New Hope

Darkness had long settled by the time Kakashi, Kiba and Orochimaru joined their camp. The Konoha jonin briskly counted heads, nodding in satisfaction when all were present and accounted for. However, he was pushed aside by Orochimaru, who immediately hurried over to Sasuke.

Sasuke already knew what he was going to talk about and he turned his head away in shame. No matter how Aoda felt about Orochimaru, he was still the man's summon first and there had to have been at least some sort of connection for them to share a summoning bond. Seeing him close himself off, Orochimaru paused his advance, opting to instead give a heavy sigh and a nod of understanding. They didn't have to talk about that right now.

To fill the descended silence, Kakashi addressed the entire group, who turned tired but determined faces towards him. "All of you likely already know by now what's happened to each of us when we branched off. Initially it looked like a simple divide and conquer tactic but I'm almost positive that the retreat we've been given was for our skills to be assessed and analyzed. Likewise, it's given us the chance to do the same and no doubt they'll be restructuring their ranks."

Sakura slightly raised a hand and Kakashi gestured to her. "Should we call for backup?" she asked. "Takami seems content with this turning into a full-fledged war."

Kakashi made a noise in his throat that sounded like regret. "I tried to radio to Lady Tsunade but we're too far out. I've sent Pakkun back with a note, but no telling when he'll get there or if she'll be able to send anyone. We're still not certain how large Takami's army is so I can understand why she'd want to err on the side of caution by keeping a strong defense at home."

"I'm pretty sure we'll be alright," Suigetsu said casually, glancing at Karin and then panning the area with his eyes to take in everyone else. "We have some of the best of each village here and plus you guys have me!" he winked and the others gave a much needed chuckle. "Besides, I don't think Takami could top Madara and what we saw during the last War. We survived that, didn't we? We know Takami's not stronger than that. We've got this! Don't let his little doomsday cult rattle you."

Sasuke smiled to himself, thankful for Suigetsu's words. Indeed, even with everything Takami had done so far, none of it was on the level of Madara or worse, Kaguya. When put into that perspective, this battle should be relatively easy. So why was he constantly being filled with unease?

Perhaps it was because he was so used to winning every battle by a landslide that not being the easy victor was completely unnatural now. He'd become overly-assured in his skills, confident that no one could challenge him. That'd led to some unfortunate outcomes but that didn't negate the fact that he was still very talented and powerful. Feeling calmer, he continued to stroke the blonde hair in his lap, Naruto having fallen into a more peaceful sleep.

Several members of the group were sent to keep guard as Kakashi made rounds to listen to the details of each of their fights. Sasuke was finally able to reveal everything he knew so far about Takami and as Kakashi listened, he could see the man's face cloud behind his mask. "The ability to push and pull objects at will…and you're sure he doesn't have a Rinnegan?"

The Uchiha nodded. "Positive. But that's likely related to his telekinetic power as opposed to a visual ability."

Kakashi let out a heavy breath, but smiled faintly. "Well, if it works anything like Pain's ability, Naruto discovered that there was a five second time gap between when he was able to push or pull objects. That's how he was able to destroy him, so keep an eye out for something similar. I'm going to continue to let you handle Takami, but we're all here as your backup." He put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, giving a pat as he stood up. "I'm sure I've said it before, but it's really good to have you back, Sasuke."

Sasuke felt his cheeks heat as he also smiled. "Yeah, it's really nice to be back." For the second time now, a voice reminded him but he quieted the thought. No matter how many times he was pushed away, he would still return back to Konoha.

The night began to give way to morning. The camp guards had primarily consisted of himself, Hinata, Kiba and Karin as the strongest sensory ninja but his shift had ended a couple of hours ago. As they weren't attempting to hide their location (especially considering they hadn't moved from the scene of the most recent battle), he'd graciously built a large fire, moving Naruto and himself closer to it to get a few moments of rest. He'd laid himself on his side with his head on Naruto's chest when he heard Hinata yell out, "They're here! Everyone get ready!"

He rolled over quickly, picking up Naruto in his arms to carry him to the edge of the field, but when he turned around, he saw that Gaara was beside him. "I'll use my sand barrier to cover him so you can fight. I'll be sure to protect him with my life," he swore.

Immensely grateful, Sasuke tenderly handed him over, laying him on a cloud of sand. His own barriers consisted of flames that ran the risk of hurting Naruto, but he'd gone head to head with Gaara's barriers way back during his initial chuunin exam. Though he'd been able to find a weak spot to attack at that time, he was confident that Gaara would've covered that by now.

He had just enough time to witness Gaara forming a floating sand sphere around Naruto before his vision was rocked by what he thought was an explosion. Beneath him, the ground buckled and deep cracks were formed, making him run to keep from being swallowed within. At first, he thought that maybe Sakura had caused it, but when he scanned the area, he found her running for safety as well, though her face read that she was ready to return the favor of their attacker.

He decided to let her handle whoever it was and proceeded with finding his main objective. Already, many of their group was locked in battle with those in white though he stared curiously for a second longer at the unusual duo of Suigetsu and Kiba fighting someone with blue hair.

His searching didn't take long as he found Takami standing amongst the chaos, surveying what he'd orchestrated with a mild look of pride. Sasuke advanced slowly, taking in his dark hair and eyes that almost made him resemble an Uchiha. At seeing him, Takami's expression shifted to one of pure pleasantness. "Excuse our delay; my team was tired from the extraction ritual and I figured your teammates would be fatigued from yesterday's fighting as well. It seemed mutually beneficial to postpone the battle for an evening."

For a second, Sasuke felt regret that they hadn't indeed pressed an advance, but Takami spoke the truth. Yesterday had been a very long day, and while he was fine with risking himself to save Naruto, he wouldn't have been able to cope if such a reckless move resulted in losing someone else on their side. Instead, he decided to point out a new detail: "You're not covering your eyes this time."

To his surprise, Takami pulled Naruto's headband from his pocket and tossed it at him. Sasuke caught it without looking over at it. "I don't think I'll need that this time, but once we finish this and we've retrieved Kurama, your village is welcome to keep that as a memento of Naruto or to bury it with him. We'll be sure to return his body once we're done," Takami assured him with his usual honesty.

Sasuke gave no warning at the activation of his Rinne-Sharingan, instead locking eyes with Takami and visualizing a torture that would be long-drawn out and surely would snap his sanity. In it, he saw Takami tied to a stake with crows burrowing in his flesh while also being tormented by any personal demons in his past. Kakashi had revealed once that it was what Itachi had done to him years ago, back when his brother had first joined the Akatsuki and attacked the village, a genjutsu so effect that it'd put his teacher in the hospital for weeks.

Except the part about being tormented by personal demons would allow him to know and understand those flaws and nightmares as well, laying bare the other person's soul. Sasuke felt no forth-coming information from Takami and when he discontinued the jutsu, he saw that Takami was still standing there as before, completely unaffected. "But how…" he began to seethe.

"I told you, I won't need to shield myself from you this time. You'd do well to save your energy for something else." He calmly walked forward, raising a hand in a very familiar gesture.

For a moment, Sasuke took a step back until he remembered Kakashi's recommendation from last night. If indeed this power worked like Pain's, there would be a delay after usage before he could activate it again. He tensed, waiting for the opening—

The two moved at the same time, Takami beckoning Sasuke closer with an intense force and Sasuke slamming his sword in the ground to remain rooted. The instant the pulling force wore off, Sasuke launched forward, crouching to streamline his body. He wouldn't waste time with Amaterasu or his Susano'o; he had something entirely different in mind. As he drew closer, he focused on the space just behind Takami, watching as he made the air swirl and a small hole opened.

In just those few seconds, he was already feeling the toll it took on his body to create the alternate dimension. However, he pushed himself forward, ignoring the stabbing pain in his eyes as he discharged a current of lightning to his sword and added a Chidori to his other hand. He closed the distance between them uncontested, counting down those precious seconds before he lost his chance.

Feinting with the Chidori, he dissolved it once he was right in front of Takami, who'd taken a step back, just as he'd hoped. Sasuke brought up his left hand and swung the sword at his throat, not entirely upset when it missed. He figured it wouldn't land but that was fine. Takami again took a step back and Sasuke threw all of his power into widening the vortex he'd created and felt the greatest flood of satisfaction when Takami glanced behind him and saw exactly what he was about to fall into. At his proximity, there was no way to avoid it.

Time seemed to freeze as he watched Takami tip backwards. Sasuke kept pushing his advance, bringing the blade back for another strike that also would be unavoidable. There was a heart-stopping moment before Takami fell through and then...the swirling of his dimension became erratic. Sasuke's attention was momentarily diverted as he witnessed his vortex actually being disintegrated, swallowed into a smaller but more powerful gateway like a black hole.

As this was no longer his time-space dimension, he was helpless to control its location and watched as it was moved from behind Takami to in front of him in the blink of an eye. His left hand was still in motion from his attack and at such a close distance to the portal, he was unable to pull it back. He watched in horror as his arm sank into a cold void, trying to use his feet to at least change directions. He twisted his body to the side to avoid going in any further, working desperately to form his own hole again to maybe overcome this one.

It would've taken too much time and energy though and he didn't have that. His body managed to avoid being swallowed within but there was nothing he could do as the dimension was closed off with his left arm still within it. The force crushed around him and with an immense scream, Sasuke at last was free, but with bone, tendons and ripped flesh being all that remained of his left arm.

He lay on the ground, knowing he was still screaming and unable to quiet himself. His arm was gone. It was gone. He looked at the remains that dripped down and vomited, and then continued to scream. What the hell had just happened?

He looked up at Takami, who stood gazing down at him with one eye that still remained an unchanged black and a right eye that now glowed a shade closest to magenta. In this eye were not one but two pupils that were connected like egg yolks, both circled by the comma-shaped tomoe and very distinctive rings. Sasuke didn't need to be told what he was looking at; it was a Rinne-Sharingan in the same eye. Takami was not an Uchiha…that fact was undeniable. But then how…?

It was all too much. His body was already going into shock from the pain and blood loss, but an old fear, one he thought he'd conquered just a week ago, immobilized him. He offered no resistance as Takami paralyzed him in a jutsu, the man kindly projecting gentle images as he began the process of removing Sasuke's eyes.

I write Sasuke with two arms all just to arbitrarily take one away from him anyways…I'm so cruel.