Tsunade frowned, setting aside her tweezers and magnifying class with a clink. She was baffled, completely confused as to how Orochimaru had managed to activate the curse marks on two people from tens of miles away. There was no evidence of a previously existing jutsu, no chakra connection, no imprint of a sealing technique to be found in either Kasumi or Raiton's bodies.
They had died horribly, their skin burning and their chakra dissolving so fast that their systems had gone into shock, shutting down their lungs and hearts, and denying oxygen to their brains. The only positive aspect of the situation was that they had both perished quickly; after the initial activation of the curse mark they had only been tortured for a few seconds at most.
Tsunade finished writing down her notes, tapping her pen against her lips as she thought. There was nothing left to do but open the two men up and find out what she could about their bodies. She closed her eyes briefly, searching for calm and focus as her thoughts whirled around in an anxious storm.
Fugaku was still missing.
Sakura was trying to stop Itachi from doing something very stupid.
Sasuke was back.
Orochimaru couldn't be far behind them; Sakura had mentioned that Itachi and Sasuke planned to lure him straight into their trap.
Konoha felt like it was on the edge of a cliff; she was hanging onto her control by her fingernails, but she would rather die than let down those who were counting on her.
Time to find out your secrets.
Tsunade flicked her hair over her shoulders, settling a large pair of goggles onto the bridge of her nose and buttoning up a new lab coat.
She concentrated her chakra until it bloomed outwards from her hands, humming gently. The bright blue light lit up the bodies of the two men with an eerie glow, and she closed her eyes, descending into a place of focus.
Her chakra continued to flicker, growing outwards until she held two palms full of energy, moving upwards at a slow speed, riddled with uniformly jagged edges. She didn't often use chakra saws, but now wasn't the time for finesse.
She directed her chakra downwards, moving her arms at a ninety-degree angle until the points of the chakra blades rested on Raiton's unmoving sternum. She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing herself for the inevitable splash of blood as she murmured a quick apology; she hated to disturb the dead.
"I'm sorry. But what your body can tell me might be the key to crippling Orochimaru," she whispered, tensing as the blades bit into his body, cutting through bone like it was made of butter. Tsunade flinched as blood splattered over the table and up her arm, soaking through the sleeve of the coat that she wore until it was scarlet.
The jutsu that she'd engineered with the specific purpose to preserve the dead always worked like a charm, but that meant that she, for all intents and purposes, froze them in time. They never entered rigor mortis until she released the jutsu; the result was that Raiton's blood was still a brilliant red, seeping quickly across the metal operating table and dripping slowly off the edge, echoing loudly onto the sterile linoleum floor. She resisted the urge to gag and soldiered on, determined to finish what she'd started.
The hum of chakra echoed even more piercingly though the ribcage, illuminating organs that never should have seen the light of day. Tsunade worked feverishly, inspecting every inch of the corpse, hoping that she would find something.
Then, after an hour of careful sifting, she found what she was looking for.
Bingo.
Orochimaru hadn't bitten Raiton; he'd given him a pill to swallow instead. Fragments of a small stone pill capsule were still in his stomach, weathered and pitted by acid. Delicately, she picked them up using her tweezers and deposited them on a tray, scanning over them with a critical eye.
Her chakra began to flicker violently as she passed it over the small fragments. Her chakra reacted to Orochimaru's senjutsu with a fury that she'd never seen before. Her hands felt like they were being stabbed with small needles, over and over again as she checked to make sure. Tsunade ignored the pain; she was too busy working out how to reverse-engineer the pills.
Finally, she figured it out. There was another chakra mixed with Orochimaru's, the vehicle for the curse mark. But the lion's share of the chakra belonged to Orochimaru, allowing him to have control over the person who had swallowed the pill.
Idly, she wondered if Raiton knew about it. She doubted that he would have taken anything Orochimaru had prescribed willingly, given the fact that he had died trying to protect his daughter.
He was so close to having his freedom. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, she thought sadly.
Thinking quickly, she moved her hands through his abdomen, stopping when she found his spine. She forced chakra into his spinal cord, her eyes snapping open with shock as she found the sign that she'd been looking for.
The chakra inside the pill had crystalized in Raiton's C7 vertebra, creating a shape that vaguely resembled three interconnected tomoe. He'd had a curse mark all along, but they hadn't been able to find it.
Would you look at that, she thought angrily, simmering with rage. Imagine what Orochimaru could have done if he wasn't a monster. This technique is brilliant, but it's wrong. It's disgusting, the way that he uses people.
She'd suspected that the curse marks needed the owner's consent to activate (although some of that was subconscious, so she wondered about that), but Orochimaru had treated these two men differently. They weren't valuable enough to him to be given the key to unlock their marks, she thought with a gasp, whirling to check her notes.
"That son of a bitch," she murmured, shaking her head at Orochimaru's genius. "He didn't just use his test subject to create the marks like Sakura said; he's created an autonomous chakra infusion that will only activate when he wants it to. No wonder he could make it work over long distances, it's his chakra!"
There are two kinds of curse marks.
It's the same one that he used on Fugaku, but a one-time transferral. That's why he was able to get them to work for him. Kasumi wanted the power, but holding Raiton's kid hostage wasn't enough of a reassurance of loyalty for the old snake. He put a security measure in place.
Fuck me, he's thought of almost everything.
Sakura, you'd better hurry up and find Fugaku.
Moving quickly, she closed Raiton's body up, rearranging his features into an expression that wasn't twisted by agony. She murmured another hurried apology over Kasumi's corpse, flicking her hands out with a snap and igniting her chakra blades once more.
She didn't pause to wipe the blood off of her goggles; she was too worried about what she'd find. Her suspicions were confirmed as she found the exact same pill capsule in the steward's stomach, an extra precaution on top of the curse mark that was tattooed across the back of his shoulder blade.
Shit.
Sakura landed hard, the breath wooshed out of her lungs as she put her body between Itachi and the bodies of the ANBU shinobi. She knew that it was stupid, hell, she might get herself killed.
It's worth it to save Itachi from himself, she told herself firmly, throwing her arms out and glaring at Itachi. She felt a rush of anger, beside herself that Itachi was willing to destroy everything that they'd worked so hard to save.
Guilt assaulted her, her thoughts whirling around the fact that he had done this to protect her, in some sort of misguided attempt at white-knighting the situation.
She was having a hard time admitting it, but for the first time, she was scared of him.
"Sakura, get out of the way!" Itachi called hoarsely, his sharingan spinning faster than she'd ever seen it as he fought to control the flames.
She'd never seen him struggle in a fight before. His panicked expression was something that she'd never seen and that shocked her so badly that she froze in place. The Amaterasu bore down on her, and she couldn't force herself to move.
Itachi stood shock-still, horrified, as the bolt of pitch-black fire shot towards her. She braced herself for the impact, hoping against all hope that he would be able to stop it before it got to her. Her breath was knocked out of her lungs as the ANBU shinobi bodily knocked her backwards out of the way, but he wasn't quite fast enough.
Her gasp of pain echoed through the cavernous room as she landed hard, her nerves firing rapidly as her still-injured body rolled across the stone floor. She felt her skin tearing as the shattered concrete embedded itself into her limbs, but she barely felt the pain. Itachi's crows flew as one, creating a black barrier between her and the flames, but they were too late.
The Amaterasu blasted through them like they were made of dust. The air filled with smoke as they were destroyed, making it hard to breathe.
But she had bigger problems.
She was on fire. The heat of it seared the air, burning the chakra that she'd hurriedly hardened as a shield outside her body. It ate through her protection like it was melting through snow, and she began to panic.
Shit!
Sakura struggled to breathe and regain her senses as the Amaterasu continued to burn. Without thinking, she whipped out a kunai and dragged it through her hair, denying the flames any more purchase on her body. The flames dropped to the ground with the cut hair, spreading faster than should have been possible.
She scrambled backwards, towards Itachi and away from the flames as they picked up speed, shooting across the floor as if someone had thrown a can of gasoline on them. Dimly, she could hear shouting; there was some kind of commotion coming from above.
The ANBU shinobi quickly stripped off his armor and flak jacket, throwing his charred mask to the side as he prepared to pull his comrades out of the path of the flames. She recognized Tenzou, a friend of Kakashi's. He's the one who grabbed me. And he's the one who made sure that Ino was able to get me out of the interrogation! I thought his chakra felt familiar.
"Sakura, get out of the way!" Itachi called, darting over and aiming his mangekyou towards the flames. They began to recede, but not quickly enough. "I can't put the fire out if I can't look at it head on."
"The flames are getting too close to their bodies, Itachi, put it out!"
The air filled with smoke, and Sakura felt panic taking over her as she watched the hissing flames spread closer to the bodies by the second. No, we can't let them die!
"Put the flames out, damn you!"
A hoarse yell cracked through the air as Sasuke dropped from above, landing softly and immediately putting his body in the middle of the confrontation, unafraid of the flames. Sakura allowed Itachi to help her up, running backwards, away from the spreading fire as Sasuke's sharingan spun, his chakra exploding outwards like a concussion blast.
There was a sound like a giant, powerful vacuum, and then the inferno was gone. A breeze picked up, whistling down from the hole that Sasuke had blown in the roof, wafting ash and dust through the room. Several tiny flames still burned, but Sasuke calmly directed his sharingan at them; he had the situation well under control.
Sakura stood up, very much in shock, as the last of the flames winked out and her shorn hair cascaded around her as she whirled to look. Currents of red-hot air still shimmered in her vision, making the air hazy. As far as she could tell, no one had been too badly hurt.
She darted over to Tenzhou without any hesitation and healed the nasty burn on his arm, murmuring a hasty apology.
He waved her words away, sheepishly watching her work. "I should be the one asking for forgiveness. I was the one who kidnapped you-"
"Don't you dare," she said fervently, glaring at Itachi over her shoulder. "You were following orders. It's not your fault that he lost his mind. Can you help me assess the damage to everyone else?"
"Of course," he replied, kneeling immediately next to one of his comrades and inspecting him for injuries. Sakura watched him for a moment, waiting until she felt confident that he knew what he was doing before she strode back to Itachi and Sasuke.
Sakura hadn't even sensed Sasuke coming to her aid, and she sagged with relief as she finally dredged up some rational thought. They'd stopped Itachi, no one was dead, and the Amaterasu had been snuffed out.
Just in time. What could have happened was too terrible to think about.
"How are they, Tenzou?"
"They look pretty good. Some small burns, but those are easily patched up," he replied, hoisting one of the unconscious men over his shoulder and darting upwards.
Sakura let out a long sigh of relief. That's good, at least. Now, it's time to deal with Itachi.
She was in a mood to murder someone, Itachi, specifically. She stalked towards the brothers, not even bothering to try and calm her anger.
Sasuke whirled to face Itachi with accusation written clearly on his face. "What the hell?! Itachi, that was the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen you do."
"Thank you, Sasuke."
Itachi didn't even have the good sense to look contrite, and that ignited the swirling whirlpool of rage that still rioted inside of Sakura.
That's your reply? Oh hell no, I'm not standing for that!
"What the hell?!"
Sakura stomped up to Itachi, balanced her weight, and then punched Itachi in the chest, hard. He doubled over, the breath knocked out of his lungs as she turned on him.
"How dare you?!" She shrieked, her terror and panic finally seeping out of her. They were out of danger, so her emotions simply didn't have anywhere to go but outwards. She knew that she would feel guilty later, but she was currently too angry to care.
"You idiot! I would expect this kind of irrational behavior from anyone else, but never you! Were you just going to damn hundreds, maybe thousands of people to death because you were scared that I was hurt?!"
"Sakura-" He started, breathing hard as he fought to pull air into his body.
"No! You don't get to talk right now!" She snarled, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at him with a look that could have melted glass. "I should be arresting you, taking you to the Hokage to be strung up on charges of real treason! What did you think was going to come out of this?!"
"I didn't think ahead that far," Itachi muttered, avoiding her gaze. He looked so much like a scolded puppy that she almost allowed herself to throw her arms around him and cry, but she soldiered on, reaming him out for all that she was worth.
"Itachi, you are the biggest idiot in the entire world, and you're lucky that I love you, otherwise I would take it upon myself to kill you!" She yelled, finally running out of rage as she finished her sentence. What was left in its place was simmering anger and cold indifference. "I'm shocked that you would be so selfish."
He opened his mouth as if to say something, then wisely closed it and waited expectantly for her to continue speaking. She didn't waste any time.
"You need to go with Sasuke and wake up every last fucking person that you knocked out, and you're going to apologize to them. You're going to tell them that you are stupid, and reckless, and an emotionally-stunted Uchiha who doesn't know how to process emotion properly, hence the rampage!"
He didn't say anything, just surveyed her with a soft look in his eye. She knew that look very well, but was still too pissed to acknowledge it.
"And then, you're going to frogmarch to Tsunade-sama's office and report for duty. Am I understood?"
"Yes," he replied softly, reaching out and carding his hand through her newly shoulder-length hair. She resisted the urge to melt into his arms and forced herself to continue to speak. She loved him, yes, but that didn't mean she liked him very much at the moment.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" She demanded, still glaring at him. She stubbornly refused to return his affection; she wasn't in the mood to be nice to him.
"You're safe, that's all I care about."
"Don't-" She interrupted, stepping away from him and turning away. "I'm not willing to talk to you right now. I'll find you later. Get moving."
She effectively ended the conversation, fighting down the tears that threatened to spill over her cheeks. She caught Sasuke's eye and acknowledged his silent question with a minute shaking of her head. No, I'm not injured. But that doesn't mean that I'm okay.
"Sasuke, make sure Itachi follows my orders," she snapped, still refusing to look at him. She knew that she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears if she did. Itachi could read her like an open book; there was no doubt in her mind that he knew how upset she was.
"Count on it." Sasuke's expression was stormy, and she threw him a grateful glance before she left.
I need to find Fugaku.
She pivoted and shot upwards, listening to Sasuke's demands for an explanation echoing off the stone walkways. She finally allowed herself to cry; the tears streamed downwards like rain as she poured all of her emotion out. She was filled with a myriad of feelings, most of which were centered on fear and relief. Her guilt felt like a red-hot brand on her chest, and she forced herself to take a deep, calming breath.
It was all because of me. All because I couldn't get a message to him fast enough. If he'd killed the people that he'd knocked out, there would be dozens of dead shinobi to mourn.
If Itachi had killed someone, she would have no choice but to take him to task for it. She knew that Tsunade would only be able to overlook so much, and she was frightened by how close Itachi had come to committing cold-blooded murder on her behalf.
She wasn't naive, she knew that his kill list was pages long, but it shook her to the core that a pacifist like him would have killed as many of Konoha's elite fighting and intelligence ops as he needed to, to save her.
He should have followed the shinobi code and left me to die. I don't know if I can forgive him for what he was willing to do.
She took another deep breath as she reached the surface, content in the knowledge that Sasuke was with Itachi. She forced her feelings down deep, bringing her mind back to the task at hand.
I need to find Fugaku, fast.
She darted into the night, noticing that her hair no longer streamed out behind her. She fought down a small smile; she liked it short.
She felt powerful. Chakra thrummed through her veins as she made for the outskirts of the village, towards the safe house that Fugaku had escaped.
Her first priority was to find Fugaku.
Idly, she wondered what Orochimaru was up to. Her mind flashed to Juugo, and she hoped desperately that he'd gotten everyone out of the mountain safely. She was counting on Gaara to bring them to Konoha; she trusted him.
With Juugo and Gaara protecting the group, what could go wrong? She let out a small, nervous laugh as she sprinted around a corner, pivoting at a sharp angle and shooting into the darkness between two buildings.
I should know better than to say stuff like that. I probably just jinxed the whole damn rescue mission.
Juugo hoisted Yuki more securely in his arms, trying desperately to comfort her as she cried.
"Hey now, you're okay," he soothed, glancing around at his ragtag band of refugees as they made their way thought the vast fields outside the western entrance to the staging village. "You'll see your father soon."
He couldn't ignore the sinking pit of dread in his stomach; he had a gut feeling that Yuki's father was dead. Juugo walked slower than he wanted to, trying to lull the fatigued child to sleep. She finally succumbed to her exhaustion, her brow furrowing as she dreamt.
When he judged that she was deeply asleep, he dared to raise his voice to communicate with the rest of the group.
"Come on, we need to hurry!" He called, waving one huge hand through the air as the drained former prisoners picked up the pace. "We're almost there!"
A small, half-hearted cheer rose up from the group as they channeled their remaining energy into moving a little bit faster. What mattered now was keeping their morale up; if anything went sideways he was going to need them to fight for their lives.
Juugo let out a long sigh, very relieved that every single one of them was trained as a shinobi in one way or another. They didn't have a lot of chakra to boast about due to the constant experimentation and psychological abuse, but there were enough shinobi who could use genjutsu that their little caravan was somewhat camouflaged.
Juugo made sure to follow at the rear. He was terrified that Orochimaru would follow them, even though Itachi had assured him that Orochimaru would be more concerned about getting his revenge on Konoha than those who he deemed to be his property.
"As long as you get them to safety, everything will work according to plan," Itachi had said firmly, putting an end to Juugo's constant stream of questions. "Gaara will take care of the rest. You just need to get everyone there in one piece."
The tired party of one hundred and thirty four people finally crested the last hill. Those at the front of the line (the people who Juugo had deemed the most physically fit; they could hold their own in a confrontation) had stopped, and were standing in a line, creating a wall between the rest of the people and whatever lay at the bottom of the hill.
Juugo hurriedly handed off a sleepy Yuki to one of the older subjects, his chakra already flowing towards his arms in preparation for a fight. He jogged over to where two of the front line stood. The two test subjects who he'd assigned as leaders of the front group were arguing.
As per usual. They hadn't stopped bickering since they'd left the hideout.
"Shut up! I can't assess the threat if you don't stop talking!" Karin's shrill voice carried over a distance, and Juugo's eyebrows shot straight upwards.
"Just let me do it! You're too slow, they'll kill us before you're done-" Suigetsu snapped, cutting in front of her and slapping his wet hands together in the tiger hand sign.
"If they were going to fight us, they wouldn't have announced their presence like this," Juugo commented softly, firmly putting an end to the argument as the two shinobi whirled to look at him.
He didn't know Suigetsu or Karin well, but he knew that they were the two people at the front who had the most leadership potential. Karin knew enough about medical jutsu to heal anyone or inflict cellular damage from a distance, and Suigetsu apparently had one of the legendary swords at his disposal.
Whether or not they'd been truthful about their abilities, he'd sensed that they still had enough chakra to be useful in a fight.
Juugo's adrenaline spiked and he scanned for aggressive chakra as he took in the group standing at the bottom of the hill.
"Who are they?" Suigetsu demanded, crossing his arms and dripping with derision. "Should we fight them?"
"No, stupid!" Karin snapped, pushing her glasses farther up her nose. "I think that's the Kazekage-"
"What kind of Kazekage would have a face tattoo that says "love"?! My money's on a mercenary-" Suigetsu retorted waspishly, cutting off as Juugo raised a hand.
"That's them. That's the Kazekage. Itachi said that he would be waiting for us."
Juugo's relief was obvious in the way that his shoulders relaxed and he jogged towards the waiting party.
He didn't wait for a reply from his comrades.
Juugo finally slowed to a stop in front of the Kazekage, who regarded him with ancient eyes. This guy's more powerful than he looks.
Juugo's eyebrows rose as he calculated the amount of chakra that this guy was likely to have given that power was rolling off of him in waves. He relaxed his shoulders, radiating calm energy as he met the Kazekage's gaze, sizing him up as Gaara did the same thing.
Gaara's expression wasn't overly friendly, but the stern look in his eyes softened when he was satisfied that Juugo wasn't interested in fighting.
"You must be Juugo," Gaara murmured, gesturing behind him at the shinobi who flanked him. They bristled with weapons, and were clearly on edge. "I've been in contact with Sakura. We're going to take you as far as Konoha. Any questions?"'
Juugo started to reply, but was cut off by a sudden scream. Yuki.
"What the hell was that?!" Gaara demanded loudly, the rest of his questions lost as Juugo sprinted back up the hill; terror sang through his veins.
He was already running at top speed back towards his people as the group broke up and everyone started to run in different directions. He didn't even hear Gaara's shouted warning as he ran.
"No, it's too dangerous-"
Juugo flung himself into the air, activating his curse mark by instinct and allowing his power to flow though his body as he put himself between the test subjects and the new threat. His wings sprouted from his back, and he forced himself to unleash his anger.
Power thrummed through his veins as he landed hard, sending a shockwave through the ground below his scaly feet. His eyes darkened, sharpening his vision and shattering the landscape into fragments of infrared light.
There was only one man in the entire world who was devoid of colour; you couldn't track the heat signature of something that was cold blooded.
It can't be. It's genjutsu.
His stomach dropped in horror as he realized that it really was Orochimaru striding towards him, his eyes flashing with fury. Juugo forced himself to remain where he was and doubled his efforts to control the curse mark as Orochimaru's chakra washed over him, bitter and corrosive.
"You traitor," Orochimaru snarled, rage twisting his face into a mask that wasn't human. Juugo stood his ground, using his memories of Kimimaro to pierce through the fog of rage that had descended over his mind.
"What do you have to say for yourself? I saved you, I made you powerful-"
"No, you betrayed me!" He yelled back, his powerful voice distorted and darkened by his power. "You're not going to hurt anyone else!"
"Is that so?" The Sannin's tone was low, dangerous. He radiated menace out of every pore.
Juugo wanted to back down, to apologize, but then Kimimaro's face flashed through his mind. He stood up straighter, staring down the man who had destroyed his life.
"You're going to have to go through me if you want to hurt them!"
Orochimaru was forced to take a step back as Juugo's chakra exploded outwards; it created a concussion blast that flattened the grass around him and stirred up a fierce wind. He just grinned maniacally, making Juugo's lips curl back into an animalistic snarl.
Juugo darted a glance to his left as he sensed Gaara land beside him, his One-Tail chakra swirling in a lazy whirlpool. He pointedly avoided looking at Gaara; it didn't take much to set him off, and he was holding onto his control by the skin of his teeth.
"Get out of here," he grunted, trying to focus on Orochimaru, who stood motionless, his eyes narrowing into slits.
"You're going to need help," Gaara said calmly by way of explanation, clearly unafraid of Orochimaru. Juugo slammed his fist into the ground in response, unable to keep his rage at bay any longer.
"No, get the hell out of here. Take my friends to safety, I'll handle this! If you don't leave I'm gonna try to kill ya too!"
Gaara didn't move for what felt like hours, but Juugo knew that it was only a few seconds at most.
"Go, One-Tails! I'm gonna kill Orochimaru or die tryin'," he roared, flapping his powerful wings and launching himself at his enemy before his rage latched onto another target.
Juugo surrendered to his power, letting it flow over his mind like water, letting go of any hesitation or doubt. His chakra ignited in his veins, giving him a burst of strength like he'd never felt before.
He would never let anyone die because of Orochimaru ever again.
Gaara took off; calling orders to his soldiers as they quickly herded the former prisoners away from the battle. Juugo was too focused to care.
Orochimaru's only response was to laugh as he darted towards Juugo, his chakra billowing around him like a dark cloak.
"Then die!"
They collided, each man burning with murderous intent.
A huge explosion tore through the valley, shattering rock and sending a shockwave through the ground. Heat blasted through the air as the two opposing chakra signatures clashed, each trying to force the other to submit.
If I die, it will be worth it knowing that I did something good with my life. I can atone for the pain I caused, right here and right now.
Shikamaru ran a hand over his face, surveying the room where Fugaku had last been seen. "He can't have gotten that far. He's in bad shape."
Neji's eyes narrowed as he searched for any chakra clues that could help them pick up Fugaku's trail. "True, but he might not be in control. I don't know the limits of Orochimaru's jutsu, do you?"
Shikamaru found that he had to agree with Neji; he settled for shaking his head and sighing. "What a mess. I didn't finally take the jonin exam so that I'd have to deal with this kind of shit."
Neji smiled gently, turning away from him to stride into the main room where Gai, Lee, and Kiba had been found unconscious. "They don't tell you at the academy what you're in for."
"Good thing, too," Shikamaru grumbled, joining him. "So, you got anything?"
"Not really," Neji trailed off, lost in thought as his byakugan pulsed softly on his forehead. "I'm picking up chakra, sure, but it's so mottled with the effects of his illness that it's diffused. There's nothing here that's sending me in a definitive direction."
Shikamaru was about to start swearing when they were started by a sharp knock at the door. His brow furrowing, he walked over and looked out the peephole. Immediately, he threw back the deadbolt and flung the door open, taking in the sight of a very bruised and sooty Sakura.
"You look great," he commented, smirking at her as she glowered at him. "That ash really brings out your eyes."
"Nice to see you too," she grumbled, striding into the house and surveying it with raised eyebrows. "Hey, Neji. You guys find anything yet?"
"Not yet," Neji replied, waving a hand at the room. "You want to see if you can find anything?"
"Sure." She closed her eyes, her chakra threads searching through the room. Shikamaru had to remind himself not to flinch as they whispered over his skin, moving into all of the nooks and crannies of the house. Sakura finally opened her eyes and shrugged, shaking her head.
Her newly short hair swung around her ears as she did so, and she unconsciously reached up and ran a hand through it, grimacing as she found a piece that wasn't cut quite right. "Sorry, I can't find anything useful. Have Kakashi-sensei's dogs found anything?"
"Dunno," Shikamaru replied, his curiosity getting the better of him. "What the hell happened to you?"
Her expression darkened, and her eyes narrowed. "Let's just say that Itachi almost burned down the ANBU building and everyone in it."
Shikamaru couldn't help his admiring whistle, shrugging as she threw him a look that would have made anyone else wither. "What? He's got style, I'll admit it."
"That's not the point," she muttered, stomping back to the front door and opening it. She stared into the night for a moment, clearly thinking hard. Shikamaru followed her, gesturing to Neji that it was time for them to try looking somewhere else.
Sakura's eyes suddenly snapped open, and he could have sworn that he saw a flash of scarlet pass over her irises. "I think I know where he might be."
"We'll follow you."
Shikamaru and Neji shot into the darkness after her, hearing nothing but the sounds of their sandals tacking against the pavement as they ran. Sakura made several hairpin turns, but Shikamaru figured out pretty quickly where she was going.
The Uchiha complex? Why would he go there? That was the last place where we'd expect him to hide out, it's too obvious.
What isn't she telling us?
Sakura's breath burned in her lungs as they ran through the darkened village, only able to see by the light of the full moon. She ran towards the Uchiha district, leading Neji and Shikamaru to the place that Itachi had told her about under the Uchiha complex.
She ignored the small put of worry in her stomach, full well aware that she'd been responsible for the damage to the district; there were still patches on buildings and the evidence of reconstruction everywhere. She forced her personal feelings down deep as they slowed to a stop outside the great causeway that marked the entrance to the compound.
Don't get sentimental. You can worry about that later.
Without glancing behind her (she knew that her companions had been able to keep up), she raised a hand and knocked hard on the grand wooden doors painted with the character for fire. The sound of her knock thundered through the courtyard that lay inside the doors, and she waited impatiently outside as her palms began to sweat and her heart thumped frantically in her chest.
Finally, the left-hand side of the double doors opened, and a suspicious face peered out. She didn't recognize the policeman on duty, but she didn't have time for niceties.
"You know why I'm here," she said bluntly, crossing her arms and trying her best to look authoritative. "Please move."
"You-" the policeman said, his tone dripping with dislike, "-are not allowed in here. You have some guts waltzing back into the village after what you did-"
"I'm with Hyuuga-san and Nara-san on the Hokage's orders. We need to see the shrine."
His retort died on his lips as he took in her expression. She wasn't in the mood to negotiate. His face paled as he clued into her request; she wasn't supposed to know about the shrine.
There must have been something about the fact that she knew about the clan's secret, it made the man step aside and wave them in, closing the door behind them with a boom.
"How do you know about that?" He hissed, darting a furtive glance around for any eavesdroppers. Sakura followed his gaze, unnerved by how quiet the Uchiha district was. She'd been here countless times over the course of her childhood, training with Sasuke and Naruto, but she'd never seen the streets empty.
"It's not a well-known fact," she assured him, crossing her arms. "I only know about it because Itachi Uchiha trusted me with the information. I just need to confirm that Fugaku Uchiha isn't hiding there."
"Fugaku? Everyone is out looking for him, he's not here," the man shook his head firmly. "No one goes in or out of the shrine without being noticed by the guards."
"How?" Sakura asked curiously, confused. Itachi told me that he could get in and out without being noticed. Either that's a testament to how good he is, or he lied to me.
The second possibility sent another pulse of irritation into the storm that still swirled within her. He'd better have a good explanation.
The Uchiha pointed to a small side street that Sakura hadn't noticed before. "There are wards and containment jutsus all over the place. They're changed all the time, and there's a rotating group that places the jutsus. There's no way that one person could get through all of the protection without someone noticing."
Shit.
She shot a glance at Neji, whose byakugan still pulsed as he surveyed the Uchiha. Catching Sakura's eye, he shook his head slightly. His message was loud and clear: he's not lying. His chakra is normal.
"Damn it!" She muttered, running a hand over her face in frustration. "I thought that I had something."
Shit!
"If it's all the same to you," Shikamaru drawled, lighting a cigarette and lazily blowing out a long stream of smoke. "Get us the person who's in charge when Fugaku's not here, would ya?"
"She's not here," came the reply, joined with a raised eyebrow and a shrug. "Hibana's meeting with the other clan heads. Just trust me, if Fugaku was in the compound, we'd know it. He's not exactly the clan's favourite person at the moment. He's pissed off a lot of people."
Sakura was too busy seething with frustration to hear Shikamaru's reply. "Huh?"
"I said, is there another place where he might have gone?"
"I dunno, maybe to the cemetery?"
Sakura's head snapped up and she gasped. "Of course! We need to get to Sasuke's grave!"
"You're still going to have to tell me what the story is there," Shikamaru grumbled as Neji chuckled softly, thanking the man for his help.
"Later!" She replied distractedly, turning on her heel and using her strength to catapult herself over the wall, much to the sentry's dismay.
Get to the grave, hurry!
They ran, their limbs blurring as they made their way across the village to the shinobi burial grounds. They passed several groups of searching ninja on their way, and by the time they'd covered the three miles of ground their group was now at least twenty people strong.
Sakura didn't waste any time, she ran straight in the direction of Sasuke's grave. She could hear Neji and Shikamaru directing the search efforts to cover the entire grounds, but she didn't wait to hear anything else. She skidded to a stop beside Sasuke's grave, ignoring her flash of discomfort as she stared at his gravestone.
There's no one here.
She ran back to the group, her stomach plummeting as she realized that no one could find any sign of Fugaku. He wasn't in the village, in the forest right outside or hidden in any of the bunkers below the towers.
That means that he's living on borrowed time until we find him. Orochimaru might already have him.
The situation had turned dire. She couldn't help the frustrated tears that streamed down her face, leaning against a nearby tree for support. She'd failed Sasuke and Itachi, and now Konoha would pay for it.
Shikamaru landed beside her, his expression remarkably neutral as he surveyed her, crying and covered in dirt and ash.
"Go home," he said gently, jerking his head towards the search party. "We'll keep looking. You're in no shape to be out here all night."
"But-"
"Go, Sakura."
She finally looked at him head on, taking in the solemn set of his eyes. "You'll do everything that you can?"
"Yeah, I know I've got orders to bring him back, but-"
"Do what you have to do, Shikamaru,'' she whispered, hugging her arms to her chest, "I hate to say it, but given what he did to escape you might have to kill him. Just make sure that his sharingan can't be stolen."
"Gotcha," he muttered, tightening his ponytail and fixing her with a stern glare. "Go home, I'll take it from here."
"Wait, I don't have an apartment anymore-"
"Yes, you do. Tsunade-sama made sure that you had it for when you came home."
Sakura couldn't help the rush of affection for her shisou; it must have taken some very interesting lies to keep her apartment the way that it was when she left.
That was one thing that she didn't have to worry about.
"Thanks," she said softly, trying to calm her racing heart as she took off towards her house.
Part of her was angry, part of her was devastated, and the other part was just so damn tired that she didn't want to have to think anymore. Sakura didn't know whether or not she should hope that Itachi was in her apartment; she was still angry.
But the guilt was worse. She knew that he wouldn't blame her for losing Fugaku, but it didn't help how she felt. She felt like everything that they'd carefully planned had been thrown to the wind, and the attack on Konoha was going to be worse than anything that they had ever experienced.
Sakura hadn't forgotten the devastation of the last attack. Orochimaru wasn't the kind of man who did anything by half.
She walked to her house, moving on autopilot as her mind whirred over the events of the night. Over and over, she replayed the flash of Amaterasu and finally let herself feel. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she slowly made her way up the four flights of stairs that led up to her door.
She fumbled for the key on top of the door, sliding it into the lock and opening the door. The scent of dust assaulted her as she walked in, and she sighed.
Tsunade-sama must have kept the landlord from getting rid of my stuff, she thought, running her hand over the solid inch of dust on her nightstand. She found herself wishing that Itachi had been there waiting for her, but then firmly reminded herself that she was supposed to be furious with him.
Oh, she was going to give him a piece of her mind, but she still wanted to feel safe. Despite the events of the night, he was a steady presence who truly did set her at ease (when he wasn't trying to kill anyone who he could get his hands on). She wanted to punch him again, but she also wanted to fall asleep in the safety of his arms.
I'm a goddamn contradiction; she groaned silently and leaned against the windowsill, gazing up at the moon. Her eyes throbbed, and she fed chakra into them with a yawn.
Sakura's shoulders stiffened as she heard a soft sound. The front door eased open quietly, and Itachi peered around the doorway. "Sakura?"
"In here," she whispered, both relieved and angry to see him.
Itachi stared at the street, debating if he should check to see if Sakura had gone back to her apartment. His mind whirred over the events of the last several hours, and his jaw clenched as he thought about how close he'd come to losing all control. He was glad to be alone for a moment; Sasuke had left earlier to go see Naruto. He assumed that they were bunking at Naruto's place.
Guilt was currently gnawing a hole in his stomach, and his conversation with Tsunade hadn't helped.
He'd worked with Sasuke's help to wake up the ANBU guards and then had reported to the tower, as per Sakura's demand.
The corner of his mouth ticked up as he thought about how passionately she'd yelled at him. He was a big fan of her fiery personality, and was even impressed that she'd managed to pull her strength enough to only bruise his ribs. If she'd really wanted to hurt him, he'd be breathing through eight broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.
After speaking quickly with Shizune, he'd found Tsunade working away in the morgue. He had to admit that even he was affected by the state of the corpses; he'd never seen a curse mark death before, although Sakura was probably familiar with then.
"You did what?!" Tsunade had demanded as she worked to close up the Uchiha steward. Itachi had never been fond of the simpering, ambitious man, but he did pity him. His death had been one of searing agony. He wouldn't wish that on anyone, except for maybe Orochimaru.
"Sasuke and I counted thirty-eight slightly injured intelligence corps agents," he'd replied, bracing himself for a second storm. Sakura could be feisty, but she had nothing on the explosive anger that Tsunade was capable of releasing.
To Itachi's great relief, however, she'd started to laugh instead. It wasn't a reassuring sound, but at least she wasn't punching him into next week.
"Well that's just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard about you," she'd chuckled, wiping her hands and taking off her gloves and goggles. "I thought that nothing could make you lose your cool, but all it takes is a threat to Sakura, huh?"
He wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. "Yes, I wasn't aware of it until now. She's already expressed her displeasure with me, quite thoroughly," he'd added, still feeling the effects of her punch in his intercostal muscles.
"Good," Tsunade had said firmly, surveying him with her knowing eyes. "Well, let's just say that you're an idiot and leave it at that for now. We will discuss the consequences of your actions when all of this is over. You're not allowed to undertake any endeavors without my permission, got it?"
"Clear as day, Hokage-sama."
"I'm impressed that you didn't kill anyone," she'd continued casually, acting as if they weren't standing in a pool of blood. "That takes significant restraint."
"I was willing to," he'd admitted, crossing his arms. "But Sakura was the reason."
"Hmmph, I guess a reason is better than none. If you ever pull anything this reckless again, I'll kill you myself," she'd said darkly, pointing at him with a stern finger.
"Understood."
"Good. I have to talk to you and Sakura tomorrow; Sasuke might be able to give me some insight into the curse marks as well. I want to see you at ten sharp."
"We'll be there."
"Get out of here, and wipe off your shoes before you go and see Sakura. I have a feeling that you're going to need to do some serious grovelling," she'd mused, her eyes glittering with dark amusement as she'd gestured to the ground. "Good luck."
"I'd prefer not to need it," he'd muttered, stepping out of the way of the rapidly spreading pool of blood.
"Oh, trust me, you're going to," she'd chirped, turning away to make some notes on a spreadsheet. "Go."
He hadn't wasted any time, exiting the room that smelled like blood and death, and now was standing on the street corner, trying to decide what his best course of action was. He decided to try Sakura's apartment.
Chances were good that she was there.
His suspicions were confirmed when he sensed a flash of her chakra as he climbed the stairwell up to her home. The door was unlocked; he hoped that it meant that she was ready to talk. She would have locked the door if she didn't want to see him.
"Sakura?"
"In here, Itachi."
She turned, and Itachi could see, even in the half-darkness, that she was weeping. He didn't hesitate, striding across the room and pulling her into his arms.
Sakura's shoulders shook and hot tears streamed down her face as she leaned against him. He wanted to kiss her senseless, to distract her, but he also knew that she was still angry with him. She needed time.
"I'm still mad at you," she hiccuped, shaking her head vigorously as he tipped her chin back to look her in the eye. "Don't look at me like that; I need to be angry for a minute!"
"I'm sorry," he said softly, "You stopped me from doing something that I could never come back from."
"You are such an idiot," she sobbed, fisting her hand in his shirt as she stepped closer. "You can't do something so reckless and expect me to be okay with it!"
"I know. I'm sorry," he murmured, cradling her face between his palms. "I don't know what came over me, I didn't think."
"I'm not mad at you for that," she sniffed and scrubbed furiously at her eyes, "I'm mad about the fact that you were completely okay with killing dozens of strong shinobi right before we go to war with Orochimaru. Even if I ignore how angry that makes me from a strategy standpoint, you know that I have other reasons."
"You have every right to be angry." He finally responded, for once in his life completely clueless as to how he was going to get himself out of this situation.
He'd thrown reason and logic out the window; this was the natural consequence. It hadn't occurred to him that he might lose her, regardless of the fact that he hadn't committed murder.
None of that mattered when she looked at him like he'd gone ahead and done it anyway.
Itachi couldn't ignore the pit of guilt that had taken up residence in his stomach. He had considered the possibility that he would have to kill and had promptly dismissed it; he'd been far too occupied with getting to Sakura, not what he would have to do when he got there.
"I knew that you would never forgive me, so I didn't kill them," he said softly, biting back the urge to continue explaining when her shoulders stiffened and she stepped away from him.
"That's a small blessing at least," she sighed, running a hand over her face. "I just...I'm exhausted and this whole night has been a shitshow. I couldn't find your father."
"Shizune told me what happened. Just because you didn't find Fugaku doesn't mean that Orochimaru has him." Itachi ignored the flicker of anxiety that bloomed in his chest; he knew that Konoha was searching high and low for him. If he could be found, they would be able to track him down. "Kakashi's got his scent."
"No, but it doesn't mean that we have hope," she whispered, hugging her arms to her chest.
"There are dozens of shinobi looking for him. He'll be found. You've done more than enough, let our allies take over from here," he said firmly, crossing his arms.
"I don't… I don't feel like I've done enough," she whispered, turning away from him. "I'm still so frustrated that I had to intervene with you. What if I missed my chance to catch him?"
"That's possible, but he was already missing. I doubt that twenty minutes would have made much of a difference."
"That's not it-"
She cut off, chewing on her lip. Sakura glanced at him anxiously, he knew that she was afraid that her words were going to be hurtful. He also knew better than to stop her.
"Hm?"
"I'm still angry with you. That's the bottom line," she murmured, avoiding his gaze. She turned and put her back to him.
"Tell me what you're feeling," he prompted, fully aware that she needed to vent. She never reacted well when her emotions were compressed and ignored for too long. He chose not to take her words to heart; he knew that she was trying to express the helplessness that she felt over the situation.
"Fine," she started, pacing back and forth. "It means a lot to me that you were willing to do anything to save my life, but I can't overlook the way that you went about it."
"Do you think that I'd be capable of letting you experience the kind of torture that I was trained in?" He asked simply.
"That's not the point."
"You didn't answer the question."
"No, I didn't think that. But I expected that you would do what you had to do to complete the mission. If that means that I'm a sacrifice-"
"No."
"Yes, Itachi! There's too much at stake now-"
"I wasn't going to let you die," he replied firmly, striding up behind her and sliding his arms around her, pulling her body against his. To his surprise (he wasn't sure how she would react), she let him. This was a good sign.
"I know. But if it's my life or Konoha, I need you to let me go," she whispered, leaning into his embrace as he buried his face in her hair. "Choose Konoha."
"No," he murmured, pulling her even closer as she shivered. He could feel her pulse hammering against his cheek, and he allowed his relief to wash over him. He felt the prickling of tears behind his eyes, and almost pulled away from her because of the strange feeling.
"Itachi, promise me."
"It isn't even a question. Never."
She muttered something that was too quiet for him to hear, but he could have sworn that he heard the word "stupid" in there somewhere. She turned in his arms, facing him once more.
He couldn't think of anything to say, so he settled for holding her. They stood quietly for a moment, and he felt a small flicker of hope welling up in him as she wrapped her arms more securely around his neck and relaxed into him.
"Did you apologize to the guys that you knocked out?" Her voice was muffled in his shirt, and he felt a small smirk tick up the corners of his mouth.
"I did."
"And did they accept?"
"Two of them did," he replied, sighing into her neck. "They were, for the most part, very unimpressed with me."
She laughed softly, her shoulders shaking against his chest. "Good. You deserve that."
"I will move heaven and earth, Haruno. All that I care about is that you're alive," he said firmly, sweeping her into his arms as she let out a squawk of protest. Despite that, she hooked her ankles around the small of his back as he drew back to look at her. "You can be mad at me as long as you want. I just need you to know that."
Her shimmering eyes regarded him for a long moment before she responded. "If you ever do something that stupid again, I will not heal you, and I will yell at you for at least two years."
"I can deal with that," he assured her, snaking his arms around her waist and pulling her body tightly against his. "You're safe, that's what matters to me."
"You're still stupid," she murmured, her eyes still puffy and red-rimmed from crying. He brushed a tear off her cheek and tapped her on the forehead. "Don't pull anything like this ever again."
"I won't."
She sighed, sliding her hand around the back of his neck. "I just want to forget that today ever happened."
"Done. So does the promised two years of yelling start now, or..?" He asked quietly, the corner of his mouth turning up as she rolled her eyes.
"Don't try to be cute. You're going to put me down on the bed and then we're going to go to sleep," she said firmly, trying and failing to be stern.
"Yes, Haruno-sama," he replied cheerfully, chuckling softly at the blush that burned across her cheeks at the honorific. We're good. We're safe.
"Itachi-"
"Go to sleep. We'll deal with tomorrow when it comes."
Fugaku couldn't catch his breath. Everything hurt. His body refused to obey his commands, to run, to hide, to move. He felt the muscles around his chest constricting slowly as he pushed all of his effort into breathing. Slowly, so slowly, they released, and he sucked in a grateful, unimpeded breath.
It turned into a half-sob as another wave of pain wracked his body; his nerves fired so frequently that he couldn't remember what it felt like to feel no pain. A current of nerve pain burned across his back, setting fire to his spine and shooting down his legs. His one working arm and leg were on the same side, so he struggled to his feet with difficulty.
He forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, dragging the useless side of his body along as he lumbered towards his goal. He fell, heavily, as his left leg gave out, writhing with the pain of Orochimaru's jutsu.
Fugaku was finding it extremely difficult to think, but he knew that Orochimaru's jutsu was in its final stages. He'd woken up outside of the village, with no memory of how he'd escaped and what he'd had to do to get out of the safe house.
Go to Orochimaru, he'll stop the pain, his brain chanted; his system was desperate for the source of the drug that had ravaged his body and had destroyed his mind. Fugaku knew that he was beyond help; anything that he did was out of his control from this point on.
Find your master. Surrender your sharingan to him; he knows how to make the agony stop.
He forced his guilt at the possibility that he'd hurt Gai, Lee, and Kiba down deep as he struggled to his feet and continued into the forest. The trees cast deep shadows across his vision, moving and warping into nightmarish shapes as the jutsu continued to attack his brain.
The sound of his muffled sobs and laboured breathing echoed through the deserted forest as he rounded the final corner to the hidden Uchiha burial ground. There was one in the village, but the real one was out in the forest, miles from the village proper. His clan had always jealously guarded their kekkei genkai, they weren't stupid enough to leave their corpses somewhere where the sharingan could easily be stolen.
I have to get to Shisui.
He needs his eyes back.
If I hide the sharingan, I'll be useless to Orochimaru and his plan will fail.
Get to Shisui, get to Shisui, and go to Shisui's grave!
It took him the better part of an hour to force his way along the paths of the cemetery; he stubbornly refused to look at the gravestones of his ancestors, ashamed of how far he had fallen from grace. Tears ran anew down his face, not only from pain, but also from grief.
He'd led the Uchiha to the brink of destruction; he refused to allow himself to be used any longer. He collapsed next to Shisui's grave, murmuring desperate apologies to his nephew as his short fingernails scrabbled across the hard-packed earth of the grave.
He dug, furiously, for what felt like hours, making very little progress due to his one working arm. He barely noticed that a stream of apologies and pleas for forgiveness left his lips; he was too busy trying to fix what he'd broken. He hoped against all hope that Shisui would understand why he was trying to dig him up.
It wasn't bad enough that Fugaku had killed Shisui after requesting that he return home early from a mission, now he could add desecrating a grave to the list of sins he had to atone for. Fugaku wished bitterly that he could have a second chance. He would have done so many things differently.
Shisui deserved so much better than me. I failed him, and I should be the one in this coffin.
Finally, when his torn hand scraped across the top of Shisui's coffin, he stopped for a moment before he punched through the wood.
I don't know if I have the strength.
Fugaku settled back on his haunches, still breathing with difficulty. He forced himself to swallow and take a deep breath. He raised his hand to cover his eyes, his fingers hooked like claws as he readied himself for the pain of digging out Shisui's eyes from his sockets. Tears ran down his face and splattered in the dirt as he contracted the muscles in his hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The oily remark that came slithering out of the darkness sent a dark bolt of dread straight down Fugaku's spine, and he dropped his hand to look his enemy in the eye. Orochimaru stepped into the moonlight, regarding Fugaku with the glittering eyes of a madman.
"Orochimaru," Fugaku forced out, feeling the acrid taste of hatred and fear swirling through his mouth. "You're too late. I'm going to destroy it-"
"No, you aren't."
Fugaku let out a bitter laugh, raising his hand once again. His fingers dug into his eye socked and he let out a gasp of pain as his short, ragged nails dragged across his sclera. He distantly heard Orochimaru hiss in anger and felt as wicked, dark, viscous chakra washed over him.
This is it. This is how I die, Fugaku thought sadly, his thoughts flashing to Itachi and Sasuke.
"You're not going to die. You're still useful to me," Orochimaru purred, stepping closer. As if he'd flicked a switch, the rest of Fugaku's body went numb and he crumpled to the ground, desperately trying to breathe as his body writhed from a lack of air. "My chakra is depleted, I had to deal with something earlier, but we're still cooking with gas."
No! I damaged my eyes-
"You didn't do anything to the eyes that I won't be able to heal," the Sannin continued, as if he could read Fugaku's mind. "You will be reborn as something more powerful than you ever could have imagined."
Orochimaru peered into Fugaku's face, his maniacal grin flashed in the moonlight. "I'll send your sons my regards."
His mouth opened impossibly wide as black spots began to swim in Fugaku's vision. He didn't even feel Orochimaru's fangs sinking into his jugular as he suffocated. His limbs ceased to move, and his chest fell one last time as Orochimaru's senjutsu took effect.
Shisui.
Mikoto.
Sasuke.
Itachi.
Forgive me.