Shisui understood more about war than he would like. Allies turn to enemies mid-battle, the betrayal far too common in their line of work. It was a place where secrets saw the light of day when thought to be buried six feet under.
So this situation came to be an easily predictable predicament, where the black sheep of the black sheep turned on the home they swore to protect. Root against Konoha.
He narrowed his eyes as Danzō rolled up his sleeve. Closed eyelids came into view. "You fought my uncle recently. What tricks have you managed to scrounge up since then?"
The old man flexed his wrist. "I knew an altercation with Fugaku was inevitable, but I always had a specific target in mind."
He unraveled more bandages, on his other arm, until there were no coverings wrapped around his secret arsenal.
Shisui's fingers curled tightly inwards, the nails surely close to drawing blood as he watched this filthy monster take advantage of his family's eyes.
He defiled their bodies. Created this horrendous mess of an arm that Shisui wished he never had witnessed. Alas, it was here in front of him.
Shisui struck him before the bastard could take in another breath.
Danzō's body crashed into the tree trunk, a distinct cracking noise permeating the air. But then reality reset, the layer of imagery peeling away within the red haze. Shisui nearly missed the blow to his side, his famous body flicker saving his skin at the last moment.
"You attacked my family," Shisui hissed, dodging another blow and creating his own wave of fire with a few hand signs. "And then you scoured those corpses for their eyes. For this? For simple parlor tricks?"
"Normally, I wouldn't have settled for the mediocre visual prowess the police department had," Danzō admitted, managing to create a shield of water around him. Steam enveloped the immediate air. "But the situation became complicated when the Hokage became increasingly difficult to," A pause. "Enlighten."
"With the village becoming increasingly tolerable towards your retched clan, I saw it first to take matters into my own hands," the bastard continued. An exchange of blows and jutsus were shared, this time neither of them coming out unscathed.
Shisui clutched his arm and Danzō, well... Danzō found the loss of his ear disoriented his balance.
But the old man made some hand signs, of which Shisui had only seen one other make in that particular order. His eyes widened and jumped out of the way before a surge of wood came barreling towards him.
"The Nine-Tails Jinchūriki practically lived under the roof of an Uchiha family. Sarutobi allowed it to happen. As if the attack on our village hadn't existed." Danzō spat. "Delusional for peace. The entire lot of them. It is how I knew after my fight with your uncle that Konoha was truly lost. A tree rotten at its core must be uprooted to stop the spread."
"You want to wipe our home off this world, as if that is the cure to the evil deeds your organization does and the blood that follows each shinobi regardless of their rank," Shisui responded in utter disbelief. "The Uchiha that attacked our village long ago is the same one you have teamed up with. All I am hearing is your incessant paranoia getting the better of you. This battle you fight is one fought alone because it is one of your creation. The blame does not belong to my family."
Shisui spread his arms out, perhaps foolishly, and gestured to the few root agents giving their all against his comrades.
"The ones that follow you do so because they are forced under their oath to you. You are the beast threatening Konoha, senpai. Knowing the real enemy is one of the first things you are taught when you're at war. I wonder when your perspective became so warped."
When Danzō's presence vanished, Shisui turned on instinct.
While he was quick enough to avoid his eye being gouged out, the tip of the kunai still slit the flesh. The sting forced his eye closed, letting his reflexes take over as he dodged the next barrage of attacks. His hand came up to cup his eye, the sting a bit too concerning for his liking.
A flash of familiar chakra popped up beside him.
"Having fun?" Kakashi asked.
"He's delusional," Shisui muttered.
"Paku got a whiff of Sakura's scent," Kakashi told him. "She's north, hidden in a cave range."
"Hurry," Shisui ordered, nodding his head in the direction. "I'll just have to stop dallying."
Kakashi nodded, but his gaze lingered on the bloodied mess Shisui his eye was becoming.
When Shisui turned back to the fight at hand, he went through a mental list of all the genjutsus in his arsenal. The ones that most foreign shinobi feared wouldn't work on someone like Danzō and his Root lackies. They had fear stamped out of them.
And with Sharingans in play, nearly half a dozen still open embedded in sockets running up his arm , he had to proceed carefully. By having them in the first place, in ashy white skin, Shisui feared what conditions made it possible for him to hold them. Orochimaru's handiwork, no doubt.
But no matter. He wasn't an infamous shinobi with a 'Flee on Sight' warning for nothing.
He would end the threat to Konoha.
Sakura figured she had been held captive for approximately two weeks.
Nearly a week went by in a daze. She had been woken by Obito sometimes, others by a shadowy figure, and all too often because of the ache in her mind. She knew there was something she forgot, something Obito wanted, but the gaping hole in her memory frustrated both her and the enemy.
She knew it had to do with the Uchiha heir and the Kyuubi's Jinchūriki, but there was no recollection of either for Obito to sift through. Instead, Sakura found herself reliving the moments with her parents, with Itachi and Shisui, with her friends. . . But none of them held the titles Obito sorely sought after.
She finally began to take stock of her surroundings without the added stress of her mental state being compromised. The cave she was in served as a damp, dark prison that granted her no sense of time whatsoever. The only reason she knew a substantial amount of time had passed was due to the occasional mention of 'yesterday' or 'earlier this morning' in the brief talks she had with her captors.
She also knew that Obito slowly spaced out his mental sifting, if only to not kill her from the overbearing load on her brain. She still had something he wanted, but it was proving much more difficult.
"My cousin did a number on you," Obito greeted her, squatting right in front of her. "I couldn't tell before, but that's the only thing that makes sense. Your mind has obviously been tampered with."
"Isn't that precisely what you've been doing ever since I was taken here?" Sakura said dryly. Her voice came out hoarse, and there was a scratchiness in her tone that made her cringe.
God, what she wouldn't do for cold water right now.
Obito ignored her and continued. "Trying to find the loose end on his jutsu has not proved fruitful thus far, an unfortunate side effect from being a prodigal Uchiha. His abilities truly are seamless, through and through. I'm afraid that if I tinker any more, I might trigger a fail safe, which is all too in character for my cautious cousin."
Sakura smiled. At least Shisui was giving him a hard time without being present.
Herself on the other hand. . she sat in this cave without an inkling of strength or mental clarity. Was sitting here uselessly actually to conserve strength or the easy way out of a fight?
"Now, Sakura," Obito said, reaching a hand out. He gripped her jaw so she couldn't look away, his hold tight enough to dissuade her from reacting to the touch.
"While I've come to accept your lack of knowledge, I'm not so confident in your ability to perform the jutsu I talked about earlier."
"You said something about a second timeline," Sakura said cautiously. The mere fact thought brought upon a wave of pain, one she dutifully ignored despite its piercing nature.
"Yes, you see, this jutsu was a myth to my family, but I know better," Obito told her, tipping her jaw to the side. "My mentor taught me much, but he neglected to explain the mechanics behind the jutsu. Though, he assured me not only of its existence, but the surety that it may only be activated by an Uchiha."
"But I'm not an Uchiha," Sakura said, this time surprising herself of the sheer ease the words rolled off her tongue.
"No, you're not," Obito agreed, releasing her to flick a strand of pink hair. "Though taught by my cousin and practically raised by the head family, you don't possess a single drop of Uchiha blood. I would admire your tenacity as a shinobi, especially when you would be constantly compared to your precious teammates, but I'm afraid such admiration is, well, out of reach."
"Something you do have, however, is that," Obito said. He moved his hand to touch two fingers to the mark decorating her forehead. "This is a technique only achieved by two others in shinobi history. I suppose that is the reason you were able to shoulder the burden of that jutsu."
"But that mark only got you here," Obito said slowly, his eyes flashing red as he peered down at her. "Your chakra signature suggests an ease at which your system is overloaded by its own weight. Isn't that right?"
Before Sakura could hesitate, an answer came out of her mouth. "Yes."
Her eyes widened. Perhaps paranoia was seeping in, but she took a gander that the candid conversation was a product of some effect. What kind, she wasn't sure. But she knew it wasn't the words she intended to say.
Silence was a fair better answer. But as her current status as a captive suggested, she didn't get far by keeping her lips sealed.
So, she tried to force the conversation to her advantage.
"But if my chakra system is overloaded, then how might yours react?" She questioned, her eyes flickering down to his arm. "Your body-- half of it is not your own anymore. If I did activate this forbidden jutsu and survive because of my mark, yet suffered to this extent, then how might your body respond?"
His grimace only spurred her to continue. "I don't remember how I did any of the things you're telling me I did, but I'm not an idiot. Powerful forbidden jutsus require a large pool of chakra and if my chakra signature is any indicator, then a resilient body is needed to survive and live with its effects. To create a second timeline-- that deals with the fabrication of our universe. How can one person handle that burden? How could you?"
It was a bold claim, but one she stood by.
She was no prodigy like Itachi, nor as gifted as Shisui, but she knew enough from her shambled memories that she worked everyday to make herself stronger and to contain the threats that appear.
She lived this long. She fought for her life to be as it is, blotchy past and all. She refused to squander it because of Obito.
"I will not have the ghosts of my past clinging to me as you have eagerly done," Obito said with a narrowed gaze. "I have nothing to weigh me down, unlike you."
The Uchiha heir and the Kyuubi Jinchūriki.
While nothing but a searing pain greeted her as those two identities drifted aimlessly in her mind, two shadowed figures without faces, she took a slight comfort in the warmth that seemed to radiate off them.
She wanted to say something else, to inquire about the shackles of her past that she so desperately wanted to remember, but a sudden shudder rippled through the cave. The rock spires fell, pieces cracking and the formations around her shivering in a sense of anticipation.
Obito cursed and disappeared from his place in front of her. She stood up with difficulty and stumbled as another wave shook the place.
It was only when she was seemingly sucked into a void that she felt her heart soar in excitement.
Someone was here. An ally.
When she landed in the pocket dimension, her legs' strength faltered. But her determination kept her upright, especially upon seeing the face of someone she trusted wholeheartedly.
"Shisui!"
But the relief sweeping through her was immediately replaced by fearful concern as she took in the bloody streaks coming down his eyes. One was shut and she feared what laid behind his eyelid... or what was no longer did. She took a staggered step forward, until she spotted a familiar vortex warping the air to the right.
A searing pain laced through her brain, but it did little to deter her path. Those steps quickened until she stumbled into Shisui's arms.
He held her at arm's length and stared at her, eyes ablaze.
"Imouto, what did he do to you?" Shisui whispered, hands on her cheeks as he tried to piece together the puzzle that was her brain.
"I don't know," Sakura answered honestly. "What happened to you?"
"I eliminated a threat," Shisui said, unblinking. "Sins don't come without their consequences."
As soon as the figure emerged from the vortex, Shisui stepped forward, trying to push her back from the enemy's view.
But another vortex came soon after, this time bearing another ally.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura exclaimed.
This dimension that normally only ever held two people doubled within mere seconds. But now with four people, Sakura suddenly felt a tad claustrophobic.
When both newcomers were on their feet, they faced each other immediately. The stances they both took on, the narrowed gazes filled with familiarity. . . It struck something within her, as if it was a sight she had seen numerous times before.
It was as though the realization zapped her brain, a disconnect sending a rippling spasm throughout her. She curled inwards on herself and cursed her weakness.
Whatever she forgot, she figured it hurt like hell to keep locked away.