Danzou awoke to a cold that shocked him to his bones. The world he had appeared in was a frozen wasteland of ice and dust. Wind burned like cold flame as it ripped through his insufficient clothing and began the swift process of stripping the heat from his body, but as much as he wished he could have pretended otherwise, his nervous fear had little to do with the cold. He turned this way and that, already recalling all of his training on cold resistance. He looked ahead to the horizon, seeing a rising sun that was utterly failing to do more than merely illuminate the landscape. Behind him he saw a cliffside that offered no hope of shelter. To his right was snow. To his left was ice.
But he didn't see Itachi anywhere.
Neither did he see Sasuke, but that boy hardly mattered. The soft little brother didn't have the spine to make a torture stick. Careful to avoid showing emotion, Danzou retreated to the cliffside, scanning the landscape as he went. When he arrived, he sat down, huddling carefully to preserve his heat. A quick check proved that he had no access to his chakra, as expected, but it had been worth a shot. Fire Ninjutsu would have kept him quite warm until he learned what to expect from his fate.
So he waited.
It was an hour spent huddling in the freezing wind before he finally laughed, his mouth almost numb from the cold.
"Y-you fool! Itachi left you alone, didn't he?! You bared your fangs to frighten me and this is what you have to show for it?! Leaving the cold to do its worst?!" He laughed some more, his breath expelling in great hot clouds. "At least you've finally realized you're too soft to get your hands dirty yourself! Are you even watching this, or are you too weak to watch a man freeze?"
There was no response. The terrain remained unmoved, save for the blowing wind and ice. If Sasuke was listening then he didn't show it. Danzou cackled quietly to himself as he glanced to the sky, his energy exhausted from even that outburst. The sun had barely moved at all in its orbit, but it was something.
"Three days… three days… and then I'll have you."
It was another hour before Danzou died for the first time.
The night came for him with frosted daggers. Each time the illusion revived him he would be warm again for the briefest of periods before the cold grew intense enough to kill. The horrible, unrelenting frost was so severe that he found himself helplessly anticipating the dawning of the sun for the meager heat it would grant him. In some ways the least horrible parts were the times shortly before death when cold seemed to slip away, his nerves reporting odd and useless information instead of reality. In those moments he might almost convince himself he was warm, before reason slipped away again and he lost track of time.
The second day dawned and he realized that being warmer did little more than just prolong his misery.
By the second night Danzou had reached equilibrium. Every technique he had ever practiced to resist torture was now available to him. His mind was elsewhere now, and the worthless child was too weak to add the 'personal touch' required to push him off the edge of sanity. Itachi would have managed it, but this brat was no Itachi.
His imagination was focused on the actions he would take upon leaving the Tsukuyomi. Would he kill the boy slowly…? No, there was no need. Sasuke was barely even worth the effort. The boy would die in the first few seconds, right when he expected Danzou to be incapacitated by the aftermath of the cold. Then he would retrieve the Kotoamatsukami from the mask of flesh in his shoulder. The Kotoamatsukami would entrance Tobi, and then the idiot would give the fruit away freely. When he finally had the Divine Fruit he would slaughter absolutely everyone in the temple, former friend or foe alike, and then he would retreat to study its power in secret. Finally, he would return to Konoha, a place that made sense, and begin building a nation that could bring true peace to the world.
The thought was almost enough to warm him, or it would have been if he hadn't killed his heart decades ago.
And so he waited, letting the hours drip by as his blood froze and thawed in savage rhythm, contemplating in all moments exactly how sweet would taste the fruit of victory.
As the third night drew to a close, the illusion came to a grinding... shuddering... halt.
Time started back up again slowly, and he saw Sasuke descending, his sword at the ready. Danzou willed his frozen limbs to move as they should. The numbness of cold had settled into his thought processes, making him want to move far too slowly for combat, but he pushed them along nonetheless. It was like puppeteering a limb that had fallen asleep, but for his whole body.
It didn't matter. The boy's face lit up with surprise, twisting from his arrogant smirk as Danzou dodged what should have been a killing blow. Sasuke's sword cut through the air but struck nothing. Then Danzou spun and stabbed, impaling the boy's chest with one stroke. Sasuke staggered, pulling his body away from the blade and then freezing as the shock of agony held him in place. Pain and disbelief crawled across the boy's face in slow-motion, and the old shinobi knew that this vengeful memory would hold a special place in his heart for many, many years to come.
The boy's sword came up to strike once more, but a single hand-chop to the wrist disarmed him. Still impaling the young Uchiha, Danzou grabbed his arm and pulled him closer, dragging him painfully along the blade as his blood seeped to the floor. Only when the child was close enough to hear a whisper did Danzou speak.
"I told you before," he murmured, staring the boy openly in the eyes. "You… lacked hatred. Because of that weakness, you failed, and so too did your worthless brother."
Danzou smiled softly as Sasuke's life-blood streamed from his heart. "Really… you should blame him, not yourself. A child like you could hardly be expected to win this fight without guidance. If Itachi had truly loved you... he would have taught you how to hate properly. He would have broken you and reforged you into something strong. Perhaps then you would have had strength enough to kill me. Strength enough... to live."
The boy's mouth opened, though nothing but blood dripped out. Danzou nodded, satisfied that a lesson had been learned. "Farewell, child."
He ripped the sword from Sasuke's heart, and then the boy's life was over.
He paid the body one last glance and then moved on. There would be time to retrieve the corpse's eyes later. Instead, he began the long dash towards the Divine Fruit, where Tobi was even now plucking it from its stem. Smoothly, he removed the Sharingan from his right eye, pulling back his tunic at the shoulder to reveal the mask of flesh underneath. A deft series of motions replaced one eye for another, and then chakra flowed through him as the stolen Kotoamatsukami connected to his optic nerve, a feat of unnatural biology that only a magical eye possessed.
Danzou ascended the tiered altar with a series of mighty leaps. There, standing before him, Tobi gazed at the fruit in his hands with genuine awe. The Kyuubi child lay dead on the floor, and Danzou paid him no heed. Tobi was barely seconds away from doing whatever it was he was planning to do with Madara, assuming Sasuke had been telling the truth.
Danzou smirked. He'd always known Tobi was planning to betray them all. This simply made his victory all the sweeter.
Tobi blinked, and turned his head to see what all the commotion was about, but it was too late. The Mangekyou Sharingan unfolded before him.
[ENSURE THAT THE DIVINE FRUIT GOES TO DANZOU]
The power of the Sharingan hit Tobi like a freight train as it rewrote his mind. It was death and life. It was weaponized nirvana. It was the end of his world. Tobi looked back at Danzou, utterly stunned. He looked back down to the fruit nestled in his palms. He blinked.
Finally, Tobi spoke, a confused titter to his voice. "Okay?! I think this is yours, sir?!"
Tobi tossed the fruit away, and it flew through the air in a glowing arc. Danzou snatched it with one hand. He had won.
There would be no unnecessary gloating here. No wasted moments for victory to be turned into defeat. He ripped a chunk of the skin from the fruit and bit into the juicy interior in a single motion. A thousand tiny seeds, each one coated in a layer of bitter flesh. Each one the seed of a demon. He devoured its innards as quickly as he could, each bite another step towards godhood, filled with a power he could feel burning through him.
Everything changed between moments.
It was ashes in his mouth. He coughed, dust vomiting forth in a great cloud from his lips. He tried to swallow what he could, but it was simply too disgusting for words. The fruit lay in his palm unchanged, its golden radiance still promising an unearthly flavor, but what he tasted now gave lie to that promise. He stared in uncomprehending confusion until an answer revealed itself.
"So," said a voice from right by his ear, "-that was your plan all along, hmm?"
Danzou turned slowly in place, horror filling his heart. Standing right over his shoulder, Sasuke watched him with utter disdain.
Reflexively, his fingers went for his weapons, but he found he couldn't move. Dust and ash continued to pour in great streams from his frozen lips, his breath not coming when he willed it. Finally, his heart froze mid-beat, leaving him as little more than a statue trapped in time.
He was still inside the Tsukuyomi.
"I admit," began Sasuke, walking slowly around him as he carefully examined the scene, including Danzou's eyes and shoulder, "-I knew that you were a treacherous piece of shit, but I still can't help but be surprised that your plan was this audacious."
The old shinobi's eyes tracked Sasuke as he circled. The boy looked utterly unconcerned, as well he should be. Sasuke saw this and snorted. "Well, I guess I expected such treachery from you, but it's just odd to me that anyone else would be fooled for even a second. I guess they don't know you like I do."
The boy chuckled, patting him amiably on the shoulder, and Danzou struggled for a breath that wouldn't come.
"As you've already figured out, I let you get this far so I could see what your plan was. Giving you the... cold shoulder... in there was just a ruse to lure you in… make sure you wouldn't take me seriously… and you fell for it, hook, line, and sinker."
He laughed, spreading his arms wide as he circled. "And man, what a climax that would have been! Using the Kotoamatsukami like that would have been… well, I suppose I'd call it brilliant. Despicable, yes. But brilliant."
He walked back into view again, and smirked. The boy was acting with all the smug flair of the worst manner of showman. "Well, it would have been brilliant if you were actually going to get a chance to use it back in the real world. Now that I know your plan, though… I bet I can do something about that."
Danzou struggled, but nothing happened. His lungs burned. He struggled again, but still nothing happened. Sasuke peered closely at the Kotoamatsukami, carefully examining it for flaws and imperfections. "Geez, you've really put this thing through the wringer, haven't you? It can't have more than one or two shots left in it. I bet you can't even see at all out of it."
He pulled back the cloth from Danzou's shirt, revealing the mask of flesh on his shoulder. The nearly-spent Yatagarasu had been placed inside for safekeeping.
"Hmmm… But it's not ready for use just yet. Once you get out of here you'll have to swap them out just like you did back there. Tough to do in combat…"
Finally, he stepped forward and plucked the Fruit from the old man's hands, examining it as well. He sniffed it, shrugged, and tossed it over his shoulder.
"So, you were planning to… what? Take the fruit and become a god? You may be a piece of shit, but ruling the world? You never really struck me as the flashy megalomaniacal type. What were you planning to do once you had it?"
Danzou struggled once more, but nothing happened. Sasuke snapped his fingers.
"Right, can't speak. I suppose I'll regret this, but…"
The oppressive force binding his body lessened, allowing him to take a great, shuddering breath. He heaved and coughed, ejecting ash from his lungs until he could speak once more.
"Do-" he coughed again, "-do you really think you can win this without your brother's help? We both know you don't have what it takes to-"
His chest froze once more, halting his words mid-sentence.
"Yeah, I thought as much," nodded Sasuke. "As you can see, you're not going to be talking unless I give you my approval, so you should get used to that."
He resumed circling the old man, airing out his thoughts as he went.
"As for your imprisonment… the only reason you weren't receiving my personal attentions was… well, I'm sure you'd call it hopelessly naive, but the fact is that I've decided I'm not going to bring myself down to your level. I've learned enough from my friends to know I'd never crawl out of that hole intact. To borrow an idea from a good friend of mine, the version of me that personally tears you apart piece by bloody piece until you're a screaming pile of pain isn't a Sasuke I'd like very much. I'd never go back to normal after that, and my friends would never forgive me for leaving them with a shadow of the real thing."
He smirked. "So, I'm experimenting with something a little bit different to get my point across. How's it working so far?"
Control returned to Danzou's mouth and lungs. He spat out more ash, taking a long overdue breath as he stared daggers at the young man. "Your best isn't good enough, worm. Nothing you've done here will change your-"
His mouth locked up again and Sasuke nodded, continuing to walk circles around the older man.
"Yeah, you're not too wrong. I'm at a big disadvantage here, and I'm not cold enough to break you… but… well, we'll see. I've got a plan, but I don't want to spoil the surprise."
Danzou could hear the boy chuckling behind his frozen body. In the distance, Tobi had been time-stopped right in the middle of a cheerful wave. Despite his dire situation, Danzou couldn't help but feel a pulse of his customary irritation at the Akatsuki leader's maddening demeanor. When Sasuke spoke again he was by his ear once more.
"Don't worry," said Sasuke, again patting him almost affectionately on the shoulder. "We'll have plenty of time to figure it out. Just the two of us."
Understanding came in a flash at the same moment as the scenery changed. An instant later, Danzou was standing back in the frozen wasteland of howling wind, the cold biting all the way through him. The lying sun still shone above him, but this time it practically darted through the sky, showing just how much control Sasuke had had over its motion.
As Danzou carefully processed the implications of this, a voice spoke from nowhere and everywhere.
After all, they say that time flies when you're having fun… but no one really mentions how it passes when you're repeatedly dying from hypothermia. I'll give you a hint, though. It's not exactly 'zippy,' if you get my meaning. Though, I do have to congratulate you for reaching the half-way point of your just imprisonment. What are you, like, eighty? Good job, you old coot!
Despite everything, his heart dropped ever so slightly at that pronouncement. Still, the boy could be lying about anything at this point, and there was no reason to believe he was only half-way done. If this was as bad as it got, there wouldn't be any trouble. He reined in that traitorous thought the moment he had it, but it was too late.
Tell you what. The whole cold thing was just to lure you into the trap, so… now that it's sprung we're free to try whatever I want! I'll try to make things a little bit more interesting for you this time around.
For the very first time, Danzou felt a whisper of fear crawl down his spine that was in no way connected to Itachi's shadow.
Then time once again lost any meaning.
Despite Sasuke's proclamation, nothing happened for a long while. Something that might have been between half-an-hour and an hour passed before the illusion broke down without any warning and Danzou was thrust back into the real world in total surprise. The battle restarted exactly where it had last time. Once again, he grabbed control of his sluggish limbs and forced himself to dodge and counter Sasuke's killing blow. This time, Sasuke was ready. He parried Danzou's strike, continuing the fight at a sudden advantage.
Though he was unable to kill the boy, one thing in particular had changed. He didn't need to worry much about avoiding eye-contact anymore, which meant his prior handicap was gone. He broke free from the encounter and dashed away, hurriedly replacing his Mangekyou with the Kotoamatsukami on his shoulder the instant he was able.
"What's this?" asked Sasuke, dashing through the air above him. "You actually think this is the real world? How absolutely adorable."
Danzou gritted his teeth and ignored him. It didn't matter if this was the real world or not; as long as he couldn't tell the difference between illusion and reality he had to fight with everything he had. If he misjudged it then he could end up getting killed in the real world without even realizing what had happened.
He pushed his legs to their limit in his rush up the altar to reach Tobi. The Divine Fruit glowed in his sight, and he summoned the Mangekyou's power, rewriting Tobi's mind.
Then, suddenly, the illusion ended.
This time he didn't return to the frozen wasteland. He was shunted immediately, without any delay, into the cut and thrust of combat once more. He dodged Sasuke's strike, counterattacked unsuccessfully, and then disengaged, breaking into a run for the altar. Sasuke soared above him, laughing through the sky.
"Good! That's the spirit!" exclaimed Sasuke. "Keep your eyes on the prize! This one's the real thing, so do your best to get there before I do."
He was lying. When Danzou reached the top of the altar, the illusion restarted.
That was only the start of his nightmare. The illusions kept starting and stopping without mercy, each time with subtle changes that made him question his reality.
"We're still inside the Tsukuyomi," assured Sasuke, blocking a hit he had seen a dozen times already. "You can slack off and take a break if you really want to. Just pretend I'm not here."
It was, but he couldn't.
The illusion restarted.
Danzou broke away from the fight, reaching down to pull the Kotoamatsukami from his shoulder. It wasn't there. The mask was on his other shoulder. Was this still inside the Tsukuyomi, or had the boy landed a more straightforward Genjutsu to confuse him?
"Going senile, old man?" asked Sasuke.
Danzou reached Tobi while still desperately fumbling the Mangekyou into his eye.
The illusion restarted.
The ordeal went on and on with little variation for quite some time. He would adjust his behavior and then Sasuke would move to counter it. Next time things would happen just a little bit differently. The objective never changed. He had only about a minute or two to get to the Divine Tree and enthrall Tobi, during which he had to fend off Sasuke and switch his eye out for the Kotoamatsukami. Nothing else mattered.
He wasn't even aware of just how dull his thoughts had become in this endlessly repeating dream until the moment when Sasuke descended from on high, impaling him from behind when he was removing his eyeball. The heartstopping pain was almost welcome at this point. At least it was something different.
"Gotcha," said Sasuke.
Then the blade was ripped from his chest, his nerves overwhelmed by shock. His heart-blood spilled from his chest in great pulses. He hit the ground.
The illusion restarted.
His previous death was, if anything, a wake-up call, but if he had expected it to revitalize him then he was out of luck. From that point onward, Sasuke seemed to gain confidence, sometimes changing the pattern in wild ways. Each time, Danzou was forced to react as if it were the real event, and each time Sasuke watched, drinking greedily with the Sharingan as he absorbed his opponent's strategies.
This time, Orochimaru came to the rescue, fighting off the young Uchiha and helping Danzou in his charge towards Tobi. Together, the two of them beat back Sasuke and his idiot friends, reaching the altar intact. For a minute or two he almost felt a glimmer of hope that this was over.
The illusion restarted.
This time, Tobi was prepared, though whether it was because of the illusion or not he couldn't say. When Danzou reached the altar, his Kotoamatsukami was absorbed harmlessly by the field surrounding his target. Tobi turned to regard him with an unusual coldness before blasting him off the altar and returning his attention to Naruto and the Divine Fruit.
Danzou landed below, stunned, though it was hard to muster the proper outrage when he wasn't sure this was even real in the first place. If it was real then he'd just lost.
All of a sudden, countless leaves began falling from the tree, some the size of flower petals and others the size of small houses. They refused to touch the ground, swirling about the altar in great gouts that obscured vision. Sasuke reached the altar a moment later, though instead of fighting he watched the deadly shield of unbreakable leaves with concern. His eyes shot wide open.
"NARUTO!" he screamed, before he leapt into the maelstrom, dodging the swirling leaves with the aid of his Sharingan-augmented aerial acrobatics.
There was a moment where nothing seemed to be happening. Then the leaves of the great tree froze in place and dropped lifelessly to the ground.
When vision cleared, Uchiha Madara stared down at him, a demi-god just as awe-inspiring as he remembered from his childhood. There was no one else alive on the platform.
He blinked, and then Madara was at his throat.
The illusion restarted.
It was at least thirty more restarts before he woke in darkness, a hand shaking his shoulder.
"Danzou! Danzou! Wake up!"
He shot up in bed, reflexively striking out in the same manner he'd done the last hundred restarts, but it failed to connect.
Tobi dodged out of the way of his sweeping hand anyway. "Whoa!"
He looked around the darkened room. He was back in his cabin on their ship, the sea rocking him back and forth. There was no sword in his hand, though it still sat in its customary place by the side of his bed. The scent of salt was strong, along with the vague hints of decay that had accompanied Orochimaru's stolen zombies.
"Are you okay?" asked Tobi, staring earnestly into his eyes. "You were screaming really loudly. Was it nightmares? You'd tell me if you were scared, right?"
Danzou frowned and shook his head. "Don't be insulting…" he murmured. "This is simple foolishness."
Tobi looked blankly back at him before he began giggling, the noise sliding up and down in pitch until it morphed into Sasuke's laughter. The portholes exploded inward, inundating the cabin with a torrential deluge of seawater that pulled him deeper and deeper into an endless abyss.
Just as Danzou finished drowning, the illusion restarted.
This time, when the fight resumed, the doors to the inner sanctum burst inward, flying off their hinges from a fierce blow. Luffy bowled through the doorway at speed, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"ACE!" he shouted. "ACE!"
On his heels, the rest of the Straw-Hats charged in after him, some clearly suffering from serious wounds even as they readied themselves for another battle. Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at the new arrivals, chuckled, and turned back to Danzou.
"Man, and you thought that was foolish. Just wait till you get a load of these guys."
Seeing Ace's distant figure, Luffy immediately extended his arms and rocketed to the newly freed pirate's side, beginning the intricate process of grabbing the reluctant giant snakes that still littered the battlefield and tying them into knots. This freed up Sakura and Chopper to retreat and start healing those among the Straw-Hats who had suffered serious wounds.
Before Danzou could take this all in, hands blossomed from his body. His knife slashed out with inhuman reflexes, destroying Robin's summoned creations before they could impair him. It was, however, a distraction, one that Sasuke used to its fullest to sneak two cuts past his defenses.
Danzou cursed, fighting through the pain. This couldn't possibly be the real world once more… could it? No one could expect him to believe that these ridiculous greenhorns had beaten the entirety of Akatsuki's remaining guardians without fatalities.
He was almost relieved when his doubts were vindicated.
The illusion restarted.
The illusion restarted.
The illusion restarted.
The illusion restarted.
Tobi was in his sight. He activated the Kotoamatsukami, only to be interrupted when someone else hit the altar like a comet. Ice scattered in great chunks across the ground, and a cold, white wall flashed into being, blocking Danzou's line-of-sight. Sasuke reeled backwards, and he couldn't tell if the boy's surprise was the genuine article or merely an artful fakery.
A second passed, and then Admiral Aokiji emerged from the ice, foot by menacing foot. He took in everyone's presence with hard eyes, breath fogging in the warm air.
"Somebody," he began, "-is going to tell me what's going on here..."
This wasn't good at all. If Tobi was really about to sacrifice his own life to summon Uchiha Madara, then all that the Admiral had to do to ruin everything was just stand there, getting in the way. To make things worse, Danzou relied on the Yatagarasu to shut down whatever the Admiral used to sense the future, and he had just switched that eye out.
Sasuke and Naruto were already arguing with the man- useless words that would only prolong the encounter. He paid them no heed.
No. It was sub-optimal, but there was only one way to resolve this quickly. Chakra flowed into the Kotoamatsukami, and he cast his spell on the Admiral in front of him.
[ENSURE THAT THE DIVINE FRUIT-
The illusion restarted.
The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted.
How many times had he gone through this? Even the longer loops usually took less than two minutes, which meant they could run through dozens in the space of an hour. Every hour, every minute, every second, he was giving his full effort, fighting as if his life was on the line only to discover time and time again that it was nothing more than a pointless ruse. Each time they did this, Sasuke would learn more of his skills, more of his tactics, more of his possible responses, and while he was also learning things in return the rate of exchange between them was deeply unequal. The boy had so many more things to learn from this endlessly repeating hell, and was clearly taking advantage of it.
He clenched his teeth hard enough to cause pain. This wasn't a battle; this was training. Forced to parade every single one of his techniques and contingencies in front of a carefully observing Uchiha again, and again, and again… He was giving the boy an in-depth apprenticeship, and there wasn't anything he could do about it!
How many times had he fought this battle? Three hundred? Five hundred? More?
Abruptly, he realized that he had lost focus, completely losing track of several seconds. He spun in place and saw Sasuke, far away, making a beeline straight for the distant Divine Fruit. The child looked over his shoulder and smirked.
No!
He kicked himself back into gear, running after Sasuke with all the effort he could muster.
He hadn't trained for this! Resisting torture was one thing, but this was something completely different! The keys to that training were absence, distraction, and dissociation, all of which would be worse than useless here. The mental exhaustion of giving everything you had to survive was something no one could keep up for long, and he had been fighting without breaks for at least a full day now, all after another unclear amount of time spent dying of hypothermia. There was no downtime for him, no respite, just the final moments of a climactic battle over and over and over, and the worst part was that even though he knew he couldn't afford to see each loop as fake, his treacherous mind was doing just that. Every loop he was slowing down, losing seconds, and daydreaming. Every loop he was surrendering more and more. If he let that happen when reality resumed then he would lose everything.
He was still faster than the child! He had to get there first! If the child warned Tobi of his plan in the real world, then Tobi might choose to activate the jutsu absorption field of the Rinnegan and become immune to the Kotoamatsukami.
He pushed himself to his absolute limits, blood pounding through his veins as he caught up with Sasuke and passed him.
The illusion restarted.
There just wasn't much point to this anymore.
Another twenty or so restarts had come and gone, but he had definitely passed his breaking point. He absolutely needed some downtime; a loop where he wasn't giving his all. He couldn't tell whether this decision was motivated by logic, necessity, or temptation, but this next trip through this fight he was determined to play low-key and focus on defending himself rather than grabbing the Fruit unless something happened that firmly convinced him that it was reality.
He'd died in two of the last five loops, killed once by Sasuke and once by a revived Uchiha Madara. When Madara had been ready to plunge his hand through his heart Danzou had tried to be appropriately fearful, but it was growing tougher and tougher to react properly to his own impending death. That was a very, very bad sign.
This loop restarted and he almost forgot to care. He forced his limbs to move anyway, parrying Sasuke's attack and riposting with a move the boy had probably seen a dozen times already.
Only it wasn't Sasuke at all. Ever since he had been hit with the Tsukuyomi he had stopped bothering to avoid eye-contact with the young Uchiha, but this time when he looked up he was looking directly at Itachi. Itachi's eyes flashed, and a Genjutsu washed down his spine, locking his limbs for a split-second, which was just long enough for Itachi to flicker forward and grab him by the throat.
"Danzou," said Itachi, hatred flowing like syrup through his voice. "It's been a while…" Danzou choked and gasped as the shade continued to speak. "I'm quite sure I remember warning you about what would happen if you fought my brother again."
No… it couldn't be Itachi…
"Don't… agh... don't make me laugh…" he gasped out. "If you were alive… you would have-"
"Would have what?" interrupted Itachi. "Would have tortured you myself instead of letting my brother do it? I'm afraid that the dead have their limitations…" He tilted his head slightly, examining Danzou with a dispassionate gaze. "I can, however, still help my little brother provide the... personal touch."
Danzou laughed when Itachi's grip loosened, though he found he couldn't even struggle anymore. The scenery was dissolving around them, becoming a red mist that filled the horizon. "Silence! This isn't real! You don't seriously think you can fool me with-"
Itachi's face didn't change from its empty expression as he drew a finger across Danzou's lips, erasing his entire mouth as he went. When he was through, there was just a strip of empty flesh left behind.
"I warned him again and again to stay away from you," remarked Itachi. "He was far too kindhearted to live in your world, I agree. But considering that, it's enough to make a brother proud to think that he's survived encountering you twice already. You're losing your touch."
Danzou tried to speak, but nothing came out. Finally, Itachi bent closer until he could whisper into the old man's ear. "You don't seriously think he thought all of this up without my help, do you?"
Danzou's eyes went wide as adrenaline shot through his system.
The illusion restarted.
The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted. The illusion restarted.
Once again, the fight resumed as Sasuke descended from the sky. Danzou readied his sword along with what meagre motivation he could muster. It didn't matter. This time the boy didn't even attack him. He flew past without connecting, stumbled slightly, then dashed away without engaging in combat.
Heh. Not even the owner of this illusion was immune to the mounting mental numbness.
He took a deep breath and began running. His mind was dull, but he kept fighting onward, chasing after Sasuke. The boy turned and fired a shot that clipped his arm. He stumbled to the side, grimacing in pain, and Sasuke turned back and resumed his run for the altar.
This was pathetic. Was this truly what he was reduced to? He had commanded a legion of brutal killers and now he was stumbling about, unable to beat a child.
He was getting way too old for this shit. He resumed running regardless.
By this point he was so incredibly unfocused that he completely missed the explosive seal that Sasuke had slipped underneath a piece of scattered rubble when he stumbled. The explosion went off just after Danzou had leapt away from it, knocking him through the air with bone-rattling force until he hit the ground in a rolling heap. His ears were ringing from the blast, and he looked up in a daze. The boy had turned back once more, summoning a great ball of hellfire from his lips that blasted across the gap between them. He staggered to his feet, but stumbled as his inner ear betrayed his balance. The flames burned towards him.
He really had to stop dying like this.
That was when Orochimaru dropped from the upper branches, deflecting the incoming flames with a blast of water that kicked up great clouds of steam.
Danzou watched with disinterest. Pathetic. They must have done the 'Orochimaru saves the day' scenario two dozen times already. There really wasn't anything more to add to the formula. He struggled to his feet anyway, but barely even acknowledged his ally until Orochimaru spoke.
"Danzou!" shouted the snake-man. "What are you doing?! Focus!"
More flames came scouring towards their position as Fire-Fist Ace joined the fight, targeting Orochimaru with almost single-minded fervor. This too was not all that unusual for these loops.
Then Orochimaru said the unexpected. "There's no time to waste! Get the fruit! I'll keep them busy!"
Orochimaru, it seemed, was staying behind this time. Danzou stared in incomprehension for several seconds, noting the differences between this and the previous loops in which Orochimaru had stayed with him till the end. Orochimaru was giving him the fruit. Slowly, something unfamiliar dawned inside of him.
He turned towards the altar and ran.
-Sasuke-
Leaving the Tsukuyomi and returning to the real world had gone just about as well as expected, which is to say just short of disastrous. His eye was bleeding, and his chakra drained. Even though he had put far less mental effort into administering the perfect nightmare created by the Tsukuyomi than Danzou had spent living in it, he was still exhausted, capping off a day where he had been in multiple life-or-death fights, flew in the air for far longer than he ever had before, and used the Tsukuyomi twice. He was practically too exhausted to fight, which is why he had to do this perfectly.
He had a plan: Kill Danzou one more time and take the Kotoamatsukami from his body. With its power he could conceivably force Tobi to abandon this fight and give them the Divine Fruit. It wasn't going to be easy with how drained he was, but it was a possible path to victory.
That was when Orochimaru ruined everything.
The blast of flames that should have put Danzou down for the count was blocked by a wall of water from above. Rather than waste time trying to deal with Orochimaru, Sasuke turned and bolted away from his previous location. Just seconds later, a blob of mud landed in front of him, erupting into a wall of earth that blocked his path as someone landed lightly behind him. He whirled on his opponent, barely dodging a sword stroke from an Orochimaru that the Sharingan quickly identified as a clone. Unfortunately, even a clone of the master shinobi was too dangerous to completely ignore.
By the time he had destroyed the snake-clone, Danzou was already sprinting straight towards him. The old man attacked with a ferocity he hadn't been able to muster for at least half a day's time, driving him back away from the altar, but when Sasuke readied himself for combat Danzou broke away and ran for the fruit. Sasuke cursed and ran after him, feeling the burning numbness in his legs as he began the race to the finish.
He didn't know what it was, but something about Orochimaru's sudden appearance had galvanized the old man into action. Why? This was hardly the first time he'd seen Orochimaru in this encounter, so what was so special about this?
He tossed a glance over his shoulder. The real Orochimaru was staying behind, fighting off Sakura, Hinata, Chopper and Ace with a ferocity worthy of a determined last stand. It didn't look like he was following after Danzou. No… it couldn't be... Orochimaru was giving Danzou the Divine Fruit?! Why?! He wouldn't have guessed that would happen even given a hundred years of running through that encounter, but Danzou seemed to think it wasn't unreasonable at all!
He had to warn Naruto.
"Naruto! He's coming straight for you!"
"What? He's going after Tobi?! What the hell does he think he can do about it?"
Sasuke grimaced. The plan to kill Danzou was completely ruined, but there had to be something left for them. If they told Tobi about the incoming attack, then he could block the Kotoamatsukami and kill Danzou, but then they'd all get killed when Madara was revived. If they didn't stop Danzou before he used the Kotoamatsukami then he'd force Tobi to give him the Divine Fruit and they'd all get killed anyway. The only way they survived this fight for real was by foiling both plans at the same time. Everything else was just a distraction.
It's just that… there was something he could try. He just had literally no idea if it would work or not. He had one and only one chance to stop this, and he'd have to bet everyone's lives on a wild guess based on the message that Itachi had left for him.
"No," thought Sasuke, heart hammering as his decision bore down on him. "I've got an idea. Be… be ready for anything."
He ignored his best friend's confused thoughts in response, focusing entirely on catching up to Danzou.
What Itachi had written was part of his final message, left only as a warning and nothing more: Shisui's two eyes were linked, just like any other set of Sharingan, which meant the Kotoamatsukami inside of him was linked forever to the one that Danzou possessed. The two eyes were meant to work together to channel and control that power, though they were still frighteningly effective even when separated. Could he bet on that connection?
Heat flashed through his nerves as a wave of energy seemed to burn the air inside the room. Everyone in the area froze for a moment. Elsewhere, Devil Fruit owners for thousands of miles around were filled with an anxious tension that none of them would be able to explain.
The Divine Fruit was ready.
Sasuke pushed himself faster. He had to catch up. The distance between him and Danzou was still too great, and the old man was already climbing the altar. Sasuke raised Roger's pistol and fired. The bullet grazed Danzou's leg, tripping him up and slowing him down, but he was soon enough on his feet once more. Then, finally, Danzou leapt high into the air, his eye gleaming with power as he crested the top of the altar.
Danzou laughed as the Kotoamatsukami spun into place. Tobi was now in sight.
[KOTOAMATSUKAMI]
[ENSURE THAT THE DIVINE FRUIT GOES TO DANZOU]
Sasuke arrived just an instant afterward, hitting the ground in a roll. His own Kotoamatsukami deep inside of him resonated with the one that had given the order. He could feel the spell rampaging through Tobi's brain, gathering information, overwriting what it found there.
There wasn't any time to think about the consequences of his actions. A mental command and a pulse of chakra called forth the Mangekyou from inside of him. Pain stabbed through his eyeball, and black feathers coalesced in front of his vision as if he'd summoned a dark crow into being simply by imagining it. It flapped twice, unfurling its wings before turning to gaze his way, the blood-red Kotoamatsukami looking back at him.
The bird was still connected to him. He could feel it just as strongly as if it was still in his body.
The eye was weak; fully spent as a result of its recent use against Gold Roger. Like flexing an overtaxed muscle, he could feel very clearly that it didn't have anywhere near the energy it needed to cast its spell a second time, but maybe, just maybe, it didn't have to. Danzou was providing the power. All he'd have to do… was tamper with the control.
The crow took flight, jet black wings bearing it higher into the air until it gazed upon Tobi. Sasuke pushed open the link, pouring chakra through the spent eyeball until he could feel exactly what Danzou had done.
He was out of time. The spell was almost complete. In that last instant before Tobi's mind solidified, Sasuke reached into the Kotoamatsukami's form, grabbed onto the still-solidifying order, and tore. The fabric of the spell resisted for only a moment before it snapped.
[ENSURE THAT THE DIVINE FRUIT GOES TO *&-#+X!?]
Then the spell was cast, for better or for worse.
Tobi staggered in place, falling to his knees, the Divine Fruit in his hands. He moaned and wailed like a man wracked by horrendous pain.
Danzou swiftly arrived by his side, reaching out his hand. "Quickly, Tobi! The fruit!"
Tobi looked up, utterly desolate. He looked like someone who had just lost a family member. "The… the fruit…?" He looked down, his breath coming in great heaving gasps. The glowing orb was nearly blinding, warping space around itself. He looked up again.
Abruptly, Danzou's feet left the ground. He flew up into the air, faster and faster as Tobi's Rinnegan pushed him back with unrelenting power. He screamed across the massive room until he hit the ceiling with enough force to break bones. Tobi stood up, hatred spreading across his face as he focused his power further and further, until the very stones began to crack. Then, finally Danzou fell unconscious, going limp as Tobi let him drop all the way to the ground far below. There was silence for a full five seconds before the noise of the old man hitting the floor reached them.
"No," said Tobi. "You… you can't have the fruit."
Naruto and Sasuke watched this, uncertain as to just how terrified they should be. Startling the both of them, the summoned crow that had kept the Mangekyou inside itself screeched and dove straight for Sasuke. It disappeared in a swirl of feathers, returning to whatever state that Itachi had carefully sealed it in. That, however, was far from the most important event to be happening at the moment.
"What the hell happened to him?" asked Naruto.
Sasuke watched the Akatsuki leader carefully as he collapsed to his knees once more. "That's… a good question. Danzou hit him with a Sharingan technique that rewrites your mind. He wanted to make Tobi give him the Divine Fruit so he could become a god… but I think I really screwed that up."
"Screwed it up how?"
"Sorry... I don't know exactly what happened," said Sasuke.
Ahead of them, Tobi was breathing heavily. The golden light of the fruit in his hands shone from around his body as he swayed from side to side, and Naruto looked on with concern. He stepped forward, reaching out tentatively to the man, but Ma and Pa were quick to jab him in the neck.
"Don't get near him without being ready for a fight, boy!" admonished Ma.
Naruto shook off the chastisement and stepped forward anyway. "Tobi, uhh, are you alright?"
"N… no…" mumbled Tobi. He looked despondently at the Divine Fruit in his hands, and then pressed one hand to his own face. His eyes wavered unsteadily back and forth. "I… I was supposed to… I was supposed to bring Lord Madara back to life, but… but if I do that… then he'll get the fruit… But, that would be… that wouldn't be right… I can't remember why..."
Naruto glanced in Sasuke's direction and started to speak, but Sasuke shook his head, interrupting him with a mental message.
"Keep this quiet for now. I don't know what he'll do if he decides I'm just as responsible for this as Danzou was."
Naruto murmured a quick explanation to the toads, and then responded to Sasuke. "So if we try to take the fruit from him are we gonna end up plastered to the ceiling too?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I… don't know. The Kotoamatsukami gives someone an order that they must follow no matter what, and I think I broke the order somehow."
"What?! Shit, man, that's what happened?! So what's he gonna try to do with it?"
"Uhh…" he winced. "I… I'm really not sure… I think that Tobi might be under strict orders to make sure that only a certain person gets the fruit, but the order wasn't finished, so that person was never properly defined. It's broken. He doesn't want to give it away or get rid of it."
"Can you fix this?!"
"No… I don't think anyone can."
Tobi moaned, lost in his own world of misery. "What… what am I supposed to do now…? I had a dream… didn't I? There's nothing left! I don't know what to do!"
"Couldn't we have stopped this?!" thought Naruto. "You could've warned me Danzou was gonna shoot him with that eyeball mojo, right?"
"I… I could have, yeah. But then Tobi would have summoned Madara and we'd have been killed."
He could literally feel Naruto's frustration. His friend had never made it hard to tell when he was angry, but actually feeling it in real time like it was part of his own heart was something else.
"I didn't have any other options," he thought, in self-defense. "These bastards were just too strong to beat."
"I… look, I get it, alright?" Naruto sighed. "It's just… I dunno, kinda sad. He was the bad guy here, but this was literally all he had left. Now it's just gone because of some dumb magic bullcrap." He shook his head. "Goddamnit, I wish I was smarter. I could have stopped all of this."
The toads on Naruto's shoulder shared some words with the lad that Sasuke didn't catch. He was too busy coming to grips with the uncomfortable conclusion that if he had wanted to avoid becoming like Itachi, then using the Sharingan to permanently break the mind of an opponent might not have been the best first step.
He still couldn't think of a way they could have survived without it though...
"Listen, Tobi…" began Naruto, speaking aloud to the utterly desolated man. "We need to make sure the Divine Fruit returns to the earth, okay?" He took a step forward, reaching out his hand. "Things are gonna get really crazy if we don't-"
"Stay back!" screamed Tobi. He stumbled backwards, fleeing from Naruto's outstretched hand. His eyes were wide, the Rinnegan glowing as they absorbed sage chakra from his body.
Naruto raised a hand in a placating gesture. "Whoa, it's okay man! I'm not gonna try anything, alright? You're probably, like, the most powerful person on the planet right now, so I couldn't eat that damn fruit even if I wanted to!"
"Don't forget about what the Sage of Six Paths said," thought Sasuke.
"I know," thought Naruto. "I know what I need to help Kurama and the others. I'm not gonna let them down."
"You want to take it, though!" shouted Tobi, oblivious to their inner conversation. "Everyone does! I… I…"
"Tobi, look, man… You trust me, right? I've never lied to you. We're on a quest to make sure that fruit returns to the ocean, so I just need to take it for a moment, alright? I just need one thing from it, and then-"
Tobi backed away in a hurry before leaping up onto a tree branch far above them. The Divine Fruit glowed with such intensity that his jumping motion cast shifting shadows across the room.
"STAY BACK! I can't… I can't let anyone… don't try and take it! None of you… none of you can have it!"
"We don't want it, man!" exclaimed Naruto. "Look, you can keep it the whole time and then throw it in the ocean yourself when we're done! You'll be saving the world! You'll be a hero! If you wanted to do the right thing then here's your chance!"
"NO!" He was laughing now; cackling through his tears on his knees far above them. "Ah-hahahah! I don't know what to do! I know I'm supposed to do something, but I don't know what it is! The plan just wouldn't work anymore! I had a dream, but it's gone!"
Orochimaru, looking rather harried, chose that moment to intercede once more. In his wild fight against the remaining Straw-Hat allies, he rebounded off the ceiling and descended upon Tobi. The sobbing man barely even reacted when Orochimaru buried his sword to the hilt in Tobi's chest, but he did turn slightly to look at the new assailant. Instead of defending himself, Tobi struck out with one crushing fist that launched the snake-man away to the tune of snapping bones before focusing his gaze and sending Orochimaru soaring off into the distance.
Tobi continued to laugh, tears pouring down his face.
"Heheheh… hehehe… nothing… nothing matters anymore. There's no reason for me to exist… no reason… at all..."
With those final words, Tobi collapsed to the ground and sank into the Divine Tree, his flesh slowly merging with that of the supernatural wood until he and the fruit had disappeared entirely. Elsewhere, all of the summoned Rinnegan beasts disappeared, returning to whatever horrible dimension they had been summoned from.
Then, finally, there was silence.
"I… um…" began Naruto. "Did we just win, or…?"
"We need to get the Fruit," insisted Grandpa Fukasaku. "I don't have a clue what happened there, but this ain't over until the fruit is in our hands."
"Not really sure how we're supposed to do that," mused Sasuke, scanning the branches. "The tree itself seems practically invincible."
No one present had an answer ready. Eventually, Sakura, Hinata, Chopper and Ace returned from the battlefield, and each of them shared in the good feelings of their rather confusing victories as the two doctors dealt with the more life-threatening wounds everyone had gathered. Naruto dismissed the larger toads with his thanks, given that they seemed to have mostly run out of opponents. Unfortunately, answers to their missing fruit problem still were not forthcoming.
"Um," began Chopper, "-I could try and use what I've learned about wood chakra, but I'm not really very good at it yet…"
"I don't know if that's safe," mused Sakura. "I sort of feel that only a master should be experimenting with a tree like this. Something horrible could happen to you."
They considered this for a moment before Naruto made an excited noise. "Oh! Wait! A master! Sasuke, the Sage said he had a room filled with a bunch of old tools for working with the tree in here, didn't he? Maybe one of them can help!"
Ignoring the confused murmuring coming from the others, Sasuke nodded. "I guess it's worth a shot. The Sage told you to get something different from that room as part of fixing the whole Tailed-Beast thing, right? If there aren't any better ideas then we might as well see what else is in there. We need that fruit."
Before the rest of their companions could start asking questions like, "What Sage are we talking about here?" or "Tailed-Beast thing?" they were interrupted by a great rumbling and shifting of stones. Everything around them moved slightly as some unknown force disturbed the entire temple. Off in the distance, the sound of falling rocks rapidly became audible.
Then, a titanic voice resounded through the room, echoing from everywhere and everything.
"I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" shouted the voice.
They turned this way and that, looking for the source but seeing nothing. The shaking and rumbling was increasing rapidly by the second.
"I KNEW YOU WANTED THE FRUIT FOR YOURSELVES! WELL I WON'T LET YOU HAVE IT!"
Finally, the shaking intensified enough for them to realize something horrible: it wasn't the temple itself that was moving, it was the tree that it was built upon. Branches both thin and thick were shifting lazily as some force began to exercise its control. Then, something entered Hinata's sight.
"Look!" she shouted, pointing to the far-off trunk. There, a wooden image had appeared, like a great face trapped inside the wooden surface. As they watched, its eyes opened wide, each one glowing with the same radiance displayed by the Divine Fruit. Even so, it was very clear who exactly they were looking at.
[YGGDRASIL TOBI]
[DIRGE OF THE DREAMLESS]
"Oh, no," said Naruto, jaw hanging open. "Tobi, not like this…"
"Guys," said Ace. "I'm really grateful for you saving my life and all, but… what the hell is going on here?"
When Tobi spoke again, one of the great threaded branches supporting the room tore itself free, sending chunks of the floor disappearing into the depths of sky below them. Tobi slowly opened his wooden mouth, shouting over the noise of the cacophonous rockslide.
"THE FRUIT BELONGS TO NO ONE, AND I'LL DESTROY ANYONE WHO COULD TAKE IT FROM ME! GET OUT OF MY WAY OR YOU'LL BE THE FIRST TO DIE!"
A/N: Now is when the ominous choral/orchestral Boss music would start up.