First time-skip takes place in this chapter (end of January).

Chapter LXVI

Tell me truths, tell me lies,

About illusions woven by crimson eyes,

Eyes that pierce through the dark,

Leaving singeing, burning, imprinting marks,

A tainted stain upon the mind and skin,

Eyes of power – eyes that sin,

They work their spell, until you give in

There's no escape – you cannot win.

Tsunade slowly climbed upstairs. Suigetsu's words echoed tauntingly in her mind, weighed heavily on her thoughts.

'You might wanna have a chat with sweet little Sakura. Maybe she hasn't been entirely open with you about what went on between her and that grumpy bastard while she was in his Kingdom.'

She swallowed thickly, an unpleasant taste filling the back of her throat. Of course, her mother's intuition had covered all angles to account for the motives behind her daughter's kidnapping. But they had all consisted of Sasuke being the guilty perpetrator, and Sakura being the unwilling victim.

The possibility of her child being a willing participant had not crossed her mind. To Tsunade, that was utterly unthinkable. Sasuke was an Uchiha. He was an Underworld dweller with only the dead for company. His governance over the deceased and lack of interaction with the living automatically rendered him cold and pitiless, stripped him of emotions. He had fought with his family against them in the war. He was known to be a dangerous, ruthless sort of deity, through association with his role alone. She had never conversed directly with him, but knew enough about the Uchiha clan's swaggering arrogance and pride to have every confidence that he would have inherited the majority of Madara's negative traits.

She didn't need to have met him to know he was nothing but trouble. Clearly he was uncontrollable, answered to nobody, and existed believing he could do exactly as he pleased, without consequence. His actions in choosing to abduct Sakura, liaising with Cronus, attacking a Guardian of Olympus - no matter what his reasons - all amounted to someone she wanted nowhere near her daughter.

As she reached the landing of the stairs, she found Sakura's bedroom light was still on. She walked over to the room and knocked lightly on the door, pushing it slowly open.

Her daughter was sitting up in bed, reading a medical textbook. Headphones were plugged into her ears. Tsunade glanced at the time. It was surely too late to be studying? But she knew there was no way she, herself, could rest, without addressing the matter that night.

Sakura noticed her arrival, and plucked the headphones out her ears, silencing the music her phone had been playing.

"You're up late," Tsunade noted, lingering by the doorway.

Sakura shrugged, rubbing at her beautifully-hued eyes. "I had to read a chapter from this book about the nervous system before tomorrow's lecture."

Tsunade stared hard at her. No, she told herself. Sakura was sensible. Sakura was not the sort of girl who had been raised to lose her mind over a boy so easily. There was no way anything could have happened between her and the accursed Uchiha brat.

Sakura noticed the unhappy look on her mother's face, and closed her book. Straightening up, she blinked.

"Mother? What's wrong?"

Tsunade stepped into the room. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, she said gravely, "Sakura. I have been nothing but open and honest with you since your return from the surface. You would be open with me, too, wouldn't you? I hope you know and feel that you can share anything with me."

Sakura, uncertain as to which direction the conversation was headed in, replied with a light, confused frown, "Yes. Of course. Why? Has something happened?"

Tsunade's gaze lowered. "I spoke to Suigetsu," she replied. Then her eyes turned expectantly up to Sakura.

Those four words were enough. She watched as understanding immediately dawned on her daughter's face.

Sakura's heart plummeted into her stomach. She recognised that look her mother wore – a stinging expression of concerned disappointment, mixed with thinly veiled discontent.

No, she thought to herself in dread. Oh no. What had the mercurial ocean deity told her mother?

"Mother-" she began, pulse instantly quickening. If Suigetsu had opened his big mouth and informed her mother about what he'd seen – then her mother was about to be furious with her. Just how much had he said?

"Sakura." She could see the fire blazing steadily in Tsunade's fierce gaze. "Tell me the truth. About what happened between you and-" she paused, before forcing out tightly, "-Sasuke in the Underworld."

Sakura blanched. This conversation had been sprung upon her so suddenly, and she was wholly, unpleasantly unprepared. Did her mother already know everything, and was testing her to see whether she would be truthful? Or had she been told nothing, and was now looking for answers?

After a moment of stunned silence, in which she could only manage to stare at the harvest goddess in dismay, she got out, "What did Suigetsu tell you?"

Tsunade pursed her lips. Sakura was nervous. It was a worrying sign, she thought to herself. If nothing had indeed transpired beneath the surface, then surely her daughter had no reason to seem so tense and on edge.

"He told me that you haven't been entirely open about what happened between you and the Uchiha during your stay there," she gestured. "I am giving you a chance to explain."

Why that… that horrible, slippery, untrustworthy piece of-! Sakura inwardly fumed to herself, so mad that she couldn't even bring herself to complete the silent insult. The mischief-loving ocean god had forced her into the most awkward of situations – to engage in a conversation she had somehow hoped she could bypass with her mother altogether. But if he believed that he was going to get away with throwing her to the wolves unscathed, she would make sure he regretted it.

She knew she needed to phrase her words very carefully. She didn't want to upset her mother any more than was necessary.

"Suigetsu just loves causing trouble. Nothing major happened," she began stiffly, automatically. Defensively.

"Something clearly did," Tsunade folded her arms, honey-eyes narrowing disapprovingly at her daughter. "You're pulling at your hair. You do that whenever you're anxious."

Sakura snatched down the treacherous left hand that had been twisting at the ends of her loose braid, and cursed to herself. Who was she trying to fool? Her mother could read her like an open book.

Just be as honest as you can, she told herself, heart pounding. You don't need to say everything. Just say the worst of it first, mother will freak out, and then explain! You've dreaded this talk for so long, just get it over with!

She looked down at her hands, now clutching her duvet. "When I first met Suigetsu in the Underworld, he was locked up and made a plan for us to escape. He told me to-" she broke off, feeling her cheeks redden. Her stomach immediately twisted to form squeezing knots of trepidation. Sasuke was never a subject she felt comfortable discussing – especially not with her mother, who she knew despised him.

"He told me I needed to steal the sword Sasuke carried if we wanted to make it out. He said that I should try to gain his trust and that-" she gulped, shoulders hunching in anticipation of her mother's wrath, "I should, uh…" she licked her suddenly dry lips. "That I should try and seduce Sasuke into lowering his guard and-"

Her mother sucked in a sharp breath. "He said WHAT?" she exclaimed thunderously, eyes widening in disbelief.

Sakura threw up her hands in an instant attempt to calm her mother down. "It was his idea! But I didn't do it. Instead, I tried to just- to get to know Sasuke better as a person, thinking that if I understood why he took me, maybe I could find a peaceful way out."

Tsunade scowled. "And why did he take you?" she demanded. "You're being forced to return to that forsaken place for six months. He knew what he was doing, offering those seeds to you. I need to know why. I need to hear the truth from you." Looking her daughter directly in the eye, she went on directly, "Did he touch you? Is that what he wanted from you? Did he try to take what he wanted? Because if that's it, I-" her voice quivered with fury. She couldn't complete the sentence.

"No!" Sakura replied, horrified that her mother would imagine that Sasuke had tried to force her into non-consensual sexual relations of any sort. "It wasn't like that!"

"Then tell me," Tsunade pressed. "Why?"

Sakura's heart raced. Her answer lodged in her throat. How could she look her mother in the face and admit that she believed Sasuke had, on some level, held affection for her? That he had taken actions to suggest he cared deeply for her? At least, before they'd separated so terribly. How could she do it, especially now, when Danzo had painted such a damning picture of Sasuke's supposed involvement with Cronus and the enemy?

"Mother," her throat felt oddly parched. "I think at first, he was just… curious. He's been alone a long time with just… I mean, dead spirits for company, and…" she trailed off at the appalled look on her mother's face.

Tsunade was clearly not buying it.

Sakura tried again, finding it incredibly difficult to articulate her own thoughts about the Underworld's infuriatingly enigmatic ruler and the very complex and complicated acquaintance they shared. "He knew I was your daughter, and well, I don't know. I just know he didn't take me to get any revenge on you. He said he just did it on a- a whim, at first."

Tsunade's face was stony. "A 'whim'," she repeated. Her precious daughter had been taken on a god's arrogant impulse? The desire to pulverise every bone in Sasuke Uchiha's body intensified a hundred-fold.

"It was just curiosity at first," Sakura gestured helplessly. "But then we started to spend time together and he taught me about chakra. I learned about his world. He showed me places. Like Elysium. The Plains of Judgement. Places I never even knew existed. He even told me about the war, and Cronus. Mother. I don't think he likes Cronus. I don't know why he would've spoken with him recently. It just doesn't make any sense."

Tsunade listened in shock. Sakura made it sound like they'd developed a friendship of sorts, at the very least. Then she interrogated, "When did he first even see you, to decide to steal you away?"

Sakura gulped. The real answer to that would make her mother rage. So she chose the first time she had seen Sasuke, as her answer. It wasn't, she reasoned to herself, a complete lie. "I saw him at the Spring Festival. After the lighting of the lanterns." At her mother's astonished expression, she went on, "I was waiting for the others, and met him by a carousel ride. I thought he was a fairground worker at first. He didn't say anything to me. Then Ino and Sai arrived and when I looked back, he'd vanished."

Tsunade couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sasuke had seen her daughter at a festival and just arbitrarily decided to kidnap her then? Something about that just didn't add up in her mind, made her even more suspicious.

"So he had this planned?" Tsunade grilled. "He must have, to have been waiting for you there. And when you were taken? How did it happen?"

"There were two children who stole my bag when Ino's car broke down. I followed them. I got lost and eventually found a flower field. It was so beautiful, I wanted to pick some flowers, and then the ground just split open. That's when he took me…" Her voice trailed. It seemed so long ago. Like a distant memory, when not even a year had passed since the day. How much had changed in that time.

How much she had changed.

"That son-of-a-bitch," Tsunade exhaled furiously. She remembered how she had come home to find Sakura in a strange, deep sleep just days before her disappearance. She had no doubts that Sasuke had been preparing her abduction for a long time. How long for precisely, she supposed she could only find out from the offending god in question himself.

"Then he found out about me holding the Essence, and… well, things just got out of hand," her daughter went on uncomfortably.

"Out of hand," Tsunade repeated exactingly. "I see. Answer me. Did he ever touch you?"

Sakura bit her lower lip, feeling trapped. The only way out was to blatantly lie. But what was the point of keeping it hidden any longer? Suigetsu had seen Sasuke kissing her. All it took was for him to relay the information to her mother, and she'd be called out for being dishonest. That would surely only make Tsunade even angrier.

She flushed scarlet, wanting to disappear in a hole in the ground. This was it. The moment of no turning back. Cursing Suigetsu internally again for the horrible, horrible situation he'd placed her in, she conceded, "I let him kiss me."

Tsunade's eyes widened in alarm. It was exactly what she had feared might have happened.

"You-!" she sucked in a breath. "You didn't!" She reached out, gripping her daughter by her shoulders, as if she wanted to shake her out of what she perceived to be a state of pure stupidity. Sasuke Uchiha had not only stolen her daughter away, but taken her first kiss, too?Tsunade was beyond livid.

"Sakura!" she erupted. "Have you lost your mind?! Do you not know who he is?"

Saying half of the truth wasn't a full out lie, Sakura reasoned to herself, distressed, eyes stinging unexpectedly with unshed tears. "I had poison on my lips. That's how I escaped with Suigetsu! I had to let him do it mother, to poison him!"

"And that," Tsunade seethed, "is all? One kiss to poison him? He touched you only once?"

Sakura gulped. Looking into her mother's tormented, worried, unhappy eyes, she wanted to do nothing more than protect her from any further upset. But the memory of Sasuke's lips roughly branding hers before he'd flung her mind into a ruthless genjutsu still haunted her. She remembered the softness of his kiss as they'd stood together at his mother's bridge, before a waterfall. The way her body had melted against his. How he had held her against him.

Her hesitation told Tsunade all she needed to know. It had occurred several times. In horror, she whispered, "No… what have you let happen…? You foolish girl!" She shook her in frustration. "Why would you let yourself get involved in such a way, with him?" A horrendous thought suddenly crossed her mind. "Wait. The seeds. Did you-" she struggled. "Tell me the truth. Did you know they would keep you bound to him?"

"No," Sakura answered. "I swear, I didn't know about that! Mother, please. It's my final life, and I don't want to lie to you about anything! Just let me-"

"How could you let him?" her mother shook her head, disgust apparent all over her stunning features. "You could have poisoned him another way!"

"It was the only way! He destroyed the ampoule I was planning to use to spike his drink. I-I panicked! He found out I was planning to betray him, and I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have a choice!" Sakura leaned forward, eyes pleading with her mother to understand her plight. "And the other times… I just- I don't know how, they just happened-"

"Sakura, he is our enemy!" Tsunade cried out in exasperation.

Sakura exhaled shakily. Trying to find words to encompass the death deity was a struggle, when she didn't even know what he really thought of her anymore, how he felt, whether her betrayal had changed everything. When her own thoughts and emotions were so conflicted. "Sasuke saved my life more than once while I was with him. He was wrong, so wrong to kidnap me, to hold me in his Kingdom for six months, to let me eat the fruit, but mother - he's not a monster like Cronus-!"

"He is an Uchiha," Tsunade spat back. "The Uchiha are the ones who poisoned you, the reason why this cycle of pain has happened to you, why I have had to watch my only child die repeatedly! They are all monsters! They care only for themselves."

He'd forced Sakura into staying in his world, snatched her away from her surface life so callously, with no consideration or care for her emotional welfare or the distress it would cause her family and friends. Then he'd fed her the Forbidden Fruit, without declaring the truth about the seeds and their nature. How could Sakura not see that he was just like Cronus – a heartless monster?

"Their eyes are cursed," Tsunade continued to vent. "They cast illusions, mess with your thoughts. Did you see his Sharingan?"

"Mother-! You're not listening-"

"Did you see it?"

"YES!" Sakura finally lost her composure. "I saw it!"

"Then he's clearly influenced your mind already!" Tsunade flung up her hands in defeat. "It's no wonder you're so confused!"

"No. No, he didn't use it to change my thoughts," Sakura argued back, frustrated. "If you'd just let me explai-"

Once again Tsunade interrupted her. "So he took you because he fancies himself to have some- some kind of attraction for you? Because he likes you? Is that what I'm to believe?" She released a sharp, brittle laugh. The amusement didn't reach her eyes. "Sasuke Uchiha, favouring a daughter of the surface gods? A boy who wouldn't hesitate to destroy us all if given the chance?"

"I'm not justifying what he did!" Sakura retorted. "Kidnapping me was wrong, but with the history between him and us-"

"Given the history, he hates us and holds us accountable for his family's deaths, and I find it hard to believe that fact would play no hand in his selfish actions whatsoever!" Tsunade glared.

Sakura raised a palm to her forehead. It was starting to hurt from the pressure of her emotions. She couldn't believe that she was trying to defend Sasuke. To her mother. Instead of agreeing with everything her mother was saying, which would be so much easier, save her so much grief and hassle. But in her mind, comparing the death deity to Cronus just because they shared the same bloodline, was completely unfair. Sasuke had gone to war with his family, the same way the surface gods had marched with theirs. He had suffered in losing his family – the same way Naruto had suffered in losing his. It also seemed he had lost a great portion of his memories. But she couldn't tell her mother about that, without opening up another can of worms relating to her forgotten past with him.

"If he really was like Cronus, and it was just to get back at you all, then why did he let me go?" she argued. "He could've killed me anytime he wanted! But even when I poisoned him, made him angry - mother, he didn't. He never struck me, or physically hurt me, or used his Sharingan to make me do anything other than eator sleep, when I refused to do either."

Tsunade looked no less convinced or happy about it. "You're defending him," she looked visibly sickened. "He kidnapped you, tricked you into eating those seeds, and you're defending him!"

"I'm not excusing what he did," Sakura lifted her palms desperately. "You're missing my point. You want me to be open with you, then please, listen to me!" She reached out, taking her mother's hands in her own. Gripping them tightly, she entreated with her to understand. "Please, mother. This is why I didn't tell you right away. I was afraid you'd get so angry, you wouldn't hear me. So please. Let me speak. You're just judging me, without even letting me explain. How can I talk to you about anything like this again, if you make me feel like that?"

Tsunade clenched her teeth. Through the anger, she felt a flash of guilt. Stiffly, she nodded, signalling that she would not interrupt again.

"I'm saying," Sakura attempted again, "that he could have killed me. He didn't have to save my life. But he did. Any one of those attacks could've finished me. But every time the attacks happened, he stopped them. He told me he wouldn't let me die. Mother, he didn't need to do any of that. That's not what Cronus would have done."

Tsunade's eyes lowered to their entwined hands. She was silent.

"I hate what Sasuke did, mother. It was all wrong. I hate that he gave me the pomegranate seeds without telling me the truth about them! That he would make a decision for me like that, without giving me the chance to choose what I might want to do. I hate that he kept me away from you for so long. I hate that he kidnapped me and I woke up so afraid, in a world I never even knew existed. It was so difficult to try to adjust, but it was the only choice I had! It's not like I've forgotten all of what he did. But I'm telling you the truth about other things he did too, which saved my life."

Tsunade shook her head. But her daughter was continuing.

"Maybe, without him interfering, I would've already died. And if I'd never been taken, I wouldn't have known as much as I do now." Sakura gave her mother a meaningful look. "That doesn't make me thankful it happened. I'm just acknowledging that without it, my life would've never changed. I wouldn't have known the truth about me, about you all, about the war, about how to control chakra or defend myself. I would've still been living a lie. If Sasuke really saw me as just some means to hurt you all, why would he even bother taking the time to teach me anything?"

Tsunade begrudgingly found she had no defence to voice to that. The words were valid – even if acknowledging them gave her no pleasure.

"He was going to return me to the surface himself, before I betrayed him," Sakura added. "In the end he- I know, deep down,he must have regretted how he did things. But it doesn't matter, now. Whatever he thought about me, whatever happened, it doesn't matter, because I betrayed him. I stupidly listened to Suigetsu, who was going to kidnap me to the oceans until you gave him his stupid sword, when Sasuke would have brought me right back himself."

"Suigetsu was going to do what?" Tsunade growled, livid, equally as surprised at the news that Sasuke had intended to return her of his own will. "He told you that?"

"Yes," Sakura said sullenly. "When we got to the surface, he dropped his nice-guy act fast, and I realised he meant to keep me hostage until you handed over what he wanted." She shook her head, and released a brittle little laugh. "You know what's crazy, mother? Suigetsu never cared about whether I got hurt. But Sasuke… even after I poisoned him, still tried to make sure I didn't get hurt by any of Suigetsu's attacks."

The sight of her daughter's fighting back tears made her mother catch her breath. Tsunade grew deathly silent, staring at her with a grave look of understanding.

Sakura painted a picture of Sasuke that was wholly alien to the goddess of harvest. That a deity as destructive as Sasuke was in function, might be capable of displaying compassion, on some level - was one her mind immediately rejected. She could not believe it without seeing it with her own eyes.

"You…" she whispered, watching her daughter wipe hastily at her eyes. She was upset. Over an Uchiha. Nausea and dread filled her. Every maternal instinct within her was screaming warnings, sounding blaring alarms that Sasuke was bad news. How could Sakura not see how dangerous and untrustworthy Sasuke was? Even if he had saved her life, looked after her during her time with him, showed her his world – it didn't change the fact he was a descendant of Cronus, had supported him during the war, betrayed Naruto's friendship, and viewed the surface gods as his enemies.

How could he compromise that stance, with any manner of positive feelings towards her daughter? It was unthinkable. He was the god of death. The most lethal deity of them all. Born of darkness, shadows and the line of chaos itself. He was no respectable, honourable sort of man to get involved with, even if he was a powerful, affluent King that evidently ran his kingdom effectively.

Whatever his motives for saving Sakura were, they were likely because he gained from it in some way. And Tsunade's motherly instinct was already telling her what that gain was. Sasuke was a god. She knew what most gods wanted – especially those who belonged to an arrogant, ancient, prestigious clan. When her daughter went back to the Underworld, its king would likely try to take more than just mere kisses.

Hatred and fury filled her. Repulsion and loathing. And she could tell from her daughter's conflicted expression and reaction to him that the Uchiha had already managed to sink his claws into her on some level.

Sakura was now an adult by human standards. Tsunade realistically knew that yelling and shouting at her daughter would get her nowhere. It had been her immediate, reflexive response; she'd had every right to be upset and angry. But this was Sakura. Sakura, who she loved more than anything in the world. This was her daughter's final reincarnation. She didn't want to push her away, or make her feel like she couldn't talk to her about anything. They'd promised to communicate better with each other.

The harvest goddess took a deep, slow breath, trying to calm her pounding heart, trying to restore control over her emotions. Now that the initial shock had passed, she needed to rein them in. Looking at their joined hands, she began, much more quietly, "And… you…? What are your-" her mouth twisted, "-feelings?"

Sakura's heart lurched inside her chest. The bluntness and softness of the question terrified her.

"I-" she stuttered, flustered. "I don't-" Finding no alternative words, she settled on, "He scares me."

"Why?" Tsunade continued to avoid her gaze. She needed to hear it. "Because he kidnapped you? Because of what he is? Or something else? If he didn't harm you, then why are you afraid?"

"I don't know…" Sakura said in a near-whisper.

She wouldn't. She couldn't tell her mother about the past Hades and Kore had shared. How much that factored into her uncertainty and fear – on top of everything else about Sasuke that confused and unsettled her. Even though it would offer a more valid explanation for why Sasuke had been so attracted to her at the outset – it would also paint a more damning portrait of the Underworld ruler's involvement in the war and her initial kidnapping.

No, Sakura told herself. Until she understood more about her own missing memories, and why Sasuke couldn't recall any of his, it was wiser to keep silent on the subject. How could she even hope to explain or justify something she couldn't even really remember? And even despite what Ino had told her – Hades had to have had a point of view – before it had evidently been stolen completely from him. She wanted to make sure she had all her facts right before she disclosed anything about their past life to anyone. It wouldn't be fair to burden her mother with it at that moment.

But now that she was being forced to confront her thoughts about the death deity, Sakura knew a large part of her fear was the unknown. Sasuke was difficult to read and predict. She had no idea what he was really thinking at any given time; whenever that heavy gaze flicked onto her, what his true thoughts and feelings had been. She thought again of their altercation at the edge of Tartarus's infernal pits. His fiery kiss had been wild, deceptively passionate – and yet his actions following that had been ruthlessly chilling as he'd captured her in a disturbing genjutsu.

He blew scorching hot one moment, bitterly cold the next, and it made her mind spin. His touches had made her feel anything but safe. And his fathomless, soul-consuming, steel-flecked dark gaze – such intense, heavy-lashed, searing eyes - made her feel like she was drowning in crashing, stormy pools of dizzying, bottomless darkness.

On top of everything else that he had done - was it any wonder he summoned such contradictory pandemonium within her?

Was it any wonder why she was afraid of him, for making her feel so uncertain about everything – when before him, she had always been so sure of everything in her life?

"He's just…" she barely realised the words were tumbling from her lips until they were already in the air. "He's unlike anything I've ever met…"

And he was. An unbridled, untameable, dangerous and undeniable force of nature; fierce, proud, powerful beyond measure, forged of shadows and night - with death at his very command. A king of darkness who had chosen, against all odds and reason, to bind her to his world.

Tsunade's eyebrows drew together in pain. She didn't need to ask anything else of Sakura. She'd heard enough. She did, however, wish very much to speak to Sasuke – and vowed that whenever the trial took place at the High Council, she would make sure to pay him a very personal visit.

"He hates me," Sakura added quietly. "I betrayed him, and he won't forgive that. I can't excuse how he let me eat the seeds without telling me about them. So whatever happened before – it doesn't matter anymore," she shook her head. "I angered him enough to change all that, I'm sure."

"Well deserved," Tsunade remarked. "Given he hurt you. So you think things have changed?"

Sakura swallowed. "He gave me a year on the surface. He's clearly in no rush to have me around again."

"Until you have to go back," her mother's eyes glittered with displeasure. "What then, Sakura?"

Sakura looked away. She didn't have the answer to that. The very thought of seeing Sasuke again filled her with such apprehension. There had been too much left unsaid between them. So many things she felt she needed to ask him about. So many issues they needed to address.

It was a mess, and one she had no idea how to untangle.

"This is your final life," Tsunade spoke bitterly. "And to think, you would be tied to the very place that poisoned you to begin with. I only wanted-" she looked to the window, inwardly fuming. "I only wanted you to be safe. To be happy. With him, in his world, you would be neither."

She reached out to lightly touch her daughter's beautiful, blossom pink hair. "Whatever his reasons, he still stole you away. You were a prisoner in his realm. That is unforgivable. Do you think such a person is worth defending, Sakura? That he would be worthy of forgiveness? The only Uchiha I have ever know, were traitors and all acted in their own self-interests. They destroy good things. Don't let the fact he saved your life cloud your judgement or confuse your feelings. He kidnapped you. He considers us his enemy. He has communicated with Cronus and attacked a guardian. There is no way he would ever be on our side."

Sakura was silent, troubled by the harsh reality of the words.

Tsunade sighed deeply. "I'll make sure that damned Suigetsu is brought to trial to answer for his actions," she muttered. Then she stood up, and walked to the door. Glancing back at Sakura's forlorn figure, she added, "I'm sorry, Sakura, if my words or reaction have pained you. If you feel like I have judged you unfairly. I judge only him. You didn't know any better, when you were taken away. He was fully aware of his actions."

Her mother was fully justified in her opinion. She had every right to distrust and question Sasuke's motives. Sakura understood why she had reacted in the way she had. After all, she had lost her daughter due to the past actions of the very same clan from which Sasuke hailed.

"I only want to protect you. You spent six months in the Underworld. Maybe he taught you about things you never knew about before, but you don't owe him even the smallest bit of gratitude. Not when he has done what he has done, and doomed you to return to a Kingdom to which he had no right to bind you in the first place," Tsunade said fiercely. "Never forget that."

Sakura's vivid green eyes, darkened with the storm of her emotions, lowered.

"I remember what happened," Tsunade went on. "How you were snatched away from us in an act that forced Zeus's hand, and threw us all into war. I saw what the poison they put in you did to your body. That was his family. His clan. The Uchiha are of darkness. They consume and destroy any light they find. I won't let that happen with you this time. I won't lose you to the darkness again."

With that, she exited her daughter's room, closing the door behind her.

Two hours later, Sakura lay in bed, still wide awake. She stared up into the darkness of the ceiling in her bedroom, feeling restless. Her head throbbed. She felt physically sick – but couldn't locate the source of her discomfort.

Her mind kept replaying her mother's words.

'The Uchiha are of darkness. They consume and destroy any light they find.'

'Maybe he taught you about things you never knew about before, but you don't owe him even the smallest bit of gratitude.'

'You were a prisoner in his realm. That is unforgivable. Do you think such a person is worth defending, Sakura? That he would be worthy of forgiveness?'

'The only Uchiha I have ever know, were traitors and all acted in their own self-interests. They destroy good things. Don't let the fact he saved your life cloud your judgement or confuse your feelings.'

'He kidnapped you. He considers us his enemy. He has communicated with Cronus and attacked a guardian. There is no way he would ever be on our side.'

'You didn't know any better, when you were taken away. He was fully aware of his actions.'

She raised her hands to her exhausted, burning eyes. Her conversation with her mother had only freshly aggravated her thoughts of Sasuke all over again. His recent actions were antagonistic toward the surface deities. She didn't know what to think of him, his allegiances, his motives, where she fit into everything, if she even fit in anywhere at all anymore.

Maybe she was now little more than just a mistake he regretted ever binding to his world.

She gulped miserable, wishing she wouldn't think of him at all. But every time his name was mentioned, she was powerless to do anything but listen.

'I remember what happened. How you were snatched away from us in an act that forced Zeus's hand, and threw us all into war. I saw what the poison they put in you did to your body. That was his family. His clan.'

If her mother ever found out about the past they'd shared, that neither of them could remember, that Sakura herself only knew about due to the visions she'd seen and Ino's confirmation of it…

She shuddered, dreading to think how her mother would react.

What was Sasuke doing right at that moment, she wondered? Why had he worked with Suigetsu to get a sword? What was the reason behind it, when she knew them to despise each other? Suigetsu. She thought about calling out to the water deity, but was still so angry at the trouble he had caused her to feel ready to speak to him without yelling. She told herself she needed to see him in person, so he would appreciate just how upset he had made her. She told herself she would save her anger until she saw him again. And if it was at a trial, then she figured it wouldn't be too long until she could stand before him and let him know exactly what she thought of his capricious, cruel games.

She tossed and turned fitfully, until eventually, almost two hours later, she drifted off into a troubled sleep.

Kore discarded the obstructive masquerade mask from her eyes as she ran down the corridor, racing as fast as her legs would carry her. The guards stationed about the palace and the servants who worked there did not move to stop her, did not even so much as blink as she passed them, heading in a blind, unthinking direction.

Behind her, the music from the ballroom she had fled continued to drift down the hallway, until it faded away into the rush of blood roaring in her ears and the shallow pants escaping her lips. Clutching at the skirt of her beautiful dress, she tossed a wild-eyed glance over her shoulder, to find that nobody was in immediate pursuit. She wasn't sure whether to feel relieved – or alarmed. Surely her exit had been noted. Was Cronus so confident she would get lost in the labyrinth of endless, dark marble corridors that he considered it unnecessary to expend any resources retrieving her?

Hatred for him swelled within her chest. He'd had her kidnapped from her home. Kept her prisoner against her will. Looked at her with red, red eyes that had shown her such terrible visions, of death and decay and what would become of her precious surface world if she attempted to escape or put up any form of resistance. She had been kept locked in a deceptively lavish room, as if she were a guest of honour. A mockery of the truth they all knew – that she was nothing but collateral in his crazed march towards bloody war.

When dawn came, the Uchiha would ride out to battle against those she loved most in the world. Kore had no concept of time, how it flowed in the strange world into which she had been stolen away. She had no idea how far off dawn was.

She bounded up a set of wide stairs leading up to another daunting, candlelit hallway.

"My Lady!" A deep voice suddenly called from some distance away behind her. Kore's heart leapt as she glanced back to find three guards were tailing her. They were hurrying down the corridor she had just climbed up from, and had yet to make it to the bottom of the staircase.

She was being followed! Anxiously she sped up, determined to evade them.

"Halt, in the name of Lord Cronus!" Another voice echoed.

A ragged sob escaped her throat as she took a left and flung the first set of double-doors she came across open, which led her into a resplendent art gallery. Slamming the doors shut behind her, she lifted her hands, summoning pale-green chakra energy into her palms. Holding it over the ornate gold door handles, she fashioned into existence twisting knots of thorned vines that locked the doors firmly shut, rendering the handles useless.

She paused to catch her breath and compose herself. Looking around the room, she wagered that she had to be on at least the second level of the palace grounds. She needed to find an exit point, which meant that she had to find another route down.

She flinched when the sound of approaching footsteps falling upon velvet carpet reached her ears from the other side of the doors.

No! Already they had closed ground on her?

"Check here," a voice spoke gruffly.

The sound of handles being grasped and rattled followed.

"What the-? I cannot open them," another exclaimed in confusion.

Kore backed away, eyes impossibly wide, heart pounding riotously within her.

"What do you mean, you cannot open them?" The brusque voice demanded. "Step aside you useless buffoon. Let me try." Again the handles were tested.

"You see? It's locked!" His companion said.

"Curses. What trickery is this?"

"She must have headed inside. This gallery is never locked," the third deep voice added.

A hand banged loudly on the doors, causing Kore to jump. "Lady! Open this door at once! By order of our Exalted Lord Cronus!"

Kore couldn't help herself. 'Exalted'? He was nothing but a demon! Hatred made her snap out unthinkingly, "Your Cronus can- can rot in hell itself!"

There were sharp, shocked gasps on the other side of the door. "Lady. Open this door immediately!"

"You had better watch your tongue if you intend to keep it!"

"Guards." Another, smoother, lighter voice suddenly interjected. "What is the fuss all about? Your orders were to retrieve the girl. Is there a problem?"

"M-my great Lords!" The men in pursuit of her stammered. "We cannot open the doors."

"The lady must have locked them somehow. She is inside!"

"And she has just insulted our Majesty Lord Cronus!"

"Ah. Is that so." The voice answered evenly. Another hand tried the handles. "I see."

"To insult our Esteemed Lord is treason-"

There was a light knock on the door.

"Lady Kore," the smoother voice addressed her. His tone was deceptively amiable. A trap, she knew. "Please open this door. No harm will come to you. You have my word."

"By Olympus," Kore retorted shakily, "I hope one of Lord Zeus's lightning bolts strikes and smites you all to oblivion!"

There was a silent pause. Then, to her surprise, a short, somewhat amused chuckle.

Kore turned and sprinted, catching the new arrival's final, muffled words from beyond the barrier as he added, "Well then. Let us handle this."

She ran the length of the room, until she reached another door which she opened – to find a dead end storage space of sorts. Turning away, she continued to the next, which led to another connecting passageway. Again, she twisted vines around the handles, and continued to do so with every door she encountered, hoping it would at least help to buy her some time in her escape attempt.

Her heart raced as she pulled open another door – to find herself in someone's private quarters. The fireplace was lit. She gasped and doubled back down the passageway, taking an alternative door, which led her through yet another connecting passage. It opened out into another sprawling dark hall. She took the first set of doors she came across, which led to stone steps that climbed downwards in a dizzying spiral. She had never felt so alone. So afraid. So desperate. She had obeyed Cronus's orders, had made no attempt to leave the Underworld for fear of his visions being brought to life. But now, after hearing his assembly at the ball, she knew that her world was set to burn either way. This was her only chance to try to get out - though she had no idea where she was headed. The dark palace was simply too vast in its expanse.

She would have considered it beautiful in its splendour – were she not dreadfully afraid of all that dwelled within it.

Kore's thoughts turned to Hades. Hades, who had done nothing to help her, or save her. Hades, who had shared a final dance with her at Cronus's command, and heartlessly spoken nothing. Tears blurred her vision as she reached the bottom of the staircase and pushed another door open that led through a stone breezeway. She would think of him no more, she told herself. Her cruelly betrayed heart could not bear it.

Her lungs burned, gasping to gulp down the oxygen they needed to continue propelling her body urgently forward. But soon her legs began to tire. With no ambrosia around to replenish her energy, she relied on sheer will to push her onward, running into and out of door after door, encountering dead-ends, more corridors, private quarters, all manner of rooms that passed her in a dizzying rush. She ran and ran and did not know how long she continued to go on for. There was no way out that she found. Only endless chambers.

Kore stopped at length to catch her breath in the darkness of the empty private quarters she had stepped into. Walking quietly over to the balcony windows, she wrenched them open and stepped out, eyes widening when she spied sprawling gardens down below. Hope crested within her. If she headed toward them, then surely she could find a way out beyond the palace walls.

The gardens were impeccably kept, illuminated with enchanting lights and divided into many sections. As she gazed ahead, Kore thought she glimpsed the darker outlines of tall hedge walls in the horizon. She blinked, then turned her eyes upwards. The sky was pitch black, the air breezeless. There were no stars. It was easy to assume the gardens were outside – when the unsettling reality was, everything was underground.

The sudden sound of the door-handles rattling in the room behind her startled Kore. She gasped in fear. She had been found! Whoever was now following her, was clearly far swifter in movement than she had anticipated. And if they had managed to locate her, that meant that they were able to break through the locks she'd set into the handles.

Move! She commanded her legs.

Slipping up onto the balcony rails, Kore summoned vines to curl around the balustrades. She hopped onto the winding plants, directing their growth downwards, transporting herself quickly to the grounds below. Then she sprinted into the gardens, hoping to lose her pursuer amongst the hedges and shrubs that grew there.

What manner of plants could thrive in a sunless place, she thought to herself, as she passed strange looking flora in her desperate sprint for freedom. She reached out to the plant-life – only to be met with silence. It made sense, she thought to herself, that they didn't respond to her here. After all, she was a surface goddess – and these belonged to the Underworld.

Kore threw a wild glance back over her shoulder, to find that nobody was behind her, but didn't slow her pace. On and on she ran, eventually seeking cover behind some bushes to catch her breath once more. Her entire body quaked from exertion and fear. Looking down at her trembling hands, she mourned the fact she had no offensive powers to protect herself with. Her abilities had always been used for regeneration and defensive purposes.

She froze when a voice suddenly carried across to her ears. It didn't sound too far off.

"Quite the chase she's led us on. Let's make this quick."

Her pounding heart leapt to her throat. No. No! She couldn't be caught. Not now! She crept along the line of bushes, trying to find a safe route to take. Her eyes darted frantically around her – then she spotted an opening through two hedges to her far left. Checking that the coast was clear, she made a mad dash for it, veering sharply to dive for cover, and followed the hedged path around a right corner – only to realise her mistake too late. In her blind state of panic, she had inadvertently walked straight into a maze.

It was too late to turn back, Kore realised in dismay, and continued to race ahead, taking a left turn next – that brought her to a dead-end. Releasing a stifled sob, she retraced her steps and took the right path instead, running over a low bridge and weaving deeper into the heart of the labyrinth.

Eventually she arrived at a wooden door in the hedge wall. She pushed it open to find a stone look-out point. Climbing the stairs, she gazed around in desperation, trying to navigate herself – only for her heart to sink. The maze stretched out in all directions around her. Its exit point route, which she could see led to the towering outer walls of the palace grounds, was too complicated for her to memorise. There were simply too many twists and turns.

Had she been on the surface, the plants themselves would have whispered to her the way.

But Kore was not on the surface. She was in the Land of the Dead.

She spied the backs of two tall, cloaked figures moving several hedge-walls away from her. They were heading rapidly in her direction, and she knew that if she tried to exit the door she'd just passed through, she would only collide straight into them by the time she got back down.

She ducked low, stomach lurching. She was trapped. There was no way out. She didn't possess enough chakra to summon a bridge of vines that would take her all the way over the tops of the hedges to the end of the maze.

She had only one choice. To barricade herself in using every last ounce of power she could summon in her veins – and then try to hop over the hedge-walls for as far as she could manage. Reaching a hand out, she focused, calling into existence jagged knots of vines that criss-crossed over the wooden door. Layer upon layer wove tightly together, until the entire entrance was concealed behind a thick, leafy barrier.

She waited with baited breath, listening for voices, heart thudding so hard within her, it physically shook her entire body. When nothing happened for a minute, and then another, followed by a third, she began to dare to hope that they had somehow overlooked the door, had taken a different path that led away from her location-

The sound of shrivelling leaves caused her eyes to dart back to the barrier she had erected. She watched, in horror, as the plant-life she had summoned turned to black before her eyes, drying out, cracking before dissolving into dust. They were dying, she realised. Whoever was on the other side of the door was sucking the life right out of the vines.

A moment later, the door was pushed open, and her heart jumped into her mouth as she watched two individuals join her in the enclosed space. Recognition rooted her to the spot. They were the same, attractive, masked deities she had seen Cronus conversing with at the ball – including the one with the intense crimson eyes that she'd felt had pierced straight through her very soul.

His gaze turned upwards, instantly locking onto her position at the top of the stairs.

Kore stiffened and concentrated all her powers into her palms. In pure desperation, she directed the vines at the one with the wavy, dark brown hair. To her surprise, the vine lashed obediently out, whipping straight at the masked deity with great speed. He hopped gracefully out of the way and looked up at her in turn.

"So this is part of her ability," she heard him say to his silent companion.

"Stay back!" Kore cried, and in response, sent another set of thorned vines shooting out at them. But as untrained as she was in the art of combat, her aim was clumsy, inaccurate. The other masked individual with the silky long hair simply stepped unhurriedly aside to evade the snapping coil, thoroughly untroubled by her attempts at attacking them. He then angled a nod to his companion, who began to advance toward the stairs.

"Really, goddess," the wavy-haired deity began patiently. "There's no need to waste your energy-" He flickered abruptly out of sight when Kore directed a particularly vicious coil of vines at him. When he reappeared, he was already half-way up the stairs.

Kore's pulse thundered. She threw up her hands, summoning a leafy wall between them, and then spun around, creating a bridge of vines that wrapped around one of the stone columns of the look-out point, before extending outwards. Jumping onto them, she began to run over the tops of the hedge walls. The vines curled out before her, following her feet obediently in the directions she moved as she sought to place distance between her and her pursuers once more.

She sprinted over a larger opening in the maze below – only for her make-shift bridge to abruptly sever when a whistling katana blade was flung with frightening accuracy at the vines, slicing them savagely in half. She tumbled with an alarmed shriek to the grass below. The fall was not a high one - but the momentum caused her to roll at fast speed. When she came to a stop, she groaned dazedly, pushing herself up to her elbows.

Shaking her disorientation off, Kore stumbled up to her feet, and ran through another wooden door – which led to another dead end. A choked sob escaped her lips as she twisted frantically back toward the exit – at the precise moment the handle twisted. Her legs buckled in defeat, and she fell to her knees. She could feel her energy stores dwindling. She didn't possess the physical strength required to continue to run and defend herself.

Two pairs of sandal-clad feet walked calmly toward her and came to a stop at the peripheral fringes of her vision. She gulped and told herself she would not look up. Their red eyes, like Cronus's, would only ensnare her. She would not look! Clasping her hands to her chest, she squeezed her eyes shut, inner pain and desperation coalescing within her, and with every last ounce of strength she had left, Kore poured the light of her gift into the space around her, causing delicate, flowering, thorned vines to curl to life from the ground. They unfurled and coiled upwards, cocooning themselves around her body in a final, protective shield.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Kore grit her teeth, and channelled wave after wave of pulsing chakra into the barrier, illuminating it with blinding, holy light.

She heard one of the gods draw a quiet breath.

"This is…" the voice she recognised as belonging to the wavy-haired god began, before trailing off.

"P-please!" she addressed them shakily. "Do not take me back to Cronus. His cruel red eyes showed me such terrible things. Please!" she wept hopelessly, shoulders heaving from the force of her sobs. "I have been broken enough. There is nothing left of me to break. Nothing more you can take. I-I beg of you! Please…""

The deities did not respond. Her eyes opened, vision flooded with tears – in time to see her last shield shrivelling to ashes. The light around her was tinged with shadow – and slowly ebbed away. She glanced up to knee-level to see one of the deity's was slowly drawing his hand back.

A sense of paralysis suddenly took hold of her body and she found that she could not move a single muscle. She felt a chilling aura in her bones, and somehow she knew what it was. Innately, her body recognised it. Death. The masked deity who stood ahead to her right – the same, silent one who had just pulled his hand away – was the one who was responsible for causing all her barriers to wither to dust.

Before death, what chance did life have to thrive?

She felt her breaths quickening as pure terror seized her. Soon she began to hyperventilate, fighting with every fibre of her being to wrench her incapacitated body free of its invisible binds.

"Enough." The command came from the other, long-haired deity, was a single word spoken in a silky, quiet voice – and yet it was absolute in its authority. Kore blinked, and immediately her body's struggles halted at the order. Her breathing gradually began to slow, before settling once again.

"Please," she whispered, a pitiful, final plea for mercy. She didn't know what Cronus would do to her, now that she had disobeyed his instructions and tried to run. He did not strike her as a benevolent sort of god, as her King Zeus was. No. Cronus was a monster.

There was a soft rustle of movement. The deity on the left stepped forward and crouched down to eye-level before her.

"Don't be afraid," he said kindly.

Startled by the unexpected compassion in the words, Kore's eyes involuntarily darted up to discover that the young god had removed his mask. She blinked at him, finding herself staring into a strikingly handsome, chiselled face, with arresting, almond-shaped dark eyes that slowly began to bleed to crimson. The goddess of spring inhaled sharply, instantly trying to drag her gaze downwards – but it was too late. Already those mesmerising, bloody irises were spinning their spell and a heaviness began to overtake her limbs. Her eyelids began to feel heavy, and she felt her body tilt to the right.

She collapsed onto the grass, and released a shallow breath.

"Mother…" she whispered weakly.

The face above her began to grow blurry. She heard the wavy-haired god murmur something to his companion.

"It is ready."

More words followed, that her sleep-muddled mind could not decipher.

Just before she passed into the arms of unconsciousness, she felt the cool touch of fingertips brushing briefly against the left temple of her head – followed by a blinding flash of white behind her eyes.

And then – blissfully – mercifully – nothing.

"Oi. Sasuke." Suigetsu nodded in greeting, as their team once again assembled by the armoury of his palace ahead of their next hideout raid.

Tilting his head to the right as Karin and Jugo entered the weaponry room to restock on supplies, the ocean king leaned casually back against the wall of the building. Sasuke walked silently over, dark eyes lifting expectantly to Suigetsu's face as he came to a stop before him.

"I've got some bad news. Thanks to your reckless ass, the High Council are onto us. They know we attacked Killer B and stole his sword. Guessing B told them himself. I knew we should've gotten rid of all the witnesses."

Sasuke blinked. But he didn't appear surprised. Or, to Suigetsu's irritation, particularly concerned.

Suigetsu scowled at him. "Does your face, like, crack if you ever show any emotion other than not giving a shit, or looking murderously pissed off?"

Sasuke's expression remained infuriatingly blank.

"And again with the giving no shits face," the ocean deity sighed. "Aren't you, like, even slightly worried? You know the Council can summon us anytime, right? And you know they have the power to enforce all kinds of shitty punishments. Even for Kings like us."

"Who told you?" Sasuke finally questioned.

Suigetsu folded his arms and smirked. Spying an opening to irritate Sasuke, he quipped, "Pinky's grumpy mother. She confronted me about why I'd work with you. Don't worry. I didn't tell her anything other than that we have a deal and shit's none of her business." He seemed to consider further, and tapped a finger to his chin, before adding thoughtfully, "Oh. Hmm. Yeah. I told her B can't sing for shit, too. Everyone's gotta know about that."

The god of the dead stared impassively back at him a moment. Then he began to turn wordlessly away.

"Hey. Hold on!" Suigetsu straightened, once again irked that Sasuke wasn't taking the bait and playing into his hands the way the god of the seas had hoped he would. "Let's make something clear. Just because we happen to be eye to eye over that fucking snake creep right now, don't think I won't roast your ass for the shit you pulled if they put us on trial. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."

Crimson irises flashed in hostile warning as Sasuke's eyes locked back onto him.

"A threat, Suigetsu?" His tone was chilling. "My Kingdom also has its laws. You committed treason in it. Do you know why the Erinyes haven't pursued you?" He stepped closer again, until his face was inches away from the sea deity's. "Because," he uttered emphatically, Sharingan glinting, "I commanded it."

"Yeah?" Suigetsu sneered back insolently, unflinching. "Big deal. The only reason your ass wasn't fed to my sea pets in my Kingdom is because I ordered it too, asshole. So suck on that." He jabbed a finger at Sasuke's chest. "You try any more shady shit with me, and I won't leave out a single detail about what went on with you and sweet little Sakura while she was here. Tsunade already hates your ass enough. You want me to give her more reasons to-!"

He choked off, smirking in satisfaction, as Sasuke finally reacted. A hand shot out, fast as a striking rattle-snake, to grip him tightly at the throat.

The Sharingan blazed fiercely into him. "You intended to kidnap her to your Kingdom," the death deity reminded him curtly. "If a trial takes place… you had better keep your mouth shut."

"If you want me to keep my fucking mouth shut, make sure a trial doesn't happen," Suigetsu glared back.

The sound of Jugo awkwardly clearing his throat caused Sasuke to immediately release the ocean god. Nonchalantly he stepped away.

"We're leaving," he ordered.

"Suigetsu!" Karin stomped over to the water deity. "Stop annoying Sasuke, stupid!"

"Heh," Suigetsu's smirk deepened as he kept his gaze trained on the death god. "Whatever, bitch. Maybe he needs to stop threatening me."

"…" Sasuke's eyes, turned onyx again, slipped briefly back onto him - before the team departed.

"So it has been settled," Chiyo stated from her seat upon the council's table. "Naruto will train under the supervision of Jiraiya, for the purposes of mastering Sage Mode as an offensive chakra source. He will also be tutored by Killer B in how to safely monitor and control the Kyuubi's chakra. For security this will take place in the forests contained within our chakra borders."

"Yes," Homura agreed. "Though it is imperative that Naruto does not actively call upon the Kyuubi's chakra. We have authorised that he learns to control the flow as a defensive power in the event that the enemy were to somehow discover that he is a Jinchuuriki. It must still remain hidden from the enemy at all times."

Kakashi nodded. "We understand."

He and Jiraiya had made the visit to the High Council, to put across the argument to allow Naruto to use alternative chakra sources to engage in battle. To their surprise, the Council had readily given permission for the sun god to master Sage Mode. Training under B, however, had required a great deal more persuasion on Jiraiya's part. They'd finally arrived at the agreement that Naruto could learn how to draw and push back the Nine-tail's chakra in the event it leaked out, and how to effectively communicate with the beast – but if he were to take any tailed form, strict sanctions would be enforced upon him.

"And who will take up the role of guardian in B's absence?" Jiraiya questioned.

"I have another Seraph that I will temporarily station there, who has worked within the ANBU division. His name is Yamato and he is both seasoned and proficient in combat," Danzo responded gruffly. "He is ready for deployment."

"Very good," Jiraiya folded his arms, satisfied. "Then we can begin the training immediately."

"We have also started to draft up a plan to make contact with Cronus, and to request the bodies of Minato and Kushina be returned to us," Koharu announced.

"We do not hold much hope he will agree, of course," Homura went on. "But he will know we are aware of his intentions, and that he is not above our laws. We will continue to work on this, and inform you of the progress that is made."

"We thank you for your cooperation," Jiraiya said. "This will be a great help to our cause, indeed. We will return here in the evening with Naruto."

"Killer B will be waiting," Homura assured them, and with a respectful nod of their head, the two took their leave.

Danzo turned his visible eye to his fellow council members. "The issue of the trial remains to be settled. Sasuke Uchiha must be called forward to answer for his crimes."

"Suigetsu, also," Koharu added. "Though he will be required to give testimony against the Underworld's King."

"We must consider the sanctions we will enforce upon them both," Homura leaned back in his seat, pondering deeply. "They are rulers of their respective domains, so indefinite imprisonment is not a viable solution."

"But a temporary confinement is," Danzo argued. "Particularly for the Uchiha."

Chiyo gave him a look out the corner of her eye. She said nothing to that, but stated, "As you know, the instructions left to us for the collection of the seal relics scattered across the world mention the elements of shadow and illusion. These are Sasuke's specialities. The other three required are Naruto, of flame, the mortal child and Kakashi, whom Minato taught to wield the lightning element."

"We cannot send the girl on such a mission," Homura argued, a frown creasing his brow. "We do not know what is contained within these locations. Minato would have ensured they are heavily fortified to avoid the wrong people trying to access them."

"She will not be unprotected," Chiyo pointed out.

"There is no way Sasuke would…" Koharu began automatically – before catching onto what Chiyo was suggesting. "You see that as a just punishment? To force Sasuke to assist the surface gods in unsealing their powers?"

"This is madness!" Danzo openly rejected. "If we send the boy off to the heart of the relics, he would surely destroy them to ensure their powers can never be unsealed!"

"And who is to say he will not communicate this to Madara? This information, in the hands of the enemy, would be dangerous, indeed," Homura contended.

"A minor issue," Chiyo responded. "A simple binding seal, signed in blood, will ensure Sasuke remains within the party and does not leave them to their own devices for the duration of the quest. As for sharing his information with Cronus. Rest assured the boy has no loyalties or love toward his ancestor."

"That is difficult to believe, given he has recently spoken with him and ascended Olympus," Danzo dismissed. "I propose Sasuke is instead placed in confinement and his chakra sealed. I propose he is heavily interrogated so that we clearly know his intentions."

"For how long?" Chiyo enquired. "Even if sent on the quest, he cannot remain on the surface indefinitely. He must return to his Kingdom before long. You must be reasonable, Danzo. This is no lowly, common deity, but a King. There is nobody else who can run the Underworld, but him."

"It is not enough punishment for his crimes," Danzo vetoed in displeasure. "He must pay with more than the minor inconvenience of his time, sending him along on a journey to play bodyguard for a girl he never ought to have taken to begin with!"

"Whether you approve or not, Sasuke must accompany them on their quest," Chiyo's eyes narrowed. "As for confinement – three days will be sufficient."

"Three days!" Danzo exclaimed in disbelief. "You make a mockery of our laws."

"I do no such thing," the old crone answered calmly. "Three days – and fourteen further to complete their quest. Believe me, this is the most severe punishment we can enforce upon him. He will be most put out by it."

Homura exchanged uncomfortable glances with Koharu. "And how do we know he will not attempt to destroy the relics, or harm the members of his party?"

"All terms will be included in the binding contract," Chiyo explained. "He will sign it with his own hand, as part of his sanction. He will have no choice in this matter. I will see to it, that this is done."

"Preposterous," Danzo shot down the idea once again. "Sasuke is an Uchiha. The last Uchiha that we were foolish enough to trust betrayed us. You know of whom I speak. Sasuke is their blood and is not to be trusted!"

"Perhaps your prejudice toward the Uchiha blinds you to the fact that Sasuke is not Cronus's reincarnate simply because he shares the same blood," Chiyo admonished. "And as for the last Uchiha that aligned themselves with us – do you truly believe they were given a choice? Perhaps, rather, the choice was made for them. Perhaps our own actions might have contributed to that."

Her eyes glimmered with untold knowledge. She made a point of deliberately holding Danzo's gaze.

He inhaled sharply. "You know something? What have you not told us?"

"I can ask you precisely the same question," Chiyo responded cryptically. There was a fire in her eyes that warned him not to push the matter any further – to remember what her role was, and that she knew things – even things deities wished would remain buried away forever – and the only reason she did not divulge all she knew was so as not to alter Fate's design.

Danzo's eyes lowered. He was silent for a minute. Finally, he uttered, "Very well. But if the Uchiha breaks the terms of agreement, then he is mine to deal with as I see fit. Agree on a date for the trial. The sooner, the better. Wait too long and I will have to summon him here myself."

He rose out of his seat. Koharu and Homura followed after him, and soon all three had exited the assembly hall.

Left alone, Chiyo's eyes lowered to her hands, resting atop her staff.

'The last Uchiha that we were foolish enough to trust betrayed us. You know of whom I speak.'

Danzo's bitter words stirred a memory in her mind. One she had not shared with anyone. One in which she had given her word to keep sentry over the King of the Dead – by someone who had loved him terribly.

Someone whose involvement in the war had likely saved the surface gods – and humanity – from certain enslavement.

She had been in her private quarters in the eastern wing of the High Council's chambers, harnessing a fresh crystal of earth chakra - when a light knock on the door alerted her to someone's arrival.

Setting her equipment down, she turned, and called her permission for the person to enter.

She already knew who it was. Had sensed their familiar, powerful chakra signatures - signatures so perfectly attuned to one another, so in sync and harmonised – the moment they had melted out of the shadows outside her room. She knew that they were no longer able to enter in any other way than in secret. And she had, of course, been expecting them.

The door opened, to reveal two tall, masked individuals, wrapped in identical black cloaks. The one with shorter, wavy dark hair hung back, keeping careful sentry on the corridor outside. It was not required, but Chiyo did not trouble him with the fact that she was a meticulously well-prepared goddess, who always set up barriers to ensure she was alone and in complete privacy whenever she wished to be. She knew that even telling him so, he would worry, and seek to protect the one in his company – as he always had since the moment the two had first met as infant gods. Theirs was an unbreakable bond.

The second person approached where she was seated in the arm-chair by the fireplace. Without any matter of preamble, she watched as he respectfully bent down to one knee before her, head lowered in reverent recognition of her status and power, and addressed her in a voice that was softly-spoken and polite in tone.

"Great Goddess," he began. "Time evades us. I believe you know why we are here."

Hecate's eyes lifted to the deity who stood by the door. He briefly met her gaze and nodded at her in courteous greeting, before turning his face back to the corridor.

"I know why you are here," she replied. "He has found out."

"…" The deity before her was silent, confirming her words. His face remained lowered. He hid it remarkably well, she thought to herself. The burdens he carried. She imagined that not even Cronus himself could see them. But she was more ancient than Cronus. And she knew this god's true nature – so at war with the cruel nature of his calling.

She knew his gentle soul.

"I have come to humbly request a favour," he said quietly. The hand of the arm resting upon his left knee closed into a fist, betraying his inner urgency. "Please- Sasuke-"

She reached out, placing a kind hand atop his bowed head. Heard him take in a near-inaudible breath. She already knew what his request was. Incredible, lethal power flowed through his veins. But many often overlooked the fact that for all his great wisdom – he was still one that was so young to the world. In comparison to other older deities, he was only just past the age of full maturity – but upon whose shoulders the terrible burden of expectation weighed heavier than most.

His beautiful eyes, Hecate thought to herself, had always been filled with an unfathomable sadness whenever she'd glimpsed him as a child, walking in his mother's presence. Always quiet. Always reflective. Ever polite. Always wise beyond his years.

Perhaps the sadness was because he had known his fate all along. That had been long before the carefully-perfected mask had fallen over those eyes that rendered them impossible to be deciphered by all around him.

But she knew. And she knew that if he looked up at her now, she would perhaps glimpse the same sadness in those haunted depths.

"I will watch over him," she spoke gently. "He will need guidance. He will be unprepared and will not understand. I know that his burdens will be no less exhausting than yours."

The god's head dipped lower marginally. As if her words weighed heavily upon his conscious.

She was quick to reassure him. "But he will not be alone, or without protection. I will teach him. Let your mind rest at ease on this matter, at least. A difficult path you must both tread. And focused, unwavering, you must remain in your resolve."

The individual by the door was watching them again. She saw the slight downward tilt to his lips. A rare moment of open sadness that neither of the two deities before her ever expressed or made apparent in public. A secret glimpse, to their inner turmoil, to the troubles they carried.

Turning her eyes back to the masked god kneeling before her, she added reassuringly, "I will see to it that he survives. You have the word of Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroads, herself. He will live. And someday, when he has grown to become everything you ever hoped for him to be - he will understand, and he will come to know the truth."

She heard a quiet exhale of breath. A moment of fleeting relief, easing the tension that lined the deity's shoulders ever so slightly. He could not form the words, she knew, to express his gratitude – not with the crippling depth of emotion that had to be afflicting him beneath the unyielding mask he wore. Instead he lifted his head, took her wrinkled hand in his gloved one briefly - a gesture of quiet, humble thanks – and then gracefully rose to his feet, turning swiftly away to re-join his kin, long hair and cloak trailing behind him.

His companion nodded to Hecate in parting, silently mouthing his thanks.

A moment later, and they had both departed, as silently and suddenly as they had arrived.

The memory faded. Danzo, Chiyo knew, sought to persecute Sasuke for his crimes, and that of his family's. She had given her word to protect the boy, so would do everything in her power to ensure that his trial was conducted fairly – and that no physical harm would befall him.

He needed to be briefed in advance, of course. She imagined he would not take the news of having to assist the surface gods in unlocking their abilities too well. But it could not be helped. Fate had already spun her thread, and the wheels of destiny were ever turning.

She turned her face up to the vaulted roof of the assembly hall. The recollection was one she had promised she would share with Sasuke. He deserved to know, after all. When the time was right.

And that time, she told herself, would soon be approaching.

[Two surface weeks later]

Sakura thanked the librarian and turned away from the reception desk. Stuffing the textbook she had just borrowed into her handbag, she headed toward the library exit, and was just about to take her phone out to text Ino - when she felt a hand suddenly grip her shoulder.

Blinking in surprise, she looked up to meet Kenji's hazel eyes.

"Sakura. I really need to talk to you," he said.

Her stomach lurched and guilt instantly flooded through her. She'd spent the last few weeks avoiding him as much as possible, which she knew to be unfair; had kept their interactions to minimal, polite conversation, and responded to any texts vaguely. It was a huge shift from the ease of their conversations prior to the events of the Winter Ball – and Sakura was sure that hadn't escaped Kenji's notice.

She'd kept telling herself that she would talk with him eventually, that she just needed a little more time to compose herself first. But the shameful truth was, she had been running away from it, avoiding the problem instead of confronting and addressing it.

And now, weeks later, Kenji had finally managed to track her down.

They stepped out of the library together and walked outside to one of the university's many quad areas. Kenji stuffed his hands in his pockets as they came to a stop beneath a tree.

Sakura leaned back against it, gripping the strap of her bag tightly. She felt nervous. She was a terrible liar. If Kenji started asking her too many questions, she was certain he would see through her shaky façade.

"Sakura," he started, looking thoroughly bewildered. "Call me crazy, but I just get the feeling that ever since the ball, you've been-" he seemed at a loss for words for a minute, before continuing, "…you've been really distant. I know you lost some friends. And I'm really sorry. I can't imagine how hard that must've been on you, and I don't want you to feel like I'm being too pushy, but it feels like you've just been avoiding me, and I don't even know why."

Sakura released a quiet breath. There it was. The despicable reality of her actions.

"I mean, before we all passed out, did I do something to upset you?" he looked at her with troubled eyes. "Because I just can't remember, and I've been trying so hard to figure it out. You're just- you're evasive. And I'm cool with it. If you don't want to be friends anymore, then that's fine. But at least tell me why? What's changed?"

Everything had changed. He had no idea. And a part of Sakura really wished she could tell him. As insane and illogical as that desire was – and yet she knew there was no chance she could risk it. Not when she had seen what Cronus's forces were capable of – and that had surely been only the beginning.

Feeling horribly wretched, she did her best to be as honest as possible with him – whilst avoiding the most significant of details. Because telling him the truth – that a crazed Titan god was planning to extract vengeance upon her friends and family and all of human-kind – and oh, by the way, this was also her final reincarnated form – was definitely not an option.

"Ken. It's not you…" she began.

"Oh, come on," Kenji cringed at her. "Don't give me that line."

"You're right," Sakura gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. Losing Tenten really hit me hard. I just haven't been feeling like any company at all over the last few weeks. I do my shift at the hospital and I go home and train."

"Train?" he repeated.

"Uh- study," she amended hastily. "I meant I study. It's just been really emotionally overwhelming for me. I have so much on my mind. I know I've been a lousy friend."

"But we are friends," Ken implored. "You can talk to me, you know. I want to help."

"I appreciate that, I really do," Sakura insisted. The concerned expression on his face was crushing, and made her feel even worse. "But it's not like I've been running away from just you."

That was an outright lie, Sakura knew. She had been specifically trying to dodge him. But she was trying to spare his feelings. She told herself she was telling a white lie to be kind.

"I'm really sorry," she added sincerely. "You've been so supportive ever since we met again. Your friendship is important to me. I just… I needed a bit of space. It's… well, it's how I deal with things."

"Okay…" he said uncertainly. "You're sure I haven't done anything that's upset you?"

"No," she reassured him. "You haven't. I've been avoiding everyone. I've even been having lunches alone. Today's the first time I've agreed to join some other classmates."

"Well," he exhaled, and she visibly saw all the tension leave his body. "Phew. That's a relief. You don't know how much this has been bugging me the last few weeks. I really thought I'd messed up."

It stunned her and made her think: do I really matter that much to him?

"Sakura," he then said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "I- it's crazy, but I reallylike you, and it'd kind of suck if we can't hang out like we used to."

His words hovered precariously close to the confession he couldn't remember making. Sakura thought that if they couldn't be more than friends, then surely there was no harm in remaining friends? Because cutting him off entirely seemed unfair and cruel. He hadn't done anything wrong. She would just make it clear – if he ever tried to breach the subject again – that she wasn't looking for any relationships at that moment.

Somehow she felt Kenji would understand and respect that. She would just be careful to give him no mixed signals on her end.

She swallowed. Her kindness, she thought to herself, and always thinking of other people's feelings above her own, would be her undoing. But she valued Kenji's friendship. She told herself it would be alright to maintain at least that.

"Well," she conceded. "I'm meeting some friends for a quick lunch. Want to join us?"

Kenji met her gaze, and beamed.

[Timeskip - End of January]

He landed silently on the cold stone floor, face safely concealed beneath a red and white mask he had sworn he'd never wear again. But it was necessary, he told himself, to walk within the ANBU quarters unhindered.

Over the course of the previous month, Sai had periodically and secretly visited the base and slowly pieced together fragments of information that had led him to take the decision to infiltrate the grounds directly in person.

Spying from above had simply not revealed enough inside intelligence. He needed to access various rooms to create a clearer picture. This was his second instance physically walking through the building. He always made sure to enter through different overhead airway vents, to avoid the bar-code scan security check conducted at the main entrance points of the headquarters. Each ANBU member had one tattooed on the inside of their right wrists. It was a way for Danzo to categorise and strip his army of their individual personalities.

Sai was ready to engage his Talaria wings at his ankles to make a quick retreat at any point. But so far, his visits had been thankfully unchallenged. He passed through the halls with confidence, retracing steps that had never left his memory. Anytime he had been addressed, he had known how to respond in code.

So far, nobody had confronted him.

He had learnt that a new research facility was being opened. Not at the ANBU grounds themselves, but rather, running somewhere adjacent to them within the same region. The two locations would be connected by a deep tunnel that was still being constructed underground.

"You," a voice suddenly called out behind him, as he walked down one of the immaculately kept, minimally decorated corridors of the facility. All the hallways featured dark blue square wall panels and flooring with fluorescent white lighting. It gave the entire interior a very clinical air.

Remaining calm, the Messenger god turned to face the individual who approached him. Just like Sai, he was dressed in uniform and wore a concealing mask.

"Follow the others and take this cylinder down to Basement Level 03."

Sai nodded and took hold of the handles of the heavy-duty sack truck. Level 03? But the facility only had two ground floors. Was it possible that a portion of the new research grounds was already accessible from the ANBU grounds?

The cylinder was heavy. He peered up at it, but could not make out much inside, due to the glass being frosted over. Wheeling it slowly along, he followed the ANBU ahead of him around the curving corridor, to a large elevator. Stepping inside, he watched as one of the soldiers inserted a key-card into the control panel, and input a code.

475183

Sai repeated the number to himself, committing it to his keen, photographic memory. So the third level basement could only be accessed with a key-card and a special combination of numbers. This was a higher level of security that history informed him meant whatever was in Basement Level 03, was strictly classified.

The ride down was a long one. Eventually, the elevator reached its destination and the doors parted, leading into a wide corridor that was dimly lit. Some of the lights flickered, and Sai could see that some wires still hung free from their sockets. This place was evidently still being constructed.

They walked in silence for a long time, down a winding metal corridor that seemed to stretch on endlessly. Sai breathed heavily with the effort of pushing the heavy cylinder along such an extended distance. Could it be that this was an accessible part of the connecting passageway that had already been prepared?

Eventually, the ANBU arrived at another set of doors. Again, a key-card was inserted, and a new set of numbers input into the reader.

918205

There was a beep – and a second number was tapped in.

010536

Once more, Sai stored them to artistic memory. The reader beeped again, its security lock light changing from amber to green - and the steel doors slid open, leading them into a huge, warehouse-like storage space, littered with hundreds of cylinders.

Sai felt his pulse begin to quicken. Being careful not to be too obvious about looking around, his wide eyes beneath the mask darted left and right, taking in the various shapes contained within the eerily illuminated tubes. Rows upon rows of grotesque, sickly looking beings filled the space. Some looked like they might be human in form. Others were unidentifiable.

What were these abominations? What was Danzo up to? Sai had never known him to create anything on such a scale. He guessed there had to be, at the very least, at least three hundred or so cylinders in the area.

"Over here," one of the ANBU waved him over. He wheeled his cylinder to the specified location, and deposited it onto the ground, relieved to be rid of it. Three others assisted him in moving the heavy container into position.

"I think these are the last of them," another commented.

"Everyone, out. You know we're not allowed down here unless it's to make a delivery," someone Sai assumed was the leader of the group, ordered.

Sai followed the others, pushing his sack truck back to the entrance of the space. And as the door locked shut behind them, and they made the long walk down to the elevator again, the Messenger god's eyes slipped onto the key-card attached to the belt of the ANBU walking in front of him.

He would need a key-card, he told himself, and made sure that the next time he visited, he would obtain one.

He watched as the bandages were wound tightly around his right arm, a protective barrier over the freshly stitched wounds in his flesh. It would take a further month, he had been informed, for the final round of implantation to be fully accepted by his body. Once it was, his newfound gifts – priceless resources he had harvested from a forgotten era – would be ready for utilisation at last.

The pieces were all falling into place. He had traded a newly-built facility, and disposable mortal lives, in return for his present implants. A project he had begun long ago – and finally almost completed.

His gaze narrowed as he thought back to the distant past, and recalled a time where he had been denied an irreplaceable addition to his arsenal. He still remembered what those eyes had looked like. The tremendous power they had wielded. The first time he had witnessed it, and immediately known that it could not remain within the hands of Konoha's enemies.

They stood gathered in one of the circular, battle-strategy assembly rooms in the palace of Mount Olympus. Around Pallas were stationed ten loyal guards. And before him, stood two Underworld dwellers, with whom he had used his position upon the High Council to summon to him.

Dressed in the richly-stitched finery and glinting jewellery of their realm, the two young deities carried the air and bearing of unmistakeable royal nobility. But still, in Pallas's eyes, their status was decidedly beneath his own.

"You claim your Sharingan has the ability to control minds beyond the confines of simple genjutsu. That it can influence personalities and that an individual remains under your command without the need for you to expend any chakra to maintain it," he spoke in a rough voice. "That somehow, this form of mind control becomes the new reality for those who fall victim to your illusion. I have extensively studied the ocular gifts of your clan, and know no such level of ability. Even the strongest form of mind control requires a steady stream of chakra to uphold. The moment that chakra is no longer projected into the mind – the illusion is broken."

Hypnos of the Uchiha regarded him levelly from behind the protective silver eye-mask he wore. Pallas had heard reports of his powers; Hypnos of the Body Flicker, they called him – so swift was he in movement. Hypnos of the Eternal Sleep, for his ability to enforce instant slumber upon any individual he wished. It was his apparent ability to influence personalities and minds, however, which greatly interested Pallas, god of war-craft strategy, the most.

Behind the sleep god, stood Thanatos, a lethal deity of few words whose genjutsu prowess struck fear into the hearts of many. He had no other monikers, was known simply by his name or as Death itself – and that was enough. Like his kin, he also wore a mask. It was reputed that his eyes, uncovered, were too unbearable in intensity for mortals to look upon.

"Are you accusing me of lying?" Hypnos questioned. His characteristically light tone took on an edge that made it clear he did not appreciate being called a deceiver. "Do you put into question my honour as an Uchiha?"

Pallas's lone, visible eye narrowed. "It seems you have Zeus convinced, but I have my doubts as to the effectiveness of this ability of yours. Perhaps you can control a mind at a time. An entire clan – that would require extensive chakra manipulation. Cronus is the only such god who can manage a genjutsu of that scale."

Hypnos regarded him. "Who do you think," he smoothly replied, "assisted Cronus in the re-conditioning of the clan's thoughts?"

"Hmph. That also puts into question the sincerity of your desire to undo such actions, when you assisted Cronus in indoctrinating your kin at the outset," Pallas retorted sternly. "I am not as trusting of your kind as Olympus's very young King."

"And that is why you have had your soldiers tracking us as of late, I suppose?" Hypnos angled his head to the guards that stood around the room. "You think we do not see them from the shadows. You forget, the shadows are ours. Your men have not reported very much back to you thus far, have they? We watch them. Not the other way around."

Pallas sniffed, clearly displeased to have been caught out. "It is nothing personal. A necessary precaution, to ensure your allegiances. I must also protect my interests."

Hypnos was silent for a moment. "Again, you question my honour. I did what I needed to do, knowing it can be undone when the time is right." He held the older god's gaze. "But perhaps it would help for you to see a demonstration?" He turned his head to the right, not quite looking back over his shoulder at his silent companion. "Very well, then," he said obligingly, his tone easy and pleasant once more.

Pallas waited as Hypnos's eyes lowered beneath the mask he wore.

"The first guard standing on my left is about to take the dagger from his belt, and hold it to his own throat," he stated calmly.

The guard tensed in surprise. "M'Lord?" he began to address Pallas in concern. Hypnos's lashes beneath the mask then swept upwards, and piercing crimson locked onto the guard's alarmed gaze. Immediately he sucked in a sharp breath.

A moment later, he slowly unsheathed the dagger he carried at his waist, and obediently lifted it to his neck.

"…" Pallas regarded the soldier aloofly. The man's expression had glazed over entirely.

Interesting, Pallas thought to himself.

"It would take just a second to persuade this man to willingly sever his own life, and for my cousin to reap his soul. And not just his..." Hypnos gestured languidly.

The warfare god looked around the room. One by one, each of the guards unsheathed their blades, holding them up to their throats.

"Guards," Pallas called to them, curiously testing their loyalties, which were sworn in service to him alone. "Lower your weapons."

They did not blink. They did not move. They remained prisoners of Hypnos's iron-will.

Such power, Pallas thought in silent awe. Such an awful ability – to compel anyone Hypnos looked upon, to obey.

Pallas then glanced back to the guard on his right. A thin trickle of red tainted his skin as his dagger pressed harder against his flesh, drawing blood. He turned his attention back to Hypnos, who met his gaze steadily.

"I need no chakra to enforce this. Only to summon the Sharingan. My gifts in the domain of sleep allow me to permeate minds, to place whispers within them, in such a way that they are perceived to be a person's own thoughts. The only way to break the command, is if I reverse it." His crimson eyes flicked around the room, and the guards slowly began to lower their swords. They looked at each other in a daze, as if they couldn't remember what had happened over the duration of the last minute.

Looking back to Pallas, the God of Sleep added, "Do you still doubt my eyes? Or perhaps, you now better understand who we are…?"

Pallas silently told himself that he understood perfectly. He understood that such a terrifying power could not possibly be trusted to remain in the hands of an Uchiha.

On that day, he had made plans to take those eyes for himself. For the purposes of protecting the mortals of Konoha and the world from anything that threatened their safety and the balance of peace. The Uchiha, he had known all along, were a fickle sort. They could not be trusted. It angered him that Zeus, in his blinding desire to forge alliances with all, would place his faith and trust in that accursed clan.

He'd had his chance. Hypnos's Sharingan had been his for the taking – but the opportunity had been snatched from his grasp at the final moment, and he had been denied ocular assets of the highest calibre.

Still, the recollection filled him with bitter regret. Had he only acquired them – then he never would have had to wait so long to deal with the threats that still lurked over the village and the world itself.

"Where is Lord Zeus?" Hypnos asked, as he entered the designated room in which he'd been instructed to meet Olympus's King. He had been summoned alone that morning by the ruler of the surface gods - but as soon as he had stepped inside, had discovered Pallas and his soldiers waiting for him, instead.

Pallas nodded in curt greeting. Once again, his guards were stationed around him. This time, however, they all wore masks.

Masks that shielded their eyes.

Hypnos thought this strange. It was not like Zeus to run tardy. But Pallas was an esteemed member of the High Council. The God of Sleep did not particularly like the war-fare deity's personality. Nor did he approve of the blatant prejudices he held against the Uchiha due to Cronus's attitudes and actions. However, he had no reason to question or mistrust him, given that his allegiances were to Zeus and to Konoha.

"The King will be along shortly," Pallas replied. "I wished to discuss the particulars of your plan with you, beforehand."

"…" Hypnos's keen gaze slipped around the room, silently noting the concealing barriers on the guards' faces. "If we are to discuss combat, then Thanatos must also be present," he answered. "Besides, I have come to meet with Zeus. Not you."

"Thanatos's input is not required," Pallas stated. "It is your eyes that will sway the fortunes of this war." With that, he lifted his hands.

Hypnos tensed, barely avoiding a whistling kunai that was aimed directly at his face. It struck his mask with force, sending it flying from his eyes. He blinked, immediately unsheathing his blade – when behind him, he heard the sound of the doors bolting shut. Before he could figure out what Pallas's intentions were, the guards around him lifted their hands, joining them together, speaking an incantation. Too fast to evade, a pale blue chakra-negating cage snapped up around him.

It meant he could not teleport out. He could not use his chakra-based abilities.

Hypnos clenched his teeth. "What's the meaning of this?" he demanded, equal parts confused and angered that he had walked right into an unexpected ambush, and in such a disrespectful manner.

"It is called Kotoamatsukami, is it not?" Pallas enquired. "Your eye technique. A visual genjutsu that creates false experiences, rendering them a reality in the target's mind. Such incredible power – but a waste it would be, to use it solely for the purpose of preventing your clan's coup against the surface folk."

Hypnos's eyes widened in disbelief. "What…?" he got out.

"It is you, an Uchiha, who has no perception of how to use your own Sharingan," Pallas continued. "Even if you were to cast Kotoamatsukami to reverse the ideologies Cronus has implanted into your kin – do you truly believe they will not seek revenge for his exile once he is contained? It may work in this instance – but what about the next? Still, Konoha and all the nations of the world, will be threatened by the blight of the Uchiha and their tendency for war. Your clan must be stopped, once and for all."

"Have you lost your mind, old god?" Hypnos exclaimed. "You would punish an entire people on account of the greed of one?"

In response, chakra strings whipped out at him, binding his arms tightly to his sides, his feet to the ground.

Hypnos gave Pallas a warning look.

"You had better release me," he spoke quietly. "Even now, I will overlook this, and everything will continue as planned, if you and your men stand down."

"Zeus does not possess the courage required to get the job done," Pallas answered coldly. "He will not see reason, or recognise that the true threat is from the entire Uchiha race – and not just Cronus himself. The Underworld needs only one of you as ruler. The rest are simply a liability, and a threat to the stability of the world."

"You are mad," Hypnos seethed. "I came to avert a war, and you would readily partake in it?" His heavy-lashed, dark eyes narrowed. "Though perhaps we should have known, given your function, what your true nature is."

"Hypnos. Do not worry," Pallas informed him reassuringly. "I will make good use of your eyes. With them in my possession, any threat to the safety of the surface gods and its folk will be immediately eradicated."

Hypnos finally understood his intention, and his eyes widened in horror and in a rage he rarely allowed to ever manifest itself on his handsome features. He struggled against the bindings, but the strings cut into his body, sucking him dry of even the slightest resources of chakra that remained in his veins. Pallas stepped forward, reaching out a hand that slipped through the barrier. It was magic that Hypnos was unfamiliar with, likely derived from the tools Zeus had given the High Council to ensure peace. Tools that Pallas was now abusing for his own selfish, personal gain.

The hand drew closer, until it closed around Hypnos's right eye-socket. The intention was unmistakeable. Pallas meant to gouge his eye out completely.

"Stop!" Hypnos exclaimed angrily, trying to turn his face away. More chakra strings wrapped around his throat, choking in their hold. He felt pressure and pain shoot through his eyeball as Pallas dug his fingers ruthlessly around the sight organ. "You don't know what you are doing-!"

"Your powers of mind control and paralysis are useless when your Sharingan cannot look your victims in the eye…" Pallas remarked. Blood began to spill down Hypnos's cheek as he squeezed more forcefully.

The loud sound of cawing crows suddenly filled the air, followed by a litter of black feathers. There was a blinding blur of shadowy movement, and the temperature of the room abruptly plunged. Pallas sucked in a sharp breath, and jerked his arm backward – at the precise moment the savage kiss of a sharp blade was angled directly at his throat with frightening speed.

Thanatos stood between him and Hypnos, crimson eyes blazing beneath the barrier afforded by his mask. They burned into Pallas's, chilling in their intensity.

"Mine," he murmured dangerously, "are not."

The soldiers around the room crumpled like puppets clipped of their strings to the ground. Forced onto their knees, they gasped for air, completely immobilized. The chakra strings binding Hypnos loosened, and he shrugged out of them, ripping them off him in disgust.

"Cousin," he addressed his kin, lifting a hand to the bleeding eye he had come so close to losing. "You've had no better timing than this."

"…" The sword against Pallas's throat did not waver. It pressed more menacingly against his skin, as Thanatos instructed softly, "Remove the barrier."

Pallas's lips formed a thin, grim line. His guards had been immediately incapacitated at the God of Death's unforeseen arrival. He was not foolish enough to believe he could defeat Death alone himself. The Sharingan had already locked onto him – which meant that Thanatos was ready to initiate the frightening effects of his legendary genjutsu abilities at any moment.

Pallas relented, and lifted his hands. It was time, he told himself, for his backup plan. The chakra cage surrounding Hypnos ebbed out.

"Do not think for a minute that your word will be believed over mine," Pallas said.

Thanatos blinked at the statement – at the precise moment the doors behind them were thrown open. Armoured guards flooded in, and standing in their midst – was Zeus himself. Demeter, Hera and Dionysus were behind him.

The King of the surface god's luminous blue eyes widened in shock at the sight of Thanatos holding a blade to a High Councillor's throat.

"What is happening here?" he demanded.

"They have raised their blades against Olympus!" Pallas cried. "It is as I have said all along! The Uchiha are not to be trusted!"

Zeus's bewildered gaze met Thanatos's for a split second – but the guards were already rushing forward, lifting their weapons to strike. Thanatos snatched back his blade and leapt swiftly toward Hypnos – and the two vanished from the room, leaving nothing behind but scattered black feathers in their wake.

His eye lowered as the memory reached its end. Hypnos's gift had eluded him. But soon, he vowed, he would assemble enough power to remove the threat of the Sharingan for good. For only one as level-headed and just as he was, was truly worthy of wielding its powers. Only he could be trusted to use the boons it afforded for the greater good.

There was just one more pair he needed to acquire. One more pair that was not needed to rule a Kingdom. And soon, he told himself, as he laid a hand upon his bandaged arm – soon, he would hold the missing eyes in the palm of his hands, and the scourge of the Uchiha clan would be obliterated from the world forever.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. SS reunion coming very soon! See you next update. There will be another time-skip to March and the Spring Festival! Please leave feedback, reviews are gold!