Life

How many times have you been pushed around?
Was anybody there?
Does anybody care?
How many times have your friends let you down?
Was anybody there?
Did anybody stare?

Oh, life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we're alive
Oh, life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we'll survive

Our Lady Peace

They had been in the rainforests almost a week, and Sasuke was getting bored. Sakura seemed entranced with all the properties and uses of the various plants, but as far as Sasuke was concerned, they were all equally boring. At least today the weather was clear, so Kasumi had allowed him to go out without his coat, leaving her own giant garment behind as well. It was liberating to move through the trees so freely, hopping from branch to branch.

Kasumi seemed to be enjoying it too, flitting along next to him with her hair and skirt flying out behind her. Whatever else she was, she was gorgeous, and he envied her the lightness of spirit that she seemed to share with Naruto. When it really came down to it, he much preferred to go with her on these excursions than with Kakashi-sensei. It wasn't that he disliked the jonin instructor; he respected Kakashi a great deal, although he would never admit it to the man. But Kasumi only took one genin with her each day, and when he was left with Kakashi, he had to put up with either Naruto or Sakura, who were as annoying as each other, although in their own way.

Without his Sharingan, he would have missed it: the slight widening of Kasumi's eyes before she appeared beside him and gave him a hard shove into a bush. His instinct was to cry out, but years of training took over, and a second later he was glad it had. Naruto would have yelled, and made Kasumi's act pointless. Perhaps, in staying quiet, he had been successfully hidden from the person Kasumi had - to his shame - apparently spotted before him.

The man was standing on a branch a little ways ahead, so motionless that Sasuke would have thought him a statue if not for the way the breeze played slightly with the hem of his robe. And that robe… it was burned into his memory as though with a hot iron, and like a fresh burn the memory was painful to touch. Deep black with red clouds, it was the robe of the Akatsuki.

Kasumi stopped on a branch about twenty feet from the man. She wasn't directly between him and the figure, but she was close enough to move between them in an instant if she needed to. He was ashamed, hiding in the bushes while she faced the enemy. He might not survive a run in with a member of Akatsuki, but the shame of hiding from a fight was almost as bad as that death would have been. If anything goes wrong for her, I won't hold back, he promised himself, surprised at his own vehemence.

Even before the figure removed the straw hat that hid his face and hair, Sasuke knew who it would be. Part of him wanted to run out and kill that man, but the rational part knew he was nowhere near ready. If they could avoid this fight, he would make his brother pay for even threatening Kasumi.

He was shocked to see that, when Itachi removed his hat, he was smiling. Even before that dark day, he had rarely seen Itachi smile, especially not this kind and open smile. He'd learned to gauge Kasumi a little over this past week: she was tense, but she would be hiding it well, facing his brother with a smile and eyes that burned ever so slightly golden.

"Itachi-kun?" She sounded shocked, as though she hadn't seen him there until she was so close. As though she hadn't had a second to prepare, and to shove him into this bush.

His brother's smile grew slightly. "Kasumi-chan. Out on a mission?" He didn't seem surprised to see her.

"No. Extended leave from the village."

"You ran away?" That smirk… how he hated that smirk.

"We aren't all missing-nins, Itachi-kun," Kasumi said sharply. "After Momochi Zabuza's attempted coup, Mizokage and the elders felt it… prudent… that I make myself scarce for a few years."

"A weak little kunoichi?" There was less derision in Itachi's voice than Sasuke would have expected. Itachi had never cared for those weaker than himself.

"Just because I'm weaker than you doesn't mean I'm useless," Kasumi snapped. "I'm the strongest kunoichi in over fifty years."

"So?"

"I was the favored prospect to replace Akimi-sama as councilor." Sasuke had never seen Kasumi act so prideful and arrogant before. The Kasumi he had come to know didn't like talking about herself, and less so about her accomplishments. She worked her way around the world by helping in restaurants or fields or on missions, even if they were only C- or D-rank ones. "Another two years and I would have been on the council, despite... despite everything."

"Ah. I hadn't heard."

"That's because you just left." Kasumi sounded really angry now. "One day you were just gone. You never even said goodbye."

"I hadn't meant to be gone long. When I went back a few months later, you were gone."

"Listen to yourself! A few months! And you just expected me to wait around and worry about you, did you?" It's all an act, Sasuke reminded himself.

"Yes." Kasumi's back went straight with indignation at this. "After we were married…"

"Married?" Kasumi broke in.

What? Married?

"I assumed you knew. The village elders arranged it."

"I did not know," Kasumi spat. "And you never thought to ask me, did you?"

"I thought you knew," Itachi repeated. For the first time, irritation showed through his calm demeanor. "And I couldn't understand it. We were due to be married - and I didn't mind, you know - and then…" He was practically growling now. "Seven years, Kasumi-chan. You've hidden yourself from me for seven years. I don't know why, or where, but I think I know something of what you've been up to." Sasuke was fairly sure that, when Kasumi went very still at this, it wasn't an act. "You can't hide from these eyes, Kasumi. Bring him out."

Shit. He was about to move, but Kasumi's voice stopped him. "No. You know that isn't what this is about, Itachi-kun." This was the Kasumi Sasuke knew: strong, assertive, and not prepared to take even the littlest amount of crap from anyone. "You didn't kill him then, and you aren't going to do it now." Her tone suggested he had better not even think of trying.

"You never did understand, Kasumi-chan." Long ago, Sasuke had seen his brother's eyes look tired, a bit sad, angry… but never so haunted. "Only the strongest of the Uchiha could survive. It was one of us, but I didn't know… I thought he might one day surpass me. But I was wrong." His voice was filled with disgust. "He's so weak he needs to hide behind you."

Now Sasuke was angry. Again, he prepared to move, to attack his brother, consequences be damned, but again Kasumi's voice forestalled him. "If you move, Baby Uchiha, I will kill you myself. This isn't about you. This is about Akatsuki." She spit the word.

Even out of the line of sight, Sasuke could see Itachi's gaze intensify. "Kisame is a suspicious man. It's time you let it go," he snapped.

"How many have you found?" Kasumi demanded, ignoring what Itachi had said. "If you hurt a single one of them, I swear to you, Itachi-kun, I will kill you all."

"You're spouting nonsense again, Kasumi. I'm truly sorry - I thought you loved me - but it will have to be…"

" - Idiot, since when did either of us know what love was?"

"…Tsukuyomi."

An icy ball seemed to form in the pit of Sasuke's stomach. He remembered that technique. The pain, both physical and psychological, had been almost unbearable. He remembered how Itachi had tortured him, making him re-live that dark and horrible day time after time until he screamed for death.

Angry, unthinking, he burst from his hiding place. He sent kunai and shuriken flying ahead of him, and held another kunai at ready, prepared to kill his brother at all costs. "It will end now," Itachi told him calmly as he approached. "And you will see what you could never achieve. Amaterasu."

"I will avenge them," Sasuke yelled. Black fire, impossibly dark, was flying towards him. No, no this can't be the end. I have to kill him.

Suddenly he felt an impact in his stomach, driving him to the side and bowling him over. Kasumi, who had been standing frozen under the tsukuyomi had tackled him, knocking him out of the way of the jutsu.

Lying on the tree branch, he found himself staring up at a woman he would swear he had never seen before. Dark fire burned in stripes along her hair, surrounding her in a black halo. Her silver hair glowed against it, and her skin had the white luminescence of the moon against the blackest sky. And her eyes… even Itachi's mangekyo sharingan couldn't cause a fraction of the terror Sasuke felt looking into Kasumi's eyes. He had seen eyes a bit like that once before, when Naruto had been possessed by the Kyuubi during his fight with Gaara, but those eyes had still held a trace of Naruto in them, mixed with the anger and hatred of the Kyuubi. These eyes held none of that - only power in magnitudes he had not imagined existed and an ageless uncaring that would not see him if he and a thousand others died right there. This is what lives in her head, he thought in terror. Those eyes… they belong to the beast she laughs and makes jokes about. How strong is she, really? How strong is Naruto?

The beast - it was Kasumi's body, but it was as though she had disappeared from it - spoke with the voice of a typhoon, every word carrying the power and fury of hurricane winds and giant waves crashing against cliffs, destroying them and sucking the remains deep into the ocean. Sasuke was fervently glad that, though the beast was staring at him with those terrifying eyes, it did not address him. "You hurt her," it said. The words seemed calm, though the voice that said them was a roar. In a distracted way, Sasuke noticed Itachi's eyes widen. If it had been him the beast was roaring at, he would have pissed himself. "You hurt my princess."

The words came from deep within him - Sasuke could never have spoken if he had consciously tried. "He's mine... to kill." The words came out as a barely audible croak.

He felt the beast's attention fix on him, and he found that what he had thought was terrifying before now seemed almost pleasant. Now that the beast actually saw him, he thought he would die from the intensity of its attention.

"Baby Uchiha, she calls you," it said, and for an instant Sasuke imagined he saw a touch of something in those eyes. It wasn't love, nor respect, but Sasuke knew that, for now, the beast would not kill him because it would not dare upset Kasumi. His princess. "You have had seven years, Avenger. I give you three more. And then this human is my prey." The beast turned to face Itachi. Looking at its back, Sasuke saw steam coming from the patches of fire that burned along its back, as though water surrounded it. "Do not think you can control the Biju, human. Remember." As it said the word, blood seemed to burst from Itachi's entire body. An ocean of blood, more than Sasuke could remember ever seeing before. It said it wouldn't kill him, he thought distractedly, morbidly fascinated despite his terror.

Not that he would blame it if it had. He had been prepared to try and kill Itachi for even thinking of harming Kasumi. The beast would have been right to kill the man, regardless of Sasuke's vow of revenge.

The blood-soaked body of the other ninja was thrown from the tree branch where it had stood for the entire encounter. The beast bent and grabbed Sasuke by his collar, then took off through the trees, dragging him behind. He wanted to scream in pain as his skin started to burn from the proximity of the black fire that traced its way across the beast's back, but the speed of their passage denied his lungs the air. The wind of their passage brought tears to his eyes, blinding him.

The beast stopped abruptly, and Sasuke blinked the tears from his eyes. They were on the floor of the rainforest, a few feet from his teammates. Kakashi and Sakura were bent over Naruto, trying to revive him. The boy's chest didn't seem to be moving at all, and something horrible twisted in Sasuke's stomach at the thought that the other boy might really be dead this time.

Kakashi and Sakura both looked up at their approach. Sakura had tears in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. The jonin's eyes widened in horror as he stared at the beast that held onto Sasuke.

Sasuke risked a glance at the beast's face. It was staring with utter intensity at Naruto. "Kyuubi," it said after what seemed forever. A weak red chakra glow surrounded Naruto as the demon tried to break free and answer the beast's call. "Protect the boy. You will both be needed." The red glow faded, and it seemed to Sasuke that Naruto's chest started to move, just a little. Sakura tore her horrified gaze from the beast and turned back to her teammate.

The beast dropped him, and he rolled away, glad to be away from the horrible fires that burned around it. Kasumi, he thought in horror as he imagined how they must be affecting the woman. The beast was staring at Kakashi now, and the jonin was returning the stare, though Sasuke was sure the only thing that kept the man's terror hidden was the black mask he wore. "Take care of my princess," the beast growled. Then it was gone.

Kasumi collapsed to the ground. Fire still burned and steamed around her, but the awful power of the beast's presence was gone and she just lay there, unconscious, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow.