Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the bishounen wouldn't keep getting killed off.

A/N: As always, thanks for all the reviews!

Five Kingdoms for the Dead

-Chapter Thirty-Five-

Madness Contagion

Sasuke stared after Sakura long after she had disappeared. There was something deeply vexing about the encounter, but it hadn't been Sakura's suspicion. That was to be expected. Just as she had said, he would have thought she was an idiot if she'd welcomed him back with open arms after everything he'd done. He certainly wouldn't have. Sasuke supposed he should be grateful, even if it did prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that his teammates were idiots.

No, what was vexing was that every time he'd seen Sakura since his return, even in her hospital bed, some half-formed thought fluttered across his mind, a wariness there was little enough cause for, a fear that was born of something that had never happened. As if he might summon Sakura back and somehow force her to explain what she had done to him, Sasuke glared at the dusty road from which Sakura had leaped to the roof.

A haze, like heat coming up off the concrete, surprised him and he blinked. And when he opened his eyes, Sakura was there. One hand was on a cocked hip, a pink eyebrow raised as she stared evenly back.

Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, a fancy hairpin rammed through it, tiny golden bells silent. She wore all black underneath the red Haruno clan haori she sported, not the hakama and gi style she'd been wearing when last they met, but clothing more suited to a proper ninja. A sleeveless ribbed black turtleneck and the standard jounin pants, coupled with knee-high boots Sasuke would bet any amount of money not only were reinforced with steel plating but also with the sealed weights she had been wearing since she'd decided to become a proper kunoichi. Matching black gauntlets and likely something to help reinforce the vulnerable joint at the elbow were probably concealed beneath the haori.

It seemed every time he looked away, Sakura had evolved into something almost unrecognizable, but it hadn't escaped Sasuke's notice how comfortable Sakura had seemed with herself, one she'd satisfied herself that he didn't care about her newest scar. She'd grown up. Grown beyond both the edgy hardness of the vicious jounin he remembered and the self-conscious girl buried deeply in his memory.

But though she was wearing the same outfit as when she'd taken her leave, something seemed out of place. She should be wearing an ANBU uniform. Which was a ridiculous thought. ANBU rarely wore their gear inside the village when not on active duty. ANBU membership, like most clan jutsu, was something of an open secret.

"Did you forget something?" he asked Sakura brusquely when she only continued to stare.

Her body shifted into motion with grace, sinuous and boneless. Sasuke's gaze locked with hers and something about her right eye caught his attention, his sight tunneling until that eye was all he could see. As he watched, the pupil dilated until it swallowed all but a tiny barrier of acid green, then he tumbled into the circular portal.

Whirling, he found his door had shifted, the hole from which sunlight and heat filtered far, far above his head. Quickly taking in his surroundings, Sasuke thought with astonishment that he seemed to be inside some sort of globe. As his eyes danced over the walls, his brain began to make connections and Sasuke found that he was inside a star map of the most rudimentary type, an engraved ball of tin that had holes punched in it that would project a map of the stars once a light source was inserted.

What-his thought was quickly dismissed as he ever so faintly heard the sound of bells and footsteps.

"Sakura?"

But the figure that emerged from the darkness was not Sakura. Not even close. "Orochimaru!" he hissed. As the Sannin, who he'd killed with his own two hands, walked toward him, streaks of white light lit narrow paths on the inside of the globe. The sunlight disappeared, leaving only white wheels turning in the darkness, the sharp light making Orochimaru's pale skin look like paper beneath moonlight, his slit yellow eyes reflecting light like an animal's.

Characters began to appear in the wheels, which Sasuke suddenly recognized were seals, but before he could begin to memorize them or interpret them, the characters flashed into flame. Sasuke's first instinct was to leap clear, but there was nowhere to go. Through the smoke, Sasuke glared at the snake, but was forced to blink again, not only from the sting of smoke, but because someone else now strode through the flames like they were a field of waving grass.

A black wheel turned in vermillion eyes, not the sharp spines he was familiar with, like blades, but three elongated tomoe chasing each other in an eternal circle, supported by thick beams of black. And in the center of their dance was darkness-it tugged at him, biting down on something he could not remember.

A handsome face, almost familiar, framed by a wild mane of black hair. Who? Sasuke was absolutely certain he knew who this was. But something prevented him from grasped the name. Something-he glanced upward and found the wheels still spinning slowly, rotating across the heavens, marring and illuminating constellations in turn.

The figure was drawing closer. Movement attracted his attention. A branch, weeping cherry blossom petals, was proffered in a gauntleted hand. Sasuke glanced upward at the face of the man again, to find familiar pink hair and dispassionate jade eyes watching him carefully.

"Sakura?" his voice sounded bewildered, even to his own ears. If this was a genjutsu, it was enormously complex. A-class at the very least. "Stop this at once," he demanded.

In response, she held out the branch again. "Quickly," she said, "it's wilting."

Even as she spoke, the branch continued to shed petals.

"I don't understand."

"Yes. You do. This is not a genjutsu. It's a house made of bits and pieces of memory."

"What memory?" he demanded.

She continued regarding him with that damned neutral face. "The one you are looking for. You would not be here otherwise." Her glance shifted downward, where the last of the pale petals were being snatched away by the breeze generated by the flames. As the last disappeared when a greedy flame reached out to devour it, the whole room shuddered.

Widening his stance, muscles in his jaw tense, Sasuke's eyes widened as Sakura smiled. And exposed a mouth full of teeth that gleamed with stabbing points, a smile that a deep sea predator might wear, but never a human being.

A hand descended on his shoulder and Sasuke stood and turned in one smooth movement, ready to annihilate the threat. Kakashi looked surprised. "Is something wrong, Sasuke?" he inquired.

Feeling more than faintly off balance, it took him a moment to smooth out his breathing. "Nothing, Kakashi," he reported coldly.

"Because when I first arrived, you seemed to find that patch of road very, very interesting."

"It's none of your business," Sasuke retorted. "Did you want something, Kakashi?"

There was that old, disarming eye-crinkling smile. "Now, do I need an excuse to talk to one of my students?"

Sasuke snorted. "I haven't been your student for a long time."

Kakashi's melodramatic sigh made him want to roll his eyes, but he refrained. The sooner Kakashi fulfilled whatever self-assigned mission he'd given himself, the sooner he could hunt down Sakura. Latent genjutsu or no, she was at the root of the strange as hell waking vision he'd just experienced. "What do you want?" he demanded of the silver-haired ninja.

"I was going to ask if you had seen Sakura, but you seemed pretty preoccupied staring at that stretch of road."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "What did you need Sakura for?"

Kakashi smiled, that eye-crinkling smile that had generally pissed Sasuke off in the past. It seemed years of absence hadn't changed that. "I'm afraid that it's pretty far above genin clearance."

Sasuke assessed his former teacher. "How did Sakura recruit my brother?" he asked after a significant pause.

Running a hand through his hair, Kakashi chuckled, but it was not an entirely humorous sound. "Honestly, Sasuke, I have no idea. The three of you..." he left his sentence unfinished, but Sasuke did not need for him to say the words. All three had been chasing something that couldn't be found in Team Seven.

Standing, he glanced back over his shoulder. "I haven't seen Sakura since she signed herself out of the hospital, but I'll tell her you were looking for her if I see her."

"Not me. Tell her the Elders are looking for her."

Sasuke raised a brow. What could the Elders want with Sakura? "Just Sakura?"

Kakashi nodded. Thoughtful now, Sasuke turned and began to amble through Konoha in the direction Sakura had gone. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense her chakra, but Sakura's control over her chakra had always been unmatched. What he needed in this situation was Karin, but he doubted she would so easily acquiesce to his request to track the pink-haired kunoichi. So far as Sasuke knew, the two had never met, but Karin had expressed an intense dislike of Sakura. It might have been explained by Karin's almost obsessive interest in him and Sakura's role in his first capture and return, but it seemed there was more to it.

It had not interested him enough to actually ask.

Kakashi had likely inquired at ANBU headquarters long before he would have set out to search the city, if he was seriously looking for Sakura. So it was pointless to repeat his search pattern. Instead of casting about for Sakura herself, he searched for her ever-present teammates. Though she'd been alone when he'd seen her earlier, he doubted that they didn't know where she was.

He could not sense the Hyuuga or the artist, but that wasn't unexpected. Konoha was a large city and he had never bothered to memorize the feel of their chakra. But there was a very familiar chakra that burned against the edge of his senses and he trailed it doggedly, hesitating only briefly when it led him, of all places, underground.

The guards were a bit unhappy about his intrusion, but it wasn't the first time he'd taken care of unhappy guards. Or sealed doors. Narrowing his eyes at the pair of doors he'd had to give himself a hellish migraine to open in order to use the Sharingan long enough to convince the weakest of the guards that he was supposed to be escorting him through, Sasuke frowned. It was one thing to seal doors. It was another to engrave seals onto operative's bodies to open them.

What is this place? Moving deftly through the shadows, Sasuke avoided other shinobi, thinking grimly that he should have done something with the unconscious bodies at the entrance. This isn't ANBU headquarters. And yet, every shinobi he saw was a masked operative.

Finally, he drew closer to his brother's chakra signature. Smothering his own, he crept as close as he dared. Luck was on his side, for it seemed his brother and Sakura were in some sort of conference room, the door open and every visible inch of space on the walls covered with maps and manila file folders were piled high on the table.

His brother looked peculiar wearing glasses, but somehow they suited him, enhancing his already cerebral air. He was sitting at the table, half-turned so that he could see the door, jaw resting on an open palm supported by an elbow on the table as watched Sakura. For Itachi, it was an incredibly casual pose and Sasuke, by instinct, bristling internally at the show of comfort in Sakura's presence.

Itachi's smooth voice was almost a surprise. "You should speak to Sasuke of his time with Madara, Haruno-taichou. I was with Akatsuki far longer, but it was essential that I pretend as if I did not know his identity, so my information is limited. When Sasuke was accompanying him, he presented himself openly as Madara. He may be able to offer fresh insight."

"Insight that I can trust?" Sakura's voice was cooler than he expected, given their earlier conversation. "I received the report from T&I."

Sasuke's brows furrowed. There was something off kilter with this scene. Sakura had the rank to request files, even S-class T&I files, but only the Hokage could grant access and the Hokage had been unconscious since the battle with Pein. Sakura was speaking as if receiving the files was a matter of course, which even if she was an ANBU captain, wasn't the case. Sasuke wasn't privy to the actual number of active ANBU squads, but he was fairly certain that there were about ten permanent squads and half that number of jounin who could be called in to form reserve squads. Sakura was not particularly special or unique in her position as a squad captain, though he doubted many of the others had managed to obtain permission to recruit a former S-class criminal. But, as only one of many, she wouldn't necessarily have access to files that were strictly need to know.

"Reading a report isn't the same as listening in person, as you well know. And you are in a much better position to ask questions than even the operatives in T&I."

Sakura half-turned to Itachi, frowning. The movement brought her brows together, which seemed pull at the tender edges of her scar and she winced, a hand coming to her face. "You are not fully recovered," Itachi chided her, but in a tone that made it clear he did not expect his words to be of any effect. "Your battle with Madara did incredible damage to your body and due to unexpected circumstances, Tsunade-sama was not able to oversee all of your healing." Only his brother could manage to blithely call something like Pein's attack 'unexpected circumstances,' Sasuke thought, but Sakura's injuries might explain why she had not sensed him yet.

Or Itachi, for that matter. When Sakura turned back to her maps and Itachi's head tilted slightly toward the door, Sasuke abruptly realized that his brother knew he was there.

"Since you've come all this way, why don't you come in, Sasuke?" he asked.

Scowling, Sasuke stalked inside the room. Sakura barely spared him a glance, but she did say, "I hope you didn't kill anyone to get here."

"You don't seem surprised," he observed.

"Itachi's attempt to convince me to ask you about Madara," her voice turned the name into clipped syllables, "were something of a segue from our earlier conversation."

"What is this place?" he asked confrontationally.

"ROOT headquarters." Sakura gave him a sour look. "Expect to have an extra seal added to your array before you're allowed to leave. And you didn't kill anyone on the way in, did you?"

"Why would you care?" he asked, pieces clicking into place in his mind. Sakura. Root. Danzo.

She exchanged a glance with Itachi. "While there are many tactical advantages to surprise, in your position there has to be some exchange of information in order to create truly effective tools."

Sasuke stiffened at his brother's speech and Itachi took note. "For someone who once decided to sever all bonds, you are remarkably touchy when treated as you say you desire," Itachi told him. "ROOT is unlike any other division in Konohagakure. You know of Danzo and his actions in the massacre, but I doubt you are familiar enough with his tactics to realize what kind of an army he was creating in the dark."

"Itachi," Sakura snapped, voice full of warning.

Itachi stood, the differences in their height apparent even across the table. "He is my brother," he explained simply and something in Sasuke relaxed. "If you do not trust him, trust me, taichou."

It rankled a little to see his brother, magnitudes stronger, appeal to his former teammate as his superior, but there was something cold and calculating in Sakura's eyes, something that he thought, with an eerie chill, that could assign worth even to familial relationships, her mind obviously weighing possible gain and loss from whatever secret it was they shared between them.

The strange thing was, it was an expression that looked at home on her face, just as laughter or appeak once had. After it seemed she had reached a decision, the hardness ebbed and Sakura simply looked tired. "It's on your head," she murmured to Itachi. "Because I know that threatening either of you would be a waste of time and men. But remember, Itachi, just how far I am willing to go." The last was said with no obvious malice, but his brother, of all people, stiffened.

"I remember, Sakura," he said softly, but Sakura does not look moved by his admission. "You have more dead Akatsuki to your name than any living person."

Sakura shrugged, as if killing members of the group is of no consequence. As if they were simply another battle. "None of them were Uchiha."

Sasuke can't help the smirk that crossed his lips. "Don't think you could win?" he taunted.

She frowned at him, but did not otherwise respond.

"Sasuke," Itachi chided him softly. "In here, you should show Haruno-taichou appropriate respect."

Itachi has always been a stickler for protocol. The first time he had heard Itachi refer to Sakura by her name, rather than as "my captain" or "Haruno-taichou" or even "Sakura-taichou," he thought he had misheard. He does not do it often. In fact, now that she is actually awake, Sasuke is beginning to suspect he only uses it when asking a personal favor. But he had said, "in here," which implied there was something special about this room or building.

"Why?" he asked. Because for Sasuke, unlike Itachi, polite respect was not an automatic response.

"Because Haruno-taichou is the head of ANBU Root."

Sakura didn't even glance away from her maps to gauge his expression and Itachi was speaking in that damned toneless voice of his again. The one with which he'd always relayed official clan business. Sasuke does not like how he seems, still, after all these years, to be able at one moment to be the untouchable, admirable big brother he has hated, loved, and envied in turns and in the next be the most heartless, perfect example of a shinobi ever created.

But his news is somehow less surprising than Sasuke had thought it would be. If Sakura was the head of a secretive underground cell of ANBU operatives, it somehow made it sting less that she'd foiled his plans not once but twice now. The fact that it was this particular group is incongruous to Sakura's personality, but perhaps they are not so different. Danzo was Sakura's Orochimaru. Except, where he had destroyed his mentor's legacy and his mentor himself, Sakura seemed not quite done with Danzo's.

"Hn," he finally remarked aloud. "And what would you need tools for, Sakura?" The informality annoyed his brother, which is why he did so, Itachi's lips tightening in an expression that isn't quite a frown.

"That man we found you with-what had he asked you to do?"

"Madara? We were hunting the eight tails." Sasuke remembered the burning anger as the man had refused to allow him to attack Konoha directly, insisting that his way would far better serve Sasuke's revenge.

Sakura glanced at him over her shoulder. "Your team was specialized in pursuit. It would have ended badly," she predicted.

Sasuke shrugged. Though he had chosen each of them carefully, one of the most important criteria for his selection was their near-invincibility in battle. He could not be bothered or distracted by teammates that would require his assistance, so he had chosen Suigetsu and Juugo, one of whom was terribly difficult to maim and the other capable of immense regeneration. Though Sakura had expressed her doubts, he had none. His team would have accomplished their mission.

"No matter," Sakura said softly when she saw his indifference. "At least we know where we stand. Madara must still secure the eight-tails and Naruto. That gives us time, at least, but not much."

Sasuke turned his attention to her maps and soon his brain began to work out what he was seeing. "You're hunting Akatsuki," he said.

"Yes," Sakura affirmed. "But these are all just secondary targets. Madara is the real objective."

Sasuke was certain that his face expressed more than a little disbelief. "Madara is untouchable."

"No one is untouchable," Sakura replied darkly, her voice touched with prophecy. "But I really doubt you came here to offer your services. I'm a busy woman with a curfew," Sasuke doesn't know how she managed to say that with a straight face, but she did, "so why are you here, Sasuke?"

He had come to confront her about the genjutsu or whatever the hell it was that he'd just experienced, but he sure as hell wasn't about to confront her about it in front of Itachi. He'd thought to find them in a neutral zone, where he could "borrow" Sakura and ask her a few pointed questions. But this was very clearly Sakura's territory. Everyone in this building, perhaps even his brother, would side with her against him if it came to blows. Because Sasuke wouldn't put it beyond the jounin who had broken his bones and poisoned him to attempt to drive him to madness.

So he said instead, "Kakashi sent me. The Elders are looking for you."

Sakura's cocked brow clearly said that she didn't believe him, but she nodded. "The Elders," she said dryly. "Well then, I shouldn't keep them waiting. Kami-sama knows whose day that want me to ruin now."

-X-X-X-

Not fourty-five minutes later, blood is pounding in her ears so loud she can hardly think as she slides the door to the council room shut behind her.

She had known, from reports, that the jinchuriki from Kumogakure was the Raikage's brother. Statistically speaking, most of the demon containers were blood relations to Kage. But she had not expected that the Raikage would demand a summit of Kage to deal with the issue of his captured brother. A brother, that by all reports, had been captured by none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

Eyes narrowed, Sakura contemplated simultaneously that they had brought back a decoy or that the pretender had forced one of his own operatives to henge into Sasuke for his own purposes. Such as alienating Konoha with the intention of bringing Kumo down upon them.

When she thought she might scream, Madara broke over her, breaking down her tangled thoughts into manageable objectives. Inflexibility is also weakness, he scolded. Simply because things do not proceed according to your plan does not mean that you cannot turn them to your advantage. The Raikage has done you the favor of assembling the Kage-for good or ill, the responsibility for that sets on his head. You must now only make ready to meet his accusations.

But, in order to meet his accusations in person, I shall have to do something...terrible.

Madara scoffed. He would have made reply, but it seemed her feet had unerringly led her back to her office, where Itachi and, surprisingly, Sasuke, were awaiting her.

"What did the Elders want?" Sasuke demanded not twenty seconds after she had entered, before she had even taken her seat behind the desk.

Silently, Nezumi poured her tea and after a check for poison that was second nature, she took a grateful sip. Iron control made certain she did not spit it out again. Replacing the ceramic cup with nary a sound on the wood, she murmured, "Nezumi, I know it is against protocol, but next time allow someone else to make the tea."

"Yes, Haruno-sama," he acknowledged.

Sasuke's dark eyes demanded she quite stalling, which she wasn't. She was simply searching for a tactful way of phrasing her next question. "Itachi."

"Yes, Haruno-taichou?"

"Have you used the Mangekyo on your brother since his capture?"

Itachi looked startled and Sasuke more so. "I have not, Haruno-taichou. What is this about?" Itachi inquired.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, at the moment. Would you be willing to use the Mangekyo to ascertain something?"

"What are you talking about, Sakura?" Sasuke demanded coldly.

"Just now, I received intelligence that you and your team had captured the eight-tails." She matched the chill in his tone. "With your level of control, a shadow clone would dispel over such a great distance. And as it is impossible, so far as I know, for a person to be in two places at once, this leaves me to draw one of two conclusions. The first is that you are a plant. The second is that someone has impersonated you. I will not be satisfied until I know which is true. And, quite frankly, I don't give a damn at the moment how this truth is achieved."

Sasuke frowned. Then, surprisingly, he nodded. "I understand. Aniki," he said, turning to Itachi.

Itachi looked unhappy. "Sasuke..."

Sasuke snorted. "It won't be the worst thing you've ever done to me."

Itachi's expression closed off at that. "Very well, Sasuke." Removing his glasses, Itachi's eyes flared with the familiar crimson. "For your own good."

Sasuke would have retorted, but his body stiffened as his mind was caught. Sakura's fingers tapped out an impatient tattoo on her desk, but it couldn't have even been a minute later when Sasuke suddenly slumped, like a puppet with the strings cut.

Itachi was frowning, which Sakura interpreted to mean the worst, but he shook his head. "There is a seal on a part of his memory, but otherwise, he is Sasuke."

Sakura relaxed visibly, which prompted a snide comment from Sasuke. "What, not afraid someone planted sleeper orders in my head?"

"The seal is mine, Sasuke. From the last time you tried to invade my mind with Sharingan."

His dark eyes narrowed and Itachi paused in the act of putting his glasses back on. "And why the hell would that lead to a seal on my memories."

"Because there was something about that battle I didn't want you to remember." Sakura did not add idiot, but she was tempted and much of that was conveyed in her tone.

"Unseal it. Now," Sasuke demanded.

"You're not in a position to make demands, Sasuke," Sakura retorted. "Do you realize the implications? That jinchuriki isn't some nobody. It's the Raikage's brother. And you are a missing nin from Konoha, one that Tsunade-shishou has been more than lax in capturing. He will blame us, Sasuke. In fact, he already has. A summit of the Kage has been called."

Itachi blinked. "That's unprecedented. Most of the major nations have been at war with one another within the last generation. Cooperation is almost out of the question."

Sakura's smile was wry. "Expectations are created to be thwarted. All the major nations have accepted the invitation."

"But Tsunade is in a coma," Sasuke said slowly.

"The Elders accepted on her behalf. For now, they will appoint a new Hokage," Sakura reported grimly.

"They've asked you," Itachi's voice was low, but sure. Sakura's wry smile disappeared.

"Why...?" Sasuke asked, for once looking not malicious but genuinely confused.

"If she had not ousted Danzo, it is likely he would have assumed power," Itachi said, eyes alive with intelligence as he made masterful leaps of logic. "Tsunade-sama has only one proper apprentice and Shizune cannot be spared from the Hokage's side, even if she was willing or competent enough to assume the position."

"They asked Kakashi. He refused it," Sakura reported grimly. "If the Elders were willing to press harder, they might be able to talk him into it, but without a real internal threat to protect Konoha from by assuming the position of Kage, it will be difficult to convince him."

Itachi nodded. "He was a student of the Fourth and both well-known and well-regarded. However, you should not overlook the fact that you are also the apprentice of the Godaime as well as Danzo's successor. As far as the Elders are concerned, appointing you would satisfy both factions."

"A leader that makes everyone happy isn't a leader worth having," Sakura murmured irritably, but the political animal in her, the one honed by years under Tsunade-shishou even if she had learned nothing of her master's healing jutsu, knew what Itachi was saying was true.

Even Sasuke seemed to understand. "This will piss Naruto off," he judged. "He comes in to save the day and you end up Hokage."

Sakura glared at him. "No. I won't. They wouldn't allow me to refuse at the meeting, but I have every intention of doing so."

"Why?" Itachi's question startled her. "Even if you have no intention of assuming the kage-ship permanently, it would put you in the best position to solve the crisis we are now facing."

"Because if I say yes, then Naruto will never get to be Hokage!" Sakura hissed, standing so suddenly that both brothers flinched and the tea in her cup sloshed onto her desk. The words escaped her before her mind caught up to her mouth. When she saw their expressions, she wished suddenly she had power over time, to take them back. To unsay them. Because this time, she doubted either Uchiha brother would be distracted.

"You said you didn't want to be Hokage," Sasuke challenged her, standing as well, using his superior height in an attempt to loom over her.

Sakura's lips twisted up in a sneer. "I would never steal Naruto's dream."

"Then accept for now and abdicate." This from Itachi.

"Neither of you understand," Sakura asserted, running a frantic hand through her hair, pulling loose long strands and making her bangs go askew. A twinge of pain from her scar reminded her of its presence. "I don't let go of things that are mine. Once I am in power, I won't be able to step down."

"What do you mean, 'won't be able'?" Sasuke mocked. "Isn't that just an excuse? You make it sound like someone else is making your decisions."

Sakura gritted her teeth. Violence surged through her blood, hot and heady. But Madara regulated its pulse, sharpened its purpose. She could kill Sasuke here and Madara would never let her know regret. But Madara would also have her be Hokage. And unlike Orochimaru, Madara did not mind discovery.

She took a deep breath, but there was no cleansing breeze in Root. Just the air of the tunnels, saturated with death and secrecy. "Why did you come here today, Sasuke?" she asked. "It wasn't because of Kakashi. The seal must be eroding already. Naruto's as well. It was only a matter of time, I suppose."
She brought a hand up to cover her eyes and worked on them a transformation, red and black marking out an eternal dance of despair, familiar to her as her own reflection in a mirror. It was nothing more than basic henge, for the only place she possessed Sharingan was in her mind, where anything was possible, but she knew that even the appearance would be enough. "I think it would help you to remember," she managed in a thick voice, "if I showed you these." And with infinite slowness, she let her hand drop.