TH: Gah. So late! I'm so sorry! But, um, to make up for it, this chapters nearly twice as long as the others... Fair?
beta: Icescim
The Philosophy of Self
Chapter Eighteen
Itachi's dreams predominantly starred a pale, blank faced Sasuke who moved in the loose, unnatural way of puppets. Chakra strings of a painful, malevolent red led from his little brother's limbs up to a figure whose Sharingan eyes burned in the dark shadows of his face. Madara's deep laugh echoed all around with gleeful malice as the chakra strings vanished and Sasuke tumbled into a motionless heap. The symbolism was obvious. Underneath the stomach-lurching sickness the dreams inspired, Itachi was a little disappointed by his subconscious's lack of subtlety.
But that didn't detract from the nauseatingly strong grief and guilt he felt when he woke. Hot on the heels of those emotions was a burning hate of Madara.
:Today is the day that I end this,: he thought, firmly.
Kakashi was the last on watch, and he nodded at Itachi in greeting. Itachi nodded back, and hoisted his pack.
"I'll prepare the mash," he offered. Kakashi jerked his chin toward the pile of his, Sakura's, and Naruto's packs.
"That's fine," the Copy Ninja replied. "There's a flask of water in my pack for it."
Itachi nodded and set about preparing their breakfast. As he moved around, Sakura and Naruto began to stir, woken by the small sounds he made as he set a pot of water to boil.
When the water was boiling, he tipped in the contents of one of their ration packets. The mash was a premixed combination of rice, soy protein, flavoring, and nutrient supplements. It just needed to be boiled with some water to make a highly nutritious meal enough for a full Team. The only downside was that it was bland in taste and a little paste-like in texture.
Even so, they all ate every last bit they received. They all knew they'd need the energy. After they'd scrubbed out the pot and adjusted their supplies, they stood in a loose circle.
"We'll be facing Madara today," Kakashi said, seriously. "It won't be an easy fight. I want everyone to remember their training, and to watch out for their Teammates' backs. That includes Itachi."
Murmured agreements followed, and then Itachi spoke: "Madara has many strengths. He has the Eternal Mangekyo, which gives him the ability to phase out. It will be difficult to land a blow on him; we'll need to work together to trap him. He is also capable with kenjutsu, and most likely will have a blade with him, even if you can't see it. Be cautious when you close for melee combat."
"Katana or ninjato?" Sakura asked, brow furrowed as she committed the points to memory and started calculating strategies.
"He's proficient with all forms of bladed weapon. He may even have more than one on him. Be prepared for anything," Itachi replied. "Madara does have one weakness, though. He's complacent. He's taken Uchiha pride to a higher level, and become careless with it. That will be his downfall."
"If we provoke him, will he get sloppy?" Naruto asked.
"No," Itachi shook his head. "But he will underestimate us. We could surprise him."
Naruto grinned. "I'm great at surprising people."
The rest of Team Seven returned the grin, teeth bared.
Every step they took toward Madara and the final fight increased Sakura's nervous tension exponentially. This was no D-ranked mission to shrug off. It was nothing to dismiss.
It was terrifying. Going up against Zabuza wasn't even as frightening. Hell, she'd been calmer going head to head with Sasori!
Sakura's fear rose until she was forced to use her med-nin training to calm herself down, physiologically. It wouldn't do to panic right now. After the fight—:After we win!: snarled part of her mind—she'd let herself break down. Right now, though, she needed to be fully aware and able.
They knew when they were getting close because the forest started showing signs of past fighting. Sasuke and Itachi's final battle, when Sasuke finally achieved his ambition and killed his older brother, had been intense and devastating. They'd destroyed a decent portion of the forest around the Uchiha stronghold in which their confrontation had taken place. Running past scarred and charred trees, Team Seven drew even closer to Madara.
Finally, once they had gotten close enough that they could see the rubble of the ruined building, Itachi motioned for them to stop.
"How is everyone in energy and chakra?" he asked. Sakura swiftly took stock of her reserves.
"Good," she said. "I've only used maybe an eighth of my chakra."
"I'm fine as well," Kakashi replied. Naruto shrugged.
"I can't tell how much I've used but I'm nowhere near low."
Itachi took a deep breath. "Right. I will lead. Stay alert."
"That's not really a problem," Sakura muttered to herself. She was so alert it would be truer to call it 'tense.'
They approached the half-ruined building, and nothing happened. They entered one of the intact rooms, and nothing happened. It was awful. Knowing an enemy was near and knowing attack would come, but it not occurring. It was suspense, it was tension, it was fear. It was probably a psychological tactic on Madara's part to get them jumpy and uncomfortable.
Keeping that in mind made it easier to ignore, actually. It gave her the goal of sticking it to Madara and not letting his stupid little plan work. Realizing the tension was one of his machinations somehow made each successive empty room piss her off rather than knot up her stomach. He wasn't lurking in the shadows anymore, he was hiding. He wouldn't just come out and face them.
Sakura growled under her breath some uncomplimentary things about Madara as they ventured deeper into the stronghold.
"Are we sure he's here?" Naruto grumbled as they passed through another empty room.
"Yes. I can sense him," Itachi replied. "He's in the main chamber. Where I waited for Sasuke."
He paused, then mused absently: "I wonder if he knows that… Is all of this a pageant meant to inflame Sasuke's ire?"
"Sasuke never did have a great hold on his temper," Sakura said. "And sometimes it made him make mistakes."
"Which is doubtless Madara's intent," Kakashi said.
"He plays a lot of mind games, Madara does," Sakura said bitterly. "I hate it."
"Madara takes great pride in his cleverness," Itachi said. "And he enjoys using his intellect to toy with his enemies."
"Yeah. Still hate it," Sakura snipped. Itachi gave her a humorless smile.
"I wasn't implying you shouldn't," he said. "But Madara's propensity toward mind games is a threat to all of us. Remember that."
Sakura gave him a look. "Who'd have thought? The great Uchiha Itachi is a worrywort."
"The price of genius," Itachi quipped dryly, "is that you know all the myriad ways things can go wrong."
Sakura snickered, surprised and amused by his sarcasm. The exchange also dispersed a little more of her tension…
"We're here. He's beyond this door," Itachi said then, grimly.
...and all her tension came back. She sucked in a sharp breath, and her chakra gathered in her arms, ready to be utilized for her augmented strength. That was mostly an involuntary reaction, her body responding to the promise of battle. She clenched her fists to keep it from manifesting as a glow around her hands.
"Ready," Itachi cautioned them. And then he opened the door and went through. Team Seven followed.
Sakura used medical jutsu to force adjust her eyes instantly to the change in light. The corridors and room through which they'd been traveling had been dim, but this room was lit by the sunlight streaming in through the shattered ceiling.
Madara was sitting in the stone chair that was the focal point of the room. His orange mask was gone, his face eerily ageless. There were no wrinkles; it was creased instead by scars. He smirked behind his steepled fingers, Mangekyo Sharingan eyes bright like fresh blood.
"Sasuke-kun. You've taken something that is mine," Madara didn't raise his voice, but it somehow filled the room anyway.
Itachi, taking on the mannerisms of Sasuke again, sneered. "I haven't taken anything that I haven't earned myself."
"Oh?" Madara said. "I am the head of the Uchiha Clan. All its members belong to me. Including the dead ones."
"You're the head of a clan of ghosts and graves," Itachi-Sasuke scoffed. The smirk faded from Madara's face.
"Be that as it may," Madara said, voice now holding an underlying hint of annoyance, "The Clan's dead belong to me. Their eyesbelong to me."
"Itachi's eyes were mine," Itachi-Sasuke said with just the right amount of anger to the words. "He was my brother. He was my kill. I won these eyes. You have no right to them."
"I have the right!" Madara hissed. "When you've squandered them by bringing them to the Clan's enemies!"
He made a sharp, violent gesture toward Team Seven.
"Konoha has never been the Clan's enemy," Itachi-Sasuke refuted. "The Uchiha were mistrusted because of you. They rebelled because of your influence. The massacre was a consequence of your actions! As I see it, you have always been the Clan's greatest threat."
"So you truly have turned your back on your Clan. On your brother's memory," Madara said. "Do you truly care nothing for what Konoha did to Itachi?"
"I care," Itachi-Sasuke said softly. "I care a great deal. But the root of it all was you. Konoha was forced to action."
"I see," Madara sighed. "Pity. You had such promise…"
And then he attacked.
Sakura reacted automatically, hurling a brace of kunai at his face as he charged. But the weapons passed through him like he was made of smoke. His Mangekyo ability.
As Shikamaru would say: Troublesome.
Itachi blasted a Doton jutsu at Madara, the stone teeth of the animal-esque construct closing on air as Madara juked to the side to evade it. Why did he dodge? Was it because he couldn't use his ability to phase out so soon after having just done so? Or… Maybe his phasing ability only let him go incorporeal for so long. Maybe he would have phased out long enough to not get bitten by the Doton, but since the bite wasn't as transient as a knife flying through the air, he had to move so that he didn't phase back in with a stone beast's head lingering in the space where his torso would be. What would happen if he phased-in with something inside him?
Sakura didn't think she was fast enough to catch him, but maybe Itachi… or Kakashi. But how could she suggest it without giving away the game? Misunderstanding could be disastrous, so she didn't want to call it out in some vague 'code'. All the same, she couldn't just outright say it, or Madara would know what they were doing. Getting close to either Itachi or Kakashi could also be dangerous, since it might mess up the battle's rhythm, restrict their movements, resulting in any of them getting injured.
But the last option seemed the best. So Sakura watched Kakashi and Itachi out of the corner of her eye, trying to keep most of her attention on Madara and his attacks. Finally, she saw her chance, and darted in close to her sensei.
He saw her coming and seamlessly compensated for her presence. She got in close enough to whisper hurriedly in his ear before spinning away, knocking a few shuriken from the air as she left.
A couple seconds. It was all she needed, and then she threw herself back into the fray, feeling better that her thought had been passed. Kakashi would act on it if he believed it had merit. For now, she knew what to do.
Skipping over the Suiton Itachi sent Madara's way, Sakura flipped through a series of handseals. The stone floor under Madara twisted, like quicksand. He sank into it about four inches before he flickered out of sight, and then back in a few paces to the side. Then he ducked the lash of water from Itachi's attack, counterattacking with a quick volley of ice-blue flames.
Sakura hissed, and tried to dodge, but one clipped her shoulder, bursting over her side like a bubble. Shock reigned for a moment. And then she screamed.
It was like a grease fire; the flames splattered over her, coating her shoulder, arm and side with liquid fire that kept burning until the fabric and the flesh below it began to blister. Dimly, she heard Naruto shout her name, and then the swift firm voice of Itachi. A… wave? A wind? Something passed over her, a jutsu of some sort, and then the oppressive heat was gone. She tumbled against something, and felt a dizzying flash of vertigo.
It took her a moment to realize the flames had been put out—the pain from the burns hadn't been extinguished at all—and even longer to realize that Itachi had her cradled in his arms as he beat a quick retreat from Madara. Kakashi and Naruto covered them as Itachi carried Sakura out of the room and halfway down the hall.
Sakura couldn't help the whimper of agony as Itachi set her down against the wall. He was gentle about it, but couldn't help but jostle her slightly.
"Can you heal it?" he asked.
Sakura gasped through the pain, trying to get herself under control so she could make a medical assessment and answer him. She closed her eyes to rally her will and spirit.
Coolness replaced most of the blazing agony of her burns, and her eyes snapped open with surprised. Itachi held his palm over the worst of the burns, the gentle light of his chakra creating a soft glowing aura around his fingers.
"Thank you," Sakura managed, and hated the weakness in her voice.
"I can't heal," Itachi said, shaking his head briefly. "Not really, not for something like this. I can only numb the pain. You'll have to heal it yourself. Will you be able?"
Distanced from the hurt, she had better success marshalling herself. She nodded, lifting her unburned hand and sheathing it in the Mystic Palm technique she'd learned from Tsunade. Holding beside his hand, she began her preliminary assessment.
:Shoulder and arm… Burns, second degree… extending into the reticular dermis. Torso, combination or first and superficial second degree. Percent of body burned… about 12-15. Ouch! Dammit!: She flinched as Itachi's pain-numbing technique stopped, his hand pulling away now that she was getting into her own techniques. She was proud to say that, even with the weight of her pain crashing back down onto her, her Mystic Palm didn't waver at all. :Thanks, Tsunade-shishou. Looks like your lessons-under-fire teaching method worked.:
"I need to rejoin the fight," Itachi said. When Sakura looked at him, he was staring to the side like he could see through the walls separating them from the others.
"Go," Sakura said through gritted teeth. "I'll take care of this and join you in a bit."
Itachi looked at her, hesitated a moment, then nodded. He stood and soon disappeared back into the main chamber.
Softly cursing a blue streak under her breath, Sakura started healing herself. :Deep tissue first, that's the important part. Heal the nerves, the glands, dermis… Epidermis unimportant right now, only superficial. Heal deeper, incapacitating damage… Have to get back in the fight quickly.:
She most likely wouldn't be the deciding factor in the fight with Madara, but she could certainly help. While she healed herself, her Team was going three-on-one against the ancient Uchiha, which probably sounded like good odds to anyone who didn't know anything about Madara. Having heard stories, and had Itachi's briefing on the man, Sakura wasn't one of those people. She wanted the stack the odds a bit more.
Something went boom in the other room, and dust rained down from the ceiling as the building rumbled worryingly.
A small, back corner of Sakura's mind wondered how structurally sound the stronghold was, having already been subjected to one high-powered battle. It probably wouldn't survive this one. Hopefully, they wouldn't be stuck in it when it finally gave up the ghost and crumbled into rubble.
:Happy thoughts,: she scolded herself. Then, :Okay. I'm pretty much done. The rest of the healing can wait.:
She let the chakra fade from her hand.
That was when the wall exploded.
Itachi returned to find Madara focusing his attacks on Kakashi, who was looking a little worn around the edges. Itachi forced Madara's attention onto himself, as he shunshin'd in close, kunai in hand.
Madara's fist came around, a ninjato clasped in it in an underhand grip. Metal clashed on metal as the ancient Uchiha caught Itachi's kunai on his short sword. The skittering screech of the two blades rubbing against each other as both Uchiha fought to press back the other's weapon set Itachi's teeth on edge. The blades wavered, neither gaining the upperhand. Then, faster than a blink—as fast as the preternatural speed their Sharingan afforded them—they disengaged their weapons and traded a flurry of blows.
Itachi had warned Team Seven of Madara's prowess with all forms of bladed weapon for a reason. The man was a genius with a sword, no matter what its form. He could be wielding a pair of children's safety scissors and still hold his own against Itachi's attacks. The result of Itachi's challenging him to a melee skirmish was a forgone conclusion. Even with Itachi's comrades occasionally getting in brief attacks when they thought they could safely avoid hitting Itachi by accident, Madara would sooner or later get in the definitive attack. Hopefully, it wouldn't be fatal.
At last, Itachi staggered away from Madara clutching a hand to his side, feeling the hot flow of his blood over his knuckles. The ninjato hadn't pierced or nicked any organs, but the razor-sharp blade had slid along his ribs, separating skin and thin muscle and baring bone.
Kakashi and Naruto, having been hovering around the edges of the fight, always keen always ready, leapt in to keep Madara from pressing forward and finishing Itachi. Madara's Gokakyu met Kakashi's Suiton head-on, exploding into a cloud of steam. A handful of kunai zipped out from the cloud, trailing tendrils of steam.
Team Seven dodged, Itachi with a short hiss as the wound on his side pulled, spilling more blood. He hopped and skipped behind Kakashi, murmuring: "Cover me."
He didn't wait for a response, trusting Kakashi easily and without reservation. He turned his attention to the wound in his side, picking his blood-sticky shirt away from his skin. Sakura was still absent, healing herself. But this needed to be taken care of right away.
Itachi didn't have the precise chakra control to execute the Mystic Palm jutsu with the speed and ability of a med-nin. He needed a quick fix, and for that, he had but one tool in his arsenal.
Taking a fortifying breath, Itachi braced himself, bared his side, and with a very careful and precise application of Katon, cauterized the wound.
The world whited out briefly, accompanied by a stench of burned flesh and blood. Then Itachi's vision cleared, and he leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. Looking, he found that the blood was now only barely trickling from the wound. Although it looked even worse now, and still hurt, it wasn't bleeding as much and would probably keep until the end of the battle… Whatever end that might be.
He stood straight, twisted a little to test his side. It hurt, a lot, but he would be able to fight on.
It took him only seconds. Then, with a swift shuriken barrage, he reapplied the pressure on Madara. The ancient Uchiha's smirk was growing, and he mocked: "Is this all you have?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes, threw three successive genjutsu over the infuriating man, and exhaled a Suiton at him. Kakashi added a complementary Doton to it, resulting in a wave of heavy mud crashing down over Madara. A squad of Naruto's Kage Bunshin leapt after the deluge, weapons in hand.
The mud sloughed through Madara, as he began to laugh. He jumped up and phased in long enough to kick and punch the Bunshin into releasing. Landing, he made a beckoning gesture to them, grinning maliciously.
"Rasengan!" Naruto—or one of Naruto's clones—shouted, punching forward with a whirlpool of blue chakra cupped in one palm. Madara grabbed his wrist and hurled the Naruto over his shoulder. The clone dispersed as it and the Rasengan hit the floor with a rattling boom.
Itachi had copied and memorized several of Sasuke's signature moves simply by fighting his little brother with his Sharingan active. He now flicked through the handseals for one of them, as fast as if he'd been executing the jutsu his whole life.
"Chidori Nagashi!" With some force of will, Itachi managed to send a majority of the electric charge in an arc from him to Madara.
Madara sneered and huffed out a Fuuton, which made the lightning skitter off the air around him. Bent off course, it still streaked on, strength not diminished.
Itachi's heart nearly stopped when he realized the bolt was heading toward the wall beyond which Sakura was ensconced, healing herself. There was no time for him to do anything as the Chidori Nagashi hit the wall, and decimated it.
:No!: he thought, sick with the thought that he might have just contributed to the kunoichi's death.
Sakura heard Itachi cry her name, echoed by Kakashi and Naruto, as the rubble tumbled down and the dust flew up. She stood up, and tugged her gloves tighter. Stepping into the new opening, she glared into the room as the dust settled.
She caught a glimpse of Itachi's relieved face, a streak of blood on one cheek, before she sneered at Madara and slapped her hand onto the floor. A forest of stone spikes sprang from the floor, cutting a zigzagging path toward Madara.
At the same time, Naruto hurled a Rasenshuriken at him, while Kakashi and Itachi both used their Sharingan to cast genjutsu.
Sakura didn't know whose attack it was; she couldn't see clearly through the chaos of all the techniques, but when everything stilled and the dust settled, there was a line of red, red blood flowing over Madara's leg. His smirk was absent, now, as he watched the crimson run over his ankle and onto the floor.
He wasn't bleeding out, by any means, but it was a substantial injury.
Sakura's breath caught. :We got him! We can hurt him!:
"I can see I will have to stop playing with you now," Madara said. He moved, and it was so fast that Sakura didn't even see him until he came to a stop.
He had Naruto pinned against the wall by his throat, one pale hand spanning the Jinchuuriki's neck, digging in and cutting off breath. Naruto choked and clawed at Madara's arm and hand, kicking out with his feet as well.
But Madara was strong and his reach was long—Naruto couldn't get him to let go, couldn't really land a solid kick.
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, and started forward. Madara didn't even look, he made a careless gesture… and Sakura crashed to the floor with senbon peppering her legs, freezing up the muscles. She gave a half-scream, half-yelp.
"Kyuubi," Madara said. Commanded. "Burn."
And Naruto started screaming.
The sound clutched at Sakura's heart like claws. She scrabbled for the senbon paralyzing her limbs, desperate to get up, to help him.
"Stop!" Itachi's command cut over the agonized howls. Sakura glanced up at him; his eyes were all red and black and angles and curves. His jaw was tight and he was staring intently at Naruto, battling Madara's will with his own.
Naruto's horrible noises lessened in volume, but blood was leaking out of his ears, nose, and eyes, mixing with tears on his face. Sakura yanked the senbon out of her flesh and punched a little knot of chakra into each puncture wound, a quick-and-dirty fix.
Madara's shoulders were tight with the strain of battling Itachi for control of the Kyuubi.
"Damn it!" Sakura hissed vociferously, staggering to her feet. As she did, she caught sight of Kakashi, who was on his knees nearby, his Sharingan left eye open, right eye closed. He was joining the war of wills that was occurring behind Naruto's belly button.
"Hell with this!" Sakura snarled. Taking out a kunai, she shunshin'd right in next to Madara, raised the weapon, and buried it deep in the soft inner crook of the Uchiha's elbow.
A few things happened then all at once. Madara made a truly awful sound of combined rage and pain, his arm dropping away from Naruto as the wound incapacitated it. Naruto fell away from the wall, dropping to all fours. At the same time, a cowl of hissing red chakra exploded around him, throwing all of them back. Sakura and Madara caught the brunt of it, being as close to it as they were.
Sakura's head hit the far wall (or what remained of it) hard, making her vision go white then black and red and then slowly come back blurred. She felt the wetness of blood drip down her ear and neck from the contact point, and her ears rang. Dazed, she couldn't really make out what was happening around her, and when she tried to move the room lurched unpleasantly and she vomited to her side.
:That's not good,: she thought weakly. Her eyes slid shut and the world faded away.