Obito-Sensei Chapter 28

The Second Test

When the ROOT agent died high above, Sakura returned to her body with a painful jerk. The transition came without warning; she went from being held in a cruel hand to breathing, seeing, hearing. She gagged, suddenly aware of how much space her tongue took up in her mouth. She was being carried once more, this time over Naruto's shoulder. Her sword was gone: the sheath was empty.

'Useless. Someone took your body and lost your sword. You're worthless.'

"Sakura!" Naruto's voice almost managed to drown out her thoughts. "You're awake!" He and Sasuke skidded to a stop, setting her down and looking her over. Sakura looked around; less of the village was on fire than she remembered.

"Keep going," Sasuke said, starting to move again. "We're almost there."

"What happened?" Naruto asked as Sakura tried to figure out where they were. Close to the safehouse, she was pretty sure. It looked a little different with several of the buildings collapsed and with the sun barely up, but the rings made everything distinctive. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she said. It felt strange to run, like her whole body was asleep. Everything tingled and vibrated uncomfortably. "I don't know what happened."

"You're you, right? Whoever was in you tried to stab Obito-"

"What?!" Sakura nearly tripped, but Naruto caught her, pushing her on. The safehouse came into view and they rounded one of the ring's corners. It was still in one piece, though she knew there was a hole in the wall on the other side. The barrier had come back up; they passed through it with the same heavy ozone tang.

'I tried to stab Obito? That's worse than worthless.'

"You didn't get him!" Naruto clarified. "He went right through your sword, you know! Then he went after the guys who'd controlled you; he must have gotten them, right?"

Sakura nodded, trying to control herself. Nothing had made sense in the doll, but the sensation of being thrown around and passed between hands had been unmistakable. The warm chakra with a cold bite that she'd felt must have been Obito's. She'd been snatched back, and then…

The person who'd controlled her had died. Her sensei must have gotten him. She felt a vicious satisfaction at the idea. She hoped he hadn't died quickly.

"He got them," she said, and Naruto grinned. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Nothing to apologize for!" he assured her without thinking about it. In front of them, Sasuke threw the safehouse door open, barreling inside. "We just gotta stick with Fuu, alright?"

"Right," Sakura said as they turned the corner past the kitchen, heading into the main living room. "Where's my sword?"

"Oh, Obito has it. He-" Naruto started to say, and then he ran right into Sasuke's back. He stumbled backwards; Sasuke hadn't even flinched.

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked, running up to his side. She stopped just as Naruto had, chakra rooting her to the floor and cancelling all her momentum instantly.

Fuu was in the center of the room, squirming on the floor under a thick grid of spiraling fuinjutsu symbols, cast over her like a spider's web. Two of the village elders were there as well; the woman whose hair was full of bells, Ayame, and the man with dark skin whose name Sakura hadn't learned. They were both lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood. Ayame's arm had been torn off at the shoulder: she was still moving, but not in any coherent way. The man was facedown, with no wounds apparent on his back, but there was far more blood around him.

There were two men standing there as well, both tall and wearing long black cloaks. They looked over to Team Seven as they stood stock still in the entryway like animals that had suddenly realized predators were nearby.

One of them was Itachi Uchiha. Sakura had no idea who the other was; his whole face was covered, and even the skin that showed on his hands and forehead was unnaturally black and reflected no light.

"More brats," the unknown man grumbled. Without taking his iridescent green eyes off them, he thrust his inky hand down through Ayame's back. The woman cried out, thick dark blood dribbling out of her mouth, and then went still. The man clenched his hand; there was a crack, and he withdrew it clenching something small and dark in his fist.

'Her heart,' Sakura thought faintly, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. 'He ripped out her heart.'

"Kakuzu, leave them. They're mine," Itachi said, his tone mild, and the man shrugged. "I'll take the Jinchuriki and meet you at that place tomorrow."

"I'd prefer more of a guarantee," Kakuzu growled, and the heart disappeared from his hand like a magic trick.

"You have plenty of my secrets, and my deposit," Itachi said. "Isn't that enough?"

"For now," the man relented. As they'd been talking, Sasuke had taken a step forward. Now, a second. Naruto followed him, and Sakura had no choice but to mirror him. Her teammate's face was stuck in a rictus of hatred; he'd bared his teeth, eyes wide.

"Sasuke," Itachi said. "Good to see you. But now isn't the best time-"

Sasuke's Sharingan spiraled out, and Itachi's face shifted. He cocked his head, lips tightening.

He smiled.

"Three already?" he said, glancing at Kakuzu. The man lifted an eyebrow and stepped back with an amused grunt. "How impressive. That was quick, even for you."

Sasuke charged without a word, and Naruto and Sakura followed after, attacking from three different directions. Kakuzu watched with an amused air as Itachi slipped past all their attacks, ducking Naruto's Rasengan, kicking away Sasuke's roundhouse, and twisting Sakura's punch to flip her to a hard landing behind him.

"One second," he said as the team circled, looking for an opening. Naruto rotated over to Fuu, glancing down at the seal binding her, obviously trying to figure it out. "Let's move this somewhere else."

He made a ram seal, and Fuu started screaming, her whole body bucking and straining against the seal covering her.

"NO!" she shrieked, so loud and so obviously in pain that Sakura felt her blood go cold. She didn't think she could hate Itachi more after what he'd done to her team in the Forest of Death, but she'd been naive. "NO! CHOMEI, IT'LL BE OKAY!"

Fuu exploded. The seal on top of her shattered, and Sakura and her team were thrown back, bouncing off the walls and landing on their face. Sakura tried to roll to her feet, but the chakra washing over her stopped her in her tracks. It was just like the Exam, in the arena with Gaara. The chakra of a Tailed Beast, so heavy it kept her lying on her face.

She was being lifted into the air, Sakura realized. The chakra that was pressing down on her was also beneath her, so thick it was lifting her and solidifying beneath her, gaining shape and color. It was the same color as and harder than steel.

The safehouse erupted, splintering under the pressure, and Sakura covered her head as wood rained down on her. She looked up; Itachi was staring up at the sky, apparently unconcerned.

He looked down at her, the peculiar pattern of his Mangekyo glinting, and then around at her teammates, all of whom were pressed just as flat as her. Kakuzu was there as well, on one knee.

"A little heavy?" Itachi asked him with an amused smile, and the rogue ninja snarled. He looked out over the village, green eyes narrowing.

The pressure abated. Sakura didn't wonder why; she just surged to her feet, charging Itachi. He'd caused Fuu to transform somehow; maybe if they beat him, she'd go back to normal. It was the only thing she could think of after the rollercoaster of insanity that the last ten minutes had been. Her teammates did the same, all single-mindedly focused on Sasuke's brother.

Itachi tripped her without looking, dancing past Naruto's thrown kunai and catching Sasuke's fist in a bizarrely gentle grip. He intertwined his fingers with his brother's and swung him to a fro for a moment in a one-handed waltz; Sasuke threw a couple punches at his side, but the dance kept him at a distance, and he only had time to give Itachi a horrified look before his brother swung him right into Sakura, sending her tumbling backwards with a full-body bruise. She stuck herself to the monster beneath them; she couldn't afford to fall off now.

"You did well," he said, swinging Sasuke at Naruto; the Uchiha tucked himself in, keeping one flailing foot from clipping Naruto's face. As Sakura rolled back to her feet, feeling her lips swell up, Kakuzu leapt off of Fuu and down into the village below with the sound of a thunderstrike. Sakura glanced after him as she staggered back to her feet, her entire body aching, and found her sensei and Rin down below. Jiraiya was with them as well, and-

The Fourth? Was that possible?

Her heart, already racing, kicked it up a gear. Naruto's father could take down Itachi for sure. They just needed to keep him busy until the Yondaime could catch up.

Fuu started moving away from the village, faster by the second; the sound of the Tailed Beast's wings beating was deafening, and the storm of wind they kicked up almost tossed Sakura right off its back. She clung on stubbornly, just like the rest of her team. Itachi looked around at all of them, barely shifting. He looked relaxed.

'How long can you hold on?'

Unwilling to consider that, Sakura attacked once again.

###

Sasuke didn't understand why his arm wasn't broken.

He'd improved since the exam. In just that short time, he'd become someone who could have trounced his previous self. His Sharingan had improved. His reflexes, ninjutsu, mindset, body, everything had improved in that month of determination.

But still, it...

Just.

Wasn't.

Enough.

Sasuke had realized it the moment he'd activated his Sharingan, back in the safehouse. The gap between him and Itachi had always been a cliff, an irrational sheer face like the plateau that Waterfall rested upon. When you started climbing that sort of cliff, fifty feet or five hundred felt exactly the same. No matter what, the summit was still out of reach.

He couldn't see the top. Despite how much he and Naruto and Sakura had improved, everything felt exactly the same.

Itachi was just playing with them. As they fought on top of the fleeing Bijuu, he kicked them back and forth, tossing them to the Beast's back and then letting them rise again. He knocked weapons away, left bruises, but never broke anything, never attacked them while they were prone. It was even more humiliating than a spar; this was like how his parents had fought him when he hadn't even been five, teaching him the basics of when to attack, what to block, what to dodge.

Was he trying to teach them a lesson too? Sasuke grit his teeth so hard he was sure they would crack.

"That's a bad habit," Itachi said as he stepped forward into a beautiful jab, punching Sasuke right in the face. The blow took him on forehead as he ducked back and flipped him like a top. Even his Sharingan's prediction couldn't save him; Itachi, stronger, faster, always adjusted for it before Sasuke could react.

They were getting farther away from the village. As Sasuke flipped backwards, his stomach turning, throat filled with bile, he saw that they had cleared Takigakure's plateau. The village was a wreck; the top of the tree was missing. Obito and Naruto's father were after them, keeping pace with the Bijuu but unable to close the gap. They fell into the forest and out of sight, but he was sure they were still chasing.

He hit the hard shell below him, the impact shaking his whole body, and rolled backwards, trying to get some distance. Itachi was already there: he kicked Sasuke in the side, sending him skittering away with a flash of white fire and right into Naruto, sending his teammate tumbling over him.

"Why are you doing this?!" Sakura screamed. She was behind Itachi now, forming a straight line from herself to Sasuke and Naruto. She'd drawn a kunai and was trying to form her water blade around it, but the blade wasn't chakra conductive: she didn't have the control to keep it cohesive, and it lost water faster than it could grow deadly. She circled, waiting for Sasuke and Naruto to get back up. Itachi cocked his head.

"What do you mean? You attacked me," he asked, and Sakura spat. Her face was almost the same color as her hair, the green of her eyes popping out with unbelievable clarity. She looked just like when she'd fought Gaara.

"Fuu never did anything to you!" she snarled. "Leave her alone!"

"She's right!" Sasuke said, scrambling up and drawing a knife. "You're interested in me, not her! Why bother with this?!"

Itachi looked back and forth between them, and the world slowed down. Sasuke blinked, watching a drop of sweat run down his hand, stop go, stop go, like a faulty projector. Itachi's Mangekyo spun, the blades cutting through his own eyes time after time.

'Shit.'

"I don't have any interest in Fuu," he said, crossing his arms. Sasuke was paralyzed. They all were. By the tone of Itachi's voice, the reality of the situation, or genjutsu? The world crawled by around them, clouds filled with the red sun's flames burning across the sky. "Just in the Bijuu. If I could have one and not the other, I would."

"But if you take it out, she'll die." Naruto struggled through the molasses holding them all captive, one arm coming up, shaking. "You can't-"

"I'm not going to remove it," Itachi chuckled. He lifted one finger to his lips, an exaggerated shushing motion. "Can you keep a secret?"

Sasuke wanted to close his eyes, to not see this. The thing wearing his brother's face was so like him; it had the same terrible sense of humor, the same subtle wink. It was unbearable.

"I was hired to steal a Bijuu," he said, looking around appreciatively at his captive audience. "By the village who most desperately needs one."

What? Sasuke struggled to speak, the paradox of his not-brother muting him. Sakura was just listening, eyes sharp. The water-knife in her hand was even sharper. Naruto was the only one with the constitution to interrupt.

"You're stupid!" he said. "Who'd wanna start a war with Waterfall? If they figured out you were hired-!"

"The village that is most desperate for more power, of course," Itachi said with a shrug. "You're the son of the Hokage, Naruto, you should know this. People's fear, or ambition, drives them to do things they wouldn't dream of before." He smiled. "Even a village founded on such high pillars as Rain."

"That's not true." Sakura was speaking too, and Sasuke still couldn't. He could feel himself starting to hyperventilate. His mother's advice wasn't working. That was Itachi, it couldn't be someone pretending to be him. "Rain wouldn't do that."

"Believe me or not, it's the truth. But don't tell anyone, alright?" Itachi smiled. "I doubt they'd like that. I was hired because I'm the perfect deniable asset. I'm the crazy Uchiha, remember? No one will assume I'm acting rationally."

'Acquire the third.'

Why tell them? It didn't make any sense. Why look so happy about it? It didn't make any sense. He was lying. He had always been lying. Sasuke's hand creaked open, and Itachi's rotating gaze shifted towards him, pinning him in place. He felt his hands curl into claws.

"You told me…" he faltered, forgetting about the rest of his team. It was just him and his brother now, staring at each other on the back of a fleeing Beast, their hair whipping wildly in the gale generated by the huge creature's wings. "You told me I wasn't strong enough, last time."

"You're still not," Itachi noted, hand coming to his chin. He gave Sasuke his full attention, in a way he never had when they were both still children.

"But-"

"But you did get your third tomoe, that's true," Itachi acknowledged. "How did you do it?"

This is the man that killed your father, your cousins, half your family. Why are you just talking with him?

This is your brother. Why wouldn't you talk to him?

"When Naruto and I were fighting," Sasuke said, and Itachi nodded, eyes narrowing.

"Did you want to kill him?" he asked. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. The world sped up a little. It was a genjutsu, and it was straining now.

"Is that how you got yours? Wanting to kill a friend? Our family?" He shot the words like an arrow, but Itachi didn't even flinch. His eyes remained fixed on Sasuke; his face twisted into something between a grimace and a smile.

"Nothing like that," he said, either the truth or a flawless lie, like everything he said. "But that's how it usually is. But you…" He grinned. "You were having fun, huh?"

Sasuke wasn't like his brother, and Itachi saw something in him that confirmed his question.

"That's fantastic," he said, smiling, really smiling, an Itachi smile that barely moved his mouth but lit up his eyes. Sasuke felt something twist in his heart, threatening to break him in half. "Sasuke, that's amazing. You should be proud."

"Shut up." Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling the world around him bend more. He could beat this. Even if his brother had the more advanced eyes, even if he'd always been better, he could beat this, the same way a ninja with a knife could beat one with a sword. "Shut up."

"Well, that's a little rude," Itachi frowned. "But understandable."

Sasuke snapped, and tried to take the false time surrounding them with him.

"Why did you do it?!" he screamed, charging forward, leading with his knife. Naruto and Sakura were still paralyzed; it was just him and his brother, a completely hopeless fight. Itachi twisted past the knife like a man stepping through a thin curtain, and Sasuke spun, kicking out at him. Itachi met the kick with his own.

"Why?!" he shouted again, kicking out once more. Itachi countered again, their shins clashing one, two, three times, the impact ringing through Sasuke's body. "Just for my eyes?!"

Who cared if he was bigger, stronger, faster? Just keep attacking! It was idiotic, but it was all he could do. Sasuke barreled forward trying to carry his brother off his feet, and Itachi's hands came down on his shoulders. His brother shot up, over him, hands rooted in place, twisted, one hand releasing. Both his feet landed on Sasuke's back, and he was driven to his knees by the force of Itachi's kick, slamming his chin into the Beast's shell.

"For your eyes?" Itachi asked, and Sasuke snarled, trying to roll out from under his brother. Itachi let him go, even let him get back to his feet. "Don't be absurd."

"If not that, then why?!" Sasuke screamed, feeling the roughness in his throat. "You're still you!" The world blurred a little. Until his hand came up and found hot tears, he was sure it was more of the genjutsu. "So why-"

He closed his eyes. He'd lose even if they were open anyway. "Why would you kill them?"

Itachi didn't say anything for about five seconds, an eternity in the storm on the Beast's back. Sasuke opened his eyes to find his brother giving him a considerate look.

"You might be happier with a lie," he eventually said. Sasuke gagged. "The truth rarely brings comfort, or even clarity." His lips pressed into a line. "It might be better for you, Sasuke, to live with the reality that your brother just went crazy."

"But you're not," Sasuke insisted. "You're not crazy!"

"We're standing on top of a Tailed Beast I just stole-"

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted, stomping his foot like a little kid. Had he just kicked Fuu? He couldn't think about that. "I don't want more lies! I want the truth!"

Itachi looked at him, like he was looking through him, trying to figure out if his sincerity was enough.

"Alright," he decided.

"The Uchiha were a clan of traitors."

"What?" Sasuke took a step back on pure reflex. He'd never heard genuine hatred in Itachi's voice before. Not until today.

"They were scum," Itachi said, as calm as the sea and just as deadly. "Most of the clan was planning to overthrow the village. That's why I killed them."

As Sasuke struggled to comprehend what he'd just said, Itachi looked down at the Bijuu below them, still carrying them away from Takigakure in slow motion. "They were planning to use the Mangekyo Sharingan to rip the Kyuubi out of Kushina Uzumaki…" He looked to Naruto, frozen but steadily regaining life. "Out of your mother, and imprisoning your father. Well, probably killing him. How could you imprison the Yellow Flash? Most likely they would have used his wife as a hostage and then killed him with the monster inside her." He was talking to them and himself at the same time, as though he were rehearsing something he'd never had a chance to say out loud.

That wasn't possible. "That's not possible," Sasuke said, feeling a step behind himself. "There's no way."

"Father and mother were the architects," Itachi said, remorseless, relentless. "They both wanted the clan to have more power. They weren't content with the police force, the prestige of being one of the founders. They wanted control of the village; they wanted to be Hokage." He sneered. "They wanted me to be Hokage for them."

Sasuke shook his head. "No."

"You wanted to know the truth," Itachi said matter of factly. "Why would you deny it now? Because you don't like it?"

"But..." Sasuke said. His father was a traitor? His mother was a traitor? That wasn't possible. His brother was crazy after all. He must have been lying. He was just saying these things to be cruel. It had to be. "Even if that's true… someone must have found out, then. Someone must have made you kill them." He stepped forward, his heart beating out of his chest. "That was it, right? Someone forced you to-!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Itachi crossed his arms. "No one found out. I made sure of that." His Sharingan was spinning faster now, the genjutsu struggling to keep time slowed down. "There wasn't anyone else, Sasuke. It was just me."

Sasuke choked on the finality of his brother's words.

"There were two options, Sasuke." Itachi started pacing, hands opening and closing at his sides. "I could become a traitor to my village, or a traitor to my clan. What kind of choice was that? Who could ever have made the first?" His face twisted into a snarl. "Our worthless parents, who desired power at the sake of all else? That's not what being a shinobi is!"

He stopped, standing his ground against the whole world at his back. "A shinobi is one who sacrifices! Between you and Konoha and the rest of my family, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make without hesitation! That anyone should be willing to!"

He started moving again, driven by murderous animus. "Everyone who'd supported the coup, I killed. Father, I killed. Mother, I couldn't finish her before the Hokage arrived."

Sasuke remembered the room full of blood, the screaming, how Obito had flown across the room. He flinched, and Itachi gave him a sorrowful look.

"And Shisui…" Itachi trailed off with a pained look. "He was the only one I regretted. He was the only one who wouldn't get out of my way." He swayed on his feet, somewhere else entirely. "He tried to use his Mangekyo on me, you know. That Kotoamatsukami of his." He laughed, stricken. "Protect your family, he told me. What the hell did he think I was doing?"

Sasuke had no idea what that meant, and Itachi wasn't interested in telling him more.

"Itachi…" He didn't know what to say. No, he couldn't say anything; his whole body was trembling uncontrollably, overwhelmed with chakra and a thousand conflicting feelings.

"Sasuke, I had to do it." Itachi almost sounded like he was pleading now. Had he ever told anyone? If this was the truth, had he lived the last six years of his life hiding it, telling no one, on the run every day? How could it not have burst out of him sooner?

'Sacrifice.'

"It had to be me. I had to… I was the only one who could have." Itachi's face steadily morphed into something more and more deranged. "Do you think Konoha would have forgiven our clan, knowing that so much of it desired to betray it? To rule its ashes? Of course not! 'How did you let it even get this far?' they would have asked, and rightfully so! They would have judged our clanmates and us, the guilty and the innocent, with the same eyes: they couldn't have afforded not to! We would have been too valuable to exile, an entire clan of ungrateful lunatics with dangerous eyes; 'Uchiha' would have become the most bitter curse, and we all would have been executed for our madness. Even the children, even you, for fear you would want to take revenge! They would have taken the Sharingan and left everything else to rot!"

Itachi stepped forward, and Sasuke was unable to back away from the horrible dream that had crept into reality. His brother placed a hand on his shoulder, staring into his eyes, burning him with his sincerity.

"The clan was sick, Sasuke. There was a cancer at its heart, and our parents were the source of it." His grip grew stronger, more painful. "You can't negotiate with cancer. You can't try to find a middle ground, or convince people to live with it. It will kill you no matter what."

His eyes were wide, alive.

"All you can do is cut it out. That's the only way."

He leaned in.

"I did it all for you, Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't have anything to say. He couldn't even scream.

He stabbed forward with the knife in his hand, and the blade sunk an inch into Itachi's chest before his brother slammed him down, the blade flying out of sight. The genjutsu shattered. The world resumed its normal operation. Naruto and Sakura both flew forwards.

Itachi looked down in the half-second before Naruto tackled him, and Sasuke was shocked at how betrayed his brother looked. Not even angry. Just disappointed.

Naruto's tackle carried his brother off and Sasuke tried to roll to his feet, but he found himself stuck in his brother's shadow. A Nara jutsu? He thrashed, struggling to escape, but Itachi's shadow held him in place for the critical second necessary for his brother to shuck Naruto off his back and deliver a tremendous kick to Sasuke's gut. He skidded across the Beast's back, wheezing, and Sakura came in even as Naruto rolled away.

She slashed out with her water knife, the blade stabilizing even as she attacked, and Itachi's hand gently met hers, locking her in place. Sakura reached down and lashed out with her empty sheath. Water poured out of it in an endless stream, and Itachi caught her other hand as it splashed across his face; he didn't even blink. His hands twisted, and both the knife and sheath spiraled away. More water splattered everywhere, and Sasuke blinked as a drop flew into his eye. In the time it took his eyes to open back up, Itachi broke Sakura's wrist.

"Glad you don't have your sword," he noted, before driving a knee into Sakura's stomach so hard she lifted up into the air. Sakura collapsed, retching, and Itachi stepped back as she breathlessly clawed at his ankles with her good hand.

Sasuke breathed out a fireball as soon as his brother was clear of Sakura, and Itachi didn't even turn to meet it. He flickered, and the fireball broke into pieces, splattering across Fuu's back. Ssauke couldn't see his brother in the wake of the flames.

'Did I get him?'

"Look." Itachi tapped him on the shoulder, and Sasuke spun into a kick. His brother stepped over it and caught the follow-up punch, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder. "They're catching up."

Sasuke looked, wide-eyed; Obito and the Fourth Hokage were still chasing them from the treetops of the forest hundreds of meters below, a blur even to his Sharingan. They were kicking up a wake of destroyed branches in their wake, knocking the canopy of the forest apart with the speed of their passage. They were maybe a hundred meters away now, with the village a pillar of smoke kilometers behind them, and gaining with impressive speed. Somehow, impossibly, they were faster than the giant insect.

"Do you think they want me, or the Bijuu, or you guys?" Itachi asked with a somber expression. "The most, I mean." His chakra surged.

The Tailed Beast started to turn in midair, its momentum and direction unchanging, and Sasuke looked down in horror to find an enormous buildup of chakra below his feet. The pressure returned, trying to push him down, but he stayed standing, staring at the Bijuu's front. It was facing Obito and the Fourth now, flying backwards; thousands of tiny balls of chakra were coming together in front of its mouth.

Sasuke watched, fascinated, as the chakra began combining, forming a huge orb that shone with an inner darkness, growing larger by the second. It was almost like the Rasengan, he thought, but to an utterly insane level. The pressure of the clashing chakra inside the ball was unimaginable, and the sheer amount of it was terrifying.

"Bijuudama," Itachi said. The whole Bijuu quivered, aching to release the chakra bomb. Obito slowed down; the Yondaime didn't.

"You…" Sasuke coughed, his heart beating faster than he could track. "What are you doing?! You'll kill them!" It made no sense. Kill his family for the village, and then kill the Yondaime? Insane. His brother was actually insane.

Itachi quirked an eyebrow. "I just need to slow them down," he said, and stomped his foot. The Bijuudama launched, screaming into a sonic boom. It wasn't aimed directly at his sensei, Sasuke realized, but at distant Takigakure. Despite that, it tore a huge hole in the forest, ripping up everything below it with its inexorable gravity.

Far below, the Yondaime came to a stop, tossing something up into the air, too small for Sasuke to see at the distance. He threw both his arms out, concentrating, and golden chakra exploded out of him, a jutsu grid forming out of the naked air in front of his hands.

The Bijuudama hit an invisible wall and sank in with deliberate speed, slowly slipping out of sight. The moment it vanished, there was a tremendous explosion miles behind The Village Hidden in the Waterfall; it almost eclipsed the rising sun. It would have erased the entire village twice over.

Itachi turned back to him with a grin. Their pursuers were almost a kilometer away now, just from their brief pause. "See? That's the Hokage for you."

Naruto came out of nowhere, Rasengan screaming, and Itachi seized his arm, throwing him over his shoulder. The Rasengan exploded, the residual force blowing a ragged hole in Itachi's cloak, and Naruto went sailing off the Bijuu, plummeting towards the forest below.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed out; Sasuke was too shocked to even move. Before he could do a thing, Itachi was at his teammate's side. As he and Sakura both turned, desperate to act, Itachi kicked her in the side, hard; Sakura shot sideways like a rag doll, bouncing once and falling right off the Beast as well.

"No!" The scream tore itself out, and Sasuke rushed forward, too little, too late. Itachi caught him by the throat, lifting him up as he kicked in a blind rage.

"You know what happened now," he said. "Do you feel better?"

"You're lying! You must be!" Sasuke couldn't say anything coherent. It was just him and his brother now, and he didn't know what he wanted; to kill the man or question him more.

"Ask mother, if that makes you feel better," Itachi said, tossing him to his feet. Sasuke stumbled, almost falling on his butt; the wind hitting his front was like a solid object. "Just be ready for her to try and justify herself."

Sasuke's mouth moved, but nothing came out. His brother stepped forward.

"I'm really proud of you, Sasuke." He smiled. "For wanting to know the truth. Even if it hurts now… it'll be better next time. Promise."

He reached forward, two fingers settling on Sasuke's forehead, over his hitai-ate. Sasuke stiffened, ready to strike out.

Itachi pushed. It wasn't gentle; Sasuke was sent flying backwards, right off the Nanabi. He tumbled into the open sky.

The world spun, green and blue and brown and white and red changing places so quickly that Sasuke couldn't right himself. He tried to find up from down, but was blinded by tears. Where was everyone? He caught a glimpse of the Beast retreating, cutting a swathe through the clouds as it gained altitude, Itachi still clinging to its back. The ground was drawing closer and closer. He had to stabilize himself. Even with his chakra-reinforced body, if he hit the forest at terminal velocity it could kill him. Why would Itachi have-?

Sasuke didn't see Obito appear. He was just there, as sudden and sure as the sunrise. They were still several hundred feet above the ground; his teacher had popped out of the thin air from the Kamui.

He wrapped his blood-soaked arms around Sasuke, and they flickered through a cold world before crashing to the forest floor. Sasuke scrambled away, unable to handle being held, and vomited in the grass, his whole body shaking.

"Sasuke." Obito grabbed his shoulder, and Sasuke threw his arm off. "Are you okay?"

"No!" Sasuke said, the sound emerging from him indistinguishable from laughter or crying. "Where're they?!" He was starting to hyperventilate, totally unable to control himself.

"Minato's got them," Obito said. Sasuke collapsed, wheezing. "They're safe."

"Okay." He started shaking more violently. "Okay…"

Not okay.

Sasuke started crying, truly crying, his whole body shuddering as he gasped for air.

"What happened up there?" Obito asked. He didn't reach for him, knowing he'd be smacked away once more. "Sasuke? Did he hurt you?"

"I thought-" Sasuke gasped, desperate to speak. He had to let out what was inside him. "I thought- I hoped it would be something else. Someone else." He laughed, high and mirthless.

"What?" Obito frowned, his mismatched Sharingan shining.

"I didn't think he could have done it." Sasuke whispered. "The whole time… even when I was hating him, I thought that was impossible." He tried to stagger upright and failed, his heart trying to burst out of his chest. "I thought someone forced him, or it was a disguise, or he was controlled, or went crazy, or something." He gasped, his whole face painfully contorting. He felt like he was going to shatter. "I thought that if I got to him, that if I got strong, found out the truth, it would all make sense!"

Sasuke doubled over, trying to scream the world away. "But there wasn't anything like that! It was just him!"

Obito startled back, and Sasuke fell to his knees, the scream pouring out of him in one long breath.

"He killed father! He tried to kill mom too! He killed Shisui because he got in the way! That's all it was!"

Sasuke collapsed, emptied out. He couldn't scream anymore. All he could manage was a hoarse whisper.

"It was just him," he said, closing his eyes as more tears leaked out. He had to accept it. He didn't have a choice.

Itachi was a murderer, not a liar.

"That's all it ever was."