Obito-Sensei Chapter 66

Exerts Their Will On The World

It was the afternoon of the 14th, and the sun had started to set in the west; the tall mountains that surrounded the town of Hiyama like a ring of unfathomable teeth cast shadows that eclipsed the whole town, but despite the chill and the coming winds that would whistle through the hills and drop the temperature below freezing, almost the entire town was outside, gathered on the main street.

Hiyama was saying goodbye to its sheriff.

The mayor of the town, an older woman named Yuriko, was quietly speaking with him as he departed.

"You can still change your mind," she said, and Kisame Hoshigake shook his head. "We… we could get rid of the bodies. And Rena won't say anything. She wasn't that hurt. We could just say we never saw any ninja. And you could hide. If what they said was true, I doubt living under Lightning will be much different than living under Frost. One Daimyo for another, right?"

"Did Frost ever send shinobi to rough up your kids?" Kisame asked, and Yuriko had no choice but to purse her lips and shake her head. "Yeah. No. It's going to get bad, and quickly. If they find out I was the one to take care of them..." He hefted the lumpy black bag he was carrying in his left hand; there was a faint squishing sound. "You harbored a rogue, and now a murderer of the Hidden Cloud's shinobi. If that comes out, you're finished. The whole town is finished."

"The whole town?" Yuriko asked. There were people watching from every corner, whispering. A small boy broke from the crowd, and before the mayor could shoo him away shoved a small, bright lunchbox into Kisame's free hand. The rogue ninja's mouth twitched, maybe into a smile, and the boy retreated as his mother whisper-screamed at him. "Kisame, I think that might be-"

"Yuriko." Kisame turned fully to face her, towering a full two feet over her head. His face was expressionless. "You never asked me how I came here, and I repaid that by not telling you. But I'm going to tell you something now, not to scare you, but to make you understand."

He smiled joylessly, revealing his razor-sharp teeth. "I came from the Hidden Mist. At your age, you've probably heard enough stories to guess that. I worked in the Information Division. I spent most of my life fighting insurgencies and traitors to the Hidden Mist and the Land of Water, before I became one myself."

Kisame leaned in, and the mayor paled. "It was my job to kill my comrades, so that they wouldn't let slip secrets. When I wasn't doing that, I was slaughtering people who thought Kirigakure was an unjust place. But I never started with them. This is what shinobi, what all governments do with insurgents, Yuriko. They slaughter their families, first with the intention of punishing them and second with the hope of drawing them out."

He drew back, leaving the mayor shaking. "If the Hidden Cloud is sending real ninja and they find out I was here, Hiyama will burn. They will redraw Frost's map, and take an eraser to the little dot that used to be this town."

They were both silent for a moment. Kisame shifted, his smile fading to grim sorrow.

"Do you understand?"

"I understand," Yuriko whispered, and Kisame grunted.

"You don't, but that's okay. Hopefully, you never will." He turned away. "Thanks for everything you've done. I'll do my best to draw the worst away from you. And remember, if you're asked I was just passing through and rampaged. You all barely survived." He chuckled. "That's my reputation. They won't ask questions."

As he walked away, Yuriko called after him, and her words were echoed by several people in the streets; there wasn't a happy face or cruel word among them.

"When this is over, you can come home, Kisame," she said, and murmured assent rose up in the streets. "You're always welcome here."

Kisame laughed. "Thank you," he said, ambling down the main street and heading northwest, towards the more heavily populated parts of the country, where the ninja, and the fighting if there was any, would be thickest.

"But you'll probably never see me again."

###

After Sasuke had fetched the Edo Tensei a folded chair from the corner of the room and helped the ancient man into it, Madara Uchiha sat back with a dusty sigh, barely able to hold himself upright into the rickety wooden chair.

"Makes no damn difference," he grunted after a moment. "But at least I'm not on the floor."

"How did you get here?" Sasuke asked. Mikoto and Obito were speechless, watching the proceedings with no idea of what to do; Sasuke had only told the Hokage about the things he'd seen in Orochimaru's lair in the Hidden Rain. "I doubt Orochimaru let you go."

"So, you do remember," the man muttered. "Sasuke, I think your name was. But such a similar feeling…" He paused, wheezing, though Sasuke was sure he had no need to breathe.

"Okay." Obito finally stepped forward. "Sasuke, what the hell is this?"

Sasuke glanced back with a shrug. "Orochimaru resurrected him in the Hidden Rain," he said, and his mother sucked in a breath. "Asked him questions. Studied his body. I met him there, but only once. Orochimaru hid him away after that."

"You didn't mention this?" Mikoto asked, and Sasuke looked at her with cold amusement.

"I told the Hokage," he said, and his mother slightly deflated. "I had no idea he'd escaped though." He looked back to Madara; the zombie was slumped, seemingly half asleep. "He didn't seem capable of it."

"How rude," Madara grumbled. "Though you are correct. I never could have made it here; I cannot find my way like this, let alone travel." He raised a shaking hand towards the stone at the back of the room, which they had all drawn closer to; Sasuke had set up the chair at the foot of the dias. "Long ago, I was the keeper of the monument. I scribed a summoning seal into it, should it ever be stolen." Mikoto looked scandalized, enough that Sasuke almost laughed.

"When the Hidden Rain was… attacked?" Madara continued, each word a struggle. "That tremendous explosion… my captor's concentration was broken, for but a moment. He had not died, but he was hurt and weakened." Sasuke filed that away and glanced at Obito. His sensei grimaced and shook his head; Orochimaru hadn't seemed injured when he'd met with him. Ominous. "I know this jutsu; I battled it many times. I had planned how to escape it, but the opportunity…" Another hacking cough. It was like Orochimaru had said: even though he was undead, Madara sounded on the edge of death. He was stuck in perpetual weakness. " Never arose."

"You're still here," Obito noted. "So you couldn't have broken the Edo Tensei. You'd have crumbled to dust." Sasuke was surprised at the surety in his sensei's voice; he must have had some experience with the jutsu.

"No," Madara rasped. "The Resurrection can't be broken except by the summoner's will. But they form a contract with the corpse they revive, one enforced by a seal in their mind." He weakly tapped his head. "But in moments of weakness, or of release, that contract can be rewritten; the master changed. I altered the jutsu to make myself the master."

Madara had thought of that and executed it with just a moment of opportunity despite his condition? Sasuke found himself drawing away. Even if his ancestor was physically helpless, he was still dangerous.

"Then, I summoned myself here," Madara finished, constantly exhausted. "There are things I must say, and only to an Uchiha, and only to an Uchiha who has evolved the Mangekyo Sharingan. I thought that if the clan still had the monument, those would be the shinobi who would visit it, to read its secrets." He shifted, almost falling out of the chair before Sasuke gently corrected him. "I'm right, as usual, aren't I? You all… all three of you, you possess the Mangekyo. I can feel it. You are… sharp."

"You're right," Mikoto said after a moment. She knelt down, not bowing her head but certainly showing respect. Obito stayed standing. "I am Mikoto Uchiha; with me are my son, Sasuke, and my second cousin, Obito." She paused as Madara wheezed, barely moving in his chair. "Sasuke and I have achieved the Mangekyo Sharingan; Obito has surpassed it, and taken his brother's light as well. He is the first peer to you in seventy years, Madara."

"Peer…" Madara rasped, and then let out a sound like a bag of bones falling down the stairs that Sasuke thought was probably a laugh. "I would congratulate you… but that is not something worth celebrating."

Obito grimaced. "Why are you here then?" he asked. "What's so important that you didn't just head back to the afterlife?"

"Mmmm." Madara groaned, shifting and trying to find comfort that would never come. "I came here to soothe my conscience. I… have made a terrible mistake."

That definitely hadn't been what Sasuke had expected, what any of them had expected. Madara Uchiha was a legend, and at the center of that legend was pride, the outright hubris that had driven him to challenge the First Hokage. Obito crossed his arms and Sasuke joined his mother on the floor as Madara continued.

"I told you…" He paused, not the normal pause of his body rebelling against existence but a moment of hesitation. "I mistook you for someone else, Sasuke, and I told you something I had never even told Orochimaru. I lost my shadow." He chuckled. "Those weren't just senile ramblings."

"Explain," Mikoto quietly demanded, and Madara grinned.

"It is nice to speak to my clan once more," he mused. "Though it seems I'm doomed to be interrogated no matter where I go."

"You came here to offer information," Sasuke said, and Madara laughed again. "And you're obviously eager to. Offer it, then."

"Bold. For the best…" he said. "You will need some context, or you will believe my words madness. I'm sure the story is that I died fighting Hashirama; that was the legend I created. But I escaped that battle; his blade pierced my heart, but the Izanagi brought me back." Mikoto shifted, and Madara coughed. "You've read of it. I won't explain that further."

Sasuke and Obito, of course, had no clue what any of that meant, but Mikoto didn't seem inclined to explain; she was leaning in, eyes wide.

"I fled, and I hid," Madara continued. "I had stolen some of Hashirama's flesh; I was sure it would be the secret to overcoming him. I consumed it; I became a cannibal hiding in a cave, trying to draw out his power, the Mokuton, and to increase my own strength. But I was weak, and afraid."

"You?" Obito snorted, and Madara spun on him with frightening speed.

"What have you built and destroyed, Obito Uchiha?" he hissed, his empty sockets glaring in Obito's direction. "Do you have a family? Do you lead the clan? Have you founded a village, united lifelong enemies, changed the world, and then thrown it all away in a moment of rage? What do you have but stolen eyes? Tell me, and then be silent."

Obito stared at his ancestor, struck mute by Madara's venom. Sasuke couldn't imagine doing any better in his position.

"They were gifted," he finally said. "Not stolen."

Madara softened. "Like mine," he muttered. "Then perhaps there's hope for you. Regardless, I was afraid, and alone. I knew that if Hashirama or his brother found me I would be helpless with just one eye; I would be defeated without a doubt."

One eye? Sasuke's mother wasn't surprised; it had to have something to do with the Izanagi Madara had mentioned. Either that, or Hashirama had destroyed one of Madara's eyes in their battle and he hadn't mentioned it.

"My experiments yielded fruit." Madara's lip curled. "Literally. Hashirama's flesh flowered into a tree with the correct fertilizer-"

Bodies, Sasuke thought. Definitely bodies.

"And eventually, I took Hashirama's power for my own," he continued. "But by then, I was old. Fear, which had so paralyzed me, had locked me away from the world for more than a decade, even after Hashirama had… died." He pondered that for a moment. "Obito, before I continue, I would ask that you read the monument. It will not take you long."

"Why?" Obito asked, but Mikoto answered.

"There is wisdom there that will only be revealed to one with Eternal eyes, Obito," she said. "He's asking you to read it as only he can." She fixed him with a stern look. "I suggest you do it."

"Hmmph." Obito walked off to examine the stone, leaving the rest of them behind. As they waited, Sasuke spoke.

"The First Hokage's flesh turned into a tree?" he asked, and Madara chuckled.

"He had an affinity for them," he said. "Truly, it did not surprise me. But what emerged from the tree after a time did." He leaned back, his head lolling to the side. "Artificial humans. Pale, stupid things, drawn out by my power. I named them 'Zetsu,' after an old legend… they cared for me, spied for me. I imagine that Orochimaru butchered them all when he found me; they were probably not intelligent enough to leave my corpse."

"Your power?" Mikoto asked. "That's not… that doesn't sound like any ninjutsu."

"It wasn't," Madara rasped. "It was the power of Samsara, the Six Paths."

At that, Obito returned. Sasuke couldn't read the expression on his face.

"What the hell is the Infinite Tsukuyomi?" he asked, and Madara's head fell towards him.

"Salvation," the dead man muttered.

Obito's hands curled into fists; Sasuke was shocked to see his sensei was shaken. "What was it?" he asked, standing up. "What's on the stone?"

"A bunch of myths and nonsense," Obito said, not turning his gaze from Madara. "Legends about the Sage of Six Paths, his sons, and the 'eternal dream.'" He sneered. "The Uchiha will be saved by an eternal dream, huh? Is that why you never left your cave, old man?"

"It was part of it, yes," Madara said. "Listen to me, Obito. You've seen it now, though briefly and without thought; the sons, and their legacy. The Uchiha, descended from Indra, and the Senju, from Asura. Different names in the same pattern over the millenia, repeating the same story of conflict again and again… 'these opposing two acting together obtain all things in creation,'" he said, obviously quoting something, and Obito shifted. "It was obvious to me, alone with nothing to think about but our past and my future."

He gave a toothless grimace. "When Hashirama's power awoke in me, the eyes of the Six Paths did as well; the Rinnegan. I had united these warring bloodlines; not for the first time in history, I think, but at least in living memory."

Sasuke sat and quietly absorbed everything, too busy thinking to be surprised. Obito wasn't denying anything; the Uchiha were, in some way, direct descendents of the man who had invented Ninshu, which had become Ninjutsu.

`...a creed of violence, supremacy.'

That this was coming from the equivalent of a rambling senior desperate to have his family's attention hardly mattered to him, only its credibility. Orochimaru had brought Madara back and kept him enslaved for years. That meant that someone as careful and greedy as the Sannin thought he was worth listening to.

"The Rinnegan?" Mikoto asked, shocked. "Then Orochimaru has it?"

"No," Madara grunted. "It was too much for me. I had awakened to our birthright, our ancestral power, but it was devouring my life even faster than age and lack of conviction was. My body and mind were weak. I had no choice but to pass it on; outside of a suitable host, these irreplaceable eyes would wither away."

"'Pass them on?'" Sasuke said. He was quiet, but the fact he'd finally broken his silence turned the adults in the room towards him. What he was considering was too gruesome to say lightly. "There's only one person with the Rinnegan in the world."

"Yes," Madara admitted. "Nagato Uzumaki. The Uzumaki are distant descendents of Asura as well, cousins to the Senju and renowned for their indomitable life force. When my Zetsu and my Will-"

"Your will?" Mikoto asked, and Madara paused.

"Listen," he eventually said, "and understand. When they found an Uzumaki, a child, I sought him out. I murdered an Uchiha along the way, a woman whose name I did not learn. I stole her Sharingan, for I needed a spare." Mikoto recoiled as Madara relentlessly continued. "I murdered the boy's parents as well; I ripped out his eyes and replaced them with my own. I modified his memory–" a smirk "–so that he would remember his parent's murderers as shinobi from Konoha. I thought he would turn against the Leaf, and then my Zetsu would unite with him, restore my strength, and take complete revenge on Konohagakure for abandoning me."

The room was silent, and then Obito sneered. "Couple things to unpack there," he said, crouching down before Madara with a contemptuous look. "You came here just to tell us this? Did you seriously think this batshit plan would work?"

"It would have, yes," Madara said, and Sasuke was uncomfortably reminded of his mother from the last time they'd been together down here. "Had my Will not abandoned me. That is the important thing here. However your morals may rebel, keep focused. That is what I've come here to discuss; the mistake I've made."

Obito looked up at Mikoto. "Can I hit him?" he asked. "Is it okay to hit a guy this old?"

"I…" Sasuke's mother was honestly at a loss for words. "I don't know if it counts, since he's already dead."

Obito took a deep breath and stood back up. Sasuke wasn't sure if he was going to strike out or not, but a moment later his hand relaxed. "Mikoto asked you a question," he said coldly. "What the hell are you going on about with your 'Will'? Just call it being depressed like everyone else."

"Don't be a fool," Madara spat. "I am not speaking lightly. When I awakened the Rinnegan, I awoke my soul as well. I had a fraction of the power of the Sage, the man who created the world as we know it. My shadow gained a life of its own. It spoke to me and gave me truths I was too afraid or blind to acknowledge myself, and it grew independent, wandering the land attached to my Zetsu to better guide them. The Zetsu were pale and it was dark, another artificial manifestation of my brilliance. So, it became my Black Zetsu."

"That sounds like senility," Obito said with a grin. Madara grew still.

"It is quite real," he said, his voice losing all frailty and sharpening like a knife. "When I retreated back to the cave, I waited for the perfect moment, for my little Uzumaki to return to me. My shadow spent time at his side, but it always returned to me chastened; Nagato could see it, and even as a child with the Rinnegan he could chase it away, thinking it a monster. My ambitions crumbled, not because my plan would not work but because I could no longer stand even a minor setback. I had lost hope." He sighed. "Like I said, I was weak. Mock me if you will, but please, beware my shadow."

"Beware it?" Mikoto asked. Sasuke was back to being deep in thought, history and speculation and a primal curiosity crashing together in his mind.

"It left my side and never returned," Madara said. "And soon after, I died."

"If only you'd stayed that way," Obito said. Madara ignored him.

"The next thing I recalled was awakening in Amegakure, without eyes and imprisoned in a dead body," he continued. Sasuke could detect a bit of… desperation now. The ancient man had been eager to talk, but now he spoke with real urgency. "My corpse was hidden well; I had not been disturbed while alive in many years. I believe it was Black Zetsu who led Orochimaru to my body."

"You think your shadow kept going without you?" Obito asked, his tone only a little mocking, and Madara nodded.

"My Will has no conscience," he said. "When matched with me, it made me stronger, but by itself? It was my ambition, my greed, and my lust for power and revenge. I could never be sated by the former, nor would I tire of the latter. I do not think it was a coincidence that Orochimaru made his way to Rain and resurrected me; I think my shadow whispered in his ear to bring itself closer to Nagato, so that it could retrieve my power, my eyes, and replace his own shadow, as I originally planned."

'Those are the words of a man without ambition.'

Sasuke twitched; his family were too focused on Madara to notice.

"What about the Infinite Tsukuyomi?" Obito asked more seriously, and Madara nodded again, obviously glad to be taken seriously. "I assume you think your Will would still be after that too."

"The Rinnegan is necessary to enact it," Madara said. "But more than that are the Bijuu; the scattered remnants of the Sage's power. Without his chakra, the eternal dream is impossible."

"The Bijuu?" Sasuke cut in, and once more his previous silence afforded his voice more respect than he thought it deserved. "Wait, how do they factor into this?"

"The Tailed Beasts are a creation of the Sage of Six Paths," Madara said, and Sasuke couldn't help but think that explained a lot. "They were once a single impossible monster with ten tails, the Jūbi, but the Sage defeated it. He created the moon to imprison its body, and took its mind and chakra into himself to seal its malice and power, becoming the first Jinchuriki."

Mikoto stirred, eyes wide; Madara hacked, and then continued. "When the Sage died, he divided its chakra into nine pieces so that the monster would not reincarnate and try to destroy the world once more." As far as myths went, Sasuke thought it sounded fine, but the implications of it being real history made him queasy. He really didn't have time to think about that sort of thing right now.

"Once their chakra is reunited, the Jūbi's power will be reborn, and the Sage's with it; if that power is guided by the Rinnegan to its prison, it will reflect across the whole world as a perfect, unbreakable genjutsu that would unite all mankind… in peace. The ultimate expression of the Sage's Ninshu… an end to bloodshed."

"Buncha nonsense," Obito muttered, but Sasuke ignored him. His skin was crawling as his blood boiled. His Mangekyo had activated against his will, casting the world in sickening clarity.

"So… your Will would also want to bring together all the Bijuu?" Sasuke said, and he noticed his mother freeze up. Obito was the only one who didn't understand what he was talking about, not yet.

"Yes, as Orochimaru told me the Hidden Rain has been doing. Accruing power-"

"And it made you stronger?"

"Don't interrupt me, boy-"

"It made you stronger," Sasuke said again, his voice brutal, and Madara blinked despite not having eyes.

"...Yes," he said. "It guided me. What foolishness do you have in your head? I am not deceiving you-"

"It was a living shadow," Sasuke continued. "One that could act, physically?"

"Yes!" Madara croaked. "Cease these pointless questions! What have you to understand that I've not already told you?!"

"You're the one who doesn't understand," Sasuke said. "Your shadow didn't hunt down Nagato Uzumaki." He glared at the man who had shattered his life without even knowing it. "It went home; it returned to the Uchiha Clan. Maybe you're right, and like a loose piece of shit it stuck to the bottom of Orochimaru's shoe to get here, but it didn't go to Rain. It sought out my brother."

"Your brother?" Madara asked. Now, Obito had realized what was happening as well. Sasuke watched his eyes go wide. "Don't presume to know my Will better than me. What good would an Uchiha do when my Rinnegan was waiting?"

"You said it yourself," Obito said slowly. Sasuke was seething, trying to keep himself under control and barely managing it. "Nagato could see Black Zetsu, and chase him off. If you thought it could convince people, why not an Uchiha?"

"What consequence was he? What could Itachi do?" Madara asked, and Obito sneered.

"Murder half the clan."

Sasuke followed it up before Madara could respond. "He massacred them and he ran, years ago. I spoke with him recently; he's been collecting the Bijuu. He said the plan to came to him like a dream. He knew about some of the Rinnegan's abilities, but he didn't know how. He was scared: he asked me to stop him if he changed."

Madara didn't speak for a moment, and Sasuke glared at him. He was sure of it now; everything had come together in a dreadful moment of clarity. Now, he was trying to figure out how he could make Madara as miserable as possible. A deep pit, full of muddy water; if he tosses him in there, in his condition he'd be drowning for eternity.

"Don't mistake me for your foe," Madara finally said. "Black Zetsu could not force anyone to do something they were not already capable of. It is a shadow, not a dominator. If your brother committed such a slaughter, Sasuke, it was only aided by my Will. Not caused."

"You're lying," Sasuke said, but Madara stayed calm, just shaking his head. The air around Sasuke was shimmering, his chakra emerging without control and filling the air with the taste of ozone. Madara didn't seem to notice or care. "Itachi was never like that."

"I would not endure this humiliation to lie to you," he said. "It's possible you're right. If your brother killed so many… perhaps my shadow saw that potential in him, my potential, and unleashed it. Unfettered him. If your brother already hated the clan, my Will could have pushed him over the edge." A pause. "If that is the case, I apologize. It is like I said; I made a terrible mistake. I unleashed my worst self on a world with no means of containing it."

I apologize?

Sasuke took a step forward.

That was all he could say?

His hands curled into fists.

He thought that was enough?

Without hesitating, Sasuke tipped the chair over, spilling Madara to the ground as the old man protested. Mikoto, who had been frozen and mute by the conversation, shot forward with her hand out as Sasuke pulled back to kick his ancestor in the side.

"Sasuke!" she shouted. Obito was moving too, but Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to either of them.

He'd managed to keep it together for so long. How long? All the way back to when he'd first left for Rain?

He'd stayed calm, and collected, and rational, and done everything he was supposed to do. He'd risen up the ranks, become stronger and smarter, become dependable to Rain, forged an alliance with the Hidden Leaf while captive, blown off a Tailed Beast's arm, gotten his team safely home, survived the attack on Amegakure, negotiated with his brother, told both the Rain and the Leaf about Orochimaru despite the danger it posed.

Sasuke had come home as the best version of himself, and all it had taken was watching his friends, a whole city, vanish right in front of him because his brother had taken up some decades old insane plan that wasn't even his own and started an avalanche that none of them could fully understand because the rocks had only just started falling.

Itachi didn't even know about the Infinite Tsukuyomi; he just wanted to hold the world hostage. His brother was as much a victim as all the other Uchiha he'd cut down on that night.

And now…

And now, there was an old, helpless man on the floor refusing even to squirm away from him, and Sasuke knew in his heart that one way or another almost everything he and Itachi had been forced to endure was Madara Uchiha's fault.

He roared, and kicked the frail body at his feet so hard that he split Madara clean in half.

"You ungrateful-!" Madara hissed, his body flopping in two pieces. Sasuke's kick shattered the stone floor, and as Madara kept talking Sasuke kept kicking, trying to stomp the man out of existence. "I can't feel pain, fool! Is this what the Uchiha have been reduced to? Squalling infants?!"

"Sasuke!" His mother and Obito were both on him, trying to pull him away, but Sasuke was possessed by brutal anger that gave him the strength to resist the both of them. He snarled and screamed, smashing his heel down on Madara's face and splitting his head like a dropped orange. "Stop it! It's pointless!"

"I was right!" Sasuke started shouting. His strength finally failed and he was dragged back, kicking and screaming as he tried to throw himself onto Madara and tear the rest of his body apart. "I was right! I said it from the beginning, but none of you believed me! That wasn't Itachi! It was something else! And he doesn't even know it!"

He was crying now, against his will, and beating his fists on Obito and Mikoto as they tried to restrain him. "He didn't even know why he killed Shisui! He didn't know why he tried to use the Tsukuyomi on me! He's just being driven around! He thinks he's going crazy, that there's another him, but it was you!"

Sasuke kicked a loose mat at Madara; the living corpse was slowly pulling itself back together, and as his head regenerated he eyelessly glared from the floor at Sasuke. "Why lie to yourself?" he sneered, and Sasuke strained hard enough against Obito and Mikoto that he actually dragged them forward a step. "My Will could only bring out what was already there, boy! If your brother killed so many, that was his deepest desire! If he is seeking the Infinite Tsukuyomi, then he is a man who fights for peace!" He spat dust and ash. "If you are content to blame me for his sins, be prepared for a cruel surprise!"

Sasuke snarled, still straining against his mother. She didn't loosen her grip, pulling him back once more; she and Obito were two iron pillars holding him in place, leashing him like a mad dog.

"Itachi was always strong," she said, always so stoic and unbreakable. Even this, Sasuke thought, couldn't touch her.

But when he looked back, his mother was crying.

"But he was different that night. He cut down everyone in his path like they were helpless children. He killed Obito's brother and my husband, who both had achieved the Mangekyo, without even being injured," she continued with tears running down her face, and Madara shifted. "And he himself had a Mangekyo, out of nowhere. He had not lost anyone close to him, and yet he unleashed the Amaterasu on me. Could your shadow have done that, Madara?"

"I do not doubt it," Madara said. "It had all my knowledge and cunning, and it lived within me for years. If anything could unleash the Mangekyo Sharingan artificially, it would be my Will."

"Then…" Obito paused, taking a breath and obviously centering himself. Sasuke didn't have any desire to do the same; his murderous rage gave him all the focus he needed. "Itachi was a prodigy. He was only thirteen when he killed so many. Do you think if your Will had found an Uchiha strong enough to challenge the clan, it would have latched onto him? As a… replacement for you?"

Sasuke wondered what Obito was thinking, or remembering; his sensei's eyes were a million miles away.

"I do," Madara admitted. "Black Zetsu would have recognized his potential. It would have replaced his shadow and begun whispering to him, trying to increase his strength and encouraging him to live as he pleased, as it did for me." He shifted, and Sasuke sneered. His mother's grip around his arm was tight enough that he was sure it would leave a bruise. "If that is the case, and it is not Nagato that my Will has sought out… well, the danger has not changed. If anything, you three should truly recognize the boon I have given you with this knowledge."

"It's your fault," Sasuke hissed. His mother was shaking. This ancient man had to pay.

"In a way," Madara said, not sounding concerned. "But I am beyond your punishment by now, Sasuke. Long dead, and unable to feel pain or care for humiliation in my current state. If you wish to save your brother from my shadow, you would do well to listen to me."

Sasuke didn't want to listen. He didn't want to be rational: he was tired of responsibilities and of planning and of thinking. He just wanted Madara gone, and he wanted his brother back, and right now neither of those things were possible.

"I died alone because I tried to control everything myself," Madara mused as the rest of the Uchiha struggled in silence to comprehend what they'd been told. "I thought passing this onto you would be painful, but there's a relief to giving up." He fell quiet, lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling with his eyelids sinking into his sockets. "My shadow will have to be your responsibility; I do not trust anyone else with it. Nor should you. My Will carries my temper; if Black Zetsu knows it is being hunted, it will react strongly."

"How do we kill it?" Mikoto asked rather bluntly, and Madara grunted.

How do we get Itachi back? The real one, not the one with Madara's mad voice in his ear?

"It is a creature of pure chakra and thought," Madara said. "It could not be pierced by a blade or burned by fire. Most likely, only the Rinnegan could destroy it. By my power born, by my power killed."

"Convenient," Sasuke sneered, and Madara laughed.

"Not at all. It means you will have to rely on Nagato yourself, and with what has happened to the Hidden Rain I cannot imagine he will be agreeable to working with anyone," he said, lip curling back. "The world lies on the edge of another great slaughter; you can feel it in the air. Without me, without the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it will repeat again and again, until we are all ground down to the bone and even those are used as the fuel for the final fires."

"If that's how you feel, why send us after your shadow?" Obito asked, and Madara went still, like he was truly dead. "It seems like your Will has put Itachi on that path anyway." Sasuke sobered up a little at his sensei's words, because they were true, and a question he should have been asking.

Madara didn't respond, and Obito leaned over him, glaring down at the corpse. "Don't have an answer, huh?"

"No," Madara said shortly. Mikoto's grip on Sasuke loosened a little as she sensed him calm down, but he didn't take advantage of it. He felt exhausted, the weight of the last day crashing down on him once more. "My Will helped kill your brother. What more do you need?"

Obito was the one who didn't have an answer to that.

'The only thing it has never touched is you, and I don't know if it will always be that way.'

"I intend to stay here," Madara said, glancing back at the stone, "until Orochimaru is dead. If I break my contract and return to death, he will simply summon me again. I can't allow that."

"That may be some time," Obito noted, and Madara scoffed.

"He believes himself immortal. I am sure that I am. Let us see who blinks first."

"You think we'll let you stay here?" Sasuke said, clenching and unclenching his fist. Madara smirked.

"Where would you put me? At the bottom of the ocean, perhaps? At the top of a mountain? I would crawl back here regardless. I suppose you could seal me away… but for what purpose? I will be no burden to you down here." The old man tried to sit up, faltered, and fell back down. "And perhaps there is more you will wish to discuss, when you've calmed down. You would be arrogant to not recognize this opportunity I have given you. Orochimaru killed a man for the privelage of speaking to me, after all."

Sasuke took a step forward, and his mother's hand came down on his shoulder.

"Sasuke," she said quietly. "I understand. I'm with you. But you're not going to accomplish anything. If you can't stay calm, it might be time to leave."

"How can I be calm?" Memories of his brother were running through his mind like a torrent of blood, and Sasuke realized that since that night, the shadow had always been there. It had tripped Obito in the living room, held his arm down in the forest of death, kept him helpless on the back of the Nanabi. Itachi's shadow had always stepped in to keep him invincible, and Sasuke hadn't had the context to understand why or how. "How can you be?"

"Because," Mikoto said, taking a deep breath. "I may have been wrong to give up on my son. I did that in anger, Sasuke. That was obviously a mistake. I didn't see…" She paused, releasing his arm, trusting that he wouldn't make a break for it. "I didn't have faith in Itachi. I never considered that someone like him could be influenced by another. This…"

Provides an excuse, an explanation, a way out, a way to reconcile Itachi the murderer and Itachi the brother and son. Sasuke and his mother locked eyes, neither capable of putting their thoughts to words able to communicate it nonetheless. Even if it might be a delusion, they finally had a scapegoat; even if it was a delusion, they finally had a way to resolve the paradox of Itachi's actions.

Sasuke turned to leave. "I'm going," he bit out. "You two are staying down here?"

"For a bit longer," Obito said. "Do you need-?"

"I can make my way out," Sasuke said, taking the stairs and not looking back. "I need… space."

Sasuke ascended the stairs out of the darkness that the Uchiha had hidden beneath their shrine, and his mother and sensei stayed behind to speak with the dead.