Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to Kia-B, lilshadow lover, xXYour DoomXx, Maxine, FallenAngelItachi, MuffinMan9223, Cupcakecat, unknown90s, Breezy2319, Hawkllama, CallMeSenseiKuchiki, queenofthenial, Blueberry Bliss, x Misty me x, princesasuhina, Elephantsneedwater, Saki-Hime, TheValkyrieGladiator, patheticnemesis, Honeyee, Kibachow, BFeather9 x, Megingjoro, jex the dork, Renoa Heartilly, Tamani, rao hyuga 18, xHinaLovex, BekotaTheMonsterHuntress, onlyluna, RikuDai, Toadettegirl2012, Ana, LovitaSxH, and LindyLinn for all your wonderful reviews! Also thanks to everyone who continues to add this to their favorite and follow lists!
Author's Note: I just keep throwing things at you one after another, I know. The intensity for these chapters was so crazy when I was writing them, I always came out of them completely exhausted. But it was so totally worth it, especially when they turned out exactly the way I'd imagined them. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
*~Chapter XIV~*
~Faith~
The pain was incredible, like nothing Sasuke had ever felt before in his life. He felt like he was being burned alive. A paper bomb seemed to have gone off in his head, for there was nothing else to explain the explosive blast of pain burning through his very brain.
White sparks exploded across his vision, sending him reeling. He clutched his head, desperate for the pain to go away.
He could hear laughing. Screaming. Talking. All seeping past the ringing so loud he thought his eardrums would burst.
Hinata. She had fallen, and he knew he'd seen blood. Sasuke had seen firsthand the power of Kabuto's surgically-accurate chakra strikes; the fact he'd struck Hinata...
If only he could get rid of the pain. The ringing in his ears. The fire engulfing his vision.
Then he could move. He could get to Hinata, protect her against Orochimaru and Kabuto and every other egotistical power monger who wanted to hurt her.
Rolling onto his hands and knees, Sasuke swallowed back the hot, acidic bile welling into his throat. He would not lose his breakfast. He would not disgrace himself. And he would not let Hinata get hurt any further just because he was some wimp who couldn't take the pain.
Pain made him stronger. He knew that. He could fight past it, use it to fuel his attacks.
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, surprised when the ringing in his ears and buzzing in his brain actually diminished. Feeling his equilibrium starting to return, Sasuke opened his eyes.
Blinked.
Squinted.
Blinked again.
Oh, no.
Though somewhat blurred, he could still see the world through his right eye. But the familiar blackness had returned to his left, leaving him blind once again - this time, he feared, permanently.
Sasuke had felt the Sharingan fade out of his right eye: irritating, but not painful. But the sheer explosiveness of the burnout in his left eye made him feel reasonably sure he'd somehow managed to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, albeit briefly, the devastating power of it damaging his left eye, leaving it blind.
Yet left eye or not, Sharingan or not, Sasuke still had a battle to fight and win. He still had to protect Hinata. And he still had a snake to repay.
He moved to brace his left hand against the ground, but a fresh burst of pain almost sent him tumbling. Only then did he realize why he felt like he was on fire.
The sheer amount of chakra required to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan had broken Kakashi's seal. The effects of the curse mark had been loosed upon him, and if he didn't do something fast, it might finish him off.
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke focused the full power of his will on the curse mark and the power of it pumping through him. He pictured it as a tidal wave swamping him, and his will as a shield pushing it back into containment.
But then came a voice out of his past, out of his nightmares, as calm and cold and calculating as it had ever been: "I've been looking for you, Orochimaru. This ends now."
Itachi.
His traitor of a brother, the murderer of their clan.
Here.
In Konoha.
How?
Scrambling to regain control of that dangerous tidal wave threatening to overwhelm him, Sasuke slowly turned his head to face the same general area from which Orochimaru and Kabuto had appeared.
Time had not changed Uchiha Itachi very much at all. His face, cold and remote, seemed only a little thinner and paler than the last time Sasuke saw him. His dark hair hung in a ponytail behind him, half-hidden by the high collar of his shirt. The red of his Sharingan seemed even brighter against his pale skin and inky hair. He stood with his feet a shoulder's width apart, his arms crossed, his gaze zeroed in on Orochimaru as if he hadn't even noticed Sasuke.
Hatred and resentment bubbled into Sasuke's throat. All these years of planning revenge on Itachi, and suddenly the man just shows up out of nowhere! And, to add insult to injury, he didn't even seem to notice Sasuke was in the village, let alone the clearing.
Like Sasuke was beneath his notice. Like he didn't matter. Like the waves of hatred radiating from him were self-destructing against an invisible, impenetrable shield around the elder Uchiha brother.
Sasuke did not like being ignored. Fiercely shoving back the last shockwaves of pain pulsing from the curse mark, he pushed himself to his feet and opened his mouth to scream at his brother-
-Another scream, clearly not from his own throat, interrupted him. Sasuke spun to his left in time to see with his good right eye Kabuto double over, face twisted in agony, hands flying to cover a rather sensitive part of his anatomy as his knees went out from under him.
And, revealed by Kabuto's collapsing form, Hinata lowered her hand, blue chakra fizzing away from around it, a look of grim satisfaction on her ashen face.
Orochimaru didn't even look around at his subordinate's howl of pain. Instead he charged Itachi, a crazed look in his golden snake eyes, the tongue lolling from his mouth wrapped around the hilt of a sword which he quickly grabbed with his right hand.
Sasuke, poised squarely between Orochimaru and Itachi, hesitated for half a heartbeat. All his instincts screamed for him to attack - Orochimaru? Itachi? he was torn equally between them - while the more rational part of his mind warned him to get out of the way.
Against his deepest rooted desires, he followed the latter instinct. He barely cleared the area before Orochimaru charged straight through where Sasuke had been kneeling just a fraction of a moment ago. The younger Uchiha brother reached into the pouch at his waist and withdrew a kunai. Hauling his hand back, he launched it toward the retreating snake's figure. But with his depth perception so badly messed up by a blind eye, he completely missed. Sasuke ground his teeth as Itachi's form flickered briefly, then appeared behind Orochimaru's still-charging form.
Forcing himself to turn away from the fight, Sasuke got to his feet and ran across the distance separating him from Hinata. On his way past, he briefly checked Kabuto, who was as pale as his hair and quite clearly unconscious.
Half-falling on his knees next to Hinata, his good eye settled on the surgically-precise bleeding wound extending from her right shoulder down her chest and across her stomach to her left hip like a macabre sash. "Hinata," he breathed.
She was still conscious, the corners of her eyes and mouth pinched with pain, face paper white, eyes glassy. "K-Kabuto?" she whispered.
Despite the grimness of the situation, Sasuke felt his lips briefly twitch. "Won't be helping procreate the next generation of four-eyed freaks any time soon. More likely never." A Gentle Fist between the legs would certainly do that to a man.
He made a mental note never to make Hinata mad at him.
Her eyes flickered past him, and Sasuke turned his head to follow her gaze to where Orochimaru and Itachi battled. The snake was making an obvious effort to avoid looking at the elder Uchiha's eyes and right forefinger, having apparently had encounters with the power of Itachi's Sharingan in the past.
"Your brother," Hinata whispered, her voice thready with pain. "How-?"
"I don't know." Sasuke still longed to jump into the fight, but at the same time, he wanted to stay close to Hinata in case the conflict came closer - or Kabuto somehow, miraculously, managed to become a threat again. "But I'll tell you this much - he won't be leaving Konoha again." By the time he was done, there wouldn't be enough left for even a body bag. He'd make sure of that.
Hinata made a muffled sound suspiciously like a moan. Sasuke immediately turned back to her. "How bad is it?" he asked.
She shook her head. "It's not deep as it could have been. I managed to dodge enough so he didn't hit any vital organs or arteries, and I don't think I'm in danger of bleeding out. But it hurts." She hissed between her teeth, the air leaking from between lips as pale as her eyes.
Just as Sasuke considered stripping out of his shirt to use it as a bandage, he heard a choked gasp behind him. Spinning on his heels, he aimed his right eye back toward Orochimaru and Itachi, where everything had suddenly gone silent.
Orochimaru stood with his sword arrested mid-motion, swinging toward Itachi. The latter, looking unmoved and unruffled, stood with the black pattern of his red eyes clearly showing Mangekyō Sharingan.
In that moment, Sasuke knew what was happening. And he knew he had to take advantage of it now.
Channeling lightning chakra into his left hand, he allowed the chirping sound of his chidori to fill his ears as he rose to his feet.
Eyes focused on his two worst enemies, he charged.
The world drifted in and out of focus, leaving Hinata wondering if she'd been incorrect when she told Sasuke she wouldn't die of blood loss. As long as she didn't move and didn't breathe deeply, she could barely tolerate the pain. Unfortunately, a pretty serious fight was happening not that far away, so she wasn't sure she had the luxury of staying put.
As she opened her mouth to ask Sasuke how his eyes were doing - it was obvious he could see her, but he moved his head in strange ways which made her wonder how well he could see her - when he spun away from her. For a moment he stared across the clearing to where Itachi and Orochimaru stood in some sort of deadlock, unmoving as a pair of statues.
Just like the night Sasuke had his nightmare, the hair on the back of Hinata's neck prickled. Only this time she didn't have a chance to stop him before his chidori charged to life, its high-pitched chirping filling her ears.
Hinata ascertained his intention only a moment before he leaped to his feet and charged. She jolted up onto one elbow, right hand reaching out to catch him back, but the movement stole her breath, leaving her there to watch helplessly as he headed straight toward disaster. Sasuke-! She had no breath with which to call his name, not that it would have done any good anyway.
She knew he was committed to his path now, and nothing she - or anyone - did or said would turn him aside.
Propped up on her elbow, Hinata watched as Sasuke determinedly approached the enemy: chidori blazing, free hand curled into a fist, face set in an expression of absolute hatred. But one question blazed at the forefront of her mind: Which one is he going after?
The answer came only a moment later. Sasuke's chidori - hand, arm, and all - went straight through Orochimaru's chest from the back, directly targeting his heart. The snake made a soft sound of surprise and pain before crumpling, lifeless, to the ground.
Sasuke staggered back, his clean right hand going to his shoulder. Hinata saw the black symbols which had been crawling over his skin had vanished, as well as the original which had looked a bit like his Sharingan.
The curse mark! Killing Orochimaru released it! Hinata felt a tired, grim little smile curl up the corners of her mouth. Now its threat would no longer be hanging over his head, limiting everything he did.
With Orochimaru out of the way and his equilibrium regained, Sasuke turned his attention to his brother. Both hands clenched into fists, his expression tight, he said through gritted teeth, "This is the end for you, Itachi."
The elder Uchiha brother stood still and silent, eyes focused on the younger's face, his expression positively inscrutable. He looked like he expected something - almost anticipated something.
Hinata watched from across the clearing, a helpless bystander, as the brothers faced off. She honestly didn't know who would win, though she did know she wished with every fiber of her being she could help Sasuke. It felt like she'd just gotten him, as it were. She didn't want to lose him.
The distinctive chirp of the chidori began anew, charging the air as Sasuke continued to face down his brother. His murderous intent flowed across the field, so thick it was almost visible.
Hinata sensed the approaching chakra only a moment before Team Kakashi burst from the treeline in a defensive formation, Naruto in the lead (of course). She felt her heart leap in her chest, but from relief, not affection.
Sakura cut across the clearing toward Hinata as Naruto, Kakashi, and Sai hurried to back up Sasuke. The pink-haired medic cast a dark look toward the still-unconscious figure of Kabuto curled up on the ground, his face set in a grimace. Kneeling next to Hinata, the kunoichi took in the entire picture in one quick, professional glance.
"How are you here?" Hinata asked, voice thin. "I thought - you were on a - a mission?" Something was happening over by where the rest of Team Kakashi, Sasuke, and Itachi stood, but Sakura was in her way, and Hinata couldn't see what was going on.
Already Sakura was at work staunching Hinata's bleeding with her chakra-charged hands. "We were," she said grimly. "Lady Tsunade sent us to track down Itachi's whereabouts." She frowned severely, moving her hands steadily across Hinata's wound, tenuously mending the damage. "Unfortunately, we didn't catch up with him until after he breached Konoha's walls."
To Hinata, this was a good thing. Considering how things had been going with her and Sasuke against Orochimaru and Kabuto, Itachi's showing up had been fortuitous indeed. Though she was probably the only one who saw things that way...
Suddenly Sasuke appeared over Sakura's shoulder, his eyes black with anger, but features oddly wiped clear of emotion. "I'll carry her to the hospital," he said brusquely.
Sakura startled slightly and looked up at him. "Oh, Sasuke. What...?" She looked from him to Hinata, then back again, expression puzzled.
As soon as Sakura moved, Hinata could see past the kunoichi across the clearing. Naruto stood with his arms crossed, head down and jutted forward slightly, an unhappy expression on his face. Kakashi and Sai flanked Itachi, who still stood calmly, his hands restrained behind him. His dark eyes were fixed on his brother's profile, expression unreadable.
Hinata suddenly understood the anger radiating from Sasuke. Instead of being allowed to get his revenge on his brother, Itachi had been taken prisoner.
This situation, she feared, would not end well.
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: So Orochimaru and Kabuto got theirs, but Sasuke's been foiled in his desire for revenge thanks to the arrival of the rest of his team. There's still so much left to do in this story, and I'm so excited about it! These chapters were so intense to write (and the intensity doesn't really drop that much in the next few, really), I always came out of each of them exhausted. But I was so pleased nonetheless, because they turned out pretty much exactly the way I'd envisioned. Which doesn't happen as often as you'd think - sometimes it's better, sometimes it's not. But I was really happy that everything lined up and fell into place the way I wanted for Blind Faith. Thank you all so much for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you all again for next week's update!
Q & A: Two questions to answer this time! Several people wanted to know how Itachi and Orochimaru got into the village without any apparant fuss. Canonically, we've seen them both do it before. They're each from Konoha, thus intimately familiar with the ins and outs (both literally and figuratively) of the village. Plus I've always figured there are other ways to get in that don't necessarily involve coming through the guarded gates, and I figure they'd both know those routes. The other question had to do with Sasuke's awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan. A couple of people wanted to know: was it the power of the curse mark that did it, or Hinata being in such danger? The answer: both. Kakashi's seal on the curse mark was so weak it shattered, which gave Sasuke the power he needed, and Hinata's being injured was the catalyst. I hope that answers your questions, and thanks for asking them!