Author's note at end of chapter.

beta: Icescim

The Philosophy of Self

Chapter Sixteen

For the briefest of moments, Sakura found herself eye-to-eye with the pin-wheeled, crimson gaze of the Sharingan. Then, suddenly, Itachi was gone and she was left blinking. And then she realized he'd disappeared in the direction of Naruto, who was still battling a large group of Zetsu clones.

'Naruto!' She shunshin'd after Itachi, worry pricking her.

Itachi was perched on a tree branch, observing the flow of Naruto's battle with narrowed, calculating eyes. There were eight Zetsu clones left, and it didn't seem like more were being sent as reinforcements.

Sakura landed nearby, just as Itachi's hands moved. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu."

He spat flames at the enemy clones, leaping into the fray himself before they impacted.

Sakura stayed behind, seeing immediately that with Itachi's presence in the fight the speed of the battle picked up substantially. She wasn't sure she would be able to keep up. So instead she watched carefully, ready to join in if it looked like her help was needed, though she doubted it would be. Itachi's chakra had been sealed up to this point, which only meant that he hadn't been able to use it, not that it didn't exist. His reserves were untouched; he was at full power.

The Sharingan really was an impressive kekkei genkai, Sakura thought as she watched Itachi slaughter the remaining Zetsus. After a moment, Naruto joined her on her branch. He wiped sweat from his forehead and grinned at her.

"Look at that! He's really fast; I was just getting in the way down there," he said, apparently unconcerned by the fact that Itachi had his chakra back.

"I'm surprised you recognized that," Sakura said dryly. "I'm even more surprised that you got out of the way."

"Hey," Naruto said, pouting. Sakura smirked at him a little, lightly teasing. Her eyes drifted back to watch Itachi.

The Uchiha was dodging one of the two remaining Zetsu's lashing arms, parrying every once and awhile with his only kunai, which Sakura suspected he'd salvaged from the battlefield at some point. She watched as he chipped away at the clone's wooden body, his movements fluid and easy. His grace made her jealous. She knew she was graceful in her own way—all ninja had a certain grace about them—but she knew just as well that there was something in Itachi's motions that was absent from hers… from most people's. Kakashi had a bit of it, but only when he dropped his lazy façade.

She didn't think it was something as trite as 'experience'. It was something else.

Whatever it was was going to have to wait, however, because Sakura's attention was captured wholly when the last Zetsu clone started to talk to Itachi.

"He's not going to welcome you back with open arms, Sasuke-kun," the clone said with a note of mocking in his light voice. The clone's eyes flicked toward Team Seven. "Especially not since you've started consorting with such rabble."

"Hn," Itachi said, in a perfect imitation of Sasuke's casual scorn. Sakura's heart clenched.

Zetsu tsked. "After everything he's done for you…"

"He hasn't done anything I couldn't have done myself," Itachi retorted, still with Sasuke's mannerisms.

:He must not want them to know he's Itachi,: Sakura thought. Maybe Itachi thought the confusion would be to his advantage.

"Oh?" Zetsu mocked. "How would you have found out the truth behind your brother?"

Itachi's eyes narrowed dangerously. Then he blurred, and was gone, and then Zetsu's head arced through the air, separated from his shoulders by a powerful, chakra-augmented kunai slice. Itachi dodged the twitching body as it fell, his grim red eyes watching as the last enemy died. He wiped the kunai on his pant leg, poked a finger through the hilt loop, and formed a handseal.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu." The pieces of the wood clone burst into flame as the fireball struck them. Probably a wise move, considering how the body was still twitching and jerking.

"Hmm," Kakashi's voice hummed next to Sakura's ear. She startled a little, having not sensed the older ninja beside her. She glared at him, but he ignored it. He jumped down to Itachi.

"That was the last of them," Kakashi said calmly. Itachi nodded vaguely, and made a motion as if he were going to place the kunai in his hand into a pouch at his thigh. Midway through, he seemed to realize that he wasn't wearing any ninja gear at all, and the hand and the weapon just hung limply at his side. The Sharingan faded from his eyes.

Sakura and Naruto jumped down to join them. "Is anyone injured?" Sakura asked.

"Naw," Naruto said. Which was technically a lie, since Sakura could see some gashes on him, but those were closing up even as she watched, so it was true enough in terms of Sakura not needing to heal him.

"Just some scratches and bruises," Kakashi said, eye curving in a smile. Sakura eyed him warily, well acquainted with her sensei's habit of downplaying wounds. But he seemed well enough.

"Cracked rib," Itachi said, when her gaze flicked to him. "Left side, maybe the third or fourth."

She nodded and gingerly felt the whole left side of his rib cage gently. "It was the third," she said, and switched her gentle probing touch to a full palm splayed across the area. Her hand was haloed in the glow of chakra. He was very still beneath her touch.

"Where the heck did those things come from?" Naruto asked.

"You may have seen Zetsu before," Itachi replied. "He is with Akatsuki, the white-and-black man with the Venus flytrap cowl. His halves can separate; these were clones of his white side."

Sakura could feel the reverberations of his voice in his chest; that realization made her suddenly very aware of how she could feel his heart beating beneath her hand. The awareness made her own pulse speed up, and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

If someone had told her a few weeks ago that she would be feeling Uchiha Itachi's heart beat, she would have assumed that they meant after she'd ripped the organ from his body with her bare hands. The juxtaposition of that thought against the reality—she was gently touching him, knitting the bone of his ribs together with soothing healing chakra—was weird. And beside that, the surrealism of being so close to someone as to feel their heartbeat… and to be a ninja, someone with the knowledge of a hundred different ways to stop that heart… Most if the time, Sakura never really thought about it. Now, healing someone who had not too long ago been a dangerous enemy, she couldn't help but think of how easy it would be to stop the heart beneath her palm.

Sakura fought back a shiver. Itachi seemed unaware of the threat; he was not even paying attention to her as she healed him. The trust it displayed was staggering.

She soothed her chakra along the healed bone, and let the energy trickle into the tissues surrounding the area, bringing down the inflammation caused by the break. She felt Itachi's heart flutter in reaction. Maybe he wasn't so trusting as all that. She ignored it, and kept healing; she was nearly done.

"That means what? That we're close to an Akatsuki hideout?" Naruto was saying presently.

"No. There is no Akatsuki hideout in this area," Itachi said. "Just the Uchiha stronghold we were heading to. But Zetsu is directly subordinate to Madara; if he is here, then it is because Madara sent him, or Madara is here himself."

"Shouldn't we be hurrying then?" Sakura asked, finished with the healing. Her hands dropped away from Itachi's side. "Madara might get away, if he's here."

Itachi shook his head. "No. Madara has plans for me… for Sasuke—" he amended "—I don't think he would run."

"Plans?" Kakashi questioned.

"Zetsu implied that Madara told Sasuke about me, about the truth of the Massacre. I can only assume he did so intending to use the truth to manipulate Sasuke somehow. Probably to turn Sasuke against Konoha," Itachi mused aloud. "It had always been one of Madara's goals to destroy the Village which had destroyed him. And manipulating Sasuke—someone who had bonds to Konoha, who had people in the Village who cared about him—to help him in that goal would appeal to Madara's twisted humor."

"What if…?" Sakura said absently, then stopped and hesitated, as she realized what she'd been about to say.

"What if what?" Kakashi prompted softly. Sakura licked her lips, eyes flicking between Itachi and Naruto before dropping to the ground.

"What if Madara's telling Sasuke the truth is connected with your… your being alive?" she said, nearly whispering. "What if Sasuke killed you, learned the truth, and then tried to revive you?"

"That is possible," Kakashi said, as a muscle in Itachi's jaw jumped. "Sasuke apprenticed to Orochimaru, and the Snake Sannin was obsessed with eternal life. It's possible that Sasuke learned a forbidden jutsu for resurrection during his time with Orochimaru."

"But then… what happened to Sasuke?" Naruto asked, sounding worried.

Itachi's eyes were dark, his expression grim. "Let us continue on."

I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough.

Itachi felt the memory of the words crashing against him with every beat of his heart, but he was far from understanding them. He may have remembered who he was and what he had done in his life, but this little snippet of words could not be placed.

Whatever it was, it made his throat tighten as if with unshed tears.

The phrase repeated in his mind, over and over. He couldn't seem to let it go. Not even the simple pleasure of feeling his chakra singing through his body again could distract him.

They ran toward what had been their original destination, another old Uchiha stronghold that Itachi had recalled from an ages-ago map lesson. Aomaru had pointed them in this direction, and if Itachi knew anything about Madara it was that the man liked to claim anything related to the Uchiha Clan as his own, regardless of his exiled status. He would have used the stronghold as his base; it was his style.

They had only been traveling a short time when Kakashi paused almost imperceptibly. Itachi glanced at him. "What is it?"

"I recognize this area," the Copy Ninja said, loud enough that they could all hear him. "This is where we found you. Or near to it."

Itachi glanced around, but he couldn't recognize anything. Of course, he had been sick and delirious and disoriented when they'd found him…

"Oh," Sakura said, surprised, "it is."

"That means the base we're heading to… it's where I woke up," Itachi murmured. He didn't have to elaborate on the implications. If Sasuke had been involved in Itachi's resurrection, then perhaps they'd find him there…

They put on a burst of speed, rushing by unspoken agreement to the base. As they got close enough, Itachi noticed something. "There is only one chakra signature nearby. It's not Sasuke." He paused, then added, "It's not Madara either. Zetsu."

"If Zetsu knows who Madara is, then do other Akatsuki members?" Kakashi asked.

"No," Itachi replied. "Most of Akatsuki believed Pein to be our leader, and Tobi to be a simple, if strong, shinobi. I knew because of my previous interactions with Madara. Pein and Konan knew, of course; they took their orders from him. And Zetsu has always been his lackey."

"They are the only ones left alive, now," Sakura said. "The ones who knew the truth of Madara."

"He is planning something," Itachi agreed. "And they are likely some part of it. It is good you have diminished their numbers; it gives him less pawns to play his game."

"You think they're just pawns?" Naruto asked, sounding appalled at the idea.

"It is the way Madara operates," Itachi said. "I was his pawn once. Or, he thought I was."

"The more I hear about this guy the more I want to punch his stomach through his spine," Sakura muttered under her breath. By virtue of his sharp senses, Itachi heard her.

"I will endeavor to give you the opportunity," he told her, with grim, dry humor.

"Good," she said at a normal volume, unashamed at being overheard. "If you're right, then he was trying to play around with Sasuke like ones of his pawns."

"Yes," Itachi said. "Madara has a lot to answer for."

They'd reached the stronghold by that point, and stopped at the thick outer wall. Itachi stared at the square gray structure with narrowed eyes. "There's a door on the east wall," he said, gesturing to their right.

"I think there's a door right… here," Sakura disagreed, stepping forward as she cracked her knuckles. She punctuated her last two words with a wind-up and a powerful punch. The wall crumbled under the onslaught of her monstrous strength. A hole large enough for all of them to pass through side-by-side gaped in front of them when the dust settled.

"Subtle," Kakashi said wryly.

"Zetsu knew we were coming," Sakura retorted.

"Then let's not keep him waiting," Itachi said, leading the way through the hole. They found themselves in a long corridor with no doors on either side, at least as far as they could see in both directions. Itachi turned down the left way. "He's over here. In the upper level."

"This place is creepy," Naruto muttered, as they walked down the still, quiet hallway. The way was lit only by dimly glowing stones in the walls, which gave everything a green-blue cast.

"There's a door," Sakura exclaimed after a moment, pointing. There was indeed a door, shut, set into the wall a few meters up ahead. They approached it warily. A closed door could hide anything, but as they stood outside it, Itachi got a bad feeling that he knew what was beyond it.

"Should we open it?" Naruto asked in a hushed voice.

"Yes. There's nothing dangerous behind it," Itachi said. Kakashi shot him a glance, but didn't protest as Itachi reached forward to push the door open.

"Ugh! What the hell?" Naruto exclaimed, recoiling. The room beyond the door was bright with stark white light, shining upon white tile and silver metal tables. The air was stale and smelled faintly of burnt meat, with undertones of something sharp and almost medicinal.

Jerkily, like a puppet, Itachi moved forward, toward a table about in the center of the room. It was the only one not shining and silver. This one had something on it.

"Oh," Sakura said, sounding disgusted and horrified, "merciful Kannon…"

The table was charred, streaked with soot. The body on it hadn't burned completely, not like cremation or a funeral pyre, which left only bones. Any clothes it had been wearing were certainly ash, but the rest of the body was more or less intact. It was a patchwork of blackened flesh, angry red burns, and pale blisters. Bits of bones showed through where skin and tissue had burned away.

It looked like someone had Katon'd the body point-blank.

Staring at the body, Itachi knew exactly who. And imagined he knew why.

"This was done post-mortem," Sakura said, looking at the corpse clinically.

"How do you know?" Naruto demanded, aghast.

"Even someone unconscious or under genjutsu would react to being set on fire," Sakura said. "But this body… there's no sign of struggle or anything. It just laid there and burned."

There was a puddle of dried vomit on the floor near the table. Itachi let his eyes trace from it, to the corpse's bone toes, to the sunken chest. His eyes snagged a moment on the bit of metal, once polished and now black with greasy soot, around the body's neck.

"Happy birthday, Itachi-kun! I know guys don't really wear jewelry, but I think you could pull it off. Besides, look! It's supposed to symbolize the three tomoe of the Sharingan."

He felt himself pale as his gaze slid up to the corpse's face.

It was burned enough that it wasn't immediately recognizable, but the basic structure was still there, under the cracked and blackened skin. He could see whose body it was. And he could also see the telltale marks around the body's eyes…

He inhaled raggedly, his hand rising to his own face.

Waking up, everything looked wrong. His sight was too sharp, after a life of blurred lines and dim colors. The clear, sharp images now sliced into his brain, compounding his confusion…

"My eyes," he rasped. "My eyes!"

The others turned away from the body, Kakashi with grim understanding, Sakura and Naruto with slight confusion. Seeing his pale, haggard appearance, their eyes widened with sudden realization. Sakura made a choked sound, looking down at the burned corpse with renewed horror.

Itachi shut his eyes behind his palm, and surged chakra to them. Shaking with fine tremors, he dropped his hand. Opening his eyes, he asked: "My eyes. The Sharingan. Tell me, what shape is it?"

They stared at him.

"Tell me!"

"It's…" Sakura hesitated. "It's almost like a flower. There are eight petals… all of them have a thin line through the middle, and a notch at the top…"

Her hands fluttered in a vague gesture, trying to describe the shape. Itachi had heard enough, understood it enough.

He closed his eyes again and shuddered with a mixture of relief and revulsion.

"The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan," Kakashi said softly.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough for your expectations.

"I was never as strong as you…

"But I am strong enough to give you this."

Itachi let out a harsh, hoarse cry, as memory washed over him.

TH: So, I was going to be evil and end it at "This one had something on it." but I decided to give you guys a bit of a longer chapter. See how benevolent I am? I think I'd make a good dictator. I mean...er... Please review?