Yo!

Back for more. LCS playoffs are on this weekend, which is exciting. Nothing else to report, though, so without further ado, and all.

Chapter 85: Reoccurring Nightmare

As Jiraiya's fireball was absorbed by the same overweight pain that they'd been struggling with for a while, it occurred to Naruto that he should probably start keeping track of just what these guys could do.

They'd been fighting them for perhaps 10 or so minutes now. Jiraiya had been the one to initially call out that each Pain seemed only have access to one power. The overweight one could absorb Jutsu, which made it their biggest problem.

Another could summon creatures to square off against them, or, well, Naruto remembered it having done that when they'd encountered it back at the Sound Village, though the cavern they resided within couldn't handle any, and so both Naruto and that particular Pain seemed to have come to the agreement that neither of them would be doing any summoning, on account of the fact that if they did, it was likely the cavity would cave in on them.

Another Pain, this one looking a bit… well, odd was perhaps too kind, had a numerous number of explosives and other technical gizmos inside its body that allowed it to cause some serious destruction. The last they were dealing with summoned… a head from out of the ground that allowed Pain to do… something. Naruto had not actually seen it do anything yet, but he had a feeling that wouldn't remain true forever.

The main body, which Jiraiya referred to as Yahiko, had the ability to push and to pull. They'd yet to figure out the limitations of that yet, but it seemed, to Naruto at least, like he could only do so once every five or so seconds. It'd been a series of close calls with that one, but luckily, they'd been able to avoid serious injury so far.

Konan by herself was probably as strong as three of four of the Pain's put together herself, as well. Her paper threatened to encapsulate Naruto and Jiraiya's bodies whenever it was given the chance, and it was only his master's familiarity with her array of Jutsu that kept the both of them safe from her unorthodox methods.

Still, Naruto was fairly sure he could remember there being six Pain's from when they'd encountered the man as Genin, but…

Only five were in attendance today.

"So, Yahiko," Jiraiya spun a tale as he and his former student dueled in the center of the large cavern. "You started the Akatsuki, didn't you? What led you to that, what led you to trying to overturn the entire world!?"

"Asking questions in the middle of a fight, Jiraiya Sensei?" Yahiko seemed entirely nonplussed. "Weren't you the one who told us to never distract ourselves during combat?"

Jiraiya's eyes widened, before a rocket-fist shot out of the ground beneath him, and uppercut him rather harshly. For a moment, the light left his master's eyes, and he winced at thinking the man unconscious, before, as if through will alone, Jiraiya forced himself back. He slammed his foot down, panting, but very much present.

"Heh…" His master ran a hand across his mouth, and the back of his gauntlet game away bloody. "I guess you're right."

Naruto walked forward so that the two of them stood side by side. "You alright?"

"Eh, I've been better, but yeah. Head's a bit foggy, though, might need a few minutes to recover, if you could take the front-foot."

He nodded, concentrating as he felt the last of his Indigo Sage Mode fade away. He focused again, sending a mental message to the second of the four Shadow Clones he had left outside to send its energy to him.

That left him with two.

As his fist was about to connect with Pain's face, or, well, as it would've missed, seeing as how he was already dodging back and away, and preparing his own counterpunch, he felt that Sage energy fill him, felt his eyes return to their almost purple shade, and filled his fists with chakra for Kumite.

Yahiko was struck harshly, doubling back as he rolled across the ground. Against a human opponent, Naruto had no trouble admitting that that strike likely would've taken them out of the fight. And yet… He wasn't at all surprised when Yahiko stood back up, not even panting for breath.

Actually… thinking harder on that particular front, he didn't think he'd seen Yahiko, or any of the other Pains for that matter, breathe at all.

Food for thought, but he could focus on that later, when he wasn't in a battle.

"You are strong, Naruto Uzumaki." Yahiko said as he cracked his neck, and Naruto realized after a sickening second that the man's spine itself had needed to be shifted back into place. "Stronger than I'd assumed you'd be, even. You seem to have gained a mastery over Sage Mode that even Jiraiya Sensei could never achieve."

His master gave a rather frank description of what he thought about that under his breath, and Naruto snorted.

"Yeah, well… I can't take credit for that." He shook his head with a smile. "I owe my power to my friends, to the people who've helped me get this far. To people like Sasuke, and Sakura, and Kakashi, and yeah, even Pervy Sage."

His master shook his head at his less than flattering description, and, if Naruto was right, he thought he saw the ghost of a smile form on Konan's face at that.

"Friends, hm?" Yahiko shook his head. "Yes… I found that my friends were what gave me the strength to try and overcome those things that had affected me in the past as well. Losing them… that was the final blow to my ability to try and move on. To try and overcome that weakness of heart."

Naruto's eye twitched as he took a step forward.

"That must've been hard, surely, but…" His eyebrows drew down, communicating his seriousness. "That doesn't give you the excuse to rage against the entire world. Sure, inevitably, people will experience hardships, but–"

"I will not have you, who has never lost a friend, never lost someone important to them, lecture me about what loss is like." Pain's apathetic face belied the pure vitriol of those words, and he gave a fake chuckle after a moment. "You talk of friends, hm? Then how about this…"

Naruto bristled as he felt the air around them stiffen.

"I will give you the ground upon which to converse with me…"

And his brain connected the dots.

Five Pains…

Five of six.

"By robbing you of them."

/-/

Haku jumped back and away from Kisame, panting rather harshly as he allowed Kubikiribōchō to rest on the ground below him instead of carrying it, giving the muscles in his arms, trained to wield the massive weapon as they were, a much-needed reprieve.

Kisame was doing much the same. His breaths were far more controlled than Haku's, but that didn't necessarily mean he had any sort of advantage in this fight; merely that he was the far more experienced of the two of them when it came to battles to the death, and in battles wielding his massive blade.

"Not bad…" His opponent panted out, laughing. "Not bad at all! You're seriously the best wielder that blade's ever seen, and you've only had it, what, three or four years?" The shark smirked. "What a shame you're to die here, I wouldn't have minded squaring off with you a decade from now, when your mastery eclipsed your foolishness."

He didn't rise to the man's bait, instead, he merely took deep breaths, trying to keep his blood flowing throughout his body. He could tell that the man across from him had already mostly recovered, which was why he was trying to lure him in through taunts. He wouldn't fall for it, refused to–

He felt another presence creep up behind him, and practically flung his sword around in the span of a second.

His eyes saw who stood there, an impossible figure, one who had no business being there, before his brain made the connection, and his grip tightened. Even still, even knowing what the thing in front of him was, he was still unable to fully connect with the hit. He allowed his blade to sail over its head as he jumped with it, landing a way's away from both assailants as he took a defensive posture.

"Ugh, Pain, the hell are you doing here?" Kisame asked, sounding almost offended the man had interrupted. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, if you can't tell."

The Pain residing within Zabuza's body scoffed, annoyed that Kisame would speak to him of something like 'honor' or 'fun' in a scenario like this. "This is hardly the time for your asinine games. The Leaf is here to eliminate us. My plan is simple. We will overwhelm them with numbers at every point by creating a cascade of victories. I'm starting with you. You and this Pain will take victory here, and then you will move to assist Orochimaru down below."

Kisame seemed ultimately pretty 'meh' on that whole idea.

"Uh-huh." He sighed, before turning to Haku. "Hey, this was Zabuza's body once upon a time, right?"

Haku said nothing, merely glaring at Kisame all the harder.

"Here, I'll do you a favor, kid."

And then, without a hint of hesitation, Kisame slammed Samehada into his master's body.

He watched as the black rods imbedded in the body flew out like shrapnel from an explosion, as the barbs of the chakra-drinking blade skewered Zabuza's corpse, ripping his flesh to pieces, as it went sailing through the air, and, eventually, landed in a bloody heap right in front of him, oozing onto the ground.

Haku's eyes were wide as he stared down at the figure below him, and then, agonizingly slowly, gaped back up at Kisame, who was cracking his knuckles, laughing slightly.

"Now then, shall we get back to it?" He sounded… utterly casual, completely unaffected. He'd ruined an admittedly near-perfect plan by the Akatsuki's leader, ruined any real chances of the Akatsuki winning this battle easily…

But more than that…

Haku closed the gap between them in less than a second, his blade whizzing through the air at a speed that nearly formed a sonic boom as it cut down at Samehada. The living blade in Kisame's grip seemed to vibrate as the two swords clashed, as if in pain, as if scared, as if excited…

Haku wasn't sure he cared what it felt.

"Hey, what's the matter!?" Kisame taunted him with a horrid smirk upon his face, enjoying himself more than he'd seen thus far. "You seem upset, kid!"

He growled like a beast, flipping himself around and channeling ice along the blade's edge. If he hit Kisame, said ice would freeze the man's blood the moment it made contact, sending a chain reaction throughout his body that would kill him instantly.

That prospect seemed to only excite his opponent more.

The clang of steel upon the living chitin of Samehada echoed out through the Akatsuki's compound, and Haku found his teeth grinding together once more as they continued to engage in combat.

"I'll end you!" He shouted as he thrust forward, narrowly being parried by Kisame in a way that kept their fight bloodless. "I promise you that!"

He'd been on his high horse before, worrying about something more than killing the bastard in front of him. He couldn't even remember what it was any longer, for every time he thought of Zabuza's bloodied corpse, he ground his teeth together, and hit harder.

"I know, kid, I know! Trust me, you've told me a few times, already!" Kisame laughed maniacally, enjoying himself so very much. "So far, you've handled just about everything I've thrown at you pretty damned well!" He drew his hands together, creating a few hand-seals that ended with him thrusting his hands out. "How about this, then! Water Style: Great Shark Bullet!"

A massive gathering of chakra emerged from behind him, filling the entire corridor in which they were squaring off. Haku's eyes widened as he saw the scope of the massive beast charging for him and channeled in his hands chakra for his own Jutsu.

"Ice Style: Massive Ice Wall!"

He slammed his hands down on the ground, causing a wall to jut upwards and block off the entire tunnel with a meter of ice, and then jumped back. Hopefully, the shrapnel from his walls destruction wouldn't strike him all the way back here.

Or, well, he'd thought that up until he heard Kisame give a laugh that sounded awfully amused by his antics.

"Sorry, kid," The voice echoed out from behind his wall. "But the Great Shark Bomb is a Jutsu a bit unlike most others. If you put a collection of chakra in front of it, trying to block or stop it?"

He watched as his wall, which had held Jutsu he felt were far stronger than the chakra-beast headed for him, disintegrated on contact with the shark's Jutsu, before being absorbed into it.

"It'll take that energy, and just use it against you!"

The shark bomb sped up as well, growing more and more powerful and energy ridden. He tried to think of a way to counter-act it, tried to think of how to fight it…

Just as it hit the ground right in front of him.

The resulting explosion knocked out the ground, the walls around them, and the ceiling above them. Haku found himself falling as the corridor collapsed, but that was honestly the least of his worries, for the blast of chakra he'd taken along his body had burned him rather heavily, and he found himself losing consciousness as he tumbled into the darkness of whatever lurked below them.

/-/

Sakura sat quietly atop the exam table in Tsunade's doctor's office, trying to bide her time as she read the posters hanging on the wall (adorned with phrases such as 'Hang in there!' and 'Your health is our highest priority!') for the umpteenth time.

When Tsunade finally walked back in, she let out a tired sigh, and the woman smirked as she pulled up her rolling chair beside her. "Right, so, Sakura." She spoke. "Your curse mark is giving off the same readings it has been for quite some time.

She nodded, having grown to expect that by now.

"Honestly, and I'm saying this as your medical doctor, leaving it there as it is isn't exactly… wise."

She got that… but she was hesitant to see just what the woman was getting at. She had yet to be presented with an alternative as of yet.

It seemed, from Tsunade's tone, she was about to be.

"So… Sakura," The woman cleared her throat.

"What would you think about having its power sealed away?"

/-/

Sakura couldn't stop worrying about Itachi as they passed through hallway after hallway of the Akatsuki's base. They crossed by the occasional mercenary, who they put away easily enough with their combined strength, but more than anything, it was a quiet, anxiety-ridden journey to… to…

Well, they didn't exactly know, which certainly didn't help Sakura's nerves much at all.

They were simply running away from Obito, bereft of any real destination. Kabuto had certainly said they were going to meet up with the other Leaf contingent's, but it wasn't like they actually knew where they were. They could sort of travel towards the sounds of combat, but in a base as winding and maze-like as this one, such an endeavor would very likely prove fruitless.

Suddenly, she heard an incredibly faint call of her own name.

It was barely there at all, if she were being honest, and had they been in combat, or been busy with anything at all to distract her, it was very likely she would've entirely missed it.

But… undeniably someone had called out her name.

And she'd recognized that voice, as little of it as she'd been able to hear.

She signaled for Kabuto to wait, as did she, and allowed the girl she assumed had called out to them to catch up. That would be the proper thing to do, for, if she were right…

"Sakura!"

Then she'd know where they were, even if Sakura herself couldn't tell.

From the staircase a way's away from them, probably between 50 and 75 feet away, emerged two girls. Both of whom were panting and sweating, very likely having seen combat, and recently as well, but they seemed to be fine overall.

But even seeing them had her breathing a sigh of relief.

"Hinata, Tenten!" She waved, and she signaled Kabuto forward as they moved towards them. "C'mon!"

Kabuto looked suspicious. "They could be using the transformation technique."

She shook her head. "They couldn't be. Hinata called out to us before she could've possibly normally knew where we were. Which means she was utilizing the Byakugan. Unless the Akatsuki are employing a Hyuga we didn't know about…"

Kabuto nodded, seeing her point. "Then they're safe."

They sprinted towards the duo, and Sakura couldn't help herself from hugging the first friendly faces she'd seen (besides Kabuto and Itachi, who she felt for good reason still kind of didn't count) in a good few weeks. It'd felt like months if Sakura were being honest. "It's so good to see you all!"

"Likewise." Hinata smiled, and Tenten gave an agreeable hum as well. "Still, I must say, I hadn't expected to see you both running out and about. Were they not keeping you confined in some way?"

Sakura rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, before shaking her head. "We'll explain later, this is hardly the place for this." She looked up at the Hyuga. "Tell me, what's our objective, Hinata?"

"Well, ours is to get the Jinchuuriki and protect them as best we can until the threat of the Akatsuki is neutralized." Hinata frowned ever so slightly. "But with the recent events as they are, our unit especially has lost most of its manpower. Both Naruto and Master Jiraiya are fighting against the Akatsuki's leader, Pain, and Konan. They've got their hands full. We'd offer support if we could, but…"

Sakura could tell what they meant; why they looked so downtrodden as they said that.

"In a battle like that… we'd just be in the way, huh?"

Both Hinata and Tenten scowled, but nodded their heads. Sakura could understand their feelings, she'd been dealing with her own weaknesses, of feeling like she was lesser than Naruto and Sasuke, her entire career as a ninja. It appeared, given Naruto's apparent jump in skill to the level where he could duel the leader of the Akatsuki that such a feeling would be rearing its ugly head once more.

It certainly didn't help that she'd lost access to her primary method of power, either.

For now, all she could do was try and shake off that feeling and look up at the others. "Alright, then if we don't have the Manpower to rescue the Jinchuuriki by ourselves, what would you say we should do?"

Hinata seemed to think on that for quite a while, but eventually came back with, "With your curse mark, we could maybe try and go after some of the major Akatsuki, but it'd be risky. Too risky, in my opinion. I'd say we should probably try and link up with as many others as we can first and foremost."

She nodded, even as she reached behind her neck, and felt at the skin there, trying to touch the phantom black markings that had been stolen from her, upon which she'd based her entire style; everything.

Gone. In an instant.

She debated telling them, but…

Perhaps it was her weakness rearing its ugly head once more, but she didn't want to be thought of as weak, as needing to be protected by Hinata or Tenten. Kabuto shot her an odd look, but otherwise didn't comment as they followed along behind the two women.

Sakura was left to stew in her own thoughts for quite a while.

She found she hated what laid there.

By the time anything of value was said again, it'd been perhaps another 15 minutes.

"Allies!" Hinata suddenly shouted, startling Sakura out of her own head. "I've got… five friendlies coming in! And…" She paused for a moment, before practically beaming. "I think you'll like who's in this particular group, Sakura!"

She had only a few minutes to wonder on the specifics of that when they finally managed to get said five figures to stop moving. Hinata guided them towards the five, and they arrived in the same corridor as them a while after.

Sakura's expression almost immediately broke out into a massive grin.

"Hey, everyone." She smiled at the approaching figures. "Good to see you all."

The first thing Sasuke did was wrap her in a tight hug, quickly followed by Ino embracing the both of them. She allowed that contact to ground her, let some of the concerns that'd been hanging over her for days and weeks finally fade away.

Here they were.

She was safe.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt in any way?" Sasuke fussed over her almost immediately.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She lied easily, letting the smile on her face hopefully help her gloss over the fact of her curse mark's absence. "Honestly, I was just kept in a cell most of the time. I was bored, but I wasn't hurt."

That was also a lie. When they'd tried to break out, Obito had roughed them up something fierce.

Still, once again, they didn't need to know that.

Sasuke sighed out in relief, and Ino gave a half smile as she held out a fist, one which Sakura quickly bumped. "Well, good to see you're in one piece."

"Hah, same to you all. I was worried when I heard you were breaking in here, this isn't exactly the easiest place to stage an attack on."

"True, but we've got a hell of a force." Zaku smirked, as did Kin just behind him. Dosu, off to his left, merely rolled his eyes at his teammates enthusiasm. "Not quite as big as I'd assumed it would be, but still, I can't see us losing to any regular mercenaries, that's for sure."

"What about the Akatsuki?" Sakura asked. "Where are they all? We ran into one earlier, but–"

"You did?" Sasuke seemed borderline shocked. "What do you mean? How did the two of you get away, then?"

Her breath stiffened as she realized what she'd have to tell Sasuke, and she swallowed on some spittle in her mouth as she looked him in the eye and said what she had to say. "We traveled with Itachi. He stayed behind to fight against Obito."

She'd never seen the look of shock currently on Sasuke's face before, like he was both upset and relieved; the twin emotions paradoxically aligned.

"You… what…?"

She did her best to explain the events of the last few weeks. From Itachi's sudden declaration of alliance to Kabuto's turn from the Akatsuki as well, their hidden plan to sneak the Jinchuuriki out, and their failure to execute it. Finally, she talked of Itachi's apparent blindness, and his holding of the second eye of Shisui Uchiha.

She pointedly left out discussing anything at all about her curse mark's disappearance, and Itachi's speech about the truth to her, feeling that the man's place to tell his brother that, but mentioned that, somehow, Orochimaru had been revived.

"Ah… that explains what I saw above us…"

"What?"

"Up above us," Hinata explained. "There's a battle going on between a guy who looked an awful lot like Orochimaru, and Anko, Tenzo, Guy, and Kakashi." Sakura's heart skipped a beat at the mention of her master. "At first I was worried because well… that would be impossible if he were dead, but you saying he's alive makes that make an awful lot more sense."

They nodded, noting that particular happening for later as Sakura completed her story.

"And then… he said he could handle it. To leave it to him." She finished explaining to the rather stunned crowd before her. "For lack of any better options, we let him do just that."

Sasuke looked… well, antsy wouldn't have really covered it. It looked like he was contemplating about a million different things at the same time and caught between several different 'good' options. Finally, after watching him debate with himself for a good 30 seconds, Sakura sighed, and, placing her hand on his shoulder, smiled at him supportively.

"Go to him."

Sasuke looked at her like she was crazy. "What… do you…"

She shook her head. "I mean… you clearly want to know what it is Itachi's done. You want to settle things with him; to make the feelings in your chest clear. That feeling… I'd say you should follow it, Sasuke."

Her boyfriend seemed to try and deny that, but before he could open her mouth, she pushed her own against his. She briefly reveled in the feeling, before, drawing back, she gave him a genial smile.

"I trust him." She clarified. "I'm not sure I'd trust him with my life, or anything, but… I think you should hear him out, at the very least."

Sasuke turned to each of them slowly, his mouth opening and closing in a way that was reminiscent, if not a bit of a rude comparison, to that of a coy fish.

"Will you guys… without me… you'll be fine, right?"

"You kiddin'?" Kin laughed. "We'll be killed immediately. What ever will we do without all of that pent up angst inside you?"

Sasuke shot the girl a glare, even as their entire group gave a quiet laugh.

"Seriously, though." Dosu shook his head. "Go. We've got this on our own. We'll be just fine without your help."

Kabuto placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, looking a bit pensive. "I think… I think there's nothing in the world that scares Itachi more than having to face you once more as your brother… and I think that's precisely why he should have to. Go to him. Tell him how you feel."

For some reason, Kabuto's seemed to be the words that finally got through to Sasuke. A small smile blossomed onto his face as he took a solitary step back from the group.

"Hinata, can you give me a rough estimate as to where I'm going?"

The girl nodded, activating her Byakugan after having been giving it a rest for the last few minutes. She immediately stiffened, as if seeing something that bothered her, before she focused a bit harder.

"They're quite far away… at least a mile that way," She pointed at the wall just beside her. "I can write you directions, but–"

"No. It's okay." Sasuke smiled. "I think… I think I'll be able to find them just fine. This way you said?"

"Yeah."

Sasuke nodded, before taking one last look at them all. He nodded, before running down the nearest hallway in that direction.

Almost immediately, Hinata turned the other way.

"We have company coming."

"What?"

"I didn't tell him when he had something more important to be doing, but…" Hinata sighed out. "We've a fight of our own on our hands."

Nearly the moment after she said that another figure rounded the corner at the very end of the hallway. His Akatsuki cloak looked like it had seen better days, torn, and ripped in multiple places, but other than that…

Sasori of the Red Sand seemed to regard them in an almost bored way.

"Well, well, well…" The puppeteer rasped out. "An infestation of rats, it seems. I suppose I'll need to be cleaning this up."

"Hallway off to our left just in front of us." Hinata gestured towards that very thing. "Leads to a larger and more open area. His attacks are very one-directional. We shouldn't fight him in a corridor like this, that'd be giving him far too large of an advantage."

They all agreed with little difficulty, sprinting forward and into the adjacent cavern as a few poisoned senbon flew by them. Sakura narrowly managed to jump over one and thanked her lucky stars she had as the last of them filed inside.

That would've been a pretty lame way to die. Stuck in the shin by a small needle.

Sasori followed after only twenty or so seconds, humming amusedly as he saw the formation they'd taken up. Sakura had raised multiple mud walls in his way, so that he couldn't simply fire on them freely, and Tenten had already drawn out a variety of weapons for all of them. Kabuto had drawn his chakra scalpels out, which would, in theory, allow him to cut into the puppet that the real Sasori (according to Itachi's intel) resided within.

They were as prepared as they were going to get for this particular battle… Which was perhaps why it didn't at all surprise Sakura when Hinata yelled for them all to get down… right before the roof above them caved in.

They were almost immediately forced to abandon their good positioning as several figures emptied into the room, along with a smattering of stone and other ceramics that seem to have once been both the roofs and floors of the upper levels.

"Hah! Eat that, you damned bastards!" A voice that Sakura didn't recognize called out, though, from the looks on both Tenten's and Kabuto's faces, they knew who this was.

"No way… I killed him…" Kabuto ground his teeth together. "How the hell is he…"

"Well, that'd be because I revived him using the reanimation Jutsu." A raspier voice that Sakura immediately recognized answered Kabuto's question.

As the dust settled, the six new figure who'd fallen into the room were revealed. Among them were several friendly's, Kakashi, Anko, Guy, and Tenzo. Unfortunately, also among them were two members of the Akatsuki. Orochimaru himself, holding an oddly shaped blade in his right hand… and Deidara.

But there was something wrong with the blonde man beside the Snake Sannin. His skin was cracked in several places, and the sclera of his eyes were a dark gray in coloration. She had no idea what to make of that, but using context clues from his words to Kabuto…

Deidara was dead. Though… Perhaps a better term in this case would be undead.

Whether he could be made dead again was perhaps the crux of their predicament.

"Orochimaru…" Kabuto looked towards his old master. "It's been an awfully long time."

"Oh?" The Snake Sannin grinned. "No 'Lord' anymore?"

"No. No 'Lord' anymore."

"Hah… Intriguing."

"Damnit…" Kakashi muttered, before looking across and seeing them, where his eyes went wide. "Well… hello, everyone. Can't say I expected to see any of you here."

She waved at Anko, who smiled widely as she waved back, but this was not at all the time for reunions. Right now, they needed to have a plan, and fast.

Before any more posturing could be done, Kabuto turned towards the group who'd just dropped in, and called out to them. "Orochimaru won't go down easily, and neither will Deidara! I'd say we'd have a far better time trying to take out Sasori first and foremost!"

Said man laughed haughtily, his puppet form standing a bit taller as he drew from out of his Akatsuki cloak a scroll. He placed his hand upon it, and a puff of white smoke emanated from out of his general area. When it finally cleared, what was revealed was a second puppet, this one quite a bit taller than even him.

It was a black-haired man, at least, that was what Sakura thought. He wore a rather simple outfit, with a furred collar around his neck. Still, what got to her was the fact that it looked… well…

It looked almost life-like.

"Ah, bringing out the Third Kazekage, are you, Sasori?" Orochimaru seemed amused. "Hah, I remember when the reanimated version of him, and your own puppet clashed. Do you recall–"

"Stop wasting time." Sasori spat at the Snake Sannin annoyedly. "Our job is to kill these insects. Get it done."

"Sheesh, you're no fun." Orochimaru sighed. "Fine, fine. Have it your way."

The Third Kazekage… Sakura swallowed rather harshly, trying to bring some moisture to her dried-out throat.

"Focus, everyone!" Kakashi shouted, taking command of their two splintered groups. "Alright, we'll go with Kabuto's plan. Sakura, Anko, Sound Trio, stick to Orochimaru and bog him down. Everyone else, you're on Sasori, or one of either Deidara or the puppet Kazekage! Defeat those who can be defeated first, then worry about those a bit more difficult to kill."

They all nodded, even as Sakura bit down on her bottom lip.

"Well, well. Some of my favorite failed experiments, all here to try and kill me at once." Orochimaru held his hands out beside him, his sword point looming rather close to them, as he looked at them all with a horrendously amused expression. "I must say, I'm actually looking forward to this! Come, prove your worth to me!"

Sakura felt a kernel of fear build within her before someone scoffed just off to her left. She turned to see Dosu with his arms crossed over his chest, entirely unaffected.

"My worth to you, snake, has no bearing. It is not something I care an ounce for, nor is it something I will allow to distract me in any way." He announced, earning a smile from all of the 'failed experiments'. "We will strike you down, here and now, and finally earn the freedom from you that we've always deserved."

Orochimaru's eyes were wide, before, after a moment, he let out a harsh laugh. It went on perhaps a tad too long, and if Sakura were the betting type, she might've actually thought the man across from them faking it.

"Alright, then…" He smirked evilly.

"Prove it."

/-/

Susanoo's cloaked form was doing a decent job of keeping that bastard Itachi safe, but it wouldn't be long now until the man would be forced to try his gambit, and Obito would yank the rug out from under him.

Any minute now…

He dodged underneath another blow from the gourd-like blade the man possessed, tried to find a window past the mirror-like shield, and once more, came up empty-handed. He tried to get underneath the Susanoo using Kamui, but even then, he found Itachi's hand to hand prowess was nothing to scoff at, and the man simply jumped back and way, once more utilizing Susanoo's defensive qualities to the fullest the moment Obito utilized Kamui's intangibility.

He wanted to scream out in rage… but he didn't. He took a deep, calming breath, and forced himself to think rationally.

If he could–

"Why do you continue to run from who you truly want to be, Obito?"

Once more, his thoughts were derailed by Itachi's damned talking. His words seemed to cut into Obito's skin, writhing beneath like a rotting disease.

"Why do you continue to speak, despite your words falling on deaf ears?"

"Because I do not believe they are."

He wanted to kill the man so badly that he briefly pushed himself a bit too hard, and he only narrowly avoided being nicked by the man's blazing sword. Something about the way it ebbed and flowed with power told him that if he were hit, he'd certainly wish he hadn't been.

"Cease your useless prattling, Itachi!"

The second of only three living Uchiha gave him a small smile at that. "No, I don't think I will. Speaking is giving me a rather large tactical advantage in this fight."

His eyelids twitched with rage.

"You're not going to suddenly sway me to the side of this reality! I've long since made up my mind on what I must do for the world!"

This time, Itachi remained silent, taking his brief outburst as a chance to try striking with his Susanoo's sword once more. He phased straight through it, travelling inside of Itachi's skeletal guardian and trying to kill him there.

Once more, the man merely backed up, dodging back into one of the few offshoot hallways out of the corridor they were in. They ended up in a spacious room, which he recognized as Kabuto's old laboratory from several years ago, the room Pain had set up for the man. It was a rather damp space, entirely devoid of any of the equipment that had once been set up inside of it. Nearly every single piece had been moved into Orochimaru's lab instead.

Even still, it kept its sinister atmosphere. The room was lit with blue hues from the lights on the ceiling, and the orange glow of Itachi's Susanoo contrasted in a way that made it seem like the whole world was lit aflame.

He was reminded of his own duel with Kakashi only a week or so ago. Their clash in the flames, Kakashi's words, his own doubts–

He smothered that feeling before it could do anything to him.

"Let me ask you once more, Obito," Itachi spoke, taking advantage of the fact that the space they were within was only barely large enough to contain his Susanoo's full splendor. "The person who people like Kakashi are waiting for…"

Obito bit down on his bottom lip as they continued fighting. He watched as Itachi drew a kunai into his hand. He charged forward, trying to abuse the odd window the man had created for them, and nearly tripped over a stone on the ground below. Itachi utilized that window, throwing a kunai that Obito just barely dodged. It nicked him ever so slightly, cutting a small wound on the side of his arm.

"That's who you're meant to be, is it not?"

"SHUT UP!" He screamed, dodging straight into Itachi's Susanoo just as the man tried to strike him, and driving his forearm into the man's throat.

He shoved him against the back wall rather harshly, nearly crushing the man's windpipe as his Susanoo let out a piercing scream, dissipating fully from the battlefield.

He'd won. That solidified it.

He practically panted as he stared the man in the eye… and waited. He waited for what he knew was coming, for the older brother's final attack, the final last gasp.

He waited for Kotoamatsukami.

…

"Tell me, Obito, why haven't you simply struck me down?"

He looked up at the man's eyes, once more trying to bait him into utilizing his final technique.

He would say nothing.

"Is it because you're waiting for me to try and trick you with Kotoamatsukami, so that you can deflect it? So that you can rule over me one final time?"

His heart stilled for a moment; his breathing stopped entirely.

"What –" He let out confusedly. "How did you–!?"

"You haven't used that left eye a single time in this fight." Itachi explained, and finally, he decided to simply crush the man before him, before he could trap him in whatever scheme he had set up.

He slammed his arm into the man's neck, heard his neck break, and saw the light leave his eyes.

For some reason, a voice called from just behind him just as the Itachi in front of him disappeared into a murder of crows.

"This entire time, you've been bluffing to make it look like my Sharingan, to make me think you were going to use Tsukuyomi, to bait me to try and cast Kotoamatsukami on you." He turned to see Itachi Uchiha standing there, evidently having put him in a Genjutsu at some point. He dispelled whatever trick was hanging over him and focused in on this new one. "All so that you can negate it entirely with your own Kotoamatsukami, what's really in your left eye. Then, you'd switch to my Tsukuyomi, and kill me using its power. A subtle show of irony, to lord over me one last time." The man across from him shook his head. "I understood your intentions from the beginning, Obito."

He ground his teeth together once more as he took a step forward, and Itachi mirrored the action, taking a step back.

"You used changing Orochimaru's cognition against me; you made it seem like you'd only just used Kotoamatsukami, like you then couldn't use it again for quite a while. If I were to guess, he's still under the effect of the one you cast upon him four years ago, at the Sound Village, isn't he? That's how you got the information out of him; you coerced him into believing he had wanted to be a member of the Akatsuki once again."

He would not dignify that with a response.

"Well then, I think you should know that I never even bothered trying to look for an angle to use Kotoamatsukami."

For some reason, those words burned a whole into the back of his mind, as if something lurking there, a subtle reminder, was telling him that something was horrendously wrong. He looked more closely at Itachi's right eye and saw that it was white.

Blind.

So, he used Izanagi to survive my earlier attack… Obito hissed. Fine. I'll simply kill him ag–

His brain made the connection.

"This whole time, for the entire duration of our fight, I've instead been trapping you in something beyond that."

Obito's eyes widened as he took a step forward. He nearly tripped on a rock beneath him, forcing him to take a few faster steps to regain his balance.

Itachi jumped back, throwing a kunai that caught on the edge of his right sleeve, nicking him, but did no real damage. He closed the distance between them, and his arm slammed into Itachi's throat.

"It's too late, Obito."

He crushed the windpipe of the man in his arms, watched as the light left his eye (when had his Sharingan had its light restored?), and witnessed as he became a murder of crows once more.

"You're already inside of it." Itachi's voice sounded off from behind him.

Obito turned and immediately charged at him, just as he barely managed to avoid tripping over a rock. Itachi used that small window and jumped away from him, throwing a kunai that he dodged without much effort. It scored a small cut along his arm, but it was nothing he couldn't ignore.

His hand slammed into the man's throat, severing his head from his spine, and killing him instantly.

"You're already trapped within Izanami's grip."

He turned around to see Itachi already stood there.

He ground his teeth together, panting for breath as he took a solitary step forward.

"You… damned bastard!"

He refused.

"It's too late, Obito." The man spoke calmly.

He nearly tripped over a rock as he rocketed forward, and Itachi answered with a kunai that–

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

He screamed Itachi's name as he severed the man's head with an axe-like forearm strike.

"You're already inside of it." A voice called out from behind him, and he turned to see Itachi Uchiha standing there casually, as if he'd never even been slain, Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan having lost its light once more.

A second later, as he charged back in, and lost eye-contact with the man as he nearly tripped on a small rock upon the ground, he looked back up to see its light had returned.

A kunai struck his arm, cutting across his skin and leaving the smallest of nicks. A tiny stream of blood flowed down his arm, and he found he no longer cared about the fact that he was holding the limp body of Itachi Uchiha in his arms, for as he threw it aside, and turned around, there, standing with a small, victorious smile, was his opponent, as if nothing had happened.

Because nothing had.

"You're already trapped…"

And nothing would.

"Within Izanami's grip."

End Chapter 85

So like, real talk, Izanami's like brutally overpowered, right?

I mean, sure, against more than one person, pretty meh? But against one guy? It's GG.

Anyways, that's all from me, see you all next chapter!