Disclaimer: Still. Do. Not. Own.
A/N: If everyone who followed this story reviewed only two chapters, it would make my two thousand reviews twice over. As that is an unrealistic dream, I want offer my most sincere thanks to everyone who has been reviewing. Thus far, you've gotten me through 36 chapters, which is the equivalent to coaxing me through a novel. I know enthusiasm sometimes wanes when a story draws on as long as Five Kingdoms has, but let me know you're out there and you still like/dislike what's going on.
Five Kingdoms for the Dead
-Chapter Thirty-Six-
Preparation for a Long Journey
His conscious mind processed only Sharingan before a high keening from Sasuke alarmed him. His younger brother had his hands clenched tightly in his lap, his own eyes mere slits, but red was quickly spilling into his irises.
"Do not be alarmed," Sakura said evenly. Her tone had gone smooth and deep again, as it had been when she recruited him. "The seal on his memories is being dissolved. While the process itself should be painless, reintegrating memories is less so. It will be less painful if you do not resist, Sasuke."
"Like hell, Madara," Sasuke gasped painfully and Itachi tensed, half-standing from his chair as Sasuke's spine went rigid and he clutched at his temples, mouth opening in a silent scream. "Get out of my head!" he rasped.
Sakura-or whomever she was-was unmoved. "Sit down, Itachi. Sasuke is in no danger."
"I am afraid, from my perspective, that does not seem to be the case."
A pink brow rose as he stood, placing himself protectively between Sakura and Sasuke. "If I was truly Madara, nothing you are capable of would protect your brother from me," she asserted confidently. "But this Sharingan is illusion, nothing more. I am not capable of manipulating space and time."
"Sasuke's pain would testify otherwise."
"Sasuke is a child, flailing at shadows and injuring himself in the process. Your chakra is sealed, Uchiha. And if you keep drawing on it in order to activate your Sharingan, you will do yourself permanent injury."
There was an inhalation of breath behind then, then he felt Sasuke relax. Warily, Itachi stepped to the side so he could see his brother in his peripheral vision.
"Madara?" he inquired, half-turning to Sakura.
"Just so. You need not look so surprised, Itachi. You had your own suspicions." Sakura's expression was disinterested, foreign. The red of her eyes sat strangely in her face, but as he looked more closely, he revised his original assessment. Not simply Sharingan. Mangekyo Sharingan, of a design he had only ever observed in the secret shrine beneath the compound. "But I am also not Madara."
His own eyes narrowed. "I am afraid I don't follow."
Sakura blinked and the Sharingan was gone, replaced by verdant green and when she spoke, it was with more of her usual animation. "When I was a genin on Team Seven, I...repressed my violent tendencies to impress a certain someone with my grace and decorum." Her voice was very dry and she spared a significant glance at Sasuke, who only glared back, one hand still pressed to his temple.
"Most people don't have that many thoughts of violence," Sasuke grumbled, but he still sounded shaken, which was extremely unusual in his brother. Just what had he remembered?
"I don't want to be told that by someone who spent his entire childhood making certain everyone and Naruto knew you were an avenger," Sakura retorted. "But my efforts to impress, well, everyone, came with an unexpected side effect. I developed a secondary personality, not quite independent, but no longer cohesive enough to really call her me. But she was harmless. She probably would have been reabsorbed once I reconciled myself to my own violence. But, unfortunately or fortunately, depending upon your point of view, I never had a chance to do so. After a certain...incident...I had a full psychotic break," she reported flatly.
Sasuke dropped his hand to look at her warily. Itachi split his focus between them, noting how Sakura's gaze was directed somewhere over their shoulders, as if she was distancing herself from the report.
"At that point, my condition evolved into a kind of dissociative personality disorder. I was-am-the prime personality and aware of the others, who could not manifest, but were-and are-quite capable of influence. When we took our first chunin exam, we encountered Orochimaru. Sasuke would eventually leave to train under him, but by that time, my Orochimaru," and she pointed a finger to her head, "would have...taught me," and her voice caught on those words, "many things."
"He was there," Sasuke interjected said suddenly. "When I used Sharingan to enter your mind."
Sakura frowned at him. "I wish you wouldn't have done that," she said softly. "You're very lucky. Inside, Madara is real. He could have destroyed your mind."
"He told me he was you," Sasuke accused.
"And he was both lying and not lying. Madara is...different. He is," and she had to force this admission past visibly stiff lips, "the only one who can use this body against my will."
Itachi consciously kept his tone calm as he inquired, "It would appear that there are some things that have transpired that I was not privy to. Before I form any hasty judgments," Sasuke snorted, "perhaps one or both of you would like to tell me what exactly happened during your battle?"
It was Sasuke who answered, but his eyes never left Sakura, almost as if he expected her to transform before his eyes. His Sharingan had deactivated after only a moment, his chakra level too weak, just as Sakura had asserted, to maintain the draining doujutsu for more than a heartbeat, but his eyes betrayed a level of wariness he'd rarely seen Sasuke display. "Like I said, I entered her mind using Sharingan. I intended to turn the Kyuubi against her. I'd already tied the mindscapes together and captured the fox-the damn thing's easy to manipulate. But when I turned it against Sakura, it's not Sakura who countered the attack."
"Madara?" Itachi confirmed.
Sasuke nodded curtly. "He overrode my control. And he did it in an instant."
Itachi turned to Sakura, silently requesting an explanation. "Perception creates reality in the mind," she said. "Madara isn't...well he is...," she sighed, then tried again. "Madara is a real being, in the sense he is or at least seems capable of independent thought. However, he is also a created existence, dredged up out of my subconscious from old records and journals. I suppose it's possible, if you buy into the idea of a universal human unconscious, that in my madness I was able to dip into the well of human memory and produce either Madara's soul itself or an exact replica, but I find it more probable to posit that he is nothing more and nothing less than a creation of my mind. But how he was created is, I suppose, less important than what he is. Everything the village has on record about the historical Uchiha Madara, the Madara of my mind is capable of. Including using his Sharingan to control the Kyuubi."
Itachi frowned. "Those records...they should have been sealed, if they ever existed at all."
Sakura met his eyes squarely. "I am talented in fuuinjutsu."
"I see," Itachi murmured. "And you could not seal these personalities?"
It was her turn to frown. "The thought never occurred to me to try."
"Perhaps their influence?" Itachi suggested with what delicacy he could muster.
"That's not exactly what I meant." Sakura's hand came to rest on the back of her chair, her knuckles turning white with the strength of her grip. "Physical weakness can be overcome with training, but I was always emotionally weak," she said after a moment. "What I was looking for, I couldn't find in other people, but I didn't realize that at the time. When Sasuke left, I was grateful to Orochimaru-my Orochimaru, as much as he horrified me and I hated him. For years, not once have I ever had to worry about being left behind, about being alone. I am never alone. Waking or dreaming, whatever situations I found myself in, there has always been someone there ."
Sasuke sneered a little at the admission, but Itachi could only feel thoughtful. But then he processed the way Sakura swayed and he was at her side in an instant. "Sit," he insisted sharply. When she did not immediately comply, he took hold of her arm and guided her into her seat. She resisted only briefly, then she sighed.
"I would prefer to stand," she murmured.
"You will sit now or you will fall down later," he replied.
Sakura, now sitting, craned her neck to stare at him incredulously. He allowed no emotion to creep onto his face, instead moving to sit in his own chair. Even Sasuke was watching him with an air of disbelief, brows high on his forehead. Eventually, Sasuke cleared his throat and continued his narrative and they were silent as he finished. Sakura looked neither nervous nor relieved during this exposé. Instead, she merely looked resigned, as if she had always expected to at some point be confronted. Which was only reasonable, given the extent of her condition, but Itachi's brilliant mind was already analyzing all he knew of Sakura in light of the recent information.
This was the reason she was so willing to die, he realized suddenly. The reason for her inexplicable and unreasonable action in the battle against Madara, which she had entered with full knowledge that death was the most likely outcome. He had been willing to accept that, in order to save his brother from both Madara and himself, but a part of him had questioned Sakura's motives. For he had known her long enough to know that altruism, while not beyond her, was not something she did blindly, without an awareness of the far-reaching consequences of her actions. And he had known she questioned the wisdom of retrieving Sasuke.
It was an eye-opening realization and somewhat humbling. Sakura expected death, that he could read in her expression, whether by battle or the order of the Council. But, even after hiding her condition for years, she had decided that their compact was worth sacrificing herself for though he knew, even if she did not, that for someone of her skill and application, there were few heights beyond her reach.
But he also knew, that for all her prodigious abilities, that Sakura did not believe she was the equal of her teammates. Once he had discovered her position as head of Root, he had thought that it would be sufficient to prove to her that her abilities were more than simply sufficient, but there had been hints that Sakura saw her position not as something earned, but as one last spiteful political move from Danzo to Tsunade.
But Itachi suspected that he knew her better than she knew herself now. Even with the new revelations, she was the one most suited to guiding Konoha through the rough waters of the current political situation, which was too delicate to handle Naruto's roughshod methods, though Itachi had his private doubts that their fragile ties with the other Hidden Villages would ever be prepared for the eventuality Team Seven seemed to have adopted as something akin to fate.
Great personal charisma, after all, did not instantly equate to an equal ability in the political arena. Nor was talent on the battlefield the only quality a Hokage required.
But he could begin to understand why Sakura, believing that the position rightly belonged to Naruto, would want to refuse the position when he considered not her opinion of the situation, but Madara's.
"Madara thinks Naruto is unfit to be Hokage."
Clear surprise showed on her face. "Yes. How...?"
"And Madara would never want to step down from the position, once he'd achieved it."
"Yes."
"You said you had your psychotic break after a 'certain incident'," Sasuke interjected rudely. "You started acting strangely after the Forest of Death. Was it Orochimaru?" he pressed.
Sakura frowned. "Does it matter?"
Her evasion pricked something in Itachi's memory. An encounter with a young pink-haired kunoichi, who just happened to be caught in his Tsukiyomi-and broke free of it. Had she already been as she was now? Or had he...?
Sasuke's eyes narrowed when he happened to glance at Itachi. "Or did you...? Sakura was in the hospital for a long time after her encounter with you," he pointed out accusingly.
"I...," for once, Itachi fumbled with his words, uncertain what kind of reply he could give his brother.
"Enough," Sakura snapped, forestalling the obvious argument. "Whether Itachi was the catalyst or not is irrelevant. It was only a matter of time."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.
"You have a very short memory, Sasuke. Just because you don't yet possess the Mangekyo Sharingan wouldn't have made your meddling in my mind any less unpleasant."
Sasuke frowned, but could not dispute the fact.
Itachi, however, had doubts. "But the Tsukiyomi was specifically developed as a torture technique."
Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose. "Itachi..." She glared at them both, then riffled angrily through the files on her desk. Finding the one she wanted, she slammed it down on the edge near them. Both peered at it.
"What is this?" Sasuke finally inquired, when neither of them moved to touch.
"It's part of the trail of destruction left by that pretender," Sakura replied bitterly. "It's on my father."
Sasuke glanced up at her, brows furrowed. "I thought your father was in charge of the Haruno clan trading conglomerate."
"He is. But he wasn't always Haruno Toshihiko. That name is only an alias he assumed after he emigrated to the Land of Fire."
"He's an immigrant?" Itachi asked curiously, but his tone was heavy with caution.
"He was left with little enough choice, after he slaughtered the entire ruling family of Mizu no Kuni and half the ministry."
Shock was written plainly on Sasuke's face and Itachi was certain it was reflected on his own.
"Why...?" Sasuke managed brokenly.
"Because he was the Mizu Daimyo. It was actually a clever move, tactically speaking. The shock and horror of the incident paralyzed the ordinary citizenry, while simultaneously crippling the government, so that they could not act effectively during the bloodline purges. By breaking the mind of one man, he brought a country to its knees.
"You almost sound like you admire him," Sasuke replied sourly.
"I am not like you, Sasuke. Not anymore. My emotional reaction to the revelation that my father had another family, one which he massacred, is separate from my analysis of the event as an attack orchestrated by an enemy shinobi. And if that offends you, Sasuke, consider for a moment that my father has lived in peace and relative luxury in Konohagakure as a man of both immense wealth and not inconsiderable political influence. Why should I consider avenging that, especially when my father himself seems to have put his past behind him?"
It was not a question that Sasuke could really answer, but he would not have been Sasuke if he did not try. "So his first family should just be forgotten, is that it?" Sasuke asked coldly.
"They are no longer alive to protest," Sakura retorted with just as much ice. "And they are all people I have never met. Your overweening concern for the preservation of human life shows up only when it's convenient, Sasuke, and I don't have the time or energy to practice that kind of hypocrisy. Because the plain fact is if my father had never killed his first family, he would have never had his second, which would mean that I would never have existed. For that, at least, I am obliged to be grateful to this Madara pretender. So my hunt for him is outside the bounds of this personal feud you have with the world that wronged you. I will kill him or at the very least be instrumental in his death, not because I believe he is an evil man or because he utilized innocents, nor even because I lost to him-but because he represented a real and actionable threat against my village."
Despite himself, Itachi could feel the edges of his lips trying to pull fondly upward. "Whatever you once were, you've grown into a fine shinobi," he told Sakura.
-X-X-X-
The two Uchiha insisted on escorting her back to the Council chambers, which Sakura could have told them was both unnecessary and unwanted, she feeling more vulnerable and exposed than when Sai had found her naked and bleeding on the floor. One or both of them might decide to take this opportunity to have her declared unfit for duty.
It was unusual, but it did occur, when a shinobi's peculiar habits transcended the realm considered acceptable coping and deviated into flight risk or worse, a danger to their fellow operatives. Itachi might have been the most graphic example of a highly capable shinobi turning against the village, but he certainly wasn't the only one. Conditioning could only prepare a young shinobi for so much and eventually, many simply broke down entirely. Usually in a retirement to a remote fishing village kind of way, but sometimes in a murder every reminder of their soiled past kind of way.
But insist they did. Or rather, Itachi insisted, on the excuse that her earlier interview had already left her exhausted and someone needed to be there in case she collapsed and Sasuke simply didn't leave.
So she was flanked close on either side as she presented herself to the Council, the elders having encouraged the two Uchiha to follow her in when she was received at the door.
Somehow, without Danzo behind the long, curving desk, Homura-sama and Koharu-sama looked somehow smaller, older. Homura drove straight to the point. "Have you finished your deliberations, Haruno-chan?"
Sakura bowed, "While it honored me to be considered for the position of Hokage, I feel my own youth should lend precedence to other, more worthy candidates. If I may be bold, perhaps my former sensei? I know in the past he was considered for Tsunade-sama's position."
Koharu answered her. "At the moment, Hatake Kakashi is not even in the village. He is leading a team to apprehend the Team Hebi doppelgangers. You subordinates, Hyuuga Neji and the Root agent you've continued to call Sai, accompanied him when he left."
Sakura stiffened. My team...? Why would...? They're boxing me in, the old foxes! They couldn't have left but an hour or two ago at most. I saw Neji and Sai this morning and neither of them spoke as if they intended to leave on a mission. I don't know how they convinced them, but without my team, I'm effectively crippled as an ANBU squad leader.
"Understand," Homura said in a conciliating manner, "Haruno-chan, that someone will have to take the position so that we can send a representative to the summit. We do not have the time for long deliberations, so we need someone who is qualified to counter any troubles the other Kage will start, while at the same time having some legitimacy. As we said in our first interview, you trained under both the current Hokage and Shimura, as well as Hatake, who was a disciple of the Fourth. In those terms, there are none who could succeed the position so smoothly."
"And it is an appointment of limited duration," Koharu added. "Once the princess wakes, she will return to her duties as Godaime."
"The village needs you in her time of crisis," Homura resumed. "Will you ignore her call?"
Sakura's response might have been scathing, but Itachi touched her elbow and leaned close. "Haruno-taichou, I am aware of your feelings on this matter. But consider for a moment who they might appoint in your place."
Pausing, Sakura wracked her brain, but could come up with very few candidates and fewer still who were talented in diplomacy. But despite this, she also did not believe that she could win against Madara. Tsunade-shishou would resume her duties and all would be well for the remainder of her reign, but what would happen once she died or abdicated? Having been Hokage once, Sakura's already impressive resume would lend itself to her reappointment.
A nudge came from the side where Sasuke was standing, drawing her from her reflections. "If you're worried about the idiot, don't bother," he said without ever moving his eyes from the Council.
Sakura inhaled through her teeth, despising the situation. She could suggest Naruto, but what good would it do? The Council wouldn't approve of sending him to what was already a rather obvious target for Madara.
So, with ill grace, she bowed and murmured through clenched teeth, "I would be honored to accept the appointment."
"Very good," Himura replied. "As to arrangements for your travel, each of the Kage will be allowed to have two escorts. I recommend you take the ones you brought with you today. Word of Itachi's survival has been suppressed and Sasuke is rumored to be off kidnapping jinchuriki, so you will have both the strength of the Sharingan and surprise on your side."
Sakura blinked. Itachi she could readily understand and accept, but Sasuke? She said as much aloud.
"We have already spoke with Hyuuga Hiashi-sama about this matter," Koharu allowed, revealing how confident they had been in Sakura's eventual appointment. "He has agreed to share with you, under the strength of a sealed oath, a variation of their juinjutsu for use on the Uchiha."
Sasuke looked displeased and Itachi stood very stiffly beside her, but Sasuke was the one who broke the tense atmosphere. "Fine," he said brusquely.
"Sasuke?" Itachi's voice made his name a question.
"It's none of your business, Itachi."
"Excellent," Himura declared. "We will begin preparations immediately."
It had taken two weeks for Tsunade-shishou to get around to swearing herself into office. It took them little more than two hours to arrange for Sakura's appointment as the Rokudaime. The whole of the swearing in ceremony felt more like a genjutsu than reality. Hers was a wartime appointment, so there was no grand crowd to cheer for her, just all the shinobi that could be summoned on such short notice and a representative crowd of import civilians that did not include her own. So it was, emotionally exhausted but buoyed by an extremely pleased Madara, that she visited the Hyuuga compound.
When she was left alone with Hiashi-sama in a room deep inside the compound, he offered her a fine powdered green tea and traditional sweets. Sakura was too caught up in her own misery to really enjoy them, but Hiashi lingered, taking a long draught of the tea.
"I would offer my personal congratulations, but for someone who has ascended to the office of the Hokage, you look dissatisfied," he observed.
Sakura tried to offer him a smile, but her effort fell flat. She remembered all their long visits in the past and though she could not say she felt particularly close to the Hyuuga clan leader, he was almost the only adult shinobi that ranked as a close acquaintance. Kakashi was outside the village and she wasn't certain she could take a speech from Gai without violence at the moment. So, after a long moment, she confided, "I don't think I'm qualified to be Hokage."
A raised aristocratic brow plainly stated, "Elucidate," without words.
"Most of my experience in the field is from solo missions or from mixed teams under various jounin-sensei. Only after my promotion was I put in charge of a squad of my own, but my time with them has been very brief. I'm still learning what it means to be a good captain. I'm not prepared to take on the mantle of Hokage, even temporarily."
Hiashi evaluated her thoughtfully with his white eyes, which though she knew his bloodline wasn't activated, still gave the impression of being all-seeing. Finally, he set down his cup gently. "You are not wrong," he told her with similar delicacy. "You are too young and inexperienced to manage the office of Hokage successfully."
Though he was not telling her anything she wasn't already aware of, it both felt pleasant to have her own opinion reinforced and stung for a reason she couldn't comprehend.
"Coming from a civilian clan, there will be worries that you will favor their concerns over those of the shinobi. And though you are acquainted with many clan heirs, with the exception of the Yamanaka and Hyuuga, you have had very little interactions with the clans themselves. They do not know you well enough to trust you as they did Sarutobi-sama, nor as your reputation so well established for them to accept you on blind faith, as we accepted Tsunade-sama, a kunoichi no one had heard word from in more than a decade. The most impressive part of your career remains hidden behind classification seals, with no plans in the immediate future to declassify them. And due to your preferred style, you have no legend as your former sensei, Hatake Kakashi, has built. Your very efficiency has crippled you in that arena-your entry in foreign bingo books is sparse to the point of nonexistence, though your ranking is respectable."
Sakura nodded.
"However, while these attributes make you unsuited to being Hokage, they make you the prime candidate for a mission of the sort that the Kage summit will be. If you examine this situation from that standpoint, your early training to inherit the Haruno clan, the absence of records on your abilities, and the highly effective team you have managed to cultivate despite conventional wisdom saying it was impossible-all these will work in your favor."
Light dawned and some of her misery abated, which meant that Madara's haughty pleasure flowed through her with nothing to keep it at bay. "So, don't look at it as assuming the Hokage-ship, but just as a highly specialized mission? And being appointed Hokage is nothing more than a condition of that mission," she murmured.
"Just so," Hiashi confirmed.
"Thank you, Hiashi-sama," she said, bowing with real gratitude.
His lips quirked faintly. "If that is the assistance I am called to render to my Hokage, I will be glad to offer you criticism in the future."
Sakura was startled, so much so she laughed.
"You and my nephew both display talent and maturity well beyond your age, so sometimes we adults do not offer you the support you still need. We forget, that while you are no longer children and you shoulder the responsibilities of adults, you are not adults. You do not have years of experience to rely on, nor do you have the network of resources an adult would have access to."
"I know that," Sakura acknowledged softly.
"And yet still you struggle against all odds to live up to the expectations of outsiders. However, as one of those outsiders, I do not feel guilty for doing so. Rather than break under them, you have used these expectations to give you purpose and direction. And in doing so, though you might not know it, you have been a fine captain to my nephew."
At the reminder of Neji, Sakura frowned faintly. "You are aware of his current mission?" she probed.
Hiashi inclined his head.
"I'd rather it be he I was taking to the summit, rather than Sasuke," she confessed softly.
"I am certain that Neji would return the sentiment, were he here, but he had a recent revelation that he is still coming to terms with, I believe. I hope, with this missions, he brings himself back into balance."
Though Sakura was baffled as to what sort of revelation Neji would have had of late, she nodded.
"But you did not come here only to seek advice. And our time is short. What I will be revealing to you today is an early variation of the modern juinjutsu. But first, your oath." From inside his garment, he pulled a paper, which she quickly read, then, biting her finger, applied her bloody thumbprint to. It activated the dormant seal and the design flared across the page, but before her mind could see the full pattern, Hiashi tucked it away.
"The juinjutsu you are familiar with evolved after the traditions associated with the Main and Branch house were well-established. The design you will learn is from before the Sharingan deviation, when the doujutsu and associated forms had not yet reached their peak development."
"How is it different?" Sakura asked curiously.
"There exists no juinjutsu capable of controlling someone's emotions-there is no way to guarantee that, for example, a member of the Branch House does not operate with hidden hostile intent against a member of the Main House. So I cannot offer you an assurance that the Uchiha will have no hidden motives, which, considering his clan," he murmured disdainfully, "is virtually assured. I cannot offer you many details of the function of the modern seal, as I am aware of your talents in the area. I do not believe it would be beyond you to reverse engineer the technique. What this primitive seal does is give you fine control of his motor function. It is applied at the back of the neck and controls the electrical signals that traverse the spine. You can take away, with or without pain, the function of a single arm, or leave him completely paralyzed from the neck down. This, of course, is barbaric and crude, and lacks the essential function of sealing the eyes so they cannot be stolen."
"Can I stop him from using his Sharingan?"
Madara, for the first time since entering the compound, had something to add. Ask if fine control of his motor function implies that a user of the jutsu with talent could use it as a puppetmaster jutsu.
Sakura's mouth moved before her brain could halt the question.
Hiashi's brow rose, but he answered her anyway. "In essence, yes, if one had a sufficient knowledge of the human body, though the more precisely one attempts to control the technique, the more likely that a determined individual might be able to throw it off. The electrical signals in the spine control all movement, after all-and stopping them and producing or redirecting them operate under the same principle. As for control of his Sharingan, you will need to develop your own contingency plan for that. I can only offer you control of his body."
-X-X-X-
Sakura took a deep, steadying breath as she entered the Uchiha district. It had been a very long time since she had walked these streets. And the last time she had entered, it hadn't been to seal one of the last remaining members of the clan.
When she reached the old main house, where Sasuke had taken up residence, the door opened before she could knock.
"Hn," Sasuke greeted her, stepping to the side.
Firming her jaw, Sakura entered, following him as he led her to a room where all the furniture had been shoved to the side. Itachi sat to one side of the room, face blank.
Turning swiftly on his heel, arms crossed across his chest, Sasuke asked, "What needs done?"
Sakura peered at him suspiciously. "Why did you agree to this, Sasuke?"
"You've never been without your chakra," he said darkly. "And my alternative is to remain safely ensconced in the village, waiting on the decision of the Council to use me as a stud horse. What would you choose, Sakura?"
"I can't guarantee that Madara won't take advantage of this," she cautioned.
Sasuke snorted. "Quit stalling."
Verdant eyes blazed at his casual attitude. "Take of your shirt and then get belly-down on the floor," she ordered. "Itachi, you can observe, but no Sharingan."
The elder murmured his agreement even as the younger moved to comply, stripping off his white shirt to reveal a torso heavily muscled by his dependence on kenjutsu. He lay down with no indication of meekness, crossing his arms beneath his chin. "What will this do?" Sasuke asked, even as she straddled his back, removing her brush and inkwell from her pouch.
She explained the jutsu briefly, half-expecting him to protest, but he only shrugged, a movement she could feel rippling through his muscles beneath her thighs. She noted a seal already on his shoulder, remembered the history behind it. "You can still use Orochimaru's curse seal?"
Sasuke grunted, which she took as an affirmative. Brushing his hair off the back of this neck, she began, the design trailing the length of his spine and almost trespassing into forbidden territory. But when she activated it and his body went rigid beneath her, she watched with fascination as the design marched upwards, to finish as a compact seal not even as large as the one on Neji's forehead. It resembled a tiny stylized tori, which made the name Gatekeeper Seal fairly apt. To either side were the same kind of hooked bars that flanked the manji of the modern one, representing her ability to bar or open the gate.
Touching chilled fingers to the heated skin at the base of his neck, she attempted to convey a silent apology through her fingers. For Madara did not feel sorry at all.
A/N: Now, I have a pretty good idea at this point of what will happen to the characters by the end of this fic. However, out of curiosity, I'd like to know what you, the reader, would find emotionally fulfilling in an ending. Happy ending? Tragic ending? Somewhere in between? Epilogue? Or would you rather it be left to imagination?