Chapter 37: Different Perspectives 3
…
Tsunade
Tsunade needed a drink.
The plum wine she kept in the bottom left drawer. Or maybe something a little stronger. But even if her hand itched to go for the bottles, she still had other responsibilities that required her attention first. She was the Hokage after all. So instead of reaching for the drawer, Tsunade laced her fingers together and met Jiraiya with a level stare.
"You're sure?" she asked.
Jiraiya ran his remaining hand through his mane of white hair and frowned. He was sitting on the windowsill in her office. It was a casual pose, but Tsunade could detect his elevated heart rate, could see the beads of sweat on his brow, and could hear the subtle labor of his breathing.
He shouldn't be out of the hospital. A younger man would have fully recovered by now, but age, it seemed, was finally catching up to him.
"There's no doubt about it," said Jiraiya. "To think that Nagato is the one I've been searching for for all these years…"
Tsunade only had vague recollections of the small red-haired boy and his two friends. She hadn't thought much of them at the time. They'd been just another set of victims of a war that was nothing but victims.
"You're sure that there isn't another way?" Tsunade clarified. "He was your student, after all."
For three years. Surely that had to count for something.
"He seemed pretty determined to kill me," said Jiraiya with a rueful smile. "But I wonder…That girl, Kiyo. When she interfered with the fight, Pein stopped his attack. She told him that he didn't want to kill me. He denied it, obviously, and yet...Well, he had to realize that she was healing me, and he had to know that she had access to the Hiraishin."
"You think that he let you escape?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow. "Considering the state you were in when you arrived, even I wouldn't take that bet."
It had required all of Tsunade's skill and more just to keep him alive. Even then, if it wasn't for the startlingly powerful chakra that had permeated Jiraiya's entire body, she was certain that he wouldn't have made it. The healing chakra had been almost inhuman in its potency, far beyond anything that Tsunade had ever encountered, and Tsunade had encountered quite a lot.
Apparently it had been supplied by Uchiha Kiyo.
"Maybe you're right," said Jiraiya. "Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. But I can't help but believe that if he truly wanted me dead, I wouldn't be sitting here right now."
Tsunade hummed.
"So where does that leave us?" she asked. "He's going to continue targeting Naruto. If that happens, you will fight again. And you're not in any state to win that battle."
Tsunade nodded to his empty sleeve.
"You're right about that," he said. "I'm taking Naruto to Mount Myoboku to learn Sage Mode. As for Nagato, well…Kiyo said that if there was anyone who would listen to his ideals, it was me. It's not much, but I might be able to get him to talk."
Tsunade did agree with him on one point. It did sound like wishful thinking.
Something of her thoughts must have shown on her face because Jiraiya gave a deep belly-laugh.
"Yeah, I thought you might feel that way about it," he said. "Anyway, Sage Mode isn't something that can be learned overnight. I'll take Naruto now and leave one of my messenger toads. If anything happens, contact me immediately."
He was in no condition to leave, but Tsunade made no objection. They both knew that some things couldn't wait.
"Don't you worry," he said. "I'm sure Ma and Pa will take good care of me while I'm there. I can already taste the bug soup. Ugh."
His groan was only partially feigned.
Jiraiya slid from the windowsill, moving with the care of a tired old man and turning away with a wave. He was always leaving, always off on his next mission. Tsunade wanted to run after him, grab him by the shoulder, and tell him to stay. After his latest injury, surely he should be ready to retire. He wasn't a young man anymore, just like she wasn't the young woman she appeared to be.
"The pursuit of happiness is not for us."
That's what he'd told her before his mission to Ame. She'd begged him to come back alive, and he had. She was tired of living with the pain of loss and the fear of losing more. But he was always working toward a brighter future. He continued on with hope and optimism for the next generation.
So Tsunade let him go once more and quietly reached for a drink.
…
Jiraiya
Jiraiya raised his arm to fold it across his chest before recalling the futility of the motion. Despite the time that had passed, he was still getting accustomed to his missing arm. Instead he settled for placing his remaining hand on his hip. Thankfully Naruto and Pa were too busy performing frog kata to notice.
A warm well of pride filled Jiraiya's chest. That knucklehead really had come a long way. To master Sage Mode in such a short time when Jiraiya still needed assistance from Ma and Pa even after all these years….It truly was the destiny of the younger generation to surpass the one that came before it, and Jiraiya was only glad that he had lived to see it.
He had come very close to not seeing it.
Jiraiya frowned, grasping the nub of his missing arm beneath the fabric of his sleeve. Yes. Very close. All because of his own failures as a teacher. He'd told Tsunade that he was bringing Naruto to Mount Myoboku for training, and while that was true, it was not his only purpose.
Jiraiya needed answers, and he was hoping that Gamamaru might be able to provide them. Jiraiya had once been told that his destiny was to train a student who had the power to either save or destroy the world. He was confident that he had done so. But which of his students was the Child of Destiny?
Naruto or Nagato?
Depending on the answer, the world was either saved…or doomed.
Unfortunately, Gamamaru hadn't been able to provide any answers. Instead he could only offer another concern, one that Jiraiya had never even considered possible: that the future was changing. Some things that were once certain were now not. Some things that should not have been now were. And whether this was a boon or a disaster remained to be seen. Gamamaru couldn't even say how or why this was happening.
"Don't look so glum, Jiraiya-chan," Gamamaru had said. "Destiny has a way of sorting itself out."
That wasn't the reassurance Gamamaru obviously thought it should be. But Jiraiya couldn't afford to spend too much time pondering philosophical concepts like the malleability of fate. He wasn't only a Sage, after all. He was a shinobi. A shinobi with a job to do.
But despite his desire to focus on the upcoming confrontation between his two students, something else was gnawing at the back of his mind. Something that had been bothering him for a while now.
The Uchiha siblings.
They were a mystery that had existed in Jiraiya's periphery for quite some time. Now more than ever because Kiyo's fate might hold the power to break the world.
That wasn't an exaggeration either, though Jiraiya would very much have preferred that it was. Naruto was nothing if not…impassioned when it came to his friends. After Jiraiya's return, Naruto was ready to go running off after Kiyo. Only Tsunade had managed to stop him. She'd convinced him to take a team and go after Sasuke first. It was meant purely as a distraction, something to keep him occupied while Jiraiya recovered and formulated a plan to deal with Pein.
They hadn't expected to learn of Kiyo's death.
Or that Sasuke was the one to kill her.
It had to be a lie, Naruto had said. Sasuke would never, could never, hurt Kiyo. He remained adamant with a quiet, desperate sort of anguish. It had to be a lie. Kiyo had to be alive. Because if she wasn't, if Sasuke really had killed her…
Jiraiya knew well enough what it meant when a former friend turned to the darkness. There was no coming back from that. And if that happened, if Naruto really had lost the only two people he'd ever considered his true friends, one by the hand of the other, what would happen then?
So of course it had to be a lie.
Naruto could not accept anything else.
For Naruto's sake, Jiraiya hoped that he was right. And yet…if Kiyo was still alive, why hadn't she returned to Konoha? Why hadn't Sasuke?
Naruto had no answers, but he remained unwavering in his belief. Jiraiya might have been inclined to write it off as denial, but he had to admit that the entire situation didn't add up. As a ninja, Jiraiya had spent many long years peddling in secrets and uncovering plots. Over time, he'd developed a sense for them.
He knew little enough about Sasuke, but both Naruto and Kakashi were certain that he'd lived only to protect his sister. Every action, every choice he had made since the massacre was in service of that goal. So why? Why would he decide to kill her?
Was it the same reason Itachi had chosen to kill his clan? According to Kakashi, Itachi had once seemed to deeply love his family. Until the night when he'd left only two of them alive. For power, he'd said. As a test.
And then there was Kiyo.
She had been stolen by Itachi and taken to the Akatsuki as a prisoner. But her abilities should have made her nearly impossible to contain. And when Jiraiya had met her in Ame, she hadn't acted like a captive at all. If she was capable of rescuing Jiraiya, she should have been able to do the same for herself. Could it be that she had simply chosen to remain? Or rather, that she'd had a reason to avoid returning to Konoha?
But why?
Underneath the underneath. What was he missing?
...What if...what if his assumptions were wrong?
What if Itachi truly did love his family? What if Kiyo was not as captive as she'd seemed? What if Sasuke's goal was still to save his little sister?
It was an absurd hypothetical given the circumstances, and yet...
Jiraiya was in the business of knowing things.
He knew about the rumors of discontent within the Uchiha clan after the Kyuubi attack. He knew about the suspicion and surveillance of the clan. He knew that the person most vocal against them had been Danzo.
Danzo.
The leader of Root and Itachi's direct superior until the massacre.
Danzo was a man who worked from the shadows. He had little direct interaction with anyone, except...Right before Kiyo had gone to confront Itachi, Danzo had sent a team of ANBU to collect her from the hospital. For her protection, Danzo had claimed. And yet the ANBU had tried to kill her vassal and had fought Guy when she'd escaped. That didn't sound like 'protection' to Jiraiya. It wouldn't have sounded like protection to Itachi either. Or to Sasuke...if he knew.
Danzo. Itachi. Kiyo. Sasuke.
An image began to form in Jiraiya's mind, like a puzzle whose pieces were falling into place. An image of hatred, betrayal, fear, and revenge.
An image that would be disastrous for Konoha.
And worse for Naruto.
"JIRAIYA-CHAN!" Jiraiya's head snapped up to see Pa and Naruto with a messenger toad. Naruto's expression was a mix of surprise and grim determination. "Konoha is under attack!"
…
Nagato
His goal was finally within his grasp. Every step forward, every sacrifice was in preparation for this moment. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki lay at his feet, pinned by his Rinnegan chakra receivers. His sensei, Jiraiya, was likewise impaled, still alive but only barely. It hadn't been an easy fight. Nagato could admit that. But even the full weight of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's unbridled fury was not enough to stand against a god. Could they feel it? Did they finally know Pain?
Nagato knew Pain. He knew it when his parents were murdered before his eyes. He knew it when Yahiko sacrificed himself on Nagato's blade to save Konan. And he knew it when he watched Madara drag Kiyo-chan away into the Kamui dimension.
Yes, Nagato knew Pain.
And he knew hatred too.
For Konoha. For Hanzo and Danzo. And now for Madara, Itachi, and Sasuke.
Nagato had been surprised when Madara had returned to Ame with both Uchiha brothers at his side. According to Madara, Sasuke had murdered Kiyo-chan to gain the power he needed to kill Itachi. But once Sasuke had attained this new power, Madara had convinced him to join them instead.
Impossible.
Or perhaps not.
Kiyo-chan had once said that Itachi was a kind and gentle boy, a sweet older brother who had comforted her when she was ill and who had cared for her when she was weak. It was only after he'd sought power via the massacre that he'd changed. Perhaps it was the same with Sasuke, a boy who had supposedly lived his life to protect his younger sister and who had only ever sought death for his older brother. Perhaps there was some sickness within the Uchiha that caused them to go insane when they unleashed the greater powers of the Sharingan. A sickness that Madara had exploited for his own gain.
That was the only explanation Nagato had.
And it made him hate the three of them even more.
But Nagato could not deal with them yet. Not until he had achieved his dream and brought about true Peace. So he'd sent the brothers to retrieve the Hachibi instead, both as a test of Sasuke's abilities and to see if they truly were willing to work alongside one another. It would certainly make things easier for Nagato if they couldn't. Unfortunately they'd captured the Hachibi easily and had worked together with the remaining Akatsuki members to seal it away, leaving only one jinchuuriki left to capture. The one that lay before Nagato now.
The Kyuubi jinchuuriki.
Kiyo-chan's former teammate.
The friend that she had wanted to save.
Nagato did not regret his actions. He couldn't. After all, this is what he had sought for all these years. Revenge against the people who had wronged him. Divine retribution. Konoha was a smoldering crater bereft of life. After everything that they had done to him and his home, he'd expected to feel some form of satisfaction.
But he didn't.
Instead, he felt…empty and could only recall the soft words Kiyo-chan had once spoken to him.
"I can't tell you that you shouldn't feel that way," she'd said. "But razing whole villages and killing other innocents isn't the answer. When you destroy Konoha and kill Danzo, will that be enough to heal the pain in your heart? Hatred just keeps burning and burning, consuming everything in its path. And if you keep going down that path, I don't think there will be anything left. That's not the type of peace Yahiko wanted, was it?"
Yahiko was dead. He was killed by those who did not know Pain. If they'd known Pain as he did, they would never have inflicted it on someone so well-meaning and innocent. Some like...
"Remember the people you loved and remember what they wanted to protect."
The world. Yahiko wanted to protect the world. So had Kiyo-chan. And by teaching the world how to feel Pain, Nagato was protecting it too.
"Pain made me vulnerable and scared and angry. I made myself kind."
Nagato was God. He felt nothing but…
"You are more than just your pain."
Nagato wasn't so sure anymore. His retribution had been achieved. So why did he feel only regret?
"No matter what happens, I can't hate someone who puts their whole heart into doing what they believe is right."
Was this right? Hatred was a natural response to suffering. It was the only response. Except...
"I don't hate you."
Nagato closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. He stared down at Naruto and Jiraiya, both pinned to the broken ground and helpless before him. He was so close. Only two more deaths. What did it matter if one was his former sensei and the other was Kiyo-chan's precious friend?
It didn't matter at all.
And yet…
Nagato knelt.
"Let's talk," he said. "There is something I want to ask you…"
…
Danzo
Danzo scowled at the report.
If it was true, then it put all of Konoha in grave danger. Still, at least the report had been brought to him and not Tsunade, who was still in a coma due to her ill-advised attempt to 'save' the village. That woman was weak, even worse than Hiruzen. At least with Hiruzen in charge, Danzo had been somewhat content with safeguarding Konoha from the shadows, but Tsunade was grotesquely soft-hearted and weak-willed.
With her out of the way, and after years of planning and preparation, Danzo had finally achieved his goal of ascending to the position of Hokage. But his satisfaction was short-lived. The situation in Konoha was dire enough without this adding to his concerns.
Danzo wasn't sure how exactly Naruto had done it, but just when it seemed that everything was lost, Nagato had backed down and had even used the Rinne-rebirth to resurrect the people of Konoha. That should have been impossible. No one should have enough life energy to resurrect an entire village and survive. Rebirth techniques usually killed the one using them even if they were saving a single life. To bring back tens of thousands and still survive…
From what Danzo had been told, Nagato attributed his continued life to the Rinnegan, his Uzumaki heritage…and the extensive healing he had received from Uchiha Kiyo during her time with the Akatsuki.
Because of Nagato's display of power and his 'penance' of restoring everyone to life, the daimyo and the clan heads had flatly refused to declare war on Ame despite Danzo's repeated warnings. They were more focused on rebuilding Konoha than the looming threat of an untamed Rinnegan-wielder.
That brat Jiraiya wasn't making things easy, either. Though the Sanin had no interest in the position of Hokage, he'd made it clear that if Danzo tried to take action against Nagato, he would put forth his own candidacy instead. Danzo was no fool. If Jiraiya requested the position, he would get it. He was too popular, both with the daimyo and with the shinobi of the village. And Jiraiya's hint that he knew or suspected something about the Uchiha massacre was just another layer of added threat. If that was the case, a lost candidacy would be the least of Danzo's problems.
Thankfully, right now, Jiraiya was more concerned with training Naruto to control the Kyuubi. But if Danzo pushed things too far, that wouldn't last. Declaring war on a new ally, no matter how dangerous, would see Danzo removed from power before the ink was dry on the paper. So he was forced to move in the shadows once more, keeping an eye on Nagato and Konan as they helped Jiraiya to train Naruto.
In the meantime, this other problem required his attention, and it was, perhaps, even more dangerous than having the leader of the Akatsuki inside their ruined village. It was a missive from the Raikage detailing the attack and abduction of the Hachibi jinchuuriki. That alone would have been news worth celebrating if it weren't for the identity of the assailants:
Uchiha Sasuke and Itachi.
The paper crumpled in Danzo's hands.
Damn him! Damn that Itachi!
So, he hadn't managed to keep the village's secrets after all. He'd relented at the end and had revealed the truth to his younger brother. There was no alternative explanation. And Danzo had lost any leverage he might have had against the two when Itachi had abducted his younger sister. That left him with precious little to work with and few avenues to success. According to their intelligence, Kiyo had apparently been killed by Sasuke to attain his Mangekyo Sharingan. Danzo didn't believe it. Not for a moment. Itachi would never allow something like that to happen.
And yet Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan had been verified, and Danzo knew exactly how it was attained. Of course, Itachi's missing eye had also been verified. Yes. Itachi would never use Izanagi to save his own life. But his sister? Absolutely. There was little, perhaps nothing, Itachi would not do for his younger siblings. And if he had saved her, Itachi was the type of man to spirit her away to some safe location where Danzo would not be able to get to her.
There was no doubt about it, Danzo would need to remove all of the Uchiha siblings. For the good of the village.
Danzo set aside the report and examined the other document he had requested. It had been written years ago, ever since Itachi had abducted Kiyo. Danzo had simply been waiting for the opportunity to use it. He would have preferred to do things quietly, but Tsunade, had left things for far, far too long. And now Konoha was weakened. Vulnerable. If this wasn't handled quickly, it might be the final blow needed to destroy the village once and for all.
Danzo took his pen and signed the order. With this, all Konoha shinobi had new instructions regarding Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uchiha Kiyo:
Kill on sight.
…
Naruto
"I hate everything about you!"
"Him…It's his fault!"
"Go away!"
"No one will ever accept you."
Naruto grit his teeth as the fox's malevolent hatred poisoned his chakra, slipping further into his heart with every accusation. Naruto had to focus on pulling out the Kyuubi's chakra and making it his own. But it was hard. This wasn't a battle of punches and kicks, but a battle of will. The Pervy Sage and Nagato were helping to keep the Kyuubi contained from the outside, but Naruto was alone within.
Alone but for the voices…
The voices of the villagers who hated him echoing in his head, distracting him.
And there was another voice, one that sounded just like him.
Only dark…and angry.
"They're all the same," it said. "They hate us. All of them."
"That's not true," said Naruto. "The villagers, everyone, they all called me a hero."
"You're blinded to the truth just because they're making a big deal about you now," said the voice. "But that doesn't change what they did to us. They were the ones who lied to us for years. They turned us into a pariah. They hated us. They only changed their minds when we became useful to them. But they're still the same. If we hadn't saved them, they'd still be treating us like trash!"
"No, I have…I have friends," said Naruto. That's right. He had friends and teachers. "The villagers don't matter because I have precious people."
"'Precious people'?" the voice echoed, mocking. "What precious people? Iruka-sensei? He hated us. He blamed us for his parent's deaths. All he did was scream and yell at us."
"No," said Naruto. "He saved me from Mizuki."
"That was his job," said the voice. "He'd have done it for anyone. We're not special."
The truth of those words burned, because Iruka would have saved any of his students. Iruka didn't care about him. A bubble of anger rose up, but Naruto pushed it back down.
"…Kakashi-sensei and the Pervy Sage," said Naruto.
Yes, Iruka wasn't his only teacher. He had others, and they definitely…
"Kakashi shoved us off on that loser Ebisu at the first opportunity so that he could train Sasuke!" said the voice. "And you think Jiraiya cares about us? Don't make me laugh. To get his advice, we had to turn into a naked girl and beg. Not that it helped much. Just look at how pathetic we were compared to Sasuke after three years of 'training'. We were nothing but a walking coin purse that he used to get women and booze."
More bubbles of anger and chakra rose up, and Naruto tried again to push them away.
"...Not true," he said. "I have friends."
"But it is true," said the voice. "What 'friends' do you think we have? Our classmates? They all think we're a loser. They always have. Dead last."
The angry chakra rose like a tidal wave, threatening to drown him.
"Sasuke–"
"-Abandoned us," said the voice. "We were just baggage to him, something to weigh him down. He severed whatever bond you thought you had with him. We're the ones who keep crawling back, clinging at his heels. Pitiful loser. Just like the villagers always said."
Naruto was drowning.
No…
"Why do you keep lying to yourself?" the voice asked. "You know that it's true. Nobody cares about us. Nobody loves us."
"Kiyo-chan!" Naruto shouted, gasping for air within the torrent of burning, malevolent chakra. "She's always believed in me! She said that when we both achieve our dreams, we can be together. So I can't lose here! I still have to become Hokage!"
But despite his words, Naruto felt himself being pulled down into the Kyuubi's hate. He had to fight. He just needed to–
"She's dead already or will be soon, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."
Naruto froze.
Because the voice was right.
Kiyo-chan was gone, and he didn't know where. Everyone was saying that she was dead. That Sasuke had killed her. He didn't believe that. Not for a moment. But even if she was alive, that Danzo guy had issued an order of execution for both her and Sasuke. For betraying the village. But she wouldn't do that! They were wrong! He had to…he had to…
"You can't save her," said the voice. "You're weak. But I? I can make us strong."
He didn't have any friends here. Not really. Not anymore. They all hated him. They just wanted to use him. And to kill the only person who had ever really cared about him.
If she was dead…
If they killed her…
Naruto sank further into the boiling hatred, feeling the anger and loathing build inside him like a spreading, noxious wound.
"That's right," whispered the voice. "They hate us. And we? We hate them."
"I…hate…" Naruto murmured, falling further into darkness. "I…hate…them…"
But just as the darkness threatened to swallow him completely, a bright golden light burst forth around him. It felt like…an embrace.
"Kiyo-chan!" Naruto called out, reaching up.
But it wasn't Kiyo-chan who stood beside him in the warmth and light. It was a woman in a green dress with long, red hair.
She smiled at him, and he felt the Kyuubi's hatred ebb away like a shadow shrinking before the dawn.
Her eyes were so soft.
"Naruto…"
…
Sasuke
It was said that the Uchiha clan suffered from the Curse of Hatred. That they loved too deeply. So deeply that when the source of their love was taken away, they were driven mad with fury.
Sasuke wasn't sure that he agreed with that.
After the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha, the Third Hokage had unfairly punished the Uchiha clan by cordoning them off in a small section away from the village and putting them under surveillance. What was the clan's response? To grumble and complain but ultimately to accept the decision. As the relationship between the clan and village deteriorated further, the grumbling had gotten worse, but it was still just that: grumbling.
No one had acted.
And that, more than anything, was what led to their downfall.
The clan had hesitated to embrace hatred and destruction.
Danzo had not.
Then there was Itachi. After the death of Shisui, he'd been faced with a choice, and he'd chosen to reject the Curse of Hatred. He'd embraced Konoha's Will of Fire instead, putting the greater good above himself and his family. He'd sacrificed everything to protect the village. And what reward had he been granted? A life of being hated and hunted by the very people he had saved.
And of course there was Kiyo-chan. She loved just as deeply as any of them. No. She loved even more. There was no hatred in her. None at all. She hadn't just rejected the Curse of Hatred. Hatred simply held no sway over her. Neither did anger. The few times that Sasuke had seen her outrage, it had flared and vanished in moments, unable to stay in a heart that loved so, so much. That was why Sasuke could never hate her or even be upset with her for long. Though she had kept secrets, she'd done it to protect him. If Itachi's reward for rejecting hate was to endure that same hate, then Kiyo-chan's reward was to endure a life of terror.
No, Sasuke couldn't be angry with them. He loved them both. And because he loved them, he hated.
He hated Danzo.
He hated Konoha.
He hated everyone that had ever caused a single moment of the pain that his brother and sister had borne to protect him.
Sasuke was not his clan, or his brother, or his sister. They had all been blinded to reality. They'd been swayed by Konoha's warped ideals.
Standing by while the village crushed the clan under its heel was not peace.
Allowing wrongs to go unpunished was not justice.
Forgiving the unforgivable was not kindness.
There was a time, once, when the Uchiha clan had embraced the Curse of Hatred. And because of that, their clan had been strong. Feared. But Konoha had slowly chipped away at their strength, defanging and declawing them until they became weak. And then, when the embers of a long-forgotten hatred had begun to glow again, Konoha had destroyed them.
But from these ashes a new flame would burn, one that would not be stamped out. Because Sasuke would not hesitate. He did not care about the greater good. And his heart had room enough to love his family and to hate the world.
Sasuke knew the truth. The Curse of Hatred was never a curse upon the Uchiha clan. It was a curse upon their enemies.
Sasuke was an avenger.
And he had so much to avenge.
So much to hate.
…
Itachi
His village or his clan?
Itachi blocked Sasuke's katana with a kunai, angling the blade down to create an opening in his guard, but Sasuke widened the space between them before Itachi could attack.
Itachi had been thirteen years old when he'd made that choice for the very first time. He'd thought then that it would be the only time. One sacrifice to save the village and his precious younger siblings. Then he could protect them all from the shadows, never having to choose between them again.
Sasuke was on him once more, his blade lightning-fast as he tried to find a weakness in Itachi's defense. Itachi blocked every strike, his precision matching Sasuke's speed.
And yet here he was, with the same choice once more.
Sasuke grew impatient with his lack of progress and leaped back to perform a fireball jutsu. Foolish. Itachi dodged with a body-flicker and caught Sasuke in a genjutsu, sending an illusion to attack Sasuke's back. Sasuke turned to face the false threat.
How had things gone so wrong?
Itachi slid his kunai along Sasuke's throat, stopping at his younger brother's pulse point as he dispelled the genjutsu. Sasuke stiffened, his muscles immediately reacting to retaliate, but Itachi pressed the blade deeper into his skin, just shy of drawing blood.
Sasuke froze and then yielded, acknowledging that he had lost their match.
"Frustration makes you reckless," said Itachi, lowering the kunai. "Let's stop for now."
"I can keep going," Sasuke objected.
Itachi was sure that he could. Sasuke was improving at a startling rate and could best Itachi in a fight four times out of every ten. Soon they would be evenly matched. And then it wouldn't be long before Sasuke would surpass him.
"Let's stop for now," Itachi repeated.
Sasuke scowled, but his gaze flicked to Itachi's milk-white eye, and he relented.
Itachi led Sasuke to the edge of the arena and tossed him a water bottle. Sasuke caught it with a grunt and they both turned to watch Kisame's fight against Karin and Haku. The matchup was surprisingly even. Haku was a rare talent whose ice abilities and speed were a near-perfect counter to Kisame's skillset and while Karin had less talent, she had more raw power, and her recently awakened chakra chains were serving her well in combat.
They were improving.
They all needed to improve after word had reached them of Pein's betrayal and his subsequent alliance with Konoha. According to Zetsu, he and Konan were apparently training Naruto to control the Kyuubi's power.
With their departure, the Akatuski was truly broken.
And the threats against them were mounting.
"Nii-san…when will you go to see her?" Sasuke asked suddenly, voicing the source of the question that Itachi had been turning over in his mind.
His village or his clan?
"Soon," said Itachi vaguely.
He'd been avoiding their reunion ever since he'd awakened to find that Sasuke knew the truth. Because now his village and his clan stood against each other once more. And Itachi was faced with the same choice.
Sasuke wanted revenge against Danzo and the village, and so he had chosen to ally with Obito.
Standing alongside them would mean allowing death and destruction on a scale unseen since the last shinobi war. Perhaps not even then. But to stand against them meant dooming Kiyo-chan to spend the rest of her life trapped within the Kamui dimension because Itachi had no means to rescue her. The best thing he could offer her in that situation was the mercy of a quick death.
"Don't keep her waiting too long," said Sasuke, giving him a sidelong look. "She worries about you…"
Itachi let out a quiet sigh.
"I know," he said.
Sasuke had avoided answering Kiyo-chan's questions about Itachi's well-being, not wanting her to know that Itachi had sacrificed his eye to resurrect her. An unnecessary omission since Itachi suspected that she already knew. Still, Itachi felt a rush of fondness for Sasuke at his reticence. It would have been easy for Sasuke to use that information against her. A weapon meant to inflict pain and guilt as revenge for her part in Itachi's lies. But Sasuke hadn't done so. Despite everything, he still wanted to shield Kiyo-chan from the harsher truths of their world. And for that, Itachi could only be grateful.
Even if it made his choice that much more difficult.
His village or his clan?
He'd believed once, that he could manipulate Sasuke and Kiyo-chan into doing what he thought was best, avoiding the conflict altogether, but that had only ended in failure. And it had brought him here, to a crossroads of nothing but bad choices.
The entire world or his younger siblings?
When he phrased it like that, his decision became a foregone conclusion. He only pretended that it wasn't because he knew what he would have to do.
But he would not keep Kiyo-chan waiting any longer.
He had made his choice.
…
AN: I'm back! I was hoping to finish this chapter weeks ago, but it wasn't cooperating, and I kept needing to rework it. I also ended up taking some extra time to work on the outline for the war-arc. It's going to be fairly complicated as so many different groups come together, but I have a good idea of how it will work now, so hopefully writing it will go smoothly.
