm more interested in how you've managed to maintain your strength for so long, Madara," he said.

"Some mysteries are best left unsolved, then," Tobi drawled back.

Orochimaru's rasping laugh filled the corridor. "I don't doubt it has something to do with that Sharingan of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it."

Tobi didn't respond to that. There was a moment of silence as both S-ranked ninja watched each other, ready for anything.

Orochimaru broke it, crossing his arms and cocking his head. "So," he chuckled, half at a joke only he could understand and half as a challenge. "Are you going to stop me?"

Tobi just watched him, his single eye shifting back and forth between Orochimaru and the man at his side.

"I can't just allow you to take Sasuke," he said deeply, pondering something. "He might be valuable to me."

The cloaked man at Orochimaru's side swept back his hood. "'Might be', Lord Madara?"

Orochimaru glanced at Kabuto, one corner of his mouth turning up. Tobi just stared flatly.

"'Lord'?" he intoned.

Kabuto nodded. Tobi couldn't tell if the smile on his face was genuine or not.

"Of course. You who helped found the Village Hidden in the Leaves, who survived the wrath of Hashirama, and who leads the Akatsuki from the shadows…" The man's smirk widened. "What else to address such a man as you but with 'Lord'?"

Tobi shifted, drumming his fingers against his palm.

"You're remarkably well informed," he said quietly.

Kabuto just grinned cheekily, exposing his fangs. "Hardly. Itachi is, however, and he told little Sasuke everything… while my master listened carefully, of course."

Tobi grunted. "How irritating. Did you have something to say then, little snake, or were you just going to praise your 'master'?"

Kabuto's grin didn't shift. "It seems simple to me, Lord Madara," he said. This time, there was definite mockery in his tone. "Sasuke may be skilled, true, but he cannot yet compare to one of the Sannin. And if my master comes into possession of him, combining his knowledge with Sasuke's strength…"

"Then I will have lost an asset, and gained nothing," Madara interrupted. He turned to Orochimaru, completely looking past his companion. "Somehow, I doubt you would swear allegiance to me, Orochimaru, for the simple payment of Sasuke Uchiha."

"Hmm?" The man smiled. "Could we not have an alliance?"

Tobi waved his hand, as if brushing aside the words. "Our goals are incompatible. Your pursuit of the Sharingan has interrupted my searching for the Bijuu before: there's no reason to think you've changed."

"Hmm, true," Orochimaru admitted easily. "But I would prefer not to fight you, Madara: I doubt it would go well for either of us."

The masked man inclined his head thoughtfully. "You could believe that, yes."

Orochimaru rolled his eyes. "Let's make it simple, shall we?" He took a step forward.

"You're expecting Itachi Uchiha to arrive soon, yes? To save his brother?" Orochimaru's grin was returning.

Tobi nodded carefully, and Orochimaru's tongue flickered out, unnaturally thick and long. "Then I shall remove one of your burdens, and deal with him for you. I assume you don't want him alive?"

Tobi laughed lowly. "Capturing Itachi Uchiha alive would be impossible at this point anyway," he said with dark amusement.

"Perhaps. Nevertheless…" Orochimaru took another step forward. "Do we have a deal? I deal with a problem, and you give up a tool in payment."

Tobi watched both of the snakelike figures, weighing his options.

Sasuke had not been what he'd expected. His Uchiha hatred seemed to have burned out. It reminded Tobi uncomfortably of himself. But while he had been given a goal to cling to, a dream for a perfect world to accomplish, Sasuke had given up. His passions were ashes.

Why? Had his brother really influenced him so? It made no sense. By all rights, Sasuke should have despised Itachi. And yet he protected him, however subconsciously.

Tobi was very wary of things that made no sense. Variables outside his control were variables that would come back to ruin his plans later. Itachi was one of these variables. As was Orochimaru and his slippery disciple, at least at the moment.

But if Orochimaru did, in fact, remove Itachi Uchiha from the board, and take Sasuke with him…

He'd gain power, certainly. But nothing that would approach the might of a real Uchiha. And there would be far less pieces to worry about. Maybe the snake and the crow would even tear each other to ribbons, and remove themselves from this mockery of a game simultaneously.

The Moon's Eye Plan was nearing completion anyway. The Kyuubi would be subdued soon enough: Pain could be relied upon for that. Then, all that would remain would be the Hachibi and Rokubi. Perhaps Orochimaru could even be convinced to acquire one of them, in "gratitude".

Tobi's mouth slipped up in a grim, invisible smile. He took a deliberate step to the side.

"He won't be happy to see you," Tobi said, gesturing grandly past himself.

Orochimaru chuckled hollowly. "I'm sure he won't be the only one."

Tobi spun away, vanishing into the darkness, and the Sannin strode forward, intent on his prize. Sasuke Uchiha would be his.

A small dark shape, a patch of black blacker than the shadows surrounding it, watched the impromptu meeting break up, a red eye cocked curiously. It silently spread its wings and vanished in a flurry of feathers, and then the tunnel was truly empty.

###

Street by street, Amegakure was being torn apart.

The sound of it echoed throughout the entire village. The unnaturally loud 'crack' of concrete being reduced to so much rubble, the shattering of glass, the rumble of enormous footsteps, the screeches of summons, and, every so often, an odd humming, which would rise in pitch before suddenly vanishing… along with the sounds of one of the unnatural animals.

Naruto Uzumaki had gone to war, and Pain wasn't giving an inch.

There was another shattering sound, yet another window broken. Naruto suddenly found himself in a rather tidy looking cafe.

The image was ruined when an enormous paw crashed down through the roof, crushing most of the establishment's tables. The unreasonably large bear the paw belonged to withdrew its foot and glared down through the hole it had made, its eye gleaming with the distinctive shine of the Rinnegan. It growled, the sound resonating in the Uzumaki's diaphragm.

Naruto stared up into its eye, his horizontal pupils shrunken, and growled right back.

"You can't keep this up. You must know that."

Naruto jerked his head away from the bear, glaring at the cloaked man who'd carelessly stepped through the shattered window frame. The Deva Path stared back, looking supremely unconcerned.

"You can't win. Why keep fighting?" He took a step forward, his hands flexing.

"Your friends are doing the same, right now. They're battling my Angel, And they are losing." The man's pale face shifted into a thunderous frown. "Are you really that selfish? That you would throw all of them away, just for another?"

"I'm not 'throwing them away'," Naruto snapped back, his eyes narrowing. "They all came to help me. They'll beat your Angel, and find Sasuke." He grinned, exposing his unusually sharp canines. "All I have to do is keep you busy."

Pain closed his eyes. "How can you be so blind?"

The walls of the building exploded, and three men, two with distinctive orange hair, burst from the ensuing hail of debris and dust, sprinting right for the Uzumaki near the center of the room.

Naruto took a deep breath, and shifted back, bringing his hands up.

The first Path to reach him sported a buzz cut and a slashed Amegakure hitai-ate wrapped around his upper arm. He held a black rod in one hand, slashing it through the air in a diagonal cut. The other hand was held forward, a subtle blue glow around it.

'The one that absorbs chakra.'

The second was completely bald: didn't even have eyebrows. He just charged in, his fists clenched, his eyes narrowed.

'I still don't know what that one's jutsu is.'

The last was the fat man Naruto's clone had destroyed at the beginning of the fight. He had rejoined it a minute later, none the worse for wear. He rushed towards the blond, his right arm replaced by a spinning drill, and his mouth wide open, something that was definitely not a tongue protruding from it.

'Turns into weapons,' Naruto noted, glancing at the barrel of the definitely-not-a-tongue.

He breathed out, and moved.

The Preta Path slashed at his side, and Naruto's right hand shot out, catching the rod. He didn't stop it, merely changing its direction. As he did, his left foot came around, his whole body twisting up with the motion. The Human Path brought a fist back, aiming for Naruto's stomach, and promptly had to hop into the air to avoid Naruto's spinning foot. He kept moving forward, one hand open and the other a fist, ready to bring the Uzumaki to the ground.

The Asura Path was five feet away from the brawl, his drill revving. The barrel of his not-tongue was glowing.

Naruto completed his spin, coming to face the Human Path, and driving his left foot into the side of the Preta Path at the same time. He pushed, blowing the tall man back and sending him through one of the cafe's few unbroken walls with an earsplitting crack.

The black rod he had held stayed in Naruto's hand, and he thrust it forward, towards the Human Path's face. The man's flat palm came up and knocked the rod aside, even as he fell towards Naruto.

The Asura Path was four feet away.

Naruto's grip on the rod was loose, and he allowed it to tumble away. His other hand came up and caught the bald Path's punch with a decisive clap. The hand that had held the rod turned and grasped the hand that had blocked it. The Human Path's eyes widened. The Asura Path, three feet away, slowed down, trying to cancel its momentum.

It was too slow.

Naruto roared and swung the Human Path, smashing it into the Asura Path and sending them both to the ground, shattering the lacquered wood floor. The bald man convulsed, the other Path's oversized drill punching through his stomach and spraying cold blood everywhere as it continued rotating. The Asura Path itself looked like it couldn't decide to be bored or furious.

Naruto took a step forward, intent on finishing off the prone Path, before Pain's hand came up, and Naruto's head with it.

"Shinra Tensei."

The blond was blown back, his coat rippling, and he smashed through one of the few unbroken sections of wall.

The whole cafe rumbled, its foundations ruined, and tilted to the side, crashing down on top of the Asura and Human Paths, as well as Naruto. Pain remained where he was, completely unruffled. The bear summon, looming over the whole collapse, growled and took a step forward, sniffing at the ground.

Pain sighed. "You can't win, Naruto. Give up."

He gestured, and the rubble covering the other Paths was flung out of the way, revealing their beaten bodies. A woman with long orange hair and a delicate smile studded with metal appeared behind him, and approached the bodies unhurriedly.

She bent down besides them, and then both she and the bodies vanished.

Pain watched as Naruto slowly clambered out of the ruin of the cafe, rolling debris off himself and dusting off his coat, which was rapidly accruing unflattering tears.

The bear summon took an experimental swipe at him: Naruto responded by catching and twisting the animal's whole paw, spinning with the motion, and breaking the massive thing with a clean snap.

The beast howled, and as Pain stared, Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled, heaving the animal behind him and sending it flying through the air. It smashed into the side of one of the towers looming along the street, crashing through the concrete and becoming lost in the darkness and protruding pipes behind the facade.

"Give up."

Naruto blew out a breath, none the worse the wear for a building falling on top of him. He turned to Pain, his inhuman eyes cheerful.

"You keep saying that," he continued with a grin, rubbing the back of his head and dislodging a fragment of roofing. "But it's not like I'm going to, you know?" His grin shifted, becoming significantly less guileless. "Why don't you give up, huh? Mix it up a little?"

Pain just continued staring. "Can you really be so deluded?" He strode to the left, maintaining his distance from Naruto but moving around him. Several other Paths slunk out of alleys along the street: one fell from a nearby roof, leaving a small crater where it landed.

Naruto scanned them. All were present, except for the woman with long hair. The one that kept getting them back up. He had to kill that one, or else this battle would go on until he dropped from exhaustion. Sage Mode wouldn't last forever: he was going to run out of his initial infusion soon, and then Pain would have him.

He needed to draw her out. Bait her in. Otherwise, there was no way he'd win, let alone survive.

The Paths were circling him, all staying at the same distance. All his routes of escape were cut off: there weren't any summons backing them up, but at these close-quarters the animals had proven less than effective against Naruto's increased strength.

Three clones ready to dispel and give him another ten minutes: thirty minutes total. More than enough time. And he could make four more if he needed to, though Pain would be able to go after them immediately.

So, he had a generous time limit… but the longer he was here, the longer everyone else had to deal with Pain's 'Angel'. If he could disable or defeat Pain, then he could go help them, and then they could find Sasuke together.

But how to bait the medic Path? Naruto suddenly had an incredibly stupid idea. Or rather, a series of them.

He momentarily wondered why he always seemed to get those when he was fighting this guy, before blinking and refocusing on the problem in front of him.

"Well, yeah," he said. "We had the same master, right? I know all your tricks now."

Pain cocked his head. "And all of yours, I."

Naruto snorted. "Sure you do."

"I know your Sage Mode is some sort of bastardization of Jiraiya-sensei's," the pale man said slowly. The rest of the Paths stared unblinkingly. It was really goddamn creepy.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto said, glancing around. It would happen any minute now. "What makes you think that?"

Pain narrowed his eyes. "No toads on your shoulders: less deformed features. Whatever kind of senjutsu you're using is different from his."

"Hmm." Naruto scratched his chin. "Maybe you're right. What does it matter? I'm still gonna beat you."

Pain's eyes snapped wide open. The rest of the Paths shifted.

"Why are you so stubborn?" he hissed, taking a step forward. The rest of the bodies did as well, in lockstep. "I thought you believed in Jiraiya-sensei's dream. You want peace for this cursed world, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Naruto insisted, his smile fading.

"Then why do you resist?" Pain said heavily. "Can't you see that your dream and mine are aligned? You merely have to give up yourself, and our master's goal will be realized."

"They're not the same," Naruto growled, crossing his arms. "Not the same at all."

"Oh?" Pain murmured. "How would you conclude that?" He crossed his own arms, mimicking Naruto. "Wouldn't I be stopping the endless cycle of wars that have plagued this world? Wouldn't the suffering of the people decrease without the constant destruction the shinobi system has brought to everything it touches?"

Naruto shook his head. "You want to use the Bijuu as a weapon. You want to kill thousands…"

He paused, trying to wrap his head around the number, and failed. Instead, he just frowned intensely, his grin finally slipping away entirely. "How can you expect to change anything with more death? Spreading more hate?" he said, staring intensely into the Rinnegan. "You'd just be perpetuating the cycle that our master is trying to stop."

"It is not about spreading death and hate, which I would," Pain said, gesturing widely. "It is about spreading fear. A fear that this world has lacked for too long: a fear of total destruction, of the obliteration of everything precious."

He lowered his hands. "With fear comes caution. And with the weapon I will craft from the Bijuu, there will never be too much caution. The people of this world will learn to respect, rather than fear, the death that will hang over them for every moment of every minute for the rest of their lives. They will realize that if this weapon is unshackled, if it is used once more, it is not something that they will be able to undo."

Pain didn't smile, but his voice grew distant. "There will be mistakes, of course. Human beings are such foolish creatures. The weapon will be used again, turned to a 'noble cause.'"

He snorted. "As if there is such a thing in this world."

"You're willing to risk that?" Naruto growled, uncrossing his arms and flexing his hands, working out the tension spreading throughout his body. "You're willing to risk-"

"My weapon being reused?" Pain asked rhetorically. "Of course. I'm counting on it."

"Why?" Naruto asked, trembling in anger.

"Human's must be reminded of their mistakes often, lest they forget them," Pain said, tapping his temple with a single finger. "One merely has to look at the current state of the world to see this: despite the lessons of the past, the sacrifices, the 'heroism'… nothing has changed. The Hidden Villages still stand, the smaller villages are ground to dust between them, and ninja everywhere are tools, serving a machine they are born into to die for."

He pointed at Naruto. "You're no different: just another gear placed in this machine of hatred. Can you really believe that we could fix something like this without force? Words have never accomplished anything: violence is all that the shinobi system understands. To tear it down, we must first play its game."

"This is why you must give up," Pain said, staring intensely at Naruto. "If you surrender yourself, your sacrifice will be the one that matters. It will not be wasted, like the countless before it. You, Naruto Uzumaki, will be the change that brings peace to the shinobi world."

Naruto didn't respond. Not immediately. He just lowered his head and balled his fists, visibly shaking, his knuckles whitening. Pain lowered his hand.

"Do you understand now?" Pain asked quietly.

Naruto raised his head, and the Deva Path actually took a step back. Pain blinked.

"You're wrong," Naruto said, his eyes narrowed in disgust, his whole body jittering with suppressed rage, his elongated canines exposed, his hands clenching and unclenching.

"You're wrong," he snarled.

Naruto took a step forward, and this time all of the Paths took a step back.

"You talk about 'peace', but peace isn't just there being no war. I've been talking with Jiraiya…" He hesitated, before pushing on, his voice only growing thicker. "I've been talking with our master a lot. I trained with him for the last two weeks, and when he wasn't beating the crap out of me, we were talking about his dream."

"Oh? And how have Jiraiya-sensei's childish dreams developed?" Pain said. He didn't sound impressed, though he watched Naruto warily.

Naruto ignored the jibe. "He told me that peace wasn't just people not fighting. That true peace, the kind of peace he wanted, would be everyone living together, understanding each other."

Pain shook his head. "Impossible."

"Why?" Naruto shot back, slowing down his breathing, trying to calm himself down. "Why is that impossible? What's so impossible about people coming together and-"

"Humans are foolish, humans are petty, and most of all, humans are selfish," Pain said, sounding absolutely self-assured. "These barriers will always exist in this world: they are not something that can be broken down by 'understanding'."

Naruto shook his head. "You can't be right."

"Why?" Pain echoed Naruto. "Because you're unwilling to believe it? Don't you see that as its own selfishness? Unable to admit that maybe, you are wrong? That the world cannot be changed except through violence?"

"No. You can't be right because I've proven you wrong. I've done it."

Naruto smiled grimly. "I understood Gaara." Pain cocked his head, familiar with the name, while Naruto continued. "He was… he was in a real bad way. Completely alone, a monster inside him…" Naruto's hand wandered to his stomach. "But I understood him. He was me, if I'd never had anyone to care for me. If no one in my village had acknowledged me."

Naruto's grim smile gradually shifted, more of his light shining through. "And I changed him. I brought him back: I showed him that he didn't have to be alone. Now, he's the Kazekage."

"Touching." Pain's voice was dry enough to evaporate all the rain in Ame. "But you just admitted you and he were two sides of the same coin: you merely understood yourself."

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe. But it still happened, and he wasn't the only one." He sighed. "I mean, don't you get it? What you're planning isn't peace. You're just putting something else in place of the shinobi system. People won't fight, sure, but they'll be more separated than ever. If everyone's afraid, no one is going to try to change anything. Everything will stay the same. The only difference is that your weapon will replace the wars."

"So long as my weapon prevents even one orphan," Pain said bitingly, "I will consider it a success."

"By creating more?" Naruto asked. He was getting angry again. "How can you justify that? Spreading fear won't help!" He swept his arm through the air. "Fear doesn't change anything! It just makes it easier for people to hate each other! And if there's just more hate, everywhere, then-"

"I don't have to justify it," Pain said calmly. "Gods do not justify their actions: they merely take them." He raised his hand. "And now, it seems we're out of time."

Naruto blinked, his blue eyes going wide.

'Huh?'

Oh. Sage Mode was out. Pain was taking the bait.

'About time.'

"Banshō Ten'in," the purple-eyed man intoned, and Naruto was yanked off his feet, careening forward. He put an appropriately panicked look on his face, and flailed about… at least until Pain caught him by his throat, stopping him painfully in his tracks, and lifted him into the air.

The other Paths converged, drawing close. Naruto clawed at Pain's hand, trying to get himself some air, kicking his legs futilely. The man watched him expressionlessly.

"So," he said, with a note of finality. "Your Sage Mode does have a limit." He sighed. "Enough of this talking, then. Unless you can 'understand' me, I don't think we have anything more to say to each other."

Naruto gasped, and Pain loosened his grip by the merest of fractions. The blond grinned.

"Well, the thing is..." he wheezed, closing his eyes, "I've always talked better with my fists."

Several kilometers away, a clone popped.

When Naruto opened his eyes again, they were gold.

Pain's went wide. The other Paths, mere feet away, charged from all sides.

Three seconds till Pain could use his jutsu again.

'Did you know, Naruto…?'

Naruto chopped down, Sage Mode lending him the strength necessary to break Pain's grip. He dropped to the ground, winded but angry enough to ignore it. The Paths were pulling back weapons, reaching out glowing palms: one's chest had split open, revealing what could only be called a cannon. Pain himself was dropping back, his hand rising.

Naruto put his hands together in a simple cross.

Two seconds.

'High-level ninja should be able to read each others thoughts simply by an exchange of fists.'

'Kage Bunshin.'

Three clones appeared around Naruto, popping into existence in ready positions. They struck out, natural energy wreathing their fists and feet. Two Paths were thrown back, but the Human and Preta Path remained and landed blows, and the clones they had attacked dispelled immediately, the chakra drained right out of them.

It didn't matter. The clones had accomplished their purpose: keeping the Paths off the original Naruto. He shot forward towards Pain, the surviving clone at his side, a Rasengan forming in its hand. The orange haired man kicked high, aiming for the armed clone, and Naruto spun beneath the kick, his clone taking the blow and getting thrown backwards.

One second.

'Even without saying anything...'

Naruto stared up into Pain's eyes from under his guard, tightening his fist. The man glared down, furious: he was off balance, having expected the Rasengan-clone to be the real Naruto.

"You-!" he hissed.

Naruto never did learn what Pain was going to say.

Half a second.

Naruto shot up into a building-shattering uppercut.

For a nanosecond, it seemed like Pain resisted the hit: that he employed gravity to keep him rooted to the ground. There was a frozen moment where he and Naruto glared at each other, Naruto's fist driving into his chin, Pain's entire body pushing down, an immovable force meeting an irresistible object.

Then, the natural energy riding behind Naruto's fist landed.

A long, long time ago, Naruto had heard that it was a mark of strong ninja to be able to have a conversation with nothing but their fists. Sasuke had told him that, right before he'd driven a chidori through his shoulder. He'd taken it to heart then, and now, it seemed that he hadn't done so for no reason.

Because in that moment where time held still, and the Rinnegan widened in fury, Naruto knew, without a doubt, that he and Pain weren't just fighting anymore. They were speaking to each other. Or rather, Naruto was speaking to Pain. It was a very simple message, and one he'd delivered before.

'You're wrong.'

And then, the moment ended, and Pain was gone.

He was thrown upwards so fast that he just flickered out of existence. Even in Sage Mode, Naruto was barely able to follow the movement. There was a distant crack a second later: a sonic boom.

The other Paths didn't stop their attack. They didn't give Naruto time to appreciate the moment. It didn't stop him from doing so, but he wasn't allowed to do it in peace. He could take a moment after the brawl ended. For now, he needed to keep his plan going.

Pain had been the real reason he hadn't been able to finish the fight: his jutsu had knocked Naruto away every time he'd managed to gain the upper hand. Now, with him out of the way, going after the other Paths would be much, much easier.

The medic would have no choice but to come out. And then, she'd be done. Pain would be back soon enough: Naruto needed to finish before then. So, he spun, his hands coming back together, and grinned fiercely.

"Let's go!"

###

Sakura grunted as the paper sword punched through her arm, sliding neatly between her radius and ulna, effortlessly slicing through her muscle. It continued on its path, whipping past her ear and opening a cut on her shoulder, before jarring to a stop. Konan stared at her, amber eyes cold.

"Impressive," she muttered, before Hinata swept forward, Lions Fist blazing, and punched her head clean off. The Hyuuga gasped, a thin trail of blood running from her mouth, but stayed tall, sweeping her fists around for another blow as the paper woman retreated farther down the wide street they'd battled across for the last few minutes, her head already reforming.

"It's useless, though," the woman said calmly, as the paper sword she'd stuck through Sakura's blocking arm began to hiss. The pink-haired girl seized it and ripped it out in a single vicious jerk, before hurling it at Konan.

She made no effort to dodge: the sword exploded, destroying one of her arms and rendering an angel wing ragged, but Konan didn't even flinch.

"So long as I have chakra, you can't win," she said serenely, watching as a slug wriggled out from under Sakura's short sleeve and ran itself over the wound in her arm, closing it cleanly. Konan inclined her head towards Hinata. "Even your Gentle Fist is useless here. My tenketsu can't be reached: my vital organs are the same."

She sighed as Sakura dropped to one knee, grasping at the deep cut in her side, running a glowing green hand over it. "Just give up. Stop fighting, and I'll let you live. Perhaps even leave Amegakure. You'll live to see the peace that Pain is crafting." She tilted her head, frowning. "If you don't, I'll have to kill you."

"Hah," Sakura panted, frowning. "If you could've, you would have by now." She glared defiantly, but Konan just shook her head sadly.

"If I wanted you dead, I'd simply have covered the street with explosive tags," she said sadly. "The buildings around us, too, to be sure. And the streets near us, as well. It would be a shame to destroy so much for so little, but I could do it in a heartbeat."

"Then why haven't you?" Hinata asked, shifting to stand next to Sakura, her Lion Fist still lit. Crimson ran steadily from a cut on her forehead, and some occasionally dripped from her mouth, but on the whole she looked much better than Sakura. Mostly because her entire left side wasn't soaked in her own blood.

"Hmm." Konan tilted her head up, staring at the midnight sky. Dark clouds were gathering once more: it seemed like Amegakure's rain would return soon. Sakura was still wondering why it had left in the first place. She pressed her hand into her side, feeling one of her lacerations closing.

"You remind me of myself," Konan finally said.

Hinata blinked. Konan shook her head, a small smile on her face. "Not you." She pointed at Sakura, who was shakily pulling herself to her feet. "Her."

"Me?" Sakura asked, clenching her fist experimentally. It hurt horribly, but it worked, and that was all that mattered.

Konan's grin grew slightly bitter. "Yes. Remarkable, isn't it? That two similar people should end up in such contrasting situations, but both there for the same reason."

"What do you mean?" Sakura panted, standing stock-still. Hinata, at her side, was slowly lowering her hands. The Lion Fist put itself out.

"You followed Naruto Uzumaki here, to an hostile village, up against an enemy you knew almost nothing about, all to keep him safe," Konan said, her smile remaining. "I have followed Pain-"

"Nagato," Sakura said, remembering what Naruto had told all of them before they'd entered the village, about Pain's 'real' body.

Konan stiffened, before relaxing. "Jiraiya," she muttered, before raising her voice. "Yes. I have followed Nagato for the last sixteen years, and for many before that. But while you followed Naruto to an enemy village, I followed Nagato while he fought the world itself."

"Why?" Sakura asked, balling her hands and starting to circle the paper woman, who turned to face her. Hinata rotated in the other direction, flanking Konan.

Konan frowned. "Because," she said, "he's my friend."

Sakura blinked. "What?"

"He's my friend, and he holds within him the potential to keep what happened to us from ever happening to anyone else," Konan said simply. "And if you think that you will stop him, you're wrong. So long as I'm here, I will make sure Nagato realizes his dream."

Sakura stared. Of all the things she'd expect an international S-ranked criminal to say, that would have probably ranked last.

"And that," Konan intoned, "is why, if you won't surrender, you must die."

"You know I won't. That we won't," Sakura said, glancing at Hinata, who nodded back over Konan's shoulder, the Byakugan lending her glare a frightening aspect. "If you really believe what you just said, we're here for the same reason. So you must know…" Her green eyes went hard, and she shifted her feet back. "We won't back down."

Konan sighed, but her posture straightened, and her eyes grew even colder. "Yes. I know." She lifted off of the ground, her wings spreading theatrically. "I'm sorry."

Konan charged at Sakura, speeding low over the ground, trailing paper tags.

Sakura met her halfway, and punched her upper body into a welter of sheets.

What was left of Konan fell back, sweeping to the left. The tags she'd left behind began to hiss: some of the loose paper left from Sakura's punch flitted through the air, affixing itself to the younger girl's arm. They began to hiss as well.

Hinata sprinted forward, over the sparking tags. "Sakura!" she shouted, and then jumped.

Sakura didn't hesitate. She leapt into the air as well, over the tags, and nearly collided with Hinata in mid-air. Hinata's hands flashed out, tapping the tags along Sakura's arm, and they died ignominiously, the chakra-spark extinguished by Hinata's touch.

They both began to fall, Sakura aiming to get beyond the tags, and Hinata setting her sights on Konan, whose upper body, sans right arm, had just reformed.

The tags went off. The blast, just as much concussive force as it was fire, took Sakura, who hadn't quite cleared the field yet, and threw her upwards, towards the concrete facade of one of the many towers studding the village. She hit the wall feet-first and stuck there, twisting around to find Hinata.

She was beyond the field of tags when they went off, but just barely. The blast didn't throw her up, as it had Sakura: it threw her forward, right at Konan. Hinata twisted, her head dropping and her feet coming up.

Konan turned just in time to get a bicycle kick to the face.

She barely had time to look surprised before her features disappeared again. Hinata let out an inarticulate yell as she regained her feet and shot forward, pounding the paper woman with pointed fingers glowing with chakra. Sheets fluttered away with every strike, Hinata's attacks kicking them up in a flurry around the two women.

Konan folded in on herself, turning hollow, and fell apart in a flurry of paper, coming back together behind Hinata. A sword formed in her hand, and she thrust it forward. The Byakugan saw it coming: Hinata spun, punching the sword aside with the flat of her palm, and sent another towards Konan's chest.

The blue-haired woman swept back, flinging paper shuriken, and Hinata leapt straight up, over the barrage.

Konan frowned, and then her amber eyes widened. She started to turn around, more shuriken folding into existence around her.

She made it about halfway before Sakura came down on her like an enraged comet, crushing her to the ground with a vicious airborne haymaker, and shattering the concrete street for dozens of meters around, forming a rippling crater. Blood from the unhealed slashes covering Sakura's side and arms splattered the concrete and paper around her.

Sakura didn't care. She pulled back her other hand, channeling chakra to her fist.

The smashed pile of paper she stood over suddenly grew legs, one of which kicked her, hard, in the kidney. The pink-haired girl made a choking sound and doubled over, all of the air knocked out of her. Which was when the other leg shifted impossibly, coiling and moving beneath her feet, before shooting out and smashing her in the chin.

Sakura went flying, her vision flashing black and red. She hit the ground, tumbling end over end, and ended up flat on her stomach, her mind reeling, with the taste of blood heavy in her mouth.

She pushed a fist under her, trying to shove herself to her feet, ignoring her injuries and trusting in Katsuyu to take care of them. Her entire body trembled, and her head pounded, but none of that mattered: she had to help Hinata.

A paper shuriken buried itself in the back of her hand, and she let out a yelp, unable to support herself under it anymore. She crashed back to the cold concrete, scuffing her elbow (though what was a little more blood?), and glared up at the woman who'd thrown it, unable to summon up the strength to do more than raise her head.

Konan didn't even bother looking back. She was busy with Hinata.

Sakura stared. She'd never seen her friend fight like she did now.

Hinata's hands were a blur, leaving a lethal blue tracery wherever she struck. Any loose paper that passed through their paths was sliced to pieces: explosive tags sputtered and died, and ordinary sheets were torn into microscopic confetti. She was relentless, chasing after Konan's shifting form, not giving her a moment to collect herself.

Shuriken and razor sharp airplanes spun through the air, and were cut down just as easily. Hinata left a trail of diced paper and curling blue tracery, loose chakra honed to an impossible edge, as she pushed Konan back.

The paper woman struck out with a paper dagger, and Hinata slid around it, effortlessly slicing the hand holding it off at the wrist. Konan spun into a low kick, aiming for Hinata's ankle, and Hinata hopped and over-rotated, hurling her entire body sideways into the air and bringing her foot up high. It wreathed itself in chakra, the distinctive Lion's Fist forming around it.

Konan caught Hinata's ankle with a hand with too many fingers and Hinata stopped right there, one of her own hands shooting down and anchoring her to the ground.

Both woman stayed there a moment, straining. The Lion Fist snapped, burning the air around it, and seemed to glare down at Konan, eager to devour her face. The woman stared up at it fearlessly, before glancing down at Hinata, who was watching her with just as much fierceness as the lion head attached to her foot.

"You're different," she said. Sakura could barely hear the paper woman over the blood pounding through her head. She'd underestimated how many times Konan had cut her: blood-loss was making itself known. Sakura was actually running out of the stuff. There wasn't much Katsuyu could do for that.

Hinata's glare didn't change at Konan's not-question. Konan kicked out, and Hinata's spare hand came up, catching the leg and locking it under her arm.

"Very different," Konan continued. Sakura thought she might have sounded sad. "Why are you here, I wonder?" She inclined her head towards Sakura. "She's here for her friend, and his dream: what about you?"

"Naruto's dream is my dream," Hinata said, kicking down with her spare foot. Konan's other hand came up, blocking it with her elbow, and then they were deadlocked again.

"Ah," the woman said, and this time Sakura knew that she sounded sad; or disappointed. "You love him."

Her left eye distended, the distinctive shape of a paper senbon pushing out of the pupil. It fired down at Hinata's suddenly blushing face, and she jerked her head back, neatly avoiding it, but moving her center of gravity backwards an inch too far.

Sakura barely managed to follow what happened. One second, Hinata was balanced on one hand, pushing against Konan, the Lions Fist on her right foot snapping at the woman's face, and the next, Konan pushed and the Hyuuga slammed to the ground, bouncing with a wet gasp, with a kunai stuck in her leg and a long cut along the length of her cheek.

Hinata didn't stay down, rolling to the side, her hands relighting with that distinct, terrifying slicing chakra.

It didn't stop Konan from moving to her side in an instant and slapping a tag down on the nape of her neck. Hinata froze, even before Konan said, "Don't move," in a voice that made glaciers seem positively tropical. Her Byakugan could see exactly what was touching the back of her head.

Sakura swore, trying and failing once more to push herself to her feet. Everything seemed too light: she'd lost too much blood, and Katsuyu wasn't replacing it fast enough.

While Sakura thought up more and more inventive curses and wasted more and more blood trying to bring herself to her feet, Konan stared down at Hinata, knowing she could see her perfectly well with her doujutsu.

"I wonder," she said. "Why do you love this boy? A Jinchūriki… it's certainly unusual."

Hinata fearlessly turned her head, glaring up at the woman above her with pale, straining eyes. "Do you really want to know?" she asked, somehow managing to inject both a customary politeness and a threat of certain death into her tone simultaneously.

Konan cocked her head. "Of course." She sounded completely sincere.

Hinata narrowed her eyes. "I love him because he's kind, and because he spent his whole life fighting the village's best efforts to ignore him." Konan stood up, keeping watch on her while she continued talking. "I love him because he can't eat his ramen without spilling a noodle down his collar, and he's loud, and he's stubborn!"

She shook her head, fighting a smile, before her countenance shifted back to something more deadly. "Because he has a dream to make sure people like you never hurt anyone else ever again, and he's never going to give it up."

Konan didn't look away, but her brow creased. She bent down, bringing herself close to Hinata.

"Let me tell you something funny, Hyuuga," she said, and Hinata shifted, unable to figure out exactly what Konan's tone held. Sakura watched, her vision blurring.

"I loved a boy too, once," Konan said seriously. Hinata didn't dare interrupt her: partly because there was an explosive tag attached to her neck, and partly because a dreadful curiosity was filling her chest, weighing her down.

So, when Konan kept talking, Hinata listened.

"He was sweet, and smart, and naïve, and incredibly, so incredibly stubborn, that I couldn't help but smile every time he opened his mouth. When the world beat him down, he swore that he would become its god. That it wouldn't be able to ignore him any longer. That he would change it forever, and ensure that no one ever hurt anyone like he had been hurt." Konan's mouth twisted up into a distinct not-smile.

"He was my best friend; I wish he had been more." She looked away; off towards a horizon only she could see, before refocusing on Hinata. "Do you know what happened to him, Hyuuga?"

Hinata's mouth was dry: her leg felt heavy, the kunai in it cold.

There was a crack of thunder in the sky, distant and muffled, but thunder nonetheless. An immeasurably light drizzle began to fall, the barest hint of rain.

Both of these things nearly managed to drown out Hinata's tremulous, hesitant, "What?"

"He died, of course," Konan said matter-of-factly. Hinata flinched. Konan continued mercilessly. "He killed himself, hoping that it would buy Nagato and me safety." The not-smile returned. "I suppose it did, in a way."

"That's horrible," Hinata whispered.

"It is, isn't it?" Konan said calmly.

She crouched down. "Do you see now why I'm doing this? Why I must stay by Nagato as he realizes his dream? There must be no more like me."

"But he's wrong," Hinata said desperately. "Killing more people isn't the answer. Naruto wants the same thing he does! He wants-"

"Peace, right?" Konan chuckled. It was a wonderful sound, but Hinata couldn't help but shiver at it. "But how will he achieve it? How will he combat the endless hatred that this world has built up?"

Hinata hesitated. "I don't know."

"And there is the difference between them," Konan said. "Naruto and Nagato may share a dream, but Nagato has a plan: all Naruto has is an ambition, with no experience with reality to drive it forward."

"That doesn't make him wrong!" Hinata shouted. She was past caring about the explosive on her neck.

"Perhaps," Konan shrugged. "But given the choice between a plan and an ambition, I'll pick the plan any day." She stood back up. "This has been interesting…" She paused. "What is your name?"

"Hinata."

"Hinata." Konan rolled the name on her tongue. "That's a nice name." She brought her hands together, into a simple kai sign. "This has been an interesting conversation, Hinata," she said. "Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll be coming to an agreement anytime soon, and I can't let you help your Jinchūriki."

The rain began to pick up.

Sakura screamed as she slipped in her own blood, unable to rise and trying to find something, a kunai, a rock, anything, to attack the paper woman with.

"Don't you fucking dare!" she roared, her voice breaking. Her face was too pale. "Hinata! Don't let her! Do something!"

Hinata's eyes went wide. She flung forward a hand glowing with deadly chakra. She wasn't nearly fast enough. There was no way she'd reach in time.

Konan smiled sadly.

"Goodbye."

Chapter Text

Gauntlet

Konan froze.

Completely and totally. The blue-haired woman became a statue, standing with its hands clasped, her back straight, her Akatsuki cloak fluttering in the light breeze brought by the now pattering rain. Only her eyes stayed alive, darting down towards Hinata, and then to Sakura in her peripheral vision, who had somehow managed to make it to one knee, though she was swaying horribly.

"What?" she said, somewhere between surprised and confused.

"Jeez."

The languid voice came from a nearby roof, and every single woman in street craned her head towards it. Well, Sakura and Hinata did: Konan just jittered slightly.

"That was way too close… pretty troublesome."

"That's all you have to say?! Hinata's head almost gets blown off, and all you got it 'troublesome'?!"

Despite her exhaustion, Sakura didn't think she'd ever smiled as brightly as she did right then. She'd never have imagined being so happy to hear Ino's voice.

Shikamaru shrugged. "It didn't, though. So… troublesome."

Ino's frustrated grunt was music to Sakura's ears. She finished lifting her head, and found her blonde friend standing on a balcony railing about three stories up: the Yamanaka stood with her arms crossed, staring down at Sakura. Her face was a bit pale, and there was a thick stream of dried blood running from her nose, but she looked fine besides that: definitely in much better shape than Sakura herself.

Shikamaru was next to her, his hands clasped identically to Konan's. A stretch of darkness, a shadow barely visible in the dimness of the street around it, extended from his feet down to Konan's.

"Holy shit Forehead. What happened to you?" Ino tried to sound boisterous, but her voice shook just a little too much to pull it off.

Sakura looked down at her blood-soaked tunic and shrugged. "Looks worse than it is. You know," she wheezed. "Papercuts."

Ino broke into a choked laugh. "You need some help?"

Sakura pulled her other foot under her, catching a glimpse of Katsuyu clinging to her hand. "Yeah, that'd be... great." She tucked her head in, addressing the slug on her palm. "Why didn't you tell me they were coming?" she whispered.

"I didn't want to risk you alerting your opponent," Katsuyu said. "I hope you'll forgive me, Sakura, but-"

"Yeah," Sakura said carefully. "I probably would have done something stupid if I knew help was coming. Thanks, Katsuyu."

Slugs couldn't blush, but Katsuyu did her best anyway.

Ino jumped down, right in front of Sakura. Hinata was slowly getting up, pulling the tag from the back of her neck. "What do you need?" the blonde asked, concern leaking into her voice despite her best efforts.

Sakura winced, the world spinning as she finally stood up. "Erg… blood." The world flipped over for a second, and Sakura's legs suddenly felt hollow. She only stayed on her feet by anchoring herself to the ground with her chakra. "Yeah. Definitely blood. You have any soldier pills?"

Ino nodded, reaching into her pouch and tossing Sakura a small, dark blue orb. The pink-haired girl almost fumbled the catch before stuffing the thing in her mouth, swallowing without ceremony.

She screwed up her face. "Tastes terrible."

But it had worked, because the world stopped spinning, and she could feel her legs again.

Ino laughed in relief. "Yeah."

Chōji joined them, cracking the street slightly as Hinata limped over, followed shortly by Sai, who landed without a sound. The airborne insertion team was reunited.

"So," Sakura said, as she turned to Hinata and bright green chakra sparked in her hands. "What now?"

Shikamaru, still up on the balcony, groaned, a drop of sweat running down his temple. "Decide quick," he said shortly. "I'm not going to be able to keep this up."

"We gotta kill her," Ino said, unsheathing a kunai and striding towards Konan. The woman's eyes focused on her fearlessly. "My Shintenshin didn't work on her: she just dumped me in one of those clones of hers. There's no way we'll get anything out of her that way."

"Maybe we could ask her?" Hinata said, her leg slightly extended towards Sakura, who was sealing the kunai wound there.

Ino stared at her. "Ask her?"

"It seems unlikely she would respond to our questions," Sai said. "Even if she is not sealed to secrecy-"

"I'm not," Konan suddenly spoke up. The Konoha shinobi turned to look at her. "But you won't be getting anything out of me."

Sai stepped forward, in front of Ino. "In that case, I will-"

"Don't be so hasty," a rumbling voice said, coming from all around the street.

Each of the ninja dropped into a ready position. Shikamaru just sweated harder: Konan had begun resisting even more viciously at the sound of the voice.

Something pure black pulled itself from the street, slapping its hands down on the concrete. It glared at them all with a single malicious yellow eye, its mouth open and revealing a grin full of eerily square teeth.

"And don't think it will be so easy," the black thing said. "You're not done yet."

Sai and Chōji rushed forward, Sakura behind them, and Hinata fell back towards Shikamaru. Ino sprinted at Konan, her kunai gleaming.

The black thing reared up, firing something wooden at Shikamaru, and then sunk back into the ground, disappearing from view right as Chōji's palm slammed down on top of him.

The Nara cursed, leaping off the balcony towards Hinata, keeping his hands together and the Kagemane in place. Ino was only a couple steps from Konan, who continued to watch her with unblinking amber eyes.

If he released the shadow jutsu, Konan would be back in the fight, and that wouldn't be good for any of them.

Which was why when Black Zetsu squirmed out of the wall on the other side of the street and fired another couple things that could only be described as wooden spears at him, Shikamaru said something that would have made his mother lock him in his room for a week, chūnin duties be damned, and his father approach him later in the day and ask him to "Please teach me how to come up with something like that".

Shikamaru unclasped his hands, drawing two kunai and deflecting the spears.

The street exploded into a storm of paper. Ino shrieked, Sakura shouted, Chōji grunted, and Sai silently began slashing at any sheet that drew close to him.

Zetsu just laughed harshly, sinking back into the building as Shikamaru watched intently through the flurries of paper, and the fight began again.

###

The street was pockmarked with craters, and so were the buildings lining it. Patches of dark blood were splattered about: discarded metal rods, eerily black, littered the cracked and crumbling concrete. There were no roaring summons, or whining Rasengan. Everything was completely silent, but for the light patter of rain and the distant, muted crack of thunder. There wasn't a hint of movement.

But that didn't mean it was abandoned.

"Naruto."

"Hmm?"

"He's coming back."

Naruto opened his eyes, the pupil horizontal once more. There was a small cut just below his eye, running along his cheek, but it was closing with unnatural speed.

"I know. I can feel him."

He tilted his head towards the slug on his shoulder. "You should go: meet back up with the other you."

"Of course," Katsuyu murmured, and then she slipped away.

Naruto took a deep breath, centering himself, and spread his consciousness out once more. He shifted his crossed legs. Sitting on a pile of bodies wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was the easiest way to ensure that Pain would have to come to him.

Amegakure sprawled out around him, cold and dead. The rain had started coming down again, but this rain was different from the thick, chilling stuff that had greeted his friends and him. It was light, and tasted mildly chemical, but it wasn't as heavy as the first stuff had been, and for that Naruto was glad.

He focused, his brow twitching, and pushed against the freezing chakra all around him. It barely gave: it was like struggling against the inside of an unbreakable plastic bag. He could force the cold back, feel a bit beyond the confines of Pain's chakra, but it wasn't nearly enough to find Sasuke.

But it was enough to feel Pain coming. Him, and the medic Path. They were both headed this way.

Naruto sighed and clambered to his feet, stepping on the Human Path's face as he did. The pile of bodies shifted at the change in his weight, and he hopped off of it, landing soundlessly. The rain began to pick up.

"So, what're you gonna do now?" he said, directing the question at nothing in particular, but knowing Pain would hear him. He gestured at the heap of 'dead' Paths behind him. "You want these guys back, right?"

The equally dead city didn't answer. Naruto crossed his arms, frowning.

"Did you think about what I told you?" he asked. "Are you afraid I might be right?"

Still no answer. Naruto tapped a foot.

"'Cause I mean, I got a little time to think after I killed all of… you? I guess? And I mean, that's really why you're doing all this, right? Why you did all you have?" He slowly reached up and scratched the back of his head, his frown intensifying.

"Because you're afraid."

The silence was an answer all its own.

"I don't even really know what you're afraid of, honestly. But I think I can guess."

Naruto uncrossed his arms. "Something happened. Pervy Sage told me about you guys, about how he had three students from the Land of Rain. Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato, a kid with the Rinnegan." The blond shifted from one foot to the other, building up into a pacing motion. "He told me how you guys were all best friends, and how when he left, he was sure that you'd end up changing this place for the better."

Naruto's pacing picked up. "But then, he heard that you died. All of you. And he was sure that it had all been for nothing…"

The pacing stopped. One of Naruto's fists clenched.

"But you're not. Well," he amended, "Yahiko is. You're wearing his body: Jiraiya-sensei says its 'cause you always wanted him to be in charge." Naruto let out a strangled laugh. "Makes sense, I guess."

"But now, you guys might as well be as dead as him. Because you've changed. You're scared of something… I think you're scared of whatever killed Yahiko. And you're letting that fear make you do things you're gonna regret."

"And what would you know about something like that?"

Naruto stiffened, and then carefully shrugged. Pain's voice was seemingly coming from every direction, and unlike before, he sounded unmistakably angry.

"It's not me, mostly," he said. "A lot of this is Pervy Sage. We've been talking, you know? He doesn't… he doesn't get why-"

"And he never will."

Yahiko's body stepped out from a nearby alley, and Naruto quickly turned towards it. Pain's fists were clenched, and his eyes narrowed. His spiky orange hair was being pushed down by the steadily escalating rain.

"Men like Jiraiya," the man hissed, "who consign themselves to live in a fantasy where their actions can have meaning, where they can delude themselves into having a purpose and not wasting both their time and others chasing impossible dreams…" He paused, and his hands relaxed. His voice gained a clarity it hadn't had before. "They are a waste."

Naruto glared, but he didn't charge. The cold had pushed in: Pain's chakra had grown more intense, keeping his senses from even going beyond the street, and until he knew where the Medic Path was he couldn't afford to leave the bodies of the other Paths unguarded.

"You know you're wrong," he said, gritting his teeth. "If people like our sensei really were pointless, then you never would have gone after the messed-up version of his dream. You would have just laid down and died."

Pain stared at him, eyes flat. Naruto took a step forward.

"C'mon," he said. "This is pointless. What we're doing right now. Even if… even if…"

Naruto snapped, his canines elongating slightly, and a flash of red shot through his golden eyes. "Even if one of us wins this fight, we're both going to lose anyway! We want the same thing! Why won't you just help me? Help us?! The world's already changing! People are fighting to keep their comrades, their friends, safe! It's not just about being selfish, or the village! And with you and Pervy Sage and me-"

"We could do what?" Pain shot back, taking a step of his own. The rain pounded down, the sound rippling across the city. Distant thunder boomed, but neither Naruto nor Pain noticed it. "Spread understanding?" He shook his head viciously. "The central conceit of your fantasy is that you believe people want to change. That they recognize they are leading themselves down a path that can only end in their death."

His hands curled into fists, and he took another step forward, his voice rising. "But humans! Are! Fools! They must be shown this, and there is only one language that everyone in this cursed world speaks!"

"Fear."

"That's bullshit!" Naruto roared. Pain raised his hand, and Naruto glared back fearlessly, a snarl curling his lip. "You say I'm living in a fantasy? There's more to the world than people being scared! If that were true, would I even be here?!"

"Of course," Pain said calmly. "You're afraid of losing your friend, aren't you, Naruto?"

"Of course I am!" Naruto shouted back. "But that's not the only reason! I'm here because I can't just let people like you walk all over everyone else! Just because you think you're right, doesn't mean you should be allowed to force everyone to think like you!"

"You mean like you're trying to make me think like you?" Pain asked, his mouth curling in amusement.

Naruto bared his teeth, and gave in. He sprinted forward, one hand drawn back for a haymaker.

Pain didn't even flinch. He just spoke, his stance cruel, and his voice bearing final judgement.

"Banshō Ten'in."

The force picked Naruto up and slammed him into the street, hard. He slid along the ground, digging a furrow in the concrete, and came to rest right in front of Pain. The orange-haired man promptly stomped down on top of his head, driving him further into the ground and keeping him pinned as cracks shot out around him.

"It is not something you can fight," the man said, stomping down again. "It is not something you can defeat. It is not something to be understood."

Pain stepped back, and Naruto raised his head, his face bloody. "Fear is a decree. Of what you can do, or must do. It is that simple."

He stood over Naruto, glaring down at him with gleaming eyes. "Do you understand, Kyuubi? Or are you so blinded by our master's delusions that you'll fight me to the bitter end?"

Naruto stared at him in silence for a moment, his eyes wide. He glanced down at the ground. A smile pulled itself across his face.

He looked back up at Pain, the rain washing away some of the blood from his face.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said.

"Of course I'm going to fight."

He dispelled in a puff of smoke.

###

A shadow clone.

Why was it always a shadow clone? Did the boy not know any other jutsu?

Pain made a noise somewhere between a growl and a sigh, and looked over at the pile of dead Paths Naruto had collected. Wordlessly, the Naraka Path appeared at his side, her hair matting itself in the steady rain, and strode forward, beginning the resurrection process.

He needed to hurry. If the Jinchūriki had placed this clone here as bait with the bodies of the Paths, then he was doubtlessly planning an ambush… or perhaps even springing it at the moment. And with only the Deva and Naraka Paths combat capable, Pain was more vulnerable than he would like to admit.

There was another crack of thunder, and the Animal Path rose to her feet, the hole in her chest melting away, and her cheek shifting back into its proper shape with a grotesque crunch. Two more Paths followed her: the Human and Asura. The Preta remained low, the Naraka bent over it.

There was another crack.

And then another. And another.

It wasn't thunder this time.

What was…

Pain turned, his mouth falling into a frown, and then he froze. He stared up into the sky, the Rinnegan widening. The other Paths turned with him, and as the Preta Path hauled himself to his feet, the entirety of the Six Paths of Pain gazed up at Amegakure's skyline, their normally unflappable composure slipping.

Another cracking sound. The sound wasn't the sky venting its fury.

One of Amegakure's towers was tipping.

It was a slow thing, barely noticeable at first. It reminded Pain of Yahiko, slowly leaning to the side, looking completely ordinary until he had reached the point of no return. Until the knife in his heart had proved too much, and he'd fallen like a stone off a cliff.

Just like the tower was now. Something was billowing up from the base: dust, and lots of it. The foundations had been vaporized.

Clones. The boy's damnable clones. He'd sent them out with that equally damned Rasengan of his. Big ones, judging by the necessary damage to bring those skyscrapers down. Pain's hand curled into a fist. The tower was tipping towards him.

He could dodge. Maybe. There was still time to move out of the impact zone, though the damage to the village would be-

There was another, deafening crack, echoing across the whole village. Three Paths snapped their gaze to the right. Across a bank of apartments, another tower was falling.

Pain gritted his teeth.

Another crack. And another tower with it, this time behind him, looming over a once bustling marketplace. Three towers, each nearly sixty meters tall, each about forty meters away, all falling towards him from different directions. Forming a rough triangle, in fact.

Two Paths watched a tower each. All of them had the same thoughtful expression on their face.

Pain considered the situation, as the towers leaned farther and farther down, drawing ever closer to the inevitable collapse. The roar of what remained of their foundations tearing themselves apart grew more and more monstrous, echoing across the sky, mixing in with the closing thunder. As far as ambushes went, it was certainly a well thought out one. If all three hit, the rubble raining down would prove troublesome even for him.

How many could he stop? One? Maybe two, if he were fast enough. But then the village would be in danger, and not just him. No. It would be best to just protect himself, and hope the damage didn't spread itself too dramatically.

The Paths rushed to his side, and Pain closed his eyes. He took a relaxed breath, and raised both of his hands towards the sky.

There was a final, deafening crack, and the towers began plummeting in earnest.

Pain opened his eyes, and grimaced.

"It was a good attempt, Naruto," he muttered, as the skyscrapers grew ever closer. The sound of thousands and thousands of pounds of air being pushed to the side subtly overwhelmed his senses, and a shadow blacker than the night preceding it drew across the Paths of Pain.

The man that had been Yahiko shifted a foot back, his fingers tensing.

"But it's not enough."

The towers were seconds from impact.

"SHINRA TENSEI."

###

"Hinata?" Ino glanced at her friend, breathing heavily and wiping a stream of blood from her forehead. The Hyuuga was staring off into the distance, her eyes straining, her mouth slowly sliding open. "What is it?"

Hinata turned, and her voice shook. "I can't r-really see… but I think-"

A sound that defied classification exploded across the village, so loud that for a second Ino thought she might never hear again, or that she had imagined the concept of 'hearing' in the first place. It was a roar and a crack and a shattering and a boom and everything in-between.

Every unbroken window on the street shattered simultaneously, a high, sharp sound which paled in comparison to the one that had preceded it, raining glittering shards of glass down on the concrete. The ground shook, cracks snaking along the street, and bits of roofing tumbled from all around, breaking into more and more rubble on impact.

Every combatant paused, looking around in confusion. The ground rumbled, and Sakura stumbled to the side: Sai caught her by the arm. Zetsu slunk away into the ground in the moment of distraction, his eye gleaming bright yellow for a second before vanishing.

Konan glanced away from the Shikamaru and Chōji, up into the sky.

"What…" she murmured, before sprouting wings and flitting upwards in an instant. Ino couldn't see what she saw, but she could see the woman's mouth fall open in surprise.

And she could hear the shocked whisper.

"Nagato?"

###

"The fuck was that?"

Kiba looked around, holding one hand up against his ear, and carefully took a step forward.

Behind him, the exit from Amegakure's underworld collapsed with a sizable din. The sound seemed pathetic compared to what had come before, but it was still loud and sudden. The Inuzuka flinched.

No one answered him. Tenten and Lee looked to Neji: Shino just stared up into the night sky. There was a subtle buzzing noise filling the air around him. Akamaru just barked quietly, his tail hung low, and shook his head.

Neji himself glared off into the distance, his Byakugan straining. He was frowning harder than Kiba had ever seen. Kiba didn't care.

"No, seriously," he said, drawing level with Neji. Tenten carefully inched away from him: he still smelled like a dozen years of waste. "What the hell was that?"

Neji cleared his throat.

"I can't see well enough to be sure… but it seems," he said, trying to sound unruffled and doing a poor job of it, "that Naruto has done something rather rash."

###

"Should we be worried?"

The man shifted the hunk of bandages hung over his shoulder, glaring out into the rain.

His partner slowly pulled back, his hand drawing away from the doorframe.

"Whatever it was, it's over now," he said calmly.

He turned and strode off. "Come: we're running out of time."

Three followed after him, and the house was dead again, with nothing but the tinkling of glass filling its narrow halls.

###

The world had become nothing but furious sound and choking smoke. Visibility was a dream of the past: the sound of rumbling debris and crumbling concrete ruled the night. Rain, the one thing that would haunt Ame even when everything else was gone, pattered down, cutting tracks in the drifting clouds of dust.

Pain blinked. The particles were no issue to the Rinnegan, but it was still uncomfortable. The blood running down his forehead was also rather irritating. He brought a hand up, curiously wiping it across the top of his head. He had been tagged by a chunk of concrete, apparently, and the head wound was bleeding freely.

He looked around, and suppressed a shrug. Considering the scale of the destruction, a cut on the scalp wasn't much to worry about.

There wasn't much to see, but that spoke more than the devastation would have anyway. Several of the Paths were pulling themselves from beneath slabs of concrete: the Preta Path was sporting a broken arm, the worst injury, while the rest were merely scuffed and bruised.

Pain frowned. That ambush had utterly flattened the center of the village. His jutsu had saved himself and the rest of the Paths from any major damage, but all around them, for six or seven hundred meters, buildings had been torn down, streets ripped apart, glass broken beyond repair, underground pathways pulled to the surface by the tremors produced by the towers.

He could feel it, even if the dust and rubble kept him from seeing the whole of the wreckage. His chakra still filled the village, and every aspect of the desecration was perfectly clear to him. The heart of Amegakure had been reduced to so much piled concrete, smoke, and ashes.

The frown deepened.

'He will pay for this.'

Pain glanced around, considering.

Had this been it? And impressive effort, of course, but it was missing something. Had Naruto really believed that he could have been laid low by a couple of collapsing buildings? Was the boy really that deluded? No. He was naive, but he wasn't stupid. There was something more to this.

But what could possibly follow up something so destructive-?

Pain, and the Paths alongside him, froze. There was something filling the air.

It wasn't the rumbling of the distant thunder, or the creaking of the shifting rubble, or the occasionally shattering glass. It was completely unnatural, unlike anything in the world. And it was getting louder.

A high-pitched, painful, horrendously ominous keening.

Pain shifted, and the Paths spread out. Whatever that noise was, it couldn't be good. They all scanned the dust. The sound refused to come from any one direction: it seemed to be approaching from everywhere.

And then, the obstructing clouds of powdered concrete and pulped wood burst aside, and someone orange and red careened out of them, traveling at something approaching the speed of sound. An oversized shuriken composed of blinding white chakra spun with unbelievable speed in their hand, vaporizing raindrops that struck it, and the air screamed at its passing.

The Rinnegan went wide, and Naruto Uzumaki's canines flashed in the light of his jutsu. Pain reached to the Path to the right of him: the Preta. His hand clamped down on his arm.

Naruto's arm drew back, and his mouth opened wide.

"Fūton!" he snarled, flinging his arm forward, and sending the keening chakra on its way.

"Rasenshuriken!"

The blinding shuriken flew.

The Heavenly Push was out of the question: after saving himself from the falling towers, Pain wouldn't be utilizing that particular ability for at least a minute.

So instead of raising his hand and blowing both the boy and his shuriken away, Pain turned and heaved, and the Preta Path flew up to intercept both.

Naruto's eyes widened, but it was too late: the shuriken flew faster than him, cutting a path through the rain, and right into the Preta's outstretched hand. A blue glow sprung into existence, and the keening dimmed, the jutsu draining away. In a moment, it was gone.

The blond fell forward, striking the Preta Path out of the sky with an airborne haymaker, and then Pain surged forward and launched a straight kick directly into his face.

And Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.

Pain actually grunted in frustration. Shadow clones, always shadow-

He froze, his leg remaining up in the air. The Preta Path hit the ground and bounced on the slick rubble, its other arm breaking.

And the keening returned.

Pain didn't spin. He could see through the other Path's eyes. And so he saw with perfect clarity as another Naruto, the real one this time, he was sure, burst from the dust behind him, another Rasenshuriken screaming in his hand.

Tricked. Tricked. A decoy after a decoy. The towers falling, the first distraction, only to obscure and possibly slow him down. The armed clone, the second, with a higher chance of succeeding at actually harming him, but still intended to divide his attention.

And now, all the Paths with a chance of interrupting the Rasenshuriken were occupied, or out of position, with another bearing down on them.

Pain didn't make a noise. Neither did Naruto. The Paths moved, and Naruto threw the second Rasenshuriken.

The keening grew unbearably louder, and then vanished.

There was a terrible silence, and then the world went white.

###

Naruto panted, pulling himself to his feet. He couldn't feel the natural energy thrumming through his body anymore. Those Rasenshuriken had completely drained him, and with the chakra he'd spent bringing those towers down, he was down to one clone gathering the stuff.

He puffed out a breath. Without Sage Mode, Amegakure became even more muddled. His sensing was gone.

But so was the dust and debris. Naruto looked around, propping his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths, feeling the rain pound on his back. Katsuyu seemed to be enjoying it. He couldn't see Pain or any of his Paths anywhere.

Where the orange-haired group had stood, there was a perfect, spherical depression cut out of the mountain of rubble. There was a puddle slowly forming at the bottom. The Rasenshuriken had completely vaporized everything caught in its field of effect: the explosion of wind chakra had shredded the pile of concrete, rebar, wood, and anything else in it at the molecular level.

Naruto unconsciously rubbed his right arm, remembering a mind-numbing burning, before shaking his head and taking an unsteady step forward.

Could he really have taken out Pain in that one hit? Had he gotten all of them? It seemed too good to be true.

Naruto pulled himself up, and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Oi! Nagato!" he shouted. "You there?"

He listened. Thunder made itself known in the distance, and the omnipresent rain still pattered down, uncaring of the destruction, but there was no response.

"What, really?" Naruto asked no-one in particular. "That was it?"

For a second, it seemed like it had been.

But then-

"Of course not."

Naruto sighed, shuffling to face his left, where the voice had emerged from.

"Thought so." His voice was ragged, but there was undeniable humor in it.

Pain strode into view, cresting a pile of rubble twice as tall as Naruto. He stared down at the blond, one of his eyes twitching. The other Paths moved in behind him… sans one.

The summoner was nowhere to be seen.

And neither was Pain's left hand. Where it should have been, the arm abruptly ended, a neatly carved stump that slowly dripped dark, viscous blood. Pain didn't seem to care.

"Shit," Naruto chuckled tiredly, straightening up and evening out his breathing. "I didn't even get your medic. But where's the other lady, huh?"

Pain's arm twitched. His glare intensified. So did Naruto's smartass grin.

"I can't help but feel you're not taking this seriously, Naruto," the pale man said calmly. The other Paths glared with him, but Naruto just grinned back.

"What, me?" he said, rubbing the back of his head. He paused. "... Maybe a little."

"Why?" Pain asked, something unidentifiable working its way into his voice. "I stole your friend, remember? I tried to kill our master." He cocked his head to the side. "I've tried to kill you. Your other friends are fighting for you right now. Why would you act so… foolishly?"

Naruto's mouth flattened at for a moment, and he took a step to the side. The Paths turned with him.

"It's, it's you, really," he finally said, struggling to elucidate the words in between his brain and his mouth.

"Oh?"

"It's just…" Naruto swept his hand to the side. "You and me, we could have swapped places easily. This fight, what we've been saying." He smiled grimly. "We both want the same thing, right? We're just trying to get it different ways, 'cause of what's happened to us, y'know?"

He took a step forward, pointing up at Pain. "And all that, it makes me think…" He shook his head. "No. I know that I can change your mind. You said I only changed Gaara because he and I were the same? Well, so are you and me!"

All of the Paths blinked simultaneously, and glanced at each other.

"You think you can change me?" Pain said incredulously. He took a step forward, and his voice lowered. "You want to change me?"

Naruto nodded. "You're gonna call me a fool, right?"

"No." Pain shook his head. "I believe the term idiot is now more appropriate."

Naruto shrugged. "If you want to think that, sure," he said. He put a fist to his chest. "But we've been fighting for a while now. I know you."

Pain stared at him, and Naruto stared back. The man didn't look away for nearly ten seconds, and neither did Naruto.

But it was the blond whose brow furrowed in concern, and not Pain's.

"You really think you can come to understand me?" the man finally said, barely whispering. Naruto had to strain to hear him over the now pounding rain. "You think that if you understand my pain, my fear, you will be able to change my mind?"

The Jinchūriki wordlessly nodded, his eyes narrowing.

Pain took a deep breath, and the other Paths all turned, presenting their backs to Naruto.

"Very well, then," he said coldly, and the other orange-haired men and women took off into the night, disappearing amongst the rubble in an instant. Naruto watched them go, his face falling in confusion. Pain waited till they were gone, and then spoke again.

"If that's your intent, let me help you as best I can, fellow student."

Naruto blinked, and took a faltering step forward. "What're you…"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Pain asked rhetorically, folding his arms. "I'm helping you understand my pain."

Naruto frowned, something stabbing him in the back of the mind with the urgency of a shining sword. "Then where are they-"

"To your friends, of course."

The words physically struck Naruto, and he nearly stumbled to his knees, a flash of red across his eyes leaving him staggering and panting.

"What?!" he shouted, staring up at the man above him, who simply regarded him coolly, his arms still crossed. "You can't! Why would you-"

"I lost everything," Pain said, staring down at him, the Rinnegan gleaming. "It is why I am here today: why I had the truth of this cursed world revealed to me." He smiled mirthlessly. "My friends, my family, my brother, my teacher's dream, all ripped away, or revealed as nothing but naive lies."

"So, Naruto Uzumaki, please. Let me help you. When the same has happened to you..." Pain's eyes flashed, a distant crack of thunder and its accompanying lightning playing across the devastated ruins he and Naruto stood amongst. "Surely you will understand me?"

Naruto clenched his fists, his canines biting into his lower lip. "Stay away from them."

Pain didn't say anything, just watching him with cold eyes.

Naruto snapped, launching himself up at the man, a slight red aura playing around him. "I said stay away-"

Pain kicked him in the face.

Naruto saw it coming: he just didn't have a hope of dodging it. As Naruto hit the concrete and painfully bounced, he realized the difference between fighting Pain with Sage Mode, and without.

Natural energy had given him sensory abilities, a kata based around taking advantage of them, increased reflexes, durability, and it had made him faster and stronger, in every way. Fast enough to be slightly quicker than any of the Paths with (the exception of the bald bastard), and strong enough to bring them down in one or two well placed hits.

But now, Pain was fast. Far faster than him. And he was strong.

Naruto spat up blood, feeling his face burning. His tongue felt like it was swelling up. He staggered to his feet, ignoring the pain. He'd had far worse, and right now, it barely mattered.

"Nagato," he growled. "Don't do this."

"Don't presume," Pain said, hopping down from the pile of rubble, "to understand me. And don't presume you'll be able to 'change my mind.'" He clenched his remaining hand. "I will show you my pain, whether you want it or not."

Naruto glared at him, hunched over, his mouth dripping blood. Pain stood tall, staring back imperiously.

"Fine," the blond said. "I'm ending this, then."

He blinked purposefully, and his final clone, a couple kilometers away, popped with a sound that was utterly drowned out by the thunderstorm gathering around it.

Ten minutes of Sage Mode. More than enough to bring down Pain, and stop the other Paths before they could make it to his friends. Naruto charged, drawing a fist back. He didn't bother making any clones: he wouldn't need them for just Pain.

And then the man brought his stump up, the bleeding having mostly stopped. Naruto's golden eyes went wide, and he shouted, frustration and fear boiling off his voice.

"No!"

Amegakure's god didn't care.

"Shinra Tensei."

Naruto hit the ground, bounced twice, skidded. His coat tore itself off, the ruin he had subjected it to finally loosening it. He got up, ignoring the missing clothing, and charged again, yelling incoherently.

"Shinra Tensei."

That time, he bounced thrice. The sage rolled to his feet and charged again, drawing three kunai and throwing them viciously at Pain's face and gut. The man leaned his head to the side, one knife ruffling his hair, and caught another with his remaining hand, unflinchingly allowing the last knife to bury itself in his arm. His stump remained extended the whole time, still pointed at Naruto.

Naruto drew back for a punch.

"Shinra Tensei."

Naruto didn't bounce that time. He flipped, hit the ground, and stopped cold, the impact ruthlessly knocking the air out of him. It didn't stop him from yanking himself to his feet and putting his hand together in a familiar, simple sign.

"Clones won't help you, Naruto," Pain said, his voice smooth.

Naruto didn't give a damn.

"Kage Bunshin!"

Three clones appeared at his side in a puff of smoke. Pain watched them carefully. One charged, his teeth bared. The other two extended their hands, placing them over Naruto's outstretched palms. Rasengan swirled into existence, their humming achingly familiar.

Pain didn't move. The clone was six feet away. The other two shifted their hands to grip Naruto arms, and took a half step forward, heaving their creator straight forward, his Rasengan extended in front of him.

"I won't let you!" he shouted.

One second until the Shinra Tensei could be used again.

The clone dove forward into a tackle, with Naruto right above and behind him. Pain moved.

His foot swept out, tangling into the clones and punting him into the original's path. It bent around the Rasengan, curling in the air, and made it over, managing to avoid an unlucky death. Naruto continued forward, his eyes locked on Pain.

The god leapt backwards into a handspring, twisting his entire body in the air, avoiding the closing Rasengan by the barest of inches. Bits of his cloak were chewed apart: both glowing orbs were left right in front of his face, still moving forward.

Until Pain twisted, his foot coming out from under him, and kicked Naruto in the stomach as hard as he could.

All the blond's air left him in a moment, and his arms faltered, the Rasengan shining a bit less brightly. Pain pushed, kicking up in the same motion, and sent Naruto flying straight up. Then, he somersaulted to his feet, his hands pushed into the sky.

"Shinra. Tensei," he pronounced, and the Heavenly Push sent Naruto so high so quickly that what little air he had left vanished from his lungs, and he tasted the cold dampness of the storm clouds overhead as the world returned to the familiar, rushing, wet darkness that it had been upon his entrance to Amegakure.

And then, there came a moment of clarity, an eye in the storm at the apex of his flight.

Wind rushed around him, rustling his clothes and stinging his eyes. Thunder boomed, much closer now than ever before. The scent of ozone filled the air: lightning, striking sporadically at the towers of the village below.

A moment of peace in the maelstrom, and Naruto couldn't help but think, suspended up there at the freezing tip of the world as the sky raged around him, and gravity began to reassert itself. He wondered where Sasuke was: what he was thinking. Naruto had been in Amegakure for almost half an hour, but he was no closer to finding his friend. Neither were his other friends, and with the other Paths after them...

He couldn't win here. He couldn't beat Pain, the Deva Path, by himself. His jutsu was too powerful to fight directly, and the streets offered too many opportunities for cover. He'd have to move the battle to the rooftops to stand a chance, but even then…

For now, his friends would be on their own.

Guilt, cold and slimy, wormed up into his chest and began to pull him back down towards earth, away from the thundering darkness. His fault. His fault they were here, and his fault Pain was going after them. Trying to prove something.

Trying to prove his pain over Naruto's beliefs.

The realization shot through him like one of the lightning bolts emerging from the clouds around him, and it made him tighten his fists, made him grit his teeth. Made his mind boil, made the seal on his stomach itch… and filled his heart with fire.

Pain was wrong. And to prove that...

Naruto Uzumaki turned, the apex of his brief flight passing, and plummeted towards the ground, his face set in fury, his hands balled at his sides. He cut through the rain, sliced through the clouds, and then, the village returned, the mass of rubble he'd turned part of it into.

Pain was down there, staring up, waiting for him to come back. Naruto knew it as surely as he knew Sasuke was out there, waiting. For him, or for someone else, but waiting nonetheless.

Naruto fell.

To prove Pain wrong, he'd have to win. It was the only way.

"Katsuyu!" he shouted. He felt the slug wiggling on his shoulder.

"Tell them he's coming!" he shouted, the wind tearing at his lips.

Naruto bared his teeth, the ground coming closer and closer.

"And tell them…"

Closer. The sound of the rain rushing by him drowned out everything else. He could barely hear himself.

Tell them what?

"Tell them…"

Naruto hit the ground, blasting away the rubble for meters around him and throwing up a cloud of smoke, less than ten meters from Pain. He rose from the hastily made clearing snarling, his legs aching, his hands burning, and his eyes focused on the cloaked man who watched him intensely. The words came to him, a spot of certainty in the chaos around him.

"Tell them I'll be there as soon as I can."

Pain held up his remaining hand, motioning Naruto forward.

Naruto grinned, his guilt melting away into something more manageable, and obliged. His friends would be fine.

He'd make sure of it.

Chapter Text

Family Drama

The darkness could not be breached. It flowed around Sasuke, smothering him. Juugo's steady breathing besides him stirred the void, but did nothing to dispel it.

Sitting in the darkness, his only companion a muffled cycle of inhale, exhale; Sasuke stared at nothing in particular. His eyes refused to penetrate the pitch around him: they still weren't ready. His bandage had slipped off, but they refused to open anyway, filled with the empty, black void.

The darkness asked him questions, and Sasuke did his best to answer.

Who was he?

Sasuke Uchiha, of course.

The darkness wasn't happy with that answer. It pressed in, denying him air. Juugo's breath was lost in its opaqueness. Sasuke was truly alone, abandoned in its crushing depths.

Who was he?

Sasuke Uchiha. Avenger.

The darkness laughed, its ebb and flow producing a sound too similar to a deep chuckle to be anything else, and asked a different question.

Are you, really?

Of course he was Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke of the cursed clan, Sasuke whose brother had maimed him, Sasuke who was alone in this tower with no one for company but an unconscious berserker and the storm outside.

He was Sasuke.

But are you an Avenger?

Sasuke couldn't answer that with the certainty he had the last one.

What was he avenging?

His family, slain by his brother.

His brother, who loved him. Who believed in him.

Did that matter? What did it matter if a murderer cared for him? Even if that murderer was his brother? His last family? Certainly Madara didn't count.

No. It didn't matter if the murderer was family. It didn't change the fact that he was the architect of his family's destruction.

And…

'I'll bring them back.'

Lies, or truth: it hardly mattered. Itachi had lied to him too.

The darkness spun bemusedly at that.

But were Itachi's lies so blatant?

Madara might not have been lying, though. Perhaps he could bring the Uchiha back. Then, Sasuke would have his clan returned to him.

Where would that place Itachi, then?

Outside, and for the best. He would have no place.

The darkness lay for a moment, before shifting.

Didn't he want his brother back?

Sasuke refused to answer that, no matter how the abyss prodded him. Eventually, it changed tact.

But you haven't answered the question, the darkness pointed out, and Sasuke stiffened.

Are you an Avenger?

A blind man in a tall cell, and a victim who couldn't bring himself to condemn his tormentor. If he was an Avenger, he was a pitiable one.

But if you're not an Avenger, what are you?

Sasuke considered that for a moment, before the answer pierced through the abyss in a moment of cold clarity

Sasuke Uchiha, and nothing else.

At that, the darkness shifted. A flare lit within, far and away from Sasuke. A depth charge, feebly illuminating the emptiness around it: a sputtering torch in the endless blackness of the abyss.

And nothing else, hm?

Nothing else, Sasuke confirmed. He was hollow now, without purpose. He couldn't bring himself to hate his brother, and so his revenge was denied him: but neither could he place his faith in his ancient ancestor. His promise was simply too good to be true. By all indications, it was a bribe to buy his loyalty, an easy oath that would never be fulfilled.

He might as well be dead. It would provide little change from this endless, interrogative darkness.

Would dying really be so bad? What had he lived for, before?

Killing Itachi. Completing his revenge. It always came back to revenge. It always had, ever since he'd laid eyes on his parents as they bled out on a familiar floor.

But he'd done it once already.

It hadn't helped.

Had the emptiness he'd felt in the Tsukuyomi been his own, or the illusions?

Sasuke wanted to think that it had been Itachi's. That his brother had been trying to trick him: to force him to manifest the Mangekyō that had been stolen. But that would be a lie.

So killing Itachi served no purpose anymore, even if Sasuke could bring himself to reignite the spark of hatred his brother's truths had smothered.

What could, though, after that? Killing Itachi had been Sasuke's reason for living for nearly a decade. If his brother hadn't delivered his challenge to him that night, Sasuke doubted he would be here today. This pointless darkness would have consumed him years ago.

So if that purpose was gone, what remained?

The flare pulsed again, and the darkness swirled towards it, staining itself pastel red… and orange.

'However much you want to avoid it… You belong here, Sasuke.'

Impossible. Completely impossible. Ridiculous, even.

Team Seven was dead. The first bond he'd made since the death of his family; he'd cut it apart himself. There was no going back to that.

'You could have killed him at the Valley of the End.'

He could have. He should have. Killing Naruto three years ago would have saved him some time. He wouldn't have had to put up with his moronic ramblings in the hospital, all those days ago.

Perhaps he even would have awakened the Mangekyō. Then, he could have defeated Itachi, instead of falling prey to his genjutsu, and kept his spark intact.

'But you didn't. And you won't.'

What did Sakura know? He hadn't killed Naruto because…

Why? Why hadn't he killed him? To spite Itachi? To spite the man he'd hated, the man he'd sworn to kill by any means necessary? That alone?

Yes. That alone. No other whim: Naruto had lived by his whim, and he could just as easily have died by it.

The darkness coiled, and Sasuke fell farther into it, spinning without an anchor.

'You can't leave us behind.'

It couldn't. It couldn't be that simple. It was insulting, that he would miss something so pathetically obvious.

And yet…

He was missing something. It scrabbled against his spine, digging into the grooves of his back. Sasuke leaned back into the solidity of the cold steel behind him, taking a ragged breath.

What could it be? What was he-

"Sasuke?"

He started: the darkness fled, slipping away into the cracks of his brain, and the world was left merely empty but for the sound of the rain outside and the inquisitive voice.

He turned to the side, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Karin?"

"It's me," she confirmed. There was a muffled snort, and Sasuke could practically hear her eyes rolling. "And Suigetsu is here too." She bent in closer: he felt her breath on his shoulder as she cut the ninja wire holding his arms at his sides. "Are you okay? What happened to your bandages?"

Sasuke would have blinked if his eyes had been open. "They fell off," he muttered, shifting and revealing that he'd been sitting on them. "Why are you here?" he continued, massaging his arms and trying to get some more blood flow into them.

Suigetsu snapped his fingers. "To save you, of course." Sasuke could imagine him flashing his teeth. "You didn't think we'd just leave you out to dry, did you?"

Sasuke just shrugged.

"We've got to hurry," she whispered, unmistakable worry in her voice. "He'll be here soon." She clenched her fingers: the knife she'd used to cut Sasuke wires clinked against something.

"Who?" Sasuke asked, slowly easing himself away from the wall. Karin arms snaked into his, and he allowed it to help him to his feet.

"Oro-" Suigetsu started saying.

"Me, of course." Another voice, sibilant and rasping, cut through Suigetsu's like a knife through silk, and Sasuke froze.

"You," he said coldly, not showing a hint of the discomfort he felt, and the chuckling faded.

"Oh Sasuke," the familiar voice rasped. "Could you really be so naïve as to believe you'd actually escaped me?"

###

"Nagato…"

"Listen to me, Konan." The bald man, his arms crossed and his ringed eyes gleaming, stared at the paper woman with cold eyes. "This is my fight now; return to me while I deal with them."

Konan hesitated. "As you wish," she finally said, and then she took to the skies, vanishing into Amegakure's black night.

The Path stared up after her, then lowered his head, staring Sakura in the eye.

"Where's Naruto?" she growled, shaking out one of her fists. Behind her, Sai readied his brush, and Chōji huffed, flexing his oversized arms. Shikamaru, standing up the wall of a nearby building, watched the confrontation with slit eyes, with Ino right below him, slumped against the wall and clutching her bleeding shoulder. Hinata stood behind the Path, her Byakugan active, and her hands raised.

"Busy," the Human Path replied, glancing around and taking in all the Konoha-nin.

"He's nowhere nearby," Hinata confirmed, just loudly enough for everyone to hear. "But more are coming. Three of them."

"I left him behind," the Path said, turning his head to her. Hinata stared back fearlessly.

"Why?" she asked.

"And why'd you send Konan away?" Sakura said shortly, her whole body shaking. She was realizing the import of the situation, and was already running on fumes as it was.

The Path sighed. "I came here to prove a point, and Konan will be unnecessary for that," he said ponderously, looking back at Sakura. "Naruto and I have had a disagreement. You six will be the deciders of our little argument."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Shikamaru asked, his hands wandering towards his kunai patch. The Path gazed up at him.

"Naruto insists that understanding can bridge any conflict. That people can comprehend each other without the kind of pain I would grant them." He snorted. "He's mistaken, of course, but he refuses to see that. So…"

He settled back, a black rod slipping from beneath his sleeve and falling into his right hand. "I'll prove my point to him. When you all lie dead at my feet, then he will surely understand my pain, and be forced to concede."

Sakura blinked. "You're crazy," she whispered.

"Everyone seems to say that," the Path muttered. And then he charged.

"Above!" Hinata shouted at the same time, and three orange-haired blurs exploded from nearby rooftops simultaneously, diving down into the street: one headed for Shikamaru and Ino, one for Hinata, and one for Hinata and Chōji.

The next few moments were very confusing.

Sakura met the Human Path's charge headlong, slamming aside the black rod it led with with a brutal backhand, before continuing the spin and trying to take its head off with a high right hook. The Path bent with the deflection, dropping low and sweeping Sakura's feet from below her in a single unbelievably quick motion. Sakura went down, hitting the pavement with a heavy thud, and the Path loomed over her, raising a foot to stomp down on her throat.

Before he could, Chōji hit him like a furious avalanche of meat, bowling the bald man over. Sakura scrambled to her feet, ready to follow after him, before the Asura Path came down in front of her, narrowly missing her scalp with an extended chainsword. The fat man grinned and rushed her, and Sakura screamed in frustration and leapt to meet him as came at him from the other side.

The Naraka Path had gone after Ino and Shikamaru, hands extended. As Ino struggled away from the wall, still clutching her shoulder, the Nara sent a shadowy spear at the oncoming Path. The woman bent in midair, and the shadow tore a long gash along her robe, exposing the whole of her left arm, before punching a neat hole in her hair.

She hit the wall, leaving a crater in the steady steelwork. As Shikamaru jumped backwards, fishing for a kunai, she seized him by the throat, her Rinnegan flashing. Shikamaru froze, and then immediately began struggling like a man possessed, kicking his legs and beating his hands against the woman's, his eyes watching something only he could see with dawning horror.

Ino shouted in alarm and sprinted up the wall. She threw a kunai at the Path's face, and one of the woman's hands shot out and intercepted it. The Path hurled the knife back, and Ino dodged to the left, nearly losing her grip on the wall and falling away.

Shikamaru, however, took the moment of distraction to punch the woman in the eye. The Path blinked, glaring at the Nara. She opened her mouth, and he froze.

Then Ino shot into her side, burying a kunai deep into her kidney. She, the Path, and Shikamaru all tumbled off the wall, falling the twenty feet to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

The Preta Path was after Hinata alone. It hit the wall about ten feet behind her and turned, coiling for another jump. Hinata, her Byakugan still active, didn't bother turning. The Path launched, and she spun, lancing out with a hand glowing with deadly chakra.

The Path extended a hand, crushing Hinata's grip and draining all the chakra out of the Jūken strike. Hinata's eyes went wide, and she pivoted, striking out with her other hand. The Path caught that one too, hitting the street and skidding to a stop in front of her.

Hinata responded by burying her knee in the man's crotch. He didn't even flinch. Instead, he began steadily draining her of chakra, the air around them turning blue with excess energy.

Hinata stumbled, the man keeping a steady, painful grip on her hands, and the world flashed white. She was already leaning towards chakra exhaustion; having even more drained out of her was sending her to the edge of depletion. Katsuyu was feeding her more, but it wasn't nearly enough. Darkness started to encroach on her vision.

'Like this?' she thought, staring into the man's emotionless face. Her eyes were slipping close.

'I die like this?'

There was a flash of white, encompassing her world. It looked like the Byakugan.

Like her father's. Who had expressed pride in her for the first time she could ever remember, not two weeks ago, as he watched over her beaten and bruised body.

'You are just like your mother,' he'd said, sitting at the edge of her bed.

'Her stubbornness lives on in you.'

Hinata gritted her teeth. The Path cocked his head, a question working its way into its purple eyes-

The Hyuuga slammed her face into his, hard. The man's nose broke with a crack that echoed across the street. The Preta Path stumbled back, blood running from its nose. Hinata didn't hesitate: she charged, broken, malformed chakra stuttering along her arms, and punched him in the face.

As the Preta Path fell back again, more blood gushing from its face, Sakura and Sai dueled the Asura Path.

Sai swung high with his gleaming tanto, trying to take the Path in the shoulder. The man grabbed his wrist, halting the strike. Sai's other hand shot forward, a ink scorpion clutched in it, and the Path spun, carrying Sai with him and swinging him at Sakura.

The Haruno ducked, Sai hurtling over her, and ran forward, pulling a fist back for a deadly punch. The Path's left hand, still shaped into a grotesque chainsword, swung at her side. Sakura dropped into a slide, slipping beneath the ravening teeth. She kicked the Path in his leg, and the bone snapped with a hard crunch, breaking through his calf.

She moved out of her slide, straight into a jaw-shattering uppercut, intent on wiping away the Path's malicious smirk, and the man bent back, the medic's fist barely grazing his jaw.

Sakura didn't even have time to look surprised at the his ridiculous speed before he sent the chainsword screaming for her chest, staying up on one leg.

A turtle, thick and inky, crashed into the sword, gumming its workings, before a flock of ink sparrows smashed into the man's face, blinding him. Sai came from behind Sakura, his face set in a grimace, and knocked the sword to the left, ensuring that instead of gutting her it merely opened an ugly cut on her side.

The Asura Path took a step back, but with only one working leg, it didn't take him far. Sakura, angry and bleeding, didn't give him the chance to collect himself. She stepped into a haymaker, ignoring the tearing sensation in her side. She didn't say anything. No scream, no cry of defiance, nothing. She just punched the man in the chest.

There was a grotesque shattering sound, and the man's ribcage crumpled under the blow, blood blooming under his cloak. Sakura's fist didn't stop, burying itself further into the man's body. His spine gave way next, cracking like the thunder above, and then Sakura's fist burst from his back, splattering the street with bone fragments and thick, congealed arterial blood.

The Path stared at her with ink-ringed eyes. He almost looked impressed. Blood, just like the stuff covering the concrete behind him, dribbled from his mouth, the contrast against his pale skin startling. The rain washed it away quickly.

The man collapsed like a broken doll. Sakura yanked her fist from his chest cavity as he did with a sick squelching sound. Her fingers were cold, even through her glove.

She allowed herself to fall to her knee, groaning in pain, and clutching at her side as Katsuyu helped her seal the wound. She did it hastily, her chakra growing thready; there would be a scar.

Chōji yelped, and Sakura snapped her head towards him just in time to watch the Human Path break his wrist with a disinterested expression and a simple twist of his hand.

Sai began to move for him, but he didn't have time before the Akimichi roared, his other arm swelling to immense size. He swung towards the Path, whose expression didn't change in the slightest; until Chōji's broken hand clamped down on his unbroken one, keeping him in place

The Path flinched, even as Chōji growled in pain, and then the clan heir's arm pounded him into the ground, shattering the street for a couple meters around. One of the Path's legs, sticking out from under Chōji's hand, twitched for a moment, before stilling.

Chōji withdrew his hand, revealing the crushed body. Katsuyu ran herself over his wrist, setting it noisily, as the large boy closed his eyes and ground his teeth, making a sound somewhere between a whine and a snarl.

Hinata finished beating in the Preta Path's face at about the same moment, ending the series of blows with a kick to the throat which crushed his windpipe and sent him wheezing to the ground, his features flattened. The Hyuuga stood, watching her opponent go down, and then collapsed on her back, breathing shallowly.

All of the Konoha-nin stood for a moment, looking around. They were beaten, bleeding, and in a considerable amount of pain, but still standing: and the Paths were down.

With the exception of Ino and Shikamaru's opponent. The Naraka Path had regained her feet, along with the members of Team Ten, and they stood opposite each other. The woman stared at them, her long hair matted, before her eyes flitted over the other fallen Paths.

Her features hardened, and she sprinted to the left, Shikamaru trying to keep pace with her as Ino lagged behind, still slowed by her injury.

"Stop her!" he shouted, his hands coming together in preparation for a shadow binding jutsu. "She's-"

The Path changed her trajectory and came straight for him. Shikamaru's eyes went wide, and his shadow writhed, trying to trip the woman. She danced through the lashes of darkness and lunged, a rod extended, attempting to stab him in the throat.

Shikamaru bent to the side, barely avoiding the rod, and the woman's elbow snapped out, taking him in the temple. He stumbled to the ground, and she burst past him, effortlessly scooping up the bodies of both the Asura and Human Paths as Chōji swiped at her and Sakura lunged, her whole body burning with the effort.

The woman flowed past both of them. The Preta Path, she left where it lay. Carrying the other two Paths, she sprinted up one of the buildings and vanished back into Amegakure's night.

There was a beat of disbelieving silence as all of Naruto's friends stared after her. The fight had barely lasted thirty seconds.

Then Hinata whimpered, and the silence broke.

"Hinata!" Sakura shouted hoarsely, running to the girl's side, the wound in her side reopening. Soothing chakra sputtered from her hands, running itself over the prone Hyuuga. "Are you okay?"

"Just… tired…" Hinata whispered, closing her eyes. "I'll be... okay…"

Sakura panted, looking around. Chōji was on one knee, holding his wrist lightly. Katsuyu had fixed the worst of the damage, but it was only a temporary patch. Shikamaru was lurching to his feet, Ino helping him up; blood was running in a steady stream from his temple. Ino herself didn't look any better.

Sai was the only one without any hampering injuries, but he was breathing heavily, his blade hanging low at his side. He was just as tired as any of them.

They were all on their last leg. Katsuyu was doing all she could; she was probably the only reason some of them were still standing. But it wouldn't be enough.

The slug in question spoke up at that moment, murmuring into Sakura's ear from her shoulder.

"You just have to hold on a bit longer," she said. "Help is on the way."

Sakura turned her head away from Hinata, trying to ignore her shallow breathes. "Is it Naruto?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Naruto is still being held up, unfortunately." A woman's voice rang from the rooftops, and Sakura, along with the rest of the Konoha ninja, looked up. The Naraka Path, and the two Paths she had taken with her, stood there; they'd been revived, somehow. She glared down imperiously, her orange hair dull in the rain.

"He won't be here to help you anytime soon."

Sakura sneered. "We won't need him!" she shouted, her voice perfectly clear. She wished she could believe it.

"Of course," the woman said dryly. "Bravado will do you no good here, you know." She took a step forward, dropping off the building. The Paths at her side followed, and then they were all right in front of Sakura, Hinata at their feet. "Why not just accept your fate?" the woman said grimly. "It were certainly be less suffering, both for you and your-"

Her voice cut off, and her head snapped to the side. Both of the other Paths began moving. Sakura exhaustedly tried to follow their heads, trying to find what had distracted them.

She found it a moment later, when a green blur burst over her head and kicked both the Naraka and Asura Paths in the face, throwing them through the wall they'd jumped down from with the thunderous sound of concrete shattering. The Human Path leapt back, face twisting in confusion and anger.

"Double Dynamic Entry!" a joyous voice boomed, before the green blur followed both of the Paths through the hole they'd made.

Sakura stared in disbelief. Ino voiced what she couldn't.

"Lee?"

"Not just him!" Tenten shouted, landing next to her, a chain and sickle in one hand a short polearm in the other.

"We have finally arrived," someone intoned from the roof opposite the ones the Paths had been on. Shino Aburame pushed up his glasses, uncaring of the raindrops covering them.

"And just in time, looks like!" Kiba howled, bursting from besides him. Akamaru followed after, his growl filling the street. They both landed next to Sakura, standing over Hinata protectively and glaring at the Human Path with vicious eyes.

Akamaru nosed at the Hyuuga, and then slipped forward, working under her and rolling her onto his back. She lay there, draped over the nin-dog.

"Akamaru?" she murmured, clinging to the dog's sodden white fur. He barked in affirmative, and Hinata dropped her head, allowing her eyes to close. Akamaru moved back, towards Chōji and Shikamaru.

"Looks like I was right to come." Neji stepped out of a nearby shadow, and Sakura almost jumped: he'd approached with barely a sound. He walked forward, his hands clenching and unclenching rhythmically.

He looked at Hinata, expressionless, and then at the Human Path, which had been inching towards the hole, watching all the new arrivals carefully.

"Your work?" he asked, his voice apparently unruffled.

The Human Path bent down, seizing the body of the Preta Path, left lying where Hinata had killed it. "Of course," he intoned, and then he spun and hurled the body into the building Lee and the other Paths had entered.

There was a crashing sound and a loud protest.

"Most unyouthful!"

The Human Path didn't care. It just watched Neji, his eyes narrow. The rain slipped down his hairless head.

"She put up more of a fight than I'd have expected," he admitted. He shifted a foot back. "But it wasn't enough."

Neji didn't say anything. He just attacked.

One of his hands lanced forward, aiming for the Path's throat. A hand came up, knocking it aside, and the bald man pivoted into a kidney shattering right hook. Neji dropped an elbow, breaking the strike. The Path responded with a rising knee, which the Hyuuga matched.

Neji shot into an upward stab with his left hand, and the Path leaned its head back, the hostile chakra behind the Gentle Fist grazing his face.

"She did show me something, though," the Path spat.

Then, the bald man burst forward, and hit Neji in the face with a bone-bruising headbutt. The genius staggered backwards, his guard broken, and the Path swept forward to finish the job. Kiba interrupted him, followed closely behind by Tenten.

The Path spun backwards into a handspring, kicking a brace of shuriken out of the air and buying himself some distance from the charging Inuzuka. The boy jumped into the air, spinning into a Gatsuga.

The Human Path came out of his handspring, and his hand shot out. It fastened on Kiba's rapidly rotating head, and the boy stopped cold, yelping in surprise. The bald man twisted, and then spiked Kiba into the ground, completing his turn to face Tenten as the boy bounced off the concrete behind him, all but insensible.

Tenten shouted, swinging her chain and sickle out at the man's chest. The Path bent at the waist, leaning back and allowing the weapon to pass over him. Then, he cartwheeled to the side.

Tenten's eyes went wide as the man moved aside, revealing Lee as he careened out of the building, his arms braced in an X. He hit Tenten back-first, and they both went down, tumbling backwards.

The Human Path turned to Kiba, prone and stunned. He stepped forward, raising a foot-

And Sai slammed into his side, sending them both to the ground.

The pale boy whipped his tanto back, flinging rainwater from it, and drove it into the Path's side, digging deep. The bald man blinked, and then his hand shot out, seizing Sai by the throat.

The Root member gagged, and the Path stood up, lifting him off the ground.

The Naraka, Asura, and Preta Paths emerged from the building behind him, silhouetted in the building's darkness. Sai's legs began flailing.

"You're the artist, aren't you?" the Human Path said flatly. "The one with the ink jutsu."

"Let go of him!" Sakura shouted, pulling Kiba away from the other Paths. The boy shook his head, and then scrambled to his feet, wiping away some blood from his cheek.

"Oh, I will in a moment," the Path said. "Now, as I was saying-"

Sai kicked the tanto buried in the man's side, and the blade jolted, shifting back and opening a sizable slash. The Path staggered.

Chōji, Tenten, and Neji charged past Sakura, the Akimichi holding his injured arm low and limp. A swarm of kikaichū followed them overhead, weighed down by the rain.

The Human Path reached down, lightning fast, and ripped the tanto from his side, whipping it around and trying to bury it in Sai's chest. Sai's hands, formerly scrabbling at the Human Paths hand, shot down and clapped around the blade. Blood ran freely, and the teen snarled in pain.

The Path frowned and spun, throwing Sai at Chōji. The large ninja skidded to a halt and caught him. Sai was still clutching the tanto's blade in his lacerated hands. Tenten and Neji continued forward, with Kiba scrambling after them.

Tenten targeted the Asura Path, who welcomed her with a wide, unnerving grin. The skin on its arms began writhing, and its neck twitched erratically. Neji went for the Human Path again, blood running freely down his face and into his grimacing mouth.

Kiba jumped for the Naraka Path, still wearing her small smile. The kikaichū buzzing overhead set themselves for every Path Shino could see.

Tenten struck first, bringing her polearm around in a blow meant to decapitate the Asura Path. The fat man ducked, and his arm shot out, extending far farther than it should have.

A blade, crackling with electricity, popped out of his palm. Tenten growled and swung the chain and sickle in her other hand down. The chain wrapped around the electrified blade, and Tenten yanked it to the left, off course. She threw the polearm straight up and reached back, drawing a katana from the edge of her weapon scroll, and swung it down at the Asura Path's shoulder.

A steel spur ripped through the man's cloak, deflecting the blade, and Tenten fell back, drawing something that could only be called a battle axe.

Kiba and the Naraka Path tore at each other. The woman was taller and stronger, and just as fast, but Kiba was far more vicious, and he had the greatest amount of kikaichū backing him up. He took blows to the chest and arms without flinching, and returned savage punches and claws which tore at the woman's cloak and opened gashes in her arms.

The Path went high for a disabling right hook to the temple, and Kiba slipped underneath the blow, driving his claw-like fingers into her abdomen. Cold blood spilled out.

The woman's Rinnegan narrowed, and she drove a knee into Kiba's gut. The Inuzuka grunted and pulled away, winded, just in time to receive a powerful straight kick to the chest, sending him tumbling backwards.

The Human Path hurled a black rod at Neji as he charged forward. The Hyuuga spun into an aggressive Kaiten, carving away the street below him and vaporizing the rain that came in contact with the rolling sphere. The rod pinged away, high into the black night.

The Human Path leapt up, over the Hyuuga's head, headed for the injured Team Ten behind him. Neji turned out of the Kaiten, striking up with an Air Palm, and the Path twisted in the air, neatly avoiding the concussive blast. He rode what he couldn't avoid farther forward, headed straight for Shikamaru and Ino. He raised his hand, palm open.

The rod that Neji's Kaiten had knocked up fell neatly into it, and the Path plummeted down at the frowning Nara, the black metal spearing ahead of him.

Ino gasped and leapt backwards, her arm impairing her as she fumbled a handseal.

Shikamaru cursed, diving to the side and throwing a kunai with an attached hissing tag upwards. The Human Path kicked out, diverting it right at Lee, who was trying to join the fight against the Naraka Path. The youthful teen barely had time for his enormous eyebrows to rise before the explosive went off. Lee vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"Damn it!" Shikamaru shouted. He clapped his hands together, his shadow dancing, and the Human Path landed between him and Ino.

"It's useless," the man said. He stared at Ino, to his left, and then slowly turned his head towards Shikamaru. "Why bother? All of you, all you do is fight, fight, fight…"

He shook his head. "It gets tiresome."

His attack was so fast that Shikamaru barely saw it. The Path whirled, sending the black rod he'd caught sailing towards the Nara, and then sprinted at Ino, cutting a visible path through the rain with his speed. Shikamaru cursed, twisting out of the way of the rod and sending his shadow searching out, but the man was too fast.

"Ino!" He shouted the warning even though it was clear the blonde knew the man was coming.

Ino snarled, hefting a kunai in her left hand; her uninjured arm. "C'mon!" she shouted, fear and rage distorting her voice.

A black rod sprouted from the Path's forearm, falling into his hand, and he swept it forward like a rapier. Ino parried the blow, driving the attack to the side-

And the Human Path dropped the rod, grabbing hold of Ino's blocking arm. His weapon's residual momentum carried it to his other hand, on the other side of Ino's guard. The Yamanaka's eyes went wide with panic.

The Path stabbed the bleak metal rod clean through her stomach.

"No!" Sakura's scream carried over what seemed like the entire village. At that moment, there might as well have not been an Amegakure, but for the street all of the shinobi were fighting across.

Ino choked, gagging. But no blood emerged.

"Gotcha," she hissed.

And then she exploded in a cloud of smoke.

"More Shadow Clones!?" The Human Path actually shouted, incredulity and anger shooting through his normally calm voice.

"That's not all!" Shikamaru shouted in triumph, his shadow threading into the Human Path's as it viciously turned towards him. The man stopped in his tracks, momentarily confused.

Ino stepped out of the Nara's expansive shadow, something between a grin and grimace swallowing up her face.

Pain's face twisted. "Impossible!"

Ino didn't care what he thought.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu!" she snarled, and both she and the Human Path went rigid, the Rinnegan glaring into her pupilless eyes.

"You…" the man hissed, and then he slumped, his Rinnegan not closing. Ino did the same, her pale eyes sliding shut, and Shikamaru caught her with a shadowy tendril.

The other Paths all froze at that moment, and the fight paused. The Preta Path staggered backwards, his feet slipping under him like a drunk man's.

Then, as one, all of the Paths leapt away, scrambling up walls and over rooftops or smashing through windows, vanishing into Amegakure's night.

The street was suddenly, impossibly silent. Even the rain seemed muted.

"Where are they going?" Lee asked, stepping forward. He was covered in soot, and bleeding from several shallow scrapes, but was in the best shape of the party by far. "We must pursue-"

Neji stuck an arm out, halting his teammate.

"Right now, we have to recover, and consolidate our forces. Buy time for Naruto to arrive," the Hyuuga bit out, wincing at the movement of his cheek: there was a sizeable bruise blooming on it.

"Ino's on it," Shikamaru informed the group, who gathered around the prone blonde. She looked like she was peacefully sleeping.

"Will that even work?" Sakura asked, jerking slightly as the pain in her side flared. "I mean, the other bodies didn't stop or anything like that."

"But they did retreat," Shikamaru said, easing to his knees. "We've got a minute: let's not waste it."

"What about Ino?" Chōji asked, still holding his wrist. "Will she be okay?"

Shikamaru hesitated, and then shrugged. "She said she knew what she was doing," he said lowly. "That she could find Sasuke, and make sure we could get this thing over with."

He sighed. "I trust her. But let's get ready, just in case."

"In case of what?" Lee asked.

Shikamaru's face grew infinitely harder.

"In case she doesn't come back."

###

The nape of his neck caught fire, and Sasuke gasped wetly. The curse mark, dormant ever since Orochimaru had been expelled from him, boiled with brief life, before fading away once more.

"Did you think I would truly abandon you?" The chuckling returned. "What kind of master would I be if I were to leave my student like that?"

"You," Sasuke growled lowly, something stirring in his chest, "are no master of mine."

"You certainly learned quite a bit from the man who wasn't your master, then."

"Yeah he did, right before he crushed you like a bug," Suigetsu said. His bravado didn't manage to mask the shaking in his voice.

Sasuke was still blind, but he didn't have to see to know Orochimaru was smirking.

"And Suigetsu, too." The Sannin's voice never shifted from its amused rasp. "Should you really be out here? Don't you miss your tank?"

Suigetsu growled hoarsely, but didn't move forward. Sasuke heard and felt the tremors as something metal, probably the Butcher's Blade the boy insisted on lugging around, smash to the floor.

Orochimaru shifted his focus: his killing intent was filling the room like a lighthouse beacon, cutting through even the darkness cloaking Sasuke's world. He felt it pass over him, making his thigh tremble minutely, before settling next to him.

On Karin.

"And you," Orochimaru hissed, and Karin gasped, the killing intent focusing in on her like a bloodied spear. Sasuke knew that to her enhanced chakra senses the sensation was probably physically painful.

"I never believed it would come to this, Karin," Orochimaru muttered sadly. "That you would go so far for him."

"What d-do you mean?" Karin ground out. Sasuke could feel her whole body trembling through her arm: the kunai she clutched in her hand brushed his.

"When I planted that compulsion all those years ago, in the forest…" Orochimaru trailed off, and Karin went completely still. "The fact that you would betray me for someone like Sasuke? You've disappointed me, Karin."

Compulsion? What was he talking about?

"But maybe it's not too late," Orochimaru continued. "You could return to me yet. I could still use someone of your skills. Not to mention that talent of yours."

The air grew even heavier, and Karin staggered back, almost taking Sasuke with her. Then, she planted her feet, pulling herself up straight.

"I'll never go back to you," she hissed.

"Really?" Orochimaru chuckled. "You understand your attraction is pointless? Little Sasuke just isn't interested."

"I-it's not about that," Karin said firmly. "What you were doing was wrong. I went along because you saved me, because you told me I special, and because…" She paused, before speaking with more confidence. "Because I was good at it. But Sasuke's shown me that I don't need you…"

She took a deep breath. "I won't be one of your experiments. Not again."

There was a moment of pregnant silence.

"Oh, you stupid little girl," Orochimaru laughed. His killing intent spiked for a moment, and then Sasuke heard him move.

Karin was knocked away from him, hitting the wall with a gasp and sliding down with a subtle scraping noise. Suigetsu shouted something indistinct, and there was a rush of air, a blade whistling towards it target, before there was a solid thump, a clattering noise, and a great deal of splashing.

Sasuke dove to the right, trying to get away from the noise but unable to do much more than fumble through the dark. He didn't make it three feet before something thick and slimy wrapped around his waist, jerking him backwards.

The Uchiha's face twisted in disgust. Orochimaru's tongue looped around him again, securing his arms but leaving his hands somewhat free, before lifting him into the air. And then, the Snake was right in front of him.

"So, Sasuke." Somehow, he spoke clearly, despite the fact his tongue was extended far beyond his body. "Will you give me your body? Surely, it's a better fate than remaining in this tower for the rest of your-"

"You've always talked too much," Sasuke growled, and then his hand flashed up, the kunai he'd grabbed from Karin's flailing hand held tightly in it, and sliced through the tongue binding him.

The tongue fell away, Orochimaru making a sick choking sound, and Sasuke tumbled to the ground, barely knowing which way was up. He landed clumsily but managed to stumble forward, the kunai held in a ready grip.

"Oh? Tho' y'u th'ill 'ave 'um fi't 'ef in y'u?" Orochimaru slurred, laughing through the blood filling his mouth. "Gu'd! I 'ould 'ate for my 'essel to 'ive up!"

Sasuke charged.

"I am not!" he shouted, swinging the kunai high and hoping to take Orochimaru in the face. He heard the man duck, felt his hair swish past his hand, and kicked out low. "Your!" Sasuke's foot connected with something, and he pushed, blowing the laughing man backwards. "Vessel!"

"Y'u a'e 'o'hing els'!" The Sannin chuckled, unruffled by the kick to the face.

"Wrong." A glacier crashed down on the room, and everyone in it froze.

"He is my brother."

Time seemed to stand still for a moment as Itachi Uchiha's voice faded away, swallowed by the pounding rain outside.

"Ahhh… I'achi," Orochimaru slurred, turning towards something Sasuke couldn't hope to see. "'Inally a'ived, 'ave y'u?" His speech slowly began to grow more coherent: there was a sick slurping sound as his tongue grew back. "Tha' was quicker than I-"

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," Itachi said calmly, and the room was filled with fire. Sasuke flinched away from the sudden heat, shielding his face.

Orochimaru hissed, but the sound receded, and the room was deadly silent in the wake of the fireball. Sasuke waited in anticipation of the next attack, but none seemed to be coming.

"He'll be back," Itachi finally said. He moved to Sasuke's side, his sandals tacking on the concrete. "Karin. We must do this quickly."

The redhead walked over as well, muttering something under her breath.

"Itachi." Sasuke's voice was completely emotionless.

"Sasuke." Itachi's didn't match it: he sounded concerned. Almost. "Now is not the time. If you have doubts, you must shed them immediately. Unless we work together, things will go badly for all of us."

The darkness, returned from its pit, spilled upwards at that moment before falling back.

You could hit him now, it wheedled. Show him that you don't forgive him. But they'd already done this. It didn't matter if Sasuke forgave Itachi or not: he couldn't muster enough to act on either resolution. For now, Orochimaru was the problem, not his brother.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. "You already drove him off. Even if he comes back-"

"Orochimaru is not the problem," Itachi said. Sasuke frowned. "I will handle him. But he's forced me to show my hand too soon by going after you. Naruto is in the village, battling the leader of the Akatsuki as we speak. He was the cause of that earthquake several minutes ago."

Despite himself, Sasuke perked up. Naruto had been the one responsible for that shaking? How could he possibly have caused that?

"You have to go help him," Itachi continued, and Sasuke jerked his head towards him.

"How?" he snapped. He gestured at his face. "With these?"

"Yes," Itachi said simply.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Sasuke muttered. He was still blind. What was the point-

"I can help, Sasuke." Karin's voice came from his other side, and Sasuke unconsciously twitched: he hadn't even noticed her approach, wrapped in the conflicting emotions his brother was drowning him in. "How long do your eyes need to acclimate now?"

Sasuke remained silent as Karin waited for an answer. Eventually, she spoke up again, hesitantly. "Sasuke?"

"Two days," Sasuke finally said, trying to push his confusion down. "Two days until they can be safely used. It's too long."

He heard Karin shake her head, and then something nudged his shoulder. "Bite me," she said.

He turned towards her, staring with closed eyes at where he knew she must have been standing. "Will that work?"

"It worked for your brother," she insisted. "Now c'mon: Orochimaru will be back any second. We've got to do this now!"

The darkness, returned from its pit, spilled upwards at that moment before falling back.

If you retrieve your vision, it asked, would you be an Avenger once more? Or Sasuke still?

They're the same thing, Sasuke pointed out, and the darkness laughed.

If you really believe that, then you're more foolish than you think.

Karin's arm nudged his mouth, and Sasuke bit down, hard. The taste of her distinct chakra filled his mouth, and the red-haired girl gave out a high scream.

"Jeez," Sasuke heard Suigetsu say. "Louder every time."

He barely paid the Hozuki any attention. Power rushed through his body: his aches vanished in an instant, melted away by Karin's chakra. A thousand scrapes and sprains he'd never even noticed were forgotten just as quickly as they were brought to his attention.

His eyes caught fire. Something wormed through them, filling them with burning mercury, completely unlike the sensation throughout the rest of him, and Sasuke hunched, gasping and falling back against the wall.

"It hurts, doesn't it Sasuke?" Itachi said calmly. "They will be like that for some time: the sensation never really goes away." He sighed. "Unfortunately, circumstances have forced us forward. I'm sorry we've had to resort to this: I would have preferred your eyes developed naturally."

"Nggh," Sasuke groaned, straightening up again. The burning refused to fade. "Itachi…" he hissed. "Why should I help Naruto?"

"Because," Itachi said, his voice almost amused. "He's our best chance."

"Best chance at what?" Sasuke asked. Itachi didn't answer.

Sasuke winced, the agony in his eyes spiking. He slowly, ever so slowly, opened them.

And the darkness fled. The world returned to Sasuke Uchiha, brighter, more brittle, and undeniably beautiful.

He blinked, shielding his eyes, and looked around. The room was as dismal as he'd imagined it: cold iron and protruding pipes marked every surface, and there were no windows; just a single, partly opened iron door. There was a puddle in the corner, seemingly sprung from nowhere, and a large scorch patch in the center of the room, the mark of Itachi's fireball.

Sasuke flinched again, feeling raw and tender. His eyes hurt; there was no way around it. They burned his synapses, stabbed at his brain, carved up his lobes; they pulsed an undimming agony right into his mind.

But Sasuke didn't care.

He could see.

He could see.

He blinked, the motion deliciously familiar, and turned to Itachi.

"... You're still wearing your bandages," he said slowly, the surrealism of the moment attacking him. Sasuke was seeing the world through his brother's eyes: though he'd never really given the idea thought, he had partly expected more grandeur. Instead, they were both high in a cold, dark tower, with a psychopathic bodysnatcher lurking somewhere below them.

Perhaps the situation was appropriate after all.

"I swore I wouldn't see through your eyes till you saw through mine," Itachi said with an invisible smile. "It was the least I could do, after what I forced you through." His hands came up, and grasped the back of the wrapping.

Itachi tugged, and the bandages fell. His eyes remained closed for a moment.

Then, he opened them.

Onyx eyes watched Sasuke warily, as he stared with mild fascination. They were his own, after all.

Itachi jerked, almost undetectably, and the onyx began to change. Black bled away into red, and three slowly whirling tomoe split off from the pupil, forming a triangle. But instead of stopping there, the tomoe continued to stretch, becoming the eerie, sharp three pronged shuriken of Itachi's Mangekyō.

And then, the whole eye changed in a moment. The red of the Mangekyō's iris bled into the triangle, leaving the entire iris completely black, with the triangle gleaming red instead. A dark star with six points burst into existence at the center of the shuriken, spiraling out until it lay at the center of the eye, three points of darkness extending into the blackened iris and three points running up the triangles spars.

Sasuke watched, fascinated, as Itachi's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan awoke.

His eyes burned again, but it wasn't the painful jabbing that had been plaguing him since Karin's hasty healing. This was something he'd felt before. Warm chakra racing down neglected paths, filling his head, leaking into his eyes.