Chapter 13

(every little thing)

-/-

The afternoon has brightened up at last
For rain is falling, sudden and minute.
Falling or fallen. There is no dispute:
Rain is a thing that happens in the past.

- Jorge Luis Borges, Rain

-/-

"You're a genjutsu master. Aren't you, Izuna? A genjutsu master that has no equal in the world..."

In the painfully familiar room full of painfully familiar things, Sakura watched Izuna as she spoke and was properly impressed that his face betrayed no emotion. No frowning, no eyebrow-raising he was so good at, no widening of the eyes, no change at all. As if she had suggested he maybe liked meat slightly more than fish or that it might theoretically rain sooner or later that month.

That was one superb example of self-control. She only wished she could boast of similar achievements in this department, but alas, it was probably not to be.

Or she could be mistaken. All her wild guessing and fever-driven thinking might have resulted in a fabulous idea that had nothing to do with the reality (what was the reality these days, anyway?), and most likely Izuna was now contemplating the prospects of sharing the end of the world with a woman going slowly mad.

Sakura thought of the hours spent sitting with her back to the wall, looking at the place where the world was no longer what it used to be, concocting a theory where stuff would actually add up and fit together for once and – more importantly – where there would at least a sliver of hope that things might eventually make sense again, if only she could think of a decent plan.

But maybe it had all been her fatigue, and her wounds, and the growing despair whispering into her mental ear. Maybe there was no logic, and the world was beyond repair after all.

And Izuna getting resurrected was, perhaps, nothing but a fluke.

Some things were dying, other things were coming alive. Randomly. Why not?

Get a grip. I need to get a grip. Now.

Haha! Easy to say!

Sakura concentrated on Izuna again, on his face, painfully familiar too, so calm she could almost forget the predicament they were in, if only for a moment.

My predicament, not ours! he doesn't count!

She thought, I need to stay strong.

And then she thought, yes, but for how long? and wouldn't it be nice to not have to stay strong all the damn time?

Across the desk, Izuna sighed softly and said – in the same indifferent, feather-light tone, "I suppose I am."

Her brain registered the words but refused to interpret them. Sakura looked into his black eyes, and tried to galvanize herself into thinking but failed.

Instead she realized, to her own surprise, that she was getting used to the fact that he looked so much like Sasuke. There even was – the horror! – some small comfort in that. If he resembled Madara instead, how would she fare? She would end up subconsciously blaming him for every Madara's crime against the world, most likely. This way, she only had to make sure she didn't forget that it was all on the outside, Izuna only looked like Sasuke, and didn't try to inflict her feelings on him. That was easy, because Izuna made no effort to be nice.

Oh gods, she was right about him after all. A genjutsu master.

The genjutsu master.

"Eh," Sakura said, eloquent as a cave dweller. "Just wondering, but how come we don't know anything about you if you're so good?" Inwardly, she repeated her own words and hurried to add, "And I'm not doubting your talents or anything, I just don't get–"

Izuna raised a hand to stop her. "Yes, I understood what you wanted to say, Sakura. No need to fret."

"I'm not fre–"

"There are several reasons as to why you and your generation know nothing about me," Izuna said in a level voice. "The first is Madara."

"What do you mean?" She scratched her nose. "Madara of all people seems to be last person who might want to wipe the fact of your existence out of the history chronicles. You were like, I don't know, the light of his whole life..." Sakura thought about the eye exchange practiced by the Uchiha and suppressed a shiver of disgust. "Literally, too."

"I wasn't talking about that, Sakura. I mean that Madara, unlike me, stayed alive and did a great number of things that went down in history, no matter what you think of him now. He agreed to the pact with the Senju – you people consider it a good thing."

"Because it was a good thing!"

"I beg to differ, but it doesn't matter now. Madara founded your village together with Hashirama, and you remember him as one of the founders. The founding of Konoha changed the balance of power, first here in this country, and then it spread to other lands. The understanding of the word shinobi changed, unless I have failed to make sense of your incoherent rambling. The society veered in a completely new direction, didn't it? And Madara was also the leader of the clan throughout all that. Are you still with me?"

"Yeah, sure." She had never really thought about the Founding and the role Madara and Hashirama had played in a such a dry, crisp way.

For her, Madara was always the embodiment of evil, the enemy, and Hashirama was... like some sort of a father to all Konoha ninja. It seemed a little silly but it was true. The Will of Fire that was talked about like a heirloom they had inherited from him. His words that the older shinobi would occasionally quote. It was a bit of a family matter. He was the pride of who resided in the village. The outsiders probably didn't share the sentiment.

Suddenly, some of the obscure historical squabbles with other nations, as well as certain reactions she had sometimes got from her friends from the Sand village made much more sense.

And still. Izuna made everything sound so political...

"...and then Madara defected from Konoha, which was obviously regarded as betrayal, and tried to destroy it, which was open war. And then he and Hashirama fought their final battle, and Hashirama won." Contrary to what Sakura had expected, he looked neither upset, not angry. Only thoughtful. "My brother proceeded to do other things after that, but to answer your original question, that is enough. Who would remember me or any other Uchiha of our generation, for that matter, when there is Madara?"

Yes, she thought, who would? Madara's presence overshadows everything.

She wondered if Izuna felt offended to be left out like that but she didn't have enough courage to ask him.

"Well, that is the first reason," he said, and Sakura remembered his earlier words and was surprised that anyone might need more.

"What are the other reasons?"

"The second one is fairly simple – I never advertised my own skills too much."

Attention! barked Inner Sakura from the depths of her mind.

Izuna might have said it was all simple, but Sakura could just sense it wasn't.

She eyed him intently. "What do you mean? Even if you didn't brag about your awesomeness at every corner, it's not like you didn't fight, right? Especially in your own horrible time when little kids were sent into battle..."

"I certainly fought quite a lot, yes. In my horrible time." Izuna didn't smile, but his eyes changed imperceptibly, and Sakura was just so sure he was amused.

He was having fun watching her struggle trying to figure him out. The bastard.

She shot him a nasty look. "Then other people must have seen you doing your genjutsu tricks!"

"Oh they did see." Izuna paused, seemingly considering his own statement. And added as if on an afterthought, "Sometimes they did, anyway."

Deciding to ignore the last comment for the sake of not getting sidetracked, Sakura pressed on. "Then how come no one wrote it down or told anyone else? You were all split into clans... so if someone saw how good you were, I expect they should have run back to their clans to warn them to avoid you at all costs."

"Yes, naturally." Izuna stretched languidly and yawned, but at least had the decency to cover his mouth with a hand. "That is the reason I always made sure they never came back to their clans. I dislike people who yap to much." He grinned at Sakura. "Which is practically everyone."

It was a dazzling grin, wide and open, the sort Sakura had never seen on Sasuke's face. It made Izuna look so handsome, both so much like Sasuke and so unlike him at the same time, that her heart ached and started to beat faster.

How was it possible to combine fake and honest, how did he manage to sound so sincere and tell the truth – she was sure he was telling the truth and she didn't know why – and still give away nothing, answer nothing, and confuse her more and more every time he spoke.

Something in his black eyes seemed to pull her in, and she could hardly resist even though his words contradicted his expression and his laid-back attitude, even though he was saying–

Breathing heavily, Sakura shot up from her chair, kicking it back in the process, and slammed her fist into Tsunade's desk. She didn't use chakra because very little of it had returned, and the wooden surface sustained the blow. A paper pyramid swayed and toppled slowly sideways, documents and letters and notes fluttering down all around them, and absurdly, in the back of her mind, Sakura thought about dying birds, big white birds with sharp beaks that lived in the cliffs along the shores of the northern countries, tumbling into the cold, dark water to their death.

The world narrowed down, and she could only see Izuna, still sitting with his feet propped on the desk, still lounging in Tsunade's old, worn-out chair.

He hadn't moved an inch.

His grin was gone, and he was watching her curiously. Or at least it looked like curiosity to her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard!?" she breathed out. Her hand throbbed with pain but she didn't care.

"What do you think I think about what I am doing?" Izuna folded his arms across his chest as if to show her that he didn't consider her a threat and was not going to need his hands to fight her.

Sakura was momentarily rendered speechless. White-hot fury bubbled in her throat, laced every cell of her body, made her blood boil.

And he had the gall–

"Don't you dare mess with my head again or I swear I shall bash your skull as soon as I get back my chakra! You were casting a genjutsu on me, weren't you? Why? Why did you do it, damn you?"

Izuna remained quiet for a moment. Then he said, "And what made you think I was casting a genjutsu?"

"Because I felt like...like I was..," she stuttered, trying desperately to find the right words, but the language seemed to lack them, or maybe her vocabulary lacked them, and every phrase that occurred to her sounded horrible and weird and just plain disturbing. "Like you were..."

One corner of Izuna's mouth quirked up.

Sakura could feel her face turn red, whether from indignation or embarrassment she couldn't say.

She would not allow him to mock her.

"I felt," she said, meticulously articulating every word, "that I suddenly liked you even though you were talking about how you used to kill people to prevent them from telling their clans about you, and that's just wrong. I thought," she gritted her teeth and wished for the World Tree to make an appearance and whisk her away, "I thought that you were good-looking, and I never, ever think about you in that way. I wanted to be around you, which I don't really want at all!"

Her face was probably on fire.

"Interesting," Izuna said.

A moment passed.

Her knuckles were bleeding, and her shoulder began to ache dully again – the effect of the painkillers was probably wearing off. Her injured leg was barely able to support her weight.

She was so exhausted, so out of ….out of everything, really. Out of chakra, out of energy, out of useful ideas and things to say.

Another moment passed.

Head oddly empty, Sakura pulled the chair toward herself and collapsed into it with a groan. She shut her eyes and decided she'd had enough. She refused to look at Izuna. He could sit there for as long as he wanted. He could camp there until the end of forever. She wasn't going to move or speak or dignify him with another reaction.

Good grief, that was just so humiliating!

The Sharingan, said her inner self.

The Sharingan? Forcing herself to stay put, Sakura made another valiant attempt to analyze the situation. Something about his Sharingan was wrong.

He didn't use it, that's what's wrong. Whatever he did, he did it without the Sharingan.

-/-

Izuna tore his gaze away from Sakura, now slumped in the chair with a drawn face and eyes firmly shut, and congratulated himself on successfully getting on her nerves. Not that it had been the purpose, it was just an added benefit since she was so annoying.

Or maybe it was not a benefit at all. Maybe he had just made things worse.

Taking his feet off the desk, Izuna unfolded himself from the chair, and went to stand by the window, gazing out into the distance where the sun would soon begin to set behind the dark mass of trees.

It was almost dusk. Another night would fall, and the moon would rise over Konoha.

And what would happen? Would the World Tree appear again? Would it come back to chase Sakura or did it not work like that? Would he see another illusion? If he did, he would have to fight it and he really hated the idea.

Maybe he would have to make the whole village collapse into nothingness.

For the briefest of moments, Izuna seriously considered the possibility of it all being Madara's elaborate plan to finally wipe Konoha off the map without a chance of anyone showing up in the future and redrawing it.

No, that was insane.

Of course, Madara himself was likely insane, so there was actually a kind of logic in it, an elegant solution...

An elegant solution, yes.

Dark eyes narrowed, Izuna looked at the village outside the window.

He could match any genjutsu with a genjutsu of his own, and he knew it would work. He used to be the only one who could make it work in his own time, and apparently nothing had changed since then. None of the ninja that had lived and died after his death had managed to outdo him in genjutsu.

He should probably be proud. Too bad he wasn't the type to bask in the glory of the moment, especially if the likelihood of another disaster was so great even a blind man lost in a sandstorm would be unable to miss it.

Yes, to fight genjutsu with genjutsu was unheard of. Normally, Izuna wouldn't even hesitate though, even if the tactic was so crazy it was never, ever used.

By other people.

Izuna had brought the questionable subject up with his clansmen only twice. The first time was the conversation with his father, and Izuna had been thirteen at the time. Tajima Uchiha had listened, his expression a mix of bewilderment and worry, and then advised his younger son to keep in mind that he had no business getting suicidal when the clan counted on him and his extraordinary talents.

Three years later, after their father's death, he had discussed the idea with his brother. Madara had waited until the end of his speech with uncharacteristic patience.

"It can backfire in more ways than I can count," he had said finally. "Plus it's overcomplicated and unpredictable. Yes, I can see that it's an elegant solution, and you love them, but what's the purpose? You can just get rid of the caster right away."

"Consider it a genjutsu research. Besides, no one else will dare try it."

"That's for sure. In other words, you simply want to show off."

"Hark who's talking."

"Very smooth," Madara had replied with dry amusement. "But I'm not going to waste my breath telling you not to do it because you won't listen anyway. Show off all you like, just don't get yourself killed. I happen to be short of brothers as it is."

Well, Madara, Izuna thought, somewhere in a place where he locked up all the things he didn't want to see or admit and where he knew he would have to go and live one day, in the end I did let you down, didn't I?

Back then, they had never resumed that conversation, never mentioned the topic again, each of them doing what he believed was best.

But Madara had been right, of course. What Izuna tended to do was impractical and risky from the point of view of sheer pragmatism. Even a normal genjutsu was never entirely stable. Doubling or tripling the effect by slapping another one on top of it was like fighting fire with fire. And the ways it could go wrong were so many that if he started contemplating them he'd never get anything done.

It had gone wrong before, too. Only he had kept on doing it again and again, against all odds and despite all risks, until he felt he had got the hang of it, until he could see the invisible pathways of the power and could predict the unpredictable and make the impossible happen.

Well.

What had happened at the Hyuuga estate, he hadn't seen that coming.

But it had been an elegant solution nevertheless. Elegant and deadly. He had been right to not abandon the idea.

"You're all happy there, aren't you."

Sakura's voice reached him and pulled him out of his thoughts and back into the reality. He turned his head to regard her over his shoulder.

"I am?"

"Yes, you are, and it's a bit creepy, to tell you the truth." She was looking up at him from where she still sat, cradling her bleeding hand. Her blush had receded and she was deathly pale again. "Why did you use genjutsu on me, Izuna?" she repeated wearily. "It's just that it was so out of the blue and I still can't understand why. You don't seem the type to... engage in useless activities."

"I wanted to find out if you could sense it," he said simply. "I haven't used a non-Sharingan genjutsu since I woke up here, in the future."

"And now you're happy that it worked or what?"

"No. It might have worked, but against an illusion as powerful as the one I fought yesterday it will be completely useless."

She sniffed. "Why use it on me then?"

"Out of curiosity," Izuna replied honestly, and she growled.

"You jerk!"

"Well, you have succeeded at sensing that it was indeed there. Congratulations, Sakura. Few people ever do."

"Don't give me that crap! Why were you trying to make me like you? What's your purpose?"

Izuna couldn't help it. He laughed. "Making someone like me is the basic purpose of this little jutsu. It's something I normally used to coax the information I needed out of unwilling subjects... Its effect is very short-lived, it barely uses any chakra at all so it's almost undetectable, and it's very unspecific,

"Unspecific?"

"Yes. It simply allows everyone to chose whatever they find most likable about my person and then it latches onto whatever is chosen and builds around it."

"But then..." Sakura frowned.

"Indeed. In your eyes, I'm an unwelcome copy of Sasuke," She shifted under is gaze and licked her lips. "I'm sure I am. I can also see how you are still unable to decide how you should behave in my presence, and that makes you nervous and fretful, which is a rather pathetic sight, to tell you the truth. I was hardly trying to make you love me until death do us part or whatever ridiculous notion might have occurred to you. It was all in your own mind. Blame yourself."

She had made him uneasy before, with her incessant questions and the so-called analysis of his personality, it felt nice to return the blow. He didn't really want to inflict any pain on her – he would have killed her already if he wanted – but keeping her on edge, uncertain about his motives was a somewhat rewarding feeling. It was a way of controlling her, which was the main objective, and besides, he loathed it when people decided they knew everything about him.

And if I had to choose, Izuna, I would say that you were even more merciless than Madara.

He paused, eyes trained on her face.

So she was right after all, wasn't she? She might look a bit dumb, but she had guessed right.

And to think that people actually believe you're the good one, said Madara's voice in his head, a laughing voice from long ago, from a time neither of them would ever return to.

Well, Madara really did know more than enough about him. More than anyone else

But not everything. Not even Madara knew everything.

Izuna felt sick and tired of himself. If only he could give himself a break and stop thinking for a while.

He waved a hand and said, "The reason you reacted the way you did was clearly because in your overloaded mind, there is some sort of a misplaced connection between Sasuke and me, that is all. The genjutsu used this as a cornerstone, so to speak, and built its effect around this feeling. So don't get any weird ideas, Sakura – I did not mess with your head, and its contents are the same as before. You are simply obsessed with Sasuke, and, as is the case with all obsessions, it shows."

"Geez, Izuna, you are one generous guy,'" Sakura replied in an odd voice. "I don't think I have ever been diagnosed with such unforgiving clarity."

I've been called many things, but never before has anyone accused me of being more cruel than Madara.

I said you were merciless, not cruel. I'm pretty sure you know the difference between the two.

Of course, he knew. Who didn't?

He also knew which one was about life, no matter how jaded and twisted, and which one was not.

Izuna smiled again and didn't know what he felt when he saw a shadow of resignation flicker in her eyes.

-/-

"So you say the second reason you sort of don't exist in our chronicles is because you concealed your skills... but what about your own clan? They must have known!"

"Madara did. Others also knew certain things, but to a lesser extent. Suspected, mostly."

"You didn't trust your own family? Seems totally your style, you're so paranoid you probably suspect your own shadow."

"I trusted Madara. There are traitors everywhere, Sakura. There were traitors even before my death, those who wanted to leave and join the Senju ranks."

"Fine, fine, you're entitled to your own depressing philosophy and have every right to inhabit a grim world of death and decay if you wish. But how did you manage to hide your skills from the clan?"

"Because I was rarely at home. Remember I told you I had traveled a lot?"

"Dear gods, you chose a job that would allow you to practice your horrible tricks freely, didn't you?

"That was part of the reason, yes."

"And the other part?"

"Why, because I'm not big on people and civilization, of course. Why else?"

-/-

"I'm hungry, you know."

"Good for you."

"Come on... aren't you?"

"I ate earlier."

"You killed another duck?"

"No. I went fishing."

"Successfully?"

"Certainly."

"Was it Sharingan fishing?"

"It was."

"You're such a lazyass. And it's just unfair."

"I'm pragmatic above all else. A useful quality you seem to lack, Sakura. It's bound to be your undoing one of these days."

"Oh woe is me. Is there any of that fish left by any chance?"

"No. Go eat some rice crackers."

"...I hate you."

-/-

"Back already?"

"I found some noodles. But I'm not sharing cause you didn't deserve them."

"It seems that the fortune is still on my side then."

"Shut it, Izuna. What are you reading again?"

"Top secret research on sealing methods."

"What? It's called top secret for a reason, you know! It's only for the Hokage!"

"It's for whoever manages to get their hands on it, which, in this case, is me."

"No wonder your clan was all happy to let you roam the wilderness. You can drive a dead man crazy."

"Hm. I hope you are not talking from your personal experience here, Sakura."

"With you around, soon enough I will."

-/-

"Look, I just need to ask... did you really kill everyone you fought? Literally every single person? Just so they wouldn't talk about your genjutsu abilities?

"Sakura, if I really had done that, I would feature in your chronicles as the most bloodthirsty shinobi to have ever graced the earth with his presence. Of course I didn't kill every opponent I came across."

"What did you mean when you said all that? Or was that a test too? To provoke me?"

"No. I told you the truth."

"You're making less sense with every passing moment, you know."

"Not really, you are getting worse at using logic with every passing moment, that is what's happening."

"Alright. I give up. Explain yourself, don't leave me in the dark."

"You seem to have forgotten that I am capable of using taijutsu and ninjusu as well, Sakura. If I could get what I wanted without showing enemies more than what was healthy for them to know, killing them was not imperative. Not to mention that not all my opponents used genjutsu on me. In fact, I'm chagrined to admit that the vast majority of ninja have less talent for genjutsu than a drunk spider has for dancing."

"Like, their legs get tangled up?"

"More like their brains. For the lack of a better term. Which is actually the third and the final reason there are no records of my genjutsu... achievements, I dare say I should call them."

"Oh. So, no one at all lived to tell? I still find it hard to believe..."

"You are right to doubt. One man did live."

"Really? Who?"

"Who do you think?"

"...Tobirama Senju?"

-/-

Curled in the armchair, Sakura took care not to put any pressure on her shoulder. Her thoughts were slow and sluggish, and her eyelids felt heavy. She was sinking into sleep and that was a good thing, she knew. Her body needed to rest and replenish both the chakra reserve and physical strength or else it would break.

She pulled the Hokage haori snug around herself, happy to have it because absurd though it was, it provided an illusion of normality.

It was almost night outside. Tomorrow, she would probably be very busy. Tomorrow she would probably be able to heal the worst of her wounds, if not all. But for now she should sleep.

She looked at Izuna who, true to his word, had occupied the couch again and refused to swap places with her. He had suggested she should go and sleep in any of the houses, on any of the multitude of available beds, but Sakura had shot down the idea. She didn't want to risk waking up to find the mirror monster reaching for her throat or the World Tree that seemed to have a thing for her, not matter how kinky it sounded.

Of course there was no guarantee the Tree would not pay a visit to the Hokage's Residence, but Sakura suspected – was pretty sure, in fact – that whatever place Izuna deemed safe enough to doze off in was likely safe indeed. He hadn't gone anywhere else either, and that was another reason for her to stay as well.

There was only one thing bothering her, one little idea, half-formed, circling inside her head, knocking on her door, trying to make itself known.

Sakura craned her neck and looked at Izuna again. He was lying flat on his back, one arm dangling down from the couch, fingertips brushing the floor, the other folded behind his head. His eyes were closed.

She knew he was still awake. She could tell.

"Izuna?"

"Ask your question, Sakura."

"Mm... you know what I want to ask? You're not psychic, I hope? Cause that would be so creepy."

"No. And I don't know what you want to ask. But I could probably sense your agitation if you knocked me unconscious, so don't waste my time."

Sakura took several seconds to get a grip on her sleepy mind and round up her wandering thoughts.

She said, "Yesterday in the Hyuuga compound... when we talked."

"What about it?"

"We argued and you told me to leave."

"That I did."

She would roll her eyes if she weren't so sleepy. "Yeah, but I've only now thought... someone like you, with your unparalleled knowledge of genjutsu... you must have known already at that moment that it was dangerous. Right?"

The springs inside the couch issued a plaintive moan as Izuna shifted. "I knew."

"You knew," Sakura repeated softly. "You knew and yet you chased me out of the house. Although you also knew that I was no good at the illusion stuff. You did it on purpose, didn't you?"

She should be furious, she knew. She should hate him and itch to bite his head off. She could have died because of him. Why was she not feeling anything even remotely resembling anger? Was it exhaustion? Or was she simply getting so used to him and his nasty tricks that it didn't even surprise her anymore?

"You wanted to see what would happen, right?" she said. "You were sure something would happen but didn't know what. So you sent me away to divert some of the attention from yourself. To gather more information too, I guess. And probably you didn't want to show me any of your fighting techniques either."

Izuna didn't answer.

Sakura listened to the silence of the old building, to the chirping of the night birds outside, to her own heartbeat.

She said, "You truly are a man without pity."

"You don't sound particularly outraged, Sakura. Wouldn't you have done the same in my place?"

Sakura stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He'd think that, of course, he would.

She felt so sad for him, and for herself, that for a second it became hard to breathe. The sadness seemed to flood the room and press her into the chair, an immense, roaring ocean of it, and she was lying on the sand buried deep under its waters, staring up at the sky she couldn't reach.

"I wouldn't," she told him. "I would have gladly shared every bit of information I had with you. I already told you everything of importance, really..."

"Which is the only thing that puzzles me about you. Whoever shares information with their enemy?"

"I don't consider you an enemy, Izuna."

"Perhaps you should reconsider."

"I won't."

The words fell from her lips, and in her mind, she saw them make ripples somewhere, on some invisible layer of reality where all change took root. She was sure that Izuna felt it too, felt new cards being dealt to both of them.

"Your naivety knows no bounds."

Sakura took a deep breath. She was right. It meant that she was getting a hang of reading him, if only a little. She had to if she wanted to maneuver him into helping her. She had to understand him, to find out what made him tick. Whether he was heartless and deranged or, on the contrary, full of joy and optimism was not the issue here.

What mattered was that he really was a genjtsu prodigy.

She was still very hazy about what it might entail, but she was certain that she had just taken a step in the right direction, had finally chosen the right direction, really, because everything she had done before that was pretty useless, nothing but stumbling about like a blind kitten, hoping it would work out somehow.

Ahead of her lay a long, long staircase leading up the tallest mountain in the world, and she had to reach the top if she wanted to solve the riddle, but at least she knew where she should go now.

She could feel Izuna tense as he waited for her reaction, waited for what she would say next. That was important too. He was important. He had a lot of secrets.

Too many for one man perhaps.

She didn't think she could even imagine how it might feel to be him, to live his life and know what he knew – whatever it was – but she could feel the weight of it pulling her down and under, slowly and inexorably.

It was just so very hard to even be around him.

Sakura thought, he must be very tired.

"You know," she said out loud, "I also think your Sharingan is probably special."

"Really now." His voice was flat.

Sakura nodded, mostly to herself. ""Yeah... I mean you said something that gave me a hint, back when you were explaining Madara's jutsu. I asked you how it was possible and you said... you said that the most important thing was that Madara had your Sharingan that was now a Rinnegan." She stifled a yawn and willed her eyes to remain open.

On the couch, Izuna sat up and turned to face her. His features gave nothing away.

"I just really can't imagine what's going on inside your head," she told him conversationally, and in the corner of her head, her inner self squeaked in alarm, trying to prevent her from saying too much. "The most capable genjutsu master I have ever met was Sasuke's brother Itachi – I told you about him, didn't I?"

"You did. The one who had slaughtered our clan."

"Well, it was complicated... anyway, he was considered to be really good and he was a frightening person. He nearly killed Kakashi with his Tsukuyomi too." She fell silent, then said, "He was so complicated himself. Much like you."

"Like me." In the darkness, she couldn't see his eyes clearly, but from a certain drawl in his tone she could tell she had probably said the wrong thing again.

But it was the truth, wasn't it?

"Like you," she repeated stubbornly. "You're all... contradictory. Everything is so backwards with you. You know so much about genjutsu... and really capable genjutsu users are rare. It's such an obscure branch of ninja arts."

He gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "It requires a... special mindset. Apart from other prerequisites."

Yes, Sakura thought to herself, a very special mindset that very few possess. But you do. That and the Sharingan. And vast chakra reserves. A man of many talents indeed.

She agreed, "Yeah, which is why we're all only taught how to dispel illusions. But I bet what you told me was just scratching the surface, right? There's much more to it."

Izuna said nothing.

Sakura went on. "And you know what, remember when we first met you used that weird jutsu on me? I thought it was the Tsukuyomi, and you said... I don't remember exactly, but something along the lines of me being lucky it was only a measly mind control jutsu and not your actual Tsukuyomi."

On the couch, Izuna continued to say nothing.

"And what you did last night, I don't even know what to say. I bet you're really the only one who would dare fight genjutsu with genjutsu when the whole world is under yet another genjutsu. I mean, it sounds plain crazy when I say that, and you just went and actually did it, and you pulled it off. Anyone else would have died there."

Keeping her eyes open was becoming such an arduous task. Forcing her mouth to form words was even harder.

"You've gone all quiet there..," Sakura mumbled. The small part of her that remained awake kept nudging her, insisting that if she didn't say it all now, she would likely never find another appropriate moment. "You don't wanna talk 'bout it, right? Don't wanna tell me 'bout your Tsukuyomi..."

"Sleep, Sakura."

"Mm... alright. Only y'know..." The room was fading away fast, and the effort she had to make to finish the phrase was enough to move a small mountain, "Isn't it strange... you turnin' up here... with all your genjutsu talents... right when it's needed...?"

His face, blank and expressionless, was the last thing she saw before sleep finally claimed her.

-/-

Minutes passed, and Izuna rose from the couch.

Eyes dark and thoughtful, he picked up the sword and walked toward Sakura, silent as a shadow. He hovered inches away from where she curled in her chair and looked down at her sleeping form, studied her features marred by exhaustion and worry, let his gaze linger on the bruises.

His right hand went to the hilt of the sword and his fingers closed around it.

If Sakura were awake and could see his face at that moment, she would be scared. But she was too far out of it, lost in the land of her dreams, and a small, innocent smile on her lips left little room for doubts – whatever it was she saw, she liked it. Hers were pleasant dreams.

Izuna felt almost wistful. He never dreamed of happy things.

No regrets then. In a certain way, this was mercy.

His knuckles whitened as he began to pull the blade out. All his senses sharpened, the sounds grew louder, the outlines clear, even without the Sharingan. The world swam into focus, became bright and slow; a place without doubts and complications, a place he could navigate by instinct.

Izuna liked sword fighting. It was a respite from all the thinking.

Half-way through, he stopped.

Before him, Sakura continued to smile in her sleep, peaceful and unaware of the approaching death, and muttered under her breath a name he had already heard before. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, but she didn't wake up.

Izuna slid the blade back into the scabbard. In his eyes, the Sharingan spun, black into red.

For a long, long while he stood over her, watching quietly as her secrets seeped out through her skin and unfolded like a flower for him to see.

Then he turned and walked out of the Hokage's Residence and into the night, leaving her behind, leaving her alive, even though to kill her would be to show mercy. A clean, painless death, and many would have envied her.

But she was right.

He was not a merciful man.

-/-

(to be continued)

A/N.: oddly, I managed to finish the next chapter and it only took me one week. And Sakura is finally getting somewhere! Although she will probably regret ever setting out when she reaches the destination...

Thanks you, all my wonderful readers, for your support - and please let me know what you think!

Cheers! :)