"There's no doubt the others have escaped by now," Itachi said, running along beside Sasuke.

They were still following their parents. The fact that they'd split from the other Edo-Uchiha made it an obvious distraction. But neither brother had turned away yet.

"I don't care," Sasuke said in a hard tone. "Orochimaru was never going to let us capture all of them. They would have picked off the ASF's forces one by one if you hadn't showed up."

So Sasuke had realized what was happening. It seemed at least some of his naïveté had worn off these past few years—he'd developed a sense for when he was being manipulated. Still, his temper often left him falling into it anyway.

"Will you be going after Orochimaru after we seal Mother and Father?"

"Aa," Sasuke said. "He wants to meet near Konoha. Depending on his explanation, I will continue there alone to take care of the rest of them. I can't just follow in your footsteps, nii-san." He glanced over.

As usual, Itachi kept quiet about his ambitions. Sasuke said it knowing it went against what Itachi himself wanted and believed, but he never said anything against it. He didn't express his opinion of the matter at all.

"Why did you leave me alive?" Sasuke continued in frustrated anguish. "If your decision meant everyone had to die, why was I the exception? Dying would have been easier."

"I told you. I thought you might still have a chance to live a good life," Itachi said quietly. "You didn't know anything. It would have been senseless."

"Was that all?"

Itachi gave a silent sigh. He'd committed to honesty. "…No. I was able to secure your safety by agreeing to take the mission myself. I knew it was what needed to be done for the village, but… I also wanted you to be protected."

Itachi saw Sasuke's face contort before he looked away. He was struggling.

"You knew the ones handing down that order were corrupt, but you followed it anyway. What about the village is so important that you would betray your own clan for it?"

"I can't make you see it. I can only answer your questions and hope you find some sort of resolution."

Sasuke frowned at him, but both brothers halted when they saw that their parents had stopped up ahead and were now turned to face them.

"Are they going to fight?" Sasuke wondered aloud, but his question was quickly answered when their eyes suddenly flared red.

Fugaku bent forward and a fierce stream of flame burst from his mouth. Mikoto jumped up behind him and hurled a giant windmill shuriken at them directly afterward. Sasuke and Itachi dodged away from each other. As the flame shot toward them, eagerly devouring the air, shuriken hidden in the flames spun out in many directions.

The brothers both activated their eyes to avoid the red-hot projectiles. Just then, Mikoto pulled a wire attached to the first shuriken, and it broke apart into pieces that flew behind the others in a way that made the entire thing very difficult to dodge. It was a double bluff.

Itachi skidded to a halt beside Sasuke after jumping and twisting to avoid it—a habit, though his Ego Tensei body couldn't truly be hurt by it. Sasuke had thrown the projectiles off with lightning before any could hit him.

"As expected, their combination is perfect," Sasuke said. "You can seal them, can't you?"

"Yes," Itachi said. His eyes shifted, and the ghostly red form of his Susano'o materialized into view around him. Sasuke followed suit and called his out again.

Itachi traced Fugaku and Mikoto's movements, the Sword of Totsuka at the ready. Back when he had still been alive, using the Mangekyou Sharingan so many times within the span of a few hours would have certainly left him bedridden for days. It made him all the more aware of Sasuke's undeniable potential.

Their parents' movements became easier to track using the Mangekyou, especially with the level of control imposed on them. They weren't as quick or smooth in executing their attacks as they should have been.

Capitalizing on an opening should be easy, but the memories etched into the Mangekyou were distracting. The images of his parents' faces from that night kept superimposing over the blank, uncaring ones they wore now.

Back then, no explanation had been necessary. They had known from the moment Itachi showed up in his ANBU uniform. They knew that fighting or struggling would be pointless. Instead, they decided to leave the world with dignity, staying true to what they believed.

Despite their differences, they still regarded him with love and respect.

"Nii-san! What are you doing? Pay attention!" Sasuke called out, deflecting another volley of burning shuriken.

Itachi broke himself out of the memories, trying hard to concentrate. He wouldn't have thought this would be so challenging. Compared to that night, of course, it was nothing. But the past and present were blending together too much. It was best to end this as soon as possible.

Fugaku and Mikoto were getting into position to make another combination attack. Sasuke flanked them, ready to draw their fire if necessary. He glanced back at Itachi, who nodded. He was ready.

He turned his eyes back to them, looking for that small moment of opportunity, a break in their attack. The Sword of Totsuka flared brightly and shot forward in a long thrust, timed at the exact moment when the two Edo Tensei bodies were in align. It pierced through them both, causing ash-like particles to fly through the air as they silently recoiled. Itachi bit his lip, again forcing down the memories that tried to assault him. This was far, far more difficult than he'd bargained for.

They were finally still. Their faces cracked even more, little pieces falling and dissolving into the air. Itachi walked closer, making sure his Susano'o kept a firm grip on the sword. Sasuke had stopped moving, as well—he stopped once he saw that there was no way their parents would be able to escape. His expression was unguarded.

Their parents' eyes were changing from red to black. The white indicating total control wasn't there. They were coming back to themselves as their souls were starting to lose connection with the Edo Tensei bodies.

"You did it… Itachi," Mikoto said faintly, hands clutching the glowing sword that pierced through her and her husband. "Well done, son."

"Kaa-san…" Sasuke stepped forward, dropping his own Susano'o and Sharingan. It made him look even more like his younger self.

"Sasuke. Well, look at the two of you," Mikoto said, giving him a bright, but strained smile. "There is some good in all this, after all. I'm glad I finally get to see… you boys fighting side-by-side."

Fugaku was standing behind her, and it looked like he had also regained consciousness. But he just looked at them enigmatically without commenting.

"Tou-san," Sasuke came closer and looked at him, as well. "I can't just do what you said before. I can't just forget about the clan and move on. That was what you and kaa-san gave your lives for, isn't it? You know what those Konoha bastards made Itachi do. How could I just forget about all of that?"

Fugaku gave an inaudible sigh. Just like Mikoto, his form was crumbling quickly. They wouldn't last much longer.

"It is no longer our place to tell you what you should do. You are old enough now to choose your own path. What I would have done, what your mother or Itachi would have done—that doesn't matter now. Whatever you choose, as long as you stay resolute in your beliefs… I will continue to take pride in calling you my child."

Sasuke's eyes widened. He looked like he'd been struck.

"You don't have to bear the burden of what we did for the rest of your life. Just live," Mikoto whispered, reaching out toward him. Sasuke took her hand in his, face twisted with grief.

"No, you didn't... they were the ones who…"

Sasuke's protest never fully formed. A soft glow surrounded both of his parents as an otherworldly breeze lifted the ends of their hair.

"Sasuke."

Itachi was beside him now. Sasuke's eyes widened when he turned to look at him—his brother was also starting to crumble.

"W-What's going on?" he demanded, taking one hand off his mother's so that he could face Itachi more fully. "I—I thought you would be able to stay."

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," Itachi murmured the familiar phrase he knew Sasuke always hated to hear. He started to slowly reach a cracking hand toward him. "It turns out that this is the last time. I have nothing left to do here, and it's time for me to move on, too."

Sasuke stood frozen in place as Itachi inched closer. Mikoto squeezed his hand once, before she and Fugaku faded away entirely. The shell of their images shattered and slipped free of the bodies tethering them here, debris falling down to the ground. Itachi's Susano'o faded away as well, as he too started to become unbound. Sasuke stayed unmoving through all of it, until Itachi leaned in and touched their foreheads together. Sasuke blinked.

"But you don't have to forgive me this time," Itachi said. "No matter what you choose to do from now on, I… we will always love you."

The last thread holding him broke, and Itachi's soul followed their parents. Sasuke looked up as he was leaving, visible for only a moment before the glowing, translucent form disappeared. The body left behind disintegrated.

Sasuke was left behind with the corpses and ash. He stayed standing in that spot for a long time, staring down at the remnants.

Obito stayed silent for a long moment after Naruto told him the story.

"Uchiha Itachi." Obito's eyebrows scrunched beneath his goggles. "I've seen the Clan Head's son before, but he's just a little squirt."

"It's him," Naruto said seriously. "You and me come from different times. So if he's a little kid how you remember him, that means the you in this time is probably a lot older than the me from this time."

"Damn." Obito crossed his arms with a frown. "You don't seem like a liar, but all this is really hard to believe. How am I supposed to know for sure?"

"Maybe, if we could figure out where the older you is—" Naruto began excitedly, but stopped himself when he realized once again where they were. His shoulders slumped. "But we're stuck in here, and I doubt our older selves know where we are."

"Have you seen your older self?" Obito asked him skeptically.

"Yeah. And I bet I can find a way to let him know I'm still here!"

Obito watched as Naruto sat down on his bed with his legs crossed, getting into a meditative stance. "Hah? What are you doing?"

"The older me can sense people from a long way off, so I think I might be able to contact him," Naruto explained determinedly. He closed his eyes and started concentrating.

Obito gave an unimpressed hum. "Well, good luck with that." He went over to the door, probably trying to come up with his own escape scheme. He stood up on tip-toes, trying to peer through the slot in the door.

Naruto was a little irked by Obito's obvious doubt, but he wasn't going to let it ruin his concentration. He stubbornly continued meditating, ignoring the other boy's continued mutterings. Even if Obito hadn't fully accepted that they were in the future, Naruto knew that was the only explanation.

That meant Orochimaru had brought him back somehow, and that meant getting back home for good was going to be harder than they'd thought. He hoped the old toad was able to find Jiraiya and convince him to come back home.

The process of looking inward went a little more quickly this time. Naruto was in the room with the tall barred gate. He looked up and saw a gigantic pair of red eyes looking down at him.

"Kyuubi! You're awake!" he cried, stepping forward. "Are you alright? You looked almost dead the last time I saw you!"

The great fox narrowed his eyes and leaned down to get closer to Naruto's level. "I started to wake up right after Orochimaru placed this seal. But it is still in effect, even now that we've been summoned into a different body. That seal came back with us to the past."

"What?" Naruto gasped. The fox's voice was muffled and distorted, and now that he was paying attention, Naruto could see a slight haze covering the bars. The barrier was, as he said, still there. "I guess my original seal has traveled with me this whole time, so it's the same thing… but you said we're in a new body now, so does that mean we've really been brought back?"

"Aa. But this vessel feels more stable than the last one. Orochimaru is probably keeping the seal on here to stop you from using my power to escape. Never mind that, though. This jutsu," he pointed a long claw at Naruto. "Once you left this world, it should have been impossible for him to call back this exact version of yourself from among all the infinite possibilities. You were tricked. The tag he gave you was to attach part of himself to you, so that there would always be an anchor to find you again. Once he tested it, and was sure it would work, he had no reason to stop you from going home. Maybe, that was even what he wanted."

Naruto's mouth fell open and he took a couple of steps back. Legs weakening, he sat down on the ground abruptly with a small splash.

"No way…"

He thought, for once, they had won. They'd finally gotten themselves one step ahead of Orochimaru and sent him home.

And yet—he'd unwittingly told Orochimaru they were about to send him back, and the snake hadn't done anything to stop it. He didn't even try. All he did was talk about this new body, about a transfer. And there was only one way to do that, wasn't there?

"I had to go back home, in order to be summoned all over again into the new body," Naruto whispered, eyes wide with realization. "But he couldn't send me back himself, because he had no way to control Nagato. We did exactly what he wanted us to do."

"I am impressed; it seems you understand," the Kyuubi growled. "You learn pretty quickly, for a human brat."

Naruto kept staring down at the floor. He'd only figured out that much because it was just like everything else that had happened up until now—the way they always seemed to play right into the snake's hands. It felt like his brain was stuck, reeling from the fact that they'd all missed it. If Orochimaru had been serious about capturing him, wouldn't he have just shown up himself to do it?

Instead he sent a fake, and did just enough to make sure they sent Naruto back as soon as possible.

The whole time Naruto was trying to grapple with this new information, the fox continued to study him.

"So you understand what else this means, don't you, Naruto?" the fox lowered his claw until it scratched against the translucent surface of the barrier. "We have to find a way out of this ourselves. Stand up. I'm going to tell you some of what I know."

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at the fox, looking back at him. He slowly got to his feet. "What do you mean?"

"Just listen. The one good thing about this situation is this body is more stable. That gives us more time to figure out a plan without worrying. Second, we are still connected very faintly to your body in the past. It's a good thing, too, or you'd have ended up in a coffin by now instead of a hospital bed. So all we really have to worry about is how long your real body can hold out. Luckily, you have that Slug Princess on your side."

"Wait, if you can still feel the connection with my real body… does that mean you can find out what's happening there right now? Could you possess me enough to listen or talk to someone?" Naruto asked eagerly.

But the fox was already shaking his head before Naruto even finished speaking. "It's nothing but residual energy. You and I are bound to this time by the Summoning Contract. Someone might be able to undo it from that end if they figured out what it was, but I doubt that will happen. No one knows about this jutsu."

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration. Wasn't there anything else? "Okay, if we can't contact anyone in the past, what about in this time? Your other self should be able to sense you, right?"

"I can't sense him," the Kyuubi said, and his many tails started writhing around in the darkness slowly, catching Naruto's eye. "Orochimaru's seal might have something to do with that… and he has probably put a barrier around this place, as well. Although, that passage is still there. I just can't feel anything from it." One long, sharp claw pointed over Naruto's head.

He turned around to look, and saw the outline of a gaping, dark entrance to a hall he never noticed before.

"What is that?" Naruto looked quickly from the entrance back to the fox. "Has that always been there?"

"That is the passage Itachi used to talk to your older self when we were in Ame. But I doubt that would work now."

"Have you got any better ideas?"

"Try it, if you want. Who knows, maybe Orochimaru overlooked something. But no matter what, we need to escape from wherever he's holding us right now."

"That goes without saying!" Naruto punched a hand with his fist determinedly. "Me and Obito will find a way out of here, no problem!"

He could have sworn the Kyuubi made a disgusted face.

"Use that boy to help you if necessary, but ditch him if it comes down to it. I don't like him, and on top of that, he's an Uchiha."

"So what? I'm sure he wants to get back to his time just as much as I do. If he learns enough about what happened, maybe he can stop the Uchiha from dying in his timeline. I want to help him."

"As for undoing the jutsu this time around," the Kyuubi continued, completely ignoring him, "We'll have to kill Orochimaru or force him to undo it, making sure he removes the anchor first. But that's impossible for you without my help, so concentrate on escaping for now."

"Sure, sure. I was planning on doing that, anyway," Naruto had already turned to walk toward the dark hallway, and he waved a hand carelessly back toward the fox. All he got in return was a low growl.

Naruto walked resolutely toward the back of the room, where the light grew more and more dim. As he walked, everything gradually became silent. He couldn't even hear the breathing and shifting movements of gigantic creature behind him, beyond the barrier and the barred gate. Naruto tried squinting into the darkness when he reached the entrance to the hallway, but it did no good. He couldn't hear or feel anything coming from there, either. The only way to know for sure was to check it out.

Naruto kept his hand on the wall as he walked. Since it was pointless trying to see, he closed his eyes and tried extending his senses out, the way the old Toad Sage taught him. But he couldn't really feel anything, either. It was as if he'd stepped into a completely blank void.

He walked for what felt like several minutes with no change whatsoever. But then, there was something small… no more than an impression, a feeling that something was different. Naruto stopped walking and slowly opened his eyes.

He couldn't see it, but there was definitely something in front of him right now. He reached out and felt thick metal wires woven together, sort of like… no, exactly like an ordinary chain-link fence. It was weird to find something so normal in a place like this, but Naruto guessed this must be the 'barrier' that the Kyuubi had talked about.

"Aniki!" he called, looping his fingers through the links. His voice echoed, but that was all he heard. There was no answer. "Heyyyyy!" Naruto put his other hand through and tried shaking the fence, but it didn't bend or budge like a normal fence at all. "What the hell is this, anyway? Aniki! Other-Kyuubi! Can you hear me? Oiiiii!"

Muttering to himself when nothing happened, Naruto wondered if it would be possible to climb over the fence. Probably not, but it could be worth a try? He started banging his fists on the fence. "Hey, damn it! Why won't anything—"

Naruto slammed his fists with an extra burst of strength, and the place where it impacted created a sudden flash of white light. It was silent and without heat, but Naruto felt a shockwave of energy that knocked him backwards, completely off his feet.

He fell hard onto the cold concrete floor. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was back in the real world, in the room where Orochimaru was holding them.

"I dare you to say that to my face, you creepy-eyed bastard!" he heard Obito shouting.

"Why can't you just stay quiet for once?"

Naruto sat up to see someone peering through the slot in the door from the outside. A pair of green eyes with black sclera—one of Orochimaru's Edo Tensei summons!

Naruto climbed to his feet. The person at the door glanced at him briefly before turning their attention back to Obito.

"I told you to be patient. Orochimaru-sama is only holding you here for the time being. You will be released when he is ready for you to be."

"And how are we supposed to believe that?" Naruto said, chiming in beside Obito as he walked toward the door. The two of them had just met, but they were already on the same page when it came to staying in this cell. They weren't going to wait around quietly for whatever Orochimaru had planned.

"It doesn't matter what you believe. If you wait, you'll see soon enough. It appears you are as impatient as ever, Naruto," the guard said.

"Uh… do I know you?" Naruto asked with a frown, side-stepping away from Obito, who was looking around at the edges of the door.

"In this timeline, yes." The young man's placid voice and what little Naruto could see of his face wasn't familiar at all. "We met right around the age you are now, as a matter of fact. When I was still alive, I worked for Orochimaru-sama. And now that I have been resurrected, I can continue to help him, without any of the physical shortcomings I had in life. A low-level Katon jutsu will not be enough to melt through this door," he added, eyes flickering back to Obito.

Obito clearly didn't care. He finished a sequence of hand signs and took a step back, chest expanding as he took a deep breath. Naruto stepped even further out of the way as the guard's face moved away from the little window and out of sight.

With any luck, this could create an opening. Naruto summoned a bunshin.

Obito blasted a long stream of fire at the door, hitting the center of it at first, making flames shoot out of the slot and into the space beyond. He didn't let up in just a few seconds, either. He drew out the assault as long as he could, moving from the middle to all around the edges, searing the metal.

Like the guard said, it didn't seem to be melting. But maybe, if it could be weakened enough…

Naruto held out his hand to the waiting bunshin. Using his chakra felt slightly slippery, just like the first time he'd come here, but it was barely noticeable. His body was practically buzzing with energy. Was this what the Kyuubi had meant by a more stable vessel?

Pouring more and more chakra into it, Naruto tried to make the Rasengan as dense and tightly wound as he possibly could. There was always a limit where he couldn't keep the rapidly spinning energy together anymore, and this time he stretched that limit as far as possible, concentrating hard on his chakra control like the Toad Sage had taught him. The Rasengan was growing increasingly large and heavy in his grip, and the bunshin kept both hands around it to contain it.

The stream of flame slowly dwindled and died out, and Naruto was half a step behind when it did. Obito stepped back, panting and holding the back of his hand to his seared lips, while Naruto and his bunshin dived forward with a battle cry. He shoved the dense ball of energy into the door as hard as he could, forcing himself to hold strong and not let it unravel away. The door buckled with a piercing whine, folding out to create a gap at the top large enough to crawl through.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted back at Obito. He climbed onto his bunshin's cupped hands to get a clear boost up and through the opening.

Obito didn't waste any time taking his advice. He ran at the bunshin and let it boost him up, too, but his goggles were fogged and that threw off his balance for just a second. He instinctively braced his hands against the metal, and cried out in pain when the red-hot surface seared his skin.

"Are you okay?" the real Naruto pulled him the rest of the way through from the outside, yanking at his sleeves. They both tumbled to the ground when Obito fell out clumsily.

"Forget it, we have to move!" Obito tried to growl out, though his voice was higher pitched than normal from the pain. He shoved against Naruto as he got to his feet, disentangling them.

Naruto glanced back quickly at the destroyed door hanging halfway into the hall. Their guard was still there, standing further back, watching them.

Naruto didn't waste time looking for long, though. He and Obito made a run for it in the opposite direction.

"Your wounds should heal up quickly," Naruto said as they sprinted down the dim, gloomy hall with no sense of direction whatsoever. "Orochimaru summoned us into these fake bodies. They might look like us, but they're not. They are these plant-clone things with incredible healing powers."

Obito rubbed his goggles with a sleeve and then looked down at his hands, watching the burned flesh and skin heal right before his eyes. He touched his lips and found that they were completely healed, too.

"If that's the case, we can fight without holding back! I don't care what happens to a fake body." Obito looked over at Naruto. "So, you've been here longer, right? Where are we going?"

"I didn't mean in this place exactly, just the future. But we're bound to end up somewhere if we just keep going, right?" Naruto said, stressed.

"Works for me." Obito gave a wild grin.

They had no plan, and no idea of where they were going. But it was too late to worry about that now. The only way out was to keep charging ahead.