Chapter Twelve: "Coming to Full Circle"

"Sometimes The Truth Doesn't Want To Be Seen.

And Those Who Know March To Be Forgotten."

—Behind the Man Who Lives to Die—

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"This whole time…" Sasuke stared at Itachi, looking for any sign of deception even though he knew it was the absolute truth. The Truth Seal on his neck made sure of that. He could already feel it's magic disappear from his skin as Itachi revealted the whole truth behind his clan's demise and the horror that was this empire. "Why? Why wouldn't you just tell me?"

He surged forward and clutched Itachi's collar. He cried out, "Why!" For years, he'd only hated the man who made his life a living hell, but he never could have imagined this. From the existence of the great evil that lurked beneath the empire to the future the clan had imagined for him and the blackmail they had over Itachi, he couldn't understand his older brother's choices. Yes, he knew that Itachi did everything for his sake and the sake of the country. And despite his brother's coldness, he knew by his actions the truth of his heart. For an Uchiha, sacrifice was but a sign of love and Itachi gave up his home, honor and now his life to fight the evil that entrenched them all. Sasuke finally had the answers he sought, but it begged the question —

Sasuke yelled out before Itachi could answer him, "Why didn't you take me with you?! Why didn't you let me fight with you? Why did you just push me away?" Despite the hatred and pain caused by Itachi, the pain his older brother lived through was worst. And the worst part was the fact that Itachi did it for him. He didn't say it outright, but why else would he let him live and strive to make him hate the clan and watch over him? It explained his reluctance to kill him no matter what bullshit excuse he gave — the only result that ever came from their clashes was Itachi letting him live.

Memories of the kind elder brother who trained with him and protected him from the Elders played in his mind. Sasuke's shoulders shook as he tried to reign in his emotions while Itachi watched over him silently. Hot tears trailed down his face as the desire to kill morphed into shame and betrayal. "We could have fought together…Brother."

The two Uchiha brothers held each other's stare, the younger one demanding answers that the older wouldn't give while the older remained unfazed. Sasuke faltered as the realization registered, recognizing that quiet will of steel. After a long moment, he broke the silence as he said, "You still think you can face everything on your own? That's impossible! Itachi, you won't come back from this alive."

"That's none of your business, little brother. The Truth Seal is gone now so I don't need to inform you of my plans. Just go and be useless by yourself. Forget about the Uchiha. Forget the Empire. I am sure many of the other bordering countries will take in the last remaining Uchiha. And if you are worried over being taken advantage of, don't tell me that the time spent in the Empire Courts hasn't honed your ability to always hold an advantage? You're not needed here." Itachi grabbed Sasuke's wrist and squeezed until Sasuke let go of his collar in pain.

Sasuke snatched back his wrist as he spat out, "This…This is insane! A monster that could keep gods and demons at bay for hundreds of years is no match for you alone! Stop treating me like a child. I am not useless!" Sasuke couldn't believe it. Even if he never imagined there'd be a day where he'd be trying to save his brother let alone help him, that bastard still didn't want to accept him! Was he never good enough? He knew everything now and the Empire couldn't hold him hostage over his brother any longer so why did he still push him away?

"It doesn't matter. Now that I've told you the truth, it's time to part ways." And as if he hadn't just upended his brother's entire world, Itachi moved to complete his self-appointed mission like the martyr he hoped to be. Sasuke couldn't let that happen.

"No…No! Wait!" Sasuke grabbed his arm. "You can't leave like this!"

"Oh? You aim to use force? I'd play with you, but I'm running out of time." Just like old times, he made that sad, pathetic face like he was telling a young Sasuke that he was sorry he couldn't train with him.

"Stop acting dumb!" Sasuke roared. His eyes squinted as he seethed, "Why? Why did you go so far to make me hate you? Why…why couldn't you just tell me the truth in the beginning?!" Hot emotion wet his eyes, the rage and sadness and bitterness bubbling up as he faced the curse that was his family. "I hated you for so long, never understanding why you did what you did. All of this could have been avoided if you just spoke to me! Why do you keep trying to make me suffer?! If I was such a burden, then why didn't you kill me with our parents?!" His face warped into a mask of wrathful grief. Itachi remained silent even as hot pain sparked up his arm under Sasuke's trembling grip.

For a brief moment, pity exposed itself before he resumed his cruel poker face. He wanted Sasuke to hate him, to abandon him and be strong enough to survive on his own. But not like this. If he went insane, then none of his efforts would matter — he'd just be a shell of a man. This was why he didn't want to involve him. The more he knew, the more it would be hard for his frail little brother to let him go.

So, Itachi did what used to calm little Sasuke, back in those innocent days when the two of them could just be happily playing in the fields and flicked his forehead. He smiled gently at him just like then as well. "Because you're my little brother, Sasuke. But you can't come with me."

Suddenly, Sasuke's instincts blared at him and he turned and dodged Itachi's attack from behind — but he wasn't fast enough to dodge as Itachi punched him straight in the gut. Sasuke coughed out blood as he flew backwards and crashed into the boulder behind him.

The younger Uchiha slid to the ground, on the verge of unconsciousness. Itachi walked over. Step by step, power oozed out of him like a miasmic cloud. He raised a single finger and pointed between Sasuke's brows.

The last thing Sasuke heard before he fell to darkness;

"Until next time, little brother…I can't play with you anymore."

And once more, Sasuke was left behind.

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Earlier on….

Sakura coughed up accidentally inhaled dust, hacking up clumps of brown spittle that flew from her mouth. "Ack! How long until we reach the village, Kakashi? I'm sick of this desert."

Kakashi tilted his head to the side. "I thought the Plant folk were at the forest bordering the desert?"

"Hold up. There is forest ahead?! Why didn't you tell us?"

"The Rigurash fellow said so."

"He says it telepathically! How am I supposed to read your mind if he sends it to you?"

Naruto and Hinata looked back and forth between the two, silently comparing them to a bickering old couple fighting over the mail. Hinata spoke out, "Hey, guys? Can we keep going? I want to be there before sundown. There's no more water and Naruto is barely keeping up in this heat."

"N-Nah, I'm fine, really…" Naruto huffed as he tried to take off his shirt, but Hinata smacked his hand.

"You have to cover your skin in the desert, or you'll burn! We're almost there, Naruto-kun. You can do it!" Plus, she had no idea if other citizens in this world would recognize the seal on his stomach and cause trouble. An imprisoned demon fox was probably worth a lot. They still didn't know enough about this world — who knew if there were demon hunters as well as enslavers?

Sakura apologized and elbowed Kakashi until he too apologized. Then they set off. They passed the time quietly walking, the blazing sun beating down on them discouraged any enthusiasm for conversation and thirst dogged their steps. Not that they made the effort to complain, it was useless after all. After a couple of hours, they finally found trees in the distance. Naruto cried out, "Oh god, there's shade! Hurry!"

"Wait for us!" Sakura and Hinata sped up their walk while Kakashi simply floated in the air. Sakura cursed him out while she wiped sweat off her forehead, "Lucky bastard."

Before Naruto could run too far away, a pineapple suddenly popped out of the ground in front of him. It squinted at Naruto before huffing to itself and just like a cannon ball, it burst up from the sand to reveal the rest of its body.

"Ahhh! It's going to eat me!" Naruto screamed and he fell on his butt. Sakura assumed this was one of the Plant folk. He had deep wrinkles lining his yellow face and what leaves she could see peeking out of his draping gray clothes looked a bit wilted. He hunched over onto his wooden stick, seemingly unconcerned with Naruto's continued iterations.

"Hello, Great Ones! Welcome to our village! I am the Wiseman." The wiseman eyed each of them up and down before grinning in delight. "You've finally arrived! I am glad to see you, young warriors!"

Kakashi coughed.

"And great wise demon."

Kakashi smiled and Sakura elbowed him with a sigh. She asked politely, "Do we call you by a name or is wiseman your name?"

"It is both my title and my name. As the oldest folk here, I am laden with the task of guiding our village well. Should I fail, I will be demoted immediately." The wiseman said with gusto as he looked at the three humans with shining eyes, "I have heard great things from Rigurash. He is unfortunately helping other villages and working to gather intel, but he will be glad to know you have made it safely to our home. He should come visit soon."

Suddenly, Sakura realized that the Wiseman was speaking in the human tongue. In fact, she never considered it before, but from the moment she came to this planet, she could understand all the humans, but not another species unless they, too, spoke in human tongue. She had translation spells, but Naruto and Hinata didn't yet understood everything as well. Was this also magic? So she asked, "How are you speaking with us? I had to speak with Rigurash telepathically."

The wiseman nodded, "Yes, good questions. Some of our people took it upon ourselves to learn how to speak the human tongue, which is very difficult. Another thing to note is that the Empire may be evil, but their magic and technology are truly profound. As soon as we learned the human tongue, we didn't need to translate between different languages like we do in the many tongues of the Plant folk. I'm sure you realized this when you understood the prison guards' orders despite coming from another planet. The whole planet is infused with this magic as it was designed with the intent to conquer other worlds. It makes control easier. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it does. Thank you." The wiseman's words, while informative, disturbed a deep part of her. The presence of slavery in this world wasn't hard to understand, something had to be done with those that were conquered, but she destested it, despised it all the same. She clenched her fists. She couldn't forget her mission. She bowed her head towards the elder, "Thank you for the information and for taking us in. It is a great honor to be led by you personally." Although she had an alliance with the Plant folk, they treated her and her friends with respect and kindness when they themselves struggled to survive as well.

"Do not worry yourself over this matter. It is the least I could do." The wiseman then bowed towards them and pointed at the forest — where once there was nothing but the sight of trees, now stood an entire village. "And while I did come here to see you out of respect, there is another purpose. Only those with the permission to see will ever find our village. Any intruder wouldn't be able to see us."

"What if people ran into you?" Hinata was honestly fascinated by this piece of plant folk culture. Magic! If she weren't on the run from a world-destroying empire, she'd be exploring this new planet. She used to love reading sci-fi and fantasy.

"We like to set confusion spells around our border. Unless there was a great force attacking us and unbinding our work, no mere traveler will trespass. Hence, why I must guide you in. Come, come, the village is excited to meet you. The survivors of the prison have arrived just yesterday."

"Huh? But we left only shortly before they did?" Hinata asked. Suddenly, she and Sakura had an idea, and both shot accusing looks at Kakashi.

The silver-haired demon coughed once more as his tail curled around his leg shyly. "I am a little rusty with tracking souls…It's not entirely my fault! If you didn't keep arguing with me and we didn't stop by the small town, we'd be here on time!"

"What?! How rude! Says the demon who forgot everything for the past 500 years! Getting old, Kakashi? Forgetting how to use your own power?" Sakura retorted and crossed her arms. And once more, the pair bickered.

Hinata coughed and said, "Guys, we're keeping the nice man waiting. And Naruto is about to chomp on the pineapple…"

Sure enough, the fox-demon host started to drool as he mumbled, "Pineapple juice…"

Sakura and Hinata immediately held him back and said, "Please lead us to the village."

The wiseman took a step away from Naruto then nodded. "Follow me, please."

As they got closer to the village, they managed to learn that the village formed when the first plant folk were attacked centuries ago. They were enslaved from another planet, but since then have grown in tune with the environment of this world and now their bodies are linked to the natural energies that made this planet.

While Hinata asked questions about how they lived, Naruto was busy staring at the yellow pineapple and noticed that when the old man sweat, it looked just like drops of juice. If he weren't extremely thirsty, he would never have considered licking an old man's face, but now…

Before he could act on his impulse, Kakashi suddenly stopped and Naruto ran right into his back. "Warn a guy, why don't ya?!" As he rubbed his nose, he finally saw what made the demon stop and he asked, "Why is there a dead Empire soldier in front of the village?"

Then that was when they noticed a certain lone Uchiha sprawled out just at the foot of the village. One moment the area was empty, then the next a person suddenly appeared on the ground.

Kakashi only needed one look to guess what happened. He hadn't sensed the Uchiha's mana until just now and there was only mortal in the area currently capable of hiding from his senses — well, excluding Sakura. He rubbed his temple as he said wearily, "He isn't dead and from the looks of his torn clothes and lack of posse, he isn't part of the Empire anymore. It seems his elder brother decided to drop him off here because of us."

Kakashi cursed at the skies. "It seems that same brother optimistically believes we won't kill him off. He doesn't know about your contract with the boy so I fail to understand where that optimism comes from. Well, Sakura? What do you want to do with him?"

All three of her friends turned to look back at Sakura. On one hand, she didn't want to look after an ex-Empire officer with a complicated past since that usually meant a lot of bounty hunters at least. Why her in the first place? On the other hand, he was not only a prime source of intel, but he saved Hinata and Naruto's life.

Why do I feel like I'll be the one babysitting this one?

Alter snickered. If Kakashi is the sugar daddy, then you will be the new recruit's sugar mommy.

You're watching reality tv shows again, aren't you?

One of us must understand the prime entertainment you can get with all these hot guys. I swear, I have no idea how you're related to me, Self! Waste of opportunity! Hurry up and find another recruit so I can re-create the Bachelor!

Ah. You finished bingeing off my memories of netflix, didn't you? I never got to see the last season so that must piss you off. Well, you deserve it! Ha!

Alter ignored her taunts. Oooh! Wiseman alert! I bet he's got the hidden quest.

The wiseman walked up to them while the plant folk villagers eyed Sasuke warily. Then his eyes widened, "So it is come to pass. The first fan which will fan the flame."

The group looked at him curiously and Naruto had to ask, "Who's a fan of who? Damn, Sakura's famous!"

"No, no. The Uchiha is a clan symbolized by the Fan as one which is often used to fuel flame. His appearance is the sign we have been waiting for besides your arrivals, Great Ones." The wiseman raised his voice, "The Prophecy is coming true! Come, and I will tell you your destiny!" He pointed toward his tent. "We shall talk there."

At his words, the villagers became chaotic as some hollered and cheered in joy while others stomped their feet on the ground and raised their arms in a widespread salute.

Meanwhile the three humans turned in unison toward Kakashi with questioning faces.

Kakashi raised his hands, "Hey, don't look at me. I'm not into cults."

Hinata blinked. "But you're a demon."

"And you're a human. You don't see me lumping you in with the Empire."

"Point taken."

Meanwhile Naruto cheered on as Sakura ignored Alter Sakura's taunts.

I knew there was a hidden quest with the old man!

Sakura couldn't help but question if they were really the 'Prophesized Ones'…

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AUTHOR NOTE:

Konnichiwa Travelers of Fiction!

So Sasuke is finally getting together with the group — or is he? DUN DUN DUN. Jk. Pretty obvi, but what will they do when they hear about the prophecy? Will Sasuke help them? And just how is Itachi going to complete his mission?

The ball is rolling~

On another note, I wonder if Plant folk sweat does taste like juice? Pineapple juice…

Who needed to turn wine to water when you can turn water into juice? (Says a soda addict. There's no soda in this world as far as I know so it's already hell).

Ahhhh! Just watched Mandalorian and SO EXCITED :3 My week feels too long without you, baby yoda *sniff* (Am I having baby fever?)

And, drum roll, as always —

Thank you Bellababe42 for beta reading! Much appreciation!

I hope y'all are having a splendid day after surviving Halloween chocolate raids. Now next up is the madness of Black Friday and Christmas. I'm not even gonna try get that PS5 until next year. I've been dreaming about a playstation for years now so what's one more? Maybe if I'm lucky there will be a sale on a bundle idk.

Anyone looking forward to anything?

Also heard Japan gonna try open up next year, but I'll wait on travel for a while. The craziness of reality is just sobering — Come on! Let's go see Tsunade and get that sake rolling! Grab pineapple man, too! I hate tap water.

Stay safe out there, have a good november and get a pumpkin spice latte :)

WitchySkies