Obito-Sensei Chapter 52

I've Got A Solution

The journey to the Land of Waves from Amegakure had taken two days, and thanks to Naruto's medical skills Sasuke and his team were able to keep the same pace heading back. It took a lot more effort though: they hadn't had to drag along three unconscious people on the way there.

Karin woke up halfway through the first day and was able to run alongside them as they skirted the forests of the Land of Fire and plunged through the Land of Rivers. She was groggy but functional, and that was more than enough for Sasuke. She offered to carry Naruto, but Sasuke refused: he felt like it was his duty to do so, and Haku never once complained about having to carry Sakura. They ended their first day most of the way through the Land of Rivers, closer to the border of Rain than to Fire, but still not quite there.

"Sasuke," Karin had said softly, and Sasuke had looked over to her, his numb arm buzzing with phantom pain. "It's time to stop."

He licked his lips, tasting sweat, and agreed. They bunkered up in a chilly fjord, high jagged cliffs covered in drooping roots and toppling trees shadowing them as they set up a campsite on cold black sand.

"Wanna fire?" Suigetsu asked. Of all of them he was the only one who looked completely fine, despite having been the most abused. "You look like you need it. More to the point," he thumbed a finger at Naruto and Sakura, who'd both been laid down on blankets on the sand, "I bet they do too."

Still asleep, Sasuke thought, suppressing a full-body shiver. It had now been about, what, eighteen hours since Sakura had lost consciousness, and a little less for Naruto? That made it a coma, he was pretty sure. It wasn't surprising considering what they had gone through, but it still concerned him. Naruto in particular had always bounced back from everything. They had to be defended, and they wouldn't be able to artificially regulate their temperature with chakra. A fire would be smart.

But a fire would draw attention, and right now, Sasuke felt the most useless he ever had in his life. He'd lost the other Jonin on the mission because of his own cockiness, his willingness to split their team. The mission had failed, utterly.

And when he ran, everytime he took a step forward, his arm bounced against his side. That was what made him feel truly hopeless as he pondered the question of fire.

With the memory of a Tailed Beast's arm exploding under his hand, he'd been able to write off the loss, especially when Naruto had already looked so desperate, tried his best, given so much for all of them, nearly killed himself saving Sakura. But now, with both his friends in a coma and an exhausting day of silent travel behind him, the memory was fading and all Sasuke could think about was the peculiar pain of his arm.

It was numb and tingled constantly, like he'd slept on it. It would feel like he'd slept on it for the rest of his life. Sasuke could barely lift it, and when he did it felt like something in shoulder might tear. It scared him. The last time he'd seen his brother, he'd felt a gulf between them, a cliff he had failed to climb despite all his growth. Now, that gulf was even more ridiculous, maybe even truly impassible. He'd given up his future for the present, and Sasuke hated it.

"A fire would be good," he finally decided, aware he'd been silent for a couple seconds. "We'll take watches. I'll get some wood. Watch them." He tried to stoke his pride like he would their campfire, to regain his hope. Even with one arm, he was more than a match for most ninja. He had a couple one-handed jutsu too, and he could learn more. He was young. This wasn't the end.

But as he broke off branches with short, sharp chops and stuck them to his body with chakra because he couldn't carry them in both hands, Sasuke wondered if he was just lying to himself.

The fire was easy enough to start with a little fiery chakra breathed into his hand, and then they sat around it as darkness fully descended. The night was cold, but there wasn't a breeze and the sound of the river lapping along the fjord was relaxing. Sasuke felt his heart start to slow down as he stared into the flame and set up his sleeping bag with one hand, wondering if he'd ever have a day like this again.

"Hey, you okay man?" Suigetsu asked, too informal to be talking to his team leader, but Sasuke found he didn't care. He shook his head, and Suigetsu grunted.

"Yeah," he said, glancing at Sasuke's limp arm. "Is it-?"

"Naruto was right," Sasuke said shortly. "It's not coming back."

"I could try to help," Karin said. Sasuke gave her a look, and she met his gaze. "You could bite me too. I could take it. I've had a day."

A day of running and stretching her senses to make sure they weren't being followed, Sasuke thought. There was no way Karin was fully recovered from healing Naruto. And besides that…

"If I cut it off and bit you, would it grow back?" he asked, his voice sour. Karin's eyes went wide and she stared at him for a couple seconds before cautiously shaking her head.

"I don't think so," she said while Suigetsu and Haku watched them both. "It would seal the wound, I'm sure, but I don't think your body could… grow another arm, Sasuke."

"Then let's not bother," Sasuke said, thumping the limb and feeling nothing. "I can feel it. Or, I guess I can't feel it. Like Naruto said, it's done for. It's just some meat shaped like an arm. When we get back, I'll probably get it removed. It's throwing me off too much."

"You'll disregard your own arm?" Haku said softly. Sasuke turned on him, noting that the beautiful boy was by Sakura's side even after laying her down and bundling her up near the fire. It was one of the only things Haku had said all day. He'd seemed to be in shock.

"It doesn't feel like my arm anymore," Sasuke said. "It's like a weight tied to my shoulder. I can't do anything with it." He lifted it to make his point, and his right arm came up shaking the whole way, stopping before it even got level with his shoulder. It hung there, trembling, before Sasuke dropped it with a grunt. "It'll only cause me trouble."

"Missing it entirely could too," Haku said, and he took a long, deep breath, like he was holding back tears. "At least give it some more thought, Sasuke." He glanced down at Sakura. "When Sakura and Naruto wake up, if they see your arm is completely gone, it might hurt them. They deserve to be part of that conversation, I think."

Haku was right, Sasuke thought with annoyance. Even on the edge of falling apart, and so obviously too, the other boy was more clear-headed than him. He swallowed and nodded, trying to pick up some of the responsibilities he was supposed to hold.

"Are you alright, Haku?" he asked, and Haku stiffened. "There wasn't time to…"

"No," Haku said. His voice was soft. "There wasn't. And no. I'm not." He stared off into the darkness beyond the fire, drawing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them. "I'm not okay. I've been with Master Zabuza my whole life. I don't feel in control of myself. I don't know what to do next."

Haku turned to Sasuke, suddenly intense. "You've lost before, Sasuke," he said. Sasuke didn't know what to say as Haku continued with obvious desperation. "You lost much of your family, your brother, your village, and now your arm. How did you keep moving forward?" Haku's face was pale. "I lost my family when I was a child. I murdered my own father after he killed my mother and turned on me. I was lost after that, and I remained lost and enslaved until Zabuza found me, freed me. He became everything for me, and now he's gone."

Haku looked like a ghost beside the fire. "I followed him to Rain, and then I followed Rain's ideals because he told me to follow something besides him. But it was always Zabuza that I was moving forward for. But you've kept going no matter what, even after abandoning your village and your family and your friends. How are you doing it?"

Sasuke blinked. He didn't know what to process first, what Haku had said about him or what Haku had revealed about himself. He didn't know if he even had an answer to the question until his arm burned and his eyes fell on his unconscious teammates, bundled and steadily breathing in the light of the fire.

"I'm the same," he said, feeling like it wasn't the complete truth the moment it came out of his mouth. "After what my brother did, I followed him. I still am. It's why I came to Rain. And when Sakura was going too, I was following her, her and Naruto both." He thumped his useless arm. "I guess that's why I'm going to get rid of this. If I'm going to keep up with them, I don't wanna slow down."

"The same, huh?" Haku muttered, trailing off. He looked back to Sakura. "Can we follow the same person?"

"She's worth it," Sasuke said. Now, he thought that was definitely too cheesy, but it didn't feel close to a lie like what he'd said before. "If that's what you need to keep going, Haku, you could pick worse."

"Did she ever tell you about our conversation in the Forest of Death?" Haku asked, and Sasuke shook his head. He knew it had happened, though he couldn't remember when and where exactly he'd learned that, but Sakura had never shared the details of that night. "We talked about the Akatsuki, and even though she knew nothing of it she was better at articulating its beliefs than I was." Haku laughed, and for the first time he seemed anything but sad and empty. "I couldn't understand it. Or, I guess it would be better to say she made me understand it better all on her own." He stared at the fire. "I'm going to recommend her for the Akatsuki when we return."

Sasuke's heart leapt, but nothing showed on his face. "Why now?" he asked. "If you were that impressed by her from the beginning, I mean."

"What she did back in Fukami City," Haku said. "Fighting Gaara like that, trying to draw him away from the city, and then…" He sighed. "When I dragged her out from under the bridge, I was determined to go back and kill Gaara's brother and sister. There wasn't a thought in my mind but murder. But even though she was dying, she grabbed me. She told me not to go. That we'd already lost too much."

He was almost too intense for Sasuke to look at. "She was smarter than me. Sakura understood then that if Gaara was still alive, he'd surely kill me too. And if he wasn't, and I did kill both his siblings, and that came to light, the Hidden Sand would have all the reason it would need to declare war on the Hidden Rain, and drag Fire and other villages into it as well. The risk wasn't worth it. And she understood all that despite her hatred for him, how hurt she was. Her will must be part of the Akatsuki."

Sasuke wondered how much of that had been Sakura's true intent and how much was Haku projecting. If it got Sakura into the Akatsuki, got them closer to achieving their mission, it didn't really matter. With a cynical distance, he wondered further if Haku's admiration of Sakura couldn't further assist with that. If they returned and brought Haku with them, who had decided to follow Sakura instead of the Akatsuki's ideals, their mission would be a success beyond their wildest dreams.

"Jeez," Suigetsu laughed and cut through the tension without trying. "You're both nuts."

"We're not as lucky as you, Suigetsu," Haku said without looking at him, and Suigetsu chuckled.

"True enough. The only thing this mission taught me is that I'm basically immortal," he said with a cocky grin. "If two nutcases in a row couldn't kill me, nothing can." The grin faded a little. "Not that I knew, to be honest. I've never had to push it that far before."

"Well, hopefully you won't have to again," Sasuke said, suddenly feeling exhausted, so exhausted he could barely keep his head up. "If you're feeling so invincible, how about you take the first watch, huh? Let the rest of us mere mortals get some sleep."

"Sounds good to me," Suigetsu grinned, and Sasuke lay down and was asleep before he could respond.

###

When they arrived in Amegakure and crossed the eastern bridge, it was the end of the second day and Naruto and Sakura still hadn't woken up. Sasuke had always admired the lights of Amegakure which pierced up into the sky without fear no matter the hour, but today he couldn't enjoy them at all. They were followed in by a border patrol that had picked them up an hour before, but they departed without Sasuke ever speaking a word to them; it was obvious his team had their injured well in hand, and this close to the city there was no danger.

"To the hospital first," he said, and Haku nodded. "Immaculate's closest: maybe Kabuto and Nonō are back. That'd be lucky." He doubted they had that kind of luck today. It was a nice day with only mild drizzle, and they made their way through the dense city streets at speed, shinobi and ninja clearing the way for them as they saw the people they were carrying. Sasuke saw one older woman mutter a prayer into some glittering black beads covered with red clouds as they passed.

Checking Naruto and Sakura in was simple, as it usually was. Sasuke made a report to the hospital staff with lifeless precision, listing off their injuries and the treatment they'd received. As he'd thought, Kabuto and Nonō weren't there, but the medical ninja who did meet them, a man with dark skin and a completely hairless face, seemed pleased with his teammate's condition.

"Chakra exhaustion then," he said, and Sasuke nodded. "We'll keep them here until they've recovered." He frowned. "But your arm…?"

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, and left before anyone could make a fuss. Suigetsu followed after him, but Haku stayed behind.

"Need me for anything?" Suigetsu asked. Sasuke shook his head.

"I'm just going to go make my report," he said, and Suigetsu shook his head in mock sympathy. Well, maybe a little bit of it was real. "You can go do whatever you want."

"I'll get some food then," Suigetsu declared. "Want anything?"

I want my arm back, Sasuke almost said, before he sighed and sent the thought away.

"Fried rice would be nice," he mused. "With diced tomatoes. And fish."

Suigetsu laughed. "Specific!" he said with a grin. He slapped Sasuke's dead arm and then flinched, though Sasuke didn't feel a thing. His friend's grin faded a little. "I'll go looking. See you at your place, alright?"

Sasuke nodded, and Suigetsu was kind enough to understand that was probably the best he'd get. He ran off, leaving Sasuke alone in the drizzle.

He started walking, intentionally not drawing attention to himself. As the remaining Jonin commander for the mission, it was his job to make his report at the central command and control center of Amegakure, in a bunker below one of the city's largest skyscrapers. The CCCC wasn't a very evocative name, he thought: the Hokage's Tower had a lot more mystery to it. But Amegakure was the center of Rain's ninja and civilian government all in one, so perhaps the demystification was intentional. As he walked, his mind was drawn back to the catalyst for the mission's catastrophe, Darui.

The Cloud shinobi had vanished after the warehouse explosion; if Sasuke recalled correctly, and he always did, he'd saved Kurenai, waited to be fixed up by Naruto, and then vanished when Gaara had arrived. That's what Karin had told him. He'd fled south, and then beyond Karin's range. Sasuke had thought about it before on the way back as he gathered the story from everyone, but now he turned his mind fully to it in preparation of his report.

Why had he run? It was obvious; Darui's job had been done. He'd led them to the counterfeiters and intentionally failed his own mission, and then when they'd been blown to pieces he'd gotten out of there, like they all should have. It wasn't to his interest or the Hidden Cloud's to pick a fight with Sand's Jinchuriki.

'If the Land of Lightning sent someone like him to protect the counterfeiters, or worse, assist them, it would be more than just standard economic posturing.'

'The Land of Lightning had something here. They lost it. I came to get it back.'

Had the Land of Lightning been responsible for the counterfeit bills, or just recognizing an opportunity? Sasuke couldn't know, but they were both terrible options. That sort of economic warfare against Fire was a red line, and yet the Land of Lightning's government, potentially the Daimyo's own court even, had sent Darui to retrieve the means. But the operation had still been going when they arrived, fully staffed, headed by the rogue ROOT agent. That meant she was probably responsible for the "loss." The Hyuuga had come in, hijacked the operation… and then kept up the same production?

That was probably the critical point, even if there was no one they could learn the whole truth from now outside of Lightning's government. ROOT had a grudge against Fire in particular thanks to Danzo's death, being cast out and hunted down by his own sensei for refusing to disband quietly. It was only natural they would turn the counterfeits against the Land of Fire, but had that been Lightning's plan? There was no way to know now.

So, ROOT took over the operation, Lightning perhaps stopped getting updates from their own shinobi that they'd stationed in the Land of Waves, and then people on all sides noticed the issue. That would also explain why three separate groups had arrived at the same time; Sasuke's team, Hinata's, and Darui himself. By that theory, Gaara would just be bad luck, but Sasuke was willing to accept that.

Sometimes, the world was driven by cruel coincidence.

Sasuke was so buried in his thoughts that he made his way to the CCCC on autopilot, and only realized he was there when he almost bumped into another Jonin in the halls. The woman looked down at him with gentle incredulity, and he dipped his head in apology as he stepped to the side. Looking up, he found that he was in the hall leading to the mission debriefing room, which was in truth more of an auditorium. Rain was in high tempo lately, and had multiple cadres out on any given day.

The price of success, Sasuke thought with a surprising amount of bitterness. The more you succeeded, the more there was asked of you.

He slipped into the room and looked around. While it was large, that size was more to give distance between the tables spaced out at wide intervals around the room, around which was hung white cloth that obscured anyone present. It was deathly quiet: the cloth and thick brown carpet of the room absorbed most sound. There was only one other Jonin giving a report at the moment, and Sasuke made his way to the table farthest away from the other ninja.

When he stepped past the cloth into the table enclosing the table within, the man on duty inside let out a whistle.

"Wow," he said with a grin. Sasuke recognized the other ninja after a moment. Deidara, a former missing-ninja from the Hidden Stone. One of the many S-ranked ninja that Rain had snatched up over the years, and so one of the ninja Sasuke had been careful to catalog. "So I get Sasuke Uchiha, huh?"

Sasuke took a seat on the other end of the table, keeping his expression neutral. Deidara was much like his brother, a powerful ninja who'd violently abandoned his home. It was shinobi like him that kept Sasuke unsure as to whether his brother was really here or not.

"Seems like," he said. Deidara scoffed.

"So testy," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms. His eyes wandered over Sasuke's shoulder. "Where's the other one, then? It was you and Zabuza Momochi, wasn't it?"

"He died."

Deidara frowned. "Seriously?"

Sasuke wondered how his face looked. He thought he wasn't showing a thing, but Deidara's expression told him otherwise. The man seemed wary, which made Sasuke think he probably looked murderous.

Unsure of what would come out if he spoke, Sasuke nodded. Deidara blew out a breath, pushed his chair out, and stood up.

"Stay put for a second, got it?" he said, and then pushed out past the white cloth. Sasuke did just that, sitting and staring straight ahead as he tried to reign himself back in. Now that he'd stopped moving, there was nothing to distract him from his arm.

A moment later, Deidara returned. "I've got special orders for this debrief," he said. "Much as I'd like to get all the juicy details, you're supposed to make it directly to the Amekage."

"I wasn't told that when I left," Sasuke said flatly, and Deidara shrugged. He stuck out his hand and revealed a small black rod in his palm. Sasuke blinked when he realized there was a mouth beneath the rod, lipless and pressed tightly closed.

"Maybe they got the feeling things would turn out bad," he said with a hint of a sneer. "You know the drill, right? Just a little prick."

Sasuke wondered if Deidara was talking about the rod, or him. He didn't care enough to find out. He reached out and plucked the rod from Deidara's palm, and then drove it into his numb arm. He didn't even feel it puncture him; his only clue to being pierced was when his body went cold and the room whipped away in a flash of darkness.

With a jarring transition, Sasuke was in another room. It was long, obviously intended for meetings, with an equally long wood table crossing the length of it. The table was covered in maps and packets, dozens of each. The maps depicted parts of the continent in various levels of detail, from as small as a single town to as large as a country. The packets were more specific: most were closed, but Sasuke could see some documents poking out from them where they hadn't been perfectly returned. The packets, plain and manilla, each had the name of a person on it alongside a village's symbol. Sasuke had no doubt they were the names of shinobi. He saw documents marked with the symbol of Stone, Waterfall, Cloud, Rivers, Tea, Mist, and Leaf.

This was a room where important conversations were held, but if one had been going it had ended before he'd arrived. Both Yahiko and Nagato were here, standing on the other side of the table and turning towards him. It seemed like they were doing it in slow motion.

That was because one of the packets, farthest away from him, right below Yahiko's hand, unmistakably had Itachi's name on it.

For a mad second, Sasuke considered trying to leap over the table and grab it. Who knew what he would find inside? But the impulse passed after a heartbeat and sanity reasserted itself. That would be outright insubordination, at best. If he had a chance to sneak a look, he would, but otherwise it wasn't worth the potential risk to Sakura's mission. There was no way the Amekage would just leave information about what Itachi may have done for them lying around…

Unless they actually did trust him that much?

He wondered if he was in one of these packets as well, but resisted the urge to look around. Instead, he inclined his head.

"Amekage," he said. He heard a shuffle as Yahiko crossed his arms. "I was told to make my report directly to you."

"Glad you made it back!" Yahiko said, and Sasuke looked up. "And so quickly too! Grab a seat, would you?" He followed his own request, sitting down and organizing some of the documents in front of him. Nagato stayed standing, watching Sasuke with his odd purple eyes. Sasuke pulled over a chair that had been pushed aside, but hesitated to sit.

"You look tired," Nagato gently noted. "Where is Zabuza? I expected that he would accompany you."

Now, Sasuke sat, though his posture stayed rigid. "He's dead," he said, and Yahiko paused in his effort to organize. The Amekage looked up, giving Sasuke all of his attention. "We encountered some complications. Zabuza was our only casualty."

"Zabuza's dead?" Yahiko said, sounding as if he couldn't quite believe it. He watched Sasuke for a moment, and his eyes were drawn down to Sasuke's right arm. "Start from the beginning. I don't care how important you think it is; tell us everything."

When he started talking, it became difficult to stop.

Sasuke disclosed everything he could remember. Arriving in the Land of Waves, observing its economic development, making a plan to track down the counterfeiters through a black market deal, Karin tracking the other shinobi in the city, being kidnapped by the team from the Hidden Leaf, their impromptu alliance, the presence of Gaara and his team, the information gathering in the city the next day, being approached by Darui, following both that lead and the previously established black market deal. And then, the ambush, everything going wrong: the assassination and retrieval team from Mist, Zabuza's rampage, the warehouse Darui had led the rest to exploding, destroying the evidence and any witnesses, the rogue Hyuuga responsible for it committing suicide, Gaara's cataclysmic meltdown, everyone's injuries excluding his own, the collapse of the bridge, Zabuza's death, and the scramble afterwards to make sense of it all.

Yahiko and Nagato were mostly silent as Sasuke spoke at a measured pace, stopping twice to collect his thoughts before continuing. Occasionally, they asked clarifying questions, but mostly they absorbed everything he said with deadly seriousness. However, the more he spoke, the more obviously angry Yahiko became. Nagato didn't take in any of the other Kage's anger: he only grew horrified and disquieted as the debriefing continued.

When Sasuke finished, ending with them exiting the country and making their way back to Rain, the room was silent for perhaps twenty seconds. Yahiko drummed his fingers on the table, his face red. Nagato closed his eyes.

"Well," Yahiko said. He took a deep breath. "Almost all of you made it back. It could have gone much worse."

Nagato let out a pained chuckle. Sasuke stared straight ahead, not sure if he was about to be demoted or worse. "Losing Zabuza is painful, it's true," he said with a sigh. "But Sasuke, it sounds like you all did an amazing thing. It's… not ideal that Gaara of the Desert did such a thing, but you fought him off and forced him to retreat. You likely saved thousands."

How many thousands hadn't they saved? Especially when all that death had been caused by them being there in the first place? Sakura's presence had incited the rampage, after all. Sasuke's gaze didn't shift.

"You said Gaara went for the bridge," Yahiko said, narrowing his eyes. "After Zabuza cut off his arm. Had he shown any interest in it before then?"

Sasuke thought back, digging through the scraps of what he'd forgotten, or at least forgotten to mention. "Yes," he admitted. "Hinata said that he was out near the bridge earlier in the day, I believe. I suppose it's possible he had already undermined it before he brought it down on Sakura, Zabuza, and Haku."

"I would have to assume so," Nagato said, starting to pace. "His presence doesn't make sense otherwise, but it's certainly sinister either way. The Great Channel Bridge intruded on the Land of Wind's trade routes, it's true, but to send a Jinchuriki to destroy it would be extremely… rash."

"To destroy it, yes, but perhaps the intent was only to destabilize it," Yahiko pointed out. His anger was still present, but had gone cold; he had a calculating look now. "To destroy both it and trust in Wave's engineering skills. It was a massive endeavor. Plenty of people thought they couldn't pull it off."

Sasuke shrugged. Why Gaara had been there had been so much less important to him than what Gaara had done.

"This will put Sand in a terrible position," Nagato said. "Waves may not have had any allies on paper, but that sort of aggression will have the other villages wondering if they or their allies will be next." He stroked his chin. "I wonder if Namikaze will break off their military alliance."

"That's fifty-fifty, I'd say," Yahiko said with a tilt of his head. "What do you think, Sasuke?"

Sasuke blinked. "Do I think that Leaf will end its alliance with Sand?" he asked, and Yahiko nodded.

"It was your home," he said, and Sasuke pondered the lack of a clarifier such as 'until recently.' "And you're a perceptive shinobi. Would the Yondaime strike you as the type to suffer an ally's, well, insanity?"

"No." Those weren't his own words, Sasuke realized after a moment. Those were the words of the Yondaime Hokage, speaking to Sasuke and his team after the second round of the Chunin Exam. He'd told them that Gaara had killed one of Stone's teams, and even though it had been obvious the anger wasn't directed at him for a second Sasuke had still been scared for his life.

"Gaara's attacked Leaf shinobi before," he said. Yahiko gave him a curious look. "At the Chunin Exam. He also killed a team from Stone there, and it made the Yondaime furious. I think that kind of thing happening again, plus the scale of the destruction in Waves, will convince him to find better friends. Or at the very least, make an ultimatum to Sand to… I dunno. Turn Gaara over the Land of Waves? There's no way they would do that, though."

"Sand would never give up their Bijuu," Nagato confirmed. "Especially when there is already one that's well known to be missing."

The Nanabi? Sasuke stayed silent.

"Putting that aside for the moment," Yahiko continued, "the good news is that your mission was a partial success." Sasuke scoffed, and Yahiko smiled at him. "You eliminated the source of the counterfeiters, and while you weren't able to hand them over to the Land of Fire, you did one better and worked together with shinobi of the Leaf to find them in the first place. That was the secondary objective of the mission, and you accomplished it beautifully. Managing to negotiate an alliance after being captured? That's gonna leave a hell of an impression."

"Like I told you, Sasuke," Nagato said, "it's paramount that Rain be perceived as a rational and legitimate village. In that respect, your mission was a total success."

Sasuke's head dropped and he stared at the table. He had no idea what to say. Even after his most massive failure yet, everyone seemed determined to praise him.

They were trying to manipulate him. It was the most reasonable explanation. They couldn't afford to punish him, even for this, because of who he was. No, because of who his brother was, if Itachi was working for them. He didn't care that that thought didn't make sense, it was what he settled on. He had to poke a hole in their fantasy.

"I was thinking about Darui's involvement earlier," he said. Nagato perked up. "I couldn't make sense of it. Kurenai and I guessed that Darui had been hired by the Land of Lightning to keep anyone from looking into the counterfeiters, but he led us right to them. And we found a former ROOT member in charge of the operation. If they had just taken over and kept up the same production, why had Darui been sent in the first place?" Sasuke didn't look up as he spoke, an unconscious effort to be disrespectful.

"Well, obviously the production changed," Yahiko said. "If a ROOT member was responsible for all the Fire currency, it would stand to reason that beforehand, if it was an operation from the Land of Lightning, they hadn't been focused solely on Fire." He laughed. "Most likely, they were intending to target every country's currency but their own! Not to the same degree, not to impose hyperinflation, but merely to damage confidence. Just the same as Sand intended to do to Waves, perhaps, before Gaara went mad. That would be in line with everyone's little cold war."

"That lines up with everyone converging on Fukami City. Well, bar Gaara," Nagato noted. "With the influx of false Fire notes, the Leaf and us noticed at the same time, and Lightning was likely already moving." He waved his hand like he was sending off an annoying insect. "But at this point, it's just academic. It happened; we have to deal with the consequences. Speaking of which-" He pointed. "What happened to your arm, Sasuke? You didn't mention an injury."

"Oh." Sasuke looked down at the useless limb. "That was my own fault."

"I doubt that," Yahiko said. Sasuke chuckled.

"I used an untested ninjutsu on Gaara. I've been trying to create a Lightning Rasengan." At that, both Nagato and Yahiko glanced at each other, equally surprised. "I made some progress, but it wasn't ready to be used in a real fight. It blew off one of his Bijuu's arms, but I lost mine in exchange."

"You blew off a Tailed Beast's arm?" Yahiko asked incredulously. Sasuke shrugged. "That's a hell of a jutsu. Though you're certainly brave to mess with the Rasengan like that. It's a difficult jutsu to alter."

"Yeah. Well, I learned my lesson," Sasuke said, contemplating the closest place he could ask someone to cut his arm off for him. Would Yahiko do it? Did the Amekage know any medical jutsu? No, that'd be way too impertinent to ask-

"Well, that's not gonna work," Nagato said with a frown. "You're one of our most promising Jonin." Sasuke looked up ready to sneer as Nagato continued with a clap of his hands. "We need you at one-hundred percent."

He stomped down, and with a tremendous groan a devilish face erupted out of the floor behind him. It was an exaggerated leering mask like something out of a play, and it had the Rinnegan. The face opened its mouth, revealing a swirling purple darkness behind its huge rounded teeth, and Nagato crossed his arms.

Sasuke stared, not sure what the hell he was seeing.

"It's the King of Hell," Nagato explained helpfully, which didn't help one bit. "Step inside. I'll fix you up."

Yahiko stood up. "Nagato, you're sure?" he asked, and Nagato nodded.

"It's my chakra, I'll manage it how I like." He looked away from his fellow Amekage to find that Sasuke hadn't moved an inch.

"This can't be fixed," he said, gesturing at his arm. Nagato shrugged.

"That's fully possible. It looks like even your chakra system there has been destroyed." Sasuke flinched. He'd known it, but he hadn't taken a look with his Sharingan, and having someone with the Rinnegan confirm it just rubbed salt in the wound. "But fortunately for you, I'm terrible at medical jutsu."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and Nagato laughed at the look on his face. "It's true! My eyes might give me mastery over every kind of chakra out there, but you've got Naruto as a teammate: you should know that there's more to medical jutsu than just knowing how to do it. I can certainly try, but I'm an amateur at best."

"And that's good for me…?" Sasuke asked as Nagato's laugh faded to a smile.

"In this case, yeah." The smile grew serious. "Do you trust me, Sasuke?"

Sasuke thought about it, and he took his time doing so. Did he trust Nagato Uzumaki? He certainly didn't trust Amegakure, but what about the Amekage, this one in particular?

"Yeah," he decided. "I don't think you'd lie to me."

"Well, that's the baseline at least," Nagato said with a snort. "Then just step right inside. But you should know… it's going to hurt. Like nothing else you've ever felt before."

"What, getting eaten?" Sasuke grunted, and then he stepped forward and fell inside the mouth.

The teeth closed behind him with a crash, and then Sasuke tried to scream.

Nagato had been lying. The pain Sasuke was experiencing was familiar; it felt like all the pain he'd ever experienced in his life, all at once, all at an intensity that he'd never dreamed was possible. He tried to scream, but he had no mouth to let out his agony: it had been torn away by the scouring fire all around him. His body was disintegrating, being rubbed away centimeter by centimeter like he was being dragged along a wall of jagged stone at impossible speed.

He was going to die. He was absolutely going to die. He was already dead, and his body was just resisting out of habit no matter how foregone the conclusion was.

A second that lasted more than a second passed, and then Sasuke fell to his knees. He blinked, tears in his eyes. He had knees again. He had a body again. He was back in the room, and someone was placing a hand on his back. He lashed out on instinct, his brain too slow to hold him back. His arm came up and slammed to a stop as someone's hand wrapped around it.

His right arm.

Sasuke froze, reality finally crashing down on him. He looked up and found Nagato standing over him. The man's face was covered in sweat, and he was holding Sasuke's right arm in a firm grasp.

His arm was back, like it had never been destroyed. He'd almost struck Nagato in the face with it.

"Sorry," Sasuke gasped, pulling back. Nagato gently released his arm. "I didn't…"

"That's usually how it goes," Nagato said. "I used to really try to warn people, but people always underestimate it. Sorry about that."

"I feel…" Sasuke started to say, licking his lips. He couldn't put the feeling to words, not without ranting. Every lingering ache and pain from Waves was gone; he felt refreshed, like he'd just woken up after sleeping for days, and his arm was back. The lump of meat was a limb again. He ruthlessly squashed what might have been the beginning of tears as his whole body struggled with the fact that there wasn't a thing wrong with it anymore. "I feel great."

"Better than new, right?" Nagato asked, and Sasuke nodded. "Well, that's good. That's basically what you are."

"What the hell did you do?" Sasuke asked, coming to his feet. He imagined that he should have shook, but his legs were stronger and surer than ever before.

"Well, I've got no gift for medical jutsu," Nagato said with the ghost of a grin. "But for the Rinnegan, it's pretty simple to replace someone's entire body." Sasuke didn't have nearly enough time to begin unpacking that statement before his train of thought was interrupted.

"Too bad about the cost, Nagato," Yahiko said, and Sasuke realized the other Amekage was seated once more, right at his side. "Sasuke, I hope this doesn't make you think this means you can just throw away your arm again." His calculating look was back, Sasuke thought. "That's not something Nagato can do whenever he likes."

Sasuke looked back at Nagato, seeing the sweat covering his face, the minute tremble in his fingers, and frowned. "Replacing my whole body?" he asked. Nagato nodded. "That's insane."

"A little," Nagato admitted. "But I couldn't think of a better solution. Unfortunately, I can't do it piecemeal. It's all or nothing."

That just made it more insane. Sasuke's conception of what Rain was and what it was capable of turned on its head and spun off into infinity. He knew the Rinnegan was a big deal; Sakura had been told of it ahead of time for a good reason.

But this? This wasn't something a shinobi could do, no matter how amazing they were. He'd just been part of something so absurd and beyond his sense of scale that he could only look back and do his best to accept the world that had replaced the one he knew, like a bug carried to a new country by a hurricane.

And all to fix his arm?

"There's gotta be a cost," he said, trying to cling to something he could understand. Complex techniques cost a lot of chakra; dangerous techniques could demand even more. "That's what you said, right Yahiko?"

"Oh, a month or so of my life," Nagato said. Sasuke blanched. "Maybe a couple," he continued with a laugh. "But that's not such a big deal." He looked around the room at a speechless Sasuke and an unamused Yahiko, and spread his arms. "What, does anyone think that someone with the Rinnegan is going to die of old age? I lost that opportunity the day I was born."

Grim, but Sasuke had heard some people in his clan espouse a similar belief. Ninja rarely lived full lives, and especially those with valuable bloodlines.

"I assume the rest of the team can recover without these kinds of measures, Sasuke?" Yahiko asked. Sasuke nodded, his throat dry.

"Yeah. Naruto and Karin did an excellent job." He hesitated. "Though…"

Haku might need help, he thought, and even started to say. But Haku had latched onto Sakura more than ever with Zabuza gone, and that could potentially be useful. That made Sasuke close his mouth and shake his head.

"I don't know when they'll wake up," he said instead. "Naruto and Sakura, I mean."

"Well, Rain has excellent doctors from all over the world," Yahiko said with cheer. "I bet they'll be back on their feet in no time."

Sasuke sensed that the debriefing was coming to an end, and subtly looked around the room for the exit. Nagato noticed his glance. "You're excused," he said, and then, with a confirming look at Yahiko, "we'll talk more later, once you've had some time to rest. With the others too."

"Of course. Where am I?" Sasuke asked.

"Still in the CCCC," Yahiko said. "If you head out that door and down the stairs you'll find your way: we're on the 28th floor." Sasuke bowed his head and began to go. "Hey, Sasuke."

Sasuke turned, and Yahiko tossed one of the packets from off the table at him with a gentle underhand. He grabbed it out of the air on reflex, half-expecting his right arm to be unable to obey but using it anyway, and clutched it to his chest as he realized he had actually caught it. He couldn't help but grin.

Then he actually looked down at what he'd caught, and the grin faded.

He was holding in his hands the packet he'd seen the moment he'd appeared in the room. Itachi Uchiha was printed in bold lettering on a thin strip of white tape along the edge. It was stuffed full of paper and other things, bulging out to more than a handswith.

Sasuke looked up to find Yahiko watching him with obvious curiosity, and couldn't help but give him a suspicious look of his own. He felt like he had a fever; his head was pounding at the sight of his brother's name.

"My brother?" he asked. Yahiko shrugged.

"We were putting that together for you while you were gone," he said, gesturing to Nagato and an imaginary Konan. "You came here looking for your brother, but I'm sure you've noticed that you couldn't find him. That might be of some help to you."

"What?" Sasuke said, resisting the urge to tear the thing open right there. "Why…?"

"To get rid of some of your doubts," Nagato said. At times like this, he and Yahiko had the same sense of authority. "Unfortunately, some of it has been redacted, which won't help you at all. That includes some of his activity in the Land of Waterfalls. But hopefully, it'll be a start."

Sasuke, with not a single idea of what to say or think, frowned, turned, and left.

###

When he got back to his apartment, Sasuke gently laid the packet down on his bed and sat at the desk in the corner. He stared at it, head propped up on his hands, elbows pressing into his knees, as he wondered if it was even worth opening.

It could be full of lies. It probably was. But as Sasuke had said not a half hour before, he didn't think Nagato was the kind to lie to him. The Amekage had all been very careful about that, treating the delicate trust between them with care and never telling direct lies. But could even Rain actually track his brother? By all rights, the packet would only contain what Sasuke already knew: that there had been no sign of Itachi since the incident in the Land of Waterfalls, and his motives were unknown. It would be more useless confirmations.

Or perhaps it would say that he had actually been in Rain's employ? It was ludicrous to consider, but he couldn't help entertain the fantasy. That would be nice and easy, wouldn't it?

After a minute of staring, there came a knock at the door. Sasuke started. There was a moment when he truly had no idea who could possibly be there.

"Hey!" Suigetsu called from the hallway. "Is it unlocked? Might kick it down if it isn't!"

Right. Suigetsu. Fried rice. Sasuke's stomach rumbled. He stood up.

"It's unlocked!" Sasuke said, and Suigetsu was pushing the door open before he had even finished speaking. He looked around the room with a smirk.

"Clean as ever. I was worried you might have broken something." He turned, pushing the door shut with his foot. Both his hands were full of delicious smelling plastic bags. "You know, if you need to hit something, I'm-"

He paused, looking back at Sasuke, and then stopped completely. His whole face twisted up in confusion.

"What the hell happened to your arm?" he asked.

Sasuke looked down at the perfectly functional limb. "It got fixed," he said with a shrug.

"The fuck?" Suigetsu stepped to the side and placed one bag of food down on a cabinet by the door, next to an array of books Sasuke had never fully read and loosely organized shinobi tools. "How?"

"The Amekage did it." Sasuke spoke about the impossible with a flat face and Suigetsu chewed on his lip, considering him with disbelief.

"Okay," he said after a second. "I'll believe that." He grinned. "That's pretty fucking great, man."

"Yeah," Sasuke said. He sat back down. "I don't think it's sunk in yet. I'm still, uh…"

"Looking forward to a life as an armless wonder? Yeah, I get it." Suigetsu chucked the remaining bag in his hands at Sasuke and Sasuke caught it out of the air, once again marveling that he could do it with both hands. "Guess the Kage are even more amazing than I thought, if you could get fixed up like that."

"Guess so," Sasuke said, taking a peek inside the bag. Everything he'd asked for, and some dango. Did he even like dango? It was a stupid question, but he honestly couldn't remember that right now.

"Mmm. What's that?" Suigetsu asked. He'd already dug into whatever he'd gotten; it looked to be noodles, dripping with thick brown sauce. He gestured to Sasuke's bed with his chopsticks, dripping some of the sauce onto the carpet.

He was looking at the packet. It was facedown: the name on it wasn't glanced at it and then back at Suigetsu.

"It's…" he started to say. Nothing was going to be the answer. It's nothing, just some mission stuff. I'll take care of it later.

"It's a packet the Amekage have put together on my brother," he said, and Suigetsu stopped chewing. "I haven't taken a look at it yet.

Sasuke smiled.

"You wanna open it up?"