Kakashi reacts before thinking.
He has seen this type of fighting style before—knows it intimately. Even before the pale, ghostly man disappears into thin air, Kakashi has already moved. He inserts himself into the open gap behind Sarada because it's the most logical point of attack.
The curse-marked teleporter appears in that space, inches away, hand grasping for the girl's throat. Kakashi's chest intercepts him, however, and he grasps the incoming wrist.
"That's the Hiraishin," he growls, eyes narrowed as he tightens his already firm grip. "Where did you learn…?"
The rest of his sentence trails off and Kakashi has trouble fighting down a sudden bout of nausea. Because the most shocking thing about this mysterious enemy is not how fast he is nor his inexplicable attack on a preteen girl. It's the way he looks.
The likeness isn't obvious, not as he's depicted on Hokage Rock or even in the many pictures that Kakashi has of him. In fact, only someone who has personally known the man could tell. Someone who has seen every permutation of his expression ad stood beside him in the pouring rain or the blood of battle.
There are no laughter lines in this unnaturally pale face. His skin is sickly, like a corpse held underwater too long, and covered with the blighted stain of a curse-mark. There are other differences—the white blond hair, the more solid build, and his eyes are hard and black instead of laughing blue. But there's no mistaking who the teleporter was meant to resemble. And if the countless minute scars crisscrossing his skin are any indication, someone was purposefully attempting to mould and sculpt the face and muscles beneath it to imitate—
"Minato-sensei," he breathes.
His opponent's eyes narrow, and he hisses, "Not him—never him! Failed the test, he said—I failed the test!"
Kakashi is forced to release the man's wrist when his other hand whips forward, a kunai at the ready. The jōnin ducks out of the way, but the hand—as well as the body it's attached to—vanishes again.
"Be careful!" Sarada cries. "If he catches you with that, you're done! There's a paralysis toxin on it!"
The man is already appearing in mid-air across the room. He slices downward at Sasuke, and there's a glint of steel—but Naruto gets in the way. He takes the blade meant for his teammate to the throat.
And then disappears in a puff of smoke.
A shadow clone.
"Watch your backs!" Kakashi commands, taking a guard position in front of the girls. Sarada scrambles off the metal table while Sakura pulls out several shuriken. Across the room, Naruto and a disgruntled Sasuke go back-to-back as well. Half a dozen shadow clones take up residence in the cavernous room, and Kakashi pushes his forehead protector up higher. There is no question he will need the Sharingan to follow this opponent's moves.
"Why's he doing this?" Sakura demands. "He's just…attacking! There's no reason!"
"It was the same before," Sarada replies, grasping one-handed for a kunai. "Except last time, he talked."
"I don't think he's entirely lucid," Kakashi theorises. Which makes it even more important that he stop him. In his experience, insanity and power are a deadly combination.
Easier said than done, though.
The key to defeating the Hiraishin is the ability to predict where its user will be next. With Minato, someone Kakashi knew well, he could only do that half the time, even with the Sharingan. Aside from the warped resemblance, this enemy is a complete unknown. Predicting him will be next to impossible, especially since he doesn't use—
"Anchors," he mutters in realisation.
Sakura cries out as the teleporter appears beside her; she holds up her blade to fend off an attack that never connects.
A glint in the dim light of the laboratory reveals wires crisscrossed over hers and Sarada's heads. At the other end, Sasuke winds them around his hand in a firm grip and pulls, forcing their attacker away. As the momentum propels him toward Sasuke, the teleporter vanishes yet again.
Only to reappear behind the boy, sweeping his knees out from beneath him. As Sasuke rolls to recover, Naruto leaps on the enemy from behind, putting him in a hold around the neck.
The teleporter disappears—along with the boy—and reappears several feet above their heads. In mid-air, he flips Naruto over his shoulder and disappears again, re-emerging beneath him with his blade raised high. A shadow clone barrels into him, saving Naruto from being skewered, but allowing their opponent to vanish again.
There's a blur as he materialises in Kakashi's peripheral vision. He grasps at the pale man, but his fingers only snatch empty air. The Sharingan tracks his footwork, however, and following a wild guess, the jōnin throws himself forward into the path of the ghostly man just as he materialises.
Kakashi worries he won't be fast enough to predict his moves again. Instead, he concentrates a small ball of chakra into his palm, transferring a hastily concocted seal to the enemy's chest.
You want to use Lord Fourth's jutsu without anchors? The most important thing about the anchors wasn't just so he could know where he was going—they're also an effective way of keeping track of others!
The teleporter twists away and vanishes again. This time, though, Kakashi is aware of where he will be next.
He uses a Shushin to get across the room, catching the Ghost-Man's blade with his own. A blink later and he is alone, his chakra brand flitting to the other side of the chamber. Kakashi swears and throws himself forward again, skidding into place a second after the Ghost-Man materialises there. The wild-eyed, he snarls as Kakashi spins a kunai into his hand and lunges; Kakashi slashes at his throat and misses as his opponent flickers, then reappears inches to the left. As his momentum propels him forward, the man brings up an elbow, jutting it toward Kakashi's throat.
Kakashi dodges the blow that would crush his windpipe, but inadvertently puts his face into harm's way. Pain explodes across his cheek and jaw, the burning sting suggestion a fracture, but there's no time to react to it. Kakashi's opponent is already bringing his blade up again, attempting to stab him from behind.
The Sharingan tracks the movement and Kakashi ducks down, sweeping is leg out parallel to the floor until it connects with the other man's ankle. Hooking it around, he upsets his opponent's balance, waiting for him to hit the ground—
The Ghost-Man teleports at the last moment, tumbling into view several feet away from Kakashi, and then makes another run for the kids.
"As if I'd let that happen," Kakashi growls, summoning up enough chakra to increase his speed to once more head him off. His lungs burn and muscles stretch to the point of tearing, but he hasn't competed against Maito Gai for almost twenty years without learning endurance!
They race each other throughout the room, teleportation against physical speed, up the walls and across the ceiling, as down below the kids shout exclamations and warnings. Upon returning to the floor, the marked man shoves Kakashi into a wall, taking a swipe at his face, but Kakashi ducks, kicking out. The Ghost-Man diverts the path of his leg, forcing Kakashi to skid backwards, catch himself on one knee, and then dart forward again.
Bellowing angrily, the marked man flings a barrage of kunai in his direction. Kakashi's fingers fly—"Doryūheki!"—and a wall of mud explodes from the ground to shield him. It's a distraction, though, as Kakashi discovers when he senses the marked man in the space behind him, attempting to bring his blade down on Kakashi's head. He strains to meet it—sparks fly from where the blades connect—and he lashes upward with his right knee, landing a hard blow to his opponent's side. When the Ghost-Man swipes at his face, Kakashi catches the incoming arm in a lock, then twists his body upward to kick at his head.
His opponent grunts, stumbling forward, and Kakashi takes advantage of this to leverage himself upward. He hooks his left leg over the other man's shoulder, then pulls the right one up. Feet crossed behind the curse-marked man, he bends his body backward, using his momentum to tug the other man with him. Landing on his hands, Kakashi uses the force of his legs to haul his enemy over his head and flip him flat on his back.
Disoriented, the Ghost-Man remains on the ground for precious seconds, and Kakashi scrambles to his feet, stomping his heel into the man's face.
Before he can connect, the pale man vanishes.
Damn it!
Kakashi's head whips up, just in time to brace himself for the body barrelling into him, shoving him through one of the giant columns supporting the ceiling.
Dust fills the air, the room shaking from the impact.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura calls, anxious.
Panting, he gets to his feet, wincing at the ache in his chest—he suspects a broken rib—and takes off after the marked man once more.
This confusing, high-speed dance repeats several times. To Kakashi's dismay, every time, he's a fraction of a second slower.
It makes no sense! He should be running out of stamina!
Hiraishin isn't something that can be used indefinitely or in such rapid succession. Not without the chakra reserves to back it up. Kakashi doesn't have those or the curse-mark which he assumes is powering his opponent.
At this rate, I'll burn out before he does.
And when that happens, his students are the ones who will suffer. The teleporter is still much too fast for any of them to do anything about. If Kakashi can just catch the guy in one place for long enough, he can fully incapacitate him. After that, they can question him.
An idea comes to him then. A spectacularly bad course of action that he would rather not do. The two times he's ever needed to rely on the advanced abilities of his evolved Sharingan, he's ended up temporarily blind or passed out. And he's never tried to bring anything back, which they will need to be able to do.
But there is no telling how long this teleporting enemy can keep up his relentless assault on all of them. As fast as each member of Team 7 can be, they will never catch up with someone who can flit from place to place in the blink of an eye.
This guy is fast! Faster than Itachi even. Which means we're all dead if we can't stop him!
Which makes it the only option.
"Naruto, behind you!" he orders, conscious of the small burst of chakra zipping across the laboratory toward the boys.
One of Naruto's clones takes a running jump, vaults over the original and lands a punch on the teleporter right when he bursts into existence. As he careens backward, he doesn't disappear again, suggesting he's been momentarily stunned.
"Sasuke, keep him still!"
The boy doesn't reply, instead he forms a series of hand signs—Kanashibari—and the teleported seizes up.
"I can't hold it very long," Sasuke warns his sensei, unsure exactly what the plan is.
"That's fine. You and Naruto get clear," Kakashi orders, striding forward; his regular eye is shut tight, and his Sharingan is—That pattern! Sasuke realises, seeing that Kakashi's eye doesn't just show the tomoe design he's become familiar with. Instead, something like a spinning black wheel has taken its place. "You have the—!"
"Not now, Sasuke! Get out of the way!" Kakashi snarls, focussing on the spot where the teleporter is already getting his ability to move back. The paralysis technique appears to be less effective against the strength of a curse-mark.
Despite his first instinct, Sasuke doesn't argue. This turns out to be a good idea, especially once he notices the air around the crazed man begin to ripple and whirl. He skids out of the way, retreating to where Naruto and several clones are waiting.
Sasuke's own Sharingan allows him to see exactly what's happening.
The air beside the teleporter distends. In the same manner that the world within the time bubble seemed grainy and too textured, the epicentre of the weird rippling phenomenon has a strange consistency to it. In the distance, an odd vista of block-like columns is visible.
Another dimension?
"Too strong," the pale man growls, trying to drag himself away from whatever is happening. He grasps hold of the nearest solid weight—the steel of the mysterious door the squad noticed earlier—and holds on. His grip is so tight the metal warps.
Kakashi gives a shout of effort, and blood weeps from his left eye.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cries out in horror, and even Sarada's face is twisted in disbelief.
There is a scraping, grinding sound as the door is torn from its hinges. The ghostly pale man howls in anger—
And then he's gone. There's nothing but an empty door frame, leading into the shadowed dark.
Kakashi slumps, only just barely stopping himself from falling to the ground. "Got him," he says, sounding weary, yet relieved. "He's trapped."
"Trapped where?" Sasuke demands, regaining his wits. "What did you do? How did you do it? And when the hell did you get—" He finds himself abruptly thrown backward. The right side of his chest burns in pain, and there's a snarling, grunting noise that fills the air.
"Sasuke!"
Sakura's scream brings him back to himself. He's on his back, a heavy figure looming above him, keeping him pinned to the ground. It seems to laugh—at least that's what the noise sounds like. It's hard to tell, as the man-shaped creature's mouth has been wired shut. Instead of claws, this thing has razor blades sewn into its bloodied fingers which it pulls back to take another swipe at him.
It doesn't get the chance as it is hit from behind by a Rasengan.
"Hey, get off your ass, Sasuke! I don't have time to keep saving it!" Naruto yells, livid. "We've got company!"
Sasuke doesn't reply, jumping to his feet. He's furious at himself, once again needing his teammate to save him.
He ignores the deep gashes in his chest and takes a quick survey of their latest obstacle—or rather, obstacles. Dark shapes fly through the now open doorway at an alarming rate, like rats escaping a sinking ship.
The imagery is apt as they—whatever they are—more closely resemble vermin than people. They might have been human at one point, but now none of the poor wretches even resemble men. It's as if someone took leftover body parts and shoved them together, creating patchwork monstrosities. Some of the creatures are missing eyes, others have extra ones sewn in. One newcomer has hands where his feet should be. All of them are covered with sinister versions of the same curse-mark that the Ghost-Man sported.
Just seeing them makes Sasuke's shoulder twinge uncomfortably.
"Orochimaru's failed experiments," he realises, looking at the things and trying not to throw up; they are grotesque, perversions of nature.
"Or Kabuto's," Sakura says, disgust and contempt filling her voice.
"Everyone get out of here, now," Kakashi orders. "There's…no way we…can…"
His eyes roll back, and he topples backward, unconscious.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yells, and two of his clones rush over to him.
"Great," Sasuke fumes.
It looks like it's up to him and the idiot to get them out of this one. And considering the number of creatures with curse seals that keep pouring through the door, they will not last very long.
His own seal burns on the back of his night, tempting him to give in to it. It will lend him the power he needs, and with it, he might be able to protect the others. He's an Uchiha, not whatever these poor bastards were before.
But remembering Kakashi's now useless, unconscious body stops him.
The curse seal weakens him too much. The squad has already lost their strongest fighter; he can't afford to deprive them of another.
No matter how much his blood sings to let loose.
"Sakura, get Sarada and Kakashi out of here!" he bellows, a Chidori crackling to life in his palm. He only has enough chakra for two raw bursts—if he's lucky he can push it to three. He might be able to buy the others time to escape.
Naruto has called up more clones, two of them are already pulling together another Rasengan. Still, it's an obvious effort; the ball of energy is nowhere near as big as it needs to be. Behind them, two clones hand the unconscious jōnin off to the girls, and then return to the fray.
"We don't have much time," Sakura mutters, hefting Kakashi over her shoulder.
"No—and those things will keep coming with nothing holding them back," Sarada agrees. "We have to find a way to plug the hole."
Sakura draws out a handful of kunai with explosive tags attached. "I can set these off."
"Too much can go wrong with that," Sarada points out, keeping her eye on the waves of curse-mark beasts trying to reach them. The boys are doing a barely sufficient job keeping them away, but it won't last. "If the blast radius is too concentrated, it'll hit Naruto and Sasuke—if not, these things can get out."
"It doesn't matter," Sakura tells her. "Better we keep them from getting out, even if we have to sacrifice ourselves to do it."
Sarada's jaw tightens at that, and she looks away from Sakura then. Her head moves from side to side, as if taking in the width of the room and, for an instant, Sakura imagines a glint of red behind the broken glasses.
When the girl returns her attention to Sakura, her onyx eyes are hard.
Black eyes. I did imagine it, Sakura thinks as Sarada announces, "I have an idea. A chamber this big needs to have load-bearing walls. If we take out the walls where the most support is—"
"We take the whole place down," Sakura finishes, also glancing around the room now. She does quick calculations in her head, based on the dimensions of the room and an estimate of how deep they are underground.
She tries not to dwell on the fact the other girl figured that out before her.
"We need to get the others out," Sarada says. "Back the way we came in—and then, if we set off some controlled explosions, we can cause this whole place to collapse."
"That could collapse more than just this cavern, though."
"It's a risk we have to take!"
Sakura grunts in half-hearted agreement and calls out to her teammates. "You guys! We need to get out of here! Fall back!"
The boys listen for once.
Both Sasuke and Naruto retreat toward the entrance while Naruto's shadow clones scatter. Two help Kakashi disappear through the door while the rest form a barrier against the incoming beasts. When the pale creatures attempt to leap over the wall of orange-clad clones, Sasuke lets loose a burning assault of fire.
It feels like an eternity later, even though it's only a few seconds, before the boys stagger past Sarada and Sakura.
"Now!" Sarada orders, and Sakura flings the explosive tags in a circle around her, hitting the load-bearing pillars of the laboratory. Before she ducks back out into the hall, she throws the second volley to ignite the tags.
"Get back!" Sasuke snaps, pulling Sakura into the relative safety of the outer hall. He reaches for Sarada, too, but she darts out of his reach.
"Sarada!" Naruto yells.
Everyone watches as she jumps into the air, bringing down her uninjured hand toward the spot where she just stood. There's a trick of the light where her eyes seem to burn red and her fist connects.
It has to be a trick of the light, Sasuke insists to himself.
The ground beneath her cracks and splinters in the same they have all seen when Tsunade uses her massive strength. While the destruction scale isn't quite as impressive as the Fifth Hokage, the way the laboratory is already collapsing in on itself, it remains effective enough.
The cracks she's made radiate within the frame of the entrance, splintering up the top and travelling along the ceiling and walls in the immediate area. Already weakened, the whole entrance passage joins the laboratory in coming apart.
"Watch out!" Naruto shouts as the girl is almost obscured with dust.
From within the flying debris, the last of his clones appears and shoves her out of the way. An instant later, a large block of the ceiling slams into the place where she once stood. Naruto is just in time to catch Sarada before she hits the ground, but there's no time to rest. The whole hallway and tunnel network begins to crumble as well.
"Everyone move it!" Sasuke orders, as between him and Sakura they drag Kakashi up the passage.
There doesn't seem to be a minimum safe distance, though, because the cracks keep following them. As they run, large chunks of stone and dirt fall from behind, and it's all they can do to keep ahead of the destruction.
"Which way?" Sakura demands. "Kakashi-sensei said he marked them, but—"
"Who cares? Just don't die!" Sasuke snaps as a passage near them implodes.
They have nowhere to go except straight, relentlessly pursued by the roar of sand and earth crumbling. Even the ground beneath their feet threatens to give way.
"There!" Sarada shouts, pointing to a small side-space that doesn't appear to be in the path of the breaking ceiling. Sasuke wonders how she saw it—he barely noticed it—but there's no time to question and no other choice.
Everyone crams into the small tunnel, staggering over each other to fit inside.
They are hardly through when the waning light from the main hallway extinguishes, and the entrance is sealed behind them.
There's an unearthly silence.
"Is everyone okay?" Sakura whispers after several long, breathless moments.
"Other than the fact we're buried underground?" Naruto croaks. "Yeah, great."
He makes a spitting sound, which Sakura supposes is him clearing the earth and dust from his mouth.
"Watch it!" Sasuke snaps, and there's the sound of a fist smacking thick bone.
"Hey!"
Naruto clutches at his head and take a swing at his teammate; his arm goes wide and Sasuke dodges with ease. Despite the lack of light, Sasuke can see everyone's outlines well enough with his Sharingan. There are darker patches on everyone's faces, mostly bruises and dirt, but otherwise they appear all right.
He's uncomfortably relieved at that.
"Let's not do that again," Sarada says, grimacing.
"You were the one with the bright idea to collapse the ceiling of an underground cave on us." Sasuke's voice is derisive as he examines his chest, wincing as he prods the gashes there. The bleeding isn't life-threatening, but he'll need to treat it soon before infection sets in.
"It worked, didn't it? Also…ow."
"Can we get some light in here?" Sakura asks. "I can't see a thing."
"Speak for yourself."
"Not all of us can see in the dark, Sasuke," she chides, exasperated with him for the first time all day. "Hold on. I think Kakashi-sensei has another glow stick in his pack." She rummages.
"How is he?" Naruto asks.
"Unconscious. He's breathing, though, and his pulse is normal, so that's a good sign."
"Why did he pass out like that?"
"Exhaustion, I think. Whatever he did to that teleporting curse-marked guy, it took a lot out of him."
"What did he do?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say he somehow shifted the Ghost-Man into another dimension. It would make sense, considering the way he was talking about different dimensions earlier today. But I never realised that he could do it. Can all Sharingan do that, Sasuke?"
"No," is the flat reply. "That was a higher-level ability. I've never seen it before. But I want to find out how and why he has it."
"He shouldn't have done it," Sarada declares fervently. "He could've gotten himself killed—then all of…all of us would have been in trouble."
"Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have done it if he didn't have to," Sakura retorts. "He would never put his comrades in danger unless he had no other choice."
"Besides, we did fine," Naruto insists. "I was awesome, as usual, and only had to pick up Sasuke's slack a little." Thwack! "Ow! Stop that!"
"Knock it off, you two! There's hardly enough room in here as it is!"
Which isn't exactly true. The spot where they've all come to rest is just shy of where the earth has caved in, cutting them off from the rest of the underground hallways. This side-space also leads somewhere—Sasuke just isn't sure where.
"Oh, look, there's more tunnel," Sarada says, scanning ahead a little. Sasuke frowns, not sure how she can see that, especially before Sakura opens one of the glow-sticks with a crack. The area is filled with a familiar, eerie green light and Sarada turns back to them. "I bet there's another way out that way. If we follow the—"
Three shocked gasps interrupt her.
Naruto's jaw slackens, and Sakura feels the colour drain from her cheeks. Sasuke's pupils constrict to angry pinpoints within his Sharingan, and a choking sensation clogs his throat.
Sharingan.
Sarada, impossibly, has the Sharingan.
"I knew it!" Naruto cries, cutting through the tense silence. "I knew I—"
"I thought I was imagining it," Sakura gasps. "You really have the—?"
"Sharingan," Sasuke finishes.
Sarada's attempt to explain is cut off when he surges forward with a growl, shoving her back against the tightly packed rubble. A pained cry tears from her throat as her shoulder connects with a particularly pointy stone, but he doesn't care.
"What the hell are you?" Sasuke demands, tomoe wheeling and spinning at her as he seeks some clue to how she has eyes like him.
"Hey, Sasuke, stop!" Naruto cries, trying to pull him away.
Sasuke ignores him, elbowing the blond boy off with one arm while the other settles against the base of Sarada's throat.
Desperation and confusion well up within him, as well as a vicious, primal anger at the thought that perhaps this girl somehow stole these eyes. It's the most serious crime among the Uchiha, after all, but no…he doesn't sense anyone else's chakra signature but her, so they belong to her, but—
"Stop, Sasuke! Please!" Sakura implores. "We need to find out what's going on, and we can't if you—"
"Going on? Isn't it obvious?" he hisses. "She's an experiment. Orochimaru somehow got his hands on a Sharingan. He cloned it or something and implanted it into her!"
"I thought the time-travel story sounded weird," Naruto stage-whispers. "It's cool and all, but it doesn't make any sense."
"I'm not an experiment!"
"All the Uchiha but me are dead," Sasuke tells her savagely. "Except one, even if he can barely be counted. And you're not him, so you must be one of Orochimaru's creations."
"Maybe there's a secret branch of the Uchiha who survived," Sakura suggests, sounding timid and hopeful.
"Sarada…"
Everyone goes silent at the croak of her name. Kakashi doesn't move, but both of his eyes are fixed upon her.
"Kakashi-sensei! Are you—?"
"There's a…simple explanation…for all this." He ignores Sakura's question, focussed only on Sarada. Every word sounds like it's an effort. "I'm afraid…you have no choice. Time to…tell the truth."
His mask crinkles a bit, like he's trying to smile at her, trying to invite her to explain herself.
"We're long past the point…where we can do anything about it. Right now…we need to hear…the truth."
"That's only gonna happen if Sasuke stops trying to kill her," Naruto points out.
Sasuke makes a disapproving noise at the back of his throat but removes his arm. Sarada takes a shuddering breath, massaging her neck with her uninjured hand.
"I swear, I didn't lie to you guys before," she insists. "I really am from the future, and I know all of you because I'm—"
"Anything you say now is probably a lie to cover your own skin," Sasuke cuts her off.
"No! I can prove it! I-I know stuff! Stuff other people wouldn't, n-not if you didn't trust them!"
"A talented ninja can easily obtain any kind of information. Especially under torture."
"Shinobi look for state secrets or classified information," she counters. "Not the little things! Like…like Naruto!"
The blond boy startles at being addressed.
"You once told me—will tell me—that you sewed a training dummy up to look like Kakashi," she declares. "And every time you got assigned a cat-rescue mission, you'd go home and throw shuriken at it."
Sasuke's expression doesn't change, but Sakura's flit to Naruto in something like nervous amusement—or exasperation. "That's really immature, Naruto."
The blond boy chuckles nervously, then shoves a finger at Sarada. "She's lying! Remember? Creepy experiment from the future? I'd never—"
"I already knew about the dummy," Kakashi sighs, trying to pull himself into a sitting position. His arms wobble as he tries, so Sakura moves to help him up at once. "Naruto, you realise I'm…not the one who assigns our missions…right?"
"Yeah, but you make us accept 'em—and hold on! You've been in my room?!"
"A few times. You should watch those sell-by dates on your milk."
"Stay on topic!" Sakura barks and then shoots a distrustful glare at Sarada. "That's not very good proof. Kakashi already knew, so it wouldn't exactly be hard for someone to guess."
Sarada desperately casts about for something else to say.
"Um…Kakashi! He actually spends days coming up with ideas for his competitions with Gai! Then he pretends like it's just something he thought up on the spur of the moment."
Kakashi's normal eye narrows at her. "I do not."
"You do, too! You told me yourself about the can-opener competition."
Even in the dark, she can see him go red beneath his mask.
"What can-opener competition?" Naruto asks, but Sasuke has had enough.
"None of this is anything you couldn't have found out with observation," he snaps at her. "It doesn't prove a thing."
She looks like she's struggling, panic in her eyes, and then she blurts out, "You slept with a green plush dinosaur until the night before you started the Academy."
Sasuke freezes; beside him, Naruto huffs in amusement, and Sakura's expression softens in an embarrassing affection.
"How do you… No. You could have still—"
"It belonged to your brother before it belonged to you," she continues. "And you told me it's the only thing you kept from before he left."
He's too surprised to speak right now, and she takes advantage of it.
"You weren't going to keep it. But when you were about to throw it out, you remembered something your mother told you. About how she got your father to win it for her in a game of yo-yo tsuri, and you kept it on account of her and—"
"Stop."
To everyone's surprise, he is now moving away from her. He crawls backward, pushing himself to his feet so he can take another step away. His eyes are back to normal now, despite staring at her like he can't decide whether he is amazed or terrified by her.
"Who are you?" Naruto asks. "Why would we tell you this stuff?"
That's the question of the day, really. And there's no other choice but to answer it now.
"My name is Sarada…Uchiha," she whispers. "And the reason I know all that stuff is that I'm…well…Sasuke Uchiha is my…my father."
There is a heavy silence.
Everyone's gaze flies to Sasuke, who continues to stare at Sarada. There is definitely more fear than amazement in his eyes now now.
"But that's…that can't be," Sakura murmurs hesitantly.
"No way," Naruto adds, goggle-eyed.
"It has to be," Sasuke says, surprising them by speaking, though his voice is hoarse. Thoughts whizz too quickly through his mind for him to focus on any one, and so he focusses on the most simple. "She's from the future, and she knows… I wouldn't have told…" He gives his head a little shake and his features become carefully blank. It's the same expression Sarada is used to from his future self. "The only way there could be a Sharingan in the future is if I have completed my goals."
"Goals?" she repeats.
"'Kill a certain person and restore the clan'," Sakura says out loud, gaping at Sasuke's back. "So that means you…"
"The only other person who could pass on the Sharingan must be dead," Sasuke says. "I wouldn't go on to restore the clan until after that happened."
Silence passes over the entire group as his exact meaning sets in.
"Uh, Sasuke? I don't mean to…be the depressing one or anything," Naruto begins tentatively. "But how can we be sure she's yours and not… I mean, it's like you said :there's still two of you left. So isn't it possible that…" He can't seem to bring herself to say it, but everyone grasps the idea.
"If by some twist of fate Itachi is the one who kills me in the future, he wouldn't sire children," Sasuke dismisses, his voice turning bitter. "He's too focussed on testing himself. And what would be the point after he went through so much trouble to murder his entire family?"
Sarada jerks as if someone has just stuck an icy knife into her back.
"What?" she chokes, eye moving rapidly like she is doing some quick thinking. Then, she whispers, "You mean…the 'grave misfortune'…that was…?" She tries to speak again, barely able to control the tremble in her voice. "What do you mean…he murdered…?"
Sasuke narrows his eyes at her. "You have all of that useless information about us, but you don't know the history of our clan?"
"She wouldn't," Kakashi speaks up. "You wouldn't tell her." Sasuke looks like he wants to argue, but Kakashi goes on. "Sasuke, you wouldn't wish…that knowledge…on any other child. Especially your own."
"And let's face it," Naruto pipes up. "You never even really told us, and we're your best friends!"
"Hm." Sasuke grunts, neither in confirmation nor denial, but can't seem to come up with a credible argument for that.
"What happened?" Sarada repeats. "You never said—"
Sasuke scowls and glares at his feet; noticing this, Sakura speaks up. "You shouldn't tell her. If your future self doesn't tell her, I bet there's a reason."
Sasuke doesn't argue—he doesn't say anything. Instead, his eyes fix on Sarada's face, trying to pick out little details he didn't notice before. There's a haunted, almost hungry purpose in his actions now.
"Wait a minute," Naruto says. "If Sasuke's your dad—or will be your dad—or…ugh, this is confusing…"
"Who's your mother?" Sakura finishes, a somewhat fearful tremble in her voice as if she wants to find out but doesn't at the same time.
"I—She's—" Sarada begins, not sure if it's a good idea to answer.
Thankfully, Naruto interrupts. "Well, Sarada's super strong. Hey! I bet it's Granny Tsunade!"
"You idiot! She's like fifty years old!" Sakura hisses, throwing a series of punches that Naruto barely ducks.
"Hey, don't get mad at me! Sasuke might be into that sort of thing and that's why he never—"
"Oh, no, he's not!"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Ow-ow—OW! Stop it!"
"Both of you, shut up," Sasuke growls.
"Yeah," Sarada agrees. "I really don't need to hear—"
"She might take on an apprentice at some point," Sakura suggests after a spell, sounding depressed.
"Oh, yeah! That's true! Hey, isn't that Tenten girl always talking about how Granny's her hero?" Naruto guesses. "I bet it's her! I mean, that'd make sense, seeing as how she's such a great fighter and all."
Sasuke clenches his fists, teeth bared in fury at his teammates. "If you two don't stop talking, I will gut you."
"That's enough, all of you," Kakashi speaks up, much to Sakura's relief.
"We've already decided that sharing…future information must be kept to…a minimum," Kakashi continues, firm despite his exhaustion. "Knowing Sarada is an Uchiha is…helpful…to our immediate situation."
Sakura protests. "But Kakashi-sensei—"
"Any other…information…is of no consequence to the mission," he insists, although his eyes linger briefly on the pink-haired girl.
He glances back to Sarada, raising an eyebrow, and she nods incrementally.
Well, that complicates things.
"While I'm…sure that Sasuke's future…partner…is someone very strong and capable…there's also the possibility…of her being furious at us for putting Sarada…in danger. We shouldn't waste…any more time."
Sarada nods to herself. The message is clear: reveal nothing else.
Naruto and Sakura look put out by this order, but Sasuke seems more than ready to comply. In fact, he has focussed his attention squarely on Kakashi now.
"No, we shouldn't," he agrees, his voice carefully controlled. "As you said, that information is useless to us right now. But there is something relevant to the mission that I'd like to know." The cool glare he trains on the jōnin intensifies. "How long have you had the Mangekyō Sharingan, Kakashi?"
つづく
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