Obito-Sensei

by Ser Serendipity

During the fateful mission to the Kannabi Bridge, Obito is too slow, and Kakashi ends up paying the price with his life. Years later, Elite Jonin Mangekyou no Obito is placed in charge of a very familiar genin team, determined to keep them safe in a world at peace. Or: Obito surviving wrecks everything, in twenty steps or less.

31. Roots

Obito-Sensei Chapter 29

Victim of Success

When Team Seven returned to Konoha, not even three hours had passed since Fuu had been kidnapped. The sun hadn't fully risen, which only made the nightmare they were all trapped in more surreal. They stumbled into existence inside the Hokage's office, and Minato tousled Naruto's hair like it was any other day, as if he hadn't just carried them across the country in an instant with his Hiraishin. Naruto stared at his father, silent.

"Be back," the Hokage said before he vanished again, presumably to put on some real clothes.

Sakura looked at her teammates, and they at her, and none of them had anything to say.

"Take a minute," Rin said, plopping right down on the floor in a cross-legged position and examining her hand. There was a scar there, Sakura saw, a pale splotch in the center of her palm. All of Rin's scars were like that, so faint you wouldn't notice them unless you were looking. They weren't obvious like Obito's.

Obito settled down as well with a sigh. "I'm the sensei here," he said faintly. Even after three hours of rest he was clearly exhausted. There was still a bit of dried blood below his left eye that he'd neglected to wipe away. "But that's a good idea. Sit down, guys."

For lack of anything better, Team Seven joined the adults on the floor of the Hokage's office. Sakura looked around, the quiet of the situation deafening. This was worse than the battle had been; that hadn't begged to be filled with something to distract her, at least.

Naruto was the first to speak up, though it took him a minute.

"What's gonna happen to Fuu?" he asked. Subdued, tired. God, they were all so tired. Sasuke's eyes were red, and his hand shook occasionally. Sakura looked down at her wrist. Rin had healed her first-thing; the break had been clean, like Sasuke's arm had been. Itachi hadn't been interested in hurting them, at least not permanently.

'A clan of traitors.'

None of them had told the Hokage about that. Why? Because they were scared it was true?

"Depends," Rin said, frank as always. "If Itachi was telling the truth and she's going to Rain, she'll probably be alright. She's a fully trained Jinchuriki; they'd be morons to take the Beast out of her. Most likely-"

"He was telling the truth," Sasuke said quietly. Rin glanced at him, and then Obito.

"Sasuke," their sensei said gingerly. "You can't take that for granted. You were in a genjutsu. Itachi could have made anything seem real-"

"I know my brother." Sasuke was abrupt, his voice fatal. He looked up, and his eyes were red from both his tears and his Sharingan. "I tried to spend every day with him, when he was still here. I know when he was lying. He was never good at it, not with me."

"I never heard about anything like what Itachi talked about, Sasuke." Obito was being careful; Sakura could feel that Sasuke was on a hair-trigger, and she was sure their sensei was even more aware. "Some sort of coup; it never came up." He sat up a bit straighter, trying to engage Sasuke earnestly. "I would have been approached, if there was."

"You weren't military police." Sasuke had been thinking about this, Sakura could tell. He hadn't stopped since they'd been thrown off the Bijuu; he'd been running the scenario in his head, over and over, trying to figure out Itachi's words. She wasn't even an Uchiha and she'd been doing the same. "You didn't live in the compound. You were the Hokage's student." He chuckled. "Most of them didn't like you. The ones that died, even."

"Okay," Rin said, holding up a hand. "We could do this all day, we don't know if anything Itachi said to you guys was true. Ba-!" she interjected, pointing at Sasuke as he made to speak again. "We're finishing Naruto's question! Assuming Fuu ends up in Rain, she'll be fine. Ninja being stolen from other villages like that is uncommon, but not unheard of. Depending on how attached she was to Waterfall…" Rin snorted. "She might fit right in."

That didn't sound so bad to Sakura. Well, getting kidnapped wouldn't be good. And that Rain would actually have hired Itachi to cause the kind of destruction he had in the Village Hidden in the Waterfall… that left a deeply sour taste in her mouth.

'The thing that shinobi supply is violence.'

Was she being naive again? She was too tired to know. Naruto nodded, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

"Waterfall won't try to get her back?" he asked, and Obito shook his head.

"From Rain?" he said. "No. They don't have the strength, especially now. They'll be running missions non-stop to stay on their feet."

Fifty-two ninja dead, and many more wounded. It seemed a small number when Sakura put it to herself that way, but it was a significant chunk of Waterfall's strength, and four of them had been the village elders. Waterfall had been practically decapitated by that man with green eyes, Kakuzu the Immortal.

Jiraiya and Rin had killed him once each, and he'd still gotten away. Sakura didn't know what to think of that. It reminded her of Hidan, an old and crusty memory even though their first C-Rank had been less than a year before. It seemed there was more than one ninja running around out there that could ignore death.

"Who were…" Sakura started to ask, before trailing off. Compared to what had happened to Sasuke, to Fuu, her kidnapping seemed small and pointless to talk about. But Obito shifted towards her, and his expectant look drew the rest of the question out of her. "Who took me?"

Obito and Rin shared a look; whatever had happened to Sakura hadn't come up when Jiraiya and Minato had been conferring with what was left of Waterfall's leadership.

"That's a little complicated," Obito said. Rin nodded. "Technically, they were-"

"Traitors." Everyone in the room jumped. Even Obito and Rin hadn't heard Jiraiya enter; the man was completely silent, despite his size.

"Having a little pow-wow here, huh?" He eased down. "Mind if I join?"

"Sensei," Obito said. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"Minato ditched me too," the Sannin said with a grunt. "I figured I'd come find the rest of you. I'm still your mission, aren't I?"

He made it sound innocuous, but his look was too casual. His gaze flitted over each of them in turn, committing to no one. "Wanted to see what you were doing with your brats."

"Traitors?" Sakura was too tired to give the man any deference, no matter his age or experience. Jiraiya gave her an appraising look. At least she had her sword back; she thought, irrationally, that it helped her look more put together. "What do you mean?"

"To Konoha," Jiraiya said.

Rin laughed. "There's a lot of people who'd say the same thing about you, you know," she said, and Jiraiya chuckled good-naturedly.

"Well, you know, the traitor is the guy who punches first," he said. Sasuke shifted, looking down, staring at the carpet and seeing nothing. "After that, if you hit back, you're just giving just dues."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Naruto said, looking ready to burst to his feet. "Who the fuck messed with Sakura? It was like someone took her over. Was that one of the rogue ninja?"

"ROOT," Obito said. Naruto gave him an uncomprehending look, the word meaningless to him and Sakura both. "Don't look at me like that, I think it's an anagram for something, I don't know what. Like ANBU. They also went by The Foundation."

"Obito, you suck at this. Here's a history lesson for you kids," Rin said, scooting forward and ignoring Obito's hurt look. "Before Naruto's dad, the Third Hokage was in charge. You know that." They all nodded, wondering why they were being given a lesson reserved for four year-olds. "What a lot of people didn't know was that the Third had a right hand, Danzo Shimura. He was called Konoha's Shadow, just like how the Third was Fire's."

Naruto nodded, actually paying full attention to a history lesson for what was probably the first time in his life. Sakura thought he looked kind of cute, his face scrunching up as he followed the new names.

"Danzo ran an offshoot of Black Ops, exempt from the Hokage's supervision," Rin continued. "That was ROOT, Foundation, whatever they wanted to call it. It started out as a way for the Third to maintain deniability for anything Konoha needed to get done, but couldn't advertise."

Naruto and Sasuke both took that without question, but the assumption made Sakura want to wretch.

"However, it turned out a lot worse than that," Rin said, her face darkening. "ROOT was rotten to the core. With no one to keep watch on Danzo and his people, they started exploring stuff that was a lot worse than assassination or torture: human experimention, murder, outright undermining the Hokage. But because the Third trusted Danzo, 'cause he'd been his teammate, this all went undiscovered for a long time."

It sounded convenient, Sakura thought, that a disbanded organization would have been responsible for so many terrible things when they'd first been founded to get stuff done that Konoha couldn't. It sounded like something a kid would yell when they shoved an incriminating item into someone else's hand.

"How'd they get found out?" Naruto asked. Obito shifted, but Jiraiya was the one who spoke.

"I killed Danzo," he said. "It all came out from there." Naruto blinked at his harsh tone.

"You killed the Third's teammate?" he asked, the gears obviously turning. "Wait, wasn't he your sensei? You killed your sensei's teammate?"

Jiraiya grinned. "He hasn't spoken to me since."

"What…" Sakura asked. "What happened? What caused that?"

'What made them decide to target me?'

"Danzo often conducted operations outside of the Land of Fire," Obito said, so clinical, as if he wasn't talking about people getting murdered. "One of ROOT's last ops was in the Land of Rain. This was about… fifteen years ago, I think."

"Rain," Sasuke muttered. The whole room turned to him in surprise. "It always comes back to Rain…"

"In this case, yes," Obito said. "Danzo allied himself with Hanzo, which I'm sure plenty of people found hilarious, to destroy an organization he'd decided was a potential threat to Konoha."

Sakura felt her spine prickle, remembering another conversation with her sensei, her time with Haku, the ridiculous books from the library, Jiraiya's apparent reputation. The past crystalized her in a moment of frightening clarity.

"The Akatsuki," she said. Obito nodded, and she looked at Jiraiya, eyes wide. "He went after your students."

The Sage didn't say anything at first, just watched her with his dark eye. He'd done just the same as Obito would, she thought. They were more alike than they looked.

"It wasn't my first thought. We tried to talk it out," he said after a moment, his lips quirking up into a non-smile. He gestured at his missing eye. "It didn't end well."

For some reason it was that simple acknowledgement, more than anything else that had happened that day, that made Sakura feel all too young and stupid. The Third's student had killed a Hokage's teammate and right hand man in defense of his own students, orphans from another land. It was all so tragic and absurd.

"So they were after you," she said. Jiraiya nodded. "And you?" she asked Obito. He rubbed the back of his head. "That's why they used me, to get you to drop your guard. And that's why Rin was along on the mission…"

"ROOT needed a lot of cleaning up once Danzo was gone," Obito said. "The Yondaime wasn't sure who to trust, so he turned to me." He shifted, drawing his legs in. "I became his shadow. Anyone who was left would doubtlessly hold a grudge. And there were plenty left; no one was sure who was part of the Foundation or not, so plenty went underground. Like those three: they must have been waiting for a team to lead them to Jiraiya for years."

"And they chose that time to do it?" Naruto asked. "Did they want Waterfall to… did they want that to happen?"

"They didn't care," Rin said. "Waterfall didn't matter to them; our mission even less. They just needed to kill Obito, and Jiraiya, and me. That was the kind of shinobi ROOT created. Weapons that would focus on the mission, and nothing else."

Team Seven digested that in silence, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts.

"You trained the Rain guys, right." Once again, Naruto was the one to break the silence. This time, his question was directed at Jiraiya. His father's master turned to face him, giving Naruto his full attention. "Do you think Itachi told us the truth? That Rain hired him to steal Fuu?"

Naruto's focus was clear, and Sakura couldn't blame him. He and Fuu had connected instantly; her being snatched away with such violence had hurt him the most of all.

Jiraiya scratched his beard. "Hmm." He grunted. "It doesn't make me look good to say, but I don't know."

He sat up. "I didn't train them to be better shinobi, like I did your pouty little Uchiha here." Obito protested, and Sakura felt something that could have been a laugh on any other day in her chest. "I saw three kids who were in a bad situation and tried to give them the tools to get out of it. Power, sure, enough to protect themselves, but also understanding."

"Understanding?" Naruto cocked his head.

"Understanding the consequences of that power," Jiraiya said. "What they could use it for besides creating more war, more hatred. I tried to teach them about Ninshu, the original shinobi creed. And when they founded the Akatsuki, I thought I'd succeeded, that they were trying to build something new."

Ninshu? Sakura had never heard the term before, but the way Rin and Obito looked at each other made it clear this was an old discussion.

Jiraiya blew out a breath. "But the past few years have made it clear that was just another failure."

"Don't be so dramatic," Rin rolled her eyes. The Sage gave her an unamused look.

"The Akatsuki that I killed Danzo to save is gone," he said. "It drowned in its own self importance." Sakura blinked, realizing the chain of ideology that had led Haku to her had started with the man in front of her. She was overcome with the urge to talk to him. This was the source of Haku's ideals, she thought. Jiraiya of the Sannin had passed his ideas onto the original Akatsuki, and they to Haku, and him to her. It was bizarre to consider the circle she was participating in, sitting in this room and trying to overcome the shock of the morning.

Jiraiya was still talking as Sakura tried to figure out what she would even say to him if she worked up the courage. "Rain has become just another great village spreading disaster after disaster. They accumulate power, debt, and hatred like there's no bottom to it, no consequence. Snatching up rogue ninja, giving them sanctuary and acting as a lightning rod for the other villages' spite, trying to recruit promising young shinobi…" He gave Sakura a loaded glance and frowned. "Because they're convinced that I gave them a mission, that that mission is more important than everything else in the world, they've become willing to do anything to accomplish it."

He sneered. "Why worry about creating more hatred, when you're going to solve it anyway?"

"What's Ninshu?" Sakura asked, deciding on her plan of attack.

"Sensei," Obito said with a warning glance. Jiraiya snorted.

"Your sensei doesn't want me infecting more young minds with my nonsense," he said with a wry look. "But you were already approached by Rain, weren't you Sakura? She's already been pricked."

"I haven't heard of that either though," Naruto said, scooting forward. "And you said you were gonna talk to me later anyway. How about you tell me?"

Sakura gave him an appreciative look. Jiraiya looked to Obito for apparent permission, and their sensei gave him a helpless shrug.

"I'm the one who named you, you know," Jiraiya said, and Naruto started back.

"What?" he asked. "My dad named me." He thought about it. "Hey, you're trying to change the subject!"

"I'm the one who gave your dad that name," Jiraiya said with a bit of mean glee. "And you're right about that. Do you want to know more about your name, or Ninshu?"

"How about you just tell me both?" Naruto said, crossing his arms and looking unimpressed.

"Tch. Greedy kid, aren't you," Jiraiya said. "Ninshu was the original shinobi creed."

"You already said that," Naruto grumbled, and the Sage laughed.

"My, you're just like your father. So impatient!" he said. Naruto perked up. "There's a legend that the first man to control chakra intended to spread Ninshu as a new way of living. He was called the Sage of the Six Paths, and he grew up in an age of terrible conflict." Jiraiya got a far off look, staring out the windows at the clear blue skies hanging over the village. "His idea was that with chakra people could become more compassionate, understand and help each other, instead of fighting and killing each other all the time. He traveled around, spreading that creed and trying to create lasting peace."

"But eventually, people's worse natures won out. Or at least, a couple peoples' did." The old man looked sad, far too sad for an old story. "Ninshu became Ninjutsu, a creed of violence, supremacy. And the problem with something like that is that once one person is practicing Ninjutsu, everyone around them only has two choices: take up Ninjutsu themselves, or have their life held at the whim of those who have."

"That's the way of ninja in the world today. No one can stand against them. To deal with ninja, more ninja are required. And so long as Ninjutsu is widely practiced, that will always be the case."

Obito leaned forward. "We've done this before, Jiraiya. It's already out of the bottle."

"I know," the man grunted. "That's why I'm looking for a new solution. When the old one doesn't work, you don't just give up. You innovate. The same process that created this new way could also destroy it."

Sakura wondered what Naruto and Sasuke were thinking: she couldn't read their faces. Sasuke was still staring at the carpet, while Naruto was tilting his head. Was he understanding what Jiraiya was saying, or was it just washing over him?

"I get why you're disappointed then," he said suddenly. Yeah, he understood, Sakura thought. "Cause what the Akautski became, they don't think like that. They want to change some things, like getting rid of Hanzo, but they don't want to change the whole thing. They're just more ninja, when you wanted to get rid of that kinda thing." He looked down, pursing his lips. "So you were lying earlier. You do know. You think they would have stolen Fuu."

Jiraiya gave him a silent stare, and Naruto looked up at him fearlessly.

"Is he usually like that?" the Sannin quietly asked Obito. Their sensei shook his head.

"It's been an interesting day," he said, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm right, right?" Naruto asked.

"You're right," Jiraiya said. "Rain possessing a Bijuu is the natural next step for them." He frowned. "But hiring Itachi is not. Even if they have no compunction about accepting rogues into their ranks, Itachi is on another level of notoriety. They couldn't have just assumed that no one would find out; that would be too reckless of them."

"So… you think they'd do it, but you can't be sure Itachi wasn't lying," Naruto said. Jiraiya nodded.

"It could go either way. And either way, it's dangerous. If Rain has a Jinchuriki, they'll grow that much bolder. If Itachi, for some reason, stole a Bijuu for his own purposes…" Jiraiya laughed. "That might be even worse."

"How could we find out?" Sakura asked.

"Find Itachi," Obito said. Sasuke growled as their sensei continued. "Get hard intel out of Rain. Both of those are hard. That's the Hokage's business, not yours." Their sensei stood up, stretching. "Here's the hardest part of a mission like this," he said, a little grim. "You succeeded. Congratulations."

'This doesn't feel like success,' Sakura thought, tasting some of Takigakure's smoke and ash in her mouth.

'I don't ever want to feel like this again.'

###

Her mother was there when Sakura got home, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. She crept through the door, wondering why she was there. The Hokage had returned and told them all to get some rest; there would be another debriefing later in the day, apparently, though Sakura wasn't sure what it could be for. What was there left to say?

She wasn't sure why she'd gone home. Probably because it had felt like she didn't have anywhere else to go, even though that wasn't true. That lack of direction was what caused her to sneak into her own house as though she were a criminal.

Her mother was reading a book on the couch in the living room, just off of the main entrance, and she didn't notice Sakura enter right away. On any other day, she would have marveled at that. Mebuki was a trained ninja, after all, and Sakura had never been able to sneak up on her before. Even if her mother was distracted, slipping past her would be an impressive benchmark.

But Sakura took a shaky breath, her concentration and confidence more fragile than ever, and her mother's head snapped up at the sudden sound. She spun, the book coming up in a ready position, and froze at the sight of her daughter.

"Sakura?" she asked, perplexed. "You're already back?"

Sakura stared, no words coming to mind. She'd thought for a second that her mom might hurl the book at her head. Chakra Thermodynamics and the New Ninjutsu. It was pretty thick and was bound in a dull blue leather. Maybe it would knock her out, if her mom threw it hard enough.

"What gives? It's only been a day. Did you forget something?" Mebuki frowned, rolling over the back of the couch and faultlessly coming to her feet. "What's with your face?"

Rin had helped, but the full-body bruise Itachi had given her was still there, Sakura realized. She'd already grown used to the constant dull ache, but she was still a little swollen, for sure.

Were they still not talking? Is that why she was mute? Sakura felt her lip quiver.

Her mother stepped closer. She could tell something was wrong.

"Sakura…" she said, and Sakura coughed.

"We succeeded in our mission," she said, surprised at how lifeless she sounded. Her mother jerked back, the same surprise written across her face. "So we're back."

"In one day? I heard it was a B-rank retrieval. They were that easy to find?" Mebuki crossed her arms.

'She thinks you're lying.'

Would her mother really think that, or was she lying to herself? Impossible to tell.

"One of the Sannin," Sakura said. Her mother laughed. "Jiraiya."

"Well, well done then!" she said. "But if that's the case, why're you fretting?"

'She thinks you're lying, and now she's being sarcastic.'

Sakura wished she could shut herself up, the way she'd been able to after the exam. She'd been able to shut that voice down after stabbing Gaara, after her anger had burned all other concern away. But now…

She felt herself tear up. Her mother's attitude shifted instantly; she stepped forward again, hands up. "Sakura," she said, tone firmer. "What happened?"

"I don't know if I'm even allowed to tell you," Sakura sobbed, her whole body shaking as she tried to control herself. Don't cry, what are you, still a little girl? Someone who fought Itachi Uchiha on top of a Tailed Beast shouldn't go home and cry about it. "The Hokage brought us back here-"

If her mother hesitated at that, she didn't show it. "If he sent you off knowing you might go home, he would have known you might talk about your mission. And he would have trusted your judgement." She gestured, curt, no room for argument or resistance. "Let's sit down and talk about it, okay?"

As soon as Sakura's back hit the couch, she started weeping. The whole story of their mission poured out of her in one long tidal wave, as though she were a breached dam. Tanzaku Gai, Takigakure, ROOT, Itachi. The only thing she was able to hold back was what Sasuke's brother had told them about the Uchiha. She was self-aware enough to know that that wasn't appropriate to talk about. Not yet, maybe not ever.

Her mother watched her the whole time with wide, compassionate eyes, interrupting infrequently, asking for clarification, comforting her, mouth pressed thinner and thinner. When Sakura was finished, they both sat there, silent but for Sakura's occasional gasping.

Eventually, her mother scooted over and put her arm around her. Sakura froze. Distantly, she thought that she'd treated both her parents poorly. That she needed to earn back their love, because she hadn't even apologized for screaming at them after the exam, in the hospital. That she'd been so quiet, not because she hated them but because she didn't know what to say, how to apologize, and she was sure that they would have perceived malice in that silence, because it was what she would have seen.

But Mebuki hugged her, practically crushed her to her side, and there wasn't any sense of needing to earn anything in her touch. Sakura's mother accepted her unconditionally, and that realization just made her cry more.

They stayed like that with no sense of time, until Sakura pulled back, and her mother let her go.

"Sakura," she said with a sad smile. "It seems you're doomed to an interesting life."

That made Sakura laugh, and the sound of her own laughter punctured the grey gauze that the morning had stretched over the world. It was a stupid, sudden thing, but she could breathe again, see color again, look to the future again. If she could laugh, she was still alive; she could move forward. It meant she could get back on her feet. It meant that this wasn't the end of the world.

It meant that if she found it within herself, she could save Fuu.

"I'm really sorry," she said. Her mother grinned. "I don't know why I got so mad, with you and dad. I don't know…"

"You're a teenager," her mom said. "You're going to do stupid things. So long as you recognize that, you'll be alright."

"Is he here? He was here yesterday," Sakura asked, and her mom nodded.

"He's in town. We'll do something later, okay?" she said. "For now, let's just stay here, alright? You've had a tough morning."

Sakura nodded, overcome by sudden exhaustion. She slumped against her mother's side, and Mebuki picked her book back up and began reading it in a low accented voice, the kind of voice she only used when reading aloud.

Chakra theory was normally a subject Sakura was fascinated by, but today she could barely keep her eyes opened. She slumped, the words dragging her down, and eventually fell asleep at her mother's side.

###

"Sasuke," Obito said, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "You can't rush into this."

"Oh?" Sasuke said. He didn't mean for it to come out as anything, but it manifested as a threat. Everything was a threat now. He felt like a blade without a handle. "Why not?"

"This is something that needs to be handled delicately," his sensei said. Obito had caught him on the way back home, and now they were talking above the street, away from curious ears.

"You're afraid it's true," Sasuke said. It was obvious to him. Obito had always been overcautious, and now his whole body was tense, waiting to spring into action. Even though the man was family, his sensei, his superior, Sasuke couldn't feel any respect for him right now. He couldn't respect anyone who'd try to stop him.

"Because I understand the consequences," he said. "Sasuke, if Itachi was right, if that gets out, the whole village would have no choice but to act. The military police would be dissolved, at best. The clan would be-"

"I don't care," Sasuke said bluntly. Obito's face went flat. They stared at each other, and for a mad second Sasuke thought he might strike him.

"You know I don't have much love for the clan," Obito said. His face twitched. "But I'm still saying this. Get it through your head." He took a step forward, and Sasuke stared defiantly up at him. "This isn't just about your brother anymore. There are a lot of people's lives on the line now; the rest of your family's."

His mouth pressed into a flat line. "You wouldn't be careless with them. That's not the kind of person you are."

Sasuke struggled, torn between a contrarian attack and the truth. He tried to breathe, to center himself, but that was impossible. Itachi had destroyed his center, and now he could only teeter from one extreme to the other.

"We'll go together then," he decided, switching from confrontary to concillarity on a dime. Obito raised an eyebrow at the change. Sasuke knew it wasn't like him, but he didn't know what he was anymore. "We're the only two who know. We'll go talk to mom together."

"That's what I was hoping," Obito said cautiously. "It'll be cleanest that way." He turned to go, gesturing for Sasuke to follow.

"But Obito," he asked, and his teacher paused. "What'll you do when she confirms it?"

It was an ugly thing to say, and Obito didn't bother responding. He whirled out of existence, and Sasuke was left alone in the middle of the village.

"Tch," he said to himself. "He'll beat me there."

He took a mild pace, knowing that no matter how fast he went his teacher would be waiting for him by the time he got to the compound. The journey, familiar and rote, now seemed to carry some extra import. All of the other clans lived close to Konoha's center, Sasuke thought, but the Uchiha and military police compound was far to the east, almost beyond the walls and isolated from everyone else.

In the past, he'd barely thought about it; of course the police needed a separate district. That was only natural. Now, it was strange. Why so separate, when they had been one of the founding clans? Why so distant, when it was their job to protect the village? If it had been the Uchiha's decision, that spoke to an unpleasant ego. And if it hadn't been…

Sasuke was so absorbed in his own thoughts that the village passed by in a flash. When someone called out his name, it took a moment for him to register it.

"Hey! Sasuke!" His name repeated once more. He looked back and found Kiba Inuzuka chasing him across the rooftops, running along an electrical cable that bridged a street.

He considered stopping. He had no idea why Kiba would be chasing him. The boy had a determined look on his face.

"Hinata said you were back!" the boy called, and Sasuke twitched. "It's only been a day! What gives?"

Right. The balm. The note.

Sasuke felt something in his heart calcify.

"Leave me alone," he said, coming to a stop but not turning around. He looked away before he could see Kiba's face shift, staring ahead. His home was only a couple miles away.

"What the hell?" Kiba called. Sasuke heard his shoes scuff against the concrete of the roof behind him as the boy came to a stop. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't have time," Sasuke said. He couldn't control his tone; each word came out blunt and cold, like a hammerstrike. "Go away."

"Jeez, what crawled up your ass?" Kiba said as he approached. Sasuke twitched. He didn't want the boy to get closer. "Hinata asked me to check on you. She said-"

"I don't want anyone checking on me," Sasuke spat out. He spun, and Kiba took a step back. His classmate looked shocked; what did he look like right now, Sasuke wondered. The world was painted in every color under the sun with invisible energy. His Sharingan had activated without him even thinking about it. "And even if I did, that's not her job." He took a step forward, jabbing a finger at Kiba's chest. "Go away. And tell her not to spy on me again."

Kiba considered him, a grimace gradually twisting his face. "Asshole," he growled. "I don't know why she bothers caring."

Sasuke stared at him. He didn't feel a thing beyond some disgusted pride at keeping such a cold face despite everything. After a moment, Kiba's eyes narrowed, and he turned.

"See ya," he grunted. Sasuke didn't watch him leave. He just went on his way, back towards his home. He couldn't feel the sun on his face and back; everything seemed cold and listless. Nothing changed when he arrived at the compound.

There were two Uchiha at the front gate: Eiji and Ari. Sasuke knew all of his clansmens' names, even if he wasn't friends with most of them. Eiji was an older man with a gray toothbrush mustache, a member of the military police; Ari was a young girl, only five years old and, unusually for an Uchiha, had long blonde hair. She'd been born after the massacre; one of her parents was from outside the clan.

Watching the entrance was something all Uchiha took shifts on, even if it was only a formality. Sasuke had considered it a fun tradition, but now like everything else it took on an ominous aspect.

"Sasuke!" Eiji called, and Sasuke gave him a nod. "Back so soon! As expected of you!"

Sasuke came to a stop before the both of them, glancing between the two. Ari gave him a shy grin, peeking out from beneath her bangs. "Has Obito come through?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Uncle Obito? We didn't see him," she said. A lot of the younger Uchiha called Obito that. They hadn't had time to take in the rest of the clan's ambivalence towards him.

Had that been because he was the Yondaime's student?

"He might have popped up inside though," Eiji said. He scratched his chin and laughed. "You know how that ghost is."

"Of course," Sasuke said, rushing past them into the compound. They gave him a quizzical look; he was getting good at ignoring those.

His Sharingan was still one, he realized. It felt like he couldn't turn it off. It was usually as simple as flipping a switch, channeling the chakra from his core to his eyes; now, even that felt like a live wire that he couldn't dare touch.

He darted through the streets, afraid of meeting anyone else. Cold concrete, imposing architecture. Privacy, intimidation, and security over all. More pieces for the puzzle his mind couldn't stop working. Within the minute, he was home.

True to his prediction, Obito was already there. He and Sasuke's mother were seated on mats on opposite ends of a table on the back porch. When Sasuke pushed through the final door, they were locked in a silent staring match, and barely seemed to notice his arrival.

"Mom," Sasuke said, and Mikoto shifted to glance at him. A smile lit up her face.

"Sasuke-" she started to say. He cut her off, looking to Obito.

"Did you say anything?" he asked. His teacher frowned and crossed his arms. He'd found the time to scrub away the dried blood on his face.

"Not yet," he said, and Mikoto looked back to him, still smiling. "But she knows we have to talk."

"Itachi was there," Sasuke said without preamble. His mother nodded.

"Obito told me," she said. "I'm glad you're okay-"

"He told me the truth," Sasuke said, and his mother's smile disappeared so quickly that it was like it had never been there. Her burn scars shifted, flattening out, but the fury Sasuke always felt at seeing them refused to make itself known. "Or his version of it. About the massacre."

He stood up, trying to look older, wiser, less confused and angry, and failed miserably. Even with his mother seated, he couldn't delude himself as to the gap between them. "He told me to ask you."

Mikoto considered him, and then Obito, and then Sasuke again. The comfortable silence of his house dragged itself out into something dreadful. She stood up, closing her eyes.

"We should have this conversation somewhere else," she said. Sasuke's heart broke. He'd still been in denial, deep down.

"That's not what you were supposed to say," he said, feeling his whole face twitch. Was he going to cry? Twice in one day? Was he that pathetic? "You were supposed to say-"

"Whatever he told you, it was a lie?" Mikoto asked gently. Sasuke couldn't even nod. "Let's go, both of you. I figured this would happen someday."

She led them out of the house, to the very edges of the Uchiha's territory. Through the forests, which grew thicker and darker. No one had maintained these woods in decades, and once you were a hundred feet into them, it felt as though you were a hundred miles away from civilization.

None of them said anything for the duration of the journey. After several minutes, they arrived at their destination.

Sasuke recognized it; this was Nakano Shrine, a small building with two wings and a tall red torii gate washed out from years of neglect at the entrance. It was the southernmost property belonging to the Uchiha, and had never been used as long as he remembered. There were other shrines in the compound for people to think of their family, ancestors, and whatever spirits they deemed worthy of paying respect to, and after the massacre there hadn't been enough people to bother using the more distant buildings.

"Inside," his mother gestured, sliding open one of the front doors. She waited until Obito and Sasuke were in and then slipped it shut behind them. The moment it closed, Sasuke felt a twinge. Just like the safehouse in Waterfall, there was a barrier around this shrine, though it wasn't nearly as strong.

"Mikoto-" Obito said, and she shushed him, gesturing to the east wing of the shrine.

"The seventh mat," she said. Obito quirked an eyebrow. There were dozens of mats lining the shrine, facing towards graves, idols, and empty space. "Lift it up for me, would you?"

Obito hesitated, and Sasuke didn't have any patience. He ran ahead, kicking the heavy mat aside. It slammed into the wall with a dusty thump. Instead of more scuffed hardwood below it, there was a heavy stone slab, as dark as obsidian. Sasuke tapped it with his foot; it felt like stainless steel, but looked like nothing he'd ever seen before. There was a three-tomoe Sharingan carved into the center.

"Stand back," Mikoto said. She began running through hand-seals with slow deliberation. Ten, fifteen, twenty, more seals than Sasuke had ever seen for a single jutsu. When she finished the twenty-third, there was a pop, a crackle of ozone: the slab lifted up in defiance of gravity, settling on its side and staying upright.

A barrier had broken, Sasuke thought. The slab was only the obvious part of it. Below the dark stone, there was a staircase descending into a inky black that even his Sharingan couldn't pierce.

"Down," Mikoto said matter of factly, leading the way down the stairs. There were about seventy of them, and they were steep; when they came to an end, depositing them into a small flat room, Sasuke was sure they'd gone down about forty feet. His mother snapped her fingers, and the room lit up, torches that were fueled by chakra instead of oil around the perimeter springing to life.

He and Obito looked around, taking in the mysterious basement. Far above them, the stone seal slammed shut. Sasuke felt the hair on his neck stand up as the powerful chakra barrier snapped back into place. The room was larger than he'd first thought; about thirty feet wide and fifty long, covered in mats and the odd chair. At the end of it was a stone tablet set on a pedestal.

"Impressive," Obito said. "I couldn't find this place even with the Kamui."

"This place was created by Madara Uchiha," Mikoto said, walking forward and taking a seat in the center of the room. "There's nowhere in the village that's more secure."

She looked at them and gave a patient gesture, waiting for them to sit as well. Obito did, but Sasuke couldn't bring himself to. He stared at the two adults, mute. Now that he was here, he had no idea what to say.

"So," Mikoto eventually said when it became clear he was struck dumb. "What did Itachi tell you?"

"He…" Sasuke faltered. It had been so easy to be angry and determined with Obito, but this was his mother looking at him so sincerely as she waited for his answer. All his courage dried up, and he was left with a sore throat and tired eyes. Surely she already knew, right? Why else would they have come down here, a place so secret even Obito didn't know about it?

"He told Sasuke that this was a clan of traitors," Obito said. He didn't ask for permission, but Sasuke could see he was cursed with the same curiosity and dread. He and Obito had been feeling the same, they thought. His teacher was just better at hiding it. "That you and Fugaku and the rest of the leadership, had been planning a coup, intending to supplant the Hokage."

He sat back. "So please, Mikoto. Tell us he was lying."

Sasuke's mother frowned, took a deep breath. Paused. Shook her head.

'No.'

"He put it in an unfortunate way," she decided.

"You're not denying it?" Sasuke muttered. Something snapped. "It's unfortunate?"

"Mikoto…" Obito said. "You're not serious, right?"

"No, she's serious," Sasuke bit out before his mother could respond. "Look at her." He started pacing. "You were planning a coup, and it made Itachi decide to kill you, and that's unfortunate?"

"Do you want to know what happened, or do you want to be indignant?" Mikoto asked. How could she be so calm? His mother has always kept her composure, but this was something else. Sasuke's hands curled into fists. "I doubt Itachi told you the whole story."

"If you won't deny the most important part, what's the point of the rest?!" Sasuke shouted, coming to a stop. "Did you think we'd sympathize with you?!" He pointed at her, his finger shaking. "You've been thinking this would happen for a while; did you fantasize that I'd be on your side? Is that why you kept telling me Itachi was after my eyes?! Hoping I wouldn't question him?! That I'd just accept that my brother was insane?!" He laughed. "No point in thinking about it anymore! That would have been nice for you!"

"Sasuke," Mikoto said with a shake of her head. "I was not trying to manipulate you. We didn't tell you…" She paused. "Or you, Obito, we didn't tell either of you the truth to protect you."

"The same thing that Itachi said…" Obito said. "If anyone found out, we'd all be under suspicion."

"Exactly," Mikoto implored, spreading her hands. Sasuke shook, not understanding why Obito was as calm as his mother. It was like they were discussing training instead of treason.

"And Sasuke, we suspected that Itachi knew about our plan from what he said while he murdered your father." Mikoto said it so matter of factly that Sasuke almost didn't notice her flinch. "But that motive alone never matched up with his actions." His mother's voice was calm and melodic, and Sasuke couldn't help but listen as she spoke, desperate for some clarity.

"Itachi murdered several Uchiha that night that were not sympathetic to the 'coup,' as you'd call it." Mikoto drummed her fingers against the mat, lost in the past. "Including Shisui. He stole one of Shisui's eyes, leaving only one for Obito. And Sasuke, though you probably don't remember this, he attempted to use his Tsukuyomi on you. You were so young… if the Yondaime had not saved you, who knows what would have happened."

She sat up, frowning. "He had already achieved his Mangekyo before the massacre, but did not tell us, and no one close to him had died to our knowledge. I concluded long ago that there were additional motivations that made your brother suspect. He was your age, Sasuke. When you're that young, things can't be that simple."

Her calm look slipped away for the first time and revealed gut-wrenching sorrow. "That was why I told you what I did. I'm sorry."

Sasuke didn't have anything to say; he didn't know if he could trust a word of it. Once more, Obito stepped into the gap.

"So Shisui was against your scheme?" he said mildly, and Mikoto laughed.

"Of course," she said. "However, your brother was brought in early on because of his Mangekyo."

"But I wasn't. And Shisui was the picture of loyalty," Obito said thoughtfully. "You couldn't have believed he'd go along with whatever you were planning."

"To explain that, perhaps I should explain the 'scheme,' as you called it," Mikoto said with a somber look. "If you don't mind."

Obito nodded, and looked at Sasuke. He still didn't know what to do, so he nodded in turn. Maybe knowing his mother's truth as well would help him understand his brother's. Maybe then he'd feel less lost.

"It started with money," Mikoto said, settling in, "but it became much more than that. And ironically, it was all born from Konoha's prosperity."

"It's no secret that the Leaf has enjoyed a period of never before seen peace and wealth. That started just before you were born, Sasuke, so you've never known anything else. The Third War pitted the Land of Fire against the world, and in the end, we came out on top. That was thanks in part to the Uchiha, of course; Shisui and Fugaku, and of course you Obito, you were just some of the legendary shinobi whose accomplishments helped Konoha dictate the terms of trade and borders that put us in such a strong position. But the Uchiha have always been pigeonholed, ever since they were given the honor of the duty of military police by the Nidaime."

A bitter smile.

"So, despite those incredible accomplishments the name of the Uchiha did not grow more famous, in or out of the village. Fugaku was not the man who had almost single-handedly won the Battle of Ten Rivers: he was still just the head of the KMPF. When it came time to pick the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze was picked over two of the Sandaime's own students and my own husband. A good choice, to be sure, but not the one the clan wanted or expected."

"Not this again…" Obito muttered, and Mikoto frowned.

"It's important," she said softly. "Don't you think it's strange that of the four Hokage, two were the Senju's leaders, and then their student, and then their student's student? The Uchiha joined with the Senju to create Konoha, and their achievements have always been just as incredible." She smiled. "Perhaps moreso, since we remain where they have died out. Isn't it interesting then, that there has never been an Uchiha Hokage?"

"So the clan made the same mistake that Madara did all those years ago," Obito sneered as Sasuke struggled to keep up. For some reason he hadn't expected this kind of lecture. "Throwing away their loyalty because they were dissatisfied with the power they already had."

"No," Mikoto said. "As with most things, Madara had the right idea, but he was a fool. His hatred of the Senju blinded him to what he could have achieved even as Hashirama's right hand man. We did not hate the village, didn't even really resent it. We just wanted to make it better, in a way that the Yondaime never could. Konoha was and is the most prosperous Hidden Village in the world, and Minato Namikaze was content to maintain that status quo."

"What we wanted to do was seize the advantage."

"In peacetime, as usual, the budget of the military police swelled. With less enemies without, the village focused its efforts within, and gave us the wealth and influence to accomplish its vision. Before, we had always taken this without question, but now, it seemed silly. Money thrown after money, when we already had more than enough. The Hokage and the village wanted us to accomplish more, but we'd reached the limit of our mandate. There were no more laws that could be tightened up, no point in training more officers. We were too good at our job to continue on our current path."

"So naturally, Fugaku and I looked at expanding that mandate."

"There was nothing in Konoha's history to draw from for inspiration. What we wanted to do wasn't in the playbook, as it were. So sure we could do more than maintain a holding pattern, we looked outwards beyond the village for inspiration. And we found it…"

Mikoto grimaced. "In the Nation of Rain."

Sasuke twitched.

'It always comes back to Rain.'

"Rain was a minor village, but it contained a small and powerful cadre of ninja. That small group expanded its influence and recruitment tools and, with several charismatic leaders, took from the country several of the duties that fell to the Daimyo to enforce; its borders, its laws outside of the village, the very sovereignty that defined it. It transformed it into a nation, and swelled in power and prestige, gobbling up everyone willing to join it and transforming from a minor village into something that the Five Great Villages had no choice but to pay attention to."

Mikoto smiled. Itachi's sly look had come from her, not their dour father. "Does any of that sound familiar?"

"So…" Sasuke said quietly. "You wanted to do the same."

"We did not want to depose the Daimyo," Mikoto said. "Or the Hokage, for that matter. That was too dramatic, and would draw retribution without a doubt. But we did want to replace the Hokage with someone who would stand up to the Daimyo: someone who would be bold enough to expand the duties of the military police beyond the walls of Konoha. With the Land of Fire under our aegis, everyone would prosper. The country would grow safer, the village more respected, and the Uchiha more powerful. Everyone would have won."

"You sound like you really believed this would have worked," Obito noted, and Mikoto nodded. "But it's absurd. There were less than three hundred military police, even before Itachi killed so many. They couldn't possibly have covered the whole country."

"It's absurd to think that we could have replaced all of Fire's law enforcement," Mikoto laughed. "But that was never the plan; we simply wanted the authority to act alongside them. Outside of Konoha, Uchiha are just glorified guard dogs; they have no legal authority. If that had changed, our clan would finally have the power it had earned. We would have been a national organization at the right hand of the Daimyo; the influence Konoha could have accrued was unthinkable."

"And in that language..." Obito said. "If Shisui had believed you really were doing it for Konoha…" He mulled that, apparently considering what his brother was really capable of.

"What's the difference between deposing and replacing the Hokage? It's semantics," Sasuke asked, shaking his head. He didn't know or care anything about law enforcement. He'd never been interested in joining the KMPF.

"How politely you ask, that's all," his mother said. "In the end, none of this could happen until Fugaku became Hokage. To accomplish that, there were a couple methods available to us. All of them hinged on the Mangekyo available to the clan. One was Shisui using his Kotoamatsuki to force Minato to step down-"

"He'd never," Obito grunted.

"You're right," Mikoto nodded. "But that left our less elegant options, and Shisui knew that. I think he was probably going down a similar path to Itachi's purported one, in the end; feeling like he had to decide between us and the village."

"And he never told me?" Obito asked. Mikoto frowned.

"I couldn't claim to know why. Perhaps he was worried you'd be assassinated. The military police knew it was playing with fire, and it knew your weaknesses before you took your brother's eye. It's not inconceivable."

"What were the other options?" Sasuke asked. Something clicked. "They were what Itachi knew, weren't they. He told me that you and father were going to go after Naruto's mom. That you were going to take the Kyuubi from her to defeat the Hokage."

Mikoto bit her lip. "Your brother could only ever see the worst in people. Perhaps that's what made him such an incredible ninja. Kushina was and is one of my closest friends. Killing her was never part of the equation."

She shifted, her head dropping a little. "But the Beast inside her… Fugaku's Mangekyo could control it. He had the strength of will, and the experience. He'd faced a Tailed Beast before; he was confident."

"So you would have turned Kushina into a slave." Obito's voice was a knife. "A bargaining chip to force sensei to back down."

Silence for five, ten, fifteen seconds. Sasuke stared at his mother, eyes growing narrower. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, crushed by the lack of sound, her stillness.

"Yes," she eventually said, so quietly that they had to strain to hear. "She is a Jinchuriki; it was always her job to serve the village at all costs. If that meant being used as a bargaining chip against her husband… that was just part of her duty."

Obito's hand shot out and he seized Mikoto by the collar, dragging her forward. His eyes were wide, Mangekyo active.

"Hey-!" Sasuke said. His sensei glanced at him, and he froze. The man looked inhuman.

"It would have been a pleasant dream for her," Mikoto said, fearlessly staring into Obito's eyes. "She wouldn't have known anything else."

Obito seethed, his grip tightening.

"You don't regret it," he spat, actually spat, and Mikoto didn't flinch as his spit landed on her burned cheek. "Even after losing half the clan, your husband, your damn face, you don't look back on it with anything but some sad satisfaction."

"Would you prefer I cry?" Mikoto asked. Her composure refused to crack. Her hands were still held in her lap, and despite Obito dragging her forward her posture was still perfect. "Wail about how unfair it was? How much I miss my husband, my son, your brother, all the others that died? We are Konoha's greatest clan. It was always our duty to make it as strong as possible. This was the best way."

"You said that Madara was the fool, but from where I stand you're the real idiots," Obito growled. "You were so sure that sensei wouldn't agree with your plan. Were you really so greedy for an Uchiha to be Hokage? Fugaku, Shisui, or even Itachi, their time would have come-!"

"In years," Mikoto said steadfastly, "when the opportunity for Konoha to truly crush all the other villages would be long gone. Minato is happy to kill without thought, but he has no stomach for changing the world. You call it patience, I call it missing the window. If you stand still in a fight, you are not patient, you are waiting to be stabbed."

She pursed her lips. "And note that you didn't list your name there, Obito. You were our greatest hope for Hokage. You were strong. You were famous. The prize student of the Yondaime, the most powerful Mangekyo ever recorded. If you had stepped up, even asked your teacher, no one would have questioned you."

She started reaching up with one hand.

"But you were too weak to recognize the opportunity."

Obito flinched, and Mikoto gently pried his hand from her collar. "Your failure, your lack of confidence, was one of the main factors that sent the clan down this path. But now, none of that matters. Whether Itachi assumed the worst and decided only he could be trusted to solve the problem his family had become or due to some other motivation, the result was the same. We wanted to empower Konoha, and in return he slaughtered us. That is why I can no longer call him Sasuke's brother."

She looked at him with a grimace. "No son of mine could have been so stupid."

Obito pushed her away with a disgusted look, and Mikoto almost toppled onto her back, barely catching herself with one hand. "You can deny it if you want, but you would be the fool," she said. "Hate me if you will for having the strength to bring Konoha to the top, but this will always be the Uchiha's fate." She stabbed out at the stone slab at the end of the room. "It's all there, our history and our destiny! If you turn away from that, you don't belong in this clan!"

"I have nothing to say to you," Obito snarled. His arm shot out towards Sasuke. "Sasuke. We're leaving."

Sasuke hesitated, looking between his sensei and his mother. His eyes wandered towards the stone slab at the back of the room. What could be on it that could make his mother say something so absolute?

"Now," Obito said, and Sasuke resolved to settle it later. His blood was pounding through his head, deafening him. Everything had turned out so much worse than he'd thought. He stepped forward and took Obito's hand.

The hidden room beneath Nakano Shrine whirled away, and they were suddenly alone within the Kamui.

Obito looked around at his world and sighed. Sasuke looked up at him, his whole body shaking with unspent adrenaline. Obito glanced down at him, and closed his eyes.

"Fuck."

###

AN: Had an uncomfortable conversation with your family lately?

Happy New Year!