Chapter 15: Great Love Brings Potential For Great Hate
Alas, Naruto, I own you not.
"A flaw in the sharingan?" Tsunade thumbed through the pages of the book Yamato had given her. A moment after her puzzled whisper, she looked up at Shizune. "It's remarkable. Only years of experimenting could have uncovered something like this. Orochimaru's hate for Itachi must have run deeper than we thought."
"Remarkable, yes. But how do we utilize this knowledge in battle?" Shizune asked. "Is it possible for Naruto to use this against Sasuke?"
The last remaining sannin shook her head. "Even if Naruto could use it, I doubt he would. He'd probably see it as cheating, even though ninja are supposed to exploit their enemies' weaknesses. He wants to beat Sasuke on his own level."
"Maybe it's time you put a stop to Naruto's foolish quest. I think it's obvious from the Uchiha's latest activities that we can no longer accept him back into the village."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed, and her voice took on a hardened edge. "Don't advise me on matters above you, Shizune. Naruto's quest is more important to the village than you realize."
"Why, Tsunade-sama? Because he's the last sharingan user? Or is this just you hoping that Naruto won't have to share your path of losing everyone that matters to him?!"
The silence following Shizune's statement was deafening. She'd crossed a line and thy both knew it.
Wordlessly, Tsunade pointed at the door, and Shizune was happy to oblige her.
As her apprentice left, the sannin resisted the urge to pound her desk into tiny pieces. She knew her fellow medic was right in her own way. Sasuke was a traitor. He was a criminal. He was causing bad relations with other countries. The council would never let him rejoin Konoha.
She sighed.
But if Sakura and Naruto had faith in him then so would she.
"Oi, Tsunade-sama, should I come back later?"
She looked up at Kakashi, surprised he'd picked this moment to intrude upon her thoughts. Ever since his battle with the Mist-nin, the copy ninja had been quieter than usual. She had to admit, she'd never seen him in that bad of shape returning from a mission. He was lucky to be alive.
"No, actually. Tell me, Kakashi, what do you really think about the council of elders?"
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Sakura ducked behind a homestead wall as a Konoha shinboi went flying through the building next to her. Dust infiltrated the air, momentarily blocking the strange akatsuki shinobi and his summons creature from her view. All around her, she could hear the screams of her comrades. Where and when she could, she darted through the battle ground on Konoha's most western edge, healing those that she found.
It hadn't taken long for shinobi in the immediate area to realize they were under attack. The guards at the outpost were found, dead, and the alarm had been raised. The news hadn't reached the Hokage's tower yet, as no reinforcements had arrived, and Sakura wasn't sure why. Someone had to have been able to get through.
However, as she dared a look over the edge of the wall, she found the enemy's eyes instantly on her. Damn. I can't barely move without him knowing it. He'd been watching her activities, blocking her as she tried to maneuver to the injured. He recognized her as a medic, and knew her value. He wasn't about to let her continue doing her job.
Crawling along the edge of the wall, she slipped through the doorway to the empty house. From under the rubble, a bloody hand was visible, and Sakura crept over to it. Touching the cool skin, Sakura shuddered. He was dead. She needed to move on.
Wiping the grimy perspiration from her forehead, she paused, uncertain what had made her chest suddenly clench with fear. She looked around for a moment until she realize what set her body on edge.
The screaming had stopped.
Only silence surrounded her now, and she knew she was alone. Everyone else was dead.
He would be looking for her now. She knew he wasn't going to leave anyone alive in his wake. Her one and only chance now was to make a break for it and reach the Hokage tower herself.
Don't be foolish, Sakura. Someone got through. Tsunade-sama knows about this. She has to.
But then where were the rest of the village ninja?
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"Protect the hospital!" Tsunade hollered out to Genma as he raced by, a wounded member of his team in arm. "Get a line of shinobi to it's entrance! We're gonna need a safe haven!"
The Hokage pushed past the increasing crowd of civilians piling into the Konoha medical ward. Sasuke, is this your doing? Or are you a slave to the Rinnegan as well? The blonde woman steeled herself as she rushed out amidst Konoha's finest. "Shikamaru! Get your team over to the Western edge. Kakashi! Go see what's happened at the East gate! Gai! Lee! We've got four other breeches! Everyone divide up and move out!"
Six Rinnegan had come to Konoha. Tsunade's heart sank. Jiraiya, how I need you now.
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Sasuke stood on top of Konoha's outermost gate, watching with Uchiha Madara as Pein's personal army rampaged through the city. His eyes held no hint of remorse as he watched areas of his homeland burn. They had done this to him. They'd destroyed Itachi, murdered his family. They'd hated the Uchiha. And to think, after all those years of being away, it was here that he was supposed to be. Here was where his revenge would really take form.
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Knees bloody from crawling over sharp rocks, Sakura's gut told her the Akatsuki with the strange eyes was toying with her. Leaning against a partially obliterated pillar, she glanced up at the smoke billowing into the blue of the sky.
Sasuke? She sat up, squinting to see the two forms atop the gate better through the smoke.
"Ino! Stay behind Choji! Steer clear of the summons creature! Everyone else, concentrate on the Akatsuki!"
"Shikamaru?" Sakura hopped to her feet and raced toward the sound of her classmate's voice. "Shikamaru! Wait! His eyes! Watch out for his e--!"
A massive tail slammed down in front of her, the force of it throwing her back a few yards. She recovered slowly, dazed from cracking her head off the hard road. She saw Shikamaru calling out orders from the top of a nearby building. His teammates stood on the ground, Ino ready for an opportunity to catch the Akatsuki in a mind hold.
This isn't right. Sakura darted back around the way she'd come. This isn't a normal battle. Shikamaru, don't forget what Tsunade told us about the Rinnegan! Finding an opening, the medic leapt across the rubble just as Ino's body fell limp, her mind now transferred to that of the summoner.
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Emptiness. Complete and Utter emptiness.
Ino searched for control in the mind she'd entered only to find there was no mind to control. Someone was already pulling this puppet's string s from outside.
As she was about to release her hold, a pair of eerie eyes loomed over her in the darkness.
It was at that moment that Ino fully and completely understood the Rinnegan.
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Something's wrong! Sakura could tell by the way the Akatsuki kept fighting that Ino had no control over him. She could also see that Ino was not back in her own body. The other girl was trapped.
Sasuke, why aren't you stopping this? She glanced up at him as she raced over to where Ino lay. Why are letting this happen?
A new summons creature appeared nearby, it's body coated with poisonous spikes.
Why? What would bring you to this?
Ino lay a few feet away, and Choji looked up as Sakura's sprint brought her to them.
"Sakura! I-I don't know what's wrong with Ino! She hasn't come ba—"
Blood spattered against the building, along the road, and all over Sakura as a needle-like extension of the summoned beast impaled both Choji and Ino.
The world around her vanished as Sakura's mind struggled to come to come to grips with what had just happened. In what felt like slow motion, she cried out, her ears deaf to her own voice, and fell to her knees at the bodies of her friends. Forcing healing chakra into them, she blocked out Shikamaru's hands on her shoulders trying to pull her away. She couldn't hear him. She couldn't see him. Only blood and silence pierced her mind. Out of pure reaction, she pushed the other Konoha ninja's away as they fought to make her leave. She wasn't even aware of her own chant of "no, no, no, no…"
When they managed to pull her away, Sakura's haunted eyes turned up toward Sasuke. Why didn't you help us?
But Sasuke just watched.
"What happens now is on your conscience."
Itachi's words rang through her mind.
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Sasuke watched something die in Sakura.
And he knew, when she looked at him in complete and utter pain, that he was the cause of it.
"Sometimes," Madara said quietly, "great love can give way to great hate."
Sasuke knew, on many levels, just what Madara was referring to.
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Coming soon: Chapter 16: Them that Die will be the Lucky Ones