The Sage stared calmly at Sasuke, who glared back. She was aware of the boy's presence beside them, but he was insignificant for now.
"Sasuke Uchiha." she drawled. "From the information inside my head, you have committed a list of crimes as heavy as the Memorial Stone. Yet you've also repented, and have served Konoha dutifully for the past twenty one years. You also seem to be holding out admirably against the Shinju, which I know from experience isn't the easiest thing. You need great strength of will to remain uncorrupted by the darkness of that beast." She tilted her head, a small smile on her face. "The last host wasn't as successful. She was your former teammate, wasn't she?"
She smiled when she noticed Sasuke's jaw clench, and Nawaki's hands curl into fists. To her surprise, the boy held his tongue. Perhaps he was slightly more level-headed than Hisa's thoughts suggested. What a shame. Still, he was only the sideshow. Her eyes flicked back up to Sasuke, who was still starting at her.
"I'm afraid I'm not as strong as you think." he said at last "I am quite connected to the Ten-tails, and I can feel it inside me right now. It's wary of you. It says that you're not the Sage he remembers."
"Of course not!" The Sage replied cheerfully. "I have the same spirit of course, but I completely forgot to factor in the physical. This body is so cheerful. It smiles so much, and all it wants to do is play with all the power I have. It's strange though, the girl didn't seem like the smiley type. I suppose the little girl instincts were repressed by her powerful shinobi spirit. Still, the question still remains…" she smiled dangerously. "What do we do with you, Sasuke Uchiha?"
She searched his face, but couldn't find the slightest trace of fear. Irritation and icy anger yes, but fear no.
"Most of my family is dead, the village I worked so hard to protect is being attacked and my son, the last living blood relative I have left, just tried to kill me." Sasuke said, completely deadpan. "I also stabbed the woman I think I'm in love with through the heart and sealed a creature of pure evil into my body. At this point, all I have left to say is that if you're going to kill me, please do it quickly and let me leave this miserable world. Otherwise, let me stay and continue in my hopeless quest to make it better."
The Sage smirked slightly, and then frowned when she heard laughter. She gave a quick glance at the boy, but he was staring at his father in shock.
Look at his face!, the voice said gleefully, I think it was the line about him being in love with Sakura that made him snap, but I gotta learn how to do that. The ability to make Nawaki shut up… Sasuke couldn't have showed me that trick years ago when I needed it?
The Sage frowned. It seems that the girl still had a consciousness after all. No matter. She would fade away soon enough. She forced another smile onto her face.
"I wouldn't say hopeless. You've done quite well. Well enough, that I think it would be better for you to continue living. My advice to you, Sasuke Uchiha, would be to start over. Find a wife, have new children and rebuild your clan. You seem like you could use a simple, loving, family."
"I'm an Uchiha." Sasuke retorted. "Take one look at my family history and you'll see that 'simple loving family' isn't quite the way it goes."
"Well, you are the last Uchiha." the Sage said, "You've already changed the meaning of Uchiha quite a bit. Why stop now?"
"What about me?" whispered the boy, who, truth be told, the Sage had forgotten was there.
"Nawaki Uchiha." she said, turning to him. "Look around you. Look at the devastation you've caused. Do you think you deserve to live?"
"I know I've hurt a lot of people," Nawaki started. "But I'm sor-"
The Sage held up her hand, and Nawaki instantly stopped talking. She could feel the girl-Hisa- trying to say something, but she ignored her. Your time is over. Stop trying to exist.
Stop trying to exist? Really? That's the best the Sage of Six Paths could come up with?
"You're starting to irritate me, girl."
Nawaki blinked.
"Girl?"
The Sage snapped back into focus. Ignoring Sasuke, who was-big surprise- staring at her, she directed her attention on the boy.
"I would like to give you a chance to redeem yourself, but I fear you have already gone too far. I mean, your father didn't try to destroy the village until he was seventeen. You may be young, but you are far from innocent or naïve."
"I'd say I'm actually pretty naïve." Nawaki objected. "I mean, an infamous criminal was able to convince me to attack my home and try to kill my father. That has naïve written all over it."
"I'm sorry child, but you're too unstable, too wild. I cannot foresee what path you will choose in life."
"The good and peaceful one?" Nawaki suggested hopefully.
"You must die, Nawaki Uchiha."
"WHAT!" Two voices yelled. One was Nawaki, and the other was completely unimportant and useless, the Sage reminded herself.
You can't do this.
Watch me, the Sage replied.
"Give me your sword." she ordered Sasuke.
He glanced at Nawaki, and something passed between them that the Sage couldn't identify. Without a word, Sasuke handed his sword to her. She put the blade next to Nawaki's neck. Then swung it up into the air. Nawaki closed his eyes.
NO.
The sword remained in the air, quivering.
This doesn't concern you anymore, girl.
Still the sword refused to move.
Yes it does. This is my fight. This has always been my fight. One day, if Nawaki does something extremely stupid, I'll kill him if I have to. But it's my call, not yours.
Her whole hand was shaking now. Nawaki's eyes were wide open. Even Sasuke seemed shocked.
What makes you think you are the better judge? I know the hearts of shinobi, especially the hearts of my sons.
Nawaki's your descendant, not your son. I'm his rival, his teammate, and his… friend. You can say whatever you want, but I won't let you do this.
The sword slipped, and when it hit the ground, so did Hisa. Nawaki stared at her, before slowly reaching out his hand to shake her shoulder.
"Um, Sage of Six Paths? Are you alright?"
Hisa opened her eyes and pushed herself to her feet.
"I'm fine." she said briskly. "I just decided to spare your life. Do you want to know why?"
Nawaki nodded.
"I've seen your future. You buy a few cats, and live out your life as a peaceful social recluse. You're a weakling not worth my time. You will also be forever alone."
The look on Nawaki's face was priceless.
Hisa burst out laughing, and Nawaki went from shock to relief to anger.
"Hisa!" he yelled "That wasn't funny! I really thought that you were going to kill me!"
"I was." she said grimly. "I just realised that I couldn't kill you without kicking your ass properly first."
"So that really was…"
She nodded.
"Yup, that was the Sage of Six Paths. Not quite what I expected, and to be honest, I didn't really like her/him. It probably had something to do with the whole possessing-my-body thing."
Nawaki stared at Hisa. Hisa stared at Nawaki.
"So…" Nawaki said.
Hisa walked over to him and hugged him tightly. He let her, too stunned to react. Then she stepped back, and whacked him on the head.
"This never happened." she said firmly. "Welcome back."
He grinned.
"You too." he said. "Want to get some ramen?"
Did Sasuke just roll his eyes? Hisa wondered, but let it slide for the moment.
"Actually, there's something I have to take care of first."
Almost as if he had been waiting for his cue, Naruto burst into the clearing.
"Hisa!" he gasped "You're ok! Where's Obito?"
They all turned to stare at the man lying impaled on the spikes of rock.
"Nice of you to remember me." Obito said sarcastically. "It was quite a touching performance, but if you could hurry up and kill me, I'd appreciate it."
Together, Hisa and Naruto walked over to where he lay. Nawaki tried to follow, but Sasuke stuck out his hand and blocked him. Nawaki looked up, and Sasuke shook his head, his eyes following Naruto.
"This is it." Naruto said softly, well, softly for him, "Go ahead Hisa, end this."
Hisa's head whipped around to stare at him in surprise.
"You defeated him, not me." Naruto said. "You wanted to make your own name in the world, instead of living in my shadow. This is the first step."
Hisa stared at Obito, who stared back with the same smug look as always. She remembered all the stories she had heard. How Obito had killed her grandparents. How he was responsible for Naruto having the Kyubi inside him. He had been killing countless people long before she had even been born.
"No." she said. "This is your enemy more than mine. You need this closure more than I do."
Naruto stared at Obito. Then he nodded.
He stuck out his hand, and began to form a Rasengan.
"Aim for the Rinnegan." Hisa said quietly. "Drill straight through his head, that way he won't have a chance to recover."
Obito began to laugh. He laughed and laughed, even as Naruto's Rasengan cut into his face, even as it drilled though his brain. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of his face was his mouth, turned upwards in a smile.
They stared at it for a minute, neither of them fully able to believe that he was finally dead.
"Hisa?" Naruto said at last.
"Yeah?"
"I just realised what day it is."
She turned towards him, a questioning look clear on her face.
"November 17th."
He gave her a brittle smile.
"Happy birthday Hisa."
She started to laugh, and then she was choking, and then she was sobbing into her father's cloak. He held her closely to him, running his hand through her hair.
"It's ok, I promise. It'll be ok." he repeated, over and over again, until she could hear the words echoing through her mind.
"Dad?"
"Hm?"
"Ramen sounds really good right now."
!
As it turned out, Hisa never got that ramen. The minute they walked back into town, they were surrounded by terrified people, shinobi and civilians alike. It took a lot of reassuring to convince everyone that the threat was over, and Hisa was well aware of the looks being sent towards both her and Nawaki. Nawaki was tense beside her, but Sasuke kept his hand on his son's shoulder, and Nawaki in turn stood tall.
Things didn't slow down when they got to the Hokage's Building. Jonin were running in an out with lists of the injured, missing, and dead. Others were chunin and genin with no idea what to do, and some were frantic civilians who had managed to bypass the security. In the end, Sasuke took Nawaki back to the police station, while Naruto kicked everyone out, told Hisa to find Hinata, and summoned the ANBU to help him sort everything out.
It took Hisa ten minutes to find her mother. She was down in their private living quarters. Her brother's body was lying on the kitchen table, and although Hinata was looking that direction, her eyes weren't focused on anything.
When Hisa came in, Hianta turned to look at her. Hisa's stomach curled when she saw the numbness in her mother's eyes.
"What's happened?" Hinata whispered. "I organized the ANBU to supervise the village, and then I came down here. Is Naruto…?"
"He's fine." Hisa said, hearing the emptiness in her voice. "It's all over now. Everything's ok."
Except it wasn't, and as her mother started to cry, screaming her brother's name, Hisa knew that it never would be.
So she did the only thing she could. She sat down, put her arms around her mother, and let Hinata hug her. Hinata sobbed into her shoulder, crushing Hisa tight against her chest.
"I'm sorry Mom." Hisa whispered. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect him."
Hinata kept hugging her, but Hisa had a feeling that she was staring at her brother over her shoulder. Was she seeing Uncle Neji too? Hisa didn't know.
"In the end, none of us could." Hinata murmured. "That's just the way life is. But you know what? We'll get through this."
"How?" Hisa asked, hoping she didn't sound to pathetic.
"You're father and I have the same ninja way. Simply put, we never give up."
"Never give up." Hisa said, tasting the words on her tongue. She smiled. "I like it."