Not Sick Chapter 18
Last Dance
"So. Who was foolish enough to give themselves to you?"
Itachi's backswing tore another gouge in the blackened concrete as Orochimaru slithered around the glowing blade. The Kusanagi keened as it pierced through the air, set for the Susano'o's chest.
Itachi slapped it aside, his guardian's hands contemptuously removing the sword from play.
"A man," Orochimaru chuckled, weaving seals before the Kusanagi was fully removed from his hands.
"I had imagined."
The Susano'o surged forward, bringing an arm back to crush the Snake, before the pale man sunk into the ground, vanishing without a trace.
"His name was Shiranami Tsuchigumo." Orochimaru's voice seemed to come from every direction. Itachi glanced around unhurriedly, his new Sharingan taking in the dim room. Lightning outside cast a sharp light on everything for a moment, revealing the gouges and scorch marks across the floor, before departing and leaving everything cast in a half shadow.
"Tsuchigumo." Itachi took an untroubled breath. "I know that name," he said, the Susano'o shifting around him. His hair was rippling, buffeted by the coursing orange chakra. "A dead clan."
He noticed that the Kusanagi had vanished from where it had fallen.
"Not quite," Orochimaru laughed, the sound sickly. Itachi's attention was drawn back to it. "But one far enough into the grave to make its remaining members… desperate."
"What did you offer him?" Itachi couldn't find the Sannin.
The ground beneath his feet, within the Susano'o, erupted upwards. Orochimaru streamed from the concrete, his form resolving itself in an instant. The Kusanagi, stealthily retrieved, was clutched in his left hand.
"Power, of course," Orochimaru spoke casually. He sliced Itachi in half, his blade sweeping upwards and bisecting the Uchiha.
"And an opportunity for revenge."
Itachi stared at him in astonishment for a moment, and then vanished in a flock of cawing crows. Orochimaru watched them go in disgust.
"Tch. Clones," he hissed. "You left your armor, huh-?"
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. The Sannin started, and began turning, his sword already coming back up.
Itachi's haymaker knocked out half of his teeth.
The other hand, coming from below in a vicious uppercut, took care of the rest.
"Revenge." Itachi only sounded bored, even as he took another step forward and continued to brutalize Orochimaru. The man reeled, his guard dropped, as Itachi hammered punch after punch into his face. Blood, pale and foul-smelling, splattered across the scorched floor and began to sizzle.
"Such a petty concept," Itachi continued, driving a foot into where Orochimaru's kidneys should have been. The man flinched, and Itachi took the moment of hesitation as an opportunity to bury his fist in the Sannin's gut, doubling him over with the force of the blow.
They remained there, frozen for a moment. Orochimaru spat up something that could have been bile.
"Such a worthless pursuit," Itachi muttered. He withdrew his hand, lightning fast, and brought his elbow crashing down on the back of Orochimaru's neck. The Sannin hit the floor so quickly that anyone watching would have assumed he'd been there since the beginning of the fight.
"Worthless?" Orochimaru spat, twisting his head all the way around to face Itachi. "How can you call something so pure-"
Itachi stepped on his face.
"Worthless?" the Uchiha mused. "It accomplishes nothing. A waste of effort, and a needless distraction." He sighed, grinding his foot. "I can understand the appeal, but the justification?"
He drew his foot away, leaving Orochimaru's face smashed and misshapen. In places, where the skin had torn, there was a hint of a slightly less pale face beneath the masquerade. Dark bruises were swelling on its visible cheeks.
"Empty," Itachi murmured.
Orochimaru's body melted away, revealing the hollowness beneath it. Itachi shook his head.
"You can't win, Sannin," he calmly said. "Your skill is pointless, and your drive, insufficient."
There was a flutter of movement.
Itachi spun, the ribs of the Susano'o rising around him, and seized Orochimaru by the throat as he descended from the ceiling, one arm raising the Kusanagi and the other a writhing mass of snakes, venom dripping from their elongated fangs.
The snakes battered themselves bloody against the Susano'o, their venom melting rivulets in the ghastly ribs, but accomplishing little else. A moment later, a hand flashed out, and their heads fell to the ground, futilely writhing.
The Kusanagi descended, and the Susano'o's hand came up, seizing Orochimaru's wrist. The blade halted an inch from Itachi's left eye.
Itachi stared over the orange glare of his chakra, watching Orochimaru with a detached look. He ignored the snake heads at his feet, and the sword before his face. The older man stared back, grinning.
"Pointless?" he choked out, as the Itachi's fingers tightened. The Kusanagi gleamed, and the blade shot forward, elongating faster than Itachi could hope to react.
But the Uchiha had already tilted his head slightly to the right, and the blade skimmed by him, missing his ear by the barest of centimeters.
His Sharingan spun idly, and Orochimaru hissed.
"Those eyes…" he muttered, glaring at Itachi. "They always seem to give me so much trouble."
"Perhaps you should have shifted your goals," Itachi offered flatly. He squeezed, and Orochimaru hacked. "Set your eyes on something lower."
The Sannin laughed, even as the rest of his air was stolen. "Lower? Me?" he chuckled. "Come, Itachi. Tell me you know me better than that."
"True," Itachi admitted. "You always did overestimate yourself."
Orochimaru's face twisted in amusement. "How rude."
"I would not say it if it weren't true," Itachi deadpanned, staring into Orochimaru's eyes. His Mangekyō spun, the starburst within the shuriken rotating faster and faster. The Sannin watched it, transfixed.
"Amazing," he whispered. "Yet another permutation. Just how many secrets do your eyes hold?"
"More than you will ever know."
The flat menace filling the statement seemed to jar Orochimaru from his trance. "And you say I overestimate myself!" he laughed.
Itachi didn't answer. Not right away.
Instead, he just kept staring. Orochimaru grinned back, his teeth stained with his own blood.
"Enough of this," the Uchiha finally said. Whatever he had been looking for in the Sannin's face, he hadn't been able to find it.
"Oh? So you will decide when we're-" Orochimaru began to say.
The thunder outside crashed again, casting both of the men in its harsh light. Their shadows, sharp as knives, fled across the room.
Itachi spoke.
"Tsukuyomi."
The shadows didn't stop as the lightning faded away. They continued forward, slipping up the walls and wrapping around the whole of the room. They draped themselves over the exit Juugo and Sasuke had created, and slammed shut the beaten iron door.
The room was gone. Lightless shadows had replaced it.
Itachi sunk away, vanishing into the darkness. Orochimaru dropped, the hand removed from his throat. He hit the ground unsteady, massaging his neck, and looked around.
He cocked an eyebrow at the seemingly endless darkness.
"Genjutsu?" he asked wryly. "Really Itachi, I'd thought you would have least expanded your tricks by now."
"Genjutsu?" Itachi echoed back. As Orochimaru's had before, his voice seemed to come from every direction. The Sannin smirked at the unintentional imitation.
"I have always wondered at the difference between genjutsu and reality," Itachi continued. "Surely, a reality in one's head is less a reality than the one everyone experiences. But how much less?"
The darkness shifted, swirling around Orochimaru. The man just crossed his arms, unimpressed.
"Is what happens there representative of what we wish of the outer, truer reality? Or just lies, spun to misguide and deceive?"
"Couldn't it be both?" Orochimaru chuckled.
There was a pause.
The shadows shot up through Orochimaru's leg, spearing the whole of it. Slowly, with infinite delicacy, they began to peel his leg apart, starting at the foot and gradually moving up towards the thigh. Muscle, tendons, and bone split, messily spilling blood and marrow onto the nonexistent floor.
Orochimaru gritted his teeth.
"Yes," Itachi said. For the first time since the fight had begun, he didn't sound bored, or cold.
Now, he sounded amused.
"Why not both?"
"You can't do both, Sasuke."
The teen in question gritted his non-existent teeth.
"Why not?" he asked, his voice on the edge of a growl. "With these eyes-"
His mother cut him off, her voice patient but firm. "You're strong now, Sasuke. And with your brother's gift, even more so." She stared at him, her own Mangekyō idly rotating. "But you're not strong enough for that. You're going to have to make a choice."
"I don't want to."
Mikoto laughed. "Well, you're definitely seventeen then, huh?"
Sasuke sighed. "My brother, or my friend?" he murmured. "I need to help Itachi take care of Orochimaru. When he's gone, you and father can both leave as well. Be at peace again."
"And if you leave Naruto for too long, you might put him in more trouble than you could imagine," Mikoto countered. She took a step forward, taking one of Sasuke's hands in her own. "You can't waste this, Sasuke. Please. Itachi can take care of himself. Go. Help Naruto, and get out of this place. Together."
The Uchiha stared at his mother for a moment. She watched him earnestly.
"You just don't want to make Kushina angry with you, don't you?" he finally said, a small smile drawing itself across his face.
Mikoto shivered dramatically. "You don't understand, Sasuke. I would leap off the edge of the world if I thought it might save me from Kushina's anger."
Sasuke chuckled. "She sounded like an incredible person. Though…" he paused. "I just realized. You never told me who Naruto's father was."
Mikoto blinked. "I… didn't?" She glanced up, replaying their conversation in her head. "Hmph. Guess I got a little distracted."
'A little' was perhaps one of the greatest understatements Sasuke had ever heard. He now knew more about the Bloody Habanero than he'd ever cared to. His mother had had a lot of stories bottled up inside of her; stories she'd never had a chance to tell him while she was still alive.
Stories he could tell she'd desperately wanted out.
"Would I-" he asked.
"Oh, you'd know him," Mikoto smirked. It looked eerily like Sasuke's own.
"It was the Yondaime."
Sasuke stared at her.
"You're joking."
"I wish."
He had no idea what to say to that. The idea that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage…
He'd never heard something so unbelievable in his life.
"And yet-"
"The village ignored him."
Sasuke snorted.
"What a joke," he grumbled.
"And not a particularly funny one," Mikoto agreed.
The world began to shrink: the genjutsu was finally running its course.
"I should stand by a place like that?" Sasuke asked, as the concrete rushed towards oblivion. The birds in the sky, and the clouds farther above them, vanished, leaving everything above him a flat and featureless expanse of blue. "And Itachi? We should help defend the kind of place that ignores and resents the son of the a man who saved it?"
"You don't have a choice, Sasuke," Mikoto said with a bitter smile. "You can't look at things with such a black and white view. Konoha has done bad things. Terrible things, even. All the villages have. But it is nothing compared to the strife that came before."
"A necessary evil?" Sasuke murmured. The concrete was gone, the buildings and trees with it. He and his mother were alone on a white plain. Darkness rushed in, shrinking the world.
"Of a sorts," Mikoto admitted.
The Tsukuyomi broke.
The rain and thunder returned. Sasuke was soaked in bone-chilling water once more, his hand stinging intensely, his back aching. His fingers felt numb, the katana threatening to slip out of them, and his shirt plastered itself to his body.
His mother stared at him, still frozen from the feedback of the technique. She would break it in a moment, and then they would be forced to fight again.
"Just like the death of the Uchiha was?" Sasuke said quietly.
His mother blinked.
"Yes," she said after a moment of hesitation. She jumped back, her arms coming up into a ready position. Chakra rolled in her chest, forming around her lungs in preparation for any number of jutsu. "Sasuke, I-"
He raised his hand, stopping her words before they could form.
"There shouldn't be such things."
Mikoto stared at him. "Sasuke, it's always been like that. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice something if you want to succeed."
"It seems like the Uchiha have always thought that," Sasuke said forcefully, watching his mother intensely. His Sharingan idly spun. "Sacrifice. Sacrifice our siblings, sacrifice our eyes…" He paused, staring down at his bleeding hand, and clenched it tightly. Blood, thinned by the rain, leaked between his fingers. "Sacrifice our bonds," he finished.
He looked back up at his mother, leveling his bleeding hand at his own face. "Since Madara, every Uchiha has believed there is only one way to gain these eyes."
The Eternal Mangekyō stared out, the shuriken within the star seeming to pierce the blackened iris.
Mikoto pursed her lips, blowing a volley of fireballs at her son. He stepped through them, sliding around the flames effortlessly, watching her the whole time.
"They must murder their closest friend. They must rob their sibling of their light. They must sacrifice their family, to gain power."
He swatted one of the fireballs away with the flat of his blade, cloaked in lightning. Mikoto watched him, not understanding what he was trying to say.
"Sasuke…"
Mikoto's words were lost in the thunderstorm. Sasuke wouldn't have heard them anyway. He was staring right through her.
"But they were all wrong."
Sasuke started talking faster. The blood from his hand was slowing; the cut was already beginning to scab over.
"Itachi proved them wrong."
He took another step towards his mother, his bare feet freezing at the contact with the tower's slick metal. Mikoto rushed forward.
Her mouth was pulled in a grim line, but she didn't interrupt him.
"He unlocked my Mangekyō without forcing me to kill him." Sasuke blocked his mother's haymaker easily. She seemed to move so slow now. The follow-up kick, he cartwheeled over, slicing off his mother's hand as he went.
Everything seemed to be moving slow.
"He replaced my light, instead of robbing it." Sasuke's lips pursed and his hands sped together. A fireball engulfed his mother as she turned towards him, surprise fleeting across her face.
Once more, the jutsu vanished in a flash of silver light. Mikoto came at him from behind, circling around him in the moment of distraction. Sasuke blocked her kick with the flat of his sword, and then sent his own into her face.
"And now, I have this power. And there has been no sacrifice." Sasuke paused, and then jumped into a roundhouse kick, sending his mother stumbling away.
"All of the clan's previous evils… meaningless. Unnecessary." He took a deep breath. "Itachi's proved it. None of it had to be done."
"And, Sasuke?" his mother asked, trying to stove his throat in. He ducked past the curled knuckles, battering down her defenses. "I don't-"
"I didn't have to sacrifice, to gain this power," Sasuke said. "If Itachi had… trusted me… if Itachi and I had been working together, instead of him not trusting me to listen, there wouldn't even have been any conflict involved."
He pushed his mother back and leveled his sword. Rain dripped from the blade, running along the groove, and a distant flash of lightning made the whole of the steel gleam for a moment.
"'Necessary evil', you called it," Sasuke proclaimed. "You claim the death of the Uchiha was brought about by it as well." He lowered the sword; lightning was still buzzing through it, casting a light across the dim roof.
"But from what Itachi and you have told me, the coup was only brought about because the Uchiha were unwilling to compromise." His eyes narrowed. "'Necessary evil' is not a pervasive force. It is created by circumstance."
Mikoto stared at her son in disbelief. For the first time in a while, he stood completely straight, his posture sure, and his eyes hard.
"I will ensure that those circumstances cease."
"You can't be serious," Mikoto said flatly.
"It's the only thing to do," Sasuke responded shortly.
"You're just going to change the world? Like that?" Mikoto circled her son, and Sasuke turned with her. "Sasuke, it's not that easy."
"Of course not," Sasuke admitted. "But I'll do it anyway."
"I… Sasuke. You understand, don't you? That people will always have to compromise? That even in a world where evil is unnecesary, not everyone will get their way? It's completely impossible." Mikoto began running through signs. A hosenka jutsu.
"That's my point," Sasuke said, brandishing his sword. The fireballs began to come, Mikoto following after them, weaving her way through her own flames.
He batted away any that came too close to him, and then glared at his mother. The Amaterasu emerged, burning her legs away.
"The Uchiha believed it was impossible to gain the Eternal Mangekyō through anything but fratricide." He watched her level herself back to rapidly regenerating legs.
He needed a way to put her down for good. The Tsukuyomi wouldn't last long enough: he just wasn't as skilled in it as Itachi.
An idea began trickling through Sasuke's brain, brought by the cold rain coating his hair.
"Itachi proved them wrong."
Mikoto finally made it back to her feet. A silver flash banished the Amaterasu, still greedily licking at her.
Sasuke paid close attention as blood, quickly washed away, leaked from his mother's left eye.
"The world believes the necessary evil will always be just that. Necessary. That sometimes, families must die. Friends must die. That people must lie."
He took a deep breath.
"I will prove it wrong."
Mikoto watched him, her lip twisting.
"Sasuke… I appreciate what you're saying," she said carefully. Her right eye began to whirl slowly, independent of the other. "But you shouldn't set yourself for something so absolute. It's a noble goal, but even with your power, it would be impossible to accomplish in your lifetime."
"What makes you think that?" Sasuke murmured, watching a line of blood trickle from his mother's right eye. He had no idea what jutsu it could possibly hold. A variant of Amaterasu, or a genjutsu? The chakra devouring silver spheres were like nothing else he had seen; it was entirely possible his mother's other eye held something he couldn't even guess at.
"Everyone needs a goal," Mikoto said. "Everyone needs something to strive for. If you really, truly mean what you say, don't expect it to be easy, and don't expect it to be quick. You're going to have to live everyday with your principles in mind."
She hesitated: the trail of blood reached her chin. "And… just like the Uchiha should have made compromises, you'll likely have to do the same. It's the way things are."
Sasuke blinked. "What are you saying?"
Mikoto smiled sadly. "I'm telling you to keep an open mind, Sasuke. It's something that a lot of shinobi have trouble wi-"
The world jumped. The rain shifted. A cloud disappeared, and lightning in the distance sprung from nowhere.
"-th!" Mikoto finished, her eyes going wide.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke blinked, spinning to look behind him while keeping his mother in his peripheral vision.
"Karin?"
He finished his turn just in time for his father to punch him in the face.
"Jump!" Fugaku barked. Sasuke, reeling and bleeding from the lip, did just that. His mother blazed under him, barely missing her husband. They twisted around each other, both snapping their heads up to watch their son.
"What," Sasuke said flatly, too shocked to articulate his confusion.
He looked around as he fell back towards the roof, executing a perfect backflip and coming to his feet. He and his mother were no longer alone.
Karin was at the edge of the building, her hair utterly flattened by the rain. Suigetsu stood alongside her, his Butcher's Blade leveled horizontally in front of him. Sasuke's Sharingan narrowed; all of the rain that landed on the Hozuki disappeared, absorbed into his body.
And his father had arrived, attacking him without warning. All three of them had simply appeared.
What was going on?
His mother's right eye began to spin again.
"Sasuke!" Suigetsu shouted. The Uchiha twisted towards him, shaking off his father's blow. His katana came back up.
"What the hell were you doing?!" the Hozuki roared. "Just standing around? Do you wanna die?"
Sasuke stared at him. "Where… when did you get here?" he asked. His parents turned to him.
"Sasuke!" That was his father. Everyone seemed to be screaming at him. Sasuke shook his head again.
"Get ready!" Fugaku shouted. "She's going to do it again!"
"Do what?" Sasuke shouted back. "What the hell is-!"
Mikoto blinked. More blood ran from her right eye.
Fugaku vanished. Suigetsu yelped, and Karin screamed. A cloud jumped across the sky. For a moment, Sasuke felt dry, as if the rain had vanished.
It hadn't.
"Suigetsu!" Karin screamed again, and Sasuke twisted, looking away from his mother.
His father stood over Suigetsu, the Hozuki prone on the roof. His legs were gone, as was his left arm. His right was stretched out at his side, pinned to the roof by Fugaku's foot; his hand was uselessly clutching the Kubikiribōchō in a death grip.
He snarled up at Sasuke's father, exposing his shark-like teeth. Karin was rushing towards the both of them, an arm stretched out. She was shouting something rather obscene.
Sasuke blinked again. The whole thing was so surreal. Things were jumping around with rhyme or reason.
He had no idea what was going on.
Fugaku's arm came up in a simple sign.
"Katon," he muttered.
Sasuke launched himself towards his father. At that range, a fire jutsu would completely incinerate Suigetsu. Even he wouldn't be able to come back from that.
"Heads up!"
His mother intercepted him, sliding into his ankle in the middle of his sprint. Sasuke tumbled over her, rolling to his feet. He came to one knee, his back to Suigetsu. His mother was coming for him again, her face twisted in a grimace.
Sasuke risked a glance back, frowning. His father was cupping his mouth.
Suigetsu's arm exploded of its own accord, water flying everywhere. Karin was only about four meters away.
Too far. She wouldn't make it in time.
Sasuke turned, throwing his sword with all his strength. It cut a clean path through the rain, leaving a momentary, gleaming lane, flying straight for his father's head. Sasuke spun with the motion, turning around to face his mother in time to catch her high kick.
He shoved her upwards, throwing her into a backflip. Her other foot came with her, headed for his chin.
He jumped back and kicked out. The bottom of his foot and his mother's met.
She stared at him in shock. Even with her Sharingan, he'd been too quick for her to alter her attack.
Sasuke pushed.
Mikoto flew backwards, cutting a path through the rain just as Sasuke sword had. Tumbling end over end, she hit the roof and bounced, rolling across the slick surface. Her hands scrambled about, but the rain prevented her from gripping the concrete: the chakra in it made the roof too slick.
She had time for one hasty, exuberant, "Nice one, Sasuke!" before she skidded over the edge, plummeting into the abyss that Amegakure had become.
A voice carried itself through the storm, threading its way through the absence left by Mikoto's departure. Suigetsu's, vicious and cold.
"Bang."
There was a crack, rippling through the air, pressing against Sasuke's eardrums.
He spun towards the sound.
Suigetsu and his father were where he had left them. Fugaku was leaning back, his chin lifted. He had avoided Sasuke sword, but at a cost: the side of his jaw was torn away, and a bloodless gash was torn up the whole side of his face, destroying one of his eyes.
Karin was still charging, only a meter away. She was holding Sasuke's katana in a two handed grip. Somehow, she'd caught it as it had blazed past Fugaku.
And Suigetsu, still prone on the floor, was pointing at Sasuke father. His arm had reformed past the leg that had pinned it, and his hand was curled into a fist, with the index finger and thumb extended.
Sasuke stared.
"Impressive," Fugaku said, not caring that half of his face was gone.
Suigetsu sneered, and with a roar Karin, who had finally covered the last of the distance, brought Sasuke's sword down and cut his father's head clean off.
Fugaku's body stumbled backwards off of Suigetsu, and the prone boy took the opportunity to kick it, sending it toppling onto its back. Fugaku's head fell, bouncing off of Suigetsu's chest and rolling to the left, coming to face Sasuke.
He stared at it. His father stared back, apparently unruffled.
There was a timeless moment. As ever, the rain fell. Sasuke's shirt was plastered to his frame.
"I see you've taken care of your mother," Fugaku said, rather calmly. How could he speak with nothing but a head?
Sasuke blinked.
What was he thinking? He was talking to his father's severed head atop a stormswept skyscraper in the middle of an unfamiliar village, seeing through his brother's eyes, while Suigetsu and Karin watching him warily. His father was already a walking corpse. This wasn't even close to the strangest thing about the situation.
So instead of turning the question over, Sasuke snorted. "Hardly. She'll be back."
Fugaku frowned. "Of course. I hope you have a plan, Sasuke. Unless you seal us, or kill Orochimaru, we will just continue to regenerate from any attack." His eyes darted downward. Fugaku's head was slowly but surely disintegrating, chunks of ash and bits of parchment detaching and winging towards his headless body, unimpeded by the rain.
"The Edo Tensei is really that powerful?" Karin asked. She was still holding Sasuke's sword, the blade lowered. Suigetsu, who had pulled himself into a sitting position, his limbs slowly regenerating, glanced at it as a distant flash of lightning reflected off its shining steel.
Fugaku didn't look away from Sasuke; he couldn't. But he did raise his voice.
"It was invented by the Nidaime as a measure to control people like us," he said. He sounded perversely proud. "Of course it is that powerful."
"How can I stop you?" Sasuke asked. More and more of his father's head was disappearing: he'd be restored in a moment.
Unacceptable.
Sasuke rose to his feet, shifting to look at his father's body. The head was in the midst of reforming. The jaw had just begun to take shape.
"Amaterasu."
Black fire, unnatural and acrid, whirled into existence across Fugaku's torso and legs. Sasuke's father looked shocked for a moment, before the last of his head slipped away and reconstituted itself.
"Clever," he said, a hint of genuine admiration in his voice, as he looked down at his flaming body. Fugaku attempted to rise, to attack his son again, but the Amaterasu had eaten through too much of his corpse. He trembled, unable to get up, and then turned his head to Sasuke, grinning.
"You can control the flames?" His smile looked entirely out of place on his usually stoic face.
Sasuke grunted, a trail of blood running from both his eyes. There was a jabbing sensation, as if someone had driven a pin into his cheek.
"Somewhat," he muttered, trying not to let the strain show in his voice. His father noticed anyway.
"You're bleeding," he noted. "How new are those eyes?"
Suigetsu chuckled. "He took the bandages off 'bout ten minutes ago."
Fugaku's head cocked back, finding the Hozuki in his peripheral vision. The black flames licking at his chest still stubbornly refused to spread to his face.
"Incredible," he said, looking back at Sasuke. "You've only just began to see, and you can already use the Mangekyō so precisely?"
Karin motioned, drawing Sasuke's attention, and then tossed him his sword over his father's burning body. He caught it without a word, nodding in thanks.
She didn't blush. Sasuke almost smiled at that.
"You could stop us with this," Fugaku continued, having missed the subtle back and forth that had passed right over him. "With these flames, and your control…"
"It won't be that easy, father," Sasuke said, relishing the last word. Fugaku paused, watching carefully. His Sharingan narrowed, whirling slowly.
"Mom has a Mangekyō of her own, and a technique with it," he said, closing his eyes, remembering their fight. The silver sphere, and the way his Amaterasu had been drawn into its surface, vanishing, along with any rain that had touched its surface.
"Something that devours chakra," he continued after a moment. "So long as she can use it, there's no way I'll be able to keep either of you from regenerating."
"You'll have to destroy her eyes," Fugaku said without missing a beat. "If this technique really is so potent. You must stop us, Sasuke. We don't belong here anymore. Our time has passed."
"I know." The words tasted bitter, but Sasuke knew that both he and his father were telling the truth.
"She's coming back," Karin cut in, stepping past Suigetsu, who had hefted his sword back over his shoulder. "Up the side of the building."
Sasuke glanced at her, nodding.
"Where's Juugo?" he asked.
Fugaku's answered, his face twisting. "The mutating boy?"
Sasuke looked back to him and nodded, and his father continued.
"I left him at the bottom of the tower, before your friends chased me back up here. I don't believe he is dead, though it may take him some time for his skin to grow back, even with his… 'talents'."
Karin winced, but Suigetsu just chuckled.
"He was pretty fucked up," he said, swinging his sword down to lean on it. "But Karin got to him. He'll be fine, even with that nasty fire jutsu." His eyes sharpened. "You know, Sasuke, you never explained why you were just standing around up here. What happened with you and your mom?"
Sasuke frowned. "We weren't standing around," he said. "We were talking, and then the rest of you just appeared. I still haven't-"
"It was your mother," Fugaku cut in. Everyone present looked at him. Thunder cracked once more in the distance, and Karin's lip twisted in worry. Mikoto must have been coming closer.
"What?" Sasuke asked, kneeling in front of his burning parent.
"Your mother," Fugaku repeated, his eyes narrowing. "It was her Mangekyō, I'm sure of it. She has a technique… it froze the both of you."
"Froze us?" Sasuke cocked his head. He remembered the clouds skipping across the sky: the momentary feeling of inexplicable dryness. "You mean…"
"He's right, Sasuke." Karin spoke up. "After we got here. She just looked at you, and you both just… stopped. You weren't even breathing. It was like you were both just bunshin."
"You couldn't be touched," Fugaku confirmed. "One of my jutsu went right through you. I saw…" He frowned, the rain trickling down the lines his ambition had carved in his face only accentuating the look. "I don't know exactly what I saw," he said, blinking meaningfully. "There was a tether between the two of you; very, very potent chakra. It almost looked like a reverse summoning."
Karin's eyes narrowed. Sasuke rose back to his feet.
"A dimensional jutsu?" he muttered.
If Fugaku could have shrugged, he would have. "I believe so," he said, his lip twisting. "Whatever it was, it rendered the both of you incapable of fighting. There is that, at least."
"How can I avoid it?" Sasuke said. He remembered his mother: how she'd just looked at him…
And then he'd lost at least a minute of his life. Frozen, unable to even realize what had happened to him.
The Mangekyō really was terrifying.
"I don't know." Sasuke attention was drawn back to his father. The Amaterasu had refused to fade.
"You couldn't possibly dodge it. She simply had to look at you. Eye contact wasn't even required. And if she gets you again…"
Fugaku glanced back at Karin and Suigetsu. Sasuke's frown intensified.
His father was right. Neither of them could hope to take the former head of the Uchiha Clan in a straight fight: not the least because he was effectively immortal in his current state.
"Hmm." Sasuke didn't let his thoughts show on his face. He closed his eyes.
"Sasuke." He didn't look at Karin. "She's almost here."
He sighed.
"You two. Get out of here."
"What." Suigetsu was about as blunt as a hammer.
Karin stepped forward. "Sasuke, if you think we're going to get in the way-"
He waved her off with his off hand, keeping his sword at his side. "It's not that," he said, looking right at her, his eyes slowly swirling. "If you stay, you'll die."
"And if you fight them alone, you'll die," Karin shot back. Sasuke chuckled at that, but she just shook her head. "There's not time: she's almost here."
"If you won't leave-" Sasuke said.
"Shut up, will you?" Suigetsu said, rolling his eyes, purple and vibrant even in the dimness of the night. The Kubikiribōchō rolled around his shoulders along with them. "We got your back."
Sasuke stared at him, remembering a distant conversation on a dusty road.
'Let's make our relationship extremely clear, shall we? Just because you defeated Orochimaru, that doesn't make you in charge here.'
Suigetsu hadn't changed, it seemed. He was still was stubborn to a fault.
It was probably going to get him killed.
Sasuke smirked.
"Don't mess up," he said carelessly. Suigetsu smirked back.
Karin let slip a small grin, before tensing.
"She's here."
Mikoto rocketed over the edge of the building, her expression grim and her eyes whirling.
"Watch out!" she barked, and a silver sphere sprung into existence over Fugaku, draining away Sasuke's Amaterasu in a second.
Sasuke spun, his sword rising. His mother was looking right at him. Blood was leaking from her right eye.
He flung himself to the left. The eye tracked him.
No way to dodge. No way to-
Something interposed itself across Sasuke's vision. Something purple.
"Oh you moron!" Karin's shriek rang across the rooftop.
Sasuke completed his dodge, rolling to his feet. He glanced back.
Suigetsu was there. He'd thrown himself in front of Mikoto's jutsu.
And now, the both of them were utterly frozen.
Mikoto was in the middle of a smile. Suigetsu just looked pissed, his shark-teeth exposed and the Butcher's Blade trailing behind him, coming up into an instinctual block.
They were also both in midair. Gravity had apparently given up on them. Looking closely, Sasuke's Sharingan could discern the chakra-infested rain falling around them… and through them. The water slipped through as if they weren't even there.
It was just as his father had said. Suigetsu and his mother weren't really on the roof anymore. They were somewhere else entirely: these were just afterimages, preserved until they returned.
Speaking of his father-
Sasuke turned, and Fugaku finished levering himself to his feet.
"Damn," the older man said. "That complicates things."
"Can she-" Sasuke asked. He noticed Karin, over his father's shoulder, frowning furiously in Suigetsu's general direction.
"She can perceive something," Fugaku confirmed. "I don't know how much control she has, though: she could come out of it anytime."
"Hn."
Fugaku chuckled. "It's just as well." He steadied himself, falling into a casual taijutsu stance. "I've wanted some time with you."
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. His father just laughed again.
"You, Sasuke. You and Itachi. Two singularly remarkable Uchiha. I'm glad I could be your father," he said sincerely. "You've already done something that took Madara himself decades to achieve… and you're not even twenty yet."
Sasuke had reached the point in the day where so many remarkable or downright impossible things had been said to him he had ceased questioning them and simply begun to accept that the world sometimes worked in strange ways. But his father's words still inspired a very un-stoic twitch in his face.
Fugaku didn't give any indication he'd noticed. His hand leveled itself out, pointed at Sasuke. His wrist faced up, and the fingers curled in.
"So, Sasuke, I hope you'll forgive me for my presumption, but please…" Fugaku said, the most content that Sasuke had ever heard him.
He curled his hand flippantly, gesturing his son forward. The Uchiha patriarch wasn't grinning, but his lips weren't turned downwards anymore.
"Show me what you've got."
Sasuke watched his father distantly.
He could douse him with the Amaterasu again. He could throw him into the Tsukuyomi (though his father stubbornly refused to look in his eye). He could take Fugaku out now, and then wait for his mother to leave her dimensional jutsu so he could do the same to her.
But it would, in all likelihood, be pointless. Whatever he did to his father, Mikoto would be able to undo with her Mangekyō. Wasting chakra like that now would be a bad idea; even from what little he had done, Sasuke could already feel a chill weariness in his bones. His eyes were not cheap to use.
He needed the both of them fighting him at the same time anyway for what he was planning. And so...
Sasuke settled back into the same stance as Fugaku, tossing his sword to Karin as he did so. She caught it with a confused look.
"I won't be needing that," he said to her, and Karin's eyes cleared. The sword was something meant solely to kill: now, against Fugaku, Sasuke had no real use for it.
There was another thing, of course. Lurking under Sasuke's logic, taking his sword from his hand and forestalling the black fire from pouring across his father.
This was his only chance he would ever have to fight the man. The only time he ever could.
How could he not take it?
Fugaku's lips peeled back, revealing his teeth.
Sasuke grinned back: two carnivores sizing each other up.
The Uchiha charged.
Orochimaru's body made a hollow sounding thud as it hit the floor.
Itachi stood over it, staring down in mild disgust. His Susano'o shrunk, the burnished orange chakra fading out of existence until nothing but the dregs of its ribs remained.
The Sannin refused to stir; drool ran from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes remained wide open, seeing nothing.
The last of the guardian whipped away, and Itachi sighed, one hand idly wandering to his left eye.
It didn't hurt. He had been so used to that horribly wonderful tearing sensation that the Mangekyō shot through him every time he used it that its absence was almost bitter.
Almost.
He dropped his hand, refocusing on the prone body flat on the concrete before him.
"Disappointing," he muttered. "You really are pathetic, Orochimaru." One corner of his mouth pulled itself up. "In the end, all you were was chaff. Discarded flesh and wasted blood, hoping to steal something greater."
Itachi looked down, his right eye beginning to whirl faster and faster.
"It's time to end this, don't you think?" he asked the body.
"Indeed," it responded in a low tone.
Itachi's Mangekyō went wide. He jumped backwards, Amaterasu swelling in his eye.
Orochimaru struck like an adder, his hand shooting out and taking Itachi's own. He pulled, and the black flames burst over his shoulder, burning away yet more concrete.
"Itachi," he said conversationally. The Uchiha spun, his Susano'o rising again, but it was too late: the Sannin was already inside his defenses, pressed uncomfortably close to him.
The snake surged forward, bringing a knee up. Itachi dropped the chakra armor and fell back, blocking Orochimaru's knee with his own. His left hand came down, attempting to dislodge Orochimaru's iron grip on his right.
Orochimaru's tongue shot down, wrapping around Itachi's hand and twisting it uncomfortably behind the younger man's head. The Uchiha's skin went chillingly numb wherever the Sannin's saliva touched it.
"Did you really believe," Orochimaru said past his tongue, fearlessly looking in Itachi's wide eyes, "that the same trick would work on me twice?"
He viciously twisted his hand, pulling Itachi in the other direction at the same time.
Itachi's right wrist broke with a deafening crack.
The Uchiha grunted, and the Amaterasu came again. It spread over Orochimaru's face, and the pale man let out an agonized laugh.
The Sannin's back split open with a sickening squelch, and he reared up out of his own body, his fist cocked back for a haymaker.
Itachi's eyes snapped to him. The Amaterasu didn't follow.
"Tsuku-!"
"The arrogance," Orochimaru snarled. His fist hit Itachi like a thunderbolt, and the younger man's head rocked back, blood running from his nose. "Did you think I hadn't prepared?" Orochimaru demanded, punching Itachi again. More blood flew. "Did you think I'd come here on a whim?!"
He sprung from his own back, one of his hands questing behind him. It found grip on the empty snakeskin that he had once inhabited, which still maintained its death-grip on Itachi's broken wrist, and pulled.
Itachi yanked his hand back with a hiss, refusing to be drawn along with the shell, but Orochimaru didn't care. He brought the empty skin around in a hammer blow, smashing Itachi to the side. The Uchiha stumbled, and the Sannin dropped the skin, maintaining his momentum and leaping into a brutal roundhouse.
Itachi ducked, the concrete-shattering blow whistling over his head. He struck out with his unbroken hand, aiming for Orochimaru's thigh, attempting to unbalance him.
The Snake curled in midair, over-rotating. Other foot came around, knocking Itachi's attack away, and then his fist lashed out, smashing the Uchiha in the temple and sending him spinning away.
"Do you really believe that you're that much better than me?" Orochimaru hissed, landing and stalking forwards. Itachi stumbled backwards, dazed by the punch for the barest of moments, and Orochimaru surged towards him again.
This time, he wasn't fast enough. The Susano'o came up again, far quicker than before, and the Sannin's punches bounced off its ethereal bones.
"All you have are your eyes, Itachi," Orochimaru said with some glee. He circled the ominous orange armor as Itachi sank to one of his knees, cradling his wrist. The Uchiha was completely expressionless, examining the break with a clinical detachment as he kept an eye on the Snake outside the Susano'o.
Orochimaru had known what he was doing, of course. The wrist, and the hand with it, was completely useless now.
"They only belong to you as long as you can hold on to them," Orochimaru continued.
Itachi looked up at him. The pale man's face was slightly warped through the Susano'o's chakra. He was grinning, a wide, impossible stretched smile that revealed far too many teeth.
"And I will have them."
"You really are mad, aren't you?" Itachi asked. He stood up, still secure within the ribs of the Susano'o. His right hand hung limp, but his face was completely expressionless, though the Sharingan gleamed.
Orochimaru didn't take the opportunity to charge. Instead, he just cocked his head.
"I suppose from a certain point of view, yes, you could call me that," he chuckled. "Though it doesn't really matters. You're hardly one to be making accusations of madness, Itachi."
Itachi shrugged. "I suppose."
The Sannin continued to walk around the Susano'o, watching Itachi within with a certain animalistic eagerness. The Sharingan narrowed.
"So you're going to play that game?" Itachi asked, turning his head to keep focused on Orochimaru.
"You know, it really is incredible, Itachi," Orochimaru said conversationally, ignoring the question. He kept pacing, watching every ripple of the Susano'o with fascination. "This technique of yours."
Itachi shifted, but Orochimaru continued talking.
"Armor composed entirely of chakra… your very own guardian spirit," the Sannin mockingly lisped. "I wonder, how does it work?"
Itachi didn't make a move to answer.
"No, don't tell me!" Orochimaru chuckled sarcastically. "Once I have your eyes, it will be important I discover it for myself, yes?"
The Uchiha frowned.
"Now then," Orochimaru continued, his voice growing just slightly more distant. "Two eyes, and one guardian." He smirked. "And one jutsu between those eyes. They wouldn't happen to be yin and yang techniques, would they Itachi?"
His wrist throbbed, and Itachi suppressed a wince, watching Orochimaru carefully.
"So…" the Sannin kept speaking, his tone edging towards something less mocking and more fascinated. "Yin manipulation in one eye, and yang in the other."
He snapped his fingers. "Ah, I see. Form, and creation. One to shape the armor in your mind, and the other to give substance to it. To make that image a reality!" The pale man's grin widened for a moment, before shrinking.
"Though…"
Orochimaru frowned, a scientist whose hypothesis had been thrown off by a seemingly innocuous factor.
"If it really were drawing that much yang chakra from you," he muttered, pacing faster, "then you'd be on your last leg by now, wouldn't you?" He swept his arm around, encompassing the ribs of the Susano'o. "Projecting that much chakra outside your body must take effort, but if it were all physical, you'd surely burn out far too quickly for it to be effective…"
He spun towards Itachi, his pacing ceasing. "Tell me, how are you feeling?"
Itachi blinked, and so did Orochimaru.
"Hmm. Not cooperative, then?" the Sannin asked. He sounded genuinely curious.
"Not especially," Itachi responded shortly. The pain in his wrist was almost completely suppressed, though he still couldn't move his hand.
"Ah. I should have expected that," Orochimaru said without concern. "It doesn't matter."
He gave Itachi a sickening smile. "I'll figure it out later. I'll have plenty of time, after all."
"Will you?" Orochimaru stiffened, and Itachi clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
The Sannin glanced between the Uchiha secure within his armor, and the one behind him. His smile vanished.
"Genjutsu again?" He sounded almost disappointed. "Itachi-"
"Interesting assumption," the clone holding the man's shoulder said.
Then he exploded.
Orochimaru was blown towards Itachi, shreds of his pale skin splattering the floor and sizzling where it landed. An arm emerged from the Susano'o and caught him around the torso, hefting him into the air.
"Very clever!" Orochimaru chuckled, wheezing. Itachi watched him from within his armor.
He clenched his unbroken hand, and the Susano'o squeezed.
Orochimaru's mouth fell open, and even as Itachi utterly crushed his body, the Sannin slithered out of it, escaping the pressure. The skin he'd left behind exploded with a hollow, pulpy sound.
"But you'll have to do better than that!"
Orochimaru hit the ground and moved, slithering around Itachi, keeping low to the ground. The Susano'o lashed out again, but the Sannin effortlessly slipped around the strike.
The Kusanagi, discarded when Orochimaru had been put under the Tsukuyomi, was swept up in the Snake's grasp. It melted into his arm, vanishing from sight.
"Please, Itachi," he cackled. "Show me more! I know that's not all you can do!"
The Susano'o flared, chakra exploding off of it, and Orochimaru rolled away, buffeted by an invisible force. He slid to his suddenly reformed feet, slipping backwards a step before coming to a noisy stop.
He grinned.
Itachi's armor rippled. Skin fled across its bones, and then armor over the skin. A fearsome helm formed upon its head, and a jar fell into one of its suddenly created hands.
"There we are," Orochimaru whispered. Thunder made itself known outside. The Sannin was directly in front of the hole Sasuke's exit had made in the wall, and the lightning cast his shadow alone across the room.
At least until it was driven back by the glow of the Susano'o.
"You want more, Orochimaru?" Itachi said, facing the Sannin head on. "If that's the case…"
The Susano'o flared again, and a glowing blade leapt from the jar in its hand. Another arm sprouted above it, and the sword fell into it. Orochimaru's hair, slick and black, was blown back by the force of it. Itachi remained completely unruffled.
"Let me show you the true power of this technique," Itachi declared.
There was a moment of silence, interrupted only by the rain outside.
Orochimaru laughed. Long and hard, nearly doubling over with the force of it.
"So theatrical!" he wheezed, barely able to get the words past the laughter. Itachi stared at him in disbelief.
"Do you think I don't know what that is?" the Sannin continued, barely regaining control of himself. He leveled a finger at the blade the Susano'o had sprouted. "I know it."
"And you escaped," Itachi ground out. He was beginning to feel lightheaded: maintaining the Susano'o for so long, and escalating it to this level, was finally taking its toll. "Not this time."
"Of course!" Orochimaru declared. "That's the Totsuka Blade, after all!" He smiled. "The sword from which there is no escape! The blade that seals its targets away in a drunken eternity."
He took a step forward. "I felt it, Itachi," he said, with some pride. "I tasted that eternity."
His smile turned to steel. "And I rejected it."
"You won't again," Itachi said, with utter certainty. "I'll stop you today." His lips curled into a snarl.
"You will never threaten my brother again."
Orochimaru laughed. "You sound so sure, Itachi." The Kusanagi slid from his arm, sliding into his hand. He held it up in front of him, a blatant en-garde.
"These two swords are legend, you know," he said. "I searched for them all my life. How cruel that you had one of them all along."
The Uchiha gave no reaction.
The Sannin, on the other hand, let out a sickly smile. "We've brought them together today, for the first time in centuries. They've competed."
He leveled the Kusanagi at Itachi. "Now then. Shall we find out which is the superior blade?"
Itachi did not incline his head. Raise his eyebrows. Twitch his brow, gesture with his hand.
He didn't make the slightest move before he sent the Totsuka Blade hurtling for Orochimaru's chest.
The pale man laughed and hurled himself forward, leading with the blade.
The Kusanagi and the Totsuka met with a great ringing noise, like the world's largest bell.
They strained against each other, almost point to point. Orochimaru pushed himself forward, another, more maniacal laugh building in his chest as he shoved the legendary swords together with all his strength. Itachi gave the same effort, doing his best to impale the Sannin.
The Sannin panted, snarling like an animal, his laughter lost in his harsh breathing. Itachi strained. A trickle of blood ran from both his eyes: it felt like they were tearing, muscles being stressed. The Susano'o convulsed, before its chakra stabilized, growing indefinably sharper.
They both pulled back, the blade-lock inconclusive, and struck again. Itachi's shield was forgotten at his Susano'o's side: his entire being was focused on the sword screaming towards Orochimaru's.
They struck, and they rung.
And then, Orochimaru's sword broke.
Fugaku's arm let out a deafening crack as it broke, and he jumped back, the limb dangling.
Sasuke watched him go, panting. Blood ran in rivulets down his own arm, but he paid it no mind: it was barely more than a scratch.
"Very well done, Sasuke," Fugaku said. His smile only accentuated his stress lines. "If I'd been alive, that certainly would have ended this fight."
The arm stiffened, and with another, muted crack, the break instantly healed.
Sasuke sighed, rolling his arm. It popped, and the irritating tightness there vanished.
His father was the finest hand to hand fighter he'd ever taken on. If it hadn't been for his new eyes, there would have been no way for him to keep up.
"I'm glad you've given me this opportunity," Fugaku continued. His smile faded. "But I think it's about time we ended this, don't you think?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Not yet," he said flatly.
"Not yet?" Fugaku frowned. "What are you waiting for? This fight may be interesting, but your friend is-"
"I need Mom here as well," Sasuke said, gesturing vaguely towards his frozen mother. Karin was over there as well, standing beside Suigetsu. "Otherwise, she'll just be able to get you back up no matter what happens to you."
"You have a plan, then?"
Slowly, an almost malicious grin spread across Sasuke's face.
"Oh…" he said, tilting his head up just slightly, looking at something above him. "I have a plan."
Fugaku cocked an eyebrow. "Ominous."
His father began stalking forwards once more, and Sasuke took a deep breath, preparing to meet him.
"She should be back soon," Fugaku said, launching himself into a high kick. Sasuke slid beneath it, bringing his shoulder up and trying to flip his father onto the roof. Fugaku relaxed, rolling over his son's back, and regained his feet behind him.
Without losing any momentum, he dropped low into a sweeping kick. Sasuke didn't look back: he just jumped, his father's kick swiped under him. Sasuke's foot came around in a strike meant to take Fugaku in the jaw, but the man bent back, and the kick barely scraped his chin.
The older Uchiha fell even farther back, moving into a handstand. His foot lashed up, catching Sasuke at the apex of his own kick, and knocked him straight up into the air. Fugaku rolled back, making handseals while he moved, and came to his feet with a jutsu already prepared.
Fugaku didn't give Sasuke the luxury of calling out his technique's name. The fireball simply emerged, large and hungry, and roared straight upwards.
Sasuke looked down at the fireball that seemed ready to devour him. Something about this whole situation seemed far too familiar.
He grinned.
"Amaterasu."
Divine flames and a trickle of blood flowed from his eye, and the unnatural fire shredded Fugaku's fireball. Sasuke fell through the heart of the slain blaze.
Fugaku's eyes went wide as his son emerged from his gutted fireball, wreathed in black flames. He took a step back.
Sasuke clocked him, his punch knocking his father back a step. The younger Uchiha followed the blow up with a straight kick, blowing Fugaku back along the roof. He hit the ground and slid, rolling to a knee.
"Unbelievable," Fugaku muttered. Sasuke smirked.
"I know how you feel," he said, stepping forward and wiping the bloody trail away. Fugaku glanced at him, a hint of humor in his eyes.
"You've had someone burn through your jutsu and punch you in the face?" he asked wryly.
Sasuke opened his mouth.
A shout cut him off.
"Move!"
Both Fugaku and Sasuke snapped their heads towards the voice.
Mikoto had finally unfrozen, and Suigetsu with her.
Karin jumped back from the two of them, startled by their sudden motion.
The Hozuki's blade whirled, moving from a defensive block into a horizontal slice. Mikoto began falling again, as if she'd never been still in the air.
The Butcher's Blade swung under her: Suigetsu had swung in alarm and confusion, unable to judge the proper distance. It slammed into the roof, Suigetsu's arm crossed across his body.
A moment later, Mikoto landed on the sword.
"Ah…" was all Suigetsu had time to say as he watched the woman perched on his sword before she kicked him in the face.
The boy's head exploded in a welter of water, and Karin flinched as she was soaked with splashes of her teammate. Sasuke's sword, held at her side, raised slightly above her head as Karin's arm came up.
And in that moment of distraction, Mikoto flowed off the Kubikiribōchō and buried a fist in the redhead's stomach.
Sasuke's Sharingan widened, catching the whole punch in unforgettable detail.
Karin choked, curling downwards around the fist. Mikoto watched her, clear regret written all across her face.
The rain didn't seem to be falling anymore. It just hung there, suspended, like Suigetsu and Mikoto had been.
Sasuke took a step forward, away from his father, who had frozen with the rain.
Mikoto twisted her fist.
The illusion of frozen time broke. Karin coughed up blood.
Then, she exploded backwards, the full force of Sasuke's mother's punch sending her sailing through the air.
And right off the roof.
Sasuke blinked.
"If you really want, Sasuke… I will follow you."
Karin was suspended beyond the edge, looking back at him, blood leaking from her mouth, her eyes hazy.
He watched her with eyes she'd ensured he could use.
It would be easier to let her fall. Both his mother and father were in the fight now: for his plan to work, it would be best to be as high as possible. This was the perfect opportunity.
All he had to do was let her fall.
She might survive, even stunned as she was.
Might.
'Necessary evil.'
Sasuke's fist clenched.
'Created by circumstance.'
The concrete under his feet buckled.
'I will ensure those circumstances cease.'
Karin vanished from sight.
Sasuke broke into a sprint. He moved through the rain so quickly that he left a man-shaped gap in the water behind him.
His father and mother both turned to track him, but they couldn't hope to keep up.
Suigetsu's head was still gone. Less than a second had passed.
'Seems I'm the one following you, Karin.' The thought flashed across Sasuke's mind like the storm above, and then he dove off the tower.
There was nothing but darkness below him, the blackened streets and murky alleys of the village cloaked by the clouds.
Karin was there, falling, limp. Her hair drew the Sharingan like a crimson beacon.
Sasuke shot downwards, a black arrow. The wind blew his hair back: rainwater streamed from him like a cloak.
She wasn't very far away. Fourteen meters, at most. The streets began to take shape, hundreds of feet below.
Thirteen. They were both falling faster.
Twelve. Thunder cracked once more.
Eleven. Karin lost her unconscious grip on Sasuke's sword. Lighter than her and taken by the wind, it whipped up towards him.
Ten. Sasuke snatched the sword out of the sky with his left hand. There were still traces of blood on it, from when he'd grabbed the blade. Catching it stung, but he ignored it.
Nine. He stretched out his free hand, grasping for her.
Eight. Karin's eyes sharpened. Her mouth formed his name, but the words were lost to the tearing wind. She stretched out her own hand.
Seven. It wasn't close enough. Not nearly close enough. The street was growing closer. Less than one hundred feet.
Six. Sasuke's eyes burned. He could see the desperation and fear in Karin's face. He'd never forget it. There was a bridge below her, stretching from one building to another: a thick, concrete archway.
Five. If she hit it, she would break. Break and die. Blood from his split lip was running up Sasuke's cheek.
Four. She was hopelessly out of his reach.
Not close enough. She would reach the bridge before he reached her.
Sasuke stretched.
'She won't die.'
His eyes burned again. It felt like something was trying to explode out of him. His entire chakra system tingled.
Three.
'I won't let her.'
Something purple flickered at the edge of Sasuke's vision.
Karin's eyes went wide. She was barely ten feet from the bridge: Sasuke himself was about twenty.
'I won't.'
He caught her.
It was impossible. She was still completely out of his reach. His hand grasped at nothing.
That didn't matter.
A hand the size of Sasuke's body, skeletal and menacing, comprised of luminescent purple chakra, reached forward and closed around Karin. The joints looked almost mechanical.
Karin started. Sasuke snarled in effort, the stinging burn in his eyes doubling, and pulled.
The redhead was yanked up towards him. He grabbed her out of the air, securing her around the waist. She yelped.
Sasuke refocused on the bridge. He may have gotten Karin, but they were both still in danger. If he handled it poorly, the landing could still kill them both.
Normally, he would have angled himself to hit the side of the bridge, allowing him to dispel some of his momentum by running along the side.
But now…
Another arm emerged to join the first. Both of the skeletal constructs thrust downwards towards the bridge.
Karin screeched. Sasuke grinned a mad grin, blood running from both his eyes.
Impact.
The arms punched into the concrete, embedding themselves in the structure. Both Sasuke and Karin jerked, but remained suspended in the air, held up by the ethereal ribs that had formed around Sasuke's torso.
They remained like that for a moment, before the arms pulled themselves from the bridge, and both Sasuke and Karin dropped to their feet, breathing heavily. Sasuke panted, the effort of keeping the construct solid immediately apparent to him. It didn't fade, but the chakra rippled uncertainty.
He let go of Karin. The redhead stumbled away from him, falling to her knees and shaking her head violently.
"Erg," she said intelligently. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
Sasuke took a shaky breath, and fell to his own knees. "Yeah," he unsteadily agreed. The rush of power flooding his veins filled him with strength… and an undeniable nausea.
"Sasuke, what…" Karin turned back towards him, taking deep, gagging breaths. "What is that?"
He looked down at the translucent skeleton surrounding him, and sucked in a breath.
"It's…" he said slowly, almost unable to believe it himself.
"The Susano'o." The voice wasn't Sasuke's: it was his father's.
Sasuke turned, and found his father walking down the building behind him.
"It matches that belt of yours." Sasuke didn't have to look to know that his mother was coming down the wall he was now facing away from.
He chuckled at that.
"A teenager with the Susano'o…" Fugaku shot his wife a dry look as they both settled down on the bridge on either side of Sasuke. Karin was kneeling stock still beside him, trying to clear her head.
Mikoto rolled her eyes. "That will end well, I'm sure," she said, sounding perfectly serious.
Sasuke glanced between the two of them, before bending his head towards Karin.
"Karin," he said quietly. She looked up at him, understandably tense.
"Get clear," Sasuke continued. "Stay close enough to sense me. I'll need you when this is over. But I need you away from here: I can take care of them now."
Karin nodded, pulling herself to her feet. She glanced once more at Sasuke's parents, and then leapt from the bridge, alighting on the wall aside Mikoto.
Mikoto glanced at her, and Karin took off, sprinting for all she was worth. Sasuke's mother looked back to him.
"I won't have to chase her," she said. "Now… all I have to do is neutralize you."
Sasuke smirked. "Good luck."
"Sasuke…" Fugaku chided. "Watch out for her jutsu. It can still freeze you."
"Not through the Susano'o," Mikoto interrupted. Fugaku looked to her. "I've been trying since we arrived: it seems it really is the perfect defence."
"Hmm." Fugaku turned back to his son. "In that case, you can't let your armor fall. If you do, this fight will be all but over."
Sasuke's smirk widened. He spread his feet, falling into a more ready position.
"If that's the case…" he said, "I'll just have to make sure to end this quickly, huh?"
"You still have a plan?" Fugaku asked.
"It will be a bit more difficult now," Sasuke admitted. "But it should still work."
"Interesting." Fugaku fell into a ready position, with Mikoto mirroring him.
"I look forward to it."
The ribs of the Susano'o flared. Sasuke tensed.
Three Uchiha: two parents, and one son.
A damaged bridge, suspended over the abyss. The rain was falling harder than ever.
The ribs grew skin, a half-formed skull coming into existence.
Sasuke snarled, cold chakra pulsing through his entire being. The world sharpened, each individual raindrop clear to him.
Mikoto moved, and Fugaku followed her.
Their son took one last deep breath.
"Let's end this," he said, regret and relief weighing down his words.
And the Uchiha family's final dance began.
The Kusanagi cracked, a shatterpoint running up the length of the blade. Orochimaru's grin faltered at the sight.
Itachi saw the grin slip away. Saw the crack running up the blade.
He could see everything. The world had never been so clear.
He roared.
The Totsuka Blade burst forward, and the Kusanagi shattered into dust.
The chakra-sword punched through Orochimaru's chest, spearing the Sannin cleanly. He looked down in shock at the rippling orange energy impaling him, and then back up at Itachi.
The Kusanagi's hilt dropped from his hand, landing with a distant clatter.
"It's over," Itachi said, panting. Blood from his eyes ran into his mouth.
And just like that, Orochimaru's smirk returned.
"Interesting assumption." The echo was followed by a generous amount of blood, but the Sannin's expression didn't fade.
He looked back at the Blade, and Itachi followed his eyes.
The Sharingan widened.
There was a crack in the Totsuka. An imperfection.
A crack that was slowly getting bigger.
As Itachi stared in shock, the lines of fragmenting chakra raced up the Blade, speeding for the jar at the base of the sword.
They reached it before he could react. Before anyone could have.
The jar broke, a neat piece detaching from the bottom. Ethereal liquid poured out.
And then, the entire of the Totsuka Blade fell to pieces, crumbling away into nothing.
The tearing sensation in Itachi's eyes exploded, and he fell to his knees. The Susano'o whipped away, drawing itself down around him, before vanishing, even the ribs melting.
He hissed in pain. It felt as if his eyes were simple Mangekyō again. The pain tore through him, as if his very cells were on fire, and Itachi grunted, crippled and shivering on the cold concrete floor.
Thunder boomed outside once more.
Orochimaru cackled, before breaking off into a wet cough. Itachi looked up just in time to watch the Sannin crumple through blood-soaked eyes. The pale man hit the floor with a hollow thud, most of his torso missing, and stayed there, blood spreading in a pool around him.
"As I… suspected," he gasped, blood, real, vibrant blood, pouring from his mouth. "Two legendary swords… that when brought together… equals."
He chuckled. "They... destroy each other. Remind you... of anything... Itachi?"
Itachi didn't respond. He just stared, kneeling and clutching at his eyes as a phantom agony tore them inside out.
He'd made a mistake.
It wasn't his greatest mistake. Or even his second greatest. But it was a mistake nonetheless.
He'd underestimated Orochimaru. Underestimated a Sannin.
He'd been positive his sword had been the greater one. Positive he'd been stronger. Sure that when the Totsuka and the Kusanagi had clashed, his sword would have been the one to win. So sure that he'd end Orochimaru in a single strike that he'd forgone his perfect defense.
What an idiot he'd been.
Itachi laughed.
Orochimaru watched him with a bloody grin.
"And they call me a genius," Itachi said, his voice rough. He tried to lever a leg under him and failed, the limb shaking violently when he tried to put his weight on it.
"Damn..." Orochimaru gasped, flopping over on his back. The hole in his chest had stopped bleeding, but he was still missing a significant portion of his torso. "Such a shame… about those swords… I would have liked to add yours to my collection."
He sighed, and then turned his head back towards Itachi. "I wonder..." The Sannin coughed. "With both of us laid so low…"
Itachi gritted his teeth, pushing himself forward. His legs refused to support him, and so he fell forward, landing on his chest. He wheezed, his entire body screaming in agony from the Susuano' feedback.
The Uchiha's arms grasped out, and he began pulling himself forward, hauling his shaking mass across the room, towards Orochimaru. His nails left scrapes in the concrete, chipping away with every pull.
"Ha…" Orochimaru sighed, his whole body lax. He was just as drained as Itachi. "What will you do when you get over here?" He chuckled wetly. "You're hardly in any shape to kill me... Itachi…"
Itachi drew his head up to face Orochimaru. Sweat poured down his face, and his arms trembled, his legs still paralyzed behind him.
His lips pulled back, his teeth shining in what little light there was. Orochimaru's eyes widened, the slit pupil narrowing.
"So long as I'm breathing, Orochimaru," Itachi said, his voice threatening to break into a rattling cough, "I will ensure you never touch my brother again."
The Uchiha continued to crawl forward, drawing ever closer to the pale man, and for the first time since he'd arrived, Orochimaru's face was filled with unmistakable dread.
"Orochimaru-sama!"
Itachi's eyes narrowed as someone leapt up through the hole Deidara had created in the middle of the room. It seemed like it had been hours ago.
It was a man wearing a thick cloak, the hood drawn up over his head. The clothes were shredded in places, revealing sickly white, rasped skin, and the man favored one leg, but he was definitely in better shape than Itachi himself.
It was unmistakably Kabuto Yakushi.
"What was-" Kabuto's voice cut off as he slowly took in the sight of both his master and Itachi laid out on the ground, seemingly crippled, and Itachi slowly crawling forward.
"You," he hissed, stalking forward. He leveled a kick at Itachi's side, one the Uchiha couldn't possibly dodge.
It took him in the kidney, knocking him to the side and sending him skidding across the floor. Itachi grunted.
"What did you do?" Kabuto hissed, his half-scaled face trembling in rage. "Why is-"
"Your master in such a pitiful state?" a thick voice said with dry amusement. Kabuto spun back towards it, forgetting Itachi.
Kisame Hoshigake leapt up through the hole, following after Kabuto. His shirt was missing, and his torso was covered in new scars. Samehada was at his side, casually hefted. The blade was licking its lips, its thick, rasping tongue slipping across the sharkskin effortlessly. There were bits of what looked like parchment trailing from it.
He glanced around, taking in the room.
"You did something stupid, huh Itachi?" he groused, bringing Samehada up over his shoulder.
"Perhaps somewhat," the Uchiha groaned. He barely managed to pull himself up to one knee, coughing hollowly. His eyes had finally stopped bleeding.
Kabuto, not taking his eyes off of Kisame, moved swiftly to Orochimaru's side.
"Master." He bent down at the man's side, taking in the hole in his chest. "Can you move?"
Orochimaru took a deep breath and then strained, his entire frame shaking. Slowly, another pale, somewhat withered form pushed itself up out of the cavity in his torso. It stumbled to its feet, before Kabuto seized one of its arms and slung it over his own shoulder.
"It… appears I cannot," Orochimaru admitted, breathing heavily. He turned, Kabuto moving with him, and set his gaze on Itachi. Kisame stood off to the side, closer to Itachi, but with most of his attention on Kabuto.
"Itachi…" Orochimaru rasped. The Uchiha, still barely able to hold himself on one knee, stared at him, his face moving back towards expressionless.
"Would you like to know something funny?" Orochimaru's lips turned up into a genuine smile.
"Even if you had killed me… the Edo Tensei wouldn't have been dispelled," Orochimaru admitted. Itachi stiffened. "I fixed that particular 'flaw' with the jutsu," the Sannin continued.
"You…" Itachi trembled in anger. There was a spurt of orange around him, the Susano'o raising itself up for less than a second, before it collapsed again in a brief light show. Kabuto watched the unfamiliar technique with interest.
"Yes," Orochimaru said mockingly. "We may have reached a stalemate today, Itachi… but Sasuke will still be mine."
Itachi was frozen for a moment.
Then, he smirked.
"If you really believe that my parents can defeat him," he drawled, the first hint of certainty entering his voice for a while, "then you are more deluded than I believed you."
Orochimaru snorted. "We'll see." He glanced at Kabuto, and the other man nodded.
Kisame tensed, watching Itachi in his peripheral vision.
As he did, Kabuto turned and, with Orochimaru in tow, leapt clear of the building, vanishing into the stormy Amegakure night.
"Itachi… are you…" Kisame said slowly, approaching the bleeding Uchiha.
Itachi waved him off. "Kisame," he muttered, his voice exhausted. "Follow them. Please. Just… make sure they leave the city. If you can stop them..."
He trailed off, his voice fading.
"And your brother?" Kisame asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"He'll be fine," Itachi said without hesitation.
Kisame glanced one last time at his partner, and then turned, sprinting forward and leaping out of the building in pursuit of Orochimaru and Kabuto.
Itachi was left alone. He let out a pained sigh.
Alone with nothing but his failures to keep him company.
Grimacing, he yanked himself to his feet. His right arm refused to respond, and his left foot trailed behind him, but he payed neither of them mind.
Itachi limped towards the door leading to the base of the tower, leaving a minute trail of bloody droplets behind him.
There was a weight upon his mind, and he would be damned if he wouldn't obey it.
AN: Ha. College hasn't killed me yet.
Right. Long delay. Hopefully the next won't be.
Sorry Fugaku didn't get to show off much in this chapter. He'll definitely get more press eventually: for now, Itachi and Orochimaru took precedence.
Anyway... you know the drill by now! Leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter, or if you hated it. Feedback is god. And even if you don't, thank you for reading: I hope you had a good time of it.
Fun Fact: Mikoto's Mangekyo jutsu (the Benzaiten, if you're curious) took a long time to come up with, not to mention balance properly, but I think I've managed to hit a nice tone. For anyone who's confused or unclear: one of them absorbs chakra, and the other moves both Mikoto and anyone she is targeting to another dimension, somewhat like Obito's Kamui. Also like the Kamui, it leaves behind an afterimage, presenting the illusion that the "frozen" people are still there. Mikoto remains aware of her surroundings while using the technique, but its targets do not.
As for why the dimension has the effect it does... well, that'll come later.
Next time on Not Sick, we'll (probably) be back with Naruto... and the rest of the Rookies.
Serendipity, out.