Chapter 56: Sins of the Fathers
Hyuuga Neji was at his desk in his office, tackling the latest mound of reports and missives related to clan business and the war. It was a bit unfair that the disappearance of the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi had wound up putting so much work on his hands, but there was no helping it. Somehow, they'd managed to not only spirit hundreds of people out of the village overnight, but they'd even arranged for their forces out on missions and on the front lines of the war with Kirigakure to disappear as well. Their departure left more work for those who remained, as they struggled to fill gaps in the battle lines and meet the village's commitments to clients and the daimyo.
Neji was almost relieved when a knock came at the door. "Enter," he murmured, loudly enough to be heard.
The door opened, and he glanced up at the branch servant bowing in the portal. "The elders have assembled and wish to speak to you, my Lord."
"I'm sure they do, but I'm a bit busy," Neji replied absently. "The next conclave is at the end of the week. They'll have ample opportunity to express their displeasure with me then."
The servant coughed. "They… say the matter is urgent. They insist you come now." Neji looked up again, catching the faint note of warning in the man's tone. The branch members always stepped lightly around the elders, but it was little secret that they were in his corner, if quietly. He'd been one of them for most of his life, and had been their voice in the clan's leadership since his ascension. So he took note of what the servant was trying to say without saying it: this was something he needed to take note of.
"Very well," Neji replied evenly, putting aside his pen and rising to his feet. After checking himself over to make sure his clothes weren't wrinkled or smudged after lunch with the twins, he followed the man out of his office.
Their destination only confirmed that something was up. The servant led him to the conclave chamber; usually informal meetings with the elders took place in their quarters within the main family's residence. So this is official, but unscheduled, Neji mused. What are they up to?
Neji got his answer as soon as he stepped into the conclave chamber. All of the elders were there, while the back of the room – which usually held the branch members – was empty. Most telling, Hinata was there, and sitting at the center of the dais, a spot he had occupied ever since Hiashi's death.
"Neji, you have been summoned to be informed that-" one of the elders began, skipping the honorific he was due.
"What are you doing, Hinata?" Neji asked his cousin, ignoring the bristling of the elder who had been speaking.
"That should be obvious, Neji," Hinata replied with a coolness that surprised him.
The elder who had spoken cleared his throat. "The proper form of address for the clan head is 'my Lady'," he informed Neji.
"You are unanimous, then?" Neji inquired calmly. It took a unified vote of the normally fractious elders to supplant a clan head.
"We are," another spoke, from a faction that had been friendly to him for most of his tenure. "It is the opinion of this body that your judgment has been lacking, and called into question of late."
Neji ignored that, still focused on Hinata. "A month ago you told me you didn't want this job. What changed?"
"The elders have asked me to assume the role I was trained for," Hinata replied. "It seems they feel I can execute these duties more ably than you, Neji." While she spoke, Neji observed her body language. Her husband Naruto sat beside her, and she reached out to place her hand in his as she spoke. When she finished, she directed a smile and adoring glance at him.
The room was silent for a moment. Several of the elders who had been his constant opponents were smirking openly at Neji, but those expressions faded when he started laughing. It was a quiet chuckle at first, one that grew into a full throated noise that filled the chamber.
"Is something amusing you, cousin?" Hinata inquired icily.
"This," Neji spread his hands to encompass the council. "All of this is hilarious, really. What do you believe this will accomplish?" He held up a hand to forestall comment from the elders. "Actually, I don't care. Do as you please. If you want to lead, 'my Lady', the job's all yours. I relinquish it gladly. There's a huge stack of paperwork on my – your – desk. Maybe your husband can help you with it." He glanced at the smug-looking jinchuuriki, and it was only iron self-control that kept any outward sign of his anger and disgust at the blond from his face. Yours is coming, Naruto… sooner than you think.
Neji turned to go, but another of the elders cleared his throat. "With young Tomaru now Lady Hinata's heir, there is the matter of your daughters' status within the clan."
Neji turned back to the elders. "Don't," he said warningly.
"They will join the branch family," the old woman continued unhindered. "You will present them to be sealed at the next conclave."
"No." That one word caused a stir among the elders.
"That was not a request, Neji, it was an order," Hinata clarified coldly, earning nods of approval from the elders.
"I'm aware," Neji replied. "I'm refusing your order, 'my Lady'." That statement provoked actual cries of outrage.
"You are not in a position to-"
Neji interrupted the elders again. "I am actually. If you intend to force this issue, I will exercise my privilege as an ousted clan head to challenge my intended replacement to trial by combat. You can't deny me that, unanimous vote or no." Neji looked at Hinata. "So how far do you want to take this? Are you willing to fight me just for spite?"
"You have that right according to the clan's laws, Neji," Naruto interjected lazily, "but Hinata has the right to name a champion to stand in her place. Since I can't really let you hurt my wife… if you want to fight over this, you'll be fighting me; still interested?" Naruto climbed to his feet, his burning chakra flooding the room. The Hyuuga elders edged away, while Neji stood his ground. Hinata, closer to her husband than anyone else, shivered but didn't retreat.
Neji glanced at the elders contemptuously. "So this is what it's come to? Does the Hokage's son rule the Hyuuga now?" Several of them looked away; none answered.
Naruto snapped his fingers, frowning. "Hey. You're dealing with me, not them. Fight me, or get out."
Neji gave Naruto a look of flat dislike. Part of him wanted to take that offer, blow Naruto through the wall and see if his lunar chakra could injure the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, but practicality won out. Naruto was still far stronger than he, and merciless in combat. Neji still had daughters to take care of and a clan to protect. From itself apparently, he thought in disgust. "You're all fools," Neji informed the elders with a sigh. "I'll see you at the conclave."
"With your daughters?" Naruto needled with a grin.
"With my daughters," Neji replied through clenched teeth before turning and walking out of the conclave chamber. Fury boiled inside of him on the way back to his quarters, but he banished it from his face with an effort before entering.
"Daddy!" Azuna and Rika squealed in unison abandoning their spot by the hearth where they had been drawing with colored wax sticks, scrambling over on tiny legs. Neji stooped to pick them up, hugging them tightly. I swore neither of you would grow up wearing that abominable brand, and I meant it. Naruto has made his move, but he's always been overconfident.
Setting his daughters down, Neji summoned a branch servant, opening a locked case on the table and handing him several sealed missives to deliver. Then he joined Azuna and Rika at the hearth so they could show him what they'd been drawing. Azuna had drawn herself and her sister – stick figures with pale eyes – standing outside a crude representation of the shinobi Academy, surrounded by other tiny people with normal eyes.
Rika, on the other hand, had drawn their quarters, with herself, her sister, her daddy, and a brown-haired stick figure with circular blobs sticking out of her head. Neji felt a thickness in his throat looking at it. He had managed to convey to his daughters that 'mommy' had gone far away and would not be coming home for a long time – but still loved them and missed them very much – and endured the resultant weeks of tears and tantrums. Azuna had accepted the fact lately and moved on, but Rika refused to believe that mommy was gone. When Azuna saw what Rika had drawn she started chiding her sister in the nonsense 'twin' language they'd developed between themselves.
Seeing that Rika was close to tears after a few exchanges, Neji intervened. "It's all right, sweetie," he told Azuna. "She can draw mommy if she wants." If only bringing Tenten back was that easy. Neji still hurt when he thought of his wife – and she was his wife, no matter what the clan's divorce decree said – but mostly he just missed her and mourned her loss. He wondered sometimes what it was like for her. If the Akatsuki had gone to that much effort to rescue her, he had to imagine they'd take good care of her. He knew enough about what the Scale did to the body to understand that wherever Tenten was, she was unable to walk or care for herself and probably on painkillers through her waking hours just to stay sane. It wasn't a pleasant thing to contemplate for someone you loved.
When evening fell, a knock at the door drew Neji to his feet. He went to answer it, and found a trio of tall, muscular women with brown hair and red facial tattoos. "Please, come in," he said to Inuzuka Min, Hana and Tsume. They entered along with their ninken, Min carrying takeout boxes. The younger pair of Inuzuka started setting them out on the table while Neji herded his daughters into the dining room. Tsume and Hana were still dressed entirely in black, as they had been since Kiba and Akamaru were found murdered in their apartment, apparent victims of Mist assassins. Neji could feel the rage threaded through Inuzuka's chakra, though they were keeping it tamped down enough that Azuna and Rika wouldn't sense it.
Before sitting down at the table, Neji moved to a section of the wall in the living room carved with a huge seal. Activating his byakugan, he poured his chakra into specific points on the seal, and watched it spread out through the walls of his quarters. At least they didn't think to make me move out immediately, he reflected. The seal array that made the walls of the clan head's quarters opaque to the byakugan was a necessity for leadership, and useful for other things as well.
Settling down at the table, Neji glanced at Tsume. "Does Shikaku always being right ever get less annoying?"
Tsume shook her head. "Nope; been dealing with it my whole life, and it's just as aggravating now as when we were Academy brats." She took a bite of the food. "So they did it already?"
"Just this afternoon, just like he said they would," Neji confirmed. Shikaku had visited him the night that the Nara left the village and shared some interesting bits of information. Learning that poor Ino had been turned into a puppet of Root had been disturbing enough, but he really hadn't wanted to believe what he'd been told about Hinata. Subsequent observation had shown him that she was acting differently, but today made him certain, and the knowledge made him angry. "In a sane world I'd be able to simply present Shikaku's evidence to the elders and they'd agree that the time has come to openly oppose Orochimaru, but they don't care. All that matters to them is their own power, and for all its ills this war with Kirigakure has been good for the Hyuuga."
After a few bites of food Neji looked at Tsume seriously. "Do you believe what Inoichi told you?" Neji asked.
Tsume was silent for a minute, rubbing the bridge of her nose before speaking. "I don't want to," she said at last. "He even said he didn't have proof, just third – or is it fourth? – hand conjecture from his dead daughter, filtered through Shikamaru's mind, and then his own. But the hell of it is Inoichi's explanation makes a lot more sense than the official one. Kiba and Akamaru wouldn't have been killed by a stranger without making enough noise to wake the whole block; but if Hinata killed them? Yeah… he was in love with her since he was a pup. She could have gotten inside his guard."
Neji glanced warily at the Inuzuka matriarch. "You know that if that's what really happened, she's not responsible, right? She's been used more cruelly than anyone else in this whole f-" he cut off, glancing at his daughters in their high chairs, "messed up affair."
"If she's been used I'm not going to be baying after her blood, Neji," Tsume reassured him. "Her husband though? He needs to die." She put down her chopsticks. "That does leave the question of what you're going to do about all of this," she pointed out.
Neji smiled thinly. "Oh, I had a plan days ago. I wasn't going to set it into motion until I was sure." He glanced at the clock and then back at Tsume. "I'm sure now. It should be starting soon."
A few minutes later Neji watched three Inuzuka heads turn to the north. "Is that… artillery?" Hana asked in a puzzled tone.
"Of a sort," Neji replied evasively. He activated his byakugan, and saw Naruto on the move, leaving Hinata and the gathering of elders he was having dinner with and donning his armor. "Are you prepared to do what Shikaku asked?"
Tsume nodded. "The shinobi of my clan he asked for are already on their way. Min and Mara will accompany you. Hana and I are going to go home and act innocent when the dust settles. Pretending I don't know what happened sticks in my craw, but someone's got to stay in Konohagakure and keep an eye on things. I think I'm going to go have a long talk with Asuma once I can do so without arousing suspicion."
"Fair enough," Neji murmured. His byakugan showed him Naruto blurring out of the compound and heading north while Hinata and the elders started in on the second course. "If you're going to go, do it now." Tsume and Hana departed immediately.
"Min, can you take Azuna and Rika to Shizune's cabin?" Neji asked. "I'll meet you there."
"Sure thing," Min replied cheerfully, already in the process of getting the twins cleaned up from the meal.
Neji paused only to pick up a travel pack before departing the clan head's quarters, possibly for the last time. He headed to the dining hall where Hinata and the elders were, keeping an eye on them with his byakugan. Along the way he passed several branch shinobi and servants. Most went about their business, but a few with special tasks for the evening gave him slight nods as they passed by. When Neji pushed open the doors of the dining room he found what he expected to; the clan's elders slumped over their meals. He was surprised to note that Hinata was still conscious and even on her feet, though she was leaning against the wall, her legs shaking simply from holding her upright. She sighed in relief when she saw him. "Neji, the food-"
"-is drugged; I know," he replied calmly.
"You dare?" Hinata hissed when she understood, fury filling her eyes. "You will suffer for this, cousin. Your daughters will-" Neji slipped his hand into his pouch. It emerged with a scoop of power which he dashed into Hinata's face, a more concentrated aerosolized dose of what had gone into the food. She inhaled some with a reflexive gasp, slumping to her knees.
"I'm going to ignore that, Hinata, because I know this isn't you," Neji said calmly. "I know what Naruto's done to you. He's taken away so much of you that it's made you stupid. The Hinata I know is smarter than this."
"Naruto will destroy you," Hinata said weakly, her eyelids fluttering. Neji waited for her to pass out before picking her up.
"That's possible," Neji murmured to himself. "But he's already destroying you, cousin." Neji carried the new clan head over his shoulder like a sack of grain through the kitchens, and the branch workers there deliberately looked away as he passed. This is what you'll never understand Naruto, because Orochimaru can't understand it, Neji reflected as he ducked out the kitchen's loading dock where the lights were all inexplicably turned off. Loyalty begets loyalty, and respect will trump fear when people are given reason to have courage.
Neji cut through the woods to the cabins, making his way to Shizune's door. Min opened it before he knocked and he slipped inside. "Ready to go?" Neji asked Shizune, who was already shouldering a travel pack.
"Beyond ready," Shizune growled. "The Hokage keeps finding reasons for me not to leave, some piece of Tsunade-sensei's teachings I haven't written down for him yet."
Neji shrugged. "He probably doesn't intend to ever allow you to leave now that he's seen how useful you are. Orochimaru doesn't see people, he sees tools. Konohagakure's always been like that, but lately…" Neji trailed off. "It's unsettling, not knowing his endgame. He's too smart not to have a broader plan, but damned if I know what it is. All I can do is protect those close to me." Neji laid Hinata down on Shizune's table. "Can you make sure she stays under until we rendezvous with the Yamanaka? The tranquilizers didn't put her down cleanly like the elders."
"Easily," Shizune replied, laying two fingers on Hinata's forehead and letting pale green light suffuse her fingertips for a minute. Neji watched Shizune's brow furrow towards the end. She lifted her fingers from Hinata's forehead and laid a palm on the Hyuuga kunoichi's stomach, blinking in surprise. "Well that's why she didn't go to sleep like the others; she's with child again. Very early along, but her hormone balances have shifted enough to mitigate the effects of that drug."
"Fuck," Neji whispered, quietly enough for his daughters not to hear. "Bad enough she's going to have to come to terms with what he's done to her mind without that…"
Shizune shrugged. "Well she's not going to have the chance if we don't escape the village. How are we getting out of here? I haven't heard Juugo's distraction for a few minutes, so we're running out of time."
"We're just waiting for one more; she has the gate key." There was a knock at the door, and Neji opened it. "Here she is."
"Cute," Haruno Sakura murmured, stepping into the room, her scarred countenance impassive as she took in the scene. She wore a travel pack as well, and a child carrier on her chest with a blond toddler inside. He woke up for a moment to reveal Hyuuga eyes, and he gurgled happily at the sight of Hinata. "I have to say Neji; I thought making off with Hyuuga babies would be harder than this."
"It is harder when the branch family is trying to prevent it," Neji replied with a wince, "also, poor timing on that joke." He shared what Shizune had discovered, and Sakura looked at Hinata expressionlessly for a moment.
"Naruto is a walking plague," Sakura murmured, hate threaded thick in her voice. "He poisons everything he touches."
"Not for too much longer, hopefully," Neji replied. "Let's get moving while the fast responders are still trying to figure out what happened to the north gate."
Neji carried Hinata, Min put the twins on Mara's back where they held on tightly, Sakura carried Tomaru and Shizune brought up the rear. They scaled the back wall of the Hyuuga compound, and slipped through the night to the village wall. Neji directed them around ANBU patrols easily enough, but the wall itself was a more formidable obstacle – at least, for most. In its shadow Sakura handed Tomaru over to Shizune, and the rest of them backed off as Sakura approached the fortification. "You don't know how long I've itched to walk away from Konohagakure, if I'd had anywhere to go where the Hokage wouldn't have hunted me," Neji heard Sakura say as her fist started to glow.
The sound when her punch hit the wall was louder than a cannon shot. What followed as the section of wall in front of her disintegrated and huge stone blocks went flying into the forest was even noisier. "'Gate key', huh? Well, I think they heard that in Sunagakure," Shizune noted as she handed Tomaru back to Sakura and the band of them sprinted out through the hole in the wall and into the nighttime forest.
They ran for half an hour, curving west and avoiding more patrols, before Neji spotted the last member of their band. He signaled to the rest, and they dropped into a clearing where Juugo was waiting. The big man was mostly submerged in a small pond, and steam was rising around him. Neji could see large hollow growths along his shoulders and back that resembled mortar tubes and sent up gouts of steam when they touched the water. They were shrinking as he watched.
"Juugo, are you okay?" Shizune exclaimed, wading out into the water.
The red-haired giant nodded wearily. "Just running a bit hot, love; I think I started a fire a few kilometers back when I had to cut through some dry brush and it touched these things."
Neji looked where Juugo pointed and saw an orange glow above the treetops. "Can't be helped," he assured Juugo. "Can you move?"
"Sure," Juugo replied as the last of the tubes cooled and shrank back into his body. He climbed out of the pond and accepted his cloak from Shizune, pulling it on over damp skin and trousers.
Without another word the five shinobi, accompanying minors and captive set off into the forest, headed further west as the night deepened. At the edges of his vision Neji's byakugan showed him Leaf hunter-nin picking up their trail. Taking Hinata was almost certain to provoke Naruto into pursuit once he found out unless Orochimaru reined him in. The Hokage's forces were massing and following them. Hundreds were gathered already, and the pursuing force would only grow. They couldn't move as fast as Neji's band, but they would pursue relentlessly, even across borders.
Neji smiled tightly. That was part of the plan, too.
Standing on a beach of pale blue sand, Uchiha Amaya looked out over deep sapphire water that stretched uninterrupted to the horizon save for the warship anchored offshore, a privateer vessel that had carried Isamu Ken, Kutsuku Kaede and Kiran, and herself from the southern coast of the Land of Lightning across a nation at war all the way to the aptly named Blue Sand Isle in the southern Land of Water. It was a large, volcanic and uninhabited landmass far from the main shipping lanes, and the journey had taken more than a month, but Amaya had arrived just days before the three month deadline Itachi had given her when they crossed blades at Tenten's execution.
Turning inland, Amaya looked up the volcano's slope. A tropical forest ringed the peak, and the sounds of birds, monkeys and other wildlife filled her ears in the gaps between the sounds of the waves.
"So, did Itachi say where to meet him?" Ken inquired. "This is a big island."
Amaya shook her head. "He didn't specify."
"Then we shall find him." Kaede, dressed as she had become accustomed in a loose blouse and slacks, spread her arms wide. Tiny kikai bugs poured from her sleeves in droves, quickly spreading out and dispersing into the forest. Amaya noted that Kiran did not send any insect scouts of his own, for all that he carried a tall pack with wooden sides on his back, a burden he had carried all the way from Sky City and tended to multiple times every day.
Amaya and Ken kept an eye out around them, on the ocean as well as the forest. They both knew that threats could come from anywhere, and it was just as likely that Itachi would simply ambush them as want to talk. Kaede stood still, silent and with her eyes closed, for almost an hour. Periodically kikai bugs would return to her and she would send more winging on their way. When her eyes finally opened, she retrieved her metal half-mask from her pouch and slipped it on. "There was once a settlement of considerable size in the jungle a few kilometers from here," she said. "It is in ruins now and the jungle is reclaiming it. Itachi and Kisame – or at least convincing clones of them – are waiting there. Itachi was aware of my scouts. He knows we're here but remains in place." Kaede led the way into the jungle, with Amaya, Ken and Kiran flanking her protectively.
On the ship off the coast of Blue Sand Isle, the captain and crew waited. Their instructions had been odd, but their client paid well, so they followed them. "Wait here for our return," Kutsuku Kiran had told them. "If we have not returned in one week, sail back to port and inform my clan's factor that my wife and I are dead. I have made him aware of the possibility." The captain had seldom received stranger instructions, but the young shinobi had paid him enough to sit at anchor for months, so he obeyed.
No one on the ship noticed when a slender brown and green form wended its way down the anchor chain and into the water, nor did any eye witness the large snake swimming to shore and slithering up the beach and into the forest. The crew had noticed the rat population in the hold dwindling to almost nothing during the voyage, but they were not the sort to question good fortune.
Amaya drew the twin blades of Kiba from their sheaths with a quiet hiss of steel on leather as she stepped into what had once been a wide public square. Now it was overgrown with vines and most of the paving stones were cracked or askew, with roots filling the gaps. Ken stood on her left, with no weapons in hand. He didn't need any; his body was his only weapon. To Amaya's right, Kaede and Kiran moved as one, stepping out to the flank to face Hoshigaki Kisame. They had discussed their plans for dealing with the blue-skinned giant on the trip, but Amaya had eyes only for the man in front of her; tall, gaunt, with a lined face and dark hair captured at his neck by a leather thong, his slender frame wrapped in a black cloak with red clouds, a scored Leaf hitai-ate on his brow.
"Amaya," Itachi murmured. "Welcome. I'm glad you came."
Amaya extended the tip of one blade towards him. "You shouldn't be. Your sins are beyond forgiveness, patricide. I came here to kill you."
Itachi made no move to draw the sword sheathed at his back. "On that we agree, Amaya. Some of the things I've done cannot be forgiven. I've made peace with that. Have you?"
Amaya's eyes narrowed. "What is it you think I've done that needs forgiving?"
"Come now, Amaya," Itachi chided gently. "All of those thousands of sailors sent to fiery graves to feed Orochimaru's lust for power and yours for vengeance?" Amaya shivered; sometimes she still dreamed of flames on the water, and choruses of screams. "Are my murders somehow worse than yours simply because I knew the people I killed?"
"Shut up," Amaya grated. "I was fighting a war. You murdered your own kin."
"Ah, you were only following orders? Suppose I said that I was at war with my father and those of our clan he had enlisted in his depravity? Would that calm your sense of injustice?"
Amaya felt tears threatening and forced them back. "You killed them all, you insane butcher," she half-screamed. "Civilians! Children! The elderly who couldn't even get out of bed to protect themselves! None of your poison words can excuse that."
Itachi's expression darkened. "I have done terrible things, Amaya, but you will not place those deaths at my feet. Terumi Mei ordered those killings and her shinobi carried them out. The latter are already dead, and the former will soon join them."
Amaya's eyes narrowed. "Even if I believed that, you made what those Mist ninja did possible! You brought them into our home to murder our kin! You cut down your own parents!"
"We could stand here trading accusations until sunset, Amaya, and it would accomplish little," Itachi replied deliberately. "I could lay at your feet the shocking cruelty you showed towards Tenten, a woman who fought for you, bled for you and loved you like a daughter. She had no foreknowledge of what happened to our clan and would have fought to stop it had she known, even though my father spent years trying to have her killed simply for seeing your Mangekyo sharingan when they formed."
Amaya flinched at that in spite of herself. Is that true? Kami, I want to believe it… but can I trust anything Itachi says?
"I offered you answers three months ago; the truth of why I have done the things you condemn me for. Do you still with to hear the reasons behind our tragedy, or will only bloodshed calm your rage, as has been the tale of our clan from its birth?"
"I'll listen," Amaya responded, her voice shaking, "but I can't promise to believe you."
"Fair enough," Itachi conceded. "Let me begin with the question I asked you three months ago. How do you think so many Uchiha came to possess the Mangekyo sharingan so quickly? We killed twenty-three Uchiha possessing the Mangekyo that night. Doesn't that seem like an excess of 'accidental' deaths?"
"I don't know," Amaya admitted.
"Only three Uchiha in the last half century have obtained the Mangekyo through true happenstance," Itachi told her. "Shisui when he killed a friend turned traitor, myself when Shisui forced me to kill him, and you when you killed Isamu Ken." Itachi's glance passed over the Ken beside Amaya, but he didn't comment. "The rest of the Mangekyo were abominations; deliberate creations forged through murder."
"Even I believed you, how is that possible?"
"Let me answer your question with another, Amaya. How many kunoichi has the Uchiha clan produced in the last half-century?" Amaya frowned, counting in her head while wondering what that had to do with anything. "The answer is three," Itachi said at the same time she reached that number. "Your grandmother, my mother, and you; how many male shinobi did the clan produce in that same time frame?"
"Almost a hundred," Amaya replied off hand. "But so what? Every clan sends more men than women to fight; that's how blood lines are secured."
"True," Itachi conceded, "but think about when you were growing up. Boys your age outnumbered girls, didn't they?"
"Again, so what?"
"The Uchiha aren't like the Hyuuga, Amaya. We produce children at the same rate and ratio as a civilian population."
"Get to the point," Amaya growled.
"Fine. I had a sister, Amaya. You had an aunt."
Hidden in the trees of the jungle outside the ruins of Blue Sand Isle, a coiled serpent waited and listened. The words being spoken didn't matter; Orochimaru's summoned snake didn't understand or care about history or clan politics. It listened only to make sure that both of its targets were present.
Once it was satisfied that the time was right, the snake raised its head, and spoke for the first time since being summoned outside of Konohagakure. "Edo… Tensssssei," it hissed, expending the chakra it had carefully gathered over its trip.
The trampled loam in front of the snake stirred and then parted, a large wooden coffin rising from the dirt until it towered over the reptile. The snake slithered out of the way as the lid fell open and hit the dirt. It watched a shinobi stumble out of the coffin and fall to his knees. The man's eyelids were both closed and sunken in on themselves; he was blind, and so was unable to react when the snake's jaws opened wide, revealing a kunai with a tag tied to its hilt. The snake spat the kunai out, and it sank bloodlessly into the shinobi's forehead. He shuddered, and then went still.
The shinobi from the coffin crouched before the snake. He reached out to grasp the snake's head, and carefully plucked out its red left eye, peeling open the lids of his own left socket to reveal a gaping hole that the eye was inserted into. The shinobi waited as the unnatural jutsu sustaining his unlife healed him around the new eye. Experimentally, he blinked it a few times, and once it was focusing properly he reached into his pouch for an eye patch to cover his empty right socket.
One-eyed man and one-eyed snake regarded each other for a moment before the resurrected shinobi climbed to his feet. "I know you can hear me, Orochimaru. Take it from a guy who's died once. Karma is real, and I wouldn't wish yours on anyone. You may think you can live forever, but there will be a reckoning." The shinobi fell silent, shuddering a few times. Then he strode off towards the ruins without a word.
Left alone, the snake returned to its work. "Edo Tensssssei," it hissed again, and a second coffin slowly slid up from the jungle soil.
No one spoke for a moment after Itachi's odd statement of kinship. Amaya blinked a few times before responding. "Sasuke doesn't have a sister… and I don't have an aunt; at least not on my father's side. He was an only child."
"Your grandparents told you that, certainly. They weren't going to admit that they murdered their newborn daughter almost fifty years ago to obtain their Mangekyo sharingan."
A chill ran down Amaya's spine as she understood his meandering line of questioning. "You're lying," she whispered.
"I saw my father and mother smother my sister in her crib when I was five years old," Itachi said, his expression haunted. "I was told the next day that she'd died a crib death and I was not to speak of her again. When I entered ANBU I did some checking, and not only was her birth erased from the clan's records, but the village's as well."
"That's not true," Amaya insisted numbly.
"It's the only truth that matters in all this," Itachi insisted. "That same tragedy has repeated over and over since Orochimaru came to power. The clan had to be careful under the Sandaime, you see. Had to space the deaths out and make them look natural so as not to arouse suspicion. But once Orochimaru took power… it didn't matter anymore. He knew, and he let them do it, in exchange for the right to study the sharingan for his own purposes."
"I don't believe you," Amaya said raggedly. It can't be true…
"You should believe, Amaya. Your father's courage is the only reason you survived infancy."
A ragged laugh tore from Amaya's lips. "Courage? My father? Now I know you're lying. My father was a coward! He shamed the clan with his very existence! He never cared about me; he didn't even want me! He crawled into the bottom of a bottle and died there, and I was better off without him!"
Amaya was aware of both Ken and Kaede staring at her by the end of her tirade, and was too angry to care that they'd seen all the disgust and hate that she tried to bottle up when talking about her father. Even Kiran and Kisame seemed taken aback.
Itachi, on the other hand, just looked sad. "If I could bring Taka and Chihuya back and kill them again I would, just for that. It's easy for me to forget that they had fifteen years to fill your head with lies about your father."
"What do you know?" Amaya spat.
"About Uchiha Kaiba? Far more than you do," Itachi replied. "He was my senpai. Kaiba, Shisui and I were close friends before everything fell apart." Amaya stared at Itachi, but he continued before she could speak. "Let me tell you about your father, Amaya. He was an excellent shinobi. He taught me much of what I know; he wasn't as naturally gifted as I was, but he made up for it with perseverance. If Orochimaru hadn't sealed his record you'd know that he completed more A and S-rank missions in his first decade as a shinobi than most elites do in their lifetime."
"My father never even made chuunin," Amaya protested. "His jounin sensei nearly kicked him off of his genin team for incompetence."
Itachi sighed. "No, that was Obito. Kaiba's prowess rivaled Hatake Kakashi's."
"If he was so great, what happened? Because I remember a thin, shaking man who stank of booze every time he held me," Amaya grated.
"You happened," Itachi said sadly. "I'm sure your grandparents lied to you about both of your parents, so here's the truth. Your mother Hisana may have been a prostitute when she met Kaiba, but theirs wasn't a business transaction or a fling. They loved each other, and everyone who was ever in a room with them saw it. Taka and Chihuya hated Hisana, of course. Her 'station' was so far below Kaiba's, and they didn't care that he wanted to take her away from all that. In their eyes she was trash. They tried to sabotage your mother and father's relationship, but it didn't work. I've never seen Kaiba so happy in his life as when he told Shisui and I that Hisana was pregnant. He said he'd make enough money to retire before you were born, and then marry your mother regardless of what his parents said. We helped him keep the secret, helped him knock out one fat bounty after another. It almost worked."
"I didn't find out until years later that a few months before you were born Chihuya and Taka saw Hisana in the market, saw that she was pregnant. They cornered her, and told her in no uncertain terms that if she didn't break all ties with Kaiba, they would see her and you dead. At the time we didn't know any of that. All I knew was that we got back after one mission, and Hisana told Kaiba she never wanted to see him again. When Shisui and I confronted her she just screamed at us to leave her alone until the police were called." Itachi sighed. "I should have seen that she was terrified."
"Being rejected by Hisana like that… he loved her so much that it broke something in Kaiba, and we didn't know how to help him. He still went through the motions of being a shinobi, but he stopped caring. Shisui and I had our hands full just trying to keep him alive after that. He took the most impossible missions he could find as though he was looking for an enemy strong enough to kill him."
"The sad irony is he got better when Hisana passed away, because that left him with you, and having a baby daughter to take care of forced him to start living again. We heard him laugh for the first time in almost a year and started to hope we might get our friend back." Itachi's eyes turned flinty. "That wasn't how your grandparents saw it, of course. They saw a new opportunity. Kaiba hadn't had a child with the woman they wanted, but he still had a daughter he loved, and he was still a potent shinobi. So they let him in on the family secret and ordered him to kill you, to awaken his Mangekyo sharingan like they had."
"They say the ones you love can hurt you the worst, and it's true," Itachi said quietly. "The woman he wanted for his wife started the job of breaking Kaiba, but it was his parents who truly shattered one of the strongest man I knew. He refused to hurt you, and he told Shisui and I about it. That's what led us to discover what Orochimaru and Danzo were up to. But finding out what his parents had done – and that the clan condoned it – destroyed him. So yes, after he was betrayed by every person he loved Kaiba started drinking away his money, and yes, he did manage to crawl so deep into a bottle that he died, but I won't hear anyone – not even you, Amaya – insult him in my presence."
Amaya was white as a sheet and shaking when Itachi finished. "That can't be true," she mumbled. "Why are you telling me all of this? These… lies?"
"I'm sorry sweetie, but it's true. Hello, Itachi."
The voice was one she hadn't heard since she was three years old, and the impossibility of it sent shudders down Amaya's spine. She whirled to see a man with shoulder-length, spiky black hair emerge from the forest. He wore Uchiha garb similar to hers but tailored to a man's frame. His exposed skin was slightly gray in tone and covered with hairline cracks like a dried lake bed. He was in his late twenties, with a sharingan staring from his left eye and a patch covering his right. But none of that was what Amaya's numb gaze latched onto. It was the face; the first face she ever remembered seeing, the face she'd only seen in pictures ever since his funeral.
"Dad?" The words escaped Amaya as a choked whisper.
"It wasn't enough they drove you to your death, Kaiba?" Itachi's voice was quiet and boiling with fury. "They had do to bring you back to do their dirty work?"
"Orochimaru and Danzo are bastards, all right," Kaiba agreed easily. "They kind of make mom and dad look like amateurs in comparison." He looked away then, and Amaya saw a pained look cross his features. "What you said about Hisana," he said, a catch in his voice. "She didn't hate me?"
"Never, Kaiba." Itachi said immediately, his voice compassionate. "She loved you. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for her to do what she did."
"How…" Amaya trailed off, speechless.
"It's called Edo Tensei," Itachi told her crisply. "A jutsu Orochimaru stole from the Nidaime Hokage. It allows for the raising of the dead, once you've desecrated their corpse to obtain the required genetic material." Itachi gave Kisame a look and a gesture, and the blue-skinned Akatsuki nodded, taking off into the forest where Kaiba had emerged at a run. After exchanging a glance, Kaede and Kiran followed him.
"It also gives him a lot of control," Kaiba added glumly, "and what he wants isn't good. Orochimaru's whispering to me already; I don't have much more time. Keep her safe for me, Itachi?"
"I swear it," Itachi murmured.
Kaiba stepped forward to face Amaya. "Look at you… my little light, all grown up. You look so much like Hisana." He touched her cheek, and in spite of his appearance his skin was warm, his callused fingers the same as they had been when she was small. "You mother would be proud of you; scared and pissed that you went into your old man's line of work, but still proud."
Amaya had been hanging on by a thread throughout Itachi's story. Her father's touch broke down her last barriers, and her eyes filled with tears. She couldn't deny the truth anymore "I'm sorry about what I said, dad," she said hugging him tightly. "I spent so long hating you; gramps and gran said you never wanted me."
"You didn't know," Kaiba said calmly, hugging her back. "Manipulating people was always mom and dad's specialty. Besides, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I made one selfish choice after another once I lost your mother. I should have been there for you; rotten, corrupt clan or no. Instead I left you alone in the serpent's den. I hope you can forgive me."
"I thought about taking her from them after you died, Kaiba," Itachi admitted quietly, "but by the time I was in a position to do so I was a fugitive with a price on my head; I had no means to care for a child."
When they stepped back and Amaya dried her eyes, Kaiba glanced at Ken, who had been a quiet witness to everything that passed. "Is this your teammate, Amaya?"
"This is Isamu Ken," Amaya said. "He's my teammate, yes… and my boyfriend." Itachi looked intrigued when she named Ken, while Kaiba gave him another look over.
"I… see," Kaiba said at last. "That gear of yours… it's the wrong color, but… you're not one of Maito Gai's, are you?"
Ken, who wore his black combat jumpsuit with navy cuffs over the weights on his wrists and ankles, nodded. "My youthful sensei Maito Gai taught me a great deal!"
Kaiba gave Amaya a dubious look "You sure you know what you're getting into, sweetie? Granted he isn't sporting that atrocious bowl cut, but…" Amaya smacked her father's shoulder, and he laughed. "Okay, sorry…"
The change happened when Amaya had looked away from her father, towards Ken. She saw him blur into motion towards her, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Kaiba. When she looked back she saw a kunai in her father's hand, completing a swing that would have connected the hilt ring with the side of her head. Leaping back, she watched her father start to shake like a man having a seizure. "Orochimaru is taking control!" Itachi barked out. "That's not Kaiba anymore!"
After a few moments the shaking stopped. Kaiba's head dipped down for a moment before rising up again, his face a blank mask. "Dad?" Amaya murmured. Kaiba looked at them, his single eye morphing from an ordinary sharingan into a Mangekyo pattern. It was a seven-pointed star with two rings around it, and Itachi's breath hissed in alarm.
"Orochimaru robbed more than one grave to birth this horror," Itachi stated. "That's my grandfather's sharingan, the Teikoku-me [Imperial Eye]. It can-"
"Silence, Itachi," Kaiba whispered. Amaya felt chakra pulse from her resurrected father, and the Akatsuki's voice cut off. When Amaya looked at Itachi she saw him clutching his throat, as though choking. "Be still," Kaiba commanded, and Itachi froze in place.
"Amaya dearest," Kaiba purred, his chakra pouring into her and sending a shudder down her spine; it felt like poison honey sliding along her nerves, "come-" The rest of his words were drowned out by a sound like thunder as Ken tapped the Gate of Opening and clapped his hands together. Then he gripped her shoulder and pulled her backward into a shunshin, blurring them to the other side of the courtyard. He created another thunderclap to cover Kaiba's shout after them, grabbing Amaya again and pulling her into a run. She followed, to his evident relief.
"Don't know what that was, but it looks like you actually need to hear it," Ken explained. "We can't stay near him."
"I can't leave Itachi alone back there," Amaya protested, surprised at her own sentiment. She'd come to kill the man, but after everything she'd learned leaving him helpless was unthinkable.
"He can take care of himself," Ken shot back. "Besides, your dad's chasing us." Looking back, Amaya realized it was true. More than that, her father was fast; he was already catching up; gritting her teeth, Amaya blurred into another shunshin. Ken followed, and so did Kaiba.
Kisame had gotten a head start on Kaede and Kiran, and the blue-skinned giant was quick for his size. In a straight sprint they might not have caught up with them, but he wasn't fleeing. Once they caught up, the pair realized that Kisame was frantically looking for something.
"What's going on?" Kaede demanded from her tree branch perch, ready to run if Kisame turned on her.
"The Edo Tensei doesn't have an unlimited range," Kisame explained, never stopping his movement through the trees; Kaede and Kiran had to struggle to keep up. "There's no way Orochimaru came to this island himself, so he sent someone to follow you and act as his conduit for the jutsu. Only way to stop one of those zombies is to deal with the one who used the jutsu; the reincarnated can't be destroyed and none of us is good enough with seals to trap a shinobi as strong as Uchiha Kaiba. If you want to help your friend, help me find whoever followed you; given the timing they have to be nearby."
After considering that explanation, Kaede nodded and turned out her hive. Kikai bugs spread out through the area in an ever-expanding swarm. This search didn't take nearly as long as finding Itachi had; her bugs found an anomaly less than a kilometer away.
"Does this Edo Tensei involve coffins sticking out of the ground?" Kaede inquired.
"Yes," Kisame replied immediately. "Where?"
Kaede headed in that direction, with the Akatsuki and her husband on her tail. When she reached the small clearing where two coffins jutted from the earth, she let Kisame precede her into the open. She sent out more bugs, but Kisame was the first to spot the giant serpent coiled around a tree branch near the coffins, watching them with one yellow eye. "There," he pointed. "That's one of Orochimaru's summoned snakes. It must be his conduit for the Edo Tensei." Kisame drew his greatsword Samehada and leapt up to kill the snake, while Kaede simply wondered why two coffins? Amaya's father was the only one that confronted Itachi.
Kaede got her answer almost immediately. A wide spar of rock erupted from the ground and hit Kisame in midair, throwing him back across the clearing. The Akatsuki landed on his feet looking unfazed, but when the stone sank back into the ground there was a single shinobi standing between them and the snake. He was in his fifties and short but powerfully built with a short brown beard and shocks of graying brown hair peeking out from under his helmet. He wore finely crafted armor of dark cloth, dull gray steel plates on his forearms and protecting his neck.
Kaede felt a chill run through her, because she knew the man immediately. He had died a decade before she was born, but his stone face had gazed down at her from the Hokage Memorial every day she had lived in Konohagakure.
"Just one old man?" Kisame muttered. "Is Orochimaru running short on people to resurrect?"
"Doubtful," Kaede said, keeping her voice calm despite the fear she was feeling. "That is Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage."
"That old fart's the Shinobi no Kami?" Kisame asked in surprise. "No kidding."
Hiruzen glanced around the clearing, studying Kisame, Kiran and the kikai bugs swarming around the glade before settling his gaze on Kaede. "You must be an Aburame, young lady," he said politely. "For your own safety I suggest you leave. My treacherous former student has given me the task of protecting this wretched snake. I am compelled to obey, but I will not pursue if you flee."
Feeling a thickness in her throat and a deep anger at Orochimaru the rest of his honored predecessor and sensei, Kaede shook her head. "I cannot flee, Hiruzen-sama. The other shinobi that snake summoned is a threat to my best friend." She could feel the tracking bugs she had left on Ken and Amaya moving at incredible speed; they were running for their lives. "I must destroy that which you guard; to do otherwise would dishonor the Will of Fire."
Hiruzen inclined his head in respect. "It warms my heart to see that the Will of Fire still lives. I pray I will not have to bear your blood on my hands. Prepare yourselves." In the space of an eye blink Hiruzen flickered across the intervening distance, a kunai glittering in his hand as it swung at Kaede's neck. Before the blow could land a blue-and-black blur hit the attacking Hokage and threw him across the clearing to make a crater in the trunk of a large tree before falling to the grass.
"You're fighting me, old man!" Kisame roared as Hiruzen climbed to his feet. "I'll keep him occupied; you two get rid of that snake," Kisame said over his shoulder. Kaede was fairly certain it wasn't going to be that easy, but she and Kiran moved on their target nonetheless.
Alone in the ruins, Itachi stood still as a statue for several long minutes. His paralysis was so profound that some of the jungle's more curious critters had ventured close to examine this new decoration to their habitat. They were sent scurrying, however, when Itachi's throat bulged, a large obstruction moving up its length before forcing his jaws apart and flapping free with an indignant caw. It was a large crow, and one of its eyes was a sharingan with the pattern of a four-pointed pinwheel.
The crow landed on an outcropping and focused that eye on Itachi. Chakra flowed from it, and Itachi shuddered, coughing and falling to his knees. When he got his breath back Itachi looked up at the crow. "Thank you, Shisui," he murmured hoarsely. The crow cawed at him again before taking wing, circling Itachi's body and drawing closer each time until it plunged into a fold of his cloak and vanished without a trace.
Itachi climbed to his feet and glanced around, locating the trail that Amaya, Ken and Kaiba had left. Itachi took off after them at a run. "Your machinations took Kaiba and Shisui from me, Orochimaru," he growled. "You don't get to destroy her life, too."
Amaya and Ken blurred through the forest in one shunshin after another. Moving in that manner was far more draining than just running or leaping through the trees, but it was necessary. Kaiba was chasing them, and his speed was incredible. Amaya knew Ken could outpace her father on his own by opening Inner Gates, but she also knew without asking that he wouldn't leave her behind even if she told him to.
When they emerged from the trees onto the bare slopes of the volcano, Amaya bit into her thumb and formed hand signs. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Amaya called out. Aoihane formed next to them and already on the wing; both Amaya and Ken leapt on her back. "Climb!" Amaya commanded, and the giant hawk ascended rapidly.
Behind them Kaiba burst from the tree line, leaping high into the air. "Katon: Chen Muchi [Chain Whip]!" a long, supple strand of incandescent flame shot from his hand, snaking up into the air behind Aoihane. Amaya saw it and guided her summon in a swooping dive with her knees, but the line of fire followed, catching up and wrapping around Aoihane's wings and neck. The hawk let out an avian scream before dispelling in a puff of smoke. Amaya and Ken fell to the rocks below, managing to land well enough to avoid injury, but when they recovered their balance, Kaiba was closing.
He could have killed or wounded us with that, but he just used it on Aoihane to prevent our escape, Amaya realized. Whatever he wants, it doesn't involve killing us. Her hands flashed through signs. "Raiton: Rakkasora!" Kaiba was fast, but not fast enough to dodge the bolt of lightning that speared down from the clear sky, immolating him in a brilliant flash.
"Did you get him?" Ken inquired, rubbing his eyes to dispel the afterimages of the lighting flash.
"I think so," Amaya murmured, moving in on the smoking crater, Kiba's blades still in her hands. "I hit him with enough power to vaporize him." She hadn't heard of Edo Tensei before, but every instinct told her that Itachi had been truthful; whatever had happened, the person pursuing them wasn't her father anymore.
When the smoke cleared a bit, Amaya saw a charred corpse curled up in the crater the lightning bolt had created. "Yeah, I think he's…" she trailed off in surprise. What she'd taken for ash on the wind was in fact pieces of Kaiba drifting back to reunite with his remains. "What in the-"
"Amaya, run!" Itachi's shout came from the tree line. "You can't kill him! He's immortal in this state!"
Alarmed, Amaya swung Kiba, intending to decapitate the body in the crater, but it moved first. "Obey," Kaiba's voice hissed from between his frayed lips as he rocked back on his knees, his sharingan boring into Amaya. She felt the poison-sweet chakra flood through her body again and her muscles locked, stopping her cracking blade centimeters from his neck. Kaiba favored her with a hideous grin as skin slowly reformed over his lightning-scoured face. "Kill your boyfriend, little light. Papa commands it."
No! Amaya screamed in her head as she turned smoothly towards Ken, levelling Kiba's blade at his chest, feeling her lightning chakra build and amplify through the blade against her will. Stop it! She tried to scream a warning but couldn't speak.
"Amaya, what are you- gah!" Ken was only able to avoid the lightning blast that leapt from Kiba's tip because he already moving sideways, and it still singed his jumpsuit down the side in passing. Amaya's body was already moving, charging in to melee range as Ken stepped back, alarmed.
"Defend yourself or run, boy!" Itachi called out. "Kaiba's eye allows him to command another bearer of the sharingan! She'll kill you if she can!"
No! No, no, no! This can't be happening! It was like a waking nightmare about the Chuunin Exam. Amaya would sooner turn her blades on herself than hurt Ken again, but in the grip of the Teikoku-me she couldn't even do that. Ken opened a second Inner Gate to grant himself more speed. He was evading her attacks well enough; they'd trained against each other so often that her moves weren't a surprise to him. He wasn't fighting back, however, merely avoiding her attacks. It wasn't a tactic that was going to serve him well for long. Amaya felt lightning chakra charging in one of her hands while the other gathered fire, and her blood ran cold. Ken, get away! Amaya wanted to scream. He hadn't seen this jutsu yet.
Amaya crossed her blades and then swept them out to her sides in opposite directions as she mixed both chakra types and forced them outward. "Purazuma-ba [Plasma Field]!" the words left her lips in the wake of a thin shell of incandescent energy that expanded away from her in every direction. Even with the Inner Gates Ken couldn't back off fast enough to avoid the attack. He raised a hand and created a barrier of hardened air. Amaya's technique had both lightning and fire elements, however, and it burned through his shield. Ken cried out at the wave washed over him, searing exposed skin and setting his hair and clothes on fire. Ken rolled in the dirt to extinguish the flames and with the Teikoku-me driving her on Amaya didn't let up for an instant, her blade rising and then falling. Amaya screamed inside her head as Kiba bit deep into Ken's chest, but instead of bleeding he flickered and vanished. An afterimage from his high-speed movement, she realized with relief.
A stunning blow pounded into the base of Amaya's skull, and she'd never been so glad to get sucker-punched in her life. Kiba's hilts fell from nerveless fingers as she pitched forward. She felt Ken's weight on her back as he wrenched her arms behind her, but the Teikoku-me wouldn't let her stop fighting. It forced her to charge her wrists with lightning chakra where Ken was holding her, delivering a painful shock and forcing him to let go.
Amaya was halfway to her feet when Ken trapped her in a headlock, and this time she felt pressure all around her, hard air squeezing her and binding her in place. The insulating cushion of air contained her reflexive burst of lightning chakra. Amaya braced herself for a blast of fire chakra that would shred Ken's air prison and burn him again, but it didn't come, and she realized why almost instantly. The hard air's right against my skin and I'd burn myself breaking out. So if this really is the Hokage behind all this… he wants me in one piece? Then why not just ambush me when I was in the village or the ANBU base? It was a question she didn't have an answer to.
The nature of Ken's jutsu was such that Amaya couldn't breathe, being completely encased in a shell of air solidified by his chakra, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; passing out might actually break the Teikoku-me's control. Frozen in place, Amaya could see from the corner of her eye that Itachi and Kaiba were fighting. Watching Kaiba move, Amaya got a sense of what Kakashi had meant about age slowing him down a step, because Kaiba fought much like the Copy Ninja, except faster. Itachi was keeping up, but every hit he got in on Kaiba healed in seconds, while the reverse was not true.
"Get her out of here," Itachi called to Ken again.
"I can't move her like this, and if I release her before she runs out of air she'll start fighting again." Ken replied.
"She's mine, Itachi," Kaiba hissed. "I've waited too long for this to let you ruin it now."
"Over my dead body," Itachi replied grimly.
"That's the plan," Kaiba cackled. He let loose with a huge gout of fire; Itachi dodged it, but the blast barreled on towards Amaya and Ken.
He's not going to let that hit us, it's a bluff! Amaya wanted to tell Ken, but she couldn't. He released the air shield and dove to the side with Amaya in his arms. The jutsu dissipated short of them, and with the freedom to move came the imperative of the Teikoku-me. Amaya's nimble fingers dipped into her pouch and emerged with a kunai that she drove into Ken's side. It glanced off a rib and deflected down; the blade missed his vitals but still sank deep. Damn it, no! Ken grunted and backed off as she climbed to her feet, filling her hands with more kunai. The Teikoku-me wouldn't let her turn her back on Ken to retrieve Kiba.
Ken jerked the blade free of his flank and tossed it aside. He wasn't bleeding much with the Inner Gates, but once he lost hold of them that wound would start gushing. Amaya went on the attack again and Ken avoided her attacks as best he could. An observer in her own body, Amaya noted that she was herding Ken towards where Kaiba and Itachi were fighting, and a chill ran through her. This can't be good…
Itachi had noticed the same thing, and went all-out. Amaya saw his Mangekyo form, and gouts of black flame chased Kaiba, setting rock alight where it missed. After a few tries Itachi managed to nail Kaiba in the legs with some shuriken, slowing him down enough that the next burst of ebon fire set him alight. Blood trickled from around the corners of Itachi's eye, and his shoulders slumped wearily. "That should do it," he murmured. "Amaterasu will keep burning him as quickly as he can regenerate."
For a moment Amaya thought it was over, until she realized with horror that she couldn't move. He's still controlling me! She wanted to scream.
Kaiba's hissing laughter drifted from the black flames. "Too little, Itachi… too late!"
Amaya's hands blurred, forming unfamiliar signs. Wait… he can make me use a jutsu I don't know? "Katon: Ketto Ringu [Dueling Ring]!" The words burst forth from Amaya's lips, along with most of her chakra.
"No!" Itachi yelled as a circle of brilliant white flame encircled them all, roaring high into the sky. The ground shimmered as though a heat wave was suddenly beneath it, and high above where the flame ended the same effect could be seen. Itachi fired Amaterasu at the edge of the ring, but while the black flame mingled with the white, it could not dispel the wall of fire. The structure of the Ketto Ringu was complex beyond anything Amaya had ever attempted; keeping the flame walls stable required thousands of minute chakra adjustments every second; only the sharingan allowed her to make sense of it all.
Kaiba, sprawled on the rocks and still burning, laughed again. "It's just as you remember, Itachi; a marvelous ninjutsu! It's only a shame that it requires a sharingan to even attempt!"
"What is this?" Ken asked nervously, noting as Amaya had that the ring of fire was slowly shrinking.
"Kaiba's ultimate assassination technique," Itachi said heavily. "The ring doesn't dissipate until either its user or their enemies are dead, and those flames are hot enough to incinerate no matter how fast you move through them."
"Can we go underground?" Ken asked.
Itachi shook his head, jamming his sword's tip into the dirt. Instead of sinking in it was stopped just below the surface. "Can't jump or fly out, either," he said, looking up.
"Well then how do we beat it?"
Itachi sighed. "I don't know. I never found a flaw in it, and no one Kaiba targeted ever escaped." Amaya could tell it was true, could feel her chakra slowly returning as the circle shrank. She was in the center, and she would be the last one standing as it constricted. Damn it Itachi you're supposed to be a cold bastard. The answer's right there: kill me and this will go away!
"But you have a way out, don't you, Uchiha Amaya?" Kaiba hissed from inside his personal inferno. "Oh, if only you could use it!"
Itachi looked up sharply at that. He swirled his cloak, and a crow with a sharingan for an eye shot forth, flying straight for Amaya. Kaiba lurched into action, however, reaching out to grasp the bird with his burning hands. Black fire consumed the bird and its eye before it could reach Amaya.
"No cheating Itachi," Kaiba chided, "my little light has to do this on her own!"
Hearing the mockery that had been made of her father using that endearment made Amaya angry and sick to her stomach. I know what he's talking about; if I could use the Unmei no Ito I could just jump us to another world. But the Teikoku-me won't let me do anything, and why is he giving me hints anyways? Does he want me to use my Mangekyo power?
With the ring of fire closing around them, however, Amaya knew she didn't have the luxury of time to think. She focused all of her will on fighting the domination effect that had her in its grasp. With some effort the glistening strands of the Unmei no Ito sprang into view, shimmering around her. Come on! Amaya screamed at herself. She could see the thread connecting Ken to his own world, and she knew how to link others to it. She could send all of them there and be done with this nightmarish fight. But first she had to make her chakra do what she wanted it to.
Amaya fought while Ken and Itachi moved closer, the circle hemming them in. She could see the Unmei no Ito, but Kaiba's influence wasn't letting her manipulate them. Slowly, with the compulsion resisting constantly, chakra and heat built up behind her left eye until she felt something give. The Unmei no Ito vibrated. Itachi was looking at her when it happened, and his face went slack with shocked recognition.
"That's-" Itachi started to say, only to be cut off when the shining strands wrapped around him and Ken, and yanked them across the veil between worlds. Amaya had directed the threads to do the same for her, but the chakra structure at the heart of the Ketto Ringu interfered, and the gathered chakra was spent on only the two men. The barrier faded even though Kaiba was still there; she supposed he didn't count as a 'living' opponent.
Free of the Teikoku-me Amaya stumbled back, restarting the process of gathering chakra to manipulate the threads again and follow Ken and Itachi, but even as she started gathering chakra Kaiba climbed to his feet, dispelling the Amaterasu's flames with the wave of a hand. Wait, he could have done that at any time? Shit.
"That's it," Kaiba crooned, staring at her, transfixed. "That's the eye!"
Amaya realized that her left eye felt different. It wasn't just showing her the Unmei no Ito; other things she could barely describe flickered across her field of vision with chakra like none she'd ever felt pouring from them, and she had the disturbing realization that with some time she could make the things she was seeing obey her.
Digging a small mirror out of her pouch Amaya glanced at it – and stared. Her right eye was still in its Eternal Mangekyo pattern, but the left was entirely different. It was purple and covered in concentric rings, with three small tomoe on one of the rings halfway out from the center. What the hell?
As distracting as the eye was, Kaiba was a more immediate problem. He stepped towards her, and she backed off warily, waiting for enough chakra to build up in her eye. "I broke your control once, I can do it again," she warned.
Kaiba chuckled gleefully. "Oh, no, Amaya; the Teikoku-me won't work on you now. You've surpassed it, just as I knew you would, with the proper incentive."
"You… knew this would happen?" Keep him talking. I'll be able to jump in a minute.
"Of course," Kaiba replied haughtily.
Amaya's eyes narrowed. "Just to be clear, you're really Orochimaru?"
"Uchiha Amaya, is that any way to address your Hokage?" It is him, Amaya realized, feeling dismayed in spite of herself. The Hokage wasn't a likable man, but she'd respected him and thought she'd earned the same.
"I've been trying to create that legendary eye for longer than you've been alive," Kaiba explained. "My mistake was in my first test subjects. Itachi and Shisui were geniuses; I thought they'd be the fastest to unlock the sharingan's full potential with proper motivation, but they were ultimately puppets who saw their own strings; they refused to dance to my tune. When one died and the other defected I realized my error. I didn't need a brilliant Uchiha to create a rinnegan; I needed a biddable one."
In spite of the dire situation Amaya felt offended. "I hope you're not talking about me," she growled.
"Oh, grow up," Kaiba told her. "You'll never reach Itachi's level, but there's nothing wrong with that. There would be no elite without someone to compare them to." He grinned. "You never saw your strings, and you danced marvelously."
"But… my Mangekyo were an accident!" Amaya protested.
Kaiba grinned wider. "You prove my point."
Staring at the smug expression plastered across her father's face, it finally clicked. The burst of strength the moment before she struck Ken, his simultaneous weakness… "You did that?" Amaya whispered, horrified.
"Give the girl a prize! The puppet finally notices the hands above!" Kaiba clapped his hands mockingly. "I needed a Mangekyo sharingan that Fugaku hadn't made to order; you were the right opportunity at the right time."
Rage, horror and confusion buzzed in Amaya's head, but the tactician in her had to ask. "Why tell me all of this?" She was just seconds away from having enough stored chakra to jump and follow Ken.
Kaiba grinned hideously. "Because that trick I used to make you stronger and that boy weaker all those years ago? It's still there inside you." He formed a single hand sign like none she'd ever seen before, and she reached out desperately for the thread to Ken's world. "Venom Seal: Agonize!"
In an instant Amaya felt as though she was burning from the inside out; the pain radiated from the marrow of her bones and spread outward to fill every piece of her. She dropped to one knee, a choked scream escaping her lips. She couldn't think, couldn't focus enough to grasp the shining filaments filling her blurring vision.
"Horrible, isn't it?" Kaiba mocked as he stood over her. "The venom's had years to seep into your bones, just… waiting. The pain must be exquisite."
No… can't lose like this, Amaya thought through the red haze eating away at her mind. She saw Kaiba's foot draw back and tried to dodge, but the toe of his boot hit the side of her head and she sprawled onto the volcanic dirt, spiraling down into darkness.
"-a rinnegan!" Itachi's exclamation had started in one world and ended in another.
Isamu Ken absorbed the transition across the veil of worlds easily, while Itachi stumbled a bit from the unexpected sensation of vertigo as he finished the sentence he'd started on Blue Sand Isle before glancing around to take in the cabin in a field and pine forests beyond.
"Shit," Ken exclaimed when a glance around showed him Amaya hadn't followed them across. "Why isn't she here?" Then he winced as the pain of his burns and the wound in his side hit him in the wake of fading adrenaline.
"Where exactly is 'here'?" Itachi shot back. "Is this a genjutsu?"
Ken shook his head. "Amaya's sharingan doesn't work that way. She reaches out to worlds where different things happened in the past and draws alternate versions of people she knows from them. That's who I am; the Isamu Ken of this world. She called to me by instinct when she was a captive of the Toma."
"Interesting," Itachi commented. "How do we get back to her?"
Ken sighed. "We don't. She's the key and the door; which is why her absence worries me."
Itachi shook his head. "Kaiba's Ketto Ringu most likely disrupted her efforts; by its nature it anchors its wielder where they are." He sighed. "She shouldn't have done that. How am I to help her from here?"
Worry gnawed at Ken's gut, just like when he'd vanished from that boarding action in the Land of Water. At least this time he knew she'd sent him back deliberately, but that left her alone with Kaiba. Ken was about to ask what a rinnegan was when Itachi abruptly vanished, and Ken suddenly felt worse. If Amaya was using her eyes she would have pulled both of us back. Only Itachi returning means something happened to her and returned him to the world he's supposed to be in.
Ken ached to be by her side, but just like the last time there was nothing he could do but pray for her. That, and be ready. With a deep breath he released the Inner Gates, staggering as the pain intensified. He could feel blood flowing down his side, and he limped into his cabin to patch himself up before he bled out.
The second time being dragged across worlds Itachi adjusted to the vertigo, and when he landed on the volcanic slopes of Blue Sand Isle again he immediately focused on Kaiba, His heart leaping into his throat at what he saw. Kaiba crouched over an unconscious Amaya, and a summoned anaconda was already wrapped around her. He threw a trio of kunai to kill the snake, but while they were still in flight the snake and Amaya vanished in a puff of smoke. "No!"
Kaiba shook his head as he stood. "Too late, Itachi; she's mine now."
"I know where to find you, Orochimaru," Itachi warned.
"Do you?" Kaiba taunted. "Come and save the little light… if you can." In the blink of an eye he crumbled to ash that scattered on the ocean wind.
"Damn it," Itachi muttered. With the immediate area quiet, Itachi registered for the first time the faint, periodic tremors running through the island. Looking around from his vantage point on the volcano's slope he spotted an area of jungle where plumes of dust, flame and water were occasionally flying into the area. Focusing with his sharingan he could see swarms of insects whirling around the tree tops as well.
Setting off at a run, Itachi headed for the area, leaping between the crowns of the trees. When he arrived at the battleground it had gone quiet. He emerged from the trees to find a battered-looking Kisame leaning on Samehada and the pair of bug-nin who had accompanied Amaya, both sporting minor wounds.
"Where are Amaya and Ken?" Kaede demanded, the whole clearing buzzing with the transmitted agitation of her kikai bugs.
"The boy is back where Amaya plucked him from, and she was taken by Orochimaru," Itachi replied evenly. "What happened here, Kisame? You were supposed to find the summoner and kill it."
"We did find it," Kisame panted. "Another of Orochimaru's snakes, except it was being guarded by the Sandaime Hokage; tough old bird, that one, even before the Edo Tensei. He had time to put up a chakra barrier around the snake that the kids and their bugs couldn't breach, and the old man interfered every time I tried to brute force it. They both vanished a few minutes ago." The fish-man sighed. "I guess Orochimaru got what he came for?"
"Amaya manifested the rinnegan," Itachi confirmed grimly. "He can't be allowed to keep her. We need to get moving." Before he could suit action to words, however, the insects filling the air swirled around him and Kisame.
"That's awfully convenient, you being the only one who came back," Kaede noted clinically.
"I haven't lied to you, girl," Itachi replied coolly. "I have no need to. Your kikai and your husband's moths are no threat to me, as you'll discover if they get any closer. Now you can either come with us and see for yourself that your Hokage has abducted your friend, or you can go ahead and attack and we'll have to settle this before I set out to find Amaya."
Kaede crossed her arms, conferring quietly with her husband. "Amaya and Ken's tracking bugs are gone; that much is true. We'll come along to keep an eye on you," she said at last. "If you're lying you'll find out just how much of a threat our swarms are."
"Fair enough," Itachi murmured. Retrieving a small rod of black metal from an inner pocket of his tunic, Itachi fed his chakra into the metal until it vibrated. "Things here didn't go according to plan. Orochimaru has obtained a rinnegan. Kisame and I need rapid transport." The rod vibrated again and he put it away.
"Now what?" Kaede inquired.
"Now we wait," Itachi replied.
"We have a fast ship waiting off of the coast," Kiran pointed out. "It could have us back to the mainland in short order."
Itachi shook his head. "What's coming is faster."
It took an almost an hour before the air in the center of the clearing folded in on itself and a slender man with an orange mask appeared from the vortex. "A rare day, Itachi-san," Tobi noted lightly, "I can't remember the last time I had to pick you up from a failed mission."
"Not the time," Itachi growled. "Does Zetsu have a bead on Orochimaru?"
Tobi shook his head. "The Hokage's location is uncertain; most Leaf shinobi not on the war front are marching west towards the Land of Wind; it's part of Sasori's plan for the Kyuubi. The Leader's orders were to take you to the staging grounds."
Itachi shook his head. "I have to find Orochimaru, now."
Tobi shrugged. "The Hokage, or clues about Hokage, will be in Konohagakure, and we will need leisure to find them. We won't have that leisure until this gambit of Sasori's is ended."
"I fear that may be too late," Itachi replied quietly.
"No choice," Tobi said simply. "Come now," he said brightly, spinning in a slow circle with his arms cast wide, "off to the land where desert and forest meet!" A larger vortex formed, drawing in all five shinobi. When it faded, the clearing was empty.
Author's Note: Holy hell another update. I need to figure out this 'pacing' thing the cool kids are doing, because I don't know that I can keep this up.
14k words, the longest chapter to date. Couldn't cut anything out because it's all happening at the same time now.
I'm aware that canon Kabuto's Edo Tensei didn't have a range limit, but he bragged about 'improving' it. This is the base version Tobirama created, with a few tweaks from Orochimaru (for example, running it through a summoned animal instead).
