Full Disclosure

"I don't think I need to tell you this, but you're going to have to fight Takami without looking directly at him," Sasuke informed as they ran, weaving around the other battles around them. "I can cancel out most genjutsu, but that protection isn't extended immediately to others, meaning if you get caught in one, I'll have to stop to break you out of it. Find something on him to keep your eyes on and don't lose sight of it no matter what."

"Yeah, I know," Naruto told him grimly, then looked over at him. Sasuke's running right now was slightly off due to the unbalance of losing the arm. Their 'run' was only slightly faster than a jog as he knew the Uchiha was still trying to recover from the damage. In concerned curiosity, he asked, "…What exactly happened when you fought him?"

When Sasuke's eyes hardened, he regretted asking but Sasuke responded with "He can form a Kamui. Instead of pushing Takami into my time-space dimension, the Kamui ate it…and my arm." Sasuke glanced at the ragged, flapping sleeve and then quickly looked away.

They fell quiet afterwards but Naruto didn't want to leave things like that. After a moment, he gave the only answer he could think of. "I'm sorry for not being there."

Sasuke shook his head, picking up the pace with his balance already becoming better. "Not your fault. It's over now, so forget it."

Naruto opened his mouth to comment back but stopped himself. What good would it do right now? This physical change of Sasuke was just too new and pithy words weren't going to remedy the situation. He could sense Sasuke's shame and frustration and he didn't want to press into such a fresh wound, so to speak. He let the issue go and focused on keeping a steady pace that would let his lover keep up.

Their running again brought them to the edge of the fighting field but Naruto slowed down when he saw a lone figure kneeling, assembling multiple jutsu scrolls. Cautiously advancing forward, he saw that the person was…Orochimaru? What was he doing here? He was about to walk over towards him when Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

"He's erected a seal around himself," Sasuke pointed out, showing a large circle of symbols that surrounded Orochimaru on the ground, helping to keep the man safe while he worked.

Orochimaru smiled, having noticed them before they had seen him. However, his smile faltered when he saw Sasuke's condition up close. Deep anguish marred his features and he pressed his lips into a line. "I see you won't be leaving all of this unscathed. Had I known the battle would be that difficult, I would've—"

"I don't need apologies. If you want to help me, give me a weapon," his former student demanded. "I lost my blade in the Kamui that took my arm."

"Forever impatient, I see," Orochimaru sighed but obediently tilted his head far back. Using one hand, he reached down his throat and began to pull at something. Naruto winced in watching him as Orochimaru flinched at what must've been a painful process. From his mouth he pulled out a new sword, identical to the previous one, coughing violently once it was out his mouth. After the fit had passed, he ran a glowing hand down the sword, seeming to purify it before tossing it towards Sasuke.

The Uchiha easily caught it in his right hand. After inspecting the sword's sharpness, Sasuke gave a few practice swings with the blade, cutting through the air in precise, powerful strikes. Satisfied, he sheathed the sword behind him in his belt and gave an appreciative nod to Orochimaru. "I'll be going then," he told him by way of parting words.

"Wait!" Orochimaru stopped him and stepped outside of the protective circle on the ground. Coming closer to Sasuke, he looked into his activated eyes without fear, his concerned face perhaps a mirror of Naruto's own. "You said Takami used a Kamui…can't that only be used with a Sharingan? Don't tell me he has one—"

"I'll be fine," Sasuke cut him off and Naruto saw the boy begin to bristle.

Orochimaru looked Sasuke over more critically as though saying that Sasuke already clearly wasn't fine. Naruto remembered doing the very same thing for each time Sasuke had tried to push him away when he was injured or sick and bit his lip to keep from smiling.

Knowing when to back off from pressing Sasuke, Orochimaru instead handed to each of them a soft medicine pouch. "This will help you to restore chakra. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix for actually healing wounds aside from someone with medical chakra so try not to get too banged up out there, please," he cautioned with bemusement. Then the humor left his eyes and he shifted his attention to Naruto. "Look after him for me, will you? No matter what he says."

There was much more in that gaze, so many pleas. Beside him, he saw Sasuke grit his teeth, but neither of them looked at him. With the same seriousness, Naruto gave his pledge: "I will."

Sasuke began to walk off, criticizing how everyone should just mind their own business but Orochimaru was clearly unfazed by the remark, offering a "What can you do?" head tilt and a shrug. Naruto gave a wave to the mentor and ran to catch up with Sasuke.

They continued making their way far from the others until they reached the location where they'd last fought Takami. As though simply waiting to join up with friends, he was there, sitting on the ground cross-legged. One hand was pressed to his right eye but he smiled when he saw them. Naruto decided he'd focus his attention on his mouth to keep from looking directly into his eyes and would use Kurama to help with the peripherals.

"I figured you'd be back though kudos to the medic who was able to reattach your eye, Sasuke," he commended. "Likely, you two have questions about my own, am I correct?" He pulled himself up easily, hinting at his fit form hidden under the robe. He removed his hand and through Kurama, Naruto again saw the magenta eye in place of neither red nor purple though it still had the Rinnegan's rings and icons. "So, ask away," Takami said with a gesture that said the floor was theirs.

"Danzo," Sasuke said automatically.

"Who? Oh…Danzo Shimura," Takami said slowly, bringing the man's image to mind. "No, I had no connection with him, though I heard he had amassed a large collection of Sharingan before he died. I find that rather distasteful, though I suppose at this time, he and I probably aren't too different at first glance. He wanted the Sharingan to obtain power in your village; I'm using it to defeat unnecessary kekkei genkai to avoid a power-imbalance for shinobi but I've been labeled as being power hungry regardless."

Naruto ignored the obvious bait and went with another guess. "Someone sold it to you. Honestly, it doesn't matter, we'll still destroy it!"

Takami turned his attention directly at him and it was all Naruto could do to ensure he kept his own gaze lowered. "Oh? I don't think I would recommend that. Once I'm done with these eyes, I'd like to cancel out their powers and return them to their owners."

Owners of a Sharingan and Rinnegan? Naruto jerked his head at Sasuke but Sasuke was already ahead of him. "I don't have anyone from my clan left, nobody owns a Sharingan except for me!"

"You think I don't know about Kakashi?" Takami asked mildly, as though inquiring to them on if they thought he was stupid. "He still owns one."

Naruto knew why Sasuke hadn't mentioned their teacher, wanting to leave Kakashi out of all of this. Caught, the Uchiha glared at him and waited.

"This said," Takami added, looking away from both of them and making Naruto let out a breath, "These eyes don't belong to him either. Or, maybe they do? I did obtain them from his children, after all."

There was a pull at Naruto's stomach and with no regard to being put under a genjutsu, he openly stared at Takami. He could feel a similar stillness from Sasuke, both frozen to the spot.

The sun temporarily went behind a cloud, casting Takami's face in shadow, highlighting lines and edges of a haggard expression. "I'm not exactly proud of it, but after we'd captured Sasuke, I wanted to quickly eradicate any other possible Sharingan and theirs was the easiest. So, we attacked the Leaf village. Like a proper shinobi, Kakashi went to defend the citizens…which left his chunin-ranked husband home alone."

And I wasn't there because I was on the mission to find Sasuke! Naruto snapped at himself furiously. It wasn't until his communication with Tsunade at the Union headquarters that he'd found out about the attack.

"I had hoped I could leave at least one of the children unscathed but upon entering their room, I felt the presence of strong chakra from both of them, each having a single eye that could potentially become powerful. I removed the eyes as gently as I could and submitted a replacement. Leaving the house before I could be spotted, I considered simply destroying the eyes…but I had an inkling that such power might be needed for you, Sasuke."

"You took the eyes of babies?" Sasuke spat, a layer of purple chakra beginning to circle him. "You're absolutely sick!"

Takami shook his head of long hair, then put a hand back to his face. "It brings me no pride to have done what I did, but it was necessary. Their eyes, so new, likely would've rendered me blind if I had switched them for both of mine. Instead, I used my medical ninjutsu to put both into the same socket. The powers didn't develop immediately but once they did, my right side became as you see it now, two conjoined pupils. I received the Sharingan from the boy and the ability to further it into a Rinnegan came from the girl."

Isao…Kaiya…Naruto lamented, gritting to hold back tears as he thought of their faces. To keep from doing something irrational, he instead asked a question of his own. "How have you been tracking us? How did you know we were in the Land of Snow?"

Takami removed the hand from his face, straightening up. "We hacked the Hokage's phone line. That alone would've failed, in truth, had she not gotten desperate to find you two and subsequently tapped Kakashi's phone. When you called him from your location, both her team and mine also received that information."

"Damnit, Tsunade!" Sasuke muttered but Naruto touched his shoulder briefly and shook his head. It was in the past and getting angry about it now would be pointless.

Right now, they had the information they needed with Naruto adding two more reasons to kill Takami. To show he was ready, he held up the basic two-fingered pose which started most jutsu, but held it out to his side on his left hand. Sasuke glanced at him for a fraction of a second, then did a double-take and broke into a dark grin. He used the fingers of his right hand to wrap around Naruto's, forming the universal shinobi symbol of a bond.

Together they ran forward, their joined hands continuing to weave signs so that as one, they would make the first move.

In chapter 3, I had Kakashi wonder if his Sharingan could be passed down to his children biologically considering he wasn't born with it. It wasn't until sometime later that I found out that Obito actually took the Sharingan back with him when he died. I had already devised that Takami would take the Sharingan and Rinnegan of Kakashi's children but I wasn't aware I was breaking canon of Kakashi not even having a Sharingan to pass down until quite some time after that chapter was posted. Forgive me, but…I wasn't willing to completely change the story just to make that plot fit with the original events. I've not mentioned his Sharingin much though because I wanted Sasuke's to be the main focus.

Also completely random, but I find it a bit funny the way the Uchiha swap eyes like it's nothing. Madara took the eyes of Izuna, his youngest brother; then Obito gifts an eye to Kakashi; Shisui plucks out his remaining eye and gives it to Itachi and somehow, Madara was able to give the Rinnegan to Nagato, even if he didn't exactly give him his eyes. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving!

Anyways, questions, comments or concerns about any of this are certainly welcome.