It was dark. Dark and fucking cold. But, then again, it always was in this damned dimension.

"You'll have five minutes." Tobi said.

Sasuke grit his teeth, scowling at the masked man responsible for bringing him to this hellhole. "That's not enough time," he bit out, his voice echoing in the empty space.

A shrug. "It's going to have to be." Rage warmed in Sasuke's chest as he glared petulantly at the ugly orange spiral obscuring Tobi's face.

"Get me more time," he insisted. "At least fifteen minutes."

"You can have five." Sasuke's chakra flared. He took a breath, allowing the sharp, frigid air to claw its way deep into his lungs.

"I don't know where it is," he explained, trying to reign in his temper. "How would you like me to find it, break into it, and get what I need in five minutes?" Tobi remained infuriatingly impassive.

"That's your concern, not mine. Five minutes. You can take it or leave it." Sasuke opened his mouth to argue, but Tobi swiftly cut him off. "May I remind you that this was your idea? You're lucky I'm willing to send you at all. Your brother will be convinced by Orochimaru's information; going into Konoha is a worthless risk to take."

"I'm not doing this for my brother," Sasuke growled out, his Sharingan burning. He dug his heels hard into the stone platform beneath him, wishing there was something in this fuck awful dimension that he could break. "I want to see the files for myself." Tobi let out a sigh, lazily tipping his head to the side as he looked at Sasuke with exasperation.

"The files may not even be there anymore, you are aware of that, correct? I saw them almost two years ago, and that was before you left the Leaf —"

"Before I left," Sasuke repeated, incredulous.

Tobi held up a hand. Sasuke figured the man was rolling his eyes at him beneath his mask, which only made him want to tear it off his face even more. "Poor word choice," Tobi conceded. "But, regardless, now that you are no longer under the Leaf's supervision, there is a possibility that Danzo destroyed all of the reports he had on you to protect himself."

Sasuke regarded the man in front of him with a sneer. "You wouldn't bother sending me at all if you really thought he destroyed the files." Tobi was silent for a moment.

"No, I suppose I wouldn't," he admitted eventually. "You're an enemy of Konoha. Despite the risk it poses to him, I'm sure Danzo believes there to be a great deal of value in keeping those reports. He'll likely think that he can use something in them against you." Tobi lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Nonetheless, I still don't condone sending you into Danzo's quarters to find and analyze them. The risk of you being caught outweighs the payoff."

"If he intends to use them against me, then isn't it in my best interest to see what's in them?" Tobi was already shaking his head.

"What's in them is irrelevant."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, the rage churning hotly in his body. "Irrelevant?" he snarled. "You think what Danzo did to me is irrelevant?"

Tobi waved a flippant hand at him. "I am merely suggesting —"

"It is not irrelevant." Sasuke's head pounded as chakra flooded his eyes. "He fucking — " A breath. "What he fucking did — " Tobi abruptly reached out and gripped his face with both hands, leaning down to meet Sasuke's frenzied gaze.

"Calm down," he commanded. "You're going to damage your eyes if you keep surging that much chakra into your Sharingan." Sasuke glowered at the man. Just to spite him, he allowed his chakra to spike once more, forcing himself to remain expressionless as the prickling pain behind his eyes steadily increased.

Tobi stared at Sasuke intently. "I am on your side," he reminded him. "You need me to get what you want, and I need you to get what I want. So let's not do something rash that will jeopardize it for the both of us." Sasuke stared up at Tobi, letting the building anger and frustration siphon through his muscles and burrow deep into his bones.

Then he closed his eyes and took a very, very deep breath.

"Good," Tobi commended, moving his hands away from Sasuke's face to grip his shoulders. Sasuke returned his gaze stoically.

"I'm going to see those files whether you help me or not." Tobi nodded his assent.

"I'm aware. Which is why I'd rather help you do it now and avoid having to deal with the repercussions of your impulsivity." Tobi released his hold on Sasuke, taking a step back. "The best I can give you is eight minutes, not one second more. I do not care whether you manage to find the files or not in those eight minutes; once your time is up, I will retrieve you using Kamui and we will return to this dimension. Is that understood?" Sasuke remained silent.

His surroundings began to nauseatingly twist around him as he felt the familiar pull of the space-time jutsu. Tobi's malformed figure continued speaking to him.

"The last location I have for the files is in the safe under the floorboards near the bottom left post of the bed. Check there first."

Sasuke belatedly remembered something his mother had always told him about the importance of minding one's manners. The thank you was fighting its way painfully up the back of Sasuke's throat as he warped through dimensions, and while he knew his mother would be disappointed in him, he stubbornly pushed it back down. In another life, perhaps, he may have been inclined to show the masked man some sort of gratitude. But, in this life, he couldn't bring himself to conjure up the effort and engage in such inane pleasantries anymore.

Besides, he was already in Danzo's quarters. And he only had eight minutes.

• • •

"I want to find my brother." Tobi sighed.

"Hello to you, too." Tobi threw a bag in his direction. It landed next to Sasuke with a rustling thud. "Here's lunch."

Sasuke ignored him. "My brother," he repeated. Tobi shook his head, crossing his arms.

"Not yet."

"You said you would bring me to him after we got the information we needed." Tobi nodded.

"I did."

Sasuke scowled. "Then what's the issue? You've kept me in this damned dimension for long enough."

Tobi uncrossed his arms, an almost playful lilt entering his voice. "Oh, don't worry, I'll allow you to leave this dimension. But I'm not taking you to your brother." Sasuke stared at him, trying hard to mask his growing alarm.

"Where am I going, then?"

The smile was clear in Tobi's voice when he spoke. "The white-haired Sannin is looking for you," Tobi informed him, electing not to answer the question. Sasuke continued to stare at him.

"He's been looking for me," Sasuke carefully stated. Tobi shook his head.

"Yes. But this time, he has left the Leaf to find you himself." Sasuke thought back, attempting to figure out which part of their plan this information factored into without having to outright ask.

He came up with nothing. Which, given that he knew every damn detail of this plan, led him to conclude that this information wasn't relevant at all. Tobi was just being an ass.

Sasuke scoffed. "And?"

Tobi ignored his rudeness altogether. "He has a traveling companion that may be of interest to you," he announced with relish. Sasuke didn't bother to hide his intrigue.

"Who?"

He could practically hear Tobi's mouth widen into a face-splitting grin. "The Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails." Sasuke pondered that.

"That's awfully convenient."

"Very," Tobi agreed. "So convenient that we're going to change our plans to accommodate it." He motioned a hand in Sasuke's direction. "We are going to delay the meeting with your brother. Instead, I am going to send you to the outskirts of the Hidden Waterfall Village. You will intercept them there. The encounter does not need to be violent; the Sannin is merely there to gather information." Sasuke tilted his head, considering.

"And what is it you want me to do?"

"Find a way to bring the Jinchuriki to your brother and his army. I don't care how you do it, but it is imperative he is with us when we march on Konoha." Sasuke stared at the ground, starting the beginnings of a strategy in his head.

"When do I leave?"

Tobi, the bastard, sounded like he was still smiling. "Now."

• • •

Sasuke didn't know what Tobi's real name was.

He had asked him once and gotten 'Madara Uchiha' as an answer. When he'd first heard the name, he'd subconsciously harkened back to a story he had been told by his uncle, a sense of giddiness impermissibly forming in his stomach at the mere mention of Madara Uchiha. But then he had remembered the blood and the bodies and the fact that the young, naive child who believed in stories like that had been killed long ago.

The giddiness had frosted over.

He knew that the man he was conspiring with was not Madara Uchiha. Sasuke didn't particularly care who he really was, though. All that mattered to him was Danzo's demise, and the fact that this stranger was willing to help him achieve that was good enough for him.

Sasuke wasn't deluded enough to believe that Tobi was actually helping him out of the kindness of his heart. Tobi had a plan for him; he wouldn't have bothered finding him if he didn't. But, at this point, Sasuke was fairly used to that prospect. After all, Danzo had a plan for him, Itachi had a plan for him, Orochimaru had a plan for him; why not add one more name to the list?

Besides, Sasuke had his own plan now.

He'd had years to dream up his revenge. He'd imagined all of the ways he could rip Danzo apart limb by limb while staring at those blinding white walls; all the ways he could slowly destroy every last thing Danzo cared for while lingering in Orochimaru's muggy hideouts; all the ways he could raze Konohagakure to the ground while inhaling the bitter air of Kamui's dimension. His thirst for vengeance was a constant itch at the back of his skull, consuming every moment of his being since he'd discovered the truth. He couldn't eat without thinking about it, couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe. He would have no peace until it was finally fulfilled.

And then maybe, maybe he could rest.

Because the reality of the situation was that Sasuke was exhausted. He had been exhausted for over a third of his life. He wanted nothing more than to just stop, to finally lay down his weapons and surrender to the chaos that had been building in his mind ever since his family was killed.

But that would mean Danzo won, and Sasuke refused to give the man that satisfaction.

So, he continued to get up every morning. He continued to eat and sleep and breathe and train and plan because he knew Danzo was threatened by his very existence, and that knowledge alone was enough to sustain him for years. He got stronger and smarter and faster because, one day, he knew it would be worth it.

And then, maybe, he would finally find his peace.