Tale of the Setting Sun

Chapter 39: "Blind Animal"

Raindrops poured down from the dark sky, overflowing the beaten banks of the hundreds of rivers that winded through Rain country. Its largest river fed into a lake that surrounded the Hidden Rain, a city full of swaying metal towers with inhabitants that stole whispered conversations under bamboo umbrellas.

Farther out, away from the city, a simpler people rested under thatched roofs, the grass muting the deafening roar of the constant rainfall. Beyond the last hut, the land plunged sharply in a cliff, and thick clouds swept over the edge, filling the floodplains below.

It was there, beyond the towers, the huts, and the floodplains, that an immense cave rose out of seemingly nowhere. It lay in a fog so dense, only those who had lost their way could possibly stumble upon the cave.

For several years now, the cave had been the hiding place of a gigantic wooden statue. The wood was rough and hewed and shaped in a humanoid form. Holding secrets long since forgotten over a millennia, it had nine eyes, three of which stared unblinkingly out at the other occupants of the cave.

A missing-nin bearing the slashed hitai-ate of the Hidden Waterfall made his way to the center of the cave. On his shoulder, he carried the unconscious body of a large man in armor; throwing it heavily down on the ground, he surveyed his surroundings with a keen gaze.

"Don't tell me I'm the first one back? Even after the long chase this one gave me?"

"Kisame is currently on his way back with the Eight-tails' jinchūriki," answered a woman's voice.

Sitting alone and closest to the cave's entrance sat a young man with white hair. Baring his jagged teeth in a grin, he added, "Seems like the Two-tails managed to get away, though."

"A mere setback. It is only a matter of time until we capture the rest," said a deep voice from farther back in the cave. Of his dark silhouette, only a pair of penetrating, ringed eyes could be seen. "And now, with the addition of the Five-tails, we are another step closer to our goal."

"...I see several new faces. Am I right to assume these are the new replacements?"

"I've heard a lot about you," said the young man. "The immortal bounty hunter, Kakuzu… A source told me that you handed in the bounty of Raiga, one of the Seven Swordsmen. You wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of his sword, Kiba?"

Kakuzu's pupil-less eyes traveled to meet the young man's. "Doesn't seem to ring a bell."

"I'm sure it doesn't."

As the two regarded each other warily, shadows shifted in the recesses of the cave. Slowly, a figure separated from the darkness to reveal a slashed Hidden Rain hitai-ate and an expressionless face bearing multiple metal piercings.

"Let us begin the extraction process."

"No," said Karin, relishing the taste of the word in her mouth.

It was a sight she'd always longed to see: Her teammate staggered before her, a jumble of sagging flesh and intestines. It was a horrible death, and Karin only wished it'd been more drawn out.

However, judging from all the blood he had lost, he should have already been dead. But as though carried by a wrathful spirit, Burami stumbled to his feet, face twisted in agony and hatred, and breathed at her, "No? You...useless bitch. I'm going...to bite every inch of you...until you're screaming...squirming…I'm going to kill you."

His words were empty, and yet, Karin felt the smile fade from her face. "You're already too far gone. You can't kill me."

Burami spat out a glob of blood, and Karin flinched as specks splattered across her face. "When Zōsui finds out...what you've done…" At the mention of the name, Karin involuntarily took a step back, and Burami grinned bloodily. "Hehe...he'll suck you dry...just like your mom...and you'll wish you were...dead…you...watch..." His eyes rolling back, he dropped to the ground. The sour stench of urine filled the air.

Finally, her teammate was dead.

But instead of feeling satisfaction, Karin found her eyes drawn to Burami's face. His lips were still reared back, frozen in a sick grin. She felt her stomach twist.

And then she heaved, hot bile souring her throat.

Naruto held the blade of his kunai to Gaara's neck. "Call off your men, or I'll kill him." The grains of sand that protected Gaara shivered in place, and Naruto felt the eyes of both Sand and Leaf-nin fixate upon him.

It was a bluff, of course. There were too many questions he wanted to ask and too many things he wanted to know about Gaara. Judging from the way the faces of the Sand-nin blanched, however, it seemed they could grasp the ramifications of his threat.

"We don't have the authority to do that," said a Sand jōnin. "We follow only the command of the Kazekage."

Time was running out. Naruto was already on his second clone, and he could feel the last droplets of natural energy seeping out of his limbs. One final push of his senses, and he searched the battlefield for a chakra signature that could have belonged to the Kazekage—except, there was none.

"Either your Kazekage isn't here, or he's already dead," he said.

"That's right," Kakashi spoke up; he and his chūnin team had been the primary engagers in the fight against the Sand-nin. "Someone was impersonating the Kazekage—I suspect it was the deed of the missing-nin known as Orochimaru."

The jōnin's face hardened. "Impossible. Your lies won't shake us. Our allies have barricaded your Hokage with the Kazekage, and it is our lord who will emerge victor."

"No…" another Sand-nin began hesitantly. "They're not lying. I haven't been able to sense the Kazekage since we arrived at the village."

The Sand kunoichi, Temari, recoiled. "What? That's impossible. I saw fath…the Kazekage sitting with the other Kage during the exam!"

"Orochimaru is infamous for his use of a technique that can steal faces," said Kakashi. "That may have been the case with the Kazekage."

The Sand jōnin furiously turned on his subordinate, who shrank back. "Why didn't you say anything until now?"

"The Kazekage's escort informed me it was part of the plan…"

"Since when?!"

The growing looks of confusion on the Sand-nin's faces told Naruto everything he'd needed to know about their involvement in the invasion on the Hidden Leaf—or perhaps, more accurately, their lack of involvement. It seemed they'd all been played like puppets in a much larger scheme that had taken advantage of the Hidden Sand's struggling circumstances.

"Lower your weapons," said Naruto. "Or the jinchūriki dies."

The Sand-nin collectively turned towards the jōnin, whose face twisted in a myriad of emotions: Anger. Confusion. Doubt. Weariness.

Temari stepped forward, her jaw set. "Baki - "

The jōnin dropped his blade to the ground with a clatter. Following suit, the rest of the Sand-nin lowered their weapons. At the same time, Naruto felt his limbs returning to their original state, and as his strength left him, he lowered his tantō blade from Gaara.

The situation was worse than anything Hinata could have imagined. Metal screeched as weapon met weapon. Red-painted faces groaned on the ground. Black smoke marred a cloudless sky.

"Medic!" shouted a voice.

Snapping back to attention—focus, Hinata!—she hurried to the source, a female ANBU wearing a cat mask. She held an unconscious male chūnin in her arms, who appeared to be bleeding out. Though Hinata couldn't see the ANBU's face, from the tone of her voice, she must have been frantic.

"I tried stabilizing him, but he's getting worse!"

As soon as she saw his injury, Hinata felt the panic disappear, leaving behind a sharp, focused calm. "Lay him flat on the ground," she commanded. "And if any enemy ninja approach, protect us."

With a swallow, the ANBU nodded. Hinata activated her Byakugan, and the injured man's body revealed itself to her. A deep gash stretched across his abdomen, a wound that, while serious if left untreated, was not immediately life threatening. The man's body suddenly spasmed, before stiffening, and a bubble of frothy sputum formed at his lips. Hinata frowned, focusing her survey. Judging from the symptoms, there had to be something else...there!

It was faint, but obvious now that she knew what she was looking for: Some kind of foreign agent was in his blood, shutting down his system. The moment it reached his heart, the man would go into cardiac arrest.

All of a sudden, the female ANBU flung out a shuriken that embedded itself into the forehead of an ninja from the Hidden Rain, who dropped to the ground. In the same breath, she formed a Tiger hand seal before blowing out a fireball at another Rain assailant.

Meanwhile, Hinata concentrated her chakra into her fingertips and pressed them around the areas she could see the foreign agent, blocking any further progression. Then, her hands glowing with the faint aura of medical ninjutsu, she guided the worst of it out of his system. Black liquid pooled out of his facial orifices, and the effect was immediate, as the man shuddered once, before relaxing. His eyes fluttered and then opened.

"Hayate!" cried the ANBU, jumping to his side.

Suddenly, Hinata heard a moan. Fifty feet away, the foreign ninja that the ANBU had defeated lay on the ground, their body scorched and still sizzling. The awful smell of singed meat filled the air. Half their face had melted away, but they were still alive: A sunken eyeball in a lidless socket turned towards Hinata.

Her chest ached. Quickly joining their side, Hinata sheathed her hands in chakra. Placing them over the ninja's chest, she stopped their heart, and with one last sigh, the ninja fell silent.

A bead of sweat trickled down her temple. Wiping it away, Hinata straightened up and surveyed the battlefield. Spotting another Leaf-nin splayed across the ground, she hurried towards them.

There was much left for her to do. And while she couldn't get to everyone in time, she would do her best.

Too much. It was all too much for Karin.

Too many people were dying. One by one, chakra signatures all around her were being rapidly extinguished, like candle flames in a maelstrom. While on an unprecedented scale, it was not an unfamiliar sensation for Karin, who curled up into a tighter ball inside her dark hiding place. In a flash, she found herself transported back to her hut in Grass country, dark night peeking through the cracks in her ceiling.

She could hear an odd clattering sound, and for a moment, Karin wondered if Zōsui had found her. She tensed, waiting for his iron grip to clench around her arm—when she realized she was alone, and the sound was coming from her chattering teeth.

No more, she thought.

Something heavy crashed outside onto the wall of the shed, and she wondered if it was Burami, still howling for her. Perhaps his blood, still splattered across her face, had summoned him?

No, she thought, squeezing her eyes shut.

But despite her words, she could still feel hands grabbing her, pawing at her. Phantom teeth chomped on her arms, and she felt the drain of chakra leaving her.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

While Karin knew none of it was there, she could almost feel it—the cold metal of chains encircling her ankles and binding her. They bit into her skin, leaving them raw and stinging painfully. They held her there, and she wondered if that was all her life had ever amounted to.

Maybe, she thought, she just wasn't strong enough. Just like her mother hadn't been.

Tears pooled up at the corners of Karin's eyes and slid down her cheeks, before landing on her shoulder.

It was then, in that instant of utter darkness, that she sensed him.

Though his chakra had disappeared for a while now, all of a sudden, she could sense it again: Quiet, yet resilient; reserved, yet beautiful. In a village filled with chakra signatures as numerous as the stars, his alone glowed with the light of a setting sun.

Karin clambered up to her feet, her head clearing. That was right. She was no longer a child, trembling in her hut. She was a kunoichi in a shed at the periphery of the Hidden Leaf village. She took a tentative step forward—and felt the jerk of chains pulling her back.

No, Karin thought again. Eyes still shut, she reached out with her mind's eye, and again, she could feel his chakra signature. The paradoxical cold and warmth of it calmed her pounding heart.

"You're welcome."

In the dark, Karin reached out with her hands and pushed the doors of the shed open. Stepping forward, the warmth of sunlight fell across her face and the screams of battle that she'd muted returned at full volume.

With the One-tail no longer terrorizing the area around the stadium, the Leaf appeared to have gained the upper hand. Though the unmoving bodies on the ground were in equal parts Leaf-nin as they were foreign ninja, the number of active skirmishes had dropped. Naruto knew several large-scale battles were still ongoing—the last time he'd checked, both the Hokage and Jiraiya had been fighting against two formidable foes. However, with his own chakra reserves on its last legs, the only thing he could do was to have faith in their abilities.

Given the circumstances, their primary concern was to keep an eye on Gaara. In the meantime, Sasuke and Sakura had left to help rescue more civilians, and Naruto and the remaining members of Team Kakashi tied up the captured Sand-nin.

"This is chakra rope," explained Menma, crouching down to bind the jōnin's wrists. "Picked it up from my uncle...it blocks chakra flow so that they can't escape."

As Menma finished the rest, Kakashi turned to Naruto. The left side of his face was covered, as it usually had been; it felt strange knowing that under the bandages, the infamous Sharingan eye was no longer there. He had to wonder how its absence would affect the jōnin's future.

"That masked man…" started Kakashi. "He was there, in Wave country. He was the one who killed Zabuza."

Naruto raised his eyebrows; he had never read the official mission report, and had always assumed Kakashi had been the one to kill the missing-nin. "What did he mean by 'taking back' the eye, sensei?"

"...I can't say that I know. I'm still thinking about it myself."

"Are there any Uchiha, other than Sasuke, that are left?"

"There is the one who massacred the clan in the first place... But I knew him, personally, and his fighting style was nothing like the masked man." Kakashi paused. "As for what he said to you, I know that I have become busy with my team lately, and you have your own duties now. But Naruto, I hope you know that I consider you...well, very highly."

While Kakashi seemed to have lost his usual eloquence, Naruto thought he understood. The answers he had been seeking in the outside world—maybe they'd been here this entire time. Somewhere inside of him, something was starting to take shape. While mostly intangible, with a little more effort, he thought he might be able to make something of it.

Naruto wondered whether the ramen stall was still intact.

"I don't know, sensei…"

"What—"

"After that sad showing you made in our match the other week, I don't know if I can take that as a compliment."

Kakashi blinked. The corners of his lips twitched upwards. "I guess we'll need to have another rematch soon. I'll make you eat those words."

Making a noncommittal sound, Naruto replied, "We'll see."

"You were never this cheeky to me before…" Kakashi sighed. "All this, just because we're the same rank now? I never took you for that kind of person."

"You can blame Jiraiya-sensei for that."

Kakashi opened his mouth to reply, when suddenly, Menma let out a shout:

"Shit, he's waking up!"

Immediately, Naruto jumped up. It was impossible. The blow he had delivered should have knocked him out for at least an hour. But he realized in a rush that he'd miscalculated—that while a normal person may have been out for an hour, the same rules didn't apply to a jinchūriki.

Mother is angry.

That was the first thing Gaara knew when he regained consciousness. Or perhaps, it was what had awoken him.

JUST AS I WAS FREED, YOU DARE TO IMPRISON ME?

His head was groggy. What had happened? Was the village destroyed? Why couldn't he move?

Gaara felt his eyes widen as he realized—he was tied up. Trussed up with rope and thrown aside, his face pressed into the dirt.

As though he was just anybody.

YOU DARE?

Voices were shouting all around him.

Chest heaving, Gaara strained against his bindings. They were strong, but it was nothing for him; breaking free, he felt his chakra begin to recirculate through his body, and he got to his feet. He felt his body sway; his head was spinning. Everything was black and red.

There were no faces, only others. Others who hated him, dreaded him, feared him.

His vision was rapidly turning completely red as Mother's chakra oozed out, covering him. Sheltering him. As always, Mother was the only one who understood.

Gaara started to laugh, the sound ringing out harshly from his chest. He wouldn't just give himself up to Mother, as he had when he fell asleep. No—he would become Mother.

"Gaara!" a voice called out his name. "Stop!"

A concerned face with sandy hair appeared before him. Gaara felt his eyes widen—he knew that face. It couldn't be him.

Yashamaru?!

His uncle—how was he here? Had he somehow returned from the dead? Was he here to complete his mission of assassinating Gaara?

With a roar, he slashed the air, hearing a satisfying thud.

And then silence.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye. One moment, Naruto had been talking with Kakashi just outside the stadium. The next, Gaara was awake, and there was a body on the ground.

It was the Sand genin named Temari. It may have been a fatal blow, for she didn't stir from where she'd landed. Naruto stared at her broken body. While he'd never exchanged words with her, he had noticed her from afar.

"Ninpo: Shinranshin no ju - " Menma's voice cut off as Gaara let out another roar and swiped the air. A whip of sand lashed out at his bidding.

"Menma!" Kakashi shouted. His gaze followed Menma—who just barely managed to dodge the attack—before jerking towards Naruto. "Do you think you can move?"

Naruto grimaced. His entire body felt like a wooden block. "Don't worry about me. I can still protect myself."

Despite his words, there wasn't much he could do anymore, frustrating as it was. Maybe if it had been nighttime, with the moon out, he might have been able to dredge up another shadow clone to summon natural energy...but the way he was now, he didn't think he could even summon a normal clone.

"Please—untie us!" shouted the Sand jōnin, his face stricken. "Temari!"

After a pause, Kakashi quickly strode over and cut through the jōnin's bindings with a kunai. "If you turn on us, there will be no more mercy," he said in an icy tone.

Rubbing his bruised wrists, the Sand jōnin nodded before rushing to Temari's side.

"Will you be okay, sensei?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi turned back to him, his eyebrows raised. "I may not have the Sharingan anymore, but I do still have a thousand jutsu under my belt, you know. You watch yourself, Naruto."

In a flash, he was gone.

The emergency painkiller Kakashi had taken was kicking in. The agony in the left of his skull had ebbed away to a dull, manageable pain, and the fog in his head was clearing.

Oddly enough, aside from the blatantly missing eye, Kakashi felt...good. While some of it may have been from the adrenaline rushing through him, he had always suspected the ever-active Sharingan to be draining his chakra, not unlike a leech. With it ripped away, Kakashi could feel surges of chakra bellowing up from within.

Unlike before, Gaara's body had started to undergo transformation. Half his face had distorted into a sand-colored beast with pitch black eyes, and the same side of his body had grown a large claw and the beginnings of a tail. It was clear he was an uncontrolled jinchūriki. Kakashi didn't know whether it was out of any fault of the host, or an indication of a faulty seal. Whichever it was, he felt a surge of pity for the boy.

The confusion, the hatred—he couldn't help but see something of Naruto inside Gaara. And maybe a little of himself, as well.

"One-tail…" he said. "It's time you went back inside."

Feral eyes veered, and Gaara sprung towards him. Concentrating a churning ball of chakra into his hand, Kakashi dodged the blow. While his aim would inevitably be off, he'd been making mental adjustments with every movement he took, and without hesitation, Kakashi slammed the Rasengan into Gaara's back.

It was a direct hit, albeit on a shield of sand that automatically rose up to meet his fist. Making an explosive dust storm upon impact, a half-scream, half-roar sounded.

Landing on his feet, Kakashi silently marveled at how little the Rasengan had drained his chakra reserves. Unfortunately, as expected, the attack seemed to have enraged the jinchūriki more than injured him, as a gigantic claw suddenly jumped out and swiped at Kakashi.

Quickly summoning a shadow clone, Kakashi swapped places with it, leaving it to distract Gaara while he observed from the shadow of a shattered building.

Kakashi could batter at it however long he needed; it would be tough to get through the sand defenses of the infuriated jinchūriki. At least, not without an unacceptable level of collateral damage to the village.

"Sensei," said Menma, appearing beside him. "Should I try using my Mind Transfer jutsu on him?"

"No," Kakashi replied immediately. "His mind's too unstable right now."

"Then what should I do?"

Before Kakashi could answer, he heard a high-pitched shout in the distance—

"Naruto!"

Bodies lined the streets and fire swept across the rooftops, but none of that mattered to Karin. Her chest heaving, the sound of her heart pounded explosively in her ears. Her mouth was dry, her throat sour with bile.

Please, make it on time.

Karin didn't know what had happened, but in the space of mere minutes, somehow, his chakra signature had grown weak—weaker than she'd ever seen it before. The elation that had been carrying her turned into terror, and it made her feel sick to the stomach.

It was a terrible and strange feeling. Terrible, because Karin couldn't bear to even think about what would happen if that particular chakra signature were to be extinguished. And strange, because Karin knew that her feelings were one-sided.

Karin wasn't stupid. She knew that to him, she was just a nobody from a foreign village. But it didn't matter, because to her, he was special. When she had been starving, he had given her fish to eat. It warmed her belly for a single night, and it was the best thing she had eaten in a long, long time.

He barely seemed to remember, but that didn't matter. Karin remembered.

There—in the distance, she saw him. A dot that grew bigger and bigger, to reveal a red-headed male in Leaf fatigues. His chakra signature, while weak, was still hanging on. There was a monstrous signature nearby, the same one that had erupted in the stadium and started this whole mess, but that didn't matter. What was important was that he was there, breathing.

"Naruto!" she shouted, eagerly.

However, the wind carried her voice away from him, and she felt the monster instead turn its attention towards her. Its face twisted, and it leaped towards her.

With a screech, the world seemed to slow down around her. Eyes widening, she followed the monster's trajectory through the air. The moment it reached her, she knew she would die.

Clink.

She would die, without having ever escaped her village.

Clink. Clink.

Without having killed Zōsui.

Clink clink clink.

Without ever seeing the stars again.

Clink clink clink.

Without ever meeting Naruto again.

No!

Something within her—everything that had been coiled up tightly inside for a long time—exploded. In a burst of color, the world returned to its normal speed.

Chains, glowing brightly with chakra, flew out of Karin, wrapping themselves around the beast.

Kakashi could hardly believe his eyes: A red-haired woman, with chains coming out of her body that wrapped themselves around a tailed beast —

Kushina?

No, it couldn't be. She'd died years ago, on the same night that had claimed the Fourth Hokage. The woman before him must have been another survivor of the Uzumaki clan...and now that he looked closer, it was true. This particular woman wore glasses, and behind them were a pair of striking crimson eyes.

Kakashi vaguely recalled seeing her before. She was a Kusa genin participating in the chūnin exams—at the time, he'd even teased Naruto about her.

He'd never expected to see that technique again, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.

However, it looked as though she didn't know how to properly utilize the chains. Instead of completely subjugating Gaara, the chains were merely pinning the jinchūriki down on the ground.

Like a feral animal that had been caught in a trap, Gaara struggled for freedom, roaring in anger. He was more beast than human at this point—he was out of control, and he was destroying their village.

It was unfortunate, but it left Kakashi with only one viable option.

He drew in a deep breath and made up his mind. Palming a kunai from his holster, he began to channel lightning chakra into it. The ear-splitting sound of chirping birds filled the air. Without his Sharingan, he couldn't use the Lightning Cutter the way he'd used to—but on an immobilized opponent, this would be more than enough.

Only...he couldn't guarantee Gaara's survival.

"Wait!" shouted the Sand jōnin, standing up to block Kakashi's path. He held the dead girl's limp body in his arms; Kakashi could barely hear his voice over the sound of his jutsu, and had to read his lips to catch his words. "You can't kill him!"

Kakashi resolutely shook his head. With a screaming sound, the kunai shone a bright blue. It was ready to go.

"Let me talk to him," begged the jōnin. "Just give me a few seconds." Without waiting for Kakashi's response, the jōnin raced over to stand in front of the struggling jinchūriki.

What is this?!

Unlike the ropes from before, Gaara couldn't free himself. The things weighing him down looked like chains, but they must have been imbued with an unbelievable amount of chakra, for he couldn't even budge.

With a gnash of his teeth, Gaara screamed in frustration. His head was spinning. The world was red, and the others around him were jeering. He couldn't take it anymore, he couldn't take it anymore —

"Gaara!"

Again!

Why did they keep calling out his name? This time, it was a man with red markings on his face—Baki. He may have been Gaara's team leader, but in the end he, too, was an other. Gaara didn't need him. He raised his and Mother's arm to bat him aside, when suddenly, Baki lifted up a body in his arms.

"Look at what you've done, Gaara!" For some reason, tears were streaming down the jōnin's face. "You've killed Temari! Your own sister!"

Temari…?

What was Baki talking about? That wasn't Temari. That was Yashamaru, his first would-be assassin. Temari was back home with Kankuro...she was…

The body—its hair was tied up in pigtails. And her frame...it was a woman's body.

Gaara froze.

Temari…

Suddenly, through the red haze, he remembered: His sister had accompanied him to the chūnin exams. They'd had ramen together just a few nights ago. And she'd been the one to signal to him during his match in the third exam...

I...killed her…?

Impossible as it seemed, Gaara stopped struggling. The One-tail's characteristics began to fade from the jinchūriki; as the oversized arm and tail began to shrink, the chakra chains tightened in sync. Soon, only Gaara in his fully human form was left.

It seemed Kakashi had been wrong. There had been another option. He just hadn't been able to see it.

He was glad to be proven wrong.

Slowly, Kakashi lowered his kunai, and the shrill sound of birds faded away into the air.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan," said a cold voice to his left. "This is for Zabuza."

Before he could react, something pierced through his back, ramming straight into his heart.

His eyes widened. He looked down, to see a bloody senbon needle protruding from his chest. Suddenly, he couldn't speak; with the last of his rapidly fading strength, he looked back and saw a mask—a hunter-nin?

Kakashi stumbled, before dropping to his knees.

Someone was shouting, but he couldn't make out the words. Everything was growing dark. His chest was unbearably tight. He couldn't breathe. Was he dying?

It was true what they said about your last moments. Kakashi could see his life flashing before his eyes; the faces of his loved ones surrounded him.

His father, the once renowned White Fang of the Leaf.

Obito. Rin. Minato-sensei.

Mayu. Rai.

Everyone he'd ever held dear—they'd all gone before him, leaving him behind. It had been hard. But he was a shinobi, and he had endured alone as best as he could.

No… That's not quite right.

He hadn't been quite alone. He still had...

Na—

A/N: You may direct all your anger towards my beta, blueandgold.

Next chapter's going to feature some other POVs that have been neglected so far.

In other news, after receiving some heated feedback in the last chapter, I have made some adjustments to Obito's powers. In summary:

Obito and his powers have always been a glaring plot hole in canon. However, I hate to definitively alter something from canon (my method is usually to just avoid mentioning it at all) but I got a lot of people talking about Obito in the comments from the last chapter. So just know that his powers in this fic aren't exactly the same as in canon. More will be revealed within the text in future chapters.

In the case of the Raikage, Obito was only able to cast this genjutsu due to the threat Deidara posed to the villagers with his bombs. If it still bothers you, it's not a huge plotpoint since it won't be showing up again in the story. I only threw it in for the parallel to canon.

Finally, thank you for the reviews! Got an outpouring of support in the last chapter update, definitely motivates me to write faster.