AN: If I was doing individual chapter names this one would be: Sasuke explains his religion and does Not have a good time. I'm sorry angry duck-butt son, it'll get better...eventually.

Enjoy!

Hashirama

The next four days are more in line with an actual C-ranked mission.

Nothing exciting happens but Sakura and Naruto recover from the first day's violence. Naruto is loud and chipper as ever, while Sai is back to mocking him and then ducking behind Madara before Naruto can wrestle him to the ground. Madara himself has loosened up a bit when it comes to maintaining their formation, but only slightly. He'll let Naruto badger him for a few minutes before snapping that he's on an important mission and has to take guarding the bridge builder seriously.

Sometimes Naruto will argue back and, because they're both loud, it'll turn into a yelling match until they really do lose any and all cover of stealth. But most times Naruto will snap to attention and attach himself like a leech to Tazuna's side and the old man will turn back and glare at them.

Hashirama doesn't know what would be considered normal for Sakura but there's more color in her cheeks and she doesn't have the dazed, unaware eyes that he's seen on shinobi returning from blood-soaked battles. She spends most of the time they're walking trying to court Sasuke and arrange a marriage between their families. She makes no secret of this. She's also failing terribly, her points falling flat because they're all appeals to emotion rather than material benefits of a union between them. Hashirama hasn't heard of the Haruno clan before, doesn't know what their relative status or wealth is, or what that'd even mean in the village's context rather than the never-ending fight to gain power and resources of his and Madara's time. Still, it's daring that she's so blunt and forward with Sasuke. The Uchiha don't marry outside their clan.

But with the Massacre…

Hashirama's heart aches and he squeezes Madara's hand clasped within his own.

And while Sakura is nearly single-minded in her goal, sometimes Hashirama will catch a look of intense concentration on her face, just as she glances back at him. She always turns away before their eyes lock.

Sasuke…Sasuke is still struggling. Hashirama doesn't know him, but it's pretty clear something is wrong from his teammates and the Hatake's reactions. Sakura tries to court him and he doesn't reply, not even to dismiss her. Naruto tries to pick fights with him and gets no response. He'll talk to the Hatake but only in low tones when they have some measure of distance or privacy from the others.

It doesn't take long for Hashirama to connect the weirdness to Madara. Sasuke stares at him from the corner of his eye, tracking his movements like he thinks Madara is about to attack him.

Hashirama doesn't understand why. He's a Madara expert, not an Uchiha expert. As far as he knows, Madara hasn't done anything to antagonize Sasuke. Is it still because of the dead chunin? Or from the botched clan head challenge? A mixture of both?

Hashirama doesn't know. Sasuke's mood takes a turn for the worse on the fourth day and Hashirama has no idea why.

That day passed as normally as the previous three. Around midday Naruto and Sai really got into it and, like usual, Sai came running at Madara to use him as a human shield. However, this was the fourth time he'd done it that day and they hadn't stopped for lunch yet. Madara's patience was at a razor-thin breaking point. He caught both of them by their necks and dragged them close. Naruto was clearly the victim, the giant ink stain on his cheek reading 'dick' left little doubts so Madara released him and turned to lecture Sai like usual.

And it was that, usual.

Nothing out of character except Sai's main target for antagonizing pranks was Naruto instead of Hashirama or Madara himself. Madara berated him and flicked him between the eyes. It was an innocent gesture, one he'd done to Sai, Naruto, and Hashirama before. But that was the moment Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath and broke from formation, racing into the forest instead of staying on the well-trodden path.

"I'll go get him," the Hatake said and they decided to stop for an impromptu lunch. Madara didn't notice, he was busy lecturing. Sai didn't notice, he was busy being lectured. Naruto and Sakura looked equally confused. Hashirama turned and met Yamato's eyes. His expression was pinched, he'd made the connection.

Hashirama didn't know what that was about, but he's going to get to the bottom of it. A bad feeling twists in his gut.

Finally, around midafternoon on the fifth day, they arrive at the pier with the ferry to the Land of Waves. It's a small boat, ferry is much too generous. The worker greets Tazuna with a hug and a clap on the back but it's clear that even if the original plan had stayed the same, there's no way they'd all fit in the boat. Not that it would have been a big problem, Team 13 could just run across the water, but it provides an even better excuse for them staying on the shore.

"Aww, do you have to stay back? Why can't we just get a bigger boat?" Naruto asks, swiveling back and forth from the Hatake to Yamato.

"Sorry Naruto, but we'll just catch the next one across. Our mission isn't as time-sensitive as yours," Yamato smiles but Naruto shudders and pulls back. That's…fair. Sometimes Yamato's smiles look weird, even when he's not trying to do the funny one. They come out stiff and awkward, but then half of Madara's smiles look maniacal so Hashirama's used to it.

"Hmph, it's clear which of these groups of brats are better prepared," Tazuna huffs, eyes narrowing as Naruto sticks his tongue out, "I don't see why Team 13 or whatever your number is, can't cross with me while Touma comes back for the other group." This wasn't the first time Tazuna has tried to convince the jonin that Team 13 should accompany him instead of Team 7, but this is the first time he's been so blatant about it.

Well, he's definitely the target. This all but confirms it. But Tazuna hasn't admitted it. And unless he explicitly did and explained why…

"Sorry Tazuna-san. Technically Team 13 isn't even on this mission, they just had the same destination. What is it you're doing again, Yamato?" The Hatake turns to look at Yamato.

Yeah, what was their undercover story again?

"Ah, delivering Himari-san's monthly letter to her friend, Yui-san." Yamato holds up one of the thickest envelopes Hashirama has ever seen. That's one letter?

Wait…shinobi deliver letters now? Even the Hatake looks a bit disgruntled.

"She doesn't trust the post and she's wealthy enough to hire ninja, it's a time-honored tradition." Yamato smiles, clearly enjoying himself.

"Riiiiight. Anyway, Tazuna-san. You're with us, unless there's something you want to say?" The Hatake pins him with a look and for a moment Hashirama thinks he's going to break and finally admit the obvious, but he draws himself up at the last second, mouth set in a firm line. "Well then, time to say goodbye kiddies," the Hatake looks at his genin, "terrors," he looks at them.

Naruto sniffs and runs at him and Madara, wrapping his arms around them both. Hashirama, never one to pass up a hug, throws the one hand that isn't in Madara's around Naruto and squeezes.

"Hashirama," Madara growls when Naruto starts to wheeze. He pouts, Naruto is fine, he's sturdy! "Remember to focus on your mission. Don't get distracted, and you'll do fine." Madara pats Naruto's head and then Team 7 and Tazuna are gone, paddling into the foggy mists surrounding the Land of Waves.

They stand on the pier and wave them off. Sai, who's at the very front, holds up a scroll that must have something inflammatory on it because the Hatake barely catches the back of Naruto's backpack as he screeches and tries to jump into the water. The boat sways, tipping dangerously to the side before it rights itself.

"Sai…" Yamato sighs but Sai merely laughs and rolls up the scroll.

They wait a few more moments until the boat completely disappears.

Then Yamato straightens.

"We're hunting."

Four Konoha nin step back into the forest.

Four black-masked, violet-robed nin slip up into the trees, setting a needless trap.

Sasuke

Madara's not him. Madara's not him. Madara's not him.

It's a litany that's been repeating endlessly on loop in Sasuke's head for days now.

Madara is a wannabe Ghost who was given his name by an at best well-meaning but idiotic parent or at worst as an effort to capitalize on the reputation of the only known Ghost's name. Either way, no real Uchiha would keep that namesake.

It's a point Sasuke still maintains, but this entire mission has been a disaster.

After his humiliating display in the clan head duel, he resolved himself to beating Madara. It would be a good test, something to measure his progress by. Madara wasn't as good as he was and if Sasuke could beat Madara, he was one step closer to his ultimate goal. Nothing else mattered. Not the fact that the dobe apparently got the wannabe Ghost to be his teacher, not the fact that another fake Uchiha appeared on this mission, not the fact that Madara seemed disturbingly knowledgeable about Uchiha clan customs. They were all distractions.

And then the chunin ambush happened.

Sasuke was prepared. He was the best of Team 7, he could have taken them out. But by the time he turned and drew a shuriken, the two chunin were dead.

In the deepest, deepest part of his mind he could admit his unease about the other boy started even before their duel. Sasuke isn't a sensor-nin but there was something about Madara's burning chakra that made him feel unsettled. But the unease doesn't grow into something until he sees the boy standing over a dead body with a bloody blade in his hand.

Sasuke's vision blurs and it was him, it was that night, the chunin was Father and his dead, empty eyes were staring, staring, staring—

He swallows down the bile in his throat, but just barely.

Ironically, it gets easier to distinguish them when Madara runs through the signs for a modified Final Pyre.

Even though that raises a completely separate, all-consuming dread that bubbles up like thick sludge in his gut.

Final Pyre is only taught to the heir or head of the Uchiha clan. It's the first katon the Sun gave to them, used exclusively for those that died in combat to welcome them swiftly into Amaterasu's Embrace. Grandmother told him it was a common sight during the Warring States Era when entire battlefields would be doused in colorful flames, anything the flames caught would be reduced to ash. It's the jutsu Sasuke should have used for the clan after they…after they…

He couldn't.

Final Pyre was an A-rank jutsu that required something more than just hand signs and a fire affinity. It was a fundamentally lost jutsu and had been for generations because the gods were fickle and selfish.

Madara, the original, was made into a Ghost. Banished, stripped of his titles, his image to be forgotten, his name never to be spoken on an Uchiha tongue again. The elders had estimated there were forty-four Ghosts, but the number was constantly contested. To be so fully erased like the Ghosts were…nothing was left. No trace. No name. No face. Nothing. The only indicators were generations after. If a name stopped being used, did it fall out of favor or was it a Ghost's? Did certain documents and lineage lines get lost or was a member made into a Ghost? Were certain techniques dropped because new, better ones were made or were they created by a Ghost?

Of course, that didn't really work with the original Madara. No matter how hard the clan tried, his shadow was inescapable.

It didn't help that there was a giant mural of him in the Nakano shrine, hidden under a false wall at the very back of the main prayer room. It was the very antithesis of what a Ghost should be, but it was made in a desperate plea to please Amaterasu.

Gods were fickle.

Sasuke remembered Grandmother saying that as they kneeled in front of the Ghost's mural, lit incense, and prayed to the Sun. He always refused, it was one of the things he and Father would fight about every year.

"You are the heir, if anyone—" Sasuke can barely remember the sound of Father's voice. It's something he never thought he'd lose until it was already too late.

"No. He's a Ghost. He betrayed us yet you praise and kneel to Konoha's oldest enemy." Sasuke can remember his voice all too well. He was nitpicky about things like that, even before. Sasuke didn't want to do it either if he didn't, but Grandmother would tighten her hand around his wrist, swollen joints creaking, and hold him in place as she brought the prayer beads to her lips.

The Winter Solstice dawned. The Sun died. She was reborn three days later.

Every year from the Solstice to the Rebirth, they kneeled in the Nanako, praying. But Amaterasu never gave her sign. She looked away from them, like she had every year.

That's not how it was supposed to be.

The scrolls made that clear.

The Uchiha were loyal to their goddess and in return she gave them gifts beyond measure, her flames and her eyes, the chosen of the Sun.

An Uchiha blessed by Amaterasu could make the smallest flame dance and writhe with power, could scorch the land until it was black and empty, could walk through infernos untouched. Even those with only a small blessing could stand peerless among non-Uchiha katon users.

The Ghost had been her champion. According to scrolls, he was born from a sun-blessed mother on the same day as Amaterasu's rebirth. Even by the sun-blessed standards, he'd been a monster in sheer destructive power.

He betrayed them, their clan, the village. An eye-thief.

But the gods were selfish.

The Uchiha cast him out, made him into a Ghost and Amaterasu turned away from them for the slight.

Uchiha Hikaku, Sasuke's great-great-grandfather, became the head of the clan. His son had no fire affinity. His granddaughter had no fire affinity. His great-grandson had no fire affinity. His great-great-grandsons had no fire affinity. That was the one aspect he failed to be a prodigy beyond measure in. Skilled at katons but with no affinity and no blessing.

Maybe, if it had just been the fire, the clan wouldn't have reacted as it did. Sasuke doesn't know. It's not like he can ask the dead. Final Pyre quickened the soul to Amaterasu's Embrace, but it wasn't strictly necessary. But, the sharingan started to disappear too, in every generation following the Ghost's. He does remember some of those conversations.

During clan meetings when the ceremonial braziers were lit and sharp shadows danced on Father's worn face as the clan gathered and kneeled on silk cushions. Sasuke always sat off to the side next to Mother and Grandmother, with his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

They weren't clear or fond memories.

The Elders yelled at each other while the clan argued, tension hanging like heavy smoke in the air. One side claiming it was the Hokage and their continued exclusion and bias that was making them weak, stealing away the kekkei genkai that defined them. Another yelling it was Amaterasu's continued disfavor, none in the clan head's line had been born with even a basic fire affinity for four generations despite selective marriages. A smaller third whispering it went beyond the Hokage, it was the very village itself that had been set against them from the start. Sasuke didn't know, doesn't know, what they meant.

Only that when the last whispers rose, that was when he tightened his hand on Sasuke's shoulder until it was nearly painful. His expression…that memory is preserved with what Sasuke thinks would be a sharingan level of quality. It could very well be the moment he decided to…to…

It doesn't matter. They're all dead.

Sasuke was the last Uchiha and he didn't have a fire affinity, let alone Amaterasu's blessing. He might not even have her eyes.

But apparently Uchiha Madara did.

Sasuke stopped believing the Uchiha's patron goddess cared about them when she let the clan be slaughtered and left the shrines to rot. Now he wonders if she actively took pleasure in their suffering because of one damn Ghost.

Why else would his namesake be given the blessing? And it becomes horribly, horribly clear he has the blessing.

The scrolls said it would be recognizable in the smallest flickering flame to the largest raging wildfire. And if knowing Final Pyre wasn't enough, Sasuke watched when Madara lit the campfire the first night. Watched as the flames curled and caressed his hands, not leaving the slightest pink burn in their wake. He remembers how Madara diverted his own Fireball during their duel. Four hand signs weren't enough. Not unless you had no fear of being burned.

Honestly, Sasuke doesn't know which is worse. That Madara turns into him if he loses focus or that there's a very good chance that, somehow, Madara is the great-great-grandson of the Ghost.

Holding onto one of the possibilities helps banish the other but there are only so many times he can switch between either distressing thought. When Madara flicks the other fake Uchiha's forehead, it's too much. It's not his tap but it's too similar. The scene blurs and Sasuke has to get away.

He runs into the forest, as fast as he can before his stomach turns and he's forced to stop to throw up. Kakashi finds him there, bent over and gagging. He doesn't say anything, just leans against a nearby tree, porn in hand but his eye on Sasuke.

"We're splitting up tomorrow," he says, turning a page that he's not reading. Can you make it until then?

"About time. They're holding us back." Sasuke sits back on his haunches, taking slow breaths with his head tilted up. He hasn't been able to focus on this mission at all. He's supposed to be getting stronger. Proving himself. Avenging his family. Not seeing half-formed memories and ghosts wherever he goes.

Kakashi hums and stays with him until he can push himself to his feet and walk back to the group.

Sasuke is disgustingly relieved when they get into the boat and the ferryman pushes away from the dock. The figures of Team 13 fade as they enter the heavy mist. He's annoyed when the dobe nearly capsizes them because the second fake Uchiha held up a scroll with a caricature of Naruto squealing like a pig.

"Naruto…" Kakashi, grabbing his backpack. The boat tilts, Sakura and Naruto both start yelling.

"Shh! Keep it down!" The ferryman hisses as they drift into the thick mist. "We're trying to hide in the mist, why do you think I'm not using the motor?"

Hide?

"Ma, ma Tazuna-san. Any particular reason we're hiding in the mist?" Kakashi asks with false cheer. Tazuna looks down, scraping his sandals over the boat's wooden bottom. "I can call off the mission once we get land ashore, Tazuna-san."

"Hey, hey! Don't do that! It's our first—" Sakura slaps her hand over Naruto's mouth, cutting him off.

"I will call off this mission if you fail to provide all relevant information."

Tazuna is silent, but his mouth twists into a frown, hands squeezed tightly together until his fingers are pale and bloodless. Sasuke can see the faint shudder that ripples through him and the beads of sweat that gather on his brow.

"Tazuna." Kakashi doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't yell. Yet every hair on Sasuke's neck prickles and he fights the urge to hunch over, suddenly aware of how dangerous their easy-going sensei is.

Tazuna breaks.

"I had hoped with that other competent team…" Tazuna trails off with a sigh and a bad feeling curls in Sasuke's stomach. Sure, Madara and his boyfriend killed the chunin but he and Kakashi could have handled it. Maybe not Naruto or Sakura, but Kakashi was a jonin. Sasuke was the number one rookie. Why does he feel so unsettled? "I'm being targeted by a very dangerous man."

And Tazuna explains that the very dangerous man is Gato. The international shipping magnate who had the money, time, and resources on par with a daimyo. The Land of Waves was his next expansion project and the bridge was a threat to business.

"This is a B-rank mission at least," Kakashi's voice is careful and controlled but his hand tightens around the book that's lying facedown on his knee.

"A C-rank was all that we could afford."

The words hang in the air.

"Iruka-sensei explained the difference, but…but surely a B-rank isn't that big a deal, right?" Naruto asks, fidgeting at the prow of the boat. Kakashi doesn't answer, merely sighs and throws back his head. He puts the book away and reaches into one of his flak jacket's pockets, drawing out a scroll, then a kunai.

"You recognize the name Momochi Zabuza, Tazuna-san?" Kakashi asks as he cuts into his thumb and unravels the scroll.

"Kakashi-sensei! What're you doin—"

"Tazuna-san?" He interrupts Naruto, eyes on Tazuna.

"N-no. Is he supposed to be one of Gato's men? I don't know their names."

"Oh, I have no idea if Zabuza is connected or not," Kakashi says casually as he smears his blood down the scroll's length, "but let's call this a gut instinct." The scroll snaps together and a tiny dog appears in the boat with a puff of smoke. "Pakkun, it's time."

Pakkun visibly deflates. "Time for me to become kibble…"

"Such a deep voice…" Sakura mutters as Naruto yells, "Puppy!" and tries to grab Pakkun, who jumps out of the way.

"Just…avoid the trees…and the ground…and the terrors…it'll be fine." Kakashi waves his hand and the ninken glares up at him.

"Easy for you to say, boss."

"Tell Yamato Tazuna-san is being targeted by Gato and I'm officially requesting backup."

Pakkun grunts, gives a tiny salute with his paw and then jumps over the edge of the boat. Naruto and Sakura gasp but he doesn't sink, he's running across the water, back towards the mainland. They're coming back. Sasuke fights down the nausea that rises in his stomach. He can feel Kakashi's eye on him and then his sensei pats his head.

"Whoa! That dog is walkin' on water!" Naruto leans out of the boat and it nearly tips, again, before Sakura pulls him back with a growl.

"I told you to be quiet," the ferryman mutters as the fog clears and a giant bridge rises up on their right.

"So you'll finish the mission?"

"Yeah…" Kakashi sighs and stretches out his legs as far as he can. "Woulda been a whole lot easier if you told us this before. Then we wouldn't have split the teams to start with." Sasuke understands the underlying danger and he thinks Sakura does to. If enemies were targeting Tazuna, attacking now, before they could regroup would be the best decision. But he didn't know how Team 13 was supposed to get to them, even if Pakkun relayed Kakashi's message. There wasn't another boat. Were they supposed to wait while the ferryman went back to the mainland to retrieve them?

Sasuke tries to ignore the sinking, dreadful feeling in his gut.

Pakkun

Pakkun knows he's as good as kibble. Still, he races across the water as fast as he can. As soon as he makes it back to land, he picks up on the godling's familiar scent and follows it into a copse of trees. At the very center in a tight clearing four clones of Team 13 sit around a map. A trap. He's going to have to set it off, but he doesn't even make it into the clearing.

"Message from—" Pakkun is cut off as talons sink into the scruff of his neck and lift him up. He squirms and gives an indignant yelp. The smell of ink is overwhelming.

"A ninken?" A black-masked child, not the godling or the one that reeks of ash and destruction, peers down from a tree branch.

"Pakkun, he's one of Kakashi-senpai's." Another figure, the one that smells like a clone despite being whole, lands next to the inky one.

"Got a message," Pakkun grumbles as the ink creature soars up higher and drops him on the branch. "Tazuna's being targeted by a man named Gato and the boss is officially requesting backup."

"And that old drunk couldn't have said anything an hour ago?" The inky one mutters just as Pakkun smells the ripple of power and chakra. He stiffens when the godling and the ashy one drop next to their companions.

"Pakkun!" The godling exclaims cheerfully, his tone completely at odds with the hostility pouring off of him in waves. He steps forward, past the not-clone and inky one and Pakkun knows kibble time has come. He's on a tree and the godling is stalking towards him, violet cloak fluttering around him. Pakkun can smell it when the tree wakes, its chakra reaching towards its master. He has seconds before the godling raises his hands to form a sign.

Pakkun has one chance.

He rushes forward and pushes chakra into his paws. He swings under the branch running upside-down, past the godling, the not-clone, and the inky one. Only to right himself and jump straight at the ashy one. The godling's rage sours to fear as the ashy one instinctively raises his hands and catches him.

Pakkun wastes no time.

"I'm so sorry, boy! I needed to protect my boss, but I truly regret injuring you. Let's bury the hatchet and I'll let you touch my paws whenever you like, sound good?" Pakkun asks, raising one paw to show him. "See? They're soft and supple, still pink."

"Uhhh…" The ashy one's confusion is so vast it momentarily overpowers the acrid ash that marks his scent. The godling reappears by his side in an instance. Pakkun is sweating from his paw-pads, they're practically dripping as he keeps his eyes on the ashy one's mask and tries for a smile.

"You mean that? You're actually sorry?" The godling asks.

"Very sorry. Very."

"Madara?"

Behind them, Pakkun can smell the confusion emanating from the not-clone and inky one.

"It's…fine. I guess I'm…sorry I injured your boss?" He doesn't smell sorry, but Pakkun isn't a pup, he knows better than to say that out loud. "But he really should learn to announce himself properly."

"Absolutely, I agree completely." Pakkun nods along. He loves the boss and would happily die for him as would any of the pack, but the boss sent him here and now this is his problem, not Pakkun's.

It's terrifying how quickly the godling's scent sweetens with joy until Pakkun nearly chokes on it.

Unlike the others, it's hard to name a single specific base scent to him. He smells like spring and summer, sunshine and flora, life itself about to burst forward and bloom. Life itself that will creep up, endless and relentless until it spreads as wide and far as it can, unstoppable in its wake.

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I touch your paw?"

"Y-yes." The ashy one swivels him to face the godling proper. He reaches out and pokes Pakkun's raised paw. He squeezes each one of his toepads, laughing in delight. The godling's touch is gentle and Pakkun slowly lets out a breath of relief. Not kibble. Always good to be not kibble.

"Madara, Madara, touch his paw. It's so soft, it's great!"

"This is…weird." The ashy one mutters but shifts Pakkun until he's holding him cradled in one arm, and now both of them are poking his pads, transfixed.

Even gods succumb to the power of the supple paw.

"Okay…" the not-clone and inky one snap out of their daze, "we're going to talk about this later but for now…anything else Pakkun?" The not-clone asks.

"No."

"Alright, we'll head straight for Team 7 and shadow them." The children snap to attention and the ashy one sets him back on the ground.

"We're not changing?" The godling asks, picking at his cloak.

"After we catch up. If Gato has men on the island, they could be walking into a trap. Every second counts." Pakkun smells the clones slump in the clearing below, the chakra leaking out of them. "Remember, numbers not names."

The not-clone nods to him and they blur away just as Pakkun pops with a puff of smoke.

Sasuke

They slip under the bridge and emerge from a tunnel into bright, clear water. The pier that surrounds that island is less an isolated pier and more of a settlement that extends out onto the water itself. Naruto's looking around, wide-eyed and awed at the crumbling shacks that circle around them. Definitely a poor country. The ferryman pulls them up to a seemingly random patch of boardwalk and they climb out.

"Are we gonna wait for the others, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asks, bouncing up and down.

"No, they'll catch up. Hopefully before we're ambushed…" Kakashi mutters the last part to himself. "Everyone be on guard. At the slightest sign, I want you in Manji formation. Your goal is to protect Tazuna-san. Leave any and all fighting to me, got it?" His eye meets each of theirs and Sasuke reluctantly nods when it lands on him. He has to prove himself, especially if Team 13 is coming back. It's been months since their duel and he's been training non-stop. Memories and ghosts aside, he's not letting Madara show him up again.

"How're they gonna find us if we don't wait for them?" Naruto asks as they cross the boardwalk, back onto the island proper.

"Team 13 is a dual-purpose combat and tracking team. They'll find us." He doesn't sound happy about it.

"Sensei…" Sakura starts after they drift into silence. They've left the initial pier completely behind, now on an old dirt road running through to the heart of the island. In the distance, Sasuke can make out the flash of water between the trees. Up ahead of them the tree line breaks, forming a small clearing next to the water. "When was Team 13 assigned? They're our age but none of them were at the academy."

That's…a good point. Sasuke didn't even know about Madara until the dobe brought it up.

"Special assignment. Go ask the Sandaime about it."

Sasuke snorts and rolls his eyes. Like they could just—

"Really? 'Cause Jiji seemed really confused too that one time I saw him, Madara-sensei, and Hashirama together. You know…everyone seemed pretty confused and angry. Hashirama tried to kill me, neither knew what Konoha was, and Jiji did say something about a space—" Kakashi slaps his hand over Naruto's mouth, cutting him off.

"Ma, ma, Naruto. You need to learn when to hold your tongue and stop talking."

Naruto struggles against him and breaks away with a huff, crossing his arms.

"I wanted to ask, sensei, because if I'm not mistaken Hashirama has the same kekkei genkai as the Shodai and all our textbooks said it was a lost—"

"There!" Naruto interrupts Sakura and throws a kunai into the bushes. "Manji formation!" Sasuke and Kakashi snap to attention as Sakura and Naruto move in front of Tazuna. But after a long, tense moment, Kakashi sighs and slumps over.

"Naruto! You idiot, there was nothing there! You're going to give me a damn heart attack!" Sakura yells, swatting his head.

"There was, there was! I seriously felt someone targeting us!" Naruto yells back, still in formation, kunai held out in front of him.

"Yeah right! Cut it out!"

Kakashi turns and moves into the bushes where Naruto threw his kunai. Idiot. Sasuke thinks as he pulls them back to reveal a startled white rabbit.

"Naruto! Look at what you've done!" Sakura points at the rabbit and tries to drag him out of formation. Naruto falters, kunai dropping as he sees the rabbit before it stubbornly raises again.

"I know what I felt! Madara-sensei said you have to trust your gut! The bunny could be an enemy!" He argues, sticking close to Tazuna as the man grumbles and walks over to Kakashi. An enemy bunny? Sasuke rolls his eyes and Sakura pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Really Naruto? You think Gato would hire a bunny?"

"I dunno! It could…it could be a disguise! A trick! A substitution—" Sasuke is the only one close enough to see Kakashi's eye widen.

"Everyone, get down!" Kakashi yells as a giant sword swings into the clearing, aiming for Tazuna before Naruto knocks him to the ground and the sword flies up and embeds itself in a tree.

"See! I told you!" Naruto yells as a figure lands on the sword handle. He's shirtless with weird cow-print warmers wrapped around his arms and legs, bandages tied over his mouth and a slashed Kiri headband on the side of his head.

"So you're the ones who killed the Demon Brothers." There's rage in his voice, burning in his brown eyes.

"And you're Momochi Zabuza," Kakashi says casually, hands in his pockets. He steps in front of them. Sasuke scowls but joins the other two in Manji formation in front of Tazuna. He mentioned Zabuza before. Is he strong?

"To be recognized by one of Konoha's greatest, Kakashi of the sharingan," Zabuza says, squatting down on the handle.

Kakashi of the…sharingan?

"Sharingan? What's he talkin' about Kakashi-sensei? Are you an Uchiha too?" Naruto's voice sounds distant. Sasuke's frozen as Kakashi lifts up his headband, revealing not a blind eye or empty socket but a red sharingan.

With a perfectly straight line through the eyelid.

Eye-thief.

He thought…he thought Kakashi understood but…

Sasuke's going to be sick. He feels disoriented, out of breath and the fight hasn't even started. Zabuza moves and Sakura and Naruto are saying something but it's all a long-drawn out static sound. Their mouths are moving but he can't hear. He can't focus.

Kakashi is an eye-thief.

Madara is a descendant of the Ghost.

Itachi is a kin-killer.

And Sasuke…he's helpless against them.

AN: I've realized and accepted I have an inescapable desire to build complex cultures from the crumbs canon gave us...and on that note the Uchiha have several holidays but the ones directly tied to Amaterasu are the summer and winter solstices and the rebirth on the 24th. There are some families who try, key emphasis on try, to time pregnancies to have a child on an auspicious day but that's usually done with the summer solstice, when the day is the longest/Amaterasu is at her strongest. Timing pregnancies for the rebirth is rarer bc if the child comes early and is born on the winter solstice or the two days after...it's considered incredibly unlucky/setting the child up for failure. Madara's birth wasn't purposefully timed and both Kou and Tajima were sweating bullets when she started early contractions on the 22nd. For better or worse, Madara was a difficult child and wasn't born until nearly 48 hours later.