He didn't find her again until the next morning. It wasn't like he could sit around all day and meditate in his quarters, waiting for her to manifest again. He had tasks to do, or 'chores' as Orochimaru called them. Sasuke ran messages to the other hideouts in the country, took out rival groups positioning themselves outside of Oto, sat through Kabuto's seemingly endless barrage of medical testing... Sometimes, while sleeping, he'd have the opportunity to fall into the paramnesia, but an assassination attempt had kept him up half the night and, in the end, he'd fallen into a dreamless sleep. In the morning, he woke and went about his usual routine: dressing, sharpening all his weapons, strength training, shower, and then finally, meditation. Holding back all morning had been an exercise in itself, and he entered the Tsukuyomi with an air of electricity. It had been a long time since anything surprised him like they had.
The illusion was normal, the customary black earth and red sky, but he felt the now obvious pull of ownership—the girl was already there and fighting for control. Still very new to the concept of letting go, Sasuke relaxed and allowed the reigns to slip, giving her the lead. Scenery began to change as the girl grabbed hold once more. With a step, Sasuke was no longer on the black glass, but on a blanket of hot sand. Gone was the red sky, come had the desert. The Chakra sun beat down on his back with an intensity he didn't remember, and the blue horizon stretched in every direction for as far as the eye could see. Vaguely, he recalled Orochimaru saying he'd discovered the girl in Suna. Perhaps this was her home. Expertly, Sasuke felt for the strings that controlled this puppet world and followed them deeper into the dunes. He didn't yank them away from her, but tracked her to wherever she was hiding.
The grandma had been the one who hid them originally, but perhaps the girl was not as incompetent as he once thought. If only he could find the old woman, then he wouldn't have to put up with the pretense that this girl was now 'his'. He couldn't possibly believe that Orochimaru knew that they'd met on the other plain. There was no way for him to discover it, but Sasuke would not take the chance of admitting he wanted anything from her.
As if summoned, a massive doorway exploded from the sand before him, like the gates of hell erupted to greet him. Sasuke glanced to either side, understanding it was a pathway deeper into her illusion. He could dispel her Genjutsu with a swirl of his eye, take back what was rightfully his, but chose to play along. The doorway was lacking a door, but the rough wooden frame yawned open with malice. Thick black smoke rolled from the entrance and obscured everything within, wafting at his feet like it was trying to suck him in.
He entered without another thought and found a short set of stairs that creaked as he descended. Moments of tingling darkness later, he stood at the entrance of a wood paneled parlor with no windows. It resembled a coffin, save for the roaring fire and broken furniture. It even had corpses.
A woman was staked to the right wall with a fire poker stabbed through her chest. She'd once had long blonde hair, but time in this hot dry tomb had pulled her skin taught and turned her golden hair to strings. Black abysses stared at him from where her eyes should have been, and he faltered at the entrance as they trained on him.
The other body, curled before the blazing fire, was the girl. Her head was between her knees with her face to the floor, and not dead, he realized. Sasuke strode forward, past the emaciated wall hand that followed him with her sockets as he passed, and before the fireplace that seemed to grow with each step, until he was in front of the girl and the place mantel was 10 feet tall. She didn't react to his presence save for a whimper, which was his only indication that she was alive in this mirage. If he had to guess, Sasuke figured she must not have been strong enough to block out whatever Kabuto was doing to her. Just as Sasuke had His morning ritual, the white haired traitor had his. A little torture in the morning is good for the soul, he'd said.
"Get up." Sasuke ordered, but the shell of a girl didn't move. "Get up." He growled again and she just moaned once more. It occurred to him that perhaps she couldn't move, and irritated, he bent down to her level, trying to catch a good look at her face. "I will take the pain away if you tell me everything." He bargained. The words came out before he'd completely thought them through, although it was his next course of action. Promises were not his style, but from where he knelt he could see the wounds she had been inflicted during her surgery. Her arms were split from shoulder to wrist, exposing the muscles, bones, circulatory system, and (what Kabuto was most likely looking for) her Chakra pathways. Deep gashes trailed up both sides of her neck, displaying her two pumping jugular veins, all the way to her eyes, where one had been pulled from its socket and was hanging dangerously. The tops of her thighs were split to the knee and he could see the stark white bone of her femur as it met with her knee joints. Kabuto was literally, in every sense of the word, slicing her open. Orochimaru had said he wanted answer, but even to Sasuke, this seemed unnecessary. How he was staunching the bleeding was beyond Sasuke's comprehension and he questioned his 'master's' motives for the hundredth time.
The girl's only response to his bargain was an indiscernible nod, and Sasuke took control immediately. In an instant, the girl was standing before him in her hospital gown amidst the red sky and black plain. Her self-created coffin was gone and Sasuke felt like he could breathe again, away from the sweltering heat of her fireplace. She blinked and lifted her hands to her face like they were new and she didn't know what to do with them.
"You really did it." She whispered. "How?"
"This world is now mine." Sasuke remarked, watching her wearily.
"Yours?" She lowered her hands and looked at him, confused.
"The Tsukuyomi is, in itself, a singular dimension and can only be controlled by one person at a time." Although, even as he explained it, Sasuke had never in his life known it to occur. Perhaps it was because there had never been anyone else to take possession away from him.
"You would know…" She said under her breath, at once annoying him.
"Now tell me." He commanded flatly. He hadn't rescued her so she could ask all the questions. He'd happily send her back if she could give him the grandma's location. At least then he wouldn't have to deal with his 'gift' any longer.
"What do you want to know?" She asked casually, shuffling from one foot to the other like she couldn't keep still.
"How you have access." For starters, he thought.
"Same as you, I guess. Kekkei Genkai. Every other generation of the Arai clan is born with the Dark Release. It gives us the ability to come and go as we please."
"Without using your Sharingan?" Sasuke marveled, more to himself than to her, but she threw him a look.
"What? No. I don't have the Sharingan." Sasuke's ensuing glare had nothing to do with her. How was that possible? How could another Kekkei Genkaiprovide the door to his world, but not the key? The Sharingan was the key to almost everything that involved Chakra based illusions, so…how?
"Tell me the history of your clan." He asked next. She shrugged.
"I know a little, but I wasn't raised with them."
"Where is your master, then?" If he could just get to the grandma and bypass all this useless chatter, things would be much easier.
"My master?" She cocked her head to the side.
"The grandma." He snorted and nearly rolled his eyes.
"You mean…Azumi?" She offered.
"Yes."
"She died…almost six months ago." The girl said quietly, hugging her arms. Sasuke glared at her again. That wasn't possible. Her presence in the world was so real, there was no way she could be dead. The girl must be lying. Azumi had literally put up a barrier to keep him away. Ghosts did not do that. To keep himself from uttering nonsense, he bit the inside of his cheek with a grimace. "She did tell me a little about the history, like how the clan was founded and how the Dark Release was created."
"How?" He voiced his throbbing question.
"The Kurai Ririsu is the offspring of normalcy and royalty. It is derived from one of the Three Great Dojutsu: the Rinnegan, Byakugan and Sharingan." She recited as if she were reading it from a history scroll. "The Arai were already a prevalent clan in Takigakure when my Great-great-great Grandfather, Azusa, ran away with a women he'd fallen madly in love with. Their children were the first with the bloodline limit."
"Who was the woman?" Sasuke pressed. Although he already suspected, but he had to be sure.
"It was…Sarada…" Suddenly, the girl faltered, swaying, and then dropped like a stone.
"No! Wake up, dammit!" Sasuke lunged for her as she crumpled. "Who is Sarada?" He shook her shoulders, fiercely trying to rouse her. What was going on? He still held control of the world, he could feel the strings hum around them, and he knew he hadn't killed her with his blood-lust. His only conclusion was that either she was pulling out, or something else was pulling her out.
Back in the real world, Kabuto held his scalpel poised over the girl's fourth Chakra gate. She'd stopped resisting, stopped screaming all together and it wasn't garnering him the results he desired. If she didn't scream, he knew he wasn't touching her Chakra network. Her pain was his indicator. Resolutely, Kabuto reached for his tool table and grabbed a vial of smelling salts. He couldn't let her sleep through it. He needed her to tell him when he'd found the right place. He waved the little capsule under her nose, the distillation of an ammonia solution with shavings of deer antlers and hooves. Orochimaru wanted answers: whether or not the rumors were true of her power, why she'd been immune to her mother's curse, why Sasori had claimed she didn't fight back. Kabuto had thought her network would hold the key, but what he discovered was a bloody mess of black veins and arteries, in places that veins and arteries had no business being. Her heart, that should be swaddled in a nest of blue Chakra paths, was choked in a bundle of black strings, sizzling like they were burning.
It was horrifying.
It was fascinating.
In the Tsukuyomi, Sasuke had come to the conclusion that Kabuto was messing with something he shouldn't, but at the same time, Sasuke couldn't risk his interference being discovered. Roughly, he gave the girl a good shake, making sure her eyes lulled open long enough for him to give her orders.
"He's pulling you back. Do not speak of this. Find me again when he's through." Short, simple instructions, but the girl's eyes surged.
"Don't send me back!" She unexpectedly cried out and grabbed his arms in a vice.
"Do not tell him about this place." Sasuke said again and tore her flailing limbs from him.
"You promised!—"
Sasuke released his hold on the world, allowing it to swallow her. He jolted awake in his quarters, sweating profusely. The fire had not been real, but he could still feel it lick at his skin. Or was it her nails dragging over his arms? It was odd being in someone else's illusion. He hadn't fallen victim to a genjutsu since…Itachi…when he'd gone after Naruto.
Shaking it off, Sasuke quickly dressed and fled his abruptly freezing rooms.
