Parallax

by Oceanbreeze7

Sequel to Celestial Bodies. At a given instant, the Moon appears among different stars for observers at widely separated locations. These subtle changes in position are called its parallax. Sasuke will do anything to save his brother.

8. Chapter 8

Here is the next chapter! Final chapter is Chapter 9

I was on holiday and legitimately forgot about posting here. I know, I hate the format of for uploading and posting stories. It's incredibly confusing to me.

The temple walls were illusionary, comprised of thick stone chiselled from the bedrock. Sections of pumice or granite interweaved with eroding sandstone- the bare materials of the world's shelf.

He traced his hands across the nearest pillar of rock, impossibly morphing and splattered with a different geological source that made a patchwork quilt of marble and pyrite. Shells, once captured in ocean sediment had been replaced by mineral deposits and glittered a dozen shades of opal. The temple, open and airy within its underground cavern provided no sight of the sky. It breathed with the gentle lapping of water on the rock shelf, breezing gusts of air hot and humid like breath.

Shisui stepped forward, his feet bare and toes wiggling on the outcrop of soapstone that built the descending path to the underground spring. He said; "I take it this isn't a friendly call?"

'It was horrible,' Itachi told him decades before when they were both young but not naive. 'It was terrifying. She didn't speak with words, but I knew what she said. I have never felt so scared, but she was beautiful.'

Now, when Itachi's turned white beneath the moon and his skin bleached sickly. Shisui asked him then, what experience it was to hold a goddess in his hand and use her gift of sight.

'It was…' he had trailed off then, looking tired and weary of something Shisui couldn't fathom. Then, when Itachi first received his blessing, he believed he stood alone in the world. '...lonely.'

If Tsukuyomi, patron of the night and moon and illusion were beautiful, then Susanoo the holy weapon was a wretched beast.

The god didn't speak, it rumbled a throaty musty bellow of air through the underground lava tubes, smelling of moist peat and bog. Shisui controlled himself, resisting his flinch at the intrusive stench. The god sounded like the rattle of kunai in a pouch. The gentle splashing of a fish leaping in the Naka River. It sounded like a mudslide collapsing into the fjord and the accompanying crackle of broken ice.

It screamed, like the rocks fracturing and the exploding crackle of farmland falling into the sea.

Display the depth of your might and the strength of your courage.

Shisui felt his bones rattle, grinding like a mill turning corn to dust. He saw his vision spin, felt the vibrations in his eyes that disoriented the world. Susanoo spoke a deep clatter of wrath and lazy dismissal. Itachi said that Tsukuyomi had been beautiful, and perhaps she was but the religious might of Susanoo felt beyond simple words.

"How?" Shisui snapped, driven by irritating pain. His empty eye socket hurt with a phantom feeling of blood and saltwater oozing from his skull.

Shisui was here only for his eye, but raw anger drove him to accuse the underground spring: "You want me to punch a wall? Splash in your little pond?"

The world rumbled a throaty inhale, Shisui choked on his tongue. The pool rippled slightly, little lines and seams of its glassy surface shifting against its irregular sides. Shisui took one step forward, dragging his feet when they refused to lift appropriately. Each step felt harder, more daring and painful, the burning in his body increasing to a near crescendo when the water's surface broke against the tips of his toes. He stood there, on the edge of the spring with only the slightest touch to the water.

Many have sacrificed all for their kin, Susanoo spoke through Shisui's skin and through the blood in his vessels. Many have spilt meaningless blood for their people.

Shisui bared his teeth at something so innocent as a puddle and said, "are you referring to me? Because I don't regret that at all."

A small sacrifice in the greater battle. Meaningless, by a century's time.

Shisui said, stupidly, "go screw yourself."

When Susanoo roared and Shisui bled from his ears and nose, he threw his head back and laughed. Death didn't scare him, not anymore. He had drowned in the Naka, oozed its water from the gaping socket of his eye. Shisui welcomed Susanoo into every part of him and now, he feared nothing.

"What are you going to do?" Shisui challenged, cackling all the while as he spat salt and blood from his mouth. "Kill me? Hurt me? Go right ahead! I'm not afraid to die!"

The pressure receded, withdrawing like the tide. Shisui sniffed his nose, wiping it on the back of his arm and staring at the clear water instead of blood. The black water's surface shifted, gentle currents below its skin that suggested something large moved out of sight.

You, the would-be-vassal, pulled from death by my brother's champion.

"It's not like I asked for a sudden resurrection," Shisui defended, spitting out globs of seawater to the side. His head hurt, his nose ran. He sniffled back salt and flinched at its taste. "Figures it would piss off someone."

Death is a deception.

"Huh," Shisui said tiredly, "take it up with your sister then."

The water brushed, a current stirred against Shisui's feet and against the lip of stone as something drifted awfully close.

You, the would-be-vassal, risen in resurrection by that of the sun. I do not hold champions. There is no reason for my word to be given.

Shisui said, "if Lord Amaterasu has selected a champion, don't you think it's important to know what's going on?"

Humans slaughtering humans. It is repeated, inevitable, and eternal.

Susanoo was more than the deity of the waters. He extended further than the basic influence of the storm and sea. He was the deity of metal, of swords and steel that served no purpose beyond that of murder. Millennia of repeated violence, broken treaties and mourning mothers. The god held no compassion or care for that of salvation, he likely views martyrs as fools.

"I won't let my friends suffer," Shisui said, "I'll spend my entire life making sure that doesn't happen."

Do you think a mortal's life is a long time? I have lived in darkness for eternity.

"And suddenly the sun is walking on the surface and the moon is whispering secrets," Shisui mocked, "feels a bit coincidental, don't you think? Then your...vessel is stolen, and I'm up popping around instead of rotting like you probably wanted. You must be a bit annoyed."

The wind nearly knocked Shisui to his side, his feet stumbled free from the water and his arms stretched to break his fall. He hit the ground, frighteningly close to tripping to the water itself. The lord of the seas did not roar or shout, but his burning anger manifested in suffocating salty brine.

I do not care for my sibling's playthings. The affairs of humans are below me.

"Because you're really helping with the whole slaughter thing, aren't you?" Shisui spat, regretting his words the moment they left his mouth.

Shisui didn't fear pain. He practiced a genjutsu with Itachi and tried to block the sensations of pain entirely. He learned, through time, that pain never solved anything. There was no purpose or point to it, so then he never feared it.

Susanoo thrashed like a cyclone, stirring water which lashed about whipcord and burning. The sandstone crumbled, raining soft pieces of gravel that cascaded into the pool and sunk out of sight. Bits of opalized rock clattered to the ground, fragmenting in shrapnel just shy of Shisui's skin. Dust choked the air, moist air made him wheeze.

Humans are pathetic creatures that take my messages and mutilate them to that of sacrilege. I do not give guidance. I do not give blessings.

Shisui flinched, water drooling from the corner of his mouth and he said, "you're only as good as your last battle."

Susanoo settled, the water calm and unbroken.

Shisui gathered his confidence, 'as stubborn as a mule,' Itachi called it and levelled his voice. The cavern distorted his voice, throwing it with long echoes and misshapen timbre that made him fearful and paranoid from the very start. "Your blessing is not a sword, it is armour. Even a shield can be used offensively, but your gift to my kin was to protect those we love."

Susanoo said nothing. Shisui said, accusing the empty cavern, "you made it so that your heavenly gift came only when we watched our loved ones die! That's not a blessing! That's a curse and reminder that we need to protect those we love! Not kill people! But you made it a blessing! "

He could feel the god, quiet and listening below the water and in the walls. Susanoo told him, with the rumbling noises of oceanic vents, there are no gifts made from suffering. Only curses.

Shisui said, "when whales die, they sink. There is no sun or moon and it is always cold. Down, in the muck and corpses, those that dwell down in the filth know death to be a blessing."

Susanoo rumbled a low noise. The water shifted, and across the length of the entire pool, something pierced the surface. The water shifted, peeling apart under the smooth bone plate of an organic creature. From the depths of the water emerged the bone plated back of an enormous sturgeon.

In all depictions of Susanoo, he wore the armour of a feudal king. He carried a sword as large as a horse and glimmered in shades of a hundred sapphires. The Uchiha clan temple drew him in frescos with abalone inlay, luminescent swirls as he conjured the clouds of monsoons and swirled the storm into the energy shell of his mighty gift.

Never had the Lord of the Storms and Sea been drawn so unremarkable to be likened to that of a fish.

Shisui said, genuine and honest, "it is a pleasure to meet you, Lord of the Tempest."

Susanoo was a fish, a large muck-eating fish with no spine or scales. A delicacy for their roe and useless once matured- to say such pathetic things were that of godly was unprecedented.

Shisui smiled, and thought, 'Itachi was right. He is beautiful.'

The sturgeon was large, a dull muddy colour across its fleshy skin. Its scutes rose in protective crests, armouring along its spine and sides like a man's greave or brassard or cuirass. The fish had no weapon, no teeth or claws and yet, it breached the water imposing and powerful and Susanoo said to him, you have died and sunk, would-be-vassal. You have risen, through resurrection to face the sky once more.

"I know," Shisui said, finally allowing himself to feel vulnerable. The Lord of the Sea revealed itself and in return, Shisui lay exposed. "Sasuke said that there was something bad coming- he's my brother by the way, well not officially- "

Champion of my brother. The Illuminated.

Shisui nodded slowly, captivated by the sturgeon's long whiskers wiggling in the water and the fins that flared to maintain its careful position. Shisui liked him better this way, more genuine. Honest. A dragon somehow, in the bone and voice.

"I want to help them," he told the river king. "I want to do whatever I can to protect them and help them."

What is murder to you, Still-Water?

Shisui confessed, a little off-kilter, "it's the loss of life of someone who didn't deserve it. I don't think anyone ever really deserves it, but what else can I do?"

Defend, the fish told him. Protect, it whispered. Settle, it guided.

"How do I do that?" Shisui asked.

When you sink and into that lightless place. I am there in the still.

Shisui felt saltwater in his throat, itching in his sinuses. The giant fish, protected by personal armour that rested sedentary on the lowest ground, looked at him with simple eyes and impossible strength. It felt foreboding, horrifically grotesque as Shisui understood. He swallowed thickly, the taste of salt making his mouth feel sour and raw. In the darkness, in the everlasting cold where all of Shisui's screams were swallowed- only there did Susanoo rest.

The god was not kind or gentle like the sun and moon. Violence had turned the old beast into burden, where only true sacrifice showed the depths of his blessing. There was a reason the Sharingan awoke in trauma, there was a reason the Mangekyo bled the storm's blessing only after all had been lost.

Shisui said, utterly terrified and knowing deep in his heart what the creature would demand of him, "what do I need to do?"

What did he have left to give, for a blessing or the ability to protect what little he had left? Shisui had killed and hurt and defended everything and everyone, and he would do it again and again. Susanoo knew this, and Shisui knew this.

Forsake yourself , Susanoo said. Sink, Still-Water.

"You're going to kill me?" Shisui whispered, trying to disguise the utter terror he felt. "Are you going to drown me? Again?"

I will remake you in my likeness, the god said. You demand my gift, I demand you.

"The last time you did something," Shisui croaked, "it was when I released that jutsu, or- or in the stream."

The sturgeon's eyes did not waver, did not turn away from Shisui's still figure standing regal like a beacon on the shore of holy land. The whiskers of the sturgeon stretched vast, like great bamboo poles used to push along the murky banks. Each scute carved upward from the bones of the fish, protecting its fleshy skin with hard plate armour.

"You did something to me," Shisui told the fish shakily, "you took something, my blood and...and you did something…"

I will craft armour from your bones, the god said with a wave of its long whiskers and a flap of its gills through the black water. I will flood your body with my water.

"You already did that," Shisui realized sickly, "in that stream, you took something and made me bleed saltwater."

Shisui's voice hitched, breaking with the innate terror of the experience, repeated once and always in his sleeping mind. The terror, the fear- . Shisui accused, "when I woke up when I released that jutsu you took something. What did you take? What did you take?"

Sturgeon had no teeth, no fangs or hooked jaws to prey on those weaker. They ate from the ground and drifted with all the rage of a pacifist. The dorsal fin flattened, collapsing under a cartilaginous spine that sculpted a new aerodynamic curve to the ridged spine of the fish. Breaching the surface, the large fish resembled mountain ranges protruding from the ocean.

I did not take, it said, I gave.

Susanoo willingly gave- the scorned sea whose defence had turned into a mockery. What once was made to cherish and protect mutilated itself over generations into a feared weapon.

Shisui was not a poet, or an esteemed craftsman like his kin was. Had he been, he would spend years attempting to find the proper verses to describe the tragedy of Susanoo.

Shisui understood it, the specific species of misfortune, where your legacy forgot your smile or character and remembered only your blade and the blood trail in your wake.

"Before," Shisui said, voice cracking and hitching as the riptide tugged each vowel, "you...you gave a vision. To a Nara, you...you used my body and gave a vision to someone else. Why?"

Susanoo sunk, submersing below with black inky ripples. Shisui swallowed a cry of frustration, clattering to his knees along the opal shells and basalt. Shisui leaned over the edge, fingers clutching the cold damp lip as his reflection distorted in undulating facets.

"Come back!" Shisui called at the water, squinting to see any large shape below the surface. Activating his Sharingan did nothing beyond reminding Shisui starkly of the wet eyepatch covering his empty socket. Somewhere, below the surface, his single eye rested in the mineral toxic pool. Likely corroded beyond redemption, sacrificed for something Shisui wanted no part in.

"I'm not done yet!" Shisui shouted at the pool, slapping it with one hand. The water burned, tingling sharply with sulfuric fumes. His remaining eye watered at the close proximity, blurring his vision. Shisui shouted, "answer me! What are you going to take? What do you want from me?"

The spring settled itself, and Shisui rolled onto his rump with a muffled shout of annoyance. The clan elders would have a near heart attack if they knew how rude Shisui was, let alone the fact their famous sea-monster deity turned out to be a giant slow fish.

Shisui almost laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of everything. There he was, being ignored by a sacred god in the Temple of Susanoo in the centre of the Uchiha district. Shisui had come to pray for strength or an extra edge in combat more times than he could remember in his ANBU days. He knew each scratch and lantern like he placed them there himself. He had kneeled here half manic from paranoia and guilt, wondering what aid a violent god would offer- but instead of a dragon or idol, Susanoo was a fish.

A pacifist fish.

Shisui sighed, slumping his shoulders. He told the water, "what a mess this is, isn't it?"

He had been so fixated on what had been taken and stolen from him.

"Alright," Shisui whispered to himself, trying to gather his nerve and bravery. There was something that set him apart from all other Uchiha, something that compelled Susanoo to use his body once he died. Maybe, in some twisted tragic way, it was not Susanoo giving the blessings, merely the quiet lonely creature at the bottom of the ocean, waiting their turn for a gift to sink from above.

Shisui inhaled loudly and held his breath, then stepped forward and crashed against the poisonous water.

It parted around him, burning hot and molten as his skin immediately cried out. Reflexively, Shisui gasped and watched blearily as his air and life abandoned him with silver bubbles bobbing upward.

Do you forfeit yourself, Still-Water?

Shisui gagged, choking and flailing. In his periphery moved a shape far too large to be the fish from before. Now it flooded his sight with eerie shape and movement, as large as mountains and as quick and deadly as a god should be. It drifted by with the impression of a hundred teeth and a dozen mouths all upturned in a savage grin. You are so desperate for power, even now.

'No,' Shisui wanted to argue, suffocating, 'I'm giving you a gift.'

In the water, the god was a monster of tides and tempest. The current and undertow battered Shisui, pummeling him brutally and stealing all breath left. His face burned from touch with liquid mercury, sulphur pickling him into a briny slab of garish flesh.

Shisui kicked and plunged deeper into the bottomless trench, where ice hurt him and tortured him endlessly. The light faded, glimmers drifting in murky visage as Shisui thought himself in likeness to a whale.

Shisui recalled, 'when whales die, they sink.'

Into the darkness, down then down further. Where there is no sanity left, where there is no value to eyes and all sunlight or moon is barren.

Down they sink, to the muck and depths where those that dwell so far below greet his corpse and believe it to be a blessing.

Shisui spasmed, dying, and descended. In Uchiha culture, a gift given for something of equal value. Shisui gave his life for others, and others gave him resurrection.

He went still, cold and lifeless. A gift is given for something of equal value.

Sink, and I will lift you to ascension.

---

He woke to gentle whispers along the back of his mind. They coaxed him awake, a blissful balm along the exposed nerve that was his mind. Shisui opened his eyes and watched the water gleam cobalt, bubbling soft and mineral-laced from microscopic vents along the shattered crust below. Shisui breathed poison, heavy in his lungs against his mucus membranes. He looked upwards to the inverted shining skin of the surface and began to swim.

Breaching the surface for the first time, he struggled onto the rocky shore and vomited water like a newborn taking its first breath. He felt his lungs inflate, struggling against the shift in pressure and agonizing all the while. Water slid off him, saturating his hair and clothes and leaving his fingers wrinkled and white-skinned. He felt toxic, steaming and silver-skinned as brine and mercury drenched him in afterbirth.

Shisui coughed hard enough to retch and collapsed forward so his forehead touched basalt. He moaned into the wet shale, " shit. Ouch, ugh. That sucked."

He coughed again, tugging or warping something in his throat that made each rattle deep like pneumonia. He spat, drooling instinctively against the truly disgusting taste in his mouth. The sacred bedrock of Susanoo's temple was gently polished, the lanterns unlit but each in a ceremonious position. The walls, some dusty, decorated with small daggers gleaming in blue patina.

"Am I…" Shisui trailed off, spitting on the ground a glob of wet mucus. The water sloshed, settling down in its mineral-laced spring as Shisui rolled onto his back and moaned miserably.

He felt wet, tired, and damp in places he never considered. Shisui knew how to swim, but the experience now felt much more... intrusive.

He spotted another blue-tinted blade, and had the energy to swear loudly and croak, "if you turned me blue, I am going to be pissed."

The walls, the Temple of Susanoo in the centre of the Uchiha district, echoed his words. Shisui had come to pray for strength or an extra edge in combat more times than he could remember in his ANBU days. He knew each scratch and lantern in this drafty hell-hole but now it deserved a new collection of vulgar words.

After a few moments to recover, Shisui struggled to his feet. He felt woozy, a tad drunken as his legs stumbled to cooperate to sudden movement. He heard the water slosh once more, but it took him moments to coordinate himself and settle vertigo to look behind him.

"Huh," he said. The water's surface broke as something bobbed to the surface, lifting a fair amount above the water like an iceberg. Shisui expected the large spiritual fish to have appeared, surfacing like a dolphin or something else. Shisui should have known better since the god in question liked to periodically throw Shisui for the loop.

It was impossible for a metal sword to float.

That, and the sword was freakishly enormous.

Shisui thought, 'Susanoo you dramatic bitch,' and stumbled forward, splashing through the small tidepools near the edge of the spring. The handle of the sword stretched longer than a kunai, needing two hands to wield if such a thing was possible. What looked like a twin guard slid in and out of the black water, disguising the blade itself but suggesting it was stupidly large. The kind of weapon civilian children thought Shinobi could use when realistically the weight alone would kill a horse.

Shisui hadn't seen anything this big except in Mist, and couldn't think of anyone able of lifting it. Maybe the ridiculously strong friend of Hatake, but bringing an outsider into Susanoo's waters (not mentioning the highly potent toxins in the water itself) was ridiculous. It was simply too big.

Shisui personally preferred his perfectly good tanto...which had been burned in his funeral pyre.

"Shit," Shisui repeated, whispering a little with the prominent echo within the temple. He dragged a hand down his face tiredly, he'd be out of chakra if he had to reinforce his arms to carry the damn thing. Shisui then noticed, an oversight on his part, that there was a distinct lack of empty eye socket.

"You have one sick sense of humour," Shisui muttered to the pool, poking around his face and the recently acquired impossible eye. It felt natural like it had never been yanked out brutally, to begin with. No double vision, no headache or pain from a fractured orbital socket. Shisui said, "I take it back, you're an asshole."

He sloshed water, dripping from his hair as he approached the edge. Reaching out with one hand (using chakra to secure his feet to the rock rim- he did not want to hop in the spring again) he gripped the handle and pommel of the sword. He could fit both his hands on it, and both of Itachi's hands, and maybe one of Sasuke's to fill the entire hilt. Susanoo may be a bony fish, but he sure had one hell of a spine.

Shisui struggled to comfortably fasten his hands on the sword, tugging it to try and drag it closer to the edge. It put a strain on his shoulders, uncomfortable stress that could tear a tendon if he yanked too hard. The pommel spike, laughable since bashing anyone with the back was impossible , gleamed blue.

The guard engravings were beautiful, etched black in the hollows in a symmetrical ripple like that of the ocean waves. Some configuration that abstractly reminded Shisui of an armoured face. Shisui lifted the sword with a guttural grunt, pushing chakra into his palm to strengthen his grip.

He drew the sword from Susanoo's pool with the whispering sound of metal sliding from a sheath. Shisui thought in a foreign voice, rising from the waters, Susanoo set upon the Earthen-Tree and split it with blue-blade. He then rent him asunder with his mighty claw and scattered its remains to nine others.

Shisui said, a tad hysterically, "what the fuck."

The sword came free with little resistance, impossibly light considering its unmanageable length. As long as a man, and a gangly one, not a scrawny little person- as long as Kakashi Hatake, its spine was black until it shifted blue under Shisui's grip. Shisui used two hands to hold it steady, but knew he could wield it clumsily with one.

The weapon was, without any exaggeration, the most awkward thing Shisui had ever held. He repeated, " what the fuck ."

Proportionally, it was impossible. Its edge gleamed silver like Susanoo's scutes, the unpolished middle reflected cobalt patina like the pool's famous touch but somehow more. Subtle, but spiritually prominent, the colour warped with gentle reflections of sunlight through the ocean surface, highlighting and darkening with tides contained to the metal itself. Shisui scrambled to place the weapon on the ground (technically dropping it nervously) where it immediately dulled to its blackened patina and silver edge. Shisui touched it between two fingers, and where his skin met the metal, colour bled into the ocean.

"Okay," Shisui thought and said verbally for any sort of calming property. "I turned a giant hunk of metal into a suncatcher...I may have screwed up, 'Tachi."

'At least I got my eye back,' Shisui thought hysterically, 'mission technically accomplished?'

He picked the sword up in his grip, it was no heavier than a hefty shortsword and awkwardly slung it over his shoulder. It towered still, suspended like a vaulting pole and scraping across the doorway as Shisui struggled out.

In the light of day, Shisui could see the finer details of the sword. The decorative engraving looked more like careful ornate scratches, lovingly crafted and carved. The sword was not hollow ground with a neat fuller to lighten its weight. Its hilt and pommel were crafted all of metal, only its forward-curved guard resembled bone or a pale coral that Shisui couldn't recognize.

The entire behemoth rivalled that of the swordsmen of the mist, it put his unrelated-brother to shame with his thin chokuto (although from what Shisui remembered, it was still a nice sword). Perhaps Kusanagi was the sword of ancient legend, but this sword was new and forged from the deepest oceans with the blessings of a god.

"You are pretty, aren't you?" Shisui asked the sword. He ran his finger along the edge, where the grind matched both sides with a sharp line but not one so thin it could warp or roll. A good cleaving blade, as thick as his upper arm and as heavy as a ruddy ox.

He wondered if the sword had a name and immediately scolded himself at the thought. Of course, it didn't, at least not one known to history at this time. Shisui didn't particularly want to face the Lord of Storms again, especially for something as simple as a name.

"Uchiha used to name their blades during the quench," Shisui said, apologizing to the weapon. "I don't think it's the time to point out that you practically were always quenched, being in the water and all."

'Huh, I'm really nervous,' Shisui thought a tad anxiously. He giggled slightly, a little bubble of noise he forced down.

Weapons tended to be named for their attributes or skills, sometimes they were named as lucky charms. Shisui felt his stomach roll at the thought of naming the greatsword anything pertaining to violence. It was given to him as a tool to be used, yes, but Susanoo was not violent. Or perhaps he had grown so used to it, apathy settled over his heart and left him numb to the thoughts of suffering.

"You aren't going to be named something like that," Shisui promised the weapon. "Sorry, but you can't be a skull-cruncher . Although Togaikira or Dokurokira would be a sick name."

The sword gleamed silently, a gorgeous shimmer of cobalt along its spine. Shisui hummed, running his thumb along with the markings with care.

He said to the greatsword, "you're a gift. You were forged in the ocean vents, where magma and sea meet together."

He could imagine it vividly, the molten glow in that briny place. Made far below the surface, where there was no light or warmth and everything was cold and lonely.

"Susanoo lifted you," he said with numb realization and chilling clarity, "and named you a blessing."

Shisui held the sword aloft, able to bear its paradoxical light weight. It was blue and beautiful like crystal water or ice and Shisui named it; "you're Geikotsu."

'Geikotsu,' Shisui thought, 'Whalebone'.

The sword gleamed, beautiful and precious to him and although so humongous it would be one hell of a task to learn how to use it, he knew the simple name fit it well.

"Well, Geikotsu," Shisui said once more, feeling the sounds roll across his tongue. "I think my little brother is going to hate you."

---

The Uchiha district was one section of Konoha that remained untouched from the devastation of the fight. The buildings still stood, the cats (having increased in strays since the wild animals all flocked to safety) populated the houses and peered out nervously. A truly ridiculous amount of birds perched on the rooftops, trilling happily towards the sunset.

The Uchiha district coincidentally also remained one of the more secure locations in all the remnants of Konoha. It had not been attacked directly, and its impressive seals around the grand walls still remained where other buildings had not.

If Konoha was not rebuilt in time, the civilian population would likely cry out at the unfair stasis around the district. Why was it fair that feral cats had a home when they themselves had no place to stay at night?

That, fortunately, was still far out. Tenzo had the skill to grow unique or elaborate structures necessary for the building frames. Shinobi with earth natures flocked together to build walls and structures in appropriate locations, helping with creating neck paddocks for livestock and horses. Shinobi with summons heavily abused their animal companions, letting children of clan families or small traders play.

Shinobi with other natures flocked to the freshly cleared civilian graveyards, paying respect and offering their services to build new shrines or pyres or holes in the ground for each respective cultural worship. Many shinobi died during the Pein invasion, but far less than the destruction of Konoha would suggest.

The devastation suggested to other foreign bodies that the Hidden Leaf had fallen in strength. Originally, Konoha was one of the grand lands with an intense force and level of strength. Any sign of weakness suggested something foul had happened, and with weakness came opportunities to those that fed on the scraps behind great kills.

Thus, the Hokage sat politely on a wooden bench dragged into an overrun garden, filled with roses and remnants of many exotic flowers. She observed her court firmly, each looking grim and uncomfortable with the level of activity necessary.

"Hokage-Sama," Inoichi said politely, "I understand the necessity of avoiding the Hokage tower, but is this place the best?"

"It's the only place safe from spying eyes," she countered dryly. ROOT and other countries took the opportunity to plant spies or seals inside the unprotected tower, already multiple secret scrolls had been stolen. ANBU was a mess of searching for the thin trails.

"The Uchiha district…" Ibiki Morino said quietly, words a low grumble as he leant against the nearby cherry tree. He grimaced, forever a cynic as he glanced at the Hokage with dark eyes, "have you listed it as Nara land yet?"

"Hey there," Shikaku said cooly, tracing a long blade of grass breaking through old bedrock flagstone, "I'm not affiliated with the actions of my son."

"Doesn't seem like it," Ibiki said gruffly.

Inoichi sighed openly, forever exhausted with the strange tension between the men, and the metaphorical kunai measuring contest. Inoichi stated, ignoring the two; "Hokage-sama, we have distrust from the civilian population. Already, there was tension across due to the increasing strength of Shinobi forces. There's a fear of a second invasion."

"There won't be," she stated simply.

All four of them knew that, but it was difficult to predict the thoughts and illogical anxieties of the civilian population. A good portion of them didn't understand chakra or equated it to parlour tricks. The invasion itself was terrifying, especially given the small, albeit epic destruction.

"I presume there is a contingency plan?" Ibiki asked bitterly, taking care to control any glowering. He had long since been excluded from the special meetings with the Hokage, where confidential information was discussed that he wasn't permitted to know. He, the head of torture and interrogation, being left in the dark.

She had a good reason for it, and that reason would be arriving any moment.

"Something of the sort," she admitted. "The other nations will view this as an attack, and expect us to pin it on a foreign nation. The threat of the Akatsuki is recognized in some nations, but not all."

"It would be difficult to convince everyone of that," Shikaku agreed with a small sigh, "oh, Kiri will be troublesome."

"We don't know that this wasn't collaborative, or that a leak exists," Ibiki rumbled angrily. "And with the councilman's suspicious absence, alongside a fair portion of ANBU being removed for suspicious motivations …"

"Councilmember Danzo is to be tried for treason," the Hokage said bluntly and effectively, "in public presence. This will be our united announcement for the threat of the Akatsuki."

"Danzo isn't part of the Akatsuki," Inoichi said slowly, "but we could portray it as such."

"Nobody will say anything unless there's a public statement," Ibiki argued, "many civilians trusted that man, they won't willingly believe he's a traitor."

Lady Tsunade lifted her head, looking past her men. Slowly, her final visitor arrived with a sideways shamble and both arms rammed deep into his pockets. The three men looked over, Ibiki going so far as to curse openly at the sight.

"Ah, Ibiki-san," Kakashi said, looking the slightest bit frazzled by the older man's appearance, "what a wonderful day it is to see you. Maa, had I known you'd be here, I'd have brought tulips-."

"Sit your scrawny ass down, Hatake," Ibiki grumbled sourly. Ibiki, with his levels of clearance and expertise, personally oversaw all evaluations for Hatake's mental and cognitive state.

Kakashi meekly plopped himself onto a nearby fencepost, not at all what Ibiki had referred to as a seat, but it worked. Shikaku glanced away to avoid the T&I head to see his smile or his silent chuckle.

"It's nice to see you again," Inoichi greeted the man with a small wave. Hatake stared at Inoichi with his single dark eye, evaluating silently for any mockery or sarcasm. After a moment of pause, Hatake nodded the slightest bit.

"I'd prefer to do this in a controlled room with ANBU outside for any trespassers," the Hokage said, "but this will have to do. Perimeter secure?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," Hatake chirped up pleasantly, "with intermittent scouting. I have it on good authority my cute little Genins are crossing into the district, my other cute not-churiki is sleeping still."

"Hold on, not-churiki?" Ibiki echoed, looking taken aback. " What?"

"Trust me, you're going to hear this only once," Shikaku said tiredly. He stretched both arms over his head, looking very much in need of a cigarette. "Is the whole disaster meeting here?"

"Maybe," the Hokage said simply, eyes narrowing on Shikaku himself, "it depends on what your son stated."

"Ah, in that case…" Shikaku paused, then cradled his face exhausted. He muttered, " thank Kami he's in Suna."

It would have been nice to have the entire group together, but after the disaster of Pein, Suna was terrified for their resident-tailed-beast. Shikamaru raced over both to console the Kazekage and to establish a truce as quickly as possible and explain the situation. Plus, Temari had sent a message herself through a very intimidating messenger hawk that pestered Sakura long enough that the request to kick Shikamaru's ass ended up on the Hokage's personal desk.

Sakura had a certain fire around her that often made even ANBU step back. Not out of fear, but because her flying hands channelled chakra and one minor incident was enough to put them out of commission for a week. Her voice, very distinct, had the potential to trigger a nasty bout of tinnitus.

Kakashi understood this because he leaned away ever so subtly from the main path towards their gathering spot, already rubbing just below his earlobe with one hand. Sure enough, her loud shouting made even Ibiki twitch.

Naruto complained about something, shouting back as well. After this, Tsunade promised herself to send the boy to a hearing specialist- it may not be a coincidence he shouted more than he spoke normally.

"Granny!" Naruto shouted, a bright smile lighting up his face. He sprinted away, leaving Sakura in the dust. She hollered something else, scattering a few nearby cats before she raced over as well.

"Hey, Granny!" Naruto beamed, spinning on a dime to point to each of her specialized officers, "and uh...you're Shikamaru's dad!"

"Oh, hello Yamanaka-san," Sakura said, shyly waving to Inoichi who brightly waved back. Ibiki did not glower, but Naruto squinted and yowled something about a trickster proctor for his Genin exam.

"Not to be rude," Ibiki said rudely, "but why are these brats here, Hokage-Sama?"

Tsunade crossed her arms, feeling the slightest bit miffed. She said cooly, "because we're going to trial Danzo."

"Eh? That slimy council-bastard?" Naruto asked, face darkening abruptly. "Then why did ya' send away Shika? He was there when you got that bastard!"

Shikaku controlled himself very well and did not react to that information. Sakura shifted on her feet, kicking the ground with one metal-tipped shoe. She asked; "Lady Tsunade, I...heard from Naruto about all the horrible things that man did...are they true?"

"They are," she confirmed, "I plan to interrogate him for further acts against Konoha."

"I won't be able to crack him," Ibiki warned immediately, "the man knows my standard techniques and tricks. If I try harder, it'll only snap what warped mind that bastard has."

Tsunade looked at Kakashi, who awkwardly said, "I'm the warped mind that got snapped."

"Oh shut up, Hatake," Ibiki snapped, huffing openly. Naruto giggled a little, looking delighted at his sensei's awkwardness.

"I'm not planning on either of you two interrogating Danzo."

"Then it's true?" Shikaku asked quietly, "from what the rumours said, I wasn't sure. Itachi Uchiha has returned to Konoha? I knew he left with Naruto and Jiraiya but…"

"He what?" Ibiki snapped.

"He's back," Hatake said, obviously trying to rile the man up further. The way Ibiki's facial scar furrowed into a deep trench, it was working. Kakashi elevated his voice and shouted mockingly sweet, "come on out my cute little mochi!"

Tenzo had the polite respect to walk out from the treeline, nodding calmly to all three men with a void expression. It cracked when Naruto wailed something, flinging himself at the man with an affectionate bearhug.

Ibiki had personally overseen all ANBU cognitive checks. Itachi Uchiha manifested under the most subtle soap-bubble rupture of a genjutsu less than a step away from Ibiki Morino. The latter cursed violently, jolting nearly off his seat with both hands flying to weapons that were suspiciously absent.

"I suggest being careful," Itachi droned monotone with red eyes piercing scarlet. He twirled two bags around his right hand, one with poison senbon and the other with kunai. So dry it could evaporate a river, Itachi said; "you don't know who may stumble over there and get hurt."

Ibiki bared his teeth, Itachi didn't blink and his Sharingan swirled a disorienting terrifying cycle.

Naruto shouted, "Itachi you dramatic Uchiha-idiot! You said you'd bring me a rice bun and you lied! You're a liar!"

On cue, a bird glided into the clearing carrying a small paper-wrapped rice bun. Naruto cheered happily, Sakura shouted something else. Itachi twirled the small bags of weapons and had the outright gall to manifest his Mangekyo to show his point.

"Hokage-sama?" Ibiki asked baritone, "permission to detain a terrorist?"

"Denied," Tsunade said, "he isn't a terrorist."

Itachi didn't laugh, but he did smile. Ibiki nearly lunged to punch the bastard in the face- it took both Inoichi and Shikaku to grab both upper arms to keep him seated.

Itachi drifted past him, tossing the weapons over his shoulder in an I don't care style that left Kakashi near wheezing from his fencepost. Uchiha were a temperamental sort, that held grudges and lashed out in all ways petty.

"This is amazing," Naruto moaned around the free food, collapsing onto the ground equally dramatic.

"Where's the other one?" Sakura asked, craning her neck around the area.

"Snorkeling," Itachi said illogically.

The Hokage paused before she exhaled carefully and controlled. She opened her eyes and glanced over to Kakashi who already was drawing his thumb away from his face- blood beading on the tip. A few signs later, a small war-hardened dog stood proud and ready to bite a foot off.

"Maa, hello Pakkun," Kakashi greeted quietly, offering a small scratch to the dog's chin. The ninken rumbled appreciatively and eyed the gathering.

"What did you do this time, boss?" the dog asked tiredly, "did you get sent for another eval?"

"Not exactly," Kakashi said in a low murmur, "can you go wake my sleepy pup?"

"No problem," Pakkun said, stomping with military efficiency before he paused and eyed Itachi with brown dog eyes. The pug said, "Hey, no hard feelings from when I bit your leg off, right?"

"None," Itachi said in turn, offering one hand silently, fingers curled and the back exposed for Pakkun to sniff. A few warm chuffs, then Pakkun skeptically eyed the hand, butted his face to it, and waited for some sort of attempt at a pet.

Itachi didn't, he waited with no movement and Pakkun barked a quiet disbelieving laugh, then shook his head. He said under his breath, "you always were the nice one."

Humanizing Itachi was one area that Kakashi secretly stressed over. Tenzo had years to acclimatize to social interaction and the opportunity to find his personal identity. Itachi had neither.

'I hadn't considered Naruto,' Kakashi realized, feeling suddenly unbalanced on his fencepost. The blonde had finished his snack and threw himself onto the bench next to the older Uchiha, rattling on about something and paying compliments to the elaborate braid in the Uchiha's hair that Kakashi hadn't cared enough to remember.

Lady Tsunade looked smug over the arrangement, eying Ibiki who watched Naruto and Itachi's interactions with a stern eye. Kakashi thought, 'smart, bringing Naruto in for this.'

Pakkun came walking back with a stranger at his tail. Wearing a large travelling cloak a shade shy from grey, Sasuke had the large hood pulled up and over his hair. The tail of a braid breached from under the hood at one point, looking terribly frayed and tied with old cracking leather.

He looked tired, worn and weary in the silent twist to each step. Then Naruto stood up and waved both arms and cried out happily, "there you are, sleepyhead! Were you gonna stay in bed all day?"

Kakashi inhaled and for a moment, he could imagine how it would end, with screaming and fighting and a Chidori buzzing on his hand-.

Sasuke pushed the lip of his hood back slightly, glancing out with dark tired eyes and an innocent childish expression of surprise that made Kakashi's heart hurt for him.

Then it changed into something playful and cocky, all past failures and pains forgiven as the Uchiha called, "I'm not you, dobe."

Naruto cried out with outrage, raising both fists into the air. Both of Sakura's hands lifted to her mouth, her eyes were suspiciously damp looking. Kakashi thought, 'it's nice to see them back together.'

"Sasuke," Sakura said nervously, toeing the dirt again with her shoes. "You look…"

"Sakura," Sasuke said in return, a tad stiffly. There was some sort of tension between them that only Sasuke felt, Sakura clearly had no reason or hesitance in throwing her arms around his shoulders to hug him fiercely. The height difference left her feet dangling, which she ignored as she nearly sobbed into the boring cloak. Then, the tides turned and her abs activated as she craned sideways and smashed him to the side and into the ground.

Naruto cackled while Itachi gawked, both Tenzo and Kakashi shared a knowing look. Sakura put her hands on her hips and shouted, "you idiot! Do you have any idea how mad I was when I found out you left willingly? I thought you went and had your mind scrambled! I spent forever with Ino trying to learn how to fix that! Why I- I oughta punch you and give you brain trauma!"

Sasuke looked at the sky in stunned silence before his chest jerked in silent laughter. Sakura fumed, then melted with fond adoration. She offered one hand, Naruto throwing himself forward eagerly to help. They were attached at the hip, unwilling to let Sasuke sneak off for a moment's notice.

Kakashi thought, 'adorable,'

"What the hell is going on?" Ibiki asked.

"The Uchiha's are cleared of any and all crimes, Danzo orchestrated everything," Tsunade said bluntly, "Itachi Uchiha infiltrated the Akatsuki and has provided intel that has led us to many priceless victories. Sasuke Uchiha has similarly been working independently of Konoha to provide us vital intel."

Shikaku nodded, looking a bit amused by Ibiki's confusion. Shikaku said casually, "it turns out also that the Uchiha clan deities are somehow real, either as actual religious figures or Chakra constructs with influence."

"My cute little student has been getting visions of the future," Hatake said delighted, "and turns into an enormous dragon. My cute little not-churiki."

Sasuke paused and looked around almost shyly. "You...you've believed me?"

Kakashi nodded quietly. Pakkun, silent until now said, "kid, we have to have a talk about the giant snake thing."

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted with an accusatory finger, "what the heck? I thought only I had a cool giant summon!"

"I have Katsuyu," Sakura said dryly, cracking her fist dangerously. Naruto gulped.

Sasuke said, a tad off-kilter, "it's...difficult, to explain."

"We have time," Inoichi said. "We're only plotting a national revolution."

"International," Sasuke corrected deadpan, "the Akatsuki have constructed an army."

"An army?" Tenzo asked. "What- how? They don't have the funds to-."

"The first Hokage's cells have been cultured and grown into an army of creatures," Sasuke said without emotion, "similar experimentation was done on Danzo's arm."

Tsunade cursed, Sakura's grip on Sasuke's shoulder tightened ever so slightly. Sakura said, "I took care of that. It's...it's possible, but that arm was made by…"

"Orochimaru," Sasuke confirmed. Naruto's hands curled into a fist as his eyes looked at the dirt in contemplative frustration.

"So we take care of Orochimaru," Kakashi said casually, "that will fix the problem?"

"I...don't know," Sasuke said, eyebrows furrowing slightly. Tsunade waited for a vision or some sort of projectile hemorrhaging, yet it didn't come.

"Why are they going after Kurama?" Naruto asked abruptly, one hand curling around his stomach. "Like, those bastards were mean, and they want him for something."

"Reunion," Sasuke muttered, then shrugged his shoulders.

Shikaku folded his hands below his mouth, staring into the middle ground before he asked openly, "the technique used in the invasion years ago, with the reanimated first and second Hokage. Can it be used?"

"Yikes," Kakashi muttered, Pakkun huffed wordlessly.

Tsunade twisted around, looking at Sasuke with an odd expression. It chilled, icing over suddenly as her eyes narrowed into vicious accusations. She said brutally, "you were trained by him."

'Oh,' Kakashi thought as anxiety pulled a surge of adrenaline, 'that can't be true.'

Sasuke lifted his chin and said, "I saw it."

It explained a terrifying number of things. If their old theory ran true, then Sasuke experienced things just as he saw them. Kakashi remembered the horrible days of ANBU where ROOT poisoned and some agents returned with unspeakable trauma. If Sasuke had experienced a fraction of what true tutelage was, then it was impossible for him to return unscathed.

Inoichi verbalized these worries with a quiet, "and your lasting damage?"

"Damage?" Sakura echoed worriedly, "what? Sasuke-kun, are you hurt? What happened?"

Sasuke tilted his head, eyebrow furrowing slightly. He said, "it may be...simpler, to speak with him instead."

" Him?" Tsunade asked dubiously.

"The god?" Kakashi predicted, "Amaterasu?"

Sasuke grimaced and nodded slightly, the long tail of his braid swung around. Itachi, silent the entire discussion, exhaled quietly like a breeze.

Naruto said something, bickering happily with Kakashi or the Hokage. Tenzo met Kakashi's eyes with a very pointed look, something saying, warning.

It was Itachi that drew Kakashi's eye, or rather the posture. He held himself carefully and relaxed, posed so artistically it would be impossible to tell the act from the truth. The man's eyes were looking at the ground, nothing intimidating or threatening, but the ruby haze and counterclockwise rotation in both eyes set Kakashi's vigilance alert.

Itachi looked skywards with no fixed point. He asked quietly with a voice that demanded everyone listen to him, "long ago, by Tanzunaka Quarters...how did you know I was not your enemy?"

(" You gave your submission. I'll give you mother's knife."

"You'd be foolish to give an enemy a weapon."

"you're not my enemy, are you?")

Sasuke's words trailed off into silence. Naruto and Sakura stepped aside, nervously skittering to hide behind Tenzo who shared their concerns. Sasuke's fingers drummed silently along his thigh, tracing the seam of his cloak. Sasuke said, "you're my brother."

Itachi nodded his chin slightly, still looking skywards. Kakashi realized that during the day the stars were still present, hidden behind the burning light of the sun. Itachi murmured so soft it bordered a whisper, "how did you know, Sasuke?"

("Stop lying to me!"

"You're nothing to me."

"I'm everything to you.")

Sasuke said with a flat measured voice, "intuition."

Either through a skill of mimicry from mastery of genjutsu, or a fierce bond with crows with a thousand vocalizations, Itachi stared upwards and spoke in a near-identical tenor to that of prepubescent Sasuke.

(Sasuke shoved off Kakashi's hand, turned on his heel, and said to Itachi with a doubling lilt to his voice, -). Itachi said; " Sorry Itachi, maybe next time."

Sasuke bore no emotion or surprise. He said calm and with reassurance, "it meant nothing."

Itachi this time, said; " liar. "

There was no sign or reason for escalation, but in synchrony, to his accusation, Itachi was suddenly standing with three kunai poised to throw. Catlike reflexes prevented any minor injury on Sasuke's side. The younger already recovered and responded with his own Taijutsu as both Ibiki and Inoichi lurched to the sound of metal skittering on the floor.

Shikaku sighed and formed his clan signs. Both Itachi and Sasuke froze in unison where their shadows stretched, locked in a flexible position of impressive contortionism.

"Thank you," Tsunade nodded to Shikaku, then reached out to smack both Uchiha to the ground with an open palm strike. She dusted her hands and demanded, "what is your explanation for that?"

Sasuke stared stunned at the sky, a mirror of Itachi's equal disoriented confusion. Itachi started to laugh first, a shaky exhale that Sasuke echoed until they fell into hearty guffaws equally disturbing to witness.

"Uh, Granny? Did you break them?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Tsunade said, "by Kami, I think I did."

Kakashi poked them with his shoe, considering the merit of a suiton. Itachi looked at Sasuke with a new expression, wide-eyed confusion interspersed with amazement. Itachi suddenly asked, "why did you go to the Land of Earth-?"

Sasuke arched awkwardly with his position on the ground and thumped Itachi's forehead with no further words. Itachi fell silent, and they lay there stupid.

"So…" Naruto asked nervously, "what...happened?"

Sasuke sat up, shaking his head like a dog as his hair whipped around, nearly hitting Pakkun. He said, composed and uncaring of his seated position on the floor, "Hokage-sama, may I speak with Kurama?"

"Ah?" Naruto asked, pinwheeling his arms as he took a step backwards, "what- what is that supposed to mean? The hell, maybe he doesn't wanna talk with you!"

Tsunade asked warily, "why? Why does it matter?"

"The Akatsuki are gathering the Tailed Beasts to unite them into the 10-Tails," Sasuke said almost like a mission report, "they plan to seal the Chakra Monster into a Jinchuriki, using the power to begin the Eternal Tsukuyomi."

Tsunade asked, "is this part of the world ending business you mentioned years ago?"

"Hai," Sasuke confirmed lazily, eyes shifting to both Shikaku and Inoichi who seemed up to date with events. "The attack on Konoha was to secure Kyuubi's chakra. They require the 8-tails still before they have all tailed beasts."

"But that's wrong," Naruto said.

All eyes fell to him. He shuffled uncomfortably, awkward under so many eyes. He rubbed the back of his head and said, "uh, Kurama said that the 8-tails hasn't spoken in a while."

"Then they've changed order," Itachi said. "Originally, Hidan and Kakuzu were to fetch the 8-tails. They've been dealt with."

"The only Akatsuki members remaining are Sasori, Deidara, Zetsu, and Tobi," Shikaku stated. He crossed his arms, looking more like Shikamaru at this moment. "We have on authority that Sasori since his puppets were destroyed, has been operating entirely in the labs or underground. It isn't unrealistic to say he is working alongside Orochimaru."

"They hate each other," Itachi said bluntly.

"Redacted then," Shikaku agreed. "If an army is being constructed, both Sasori and Orochimaru may construct a devastating force. Have you found a way to neutralize the...abomination Danzo had?"

"No," Sakura said anxiously, "but it's a unique chakra. Sensors could find it."

"Then we find sensors to better handle the situation," Tsunade agreed unhappily, "reach out to Suna for aid in these matters. We need to keep Naruto hidden if that's the case."

"What? No!" Naruto argued, "that's not fair! Granny I can help, you can't keep me here like that? Kurama and I can go wreck that lousy snake and-."

Sasuke jolted and began to pace. He blinked quickly, frantic almost as his hands twitched and his left shoulder slumped. Sasuke stopped suddenly on his fourth repetition, cursing loud enough to startle a crow.

"I forgot," Sasuke said viciously and filled with venom. He hissed, so similar to a snake Tsunade paled and Sasuke hissed, "I forgot!"

"Uh, what?" Naruto asked, poking the metaphorically sleeping dragon.

"Pein," Sasuke spat out, a near frenzied look in his eyes, " Nagato."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed and he asked, "who?"

That apparently was the trigger, because Sasuke began to laugh shrill. It was a startling sound, not quite manic but very much frustrated. He roared again, "I forgot! It didn't matter before, because you spoke to Nagato. He performed the rebirth-..."

Kakashi stepped forward and grabbed Sasuke's shoulder. He spun him and took a position with both hands gentle on his collarbone and neck. There was no blood from a weeping eye or unexplained injuries. Kakashi didn't need to hunker to meet Sasuke's eyes and draw his attention. Kakashi murmured, "Sasuke, focus. What is wrong? What did you see?"

Sasuke looked at him numbly, then shook his head in disbelief. The Uchiha snorted, closed his eyes so tightly his whole face wrinkled. He shrugged out of Kakashi's hands, nearly falling as he shuddered.

When he stood, it was someone else. When he opened his eyes, they were mismatched but focused and undeniably clear. The way his face furrowed in determination, the steady forward slouch that shied too close to a lunge spoke every second as Sasuke's stance, Sasuke's expression, Sasuke-Sasuke-Sasuke.

"I forgot," Sasuke said, looking irritated at himself. Guilt did not suit a Rinnegan. Sasuke looked at Kakashi and repeated with dread, "I forgot."

Everyone, in turn, stared at Kakashi, collectively too stunned to speak words. Kakashi pointed one finger at himself to double-check and felt similarly stunned when Sasuke nodded.

"Uh, Amaterasu uh, dragon person?" Naruto asked awkwardly, waving one hand to gain Sasuke's attention, "is that you?"

"No," Itachi said. Itachi had always been a genius. Terrorism and trauma often occluded the singular characteristic. Itachi said, "that's Sasuke."

Naruto huffed and said, "yeah yeah, but like, the big scary dragon thingy-."

"Uchiha are descendants of dragons," Kakashi whispered, feeling grotesque horror fill him.

Itachi said; "That is Sasuke."

The divergence was after the Chunin exams, where a cursed seal bled into a Mangekyo. In a world where divine intervention hadn't occurred- what would happen? What destiny would come from that?

Sasuke wouldn't be trusted out of the village. He would never go to find Lady Tsunade alongside Kakashi and Jiraiya. He would have heard about Itachi and Kisame ignoring him in favour of someone less.

Kakashi knew his student, he knew the allure of power and the depths he would go to get it. Kakashi knew the injuries, the sudden knowledge of swordsmanship. The random bits of skill correlated too well to additional tutelage. Sasuke had a snake summon.

'You tried to kill me,' Sasuke once told him. Kakashi was terrified to know why.

There were so many things Kakashi wanted to know, but he had no idea how to phrase them. He wanted to know why his student walked like his arm didn't belong. Why he had taken up a sword. Why he was so determined to find his brother, he crossed half the world to reach him.

Kakashi tasted ash on his tongue and wondered why all his attempts at teammates and students either died or turned traitor, and wondered if it was due to him.

"Kurama says he wants to talk to you," Naruto said, pouting obscenely given the circumstance. The ninja huffed and crossed his arms grumpily, already having accepted the odd shift to Sasuke. With another huff, Naruto shook his head vigorously, looking determined and strained with some sort of internal battle.

Sasuke faced Naruto with a bland expression, waiting silently as Naruto continued to huff and pout. Tenzo, a little hesitant asked, "wouldn't using the Sharingan…"

"No," Sasuke deadpanned. Naruto huffed something like a laugh, closing his eyes with focus. When he looked at Sasuke, Naruto's eyes were that of an animal. His posture altered, but not so much as the Uchihas had. Naruto always walked with a lazy slump to him, an arch in his back to accommodate fluid flexibility that was all vulpine like the whiskers on his cheeks. When Naruto opened his mouth and simpered, the coy expression included elongated fangs.

Tenzo's hands flashed to the ready, Itachi's eyes lit scarlet in silent tension. Kakashi himself felt adrenaline and old instincts slam into him, an old proclivity he felt as a child.

'Thank goodness I wear a mask,' Kakashi thought with some tired relief, feeling the slackness in his jaws and the curled expression to bare his own fangs in silent threat. 'Naruto would never let me live this down.'

Pakkun, half dozing and silent the duration of the meeting, stood up and said, "nope, you're on your own, boss," and vanished with a puff of dog smell.

"The Uchiha brat," a monster in Naruto's body said, using his vocal cords but rasping low with a growl from years of violent shrieking. Naruto's eyes widened, slit pupils viciously trailing around the group as the monster cocked its head curiously as a childish pup would. "We meet again, but in the wind and walking."

Sasuke paused and observed the kitsune, evaluating something the silent humans couldn't perceive. After a pause, Sasuke said, "do you remember the warning?"

"The day where I and my kin will be bound like a curr?" the Kyubi sneered, venomously lashing out and delighting in the flinches from the human audience, "you left quite an impression, lost little Uchiha. How small you were then, I should have eaten you to spare the trouble."

Kakashi thought hysterically, 'Naruto's stomach isn't big enough for a person, only half.'

"I was told to tell you of the day, where you will be brought together but not as you once were," Sasuke repeated with swift intonation that rehearsal provided. Practice and repetition of important prophecy, one that the Kyuubi clearly did not enjoy. It looked annoyed, dark satisfaction vanishing under a superiority complex and irritation. "I remember, but I do not care."

Sasuke ignored the insult. He continued speaking with grave importance; "I met the Gobi and spread the warning to stall the Akatsuki for time. The timeline has been delayed long enough where I'll be prepared in advance prior to the Juubi."

Kyuubi snarled and Kakashi found himself growling a low bass that vibrated his chest. He was unaware of it until Sakura slipped to his side and bumped one shoulder against his chest. She was not trembling but gathering Chakra for a mighty punch if necessary.

"I do not listen to that of humans," the fox taunted, "even those touched by inferiors."

'Of course,' Kakashi thought, 'the Tailed Beasts would know about the Uchiha gods. The Biju were once named gods as well.'

Sasuke said, "Kaguya returns."

Naruto's nostrils flared, his ears wiggling ever so slightly. The Kyuubi fell into silent contemplation.

The creature thought of such a concept before. Despite his old age, his memory was keen and among the best of his siblings.

Matatabi said wait, and he had wondered for what. She warned the sage was not here and said not yet. Kurama was an old creature, and he remembered and learned to hate. He remembered the sage, the warmth of his smile, and if he tried and bit through the tide of hurt and dark loneliness, he could remember old whispered words, "take care of your family, Kurama,"

Kaguya's return meant their return to what they were before, but also the death of Naruto.

( "I'm sorry, Kurama! I've been so busy with learning toad stuff I didn't even realize you were getting lonely!" )

Perhaps it would be the end of humans, and perhaps once Kurama would not have cared.

( "Kurama?" Naruto repeated, eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Is everything okay with you, chiniku?")

Naruto called Kurama chiniku. He claimed Kurama to be flesh and blood, equal and kin and family.

Humans had ruined so much of the world, but Kurama knew he himself had failed to protect it as well. He had forgotten his duties, the promise he held and let it all be consumed by hate.

Kurama asked the Uchiha, "and what does that matter?"

Sasuke, the true human blessed with a heavenly eye with chakra so familiar it hurt Kurama, said, "we need your help."

Kurama scoffed. That was a lie, they didn't need his help.

"No," Kurama said bold and bemused, "you need Naruto."

The proclamation carried heavyweight. Silence echoed through the group, each overwhelmed and suffering from their own sort of grief or dread. Kurama cackled loud and ecstatic, forever delighted by his role as an instigating hellion.

Then an enormous sword thrust itself into the epicentre of their presence, literally impaling itself into the ground with a loud sssslk!

"Hey, guys!" Shisui Uchiha cackled, teetering on his too-small perch with one foot on the pommel of the sword, the other splayed out in hopes to aid his balance. Still laughing, the Uchiha crouched awkwardly like an enormous gangly frog, "look at this cool sword I found!"

---

Plotting for war came easy with a Sharingan on your side.

Not always, in every situation. Uchiha were dangerous foes, and a devastating force in the warring times. A Sharingan constructed a perfect memory, with information untainted by time and perfect recollection for mission reports or strategic planning. Sasuke admitted stiffly, that he had his Sharingan active for most of the war-that-wasn't.

Shisui had his own unique problems, namely, the enormous sword that aptly named, was the side of a whale. He lumbered around, hauling it across the dirt plowing a crevice wherever he walked. Kakashi teased 'Maa, with all that farmwork, maybe you should go on genin missions,' and Itachi called him something and unnecessarily used the word maladroit, to which Shisui complained that both his friends were massive bookworms and needed to get smacked.

The sword was ridiculous and unbearably heavy. Shisui cooed like a songbird as Itachi struggled to heft it above his knees. Kakashi managed to hoist it around for one swing- looking every bit like a child attempting to pick up a woodcutter's axe. Naruto cheered them on (he was banned from touching or holding any swords, due to the fact they were sharp) with fourteen shadow clones, going so far as to contort into misspelled attempts at their names.

Sakura, clearly amused and waiting for Yamato to pass out from overworking himself, strolled up to the sword and lifted it with one arm.

"Huh," she said, glancing at the dull matte metal with interest, "it isn't doing the blue colour?"

"Only if I hold it," Shisui said, eying her bulging deltoids with open respect, "have you ever used a sword?"

"No, not really," she said, setting it down gently adjacent to the massive gouge from Kakashi's poor attempt. "I ah, I'll stick to punching things?"

"Sure thing!" Shisui chattered, fluttering next to her and grabbing the handle. The sword lit up with shimmering cobalt and sapphire hues, dancing along and over the surface like light off the water. Sakura gasped quietly, leaning forward to touch the colours although she felt no difference.

"Careful, it's sharp," Shisui warned.

"I'm not Naruto," she huffed teasingly, testing the bite of the edge, "besides, a week ago I stuck someone's foot back on after they stepped in a wire trap."

Shisui tried not to laugh, hoisting the sword around in oversized clumsy katas. "I feel like a kid again, how the hell do you even use this thing?"

All eyes slowly slid to Sasuke, who scowled at the collective group and crossed his arms defensively.

"You know, considering that he's somehow like, two Sasuke's shoved into one, he's remarkably the same," Shisui remarked.

Sakura hummed quietly, still a little torn. Sasuke walked around her tentatively, awkward and uncomfortable which he hadn't ever been before. Something must have happened, and Sakura knew when she was upset, things tended to escalate.

"Do you think he's okay?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"I mean, I watched him grow his eyes back," Shisui mused, "so I can't imagine this is really that big of a shock."

"Oh…" Sakura said, blinking quickly in stunned confusion, "that's...fascinating."

"What about you, sweetheart?" Shisui drawled, leaning against his sword comically. It towered above him, casting a shadow that partially covered Sakura. "You have any secret techniques? Any fiery wings about to explode out of your back? Any sentient chakra monsters wanting to talk about the weather?"

Sakura choked on a laugh, struggling and burping from the surplus air. Shisui snorted and tried not to completely melt. Sakura straightened with a wheeze, coughing from spit descending the wrong pipe. She reached out with one hand, smacking him jokingly, "shut up!"

"You have a swing there, ouch."

She sobered, reaching out with a glowing wave of chakra pouring from her body, "sorry! You distracted me. Are you alright?"

Shisui waved her off playfully, "no problem. Seriously, that's impressive. Are you a taijutsu expert?"

"Oh…" she trailed off quietly, shifting her weight back and forth. "I'm nothing special. Lady Tsunade took me under her wing, normally I just heal the worst cases she has no time to see."

Shisui considered her. Quiet acceptance of her inabilities and failures sat heavily around her, Shisui didn't need a Sharingan to notice it.

"That's not true," Shisui argued with a tiny huff, "you were Hatake's genin, right? What was that like?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Lots of screaming. Naruto was an idiot, Sasuke was all brooding, and I...was pretty useless."

Shisui had worked with Hatake a few times. The standards the man had were borderline unreal. He likely dropped them far below a baseline level for genin. Shisui could imagine it, the subpar performance and increasing stress all while Hatake was struggling himself to practically raise two children.

"It wasn't like I wasn't a good student," she defended, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "I was top of my graduating class! But...well, back then I didn't know about the Kyuubi...and Sasuke was just so... serious… "

"It really bothered you, huh?" Shisui asked rhetorically. He could see it on her face, it still bothered her.

"I didn't want to be useless," she said quietly, "and...and I didn't know how to do anything! Sasuke had all these clan tricks or things we learned outside the academy. And Naruto kept making clones and it always worked, and I just...shouted a lot and hoped a real ninja could step in."

Shisui inhaled heavily and broached the sneaky subject, "that's why you took up healing? You saw them getting hurt again and again and wanted to change that?"

"I...maybe?" she asked shrill.

"There's no shame in it," he argued sternly, "they tell you when you're a kid that if you try hard enough, you can be Hokage. But the truth is that you can't, some people are lucky and fate falls in their favour, and they have the ability to reach greater heights."

Sakura wilted, eyes turning downcast with a wet sheen. Her lip trembled, and Shisui felt his heart go out for her. He said; "that doesn't mean that you're useless."

"I was!"

"That's crap!" Shisui shouted back, keenly aware of where her fists were. "You weren't useless then and you aren't useless now!"

Her jaw locked and rage sparkled in her eye. She looked ready to throw down, barely resisting the urge. "You know- you know nothing !"

"I know more than you," Shisui taunted, hoping the bait against her intelligence would be the final straw. She shouted angrily, a wordless noise of frustration as she stomped her foot. The ground buckled, crackling with the force from her epicentre. It rattled the benches along the side of the training field, caused leaves to fall from trees.

"You are the-the most-..." she struggled to find words, fists trembling.

Shisui thought, 'Susanoo, I don't know what you did but I hope the fish thing still works,' and placed his hands on his hips and mocked openly, "finish your sentences, sweetheart."

Shisui knew it would be bad when her face calmed, all rage fleeing into a serene expression. Itachi had the same look when he was a child and jounin mocked his age.

Sakura nodded slowly and said, "yeah, you're probably right. How's this- S hannaro!"

The fist that hit his sternum hit worse than the green spandex oddity that hung around Hatake. It sent Shisui skidding backwards too fast for the chakra to secure him to the ground- not that he could feel his legs at all. The hit hadn't broken anything, which was the most baffling thing of all.

"I think my ribs are loose," Shisui croaked once he found himself on his back gazing at the sky. He had no memory of actually hitting the ground, or how far he flew. "Can your ribs come loose?"

"Why were you upsetting her?" Itachi asked, kneeling beside his head. One long lock of hair draped over his shoulder, nearly touching Shisui's face. Itachi politely tucked it behind his ear, curiously surveying Shisui for further damage. It wasn't like either hadn't done worse to each other in training before.

"Reminds me of you," Shisui wheezed, still struggling to feel his legs or his lower torso at all. He asked shrilly, "no, no, did I...please tell me I didn't."

Itachi's lips quirked into a smile, he said with fake sincerity, "I'm sorry. Your trousers are not wet with blood."

"Kill me now," Shisui moaned, throwing one arm over his eyes, "just, take that sword and chop me in half."

Across the training ground, Kakashi was clapping lazily. Naruto was openly cheering and Sasuke had his Sharingan on for the entire fight, the bastard.

"I've never seen you do that," Itachi offered politely, which didn't help the matter at all.

"That's because I've never done this," Shisui whined, feeling slowly returning to his lower torso and his legs. It ached somewhere around his bladder, which made no sense but wounded his pride.

"Hah!" Sakura shouted across the training field, pumping one fist in the air, "how's that feel?"

Shisui croaked to Itachi, "this is horrible."

Itachi dutifully reported in a louder voice, "he apologizes."

"Traitor," Shisui moans, slumping on the ground.

Sakura huffed, dusting off her knuckles while walking over. She blew a long strand of hair out of her eyes and cockily stated, "how do you like getting wasted?"

"That pun was so not necessary," Shisui muttered, accepting Itachi's help with sitting up. He groaned, grunting and cradling his wounded body, oddly below the impact site. Increasing his voice, Shisui said, "okay fine, but like, that was a lucky hit."

"No it wasn't," she said, rolling her eyes and cocking a hip, "you were being an ass, so I triggered your nerves."

Itachi swung his head around, now very invested. "You located his visceral nerves in that short of contact?"

Sakura blinked and said, "yes? I'm a medical-nin, I have good control."

"No," Shisui moaned, slumping back to the ground as Itachi abandoned him to his misery. The younger Uchiha looked at Sakura with riveting attention. He looked at her, then activated his Sharingan to scout along her charka pathways and coils.

"Uh," Sakura said, feeling odd under such scrutiny, "is there something wrong?"

"'Tachi, don't," Shisui moaned from the floor, "I'm still in pain here."

"Turn it off then," Itachi said absentmindedly, knowing full well the other was capable of genjutsu. Itachi addressed Sakura directly, "you're able to activate any nerve in the human body?"

"Any nerve outside the spinal cord," she said cautiously, "I don't know genjutsu, or I'm not good at it. Making someone's arm go numb while touching their leg is a nice trick, especially without Senbon."

Itachi said, equally cautious, "I...constructed a genjutsu technique which removes returning pain sensation to the user's perception."

" What?" she said, eyes alight with awe and delight, "you're joking. Really? That's- that's incredible! Have you recently learned it? How long can you keep it up?"

"Uh, I'm still in pain here?"

Sakura reached down absentmindedly, poking Shisui's thigh which apparently was enough to stop the chaotic nerve sensation. Shisui groaned, squirming on the ground as Itachi and Sakura tentatively tested the waters like two cats being introduced.

"I've sustained it with disembowelling for longer than predicted life expectancy."

"Hold up when did that happen? 'Tachi?"

"How did you compensate for the digestion problem?" Sakura gaped.

"Bread," Itachi said awkwardly, "a...indecent amount of bread."

"This is...wow," Sakura said, giggling a little from how surreal the experience was. "It's almost like a mixture of genjutsu and nerve activation. I wonder if I could do it on someone else, but there's no such thing as physically conducting chakra offensively…"

Itachi breathed, shakily and humbled, "physical genjutsu."

"Eh?" Sakura asked, tilting her head, lifting one finger to her mouth in a habitual tick, "that's a thing?"

"Sakura-san," Itachi said politely and formally, ignoring her spluttering complaints, "do you know how to braid hair?"

"We're all going to die," Shisui muttered.

---

Shikamaru returned with a companion in tow. At first glance across a distance, Kakashi wondered if a desert mirage followed them to Konoha because surely two Termari's broke some sort of rule.

"Hello," Kakashi said to them, greeting them at the western gate where he sprawled contently with Jiraiya's newest drafts. The chunin on duty was trembling at the sight of him, too scared to take a peek at the unreleased documents for fear they were heavily classified.

"Hey," Shikamaru drawled, lifting one arm in greeting. He looked tired in the way travelling made everyone, the desert heat had turned his skin darker and hairdryer with an odd matte finish from a mixture of sand and oil. Kakashi remembered the last time he was in the land of sand, it took him a week before the feeling of grit below his nails faded.

"Hello Hatake-san," Temari said, bowing politely despite her esteemed position as both an ambassador and friend of Shikamaru. She pulled from her pocket a small wooden talisman, looking soft and polished from hours of rubbing and coarse sand. She offered it with both hands and a humble bow like worshiping to a daimyo, "I graciously offer this of my sincere gratitude."

Kakashi blinked owlishly and plucked the small wooden figurine with two fingers. It was of a reddish wood with unique wavering rings, very unlike the normal patterns and grain from the redwoods or local trees. Kakashi had built many things in his youth, living alone required him to learn how to harvest trees or smooth them to avoid splinters. He didn't recognize the wood, nor the reason for a token.

"Maa, thanks?" he asked, unsure why the girl was going to such lengths.

Temari straightened and wilted, looking to Shikamaru nervously. She explained, "I- I was under the impression that...that you had...become Shepard to the Uchiha clan and…"

"Oh, oh," Kakashi said as realization struck him, "maa, thank you very much. This is…" very odd, "cute."

Temari smiled shyly, tucking her hands back into her sleeves in a nervous habit, "it's saksaul, a tree in our deserts," she said with a thicker accent unique to Suna turning her words, "I never had to rely on them as a kid, but the travellers always have special trails and paths and use the trees at night against the wind."

A very meaningful gift, something that had been made for him over campfires and frantic scrubbing with bits of rock and a blunt kunai. It wasn't the best-crafted thing, an adorably small crude dog with upright ears that looked a bit too much like a cat, but something she had made obviously for him.

"Thank you," Kakashi said with a bit more sincerity after a moment to examine the figurine.

"I heard about your values from him," she said, ramming one elbow into Shikamaru, "and it's my appreciation for keeping this idiot out of trouble."

"Out of trouble?" Shikamaru mumbled, covering his side with a wince, " you're the one causing trouble. Violent woman…"

The third traveller covered her mouth with one hand to stifle a chuckle. She was much taller than both Shikamaru and Temari and looked twice their age. Her long hair had been sun-bleached so pale, it nearly rivalled Kakashi's own silver scruff. Bound behind her head with typical Suna wrappings, her forehead protector slung around her hips likely from the burning temperatures metal met under the desert sky.

Kakashi took one look at her and had the odd impression that she had herded the two small troublemakers across the continent. He cocked one eyebrow and she smiled a polite upturn on both sides of her mouth. She didn't outstretch her hand, but politely inclined her head and greeted him, "Sharingan-no-Kakashi, I have heard about you."

"Maa, all bad things I hope."

Her smile pulled back slightly in open humour. He spotted the slightest impression of fangs under her lipstick.

"Some good, but mostly bad," she admitted. "Pardon my curiosity, but you smell of foukkusu,"

'Fox,' Kakashi translated immediately, 'Naruto.'

Hidden by his mask, he inhaled silently through his nose and subdued the instinctual bristling. He said brightly, "maa, and you smell of an old cat lady."

Instead of scowling as most women tended to at that insult, the woman threw back her head with a laugh. Kakashi confirmed his theory of two fangs, much more slender and forward-positioned in comparison to his own serrated teeth. She looked at him and greeted him more familiarly, "ah, that's fair. I've been trying to reach him, but I suppose communication is not as open as it is with my friend. I met these two" she gestured to Temari and Shikamaru with one slender hand, "in Suna and requested to follow back to Konohagakure."

"She stalked us for the first night," Temari said dryly, "but deserts leave trails, you know."

The woman shrugged unconcernedly.

Kakashi hummed and nodded slowly, he asked her openly, "you are the Vessel of the Nibi?"

"I am," she confirmed easily with a lazy sort of grace, "my name is Yugito Nii, of Kumogakure."

Kakashi said in return, "a pleasure. I'm Hatake Kakashi, but I'm sure you already knew that."

"A pleasure," she said with teeth visible and sharp.

Word of the new Jinchuuriki would spread quickly, mostly due to the terrified Chunin eying them from behind their guard post. Kakashi thought it was openly hilarious, so did both Yugito and Shikamaru. Temari apologized to them kindly, but happily followed as Kakashi escorted them towards the Uchiha district.

It took a moment to alert the wards to two new visitors and allow them inside, thankfully Kakashi had more experience with it than Shikamaru. The barrier seal fell with a blue crackle which sent Yugito's pupils thinner and oblong. They entered the district with lazy chatter, Temari gushing about the unique architecture she had seen only in history books.

"Ah, hello," Yugito greeted one of the many cats. They duplicated, turning into three, then seven cat heads equally indecently fluffy that walked towards her dignified and interested. "Hello, little ones. You are so kind, and so far from home."

One meowed at her and made Kakashi bristle. Yugito smiled and caressed one cat's long tail, toying with it gently. She explained unnecessarily, "these are mountain cats. Or were now domesticated. Only the Raikage has a similar kind, but not as elegant as these."

Kakashi internally brightened at yet more ammunition to use against the Hokage, supporting his theory that only the important people originated from Kumo.

They walked a tad further but Yugito paused softly on the balls of her feet, scanning the rooftops with keen alertness. She tensed, holding at the ready with no aggression or bristling of her chakra.

"What is it?" Temari asked quietly, tucking slightly closer to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru said, with thick dread, "...it may be Naruto."

From over the rooftops, a bestial roar of teenage excitement sent roosting birds to the sky, " Yugito!"

Naruto crashed into her with enough force to stagger her. She adjusted with one leg, bracing her ground as the excited teenager bounced around babbling loudly about various nonsense and ramen. Shikamaru and Temari exchanged a look.

"It's inspiring that he's our age," Shikamaru sighed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Temari snorted. Kakashi intercepted, pulling Naruto back with an apologetic smile.

"It's no worries," Yugito said with a small smile, her long hair swishing from the slight movement of her head. "He is excited and very young."

"He's impossible to calm down," Kakashi agreed tiredly, holding Naruto boldly out like one would a puppy.

"Eh?" Naruto shrieked, thrashing around, "let me go you pervert! This is Yugito-Nii!"

"Nii-chan?" Yugito repeated, on verge of laughing again, "then I ask you to calm down, Naruto- chan."

Naruto screeched, blushing violently as the older woman shook her head fondly. Her long hair thwapped around like a cat tail, not sentient but alarming nonetheless. She reached out and ruffled his hair, ignoring his blush and Kakashi's hands on his scruff.

"You came for the Kyuubi?" Kakashi guessed.

"Ne," Yugito denied politely, "I was in Iwa when Sensei fell to the Akatsuki. The Raikage requested I return to reinforce our defences, but Matatabi insisted I flee."

"The 8-tails," Kakashi assumed, "the Akatsuki has been crippled. Their leader invaded our village and was defeated."

"I know, word has spread," Yugito explained, "I ran south through Iwa and Ishigakure to Suna through the northern desert. Matatabi demanded I find the envoy sent to the Kazekage and trial them to Konohagakure to find Naruto."

"That's a long way to run," Kakashi said lightly whilst evaluating her cooly.

Yugito smiled once more with feline fangs, "I run very fast."

"She met us after we departed from Suna," Temari said openly, "we talked for a while, and found our interests aligned."

"Maa, how convenient."

Naruto, now trying to chew hard enough on Kakashi's arm bracer to get him to let go, shouted; "can you drop me already? This is good! We were already tryin' to figure out what those bastards had done!"

"I managed to slay the two Akatsuki, the ones that came for me," Yugito said with a dark scowl, "they expected easy prey."

'There's two less than,' Kakashi calculated, thinking of the more realistic pair. Likely Deidra and Sasori, they had been a duo before and Sakura managed to cripple Sasori, but not kill him. Deidra escaped after stealing Gaara.

"Cool," Shikamaru drawled slowly, shuffling on his feet, "time to go report this to the Hokage and figure out a plan?"

"It'll make our treaties easier," Kakashi agreed with fake sweetness, "did you hear, cute little Nara? We're proposing continental peace."

Shikamaru stared at him, waiting indecently long for the joke. Temari gaped, accepting it instantly but failed to make a sound. Yugito huffed, once more messing with Naruto's hair before she smoothed it down into a new shape of chaos.

"You're not joking," Shikamaru croaked in horror, "oh, Kami. Why?"

"The Akatsuki have an army," Temari concluded dully, "that is the only possible explanation."

"Correct," Kakashi said to her, nodding once, "they are using creatures. The same origin as the fake arm on Danzo."

Shikamaru swore, still blatantly in shock, "then we need to interrogate Danzo!"

"We are," Kakashi reassured, "but ah, not us. Danzo is skilled with interrogation, he did create ROOT. We have an ah...special weapon."

---

Danzo knew the size of his cell. Subdued and bound with seals made by the Sealmaster Jiraiya himself- he felt no fear.

Perhaps ROOT had been dismantled, perhaps his work had been undone. Everything he did was for justice and peace, and ultimately that would show as the world destabilized itself without his careful machinations to keep balance in line.

No interrogators had come to him, only the new Hokage herself who stood before him radiating fury and judgement. She stayed silent for the hour, then left by slamming the door so it echoed in the small cell for minutes after.

Danzo knew, and she knew, that there was no cell that could hold him forever. Killing him would incite violence and revolt from the civilian population. There was no interrogator capable of defeating the barriers reinforced and taught to him by the second Hokage himself.

Weakened without his secret arm, he still felt every bit in control and in power.

The door opened with light shining across the floor, piercing the veil of darkness and the thin material of his seal-coated blindfold. The footsteps were light on the stone but still echoed off the Nara traps. Too light to be the Hokage, too rapid for Hatake the crazed mutt who interfered too often and failed to do as commanded.

That left either the Nara, who walked slowly with full contact steps or the Uchiha.

'How interesting,' Danzo thought amused. The Sharingan would not cripple him, he spent decades with a Mangekyo in his skull and Sharingan in his arms. To send the Uchiha to him for interrogation was a mockery, had they forgotten the failure of the Sharingan's attempt on the battlefield?

(He had no knowledge how a wild animal with no chakra came so willingly to their command. Even influenced animals had chakra about them, but Danzo considered it unfortunate luck.)

He said smoothly and calmly, "the Sharingan will not work, Uchiha."

Itachi came to a stop in front of Danzo, seeming to stare. At the seals or bonds that made Danzo subdued, cancelling his chakra and masking his location.

Then, a tie unwound and drooped from his upper arm. Another fell from his neck. A line drew across the skin on the nape of his neck, where a seal had been painted cold and thick across his spine.

'Why?' Danzo wondered as slowly, his senses returned. He was blinded, but the warm touch of chakra tugged through his body. He could not shift it or express it without hand signs- those were still bound, but now free to move chakra he could potentially reinforce his arms or legs to break from his cell. Once the foolish Uchiha left, of course.

"Are you so childish that fear guides you now?" Danzo baited with a velvet honey tone. "There is no salvation for you, Itachi Uchiha."

The boy circled around him, shifting something in his hand. Danzo presumed it to be a blade, something metal had cut across the seal. 'He returns for revenge, how quaint.'

Danzo did not smile when a brush near his temple tugged on the seals securing his eyes. It fell away, fluttering to his lap and freeing his single eye and bandaged socket.

Danzo did not open his eyes, he did not need to. He could wait, he was a patient man and the Uchiha was a simple sheep guided by terror and anger and the childish dream of pacifism.

"Are you here to kill me?" Danzo asked mockingly, smiling slightly at the idea, "I am not afraid of death."

His death would incite violence, would break the boy further. It would garner a following that burned Konoha alive, and only the roots of order would survive to grow new prosperity.

Danzo smiled into the darkness of his cell.

"Don't you know?" crowed a ghost, "you're already dead."

Danzo's eyes opened instinctively, his senses and logic screaming that such a thing was impossible. It was not Edo Tensei or a creature of Orochimaru's passion. It bore no open wounds or lesions like that of civilian gossip. No long trailing robe or yukata with flowers and perfection dripping from ascension.

Shisui Uchiha stood before him, lazily slouched with one hip cocked. Pride and mockery oozed from the boy, a wry bitter smile warped his face viciously into something fitting considering his ultimate end.

Two eyes pierced Danzo, glowing red with the Sharingan. That alone told the man that there may be truth to the claim- only recently had Danzo lost his eye and to that, it was the Uchiha boy. There was no reason for Orochimaru to obtain it, or even a fake to equip a copy with two matching eyes. Fully awakened Sharingan was rare, a scarce resource now.

To claim that Danzo was dead... it was unfathomable. He still felt, he still pushed and pulled his chakra and felt the ties on his hand and knees. He sensed the strength in the seals, but could not press his chakra further to outside the cold dark cell of his binding.

Shisui Uchiha asked, "do you think I'm a farce? Do you think I'm a mimicry?"

"You are a well-constructed copy," Danzo said unfazed.

The boy tilted his head, the light from the cell window throwing a shadow across his silhouette. He looked the same age as the day he died, frozen despite the decade that passed.

Shisui Uchiha stepped forward, ANBU sandals soft on the floor as he scuffed the stone. The boy lifted one hand, drifting it past Danzo so slowly, the man could feel the illusion of heat and the brush of air. Shisui circled him slowly, walking into his blindside and spot.

"I'm not a copy," Shisui said calmly, "I drowned alive in the Naka River. I hated the flowers you put on the memorial stone."

Shisui walked slowly into his field of view, stepping forward until only his backside faced Danzo. The younger turned ominously, scarlet eyes distorting impossibly into mirror replicas that sent phantom tingles of raw power through Danzo's body.

"Did you like my eye?" Shisui mocked him, "the Kotoamatsukami?"

It was possible for a chakra mockery to create a clone or replica of Shisui Uchiha, it was possible that they obtained Danzo's eye for it. It was not possible for it to reform the ashes that burned Shisui Uchiha on his pyre, rebuilding the eye lost to river rot and cremation.

Danzo abruptly jerked his chakra and said, " kai."

The copy did not waver, no genjutsu fell away. Danzo refused to believe such a thing was real, "kai."

"It won't work," Shisui told him, pulling a long knife from a side sheath. The blade glinted blue, the ridiculous cobalt that Uchiha stupidly presumed was the work of a god. The clan with sacred ability and fire, holding on to farmhand beliefs and denial of progress. The blade was not one that Shisui Uchiha wielded in death, but a brutal looking tanto slightly longer than a Kunai with two cutting surfaces with a vicious curve. Too short for battle, it looked oriental and for violent disembowelment.

Danzo did not fear pain, he did not fear death. He stayed calm as an impossible illusion surveyed him with fake eyes. Some sort of new technique, it was not the boy in front of him.

"Are you afraid?" Shisui asked him quietly, face and expression impassive.

"I do not fear death," Danzo said genuinely, "My passing will ignite a revolution-."

"It didn't," Shisui confided in him, drifting around his body once again, "in fact, Konohagakure calls you a traitor. They worship the Jinchuuriki as a hero."

Danzo's blood chilled. He refused to believe that, he knew it wasn't true, "I am not afraid to die."

Shisui Uchiha sighed loudly, plopping onto his knees in front of Danzo so close, the man could feel the fake breath on his skin. Shisui hissed angrily, "how does it feel to be known as a monster? They know. All of them, what you did in that dark place underground. They call you villain, heathen, traitor."

Danzo remained unfazed. This was an illusion, someone something constructed by the Uchiha boy. Danzo stayed proud and calm, he said, "that is untrue."

Shisui Uchiha looked at him, eagerly soaking up every expression. The boy said, "you have no idea how badly I wish I could kill you."

"Your illusion is not perfect," Danzo said and smiled thinly. He closed his eyes, calm and unbothered.

Then one hand harshly grabbed him by his hair and jerked his face back. Danzo expected to see Itachi Uchiha, fuming and terrified, but the illusion remained.

"You don't think I'm here," Shisui said, equal parts frustrated and charmed. The hand tightened, sending pinpricks of sensation through Danzo's skin.

'Kai,' he thought, forcing his chakra to surge. Nothing changed.

"You think this is some grand genjutsu," Shisui marvelled, toying with the blade in his other hand.

'Kai,' Danzo repeated as the grip tugged sharply.

"I drowned, you fucking bastard," Shisui snarled viciously, seething openly with a near crazed light to the duel Mangekyo, "I drowned alive, and oh, I'm still drowning dead."

Danzo prepared for the pain as the Tanto moved, he prepared for his entrails or body to scream as his nerves ignited.

He gasped softly in surprise and hazy refusal as Shisui snarled at him with a mockery of a smile and slowly opened himself from chest to pubic bone. The blue blade carved him slowly like a fisherman gutting a tuna, delicately parting meat.

Danzo expected blood and the hot pungent smell of battle. He felt fluid pour over him, saturating his clothes with salt and brine that trailed over his exposed skin and stung the seal on his neck. It was not blood, but water that poured forth and Shisui leant forward as a waterfall became his lungs and asked disturbingly, "do you believe in youkai."

"Kai," Danzo croaked, as water and brine leaked into his parched lips. It tasted like the ocean, no echo of copper despite his futile hopes. He croaked with increasing panic, " kai."

"Not so confident now?" Shisui asked him, stepping back to give distance. Petrified, Danzo watched in disgusted horror as the long slit on the Uchiha's chest fused shut like gelatin. A slice on the surface of a lake filled shut once more.

"Kai," Danzo begged as a dark knowledge invaded his thoughts. "I am not dead. Kai."

"Your arm was interesting," Shisui said casually, twirling the blade for his own amusement, "I didn't like the eyes in it."

"It was Orochimaru's idea," Danzo blurted, terror making his jaw tremble and teeth nearly clatter, "I was- I was not part of that-."

"But it was on your body," Shisui said nonplussed, "I wonder, was that what killed you? Trapped alone in a dark cell...leaching from you until you died quietly. Unnoticed. Unimportant."

"It wouldn't do that," Danzo argued, "kai!"

Shisui circled around him, thrilled. Water splashed slightly with each step, soaking Danzo's feet. Shisui asked him; "did you know that abomination was made from the First Hokage?"

Then, the younger circled around him with a wide breathless smile. The boy confessed darkly, "he isn't happy about that."

Danzo's breath stopped. He refused to think he was dead-.

(He could see it, picture it so clearly. Hashirama Senju, standing outside the cell in wait for his turn. Waiting for Shisui Uchiha to finish, to allow him inside for a turn-.)

"Kai," Danzo croaked, and nothing happened.

"You're dead," Shisui told him, and Danzo finally believed it. "If you tell me about that disgusting thing, I can ask him to go easy on you. We have you forever, and a lot of people are angry at you."

"No," Danzo croaked, jerking slightly on the thin shackle secured around his remaining arm, "no, I can't-."

"The second Hokage, now he's pretty upset too," Shisui said with a shake of his head, sighing with fake disappointment. "He's curious about that arm. Maybe he'll open you up, put Orochimaru to shame."

"Sensei?" Danzo rasped, frozen, "no I can't…"

"Forbidden techniques are suddenly not so fun?" Shisui asked, grabbing the knife to ram into his own throat before he yanked it out with a violent spray of water. The Uchiha gurgled, " look at me!"

Danzo looked at Shisui and trembled. Shisui grinned unhinged and dropped the sword, clutching Danzo's face with both hands. The younger asked him, "tell me everything about that disgusting abomination you wore, and maybe death will be kind to you."

---

A Kage summit was announced in the days after when the civilians and farm side peoples fell into chaos and terror as Danzo was exposed to light. Countless connections were brought forth, spanning well into the gully of ROOT and associated unforgivable acts. Suna provided its political sign of unity, coincidentally "leaking" insight for its troubled and poisonous past.

Others came forth, reporting from anonymous sources which linked a sad sombre story of Iwa's treatment of Jinchuriki. The Raikage argued against it, and Yugito coyly denied his accusations with a bat of her slit eyes.

The histories of the bloody mist exposed themselves violently with no real source to say it. Sasuke entered Lady Tsunade's new office (built from Moukoton) and left hours later. The subsequent day, a certain spy network spread rumours and information linking the Mist to countless smuggling and human trafficking rings for rare bloodlines.

The weakness of Konoha meant nothing when united, the countries stood on an equal footing of disadvantage. Strategically, a Kage meeting was called and agreed on in the Land of Iron with no shinobi village to employ the Akatsuki in the past.

Decades of conflict across the nations could not be rewritten so easily, even in face of such a looming threat. Akatsuki was dangerous, but their numbers were painfully few now and deceptively gone.

"They aren't," Sasuke confessed quietly, "only the public members have gone."

Soon, the day for the Kage summit loomed over and demanded their active participation. Travelling to the Land of Iron would take a week, not including the frigid temperatures and dangerous cliffs leading to the 3-wolf-cave.

"Each Kage is permitted to take one advisor and one guard," Tsunade said to her collection of friends and shinobi. All of Team 7 were present, eager to help in any way. Kakashi loomed in the window frame, comfortably sprawled on the odd shelf constructed for the exact purpose of Hatake's odd habit. Shikamaru and Temari were the only ones sitting in the chairs provided.

"Just two people?" Naruto complained, gasping at the audacity, "but granny! They're after Kurama, so I gotta go-."

"Naruto shut up," Sakura huffed, "it's going to be politics! You hate negotiations unless it involves clones!"

"She has a point," Kakashi said from his window, leisurely stretching his legs out in the sun, "maa, Naruto it would be a political disaster if you made friends with all the Kage."

"He's already best friends with my brother," Temari muttered fondly under her breath, giving an eye roll as well, "next thing we know, he'll get along with the Mizukage."

"I think we first need to ask what will happen at the summit," Tsunade said heavily. She breezed over Temari, who hadn't been filled in exactly about Sasuke.

The Uchiha in question ignored the room, reclining against the wall with both arms crossed and his head downturned. He opened one eye, peering through his bangs with piercing red towards the Hokage. Objectively, it was an ominous sight which a lesser person may back away from. Tsunade held her ground and demanded, "what do you think we should do?"

Sasuke stared at her with that crimson eye, observing her unblinkingly for several seconds before he closed it languidly. He said, bored and indifferent, "...Kakashi."

"Aww," Naruto pouted dramatically, "even I could have told ya' that granny! That old man's been creeping around so long, he's gotta be useful for that!"

Tsunade smiled as Kakashi spluttered and tried to defend his hair. She lifted one hand and asked Sasuke once more, "perhaps I should rephrase my question. What will happen at the summit?"

"A fight," Sasuke deadpanned with his eyes closed, "you'll need backup."

"Pick me!" Naruto crowed delighted, jumping up and down with his arm raised, "pick me! Granny I want to come!"

"A fight?" Temari balked, "who would attack all of the K age at once?"

"They must be really powerful…" Sakura said, grimacing with a shudder, "I couldn't imagine that."

"Why Hatake?" Shikamaru said abruptly. The room quieted, and Shikamaru repeated once more, ignoring Sasuke near the wall, "why him? Everyone in this room is a target for some reason, but he explicitly stated Hatake."

"I'm very popular," Kakashi dismissed.

"No, I want to know as well," Tsunade agreed, looking at Sasuke sternly, "what aren't you telling us?"

Sasuke opened his eyes and the mismatched colours took the room by surprise like it always did. Sometimes the famous Rinnegan was present, sometimes it faded into a Mangekyo that lingered between present or inactive. Trapped in limbo, the eye was never quite settled and always triggered intrigue and instinctive fear.

Sasuke said dry without humour, "he's bait."

Hatake stared at Sasuke still as a statue perched outside the Hokage's window. Sasuke had never been in ANBU, but at times Kakashi wondered.

"Then you'll come with?" Tsunade asked Sasuke.

"No," Sasuke said quickly, "I have...something to do here."

"Ah yeah!" Naruto cheered, "Team 7 back again!"

Inexplicably, Sasuke flinched at Naruto's words. Tsunade frowned, catching eyes with Kakashi who remained still and calculating from his stalking sprawl. The Hokage glanced at Shikamaru, who shook his head subtly with a pointed look. He too was busy, which left an obvious and important individual to act as her advisor.

"Then I want those damn lovebirds."

"They're actually corvids," Kakashi corrected like an asshole.

"Same thing!" Tsunade snapped tiredly, "I want Itachi. He's already soaked up enough political information from Jiraiya's drunken ramblings, and he has better working insider information for Akatsuki movements. Shisui Uchiha has yet to be blatantly reintroduced to the world, and his body flicker can keep him hidden."

"Will that work?" Shikamaru asked quietly, eyes flickering to the side where Sasuke contemplated and finally nodded.

"Great, there's a plan now," the Hokage agreed, "you, brat. What are you doing then when we're gone?"

"Preventing Orochimaru from using the Edo-Tensei on former Hokage's," Sasuke drawled as if such a thing were normal, "and murdering him if he appears."

Temari leaned in towards Shikamaru and asked, "Is this normal?"

Shikamaru said, "yes."

"Well, now that's settled," Kakashi said, standing and stretching dramatically, "I'll go tell my pack mules."

"Bakashi," Sasuke muttered under his breath with no explanation. Kakashi spun around in baffled disbelief, then scowled openly and crudely gestured. Naruto burst out in hearty guffaws, even Sakura giggled at the sight.

"Sasuke, do what you need to," Tsunade ordered, "take both Naruto and Sakura with you."

Sasuke shifted his weight, visibly uncomfortable with the idea, but ultimately agreed. Now addressing Shikamaru and Temari, she said, "Shikamaru, do what you need to do."

"I'll help," Temari announced boldly, nudging her shoulder against his, "I can let Yugito know the plan as well."

"Where is she?" Naruto asked loudly, "like, I haven't seen her in days !"

"She met Tenten," Shikamaru said with a shudder, "spiked knuckles and claws go scarily well."

---

"So what exactly are we doing?" Temari asked quietly, respectfully clasping her hands together and providing a foreign gesture to one of the many traveller's shrines to Tsukuyomi throughout the district.

"You remember a long time ago when I needed your help for a shrine?" Shikamaru asked her. He fumbled with a torch, hastily wrapping the oiled rag around the old metal scone to secure it on a curved hook. Once steady, he lit it with a temporary seal which burned the paper and normally lit campfires.

"I remember most things," Temari teased, "and I remember that I didn't know about your religions, and thought you were worshiping Ispil."

"Still don't know what that is," Shikamaru hummed, waving the torch around in the air to see if it would stay lit with a sudden movement.

Temari said quietly, "you needed help with an offering to the sun, on a pyre I remember?"

Shikamaru looked at her amazed. She blushed and looked away while crossing her arms. She defended herself shyly, "gods are important!"

"You are amazing," Shikamaru said mystified, "I need you to help me break into the Uchiha crypts."

"What?" she shrieked, stumbling away in horror, "that's- you can't do that! Grave robbing is- is…"

"Temari, listen to me," Shikamaru begged her, "something here isn't right. Uchiha's use the pyre, so it isn't graverobbing. It's likely old documents or artifacts which I'm allowed to have."

Temari gulped and nodded shakily, murmuring something under her breath as she fished in her pocket for a talisman. Shikamaru sighed in relief, thankful to have the girl alongside him as he trudged into the old abandoned building near the heart of the Uchiha district.

"If you're looking for a crypt," Temari whispered, "shouldn't you go to that pool?"

"The wrong god," he explained, mangling his fingers to form a basic shadow seal while gripping the scone. "There's an underground passage below this building, it must have been a secret meeting hall. Most clans in Konoha have them since we can't expand beyond the walls."

Temari gulped as Shikamaru passed her the torch. She held it with a tight grip, watching with dread as Shikamaru tore up the flooring to expose the trapdoor. He accepted back the torch, casting a shadow to prod around below and determine how far to fall.

"I'll catch you," he assured her before dropping through. When she jumped down (a fall she could easily manage) he caught her in his arms with a shadow awkwardly holding the torch like a curious tentacle.

"Oh, thanks," she mumbled, pointedly looking away. Shikamaru thought, 'troublesome woman.'

The pyre to Amaterasu burned through a series of fractures in the ground, billowing upwards toxic gases that caught fire and could never be extinguished. Similar minerals exploded upwards in the underwater springs that fed into Susanoo's pool. The caverns and systems of fractured rock and caves existed long before Konoha had been founded, a spiritual pilgrimage for the warring states.

The caves were larger than Shikamaru expected, and much further down. Ancient Uchiha had carved the ground into a series of chambers with descending drops, marked out shakily with chisels and rocks and evidence of prehistoric masonry work. The temperature lowered until Temari shivered in her preferred desert gear. Shikamaru offered her his vest which she wore eagerly.

They walked through winding passages and between stalagmites and stalactites that protruded upwards and downwards like fangs. Torchlight illuminated large spiders the size of Shikamaru's fist, and eerie white fish lacking eyes in the numerous underground pools.

It went on until the stalagmites dripped milky white water that had grown crystals cloudy like milk. The air smelt of underground dampness that naturally terrified Temari, who grew up with skies and sand and never knew such a place before.

"Shikamaru," she whispered, alarmed by the way her voice echoed and carried across the walls, "look."

Along the side of the cave, old ghosts had carved something with chisels and scratches. Broken stalagmites created a shaky path ascending the side of the cavern, winding up on a ledge no wider than an arm. They climbed carefully, slipping at times in the darkness and dripping water. Shikamaru hoped the cloudy water was not acid.

"Oh, Shikamaru," Temari moaned, "we shouldn't be here."

"I thought they used the pyre," Shikamaru whispered.

His torch-lit an alcove of carved shelves, some made by chisels and tools and others shakily with jutsu then obvious earth-style. Broken bits of pottery crunched underfoot, old wooden and stone objects covered thick with cobwebs and dust. Crude knives and shoes made from leather rotted in the moisture. Something of a comb lacked all but four teeth.

"This isn't a crypt," Temari said in dismay, sounding on the verge of tears, "this is a memorial place. This is a- this is a place we shouldn't be."

Shikamaru hadn't thought of that before.

Where did you go when you had no gravestone or ashes to speak to long into the night? You couldn't burn objects of dedication to the dead- it would be an offence to Amaterasu to do so when his pyre burned for offerings to him.

So the Uchiha, for decades or centuries or how long they had existed, had found a new quiet place of solitude to cry in isolation. A new place to leave mementos and things of meaning. A place without moon or sun or sea, a place their eyes couldn't watch.

"You're right," Shikamaru said, "We shouldn't be here."

"There is no funeral to be had here, Nara," Temari whispered, her voice distorting hauntingly across the walls and crystals and darkness.

( "There is no funeral to be had here, Nara," a stag told him, tossing its head and snorting steam.)

Shikamaru asked her, "what did you say?"

"What?" She asked, taken aback, "I...I don't know?"

Shikamaru felt the cavern's coolness seep into him, chasing away whatever warmth the little scone gave. The cavern stretched forever, far and endless. They could be trapped down here forever, unable to find the exit in the abyss.

"I had a dream once," Shikamaru blurted to her, "that's why we're here. I had a dream and...now we're here."

Temari startled, coming closer into the tiny light. Her eyes were wide and wet from the silent sadness of so much mourning. She asked, "you dream-walked?"

"I don't know," Shikamaru said, passing her the scone as he paced back and forth over the stone and broken pottery, "I don't know."

"What do you remember?"

"Bits and pieces," Shikamaru said frustrated, running both hands over his eyes, "it's been so long, and I kept thinking I figured it out only to realize I hadn't. It wasn't ROOT, it wasn't Danzo, it wasn't Sasuke…"

Temari watched him move back and forth, and she asked quietly, "Is this about the dragon?"

"The dragon wasn't a god," Shikamaru argued tiredly, "it was just a...forget about the dragon. It was only a fire jutsu."

"No, I meant about dragons," Temari clarified with a frown, "you know, just because I'm from the desert doesn't mean I don't know what the mountains say."

"Uchiha come from the mountains," Shikamaru said slowly, "they...they would have used the caves. "

He remembered it distinctly, the hissing sound of a flame-shaped and caressed into consonants and syllables. "Where we cannot touch. Above the seas. Below the sun. Where the moon doesn't see."

"That sounds like a cave," Temari confirmed quietly, jolting Shikamaru back to awareness. He hadn't realized he repeated the old words.

He said, "I thought it was about ROOT. The organization that came to light."

"Well obviously it wasn't," Temari said, shivering in the cold. "What else was there? Were you supposed to find something here?"

"A sword," Shikamaru said. He felt stupid, so idiotic. "After- after all this time, it was a sword."

The very first time he had a vision it was Sasuke with a sword. Then again, with the sword. A laughing fire, crackling with delight and enthusiasm that never matched the Uchiha. It was always a sword, somewhere lost in an endless crypt of mourning.

"A sword?" Temari said, exhaustion and defeat leaking into her voice, "Shikamaru, that could take us weeks in here."

They only brought a single torch, a single scone that barely lit the path in front of them. Presuming that Uchiha had been using the caves for generations, it could span for miles into the endless dark.

"No," Shikamaru refused. He thought frantically, shivering in the damp wetness of the caves. He was a Nara, he lived in shadows and darkness. There was a reason he was chosen, there had to be. "Give me a second."

He clasped his fingers together and focused. There was little light from the torch, but the cave was darkness itself. He had done this before when scouting for Sasuke and Itachi in a cave of a thousand snakes. He had done this before, finding empty spaces in the floorboards. He had done this before, and there was no different to that of endless darkness and tunnels and old bones.

"Okay," Temari agreed, hunkering down into a squat with practiced ease that helped conserve body heat during desert nights. She held the torch carefully away from her face, breathing on it to nurse glowing embers back to the healthy fire.

Shikamaru began to sweat as his chakra leaked from him. He struggled, choking on small noises as a headache blossomed and tugged behind his eyes. He felt a migraine itching to show itself, small tremors and chakra exhaustion treading closer.

"Shikamaru," Temari said, reaching out to touch one shoulder with her hand, "you're wearing yourself out too fast."

"I just need a little longer."

"Stop," Temari coaxed him gently, "you're the smartest person I know. Think."

Shikamaru regretfully let the jutsu go. The snapback made him flinch, hunching forward into Temari's waiting arms. She held him carefully, keeping her torch away from his hair.

Shikamaru thought. The cave was simply too large, the shadows made from the torch only expanded so far, and stealing from the cavern's darkness was too difficult with the length and immeasurable size. He was struggling to control an ocean of water, with the smallest cupful to work with.

'There has to be something,' Shikamaru thought, trying to recall everything he knew about cave systems. The lichens wouldn't burn with so much humidity. The lack of air wasn't a problem with Temari at his side. He could burn his jacket, but it wouldn't give that much more light.

The cave system connected to Susanoo's pool and Amaterasu's pyre. Amaterasu's pyre burned…

"Temari," Shikamaru asked, "can you feel the air here? Is there any that feels different?"

"Different?" She repeated, "I can...try?"

She focused, slipping into a meditative state that increasingly turned confused. She nodded when her eyes opened, looking thoroughly flummoxed.

"There are strange fissures with air," she said, gesturing to the side, "I don't know what...is there a cavern below us?"

"No," Shikamaru said, snatching the torch to hold outstretched warily. He inched towards the direction she pointed, keeping her behind him.

He reached the fracture. The fire ignited hot and bright, burning upwards as a bonfire of large proportion. Temari shrieked, the sound amplified and echoing and Shikamaru wondered if his ears would bleed. The light and putrid stink of burning gas billowed upwards hot and burning blue.

"Shikamaru!" Temari shouted, once more echoing violently and it ached, "get back! It'll blow us up!"

"It isn't the gas to do that!" Shikamaru shouted back, eyes blinking back a halo burned into his retinas. It whooshed hot and scalding, an upwards sword of blue flame that hissed violently but did not waver. Whatever crevice existed below them fuelled the flame like a well-structured torch.

More than that, the light burned his eyes but threw light so far everything felt distinct and obvious. Shikamaru stretched out with shadows, reaching twice- thrice as far as his original attempts. He felt every cranny and curve of rock, seeing more than his eyes ever could.

Temari nearly stumbled when Shikamaru lunged to his feet and grabbed her hand. He smiled at her breathlessly and stumbled past the burning arc, struggling up a series of carved shelves to a hidden platform above.

"I found it," he told her, nearly slipping on the cave water. "The wakizashi."

"Why is this sword so important?" she asked him, squinting in the painful brightness.

Shikamaru didn't know, but for years he had been urged and told over and over to find it. To find the sword and 'my brother was a good man.'

The wakizashi looked so normal and unimportant. It sat on cloth now decayed and eaten by cave insects, thin fibres suggesting it once was woven from silk or similar material. Temari touched the broken remnant, pulling it to spot the faintest wash of gentle blue on an inverted crease.

"This was beautiful," she said sadly, smoothing the yakuta or robe back into place. Shikamaru lifted the sword by its hilt where the leather had rotted and split from a metal tang.

"Oh, look at this," Temari breathed, finding old tarnish metal below the sword. She scraped it with her fingernail to remove the lichen, peeling out old impressions of feathers. "It looks like an eagle."

Shikamaru turned the blade, feeling the dents and rolls along the edge. It had seen battle, had been used and cared for. More than that, it was the sword.

"I've seen this sword before," Shikamaru said in awe, "in my visions. This is it."

"Okay," Temari said quietly, "can we leave now?"

They descended the steps, extinguished the flame with a powerful wind jutsu, and paid respects silently to the resting shrine. The path out of the cave felt longer and more troublesome when carrying a priceless wakizashi. At times, Shikamaru passed the sword to her and climbed above to take it back.

They returned to the surface tired and smelling of mildew. Temari laughed at the fresh air, cycling air and wind around her that swished her hair.

"So that's it, huh?" she asked, investigating the sword in a better light. Touching it, she tilted her head and admitted, "it doesn't look as old as I thought it would be."

She was right. The sword was old but looked worse from the poor treatment. It had been used often, carefully treated and ground with a whetstone that wavered near the tip.

"So what now?" Temari asked him nervously.

Shikamaru had no idea. He hefted the thing, wondering distantly if he was supposed to throw it into the pyre. He said to her, "I have no idea."

---

Kakashi had many thoughts when the Kage summit escalated violently. Some of them were tactical plans, some were the absent-minded focus to form hand signs, one thought was distinct, 'Sasuke Uchiha I am going to punch you in the face.'

He still didn't understand why he was the bait. Itachi had been standing beside the Hokage politely, keeping his head low respectfully as terms had been discussed. Then, the air had warped oddly, a sixth sense burned and Kakashi was channelling chakra before he was consciously aware of it. Itachi snapped around, activated his Sharingan and hissed, " Tobi."

The Hokage gasped, their protective guard stepping in to immediately send attacks that somehow did no damage. The man manifested with counterclockwise ripples, standing in trademark Akatsuki garb with a vivid orange mask. Standing on the center of the circular table, the man rotated to peer from the empty eyehole at Itachi with a cocked head.

"Tobi," Itachi said with an unspeakable voice, a dark look in his eye. There had been earlier accusations towards the Uchiha, suggesting his disloyalty to Konoha from his earlier ploy as a spy. Now, all fears had been wiped away.

"Itachi," the man said brightly, mocking him and their failed attacks. "You're alive! I thought Hidan gutted you like a rat!"

Itachi's Sharingan morphed immediately into his Mangekyo. Tobi shrieked a shrill delighted laugh, clapping his hands together before pointing at Itachi dramatically. The man cheered, "the angry eyes!"

"Who are you?" the Mizukage demanded, heat roiling off of her in her stewing rage, "why should we not kill you now?"

Tobi giggled high and shrill. Then, it lowered into a deeper baritone chuckle. The hair on Kakashi's neck stood on end, a facade finally slipping free. Itachi's face tightened, hands poising subtly at the ready.

Tobi said, voice deep and mature and genuine, "why kill me? Well, you can't."

"Hah!" the Raikage said, slamming his hands on the table. "Yeah right!"

Itachi looked at Tobi and said smooth and monotone, "Madara."

"So you did know," Tobi said, sounding amused as he glanced at Itachi. "I was wondering."

"Madara?" the Mizukage repeated in confusion.

"You don't mean Madara Uchiha," Lady Tsunade asked politely with a stern look, "the foe of my grandfather?"

"I have something I want to explain to you all," Madara said, ignoring the question. Dropping the childish facade, the man stood tall and firm, built with an unseen but obvious strength.

"Well what is it?" the Raikage demanded.

"It's about my plan," Madara said, "Project Tsuki no Me."

The Raikage's charge turned him into a blur of speed. An electrical storm pierced through Madara and continued past, demolishing a wall.

"Don't," Itachi intoned flatly, "he becomes intangible."

"That's ridiculous!" the Tsuchikage howled, "my jutsu will tear you apart atom by atom!"

Gaara sat at his seat, fingers crossed in front of his mouth. He stared at Madara blankly, considering something and making no move to stand.

The Raikage returned, looking slightly winded and angrier. Madara leapt backwards onto a higher platform where he could survey the room at large. He asked, "now, are you ready to listen?"

Kakashi thought of a young orphan, curled in on himself trembling with phantom horrors, whispering confessional to Kakashi's ear as neither understood the implication. 'Don't you get it? I saw it.'

The words came to Kakashi easily, remembered forever with the haze of his treasured eye. Kakashi said in a poetic lilt, "Corpses rose and fought against the living. A man's madness led to the destruction of the world. The moon turned red in eternal sleep."

Gaara silently gazed at Kakashi and asked him, "what does that mean?"

"He's talking about the Eternal Tsukuyomi," the copy-nin said, working off old memories of Sasuke being small and confused and so terribly lonely.

"You're well informed," Madara said. Kakashi didn't think the man was pleased.

"What does that mean?" the Tsuchikage shrieked, looking ready to cause bloodshed.

"It means," Madara said finally, "that I will cast a genjutsu on every human that walks the earth."

'The moon turning red wasn't blood,' Kakashi realized sickly, 'it's a Sharingan.'

"And in that genjutsu, I will control all humans and unify the world. I will use the power of all bijuu to fuel my ninjutsu. That is the Eternal Tsukuyomi."

"Stop joking around! I'm not handing the world over to you!" the Raikage roared.

The Mizukage looked disgusted. She spat venomously; "there is no hope or dreams in that! That is an escape!"

The Tsuchikage said with a scowl, "eternal peace? It sounds more like you want to make the world yours!"

Madara snarled, "there is no such thing as hope! To hope is to give up, and it is the greatest deception of all!"

"Death is the greatest deception," Itachi Uchiha said flatly, surveying Madara. "The moon does not belong to you."

"You are still naive and weak," Madara said to Itachi, dismissing him to address the Hokage. "I hereby declare the start of the Fourth Great Ninja War."

Gasps and chaos erupted, Kage glancing to one another as protective detail set around their respective figurehead. Kakashi felt something twist at the back of his head, something telling him that this was wrong. Something was warped, or invisible to them still.

"Lady Tsukuyomi will not permit you to use her," Itachi said.

Madara looked at him and laughed heartily, holding his stomach in mirth. Madara explained, "how pathetic! A child, clinging to false beliefs. There are no gods, even the Sage of Six Paths was no god."

Itachi looked at Madara, then through him. Itachi said, "you are an imposter."

"A child, clinging to beliefs in hope that death will be merciful," he laughed openly.

'Why me?' Kakashi wondered, 'why am I the bait?'

Itachi tilted his head and for the slightest of moments, the sclera looked pure white.

The ceiling exploded with dust and debris as an enormous sword sliced downwards cleanly through Madara. The man, true to Itachi's words, remained unharmed with a massive blade protruding from his chest.

"Well well," Shisui Uchiha said a tad amused, "looks like we get to play."

Madara turned around slowly, silently observing Shisui's Sharingan eyes and wolfish smile. Shisui said a little playfully, "Hey there, turns out death really is an illusion."

The Kage gasped at the sight of Madara with a sword protruding through him. Madara seemed unbothered, reaching to his side as a massive sword also manifested in his open grip. Its blades were convex arcs, combing into two unique fan shapes that gleamed deathly sharp.

"Shisui Uchiha," Madara said in thought, "you survived and allowed your clan to be massacred."

"Wrong," Shisui said calmly.

Madara slammed his sword forward, slicing Shisui in half.

Shisui hummed, tilted his head as the enormous wound through his guts and spine melted together and became nothing. Shisui said a little too happy, "I actually came back to life."

Madara leapt backwards, staring at Shisui wordlessly. The younger Uchiha hoisted the behemoth with one wrist, twirling its impressive size with no visible strain. When Shisui stepped forward, the grip on Madara's sword tightened.

Itachi stepped aside, skirting to the corner of the room. He had one hand pressed to his temple, a twitch through his eyebrow signified an agonizing headache. Kakashi sighed and prepared himself for a fight.

Shisui whooped loudly, enjoying himself as he and Madara simultaneously chopped each other apart to no effect. The massive sword protruded from Shisui's neck, to which the younger casually walked towards Madara with a twisted feral smile.

"I heard about your plan with Lady Tsukuyomi," Shisui crooned, "she really didn't like what you have in store."

"What jutsu is this?" Madara demanded, looking away from Shisui to find Itachi, "what genjutsu have you constructed?"

Itachi frowned, shaking his head and gazing off. Kakashi stepped in between, lightning Chidori screaming in his hand.

"You'll have to fight all of us," Kakashi said with his assassin blade lifted, "not just him."

Shisui readied himself, as did the Kage. Countless shinobi readied themselves, and Itachi still stared off distantly.

'It's just like Sasuke all over again,' Kakashi thought.

"This isn't right," Itachi said, hand lifting to his head to rub between his eyes, "he's lying. He's…"

"Hatake Kakashi," Madara said his name slowly, playing with each sound. Madara looked at him and said, "death is too kind for you."

Itachi grimaced and pressed his hands to his face again, using so much pressure the tips of his fingers blanched white. Shisui swung his sword once more, it passed harmlessly through Madara.

"I could say the same," Kakashi said pleasantly, eyes narrowed. He had lifted his forehead protector forever ago, but something felt wrong with his Sharingan. A hazy confused aura drifting in and out of focus, alternating splashes of colours and impression.

Itachi flinched and said with one eye white and blood leaking from his nose and ears, "illusion- there's a seal on his heart. He's a liar, a fake."

Madara reeled back, seeming equally surprised by the admission. Itachi trembled, looking truly horrible. Lady Tsunade flashed to his side, both out of battle and out of harmful distance. The Mizukage spewed molten lava to which Madara deflected with his impressive blade. A body flicker turned Shisui Uchiha into a flash, intermittent with aggressive strikes which sometimes met metal, sometimes passed harmlessly through.

"Are you alright?" Tsunade asked, channelling chakra and healing as much damage as she could. Vessels were rupturing, chakra pushing through networks and channels not open yet. Itachi hissed and pressed further, forcing with unbearable pressure for something to happen.

"Let me hit you!" the Raikage demanded, passing harmlessly through. Then, Madara swung his blade and smashed the man across the room.

Attacks slid through the man but the rule did not apply to him. Only Shisui was unharmed by the heavy lethal strikes and blows. Kakashi let Chidori flicker away, rushing to Itachi's side to assist in any way he could.

"He's trying something I don't know," Tsunade said between grit teeth, healing chakra struggling to stay in pace with the damage. Itachi grimaced, hand trembling as he wiped away the blood from his nose.

"Stop it, kid," Kakashi ordered.

"With respect," Itachi rasped, "fuck off, Hatake."

In any other circumstance, he would have laughed. Itachi shuddered one eye white and one bloodshot from burst vessels. Kakashi realized that it was the afternoon. There was no moon to guide him, only a futile attempt to manifest something from nothing.

"Itachi, stop it," Kakashi said, grabbing the younger's head. The Uchiha gagged slightly, eyes struggling to focus. Kakashi could feel the chakra rolling off the younger. He could see the warped bulging chakra pathways ballooning out in herniated rupturing bubbles near the eyes. Normally smooth, the Uchiha struggled and slammed against a biological blockage with no regard for personal risk.

Kakashi wondered if a similar event was how Itachi became gutted, lying dead and rotting in a forgotten forest near Ame. Itachi would gladly sacrifice himself unnecessarily again and again and pretend to be a martyr. "Itachi, it's daylight. Stop, you can't continue."

Itachi shrugged him off, gazed past Kakashi to look at Madara. Itachi's breath sharpened with a silent epiphany. When the clouded eye met Kakashi's, there was something else in Kakashi's head with him. Foreign, disgusting and slimy it touched before it burned harshly like mercury. Kakashi flinched back, snarling silently as something, something took hold with meaty claws and distorted the world in only one eye.

"There," Itachi said, trembling violently. The white eye had begun bleeding from somewhere, both eyelids beginning to droop. Itachi struggled to speak, rushing words- "sight- it's linked it's... He's not here, but- but I made you-."

Something broke, measured by the rate of Tsunade's cursing it was something important. Kakashi twitched and his vision hazed. It distorted violently, reminding him of a horrible trip on experimental chakra pills in only one eye. Itachi slumped, and Kakashi stepped backwards ethereally.

He wasn't sure what it was, or what Itachi did. Some sort of illusion or distorted perception, likely the strange intangible power that Madara manifested and wielded so easily. Theoretically, the man himself could be an illusion or a projection, impossible to hit since he existed as a stepping stone out of reality.

Kakashi stepped forward slowly and gravity warped. Intermittent auras of an inverse plane intruded, substituting the Kazekage with an endless abyss of geometric shapes and greyscale redundancy. Sound carried with echoes, reverberating off square surfaces and walls that didn't exist in reality but Kakashi could see the odd landscape. He could see Madara moving about in his left eye, and moving about in his right eye.

Kakashi lit Chidori and it became silent in its usual chirping. He strode forward one step out of reality. He felt like a shadow, hearing sounds and movement underwater as he strode past the Mizukage and she failed to recognize him.

There was a seal on Madara's heart, that was what was important. Itachi needed him for something, Sasuke said he was bait. Kakashi walked forward and rammed Chidori through a phantom's body, fading into discernibility.

He smelled blood and felt the punched-out pressure of organs around his hand. Then, colour and life returned as he inhaled a choked gasp, lungs screaming for oxygen. He felt weak, exhausted and worn out and oozing from places that had no sense oozing.

There was a gasping shocked sound and vibrations around the meaty cage of Kakashi's hand. Madara choked out " 'kashi…" and for a small second, Kakashi wondered if this was it.

Madara's body changed, cooling and losing all heat and pressure before the rippling surface alternated and they vanished from Kakashi's killing strike. For a moment, Kakashi held a heart in his hand and felt it stop.

"Holy-," Shisui cursed, nearly falling on his rear from surprise, "where did you come from?"

"I...I walked over," Kakashi said absently. He didn't feel real, too close to dissociating for his comfort. "Itachi…"

Shisui's face hardened. He flashed to Itachi's side, cradling the younger with both hands before bumping their foreheads together with quiet words.

"Wow, no wonder you're a wanted man, Hatake." the Mizukage flirted with a wink, waving her hand.

"This isn't over," Gaara said slowly, "there is still a war."

They had planning to do, but somehow Kakashi had a feeling something had been irreparably damaged.

He looked down at his hand, feeling the blood and saw it coat the ground. Gore extended to his elbow, caking his glove and shirt like a living nightmare. He kept blinking, expecting his vision to waver and distort to a phantom place he had never been, or his perception to hop to another like a malignant parasite.

Kakashi closed his eyes and hoped illogically that it was all fake, an illusion made by his mind and that alone. When he opened his eyes, blood dripped to the floor.