Remedy Chapter 2

Spiritual Deathmatch

Far past midnight, alone on a couch in a dingy living room, and staring at the ceiling and wondering if the bug up there was going to fall on his face: Sasuke Uchiha could not sleep.

He couldn't decide on a reason, so he gave three of them equal weight. The first was his brother, which was obvious. Itachi was on Sasuke's mind day and night, as he had been since he'd murdered their family. The obsession had only deepened after Itachi had ripped his eyes out and revealed his motive, the feelings growing more complicated, but the crux of it was the same. The shadows that cloaked the room couldn't begin to be as murky as Sasuke's mixed understanding of his brother. Everything he saw, even the bug creeping across the ceiling, was literally through Itachi's eyes, but that didn't help a thing.

Sasuke hadn't seen Itachi since he'd left to hunt down Danzo Shimura, but Sasuke wondered how his brother was doing every day. Some days, he regretted not going with him. Most days, he was able to shut down the thought with a quick jab, an acknowledgement of how fortunate he was to have returned to Konoha. Would these feelings of uncertainty have been banished by traveling together? No, certainly not. Even if his parents had pleaded with him to forgive his brother, Itachi was still their murderer, and that wasn't something Sasuke could overcome with a few months of introspection. At most, he could begin moving towards it.

'I will always love you.'

The second was definitely Kabuto. Maybe that was a little more pressing than Itachi tonight, Sasuke was willing to admit. It wasn't the first time he'd regretted not killing the man, but Sasuke hoped that it would be the last. If everything went well, tonight would be the last that Orochimaru's rogue apprentice would plague the land. But even though the thought was optimistic, Sasuke was worried. The house creaked, like muttered questions all around him. What did Kabuto want with Tonika that was worth deploying so many Edo Tensei? What would he send tonight, if any? Would he have to fight his parents again? He wasn't sure how that would go.

Kabuto couldn't be underestimated. If Kisame failed in his promise and didn't hunt him down, Sasuke was sure he would have to. Even Naruto would have difficulty with Kabuto, he was sure, though he trusted Naruto to handle just about anything else the world could throw at either of them. Strange as it was to think, they both stood at the pinnacle of what shinobi could accomplish now; Sasuke was sure that those who would challenge them could be counted on two hands. They'd both become the high-level ninja that Sasuke had envisioned at the Valley of the End years ago.

And yet, they were both still following Konoha's orders without much autonomy. Sasuke, because he still wasn't fully trusted and was trying to understand where he stood in the world, and Naruto, because he'd made a terrible mistake and couldn't think of another way to repair it. Was this really the best they could be doing to become Hokage, to wipe out necessary evils? Sasuke wasn't sure.

The world had beaten some measure of ambition out of them, humbled them, he thought; at least, Amegakure certainly had. He didn't think it was a good thing.

'I will ensure those circumstances cease.'

The third and last was the most frustrating. Sasuke had no idea what to do about Sakura Haruno.

They'd taken a walk tonight, patrolling the perimeter of the town for zombies and other dangers and finding nothing. Naturally, the night had been occupied by their conversation instead of vigilance, and as usual, Sasuke had enjoyed it.

Sakura was a good conversation partner. She always had something interesting to talk about, knowledgeable about history, politics, chakra, village gossip, and a million other things that Sasuke had purged all interest in after his family had been slaughtered. She was patient with him, perhaps too patient, and was the only one to treat him normally since he'd returned. Even Naruto had been almost reliant on him at first, like he was clinging to him like a lifejacket to try and remind himself that everything had turned out alright after Amegakure, but Sakura had been straightforward and honest with him from the beginning.

Even after losing her eye… even after he hadn't been able to prevent her from losing her eye, she'd picked herself up and continued on with relentless determination, and Sasuke had an endless admiration for that. Tonight, they'd been talking about the Hole that Tonika had sprung up next to.

"It's a natural wonder," Sakura had said, Sasuke nodding along. He didn't necessarily think a huge lake was very interesting, but if Sakura was interested in it he might have been wrong. "You know, it's been proven that people who live out by the Hole are healthier on average. It's got healing and longevity properties, and the water is thick with chakra. Living out here must be a dream. When they're not getting attacked by ninja, anyway."

"If that's the case," Sasuke had asked slowly, and Sakura had glanced over at him, her hair falling across the medical eyepatch she wore. She hadn't gone through with copying the copy ninja, no matter how cute the look had been on her. "Is it exported? I'd imagine people would be very interested in that sort of thing."

"People have tried!" Sakura had said brightly. "But apparently, the water loses its effectiveness once it leaves the Hole. Master studied it, back when she was younger. It has something to do with natural energy, but even she couldn't completely figure it out. She figures there's probably a contaminant that's spreading in the water, but no one's ever been able to map the whole thing. It's just too deep, apparently."

Too deep for ninja must have been desperately, terrifyingly deep, as abyssal as the time Sasuke had spent alone and blind, and so he hadn't remarked on that.

"I wonder if that's what Kabuto is after then," he'd mused instead, and Sakura had lost some of her spark. "Mastery of life and death."

They'd kept talking, but Sasuke was sure he'd said something wrong, and that was what was bothering him now. He wasn't stupid. Sakura wanted there to be something more to their relationship. She wanted something like what Naruto and Hinata had.

But he had no idea how to give it to her. Worse, he didn't know what was holding him back. Sasuke was missing something, or maybe it had been stolen from him; he was sure it was trust, but he didn't know if it was in himself or others.

Maybe…

"HEY!"

Naruto's voice carried over the whole town, and as if it had been shocked by the sudden sound, the bug fell off the ceiling. Sasuke gently caught it on two fingers and deposited it on the couch before it could land on him, and then sprung to his feet, rushing towards the door and snatching up his sword and flak jacket along the way.

"GET READY! THEY'RE COMING! MORE THAN FORTY!"

When he got outside, he waited. Five seconds later, Sakura landed next to him.

"More than forty?" he asked, and she gave him a tired smile. She'd come out a window on the second floor; she'd been given a room to stay in up there by the home's owner.

"He's investing a lot," she said, breathing out and straightening up. Sasuke watched as chakra surged through her body like a hurricane. "Maybe your theory was right?"

"Maybe," he said carelessly, scanning the night. Trouble was coming from the north, rapidly approaching the town. With Naruto and Hinata to the south and Ino and Shikamaru in the center, it was obvious which way they needed to go. "Are you worried?"

Sakura scoffed. "Please," she said, pounding her fists together. "Let's stop that scumbag in his tracks."

Sasuke moved and Sakura followed him, the both of them heading north. Sasuke watched the horizon and then the sky, his face twisting into a frown.

"Oh," he grunted. "Him. Again."

"Who is it?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke pulled aside into cover of the extended roof of a home, pointing up into the pitch-black sky. Sakura squinted, her eyes barely able to make out what he was indicating. "That's a big bird."

"It's Deidara," Sasuke said with a sigh. "I'm sure he'll start dropping bombs any second." He glanced back. Once, it would have caused him physical pain to ask for help; now, he barely thought about it. He was trying to make it as natural as every other part of being a ninja was to him. "Sakura, could you…"

He gestured vaguely at the sky, and Sakura looked back and forth between him and the distant, faintly cackling zombie. "Seriously?" she asked, and when Sasuke nodded she smirked. "That's way too funny to pass up."

She stepped out into the street and bent down, cupping her hands before her. High above and far away, Deidara noticed her and spun, his tremendous clay pigeon wheeling in the air as it prepared to rain down explosives on the town. Its mouth cracked open, explosive chakra compressing inside it.

Sasuke leapt out as well, and stepped into Sakura's hand.

"Good luck!" she said with a grin, and then with such force that for a second Sasuke was vaguely concerned his leg would come right off she hurled him into the night with a sonic boom.

Deidara saw him coming, of course; the man was an incredible ninja despite his eccentricities, and as Sasuke flew right at him at several times the speed of sound the clay pigeon he was riding bombarded Sasuke with a volley of explosive doves spat from its mouth. He cut through each and every one of them with a lightning-coated hand, disarming them before they could detonate. At the sight of the lightning, Deidara's eyes grew wide.

"YOU?!" he had time to say, sounding equally enraged and infuriated. "AGAIN?!" As his bird swerved to try and avoid a collision and Sasuke flew past him, the lightning in Sasuke's hand grew longer and sharper, and he lashed out with a measured swing, his hand seeming to move slow as the freezing air rushed past him and the stars above blurred with his speed.

With a gentle and unhurried motion, he cut Deidara and his bird in half.

"Me," Sasuke said, his momentum carrying him just a little higher as Deidara glared at him, his whole body vibrating with electricity and fury. "Again."

"You… piece of shit! Bastard!" Deidara raved as he started to fall. Sasuke watched him closely for a sign of his suicide jutsu, but the man's body didn't change as plummeted to the earth.

Kabuto wanted something from the town, maybe its 'great treasure.' It made sense he'd placed restrictions on Deidara because of that; it was what Sasuke had been banking on. As he fell, he glanced around and took in everything in an instant with his Sharingan. There were about twenty Edo Tensei on this side, some of them about to enter the town and others farther out providing support with various sensor jutsu.

One in particular caught his eye, and Sasuke took a moment to stare.

From the distance it was hard to be sure, but one of the Edo Tensei entering the town looked like the First Hokage, antiquated armor and all.

If Kabuto had the First Hokage, why hadn't Orochimaru brought him to Amegakure? Sasuke landed, rushing to where Deidara had fallen. That must have been a recent acquisition. If he was even a shadow of his former self, things were about to get ridiculously dangerous.

"I've been thinking, Sasuke Uchiha!" Deidara roared as Sasuke reached his body; the pieces were trying to knit back together but Deidara's torso was still spasming, riven with electricity and unable to produce more explosive clay. "This is the third time now! It's definitely fate!" He cackled as clay squirmed out of the mouths on his hands without form or function, like insects escaping a flood. "But that snake bastard keeps bringing me back! No matter how many times you humiliate me, I will blow you to bits! You're gonna be my perfect art piece, you haughty bastard!"

"Good luck with that," Sasuke said dryly, and then his eye burned and Deidara's body was coated in black flames. The living corpse collapsed, perpetually eaten alive by fire as Sasuke relaxed, watching its chakra subside. Deidara was still 'alive,' but thoroughly helpless; he had other things to worry about now.

Like the ten Edo Tensei converging on his position.

Sasuke turned and met them in the streets, fighting beside a growing pyre of lightless flames as he spread the Amaterasu from corpse to corpse as they fell, cut down by his sword or hands. They were ninja from every village, men and women and one child, and they all were interesting enough to have been brought back; bloodlines, unique jutsu, novel weapons, and more.

None of it mattered. With eyes that only had one peer and a sureness to his step that transformed him into a lethal force of nature, Sasuke cut through them like a cold wind through a thin cloth. By the time Sakura joined him there were only two left: he pierced the both of them with a chidori stream and blasted several dozen holes in each of their bodies as the jutsu expanded, lightning burning through them and black flames closely following it.

She looked around with an arched eyebrow: Sasuke had torn the street to pieces, though he'd done his best to leave the homes untouched. "Nicely done," she noted, and Sasuke shrugged.

"Better than the alternative," he said, and Sakura laughed. "But the most dangerous one is still out there. Did you see him?"

"See who?" Sakura asked, and then a storm of tree roots blasted what was left of the street to rubble.

Both Sasuke and Sakura managed to leap clear of the attack, landing on roofs opposite each other as they stared down the street towards the attacker. The First Hokage was surging forward, his face pale and without expression as he rode a line of brambles and wood like the crest of a solid wave. The tsunami tore apart all the concrete in its path, homes crumbling and cobblestone flying, filling the air with deadly debris.

"The Shodai?!" Sakura shouted in surprise, and Sasuke nodded, directing some of the Amaterasu in the street to crash against the Hokage and his roots.

To his shock, the wood did not burn. Instead, it hungrily absorbed the flames, like trees left stronger by a wildfire. The Amaterasu flickered and guttered out, leaving behind ashen stains as the roots shot out towards the both of them.

All the while the First Hokage watched with crossed arms, emotionless.

Sasuke barely slipped out of the way of the roots, dancing across the roof as they chased after him with sharp tips, intent on impaling him. He lashed out, chopping them to pieces and buying himself more space as he glanced over at Sakura, concern blossoming in his heart.

He shouldn't have been worried. Sakura wasn't as quick on her feet as he was, so she couldn't dodge the roots with as much ease.

That was why she was smashing them into splinters instead.

The wood of the Mokuton, which had just turned aside the Amaterasu, and the chakra of the First Hokage, which Sasuke had seen subdue the Kyuubi and felt the tremendous, bone-crushing strength of himself, couldn't stand up to Sakura's fists. She crushed everything that approached her, punching the Mokuton assault apart with relentless attacks as she stood her ground even as the roof disintegrated around her.

The First Hokage turned towards her and raised his arms, directing the attacks with more and more ferocity, and Sakura started accruing small wounds from narrow misses as the volume of attacks threatened to overwhelm her.

"Sasuke!" she shouted, stomping down on a root and leaping off of it as she destroyed it, throwing herself into the air and buying herself a heartbeat of safety. "Get him!"

Sasuke was already moving before Sakura had opened her mouth. Taking advantage of the opening she'd given him he rushed in, his blade sheathed in lightning and black fire, and tried to decapitate the First Hokage from the side.

Not looking away from Sakura as he threw countless spears of wood up at her, the Hokage reached out and caught Sasuke's blade. A wooden hand covered his own like a glove, and he smothered the chakra of Sasuke's sword with all the concern of a man putting out a candle between two fingers.

Sasuke had been prepared for that, but the Hokage's speed and strength still threw him off slightly as he lunged forward with a chidori in his other hand, trying to stab through the man's head. The Hokage leaned back but Sasuke's predictive sight saw the dodge coming and he adjusted, his blow staying on course.

Hashirama Senju released Sasuke's sword and drove his wooden fist into Sasuke's side with such speed that his arm became a brown blur even to the Sharingan. Sasuke jumped back at the last second, anticipating and dodging the blow, and they both landed glancing attacks on one another. Sasuke burned away part of the Hokage's face, and the Edo Tensei slapped Sasuke across the side, his fist landing with only a fraction of its original force.

That was still enough to send Sasuke flying across the street, rolling head over heels as his body shook with the force of the graze. He slammed into a wall on the other side, his body shattering the concrete, and shook his head, dazed. The Shodai was coming; the street was alive with deadly roots once more.

"Like I'd let you!" He looked up just in time to see Sakura slam into the Hokage's side, bodychecking him and sending the both of them tumbling towards Sasuke. There were several wooden spears sticking out of Sakura's body including one fully impaling her left arm, but she barely slowed down as she drove the Hokage towards Sasuke, steam rising off the both of their bodies from the friction of their rapid attacks. The Hokage finally kicked her away; Sasuke heard bones break, and Sakura's grimace drove him to his feet so fast that there was no moment of transition.

As the Hokage turned back towards him, Sasuke's blade flashed out, cutting him open all the way from his groin to his throat.

For the first time, the zombie made a noise, something between a gasp and a grunt, and then slammed his palms together and stomped his foot down as his body sagged into two directions.

There was a brief rumble and then it seemed to Sasuke that most of the town exploded. He, Sakura, and the First Hokage were all catapulted into the sky atop a spire of wood, rapidly growing until it seemed it would touch the clouds.

He didn't have time to think, and it was the same for Sakura. They both threw themselves at the First Hokage, trying to cut and smash him to pieces. He danced among them, the wood beneath his feet surging and always taking him out of danger at the last second as he slammed hammer-blow punches and kicks into both Sasuke and Sakura, driving them back for precious seconds as he continued to pump chakra into the tree growing beneath them, sending them higher and higher by the second.

"Crap!" Sakura shouted, baring her teeth and throwing a punch with such force that the air pressure forced the First Hokage back a step before he punched back and a torrent of spines nearly tore her off the spire. "Crap crap crap!"

"Get back!" Sasuke roared, blasting everything around the Hokage with a burst of Amaterasu, but once again the wood absorbed the flames without much protest. He drove his sword into the spire and clenched both fists as the Hokage charged him, cold chakra surging through his body as he rooted himself in place.

Even shackled, the zombie was just too fast and strong for them. A sword wasn't going to cut it here.

As the Hokage threw a haymaker, a ghostly purple skeleton rose to meet it. Sasuke strode forward as his Susano'o turned aside the First Hokage's attack, a full skeleton forming and rapidly being clad in armor as he went, dark light falling across the top of the spire.

Sasuke was prepared for another attack: he was already drawing the Susano'o's fists back, ready to level a series of blows that would leave Sakura an opening in case she got a chance to punch the man off the spire. But it never came. As the Susano'o emerged, the Hokage stopped in place. Gradually, his arms fell to his sides.

Sasuke stopped too, and Sakura as well. There was a long, tense silence, the two of them staring at each other and then back to the frozen zombie. Sakura pulled a spear out of her side with a hiss of pain, the wound rapidly closing, and her blood dripping onto the spire seemed to wake Hashirama Senju up.

"Madara…" he muttered, and Sasuke flinched; he hadn't expected the man to talk. The Hokage took a faltering step forward, a hand reaching out. "You're still…?"

Without warning, the Hokage crumpled, his body becoming paper, dust, and ash. A corpse was revealed beneath the pile, a young woman with blond hair.

Just like that, it was over.

Sakura cautiously stepped forward and investigated the pile; Sasuke watched it just as carefully as he picked out wounds all across Sakura's body. It wasn't anything she couldn't heal, but it still made his heart twist in fury. She looked up at him with a frown. "Was that you?" she asked.

He shook his head, glancing back down into the town and letting the Susano'o drift away into wisps of chakra. They were several hundred feet up, and from here he could see that the spire had thankfully only taken out two or three blocks, not the whole town. Not great, but not terrible. "That wasn't me. I think Kabuto deactivated the jutsu." He'd seen the chakra depart like a switch being flipped; it made the most sense to him. "The Shodai was breaking free. He must have sensed it."

"Well… I guess that works," Sakura said with a grimace. "But it's a horrible thing." She winced, rotating her arm and popping it back into place. "How's Tonika look?"

"Alright," Sasuke said, looking over the town and strangely grateful for the vantage point the First Hokage had given them. "It seems most of the Edo Tensei have been contained already. Naruto's heading towards us; everyone else is in the center, with the militia."

"What a relief. Then, Kabuto's probably making a run for it?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke turned his vision to the outskirts of the town, searching for some clue as to what had happened to Orochimaru's disciple.

"Maybe," he said, and then he watched several dozen trees in the forest to the east collapse simultaneously as a flood spread out, soaking the earth and burying everything in its path. "But I think Kisame made it to him. He won't get away without a fight."

"Hopefully he's screwed," Sakura said frankly, and Sasuke chuckled, looking back towards her.

"You okay?" he asked, and Sakura waved him off… though he could detect a hint of a blush.

"I'm fine," she said, though her arms and legs were coated in her own blood. "Nothing too deep. But I've got a lot of splinters!" She laughed, picking a couple out of her knuckles. "The First Hokage really must have been something. I don't know what we would have done if he hadn't been restrained. What about you?

"Hmm. I'm fine," Sasuke said, though he could feel a bruise spreading across the entirety of his right side and had nearly as many small cuts as Sakura. With Naruto here, Sasuke was pretty sure they would have been fine no matter what, though probably a little worse for wear. He truly believed there wasn't anything in the world that Team Seven couldn't handle together; he hoped that arrogance wouldn't be tested. "Do you want help with them?"

"I've got them," Sakura said with a smile. "Let's get back down there. I'm sure there's still a couple trouble spots."

"Alright," Sasuke said, keeping an eye on the flood. It was spreading, and lightning seemed to be dancing through it. Kisame wasn't a Lightning user, not to his knowledge anyway. What was going on over there?

Without thought, he and Sakura fell in side by side, and they descended the side of the spire together.