Nawaki focused on the blood slowly dripping onto the grass. His eye made its way up Sakura's legs and abdomen, avoiding the chidori still sticking out of her back. Up her neck, and onto her face. Her expression was the same as it had been since Sasuke kissed her-confused and shocked. It was as if the pain hadn't registered.

Finally, Nawaki forced his eyes onto her forehead. If she had activated the seal in time, she could survive the destruction of her heart. He was slightly afraid of what he would find- what if she hadn't activated it in time? His brain refused to let him consider that possibility. He tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn't seem to breathe properly. He finally looked at the seal.

It wasn't activated.

The Creation Rebirth Seal wasn't activated, which meant that the damage done was fatal. Sasuke had taken her by surprise, and now it was too late. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware of his mother's words to him a long time ago: Sasuke was always the fastest out of the three of us. Even as a genin his speed was incredible. The rest of him was focused on denying what had just happened. His mother wasn't dying. Sasuke hadn't killed her. Naruto had once taken a chidori through the heart and survived, why couldn't Sakura?

Naruto has the healing powers of a Bijuu, the traitorous part of his mind reminded him.

Nawaki watched the complex seals on Sasuke's shoulders that he had never noticed before begin to glow. He watched as the dark chakra from earlier seeped out of Sakura's body and up Sasuke's arm, until at last, her eyes fluttered shut and she collapsed. Only then did Sasuke kill his chidori and remove his hand from her chest. Nawaki watched as Sakura's chakra seemed to merge with the seals and burn into Sasuke's body. Although Sasuke showed no pain Nawaki hoped that hurt.

Nawaki saw it all through his right Rinnegan eye, because his left eye was suddenly hurting him, and wouldn't open. He wanted to leave this branch and run over and scream at Sasuke, but he couldn't move. He was gripping the branch so hard it was cracking. His body was shuddering against his will, and his chakra pathways linked to the Rinnegan was pumping harder than ever.

It was then that Nawaki finally noticed the coldly furious look on Sasuke's face. Nawaki had no idea who Sasuke was angry at, and he didn't care because He killed Sakura!

Nawaki opened his mouth to scream but suddenly his voice wouldn't work. What came out was barely a sound, a mixture of a choke, a gurgle and a gasp. His lungs wouldn't work properly either, and he was finding it harder and harder to breathe.

Sasuke picked up Sakura and slung her over his shoulder. He turned away from Nawaki and looked over at Naruto and Kakashi. Kakashi was looking up at the sky, his face unreadable. Naruto had tears in his eyes and his expression was one of pure pain.

"It's done." Sasuke said, his voice hard "Let's go."

Kakashi turned around, but Naruto hesitated, never taking his eyes off Sakura's unmoving body.

"What about the kid?" he asked.

Nawaki froze. Were they talking about him? Was he going to die too?

Sasuke shook his head angrily.

"There's no point." he snapped "No matter what we do he's going to hate us. He's seen me kill his mother; nothing we say will convince him to forgive me."

They were talking about him. Nawaki felt the sudden urge to flee. To get away and forget everything that had just happened, to find a safe place where he could break down without fear of anyone noticing. But his limbs remained frozen, no matter how hard he mentally screamed at them.

"How do you know he's watching us? The plan was for me, Hisa and Oki to find him and explain this to him. I know he's near because Obito's chakra helped Sakura's to confuse me, but that doesn't mean Nawaki's watching right now."

So Naruto couldn't sense him properly because of something Obito and Sakura did, and Hisa and Oki were in on this too. As he stared at the limp bloody body slung over Sasuke's shoulder, the sense of betrayal grew. Was everything so messed up that Obito was the only person he could trust?

Sasuke crushed that thought too.

"I can't fully explain it. I just know he's watching. When I looked at Sakura after I pierced her heart I knew then that he's here. Obito must have known that I was going to do this, so he sent Nawaki here."

Nawaki's whole world was crashing down. He was alone, and the only person he could trust was dying on the shoulder of the man she hated most.

"Sasuke that's ridiculous. How would you know that Obito sent him here?" Naruto asked, unknowingly voicing Nawaki's own thoughts.

Sasuke's voice was bitter when he replied.

"You can always count on Obito Uchiha to twist a situation to his advantage. If you were Obito and for whatever reason you wanted Nawaki to get power, what would be one of the quickest ways that you know?"

Naruto finally got it at the same time as Nawaki.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan." Naruto said softly. "The eyes you can only get by from the trauma of losing a friend or family. Of course, how did I miss this?"

"I missed it too up until a few minutes ago." Sasuke said. "Look, there's no point trying to go after Nawaki. He hates us for doing this, end of story. I don't know what will happen to him and right now I don't care. There will be time for dealing with him after we get back to Konoha."

Naruto sighed and shook his head regretfully, but turned around nonetheless. This was Nawaki's last chance to do something. He could run out there and demand a fight, or at least that he be allowed bury his mother. But every part of him seemed to have gone numb, even his brain. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged more words, but he couldn't take any of them in anymore. Sasuke's words echoed in his head. I don't know what will happen to him and right now I don't care. Even after everything he had just witnessed Sasuke do, the words still stung. His sharingan had stopped hurting, but he didn't dare to open it. He didn't want to feel the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

He waited in the tree until Sasuke and the others were long gone. Only then did he allow himself to fall to the ground. He landed in a heap and curled into a ball as he finally came to terms with what had happened. Sakura was dead. Her old team had planned this, although Nawaki didn't know to what extent. Hisa and Oki were in on it as well, and Obito had deliberately encouraged him to come here so that Nawaki could watch his mother die.

A new emotion coursed through him: anger. Anger at Sasuke for killing Sakura, anger at Kakashi and Naruto for watching it and agreeing with it, anger at Hisa and Oki for whatever part they had played in this, anger at Obito for everything and even anger at Sakura for getting herself killed. Most of all there was the anger at himself. He had let her die without lifting a finger, and even now he had no idea what to do. He wanted to go after Sasuke and kill him, but he also wanted to stay curled up like this forever. He let out an angry tearless sob and curled his hands into fists. He allowed himself to break completely, and screamed up at the trees until he was hoarse.

It could have been a minute, or it could have been an hour, but eventually Nawaki stood up. He tried to think about what to do, but his legs had already begun to walk. He was going back to Obito.

!

They waited in silence at the point where Naruto had separated from them. Hisa was still trying to take in everything that had happened. She had seen Sasuke kiss Sakura, and then she had seen him kill her with a chidori. Had it really happened? There was only one way to find out, which was why the two of them were waiting for the others to return.

Oki was fidgeting desperately. Hisa knew that she longed to find Nawaki and help him, but at the same time neither of them could. Nawaki had just watched his father kill his mother, neither Hisa nor Oki had any idea what they could do or say to help him. Something much bigger was going on, and if they were going to be useful in the slightest they needed more information.

It took ten minutes for the others to reach them. Sasuke came first. He barely glanced at them before continuing his run, but the pink haired body slung over his shoulder confirmed everything Hisa had seen. Oki let out a small cry, but Sasuke gave no indication that he had heard.

Kakashi came next. He smiled down at the two of them with what was clearly fake cheer. His eyes never went near Sakura.

"Naruto will be here in a second." he said, his voice dangerously close to breaking, "He'll explain this, don't you worry."

He took off after Sasuke, still avoiding looking at Sakura.

Naruto appeared a few seconds later, and although Hisa wanted nothing more than to immediately start demanding answers, the tears in his eyes and the sadness on his face stopped her. He was heartbroken.

She and Oki flanked him as they leapt from tree to tree. Oki seemed to have reverted to the stony silence of her post-Nawaki's death days. Her eyes were stormy, but Hisa didn't dare ask her what she was feeling. The silence had settled on the three of them like a dark cloud, and each of them were wrapped up in their own confusing thoughts and emotions.

Hisa tried to make sense of everything that had happened. Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi had gone on this mission to capture Sakura. They had brought Hisa and Oki along for an unknown reason, possibly concerning Nawaki. Nawaki was alive, and had seen Sasuke kill Sakura. Nawaki was alive because… Sasuke had killed Sakura because… Hisa didn't know, and she needed answers.

"Did you… Did you decide beforehand that Sasuke would… or was it an accident?"

For a few seconds, Hisa thought Naruto wouldn't reply. But he coughed once and spoke. His voice was a rough growl.

"I had really hoped that I could convince her to come back, but if I couldn't then yes, we planned for Sasuke to do that."

"Why?" she asked softly.

He sighed.

"It's… complicated. There are a lot of secrets surrounding Sakura that only the most important people in Konoha know. Tsunade convinced the five Kage to pass a law at the end of the war forbidding anyone who knew to talk about it. That's why none of your generation know, only the adults. Believe me, I'd love to tell both of you, but as the Hokage I can't break my own laws just because you're my kid."

Hisa tried to make sense of it, but there were too many blanks.

"So because of something that you're not allowed to tell me, Sasuke had to kill Sakura?"

Naruto sighed again and brushed his hand across his eyes.

"Sort of. We've spent years trying to capture her and bring her back, but the other villages were getting restless. They demanded that we get her back at any cost. Sasuke convinced me to let him try and talk to her, but something happened while she was fighting, and he was forced to end it quickly."

Hisa's eyes strayed towards had taken point, which left Sasuke in the middle and the other three bringing up the rear. All the jostling and jumping had twisted Sakura's body around, and she was looking at the three of them upside down. To Hisa's surprise, her eyes weren't completely glazed over yet.

"She's still alive?"

Naruto's voice was tight.

"Yes."

"Will she survive?"

"We'll get her to the nearest hospital as soon as possible."

"Will we make it in time?"

"There's a chance."

"How much of a chance?"

"Too small a chance to count as a whole number. Even if we get her to a hospital the chance that they'll be able to save her is even smaller. It's a fatal wound."

Hisa's eyes met the doomed woman in front of her. Would Sakura's last memory be of Naruto and Hisa calmly discussing her chances of survival? Suddenly, Hisa couldn't bring herself to look at Sakura. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on Sasuke's distracting hair.

"Why did you need me and Oki?"

"If the worst happened and Sasuke killed her, the three of us were meant to track down Nawaki and explain the situation. I don't think Sakura told him all her secrets, but because he's her son he has the right to know. If we could talk to him I could break the law and explain it to all three of you. Hopefully we could convince him to come back to Konoha."

This secret law was starting to frustrate Hisa, but there was another thing that was bothering her.

"You promised to tell us if you knew Nawaki was alive."

Oki's eyes briefly flickered over to Naruto and Hisa realised that she had been thinking the same thing.

Naruto sighed again, never taking his eyes off Sakura. The tears had stopped running down his cheeks but his eyes were still wet.

"I promised to tell you if he was alive if we had full proof. We didn't. All we had were a few documents which proved that Sakura had been in contact with Obito, and that Obito was looking for a new protégé. We still don't know for sure that he's alive, although Sasuke is certain that he was watching the battle. I know that Obito was nearby because he and Sakura blocked Kurama's senses."

"Sasuke was right." Hisa said quietly. "I saw Nawaki's chakra signature-I'd recognise it anywhere."

Naruto's eyes closed briefly and his forehead creased. He sighed once before fixing his eyes back on Sakura.

"Well then, we'll have to assume the worst. Obito's true goals are unknown, but if Nawaki is anything like Sasuke used to be then he'll want revenge on all of us."

He'll try to destroy Konoha. Hisa realised. It wasn't that big a thing, many people had attempted to destroy Konoha, and Pein had actually succeeded before Naruto stopped him. If history lessons in the Academy had taught Hisa anything it was that Konoha would always survive and rebuild.

But if Nawaki teamed up with Obito, they would have the power of two Rinnegan and Sharingan. If they managed to defeat Naruto and Sasuke, would they leave any survivors to rebuild?

!

Nawaki stormed back into the hideout, still unsure about what he wanted to do. Obito had sent him to watch his mother die just so that he could get a power-up. Why would Obito, a man who had experienced the pain of losing a loved one, willingly let Nawaki go through the same pain?

He reached his bedroom and looked inside. Obito was waiting for him. He took one look at Nawaki's expression and his eye gleamed with satisfaction. It was enough to set Nawaki off.

Rage bubbled up inside him, and he stuck out his hand. The Rinnegan pulsed once, and Obito was flung into the wall. He made no move to free himself, but the amusement had left his eye and he glared at Nawaki coldly.

"You knew!" Nawaki spat. "You knew he would kill her and you didn't tell me or try to stop it."

Nawaki knew Obito was raising an eyebrow, even if it was hidden beneath his mask.

"I take it Sasuke has killed Sakura? Are you completely sure?"

Nawaki opened his other eye. He had no idea what it looked like, but it seemed to do the trick. Obito's eye crinkled into a smirk of satisfaction.

"Ah, so you have awakened your Mangekyo Sharingan. Good, good, I see it wasn't a wasted opportunity."

His rage increased the power of the Rinnegan, crushing Obito's body into the wall.

"Why?" he yelled. "You know the pain I'm feeling right now, why would you want me to go through it? Why did you want my mother to die?"

Obito's voice was completely calm when he replied.

"Don't be a fool. I am sad that your mother died, but it wasn't unexpected. You needed more power Nawaki, and although I would have preferred if you got it another way, this way is quick and it was available. I did not kill your mother, nor did I force anyone to kill her. Whether you saw it or not she would have died, and you would have found out and been just as upset as you are now. I simply gave you the chance to have a few more moments with her, and it's because of me that you now have a place to stay other than Konoha."

"Why did she die?" Nawaki whispered hoarsely "How did you know that they were coming? How did you know what Sasuke would do?"

"I did not know that she was going to die, I simply knew that it was a possibility. As for how I knew that well, it's simple. They needed her to come back to Konoha. Naruto wouldn't have killed her, but perhaps that's why he let Sasuke fight her. After all, with Sakura out of the way there's one less person who knows about you being his son. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part."

"You're lying." Nawaki said coldly. "I remember you told me that there were some things Sakura would want me to know if she died. What are these things? Why did she really leave the village, and why do they want her back so badly?"

Obito's voice turned cold.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Nawaki snapped.

"Because I don't think you are ready to hear them. You need to decide you're course of action based on what you are feeling, not what you know. I am here to help you, and this trauma is something that you must overcome."

"How?" Nawaki whispered.

"You know how, Nawaki. I know how angry you are, and if you are ever to let that anger go it must turn into hatred. You are an Uchiha, as much as you denied it. So tell me, what to you need to do to release your hatred, to move on?"

For a brief moment Nawaki felt regret. His mother had tried to stop him from walking this path all her life, but what Obito said was true. He had Uchiha blood in him, and the Curse of Hatred was part of him. His mind was still a mess, but Obito's words had given him hope. There was a way to overcome his grief, and it was clear to him.

"I need revenge." he said.

He knew that that was what Obito wanted to hear, but the man did a good job of sounding unbiased.

"If that is what your heart is telling you, then I will help. Who is it you seek revenge on?"

Nawaki thought about it long and hard. He needed revenge, but the thought of killing Naruto or Hisa hurt him, and there was no way he would be able to kill Oki.

"I don't want to hurt Konoha." he said firmly. "You won't tell me why they need her, so I don't know if I should hate them or not. I don't want to hate them, I know that there was more than one person involved in her death, but I only saw one person kill her. There's only one person that I need to kill."

Obito waited patiently for him to finish.

"To avenge my mother I will kill Sasuke Uchiha."