Obito-Sensei Chapter 64

Refuses To Accept Reality

Sasuke's head was splitting open, and his body was filled with flames.

'Don't die, okay?'

He was burning as the world around him was freezing. He was lying down, surrounded by cold, wet grass as a cool breeze washed over him. It pushed against the fire inside of him and kept him from burning up completely. His whole body ached, like his blood had been replaced by boiling poison, and his eyes pulsed with the rapid rhythm of his heart.

He didn't know how long he burned for; the world was dark and bereft of time and comfort. But eventually, even closing his eyes proved too painful. It felt like the lids were scraping against the surface of his eyes as he dragged them open.

There was a fire not far from him; he was laid out on the ground beside it, and its light stung him. Sasuke looked around; he was in a forest cloaked in deep night, not any place familiar to him. But the trees, the grass, it felt familiar. This was the kind of forest that grew in the Land of Fire.

So far as he could tell, he was alone. There was a kettle strung over the fire on a primitive wooden setup. Next to it were three small fish, some sort of trout, impaled on stakes, and beside them was set out a nice porcelain tea set. The water inside the kettle was beginning to boil; Sasuke could see the first wisps of steam beginning to escape.

He tried to sit up and a pulse of pain shot from the top of his head to the base of his spine. He instinctively reached up, sure that there would be a wound, that his scalp would be hanging off, but there was nothing. The pain was internal, like a spike in his brain.

How had he gotten here? The last thing he could remember was the explosion, being surrounded by death and fire and watching Suigetsu vanish like the steam coming out of the kettle. He couldn't stop staring at it. His Sharingan was active, he realized; he couldn't even turn it off. The blast, and what it could have been, kept playing in his mind endlessly, in every curl of steam and every rustle of grass.

There was a soft sound of grass parting, and Sasuke rolled over, looking towards it with a groan.

Itachi stepped out from behind a thick copse of trees, humming under his breath and carrying a bundle of greens in one hand, and then froze.

Sasuke felt every one of his senses pushed to their extreme. His pain grew more acute, but he was able to ignore it. His brother was less than ten feet away, staring at him with a nonplussed expression. He was vulnerable, weak and prone, but Itachi wasn't trying to take advantage of it. They were both equally stuck, watching each other without any idea of what would happen if they moved.

"Huh. You're already awake." Sasuke watched his brother step forward and say the words, and then he blinked, and Itachi was back where he'd been a moment before. He stepped forward, keeping both his hands visible.

"Huh. You're already awake," he repeated, and Sasuke blinked again. He felt something warm in his right eye, but he was far too focused on Itachi to investigate it. Who cared if he cried after the day he was having?

"What?" he asked, and Itachi frowned.

"Sorry," he said. He hadn't even activated his Sharingan, Sasuke thought. Itachi didn't see him as a threat. "This must be confusing for you."

He strode forward, examined the fish and the kettle, and nodded with a mildly pleased expression. Sasuke watched him as he went, feeling like an animal holding as still as it could in the presence of a predator. His brother looked back to him apologetically.

"I figured you could use something to eat, but I didn't think you'd be up so fast. Honestly, that's impressive, Sasuke." He turned back, adjusting the stakes so the fish was properly over the fire and beginning to cook. "It should only be a couple minutes. Fish cooks quickly, you know." He shuffled back to the kettle. "I was gathering some herbs; do you like sage?"

"Itachi," Sasuke said flatly, and his brother paused. "Where are we? How did I get here?" It finally dawned on him that this might be an illusion, but his Sharingan hadn't detected anything. Maybe Itachi's Tsukuyomi was just that strong though. He couldn't trust his senses at all.

"Ah, of course," Itachi said. "Well, we're in the Land of Fire, just past the border with Rain. I took you here, out of Amegakure." He turned back to Sasuke. "When I arrived you were unconscious, and one of the Amekage was about to arrest you. So I grabbed you and ran. Honestly, it was pretty frightening. Did you know that Nagato can control gravity? That's a heck of a ninjutsu."

Sasuke didn't have any idea of how to respond to that, so he didn't say anything; all he could do was watch his brother in disbelief.

"It's about… hmm, probably four in the morning," Itachi said, gesturing to his left. "The sun won't rise for another couple hours, though I was expecting you to sleep well past that. I guess you always were stubborn like that-"

"What…" Sasuke finally managed. "Why did you come find me? Why now? I've been in Amegakure for more than a year." He felt himself sharpen up. "Was that-?!"

"No!" Itachi said, sudden and violent, and Sasuke jolted back. His brother blew out a rough breath. "No. I was not responsible for that butchery. What would be the point? Why do people keep…"

He trailed off, and then shook his head. "No. I came looking for you because I needed to speak with you, Sasuke. That's all. I did not attack Amegakure." He paused. "Well, I fought two of the Amekage, but strictly to defend you. I retreated as soon as I could."

"Do you know who did it?" Sasuke asked, and Itachi shook his head. He couldn't detect a lie, but his brother had always been a perfect liar.

"No." The kettle began whistling, and Sasuke stayed quiet as Itachi poured out two cups and produced two tea bags from a pouch beneath his cloak. He leaned past the fire, offering Sasuke one of the cups, and after a moment of hesitation he took it.

"You didn't grab my team as well?" Sasuke asked, and Itachi shrugged. Were they still alive?

"I didn't have any interest in them."

Were Naruto and Sakura alive?

"But they were probably under arrest as well."

Itachi didn't seem to know or care.

"Probably."

Sasuke felt his temper flare and managed to shove it down before he did something rash. "Why did you think I'd be unconscious longer, then?" he asked, and Itachi paused as he raised his cup to his lips. "I wasn't hurt that badly. I can't believe I was unconscious for this long anyway."

"Well, because of your Mangekyo, of course," Itachi said, looking somewhat puzzled. "Congratulations on awakening it, by the way. Who did you kill?"

Sasuke froze, and his eyes burned. He realized that the world was sharper than it had ever been before, that the pulses of pain had finally abated over the course of the last few minutes and that he now felt strong. The fragility he had embodied had vanished and he was filled with intoxicating power hotter than the tea in his hands.

"You didn't know?" Itachi asked, and Sasuke mutely nodded. "Well, that's lucky. Then I suppose someone very dear to you must have made that sacrifice." He took a sip. "Like Obito."

Sasuke looked down into the steam rising off his cup and felt like he was going to throw up.

Had it been Suigetsu dying, or the whole city being blown to pieces before his eyes? The question was academic, but Sasuke found himself latching onto it, looking for something to ground himself. He had a Mangekyo Sharingan now, just like his brother, just like Obito; he was now an Uchiha of the rarest kind.

And just like Obito had been before Shisui had died, he was now doomed to go blind young unless Itachi died.

Sasuke took in a shuddering breath. "I didn't realize," he said, closing his eyes. "How-?"

"Does it work?" Itachi asked, completely misinterpreting his faltering question. "Don't worry about that. It's instinct. Your body knows what it's capable of. Every Uchiha is unique in that respect, I believe. You know, Shisui and Obito and myself, and Madara and Izuna Uchiha long before us, we all have our own abilities. It'll be interesting to see what you manifest, Sasuke."

Madara Uchiha. Sasuke rocked back as the name called an image up. An ancient man, withered and run through with cracks slumped in a chair and mumbling to himself.

'I know you… Izuna… I lost my shadow… how stupid can an old man be…?'

There was more than that. As Itachi sipped his tea, Sasuke remembered everything, like something that had already been bent in his mind finally broke, shattered and was dragged away by a flood of memories. Orochimaru, his memory suppressant jutsu, his hatred of the Hokage, his constant complaining and scheming, the ancient Uchiha he'd had imprisoned below Amegakure. All that and more buried Sasuke in a dozen different feelings at once; it forced him to close his eyes and hold his breath or drown.

"Sasuke?" Itachi asked, sounding genuinely concerned, and Sasuke shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said, marveling at what had happened. What had broken the jutsu? Orochimaru's release jutsu was proximity based; he'd seen it enough times with the Sharingan to be sure of that. Was the man nearby? He found himself looking around in a burst of paranoia, but Itachi seemed at ease.

It didn't matter. The Hokage needed to know that his man on the inside wasn't trustworthy, and Rain needed to know they had a monster in their closet. Sasuke shakily stood up, running through a series of familiar hand signs. As he did, Itachi stood up as well, watching him curiously.

"A Shadow Clone?" he asked, and as he did Sasuke completed the jutsu that he'd seen Naruto produce countless times. He sagged as Itachi frowned. "Sasuke, you're already so tired. Please don't-"

"It's not for you," Sasuke bit out, and as he did his clone turned west and started running. "Even if you took me from there, I still have some obligations to Amegakure; some information to report. Please, just let it go."

"Hmm. Our location?" Itachi said, but he made no move to stop the clone. Sasuke shook his head.

"No." He needed to distract Itachi, just in case. The clone was almost out of sight already. "What did you need to talk to me about anyway? You couldn't have known I'd have the Mangekyo, and you didn't know about the attack; what the hell was worth coming to a village you betrayed for?"

Itachi turned, ignoring the clone, and Sasuke sighed in relief. His brother bent over the fish, examining them and deciding they weren't quite done.

"Well…" Itachi said, and Sasuke was shocked to see his brother hesitating. "I suppose I was going to ask for your help."

Sasuke laughed.

It wasn't a healthy sound. He was all too aware that he was hysterical. Maybe this was the final straw, piled on top of Suigetsu dying, Rain in flames, Naruto and Sakura probably being dead, everything going wrong at once in such an irrevocable way, plus his mind getting put through a field of blades with his Mangekyo suddenly developing and damaging whatever juinjutsu Orochimaru had placed on his brain. Whatever: he decided to embrace it.

"Fat chance!" he laughed. "Is that why you dragged me away? So I'd be a traitor to both Rain and Leaf?" He giggled. "Well, we're already in the Land of Fire: I'm heading straight to Konoha. I can probably convince them to rescue my team, if they weren't blown to fucking bits with the rest of Amegakure." He set down his cup in the soft dirt, turned east, and started walking, passing right by his brother. Itachi didn't move to stop him.

"You haven't heard what I wanted help with," he said.

Sasuke stopped.

He whirled on his brother and spat on him. Itachi didn't flinch.

"Whatever happened to Rain was your fault," he hissed, and Itachi didn't contradict him. He barely moved as Sasuke spoke, his entire body vibrating with hatred. "They hired you to kidnap the Nanabi, Fuu, and you took her for yourself. But you still blamed it on them, let us think that Rain had a Bijuu, and then you went and took one of the Hidden Cloud's Jinchuriki as well, didn't you? You've been trying to turn Rain into even more of a pariah from the start. Just to weaken them, right? Because they might challenge Konoha? You've killed as many people as you did in Waterfall just for that?"

Sasuke kicked his brother in the side as hard as he could, but Itachi still didn't react. "It's disgusting. You're disgusting. It's just the same as with our family. You'll kill as many people as you want so long as you think it'll work out the way you want, right Itachi? Is there anything you wouldn't do?"

"I wouldn't hurt you," Itachi said resolutely, and Sasuke kicked him again. This time, Itachi let out a soft groan.

"You broke my arm back in the Chunin Exam," he said with a laugh. "So that's a bunch of bullshit."

Itachi stood up, and Sasuke backed away, feeling his Mangekyo burn. What could it do? If he had the Amaterasu like his brother did, he could reduce him to ash.

"That was done out of love," Itachi said, turning on him with sad eyes. "You were weak, Sasuke. You'd stagnated, and mother was happy to let you. Didn't that push you to be the best you could be?"

"What a load of shit," Sasuke spat, turning and walking away once more. He didn't care; he didn't even want to give his brother the satisfaction of trying to kill him.

"You're right though," Itachi said as Sasuke turned his back on him. "I didn't realize you and your friends would defect to Rain. That's my bad. And it's probably my fault that you were blown up too, so I'll apologize for that as well."

Sasuke didn't stop.

"Sasuke," Itachi called out. "I'm not used to making mistakes, but this has been one. I'm sorry."

Sasuke paused, but didn't turn around. Had he ever heard Itachi admit fault, even once in his entire life? He couldn't remember a single time. It threw him off enough for his brother to keep speaking without having to chase after him.

"But I can fix this." Just like that, the spell was broken. Sasuke rolled his eyes and kept going, his brother's voice growing more distant. "And I need your help to do it."

"This isn't something you can fix!" he called back, shouting into the night and hearing animals scatter at his voice. "This isn't something anyone can fix! This is just how it works! Rain stood out, and you helped it, and now someone has smashed them down, put them back in their place!" He laughed. "Rain, and the Akatsuki, and Sakura, they think they can change the world, the system. Maybe they can, if they keep working towards it. I doubt it after this. But someone like you, Itachi, working by yourself? You're fucking worthless. There's not a damn thing you could do to fix this."

"You're wrong."

Itachi's voice was quiet, but the fervor in it made Sasuke stop one last time. He looked back at his mad brother, still standing by the fire and holding his tea.

"Those are the words of a man without ambition," Itachi said, and Sasuke shivered. "But you have greatness within you, Sasuke. Your Mangekyo is proof of that. Words like that don't become you." He reached down and pulled a fish from the fire, offering it out. Sasuke stared at it.

"Two men established the village system; they essentially created the world as we know it." Itachi's eyes burned, pinning Sasuke in place. "Why couldn't two men change it?"

"That's…" Sasuke paused, pushing down his first thoughtless retort. "We're not Madara and the First Hokage. Not even close. They commanded whole clans, reshaped the continent. Calling them 'two men' isn't even close to the truth."

"I'm glad you know your history," Itachi said dryly. "But it really is as simple as that. So simple I don't understand why I seem to be the first person to have thought of it."

He leaned forward, and Sasuke found himself drawn into his brother's gravity despite the distance between them. "Sasuke, the villages were founded in response to Konoha's creation. One power bloc demanded an opposing one; it's practically a natural law."

'-if those alliances stayed in place and it also began sharing shinobi with Konoha, binding the two villages closer together, it would create a military bloc that no one would ever be stupid enough to challenge.'

Sasuke unconsciously smirked as Itachi pressed on.

"When that happened, Hashirama Senju distributed the Tailed Beasts to the new villages, relying on them to be weapons of peace: he believed that the villages wouldn't be foolish enough to wage war on one another with such powerful weapons in each other's possession. But he was mistaken: the Great Villages just made the Jinchuriki part of their strategies, of their politics, and continued to war and compete with each other." His face was grim. "Even I was buying into that line of thinking when I claimed Rain had stolen the Nanabi. I knew it would make the other villages look at it as even more of a threat; that they would be forced to action and would knock it down from its new, powerful position, from a place where it could threaten Konoha."

"Nicely done," Sasuke muttered. "But you're lying."

Itachi cocked his head, and Sasuke kept going. "You have the Sanbi, don't you?" he said, and Itachi twitched. "And you got the Sanbi before you got the Nanabi. Or at least, that's what the Amekage believe. So why'd you grab that one, Itachi?"

"... to deny it to Mist," Itachi said. He averted his eyes. "I was young, and foolish; I believed that it was better in my hands than in the hands of a collapsing village. My Mangekyo was new, and it blinded me in a different way."

"Brilliant."

"Listen," Itachi said, trying to get back on track. "The Bijuu created the system. They could also, in the right hands, utterly change it."

Sasuke giggled.

"So you've been bringing them all together," he said, "to create a threat. A weapon so powerful no village would challenge you for fear of triggering it? A weapon to hold the world hostage!"

"Well hey, I'm glad you get the general idea," Itachi said with a grin, and Sasuke couldn't stop giggling.

"You idiot!" he said, breaking down laughing. "That's exactly what Sakura thought you were up to! She read you like a book!"

"I recall that Sakura was the most intelligent member of your team," Itachi said with a meaningful look, and Sasuke was amazed to find that his brother had just insulted him, however minor it was. "Certainly the most perceptive. If she and I have both arrived at that plan independently, that should give it more credit in your eyes, not less."

"She was just theorizing," Sasuke said, but it was without conviction. He was pretty sure that as she was now, Sakura would consider the plan at least somewhat practical. Amegakure being blown up probably hadn't moderated her opinion.

"Regardless, you want my help stealing the rest?" he continued, trying to seize the initiative, and Itachi nodded. "Even if I did that, how do you know the Bijuu would be enough? What if you're just making the same mistake as the Shodaime? What if the villages just keep hitting each other, regardless of the size of the stick? How much would things have to escalate before they were just completely destroyed? Until everything was completely destroyed?"

Itachi shrugged. "Then I would have made a terrible mistake," he said. "But it's better than just waiting for a solution to present itself."

'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.'

The same words as his mother in different clothes. Sasuke couldn't believe it.

"You can't be serious," he said. "You can't just say 'Oops, my bad' about something like that!"

"How about this?" Itachi said, walking forward. When Sasuke didn't retreat, he pressed the fish and its skewer into Sasuke's hand. "If you don't want to work with me because of the mass murder, that's fine. I understand completely. But if Sakura looks around at what happened to Amegakure and decides that I may have a point, that the cure may be almost as bad as the disease, tell her I'll be happy to help. Between you, me, and Obito, we would have three sets of Mangekyo Sharingan, and Obito's should soon be completely Eternal. That would be more than enough to capture any and all of the Beasts, including the ones I've lost-"

"The ones you've lost?!" Sasuke interrupted, his hand white around the skewer, and Itachi nodded.

"I had to use all three I'd stolen to rescue you from Rain," he said as Sasuke stared, bewildered. "Nagato captured them; they're firmly in Amegakure's hands now." He grimaced. "Which, of course, will only make it look like they truly were kidnapping the other village's Jinchuriki. I promise, that was not intentional."

"What? What?!" Sasuke backed away in horror. "What… why the fuck would you do that?!"

"For you," Itachi said. He stepped forward. "And I'd do it again. Again, and again, and again. Sasuke, didn't I already tell you? Everything I do, I do for you."

"I don't want that!" Sasuke shouted in his brother's face. "I would have been fine in Rain! They trusted me! You just can't handle anyone controlling me but you!"

For some reason beyond Sasuke's comprehension, that made Itachi step back.

"You're right," he muttered, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't dress it up."

Then, he paused.

"Someone's coming," he declared after a moment, and his Sharingan whirled out, the sickles of his Mangekyo spinning. "Sasuke, my apologies."

"What?" Stupidly, absolutely fucking moronically, he looked into Itachi's eyes.

Tsukuyomi.

The world froze; the fire stopped crackling, the fish stopped steaming, the occasional leaf falling around them stopping in midair. They moved on without time.

Sasuke looked around, unimpressed. "Why now?" he said, frustrated. When he turned away, he found Itachi before him again. "Seriously?"

He tried to shut his eyes, but couldn't. His body didn't really exist anymore.

"I really am sorry," Itachi said, and then they were both sitting by the fire. "But I'm not done. I didn't want to be interrupted by whoever's coming, and I didn't want to drag you along if I had to flee. This was the quickest way."

"Whatever." Sasuke stared at the frozen fire, seeing Amegakure burning within. Itachi sighed.

"Listen, Sasuke. Everything I told you, it's all true. I believe it completely." A pause. "But I didn't tell you just because I wanted your help. I told it to you so someone else would know. So that there'd be someone to… keep me on track."

Sasuke snorted. "Keep you on track," he muttered. "Itachi, do you think I'm stupid? You've been calculating everything from the start. You made that very clear in Waterfall. I'm sure dropping those Bijuu off in Rain was intentional too. It practically guarantees a war. Either against them to retrieve them, or by them with their new power."

"Or both," Itachi said grimly. "But I was not lying to you. I did that because I had no other choice."

"Right." Sasuke put as much venom into the single word as he could. The fire was making him think. He couldn't have broken out of the Tsukuyomi the last time he met Itachi, but now, he had a Mangekyo of his own. Would it make a difference?

"Sasuke, I'm trying to tell you something important." Itachi didn't sound frustrated; he sounded desperate. "The last year-"

"What?" Sasuke bit out, looking up at his brother. "You've just been wondering the whole time 'Oh, when can I tell Sasuke about my amazing plan?'"

"I don't remember any of it," Itachi said, and Sasuke scoffed.

"Your plan?"

"Last year."

Sasuke tilted his head. Itachi looked miserable. The lines in his face were deep, and there were huge, dark circles under his eyes that weren't present in real life. Was this how he saw himself, or an emotionally manipulative illusion? His brother stood up and started pacing in the imaginary space.

"You would have led with that if it were true. You really must think I'm stupid," Sasuke said, and his brother shook his head.

"You would have been too focused on me to consider my plan," he said, and Sasuke couldn't help but admit that was true.

"Itachi, there's no way. A whole year?" he asked, disgusted with himself to feel a flicker of concern.

"It's not completely blank," Itachi said, staring off into the darkness. "I have… glimpses, I guess. Like rising from a long nap, here and there, scattered through the days. But nothing coherent." He refocused on Sasuke. "When I woke up, for lack of a better term, I knew I had to find you right away. But I didn't know you were in Rain; I went to Konoha first, and met mother and Obito there. That was when I realized how bad things were."

"Itachi, this isn't going to-"

"Listen," Itachi pleaded, and Sasuke scrambled to his feet in alarm. "Listen! I was nearly blind after Waterfall; I was sure it would almost be the end for me. I was planning to pass my plan to you. But then, I had this long, dreamless sleep, and my vision was as good as new. It was a miracle, and when I woke up, I was already in the Land of Lightning: Yugito Nii was right before me. I overpowered and kidnapped her, and then, only then, did I start thinking again." He pressed forward, his hands coming down on Sasuke's shoulders. "Sasuke, does that make any sense? Thinking about it was hard. I pushed back against me when I questioned how I'd gotten there. It made me look back at everything I'd done."

He was rambling now, rambling in a way Itachi never had before, and Sasuke could feel terror growing in him the more his brother spoke. "How had I come up with this plan to gather the Tailed Beasts in the first place? It came to me like a dream, but it made perfect sense once I looked it over. I had approached Rain in the first place with the intention of securing a meeting with Nagato; I knew he could heal people. I wanted him to restore my eyes." His eyes were wide, afraid. "But how did I know that? I thought I had just heard it somewhere, some rumor, but my memory is perfect, and I couldn't pick the moment out! And Shisui-!"

He closed his eyes. "I didn't mean to kill Shisui. I never wanted to kill Shisui. He was loyal to the village; he and Obito were meant to rebuild the clan after I purged it. But when he got in the way, I murdered him. I killed him and stole his eye! I had some feeling of needing it, and I couldn't fight it! I only thought about it when Obito bit off my fingers!"

"Itachi," Sasuke cut in, grabbing his brother back. "What the hell are you saying?"

"I'm saying there's another me," Itachi said, the nonsense sentence only making Sasuke's terror colder. "There's something wrong with me. There's something inside me, and I can't predict when it steals my time and my mind. It came out when I was fighting Nagato; it screamed. I don't know if it's my chakra having a mind of its own, or if I have a dissociative personality, or if it's all in my head, but Sasuke, it destroys things. It steals things. The only thing it has never touched is you, and I don't know if it will always be that way."

His brother was crazy. Either his brother was spinning a sob story, which was so unlike him it meant something even worse was happening, or his brother was crazy. Sasuke staggered, but Itachi kept him on his feet. "That's why you have to know what I'm doing," Itachi said, no, demanded. "If I change my mind, if I change, you need to stop me, Sasuke. You're the only one I trust to do it."

"I can't!" Sasuke screamed, ripping himself away. "You've always been too strong for me!"

"Then use your friends! Use our family!" Itachi insisted. "Sasuke, I'm not saying you have to put me down right away. In fact, I'd prefer you not. There's still a lot I have to do! But please, be ready to!"

"You're insane!"

"Precisely!" Itachi said with a laugh. "That's just the problem, isn't it?" He smiled at Sasuke. "We've got time, if you have questions."

"What?" Sasuke gaped. "Just… Itachi, you can't seriously expect me to take this. What you're saying…"

"I know," Itachi said remorsefully. "You already had, what, the second worst day of your life? It's not fair of me to put this on you so soon."

Was this the second worst day of his life, Sasuke wondered? Had the massacre been worse? Surely watching his father get carved into pieces right in front of him had been worse.

"See?" Itachi said with a smile. "Now you're thinking about it too. I second guess myself about that sort of thing, you know. But it's not like I could just wait to tell you something like this. What if tomorrow was too late?"

"You…" Sasuke couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh or punch his brother in the face. "For the longest time, I was convinced you must have just been crazy for what you did, and now you're telling me you are? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"That wasn't this," Itachi said resolutely. "I was absolutely sure about the massacre. That was all me."

He said it, but Sasuke could tell as his brother finished that Itachi was already doubting himself. He waited, and Itachi's face fell.

"Don't do this, Sasuke," he said.

"Don't do what?" Sasuke sneered. "Why would that of all things be the one thing you wouldn't question? What if that was the other you too, and you just didn't know it?"

"That can't be true," Itachi said. "I wouldn't be able to live with that."

"Maybe you shouldn't," Sasuke said, and then regretted it. Somehow, even after everything Itachi had done, that felt like a step too far. His Sharinga finally deactivated, the burning in his head faded away.

"Maybe," Itachi admitted, his voice soft. "But it doesn't seem like you have any other questions."

"I don't think I do," Sasuke said. He looked around at the frozen world. "Who was coming anyway? Or was this instant?"

"Instant," Itachi said. "How about we greet them together, and you can plan your next move from there?"

"Fine," Sasuke said, and then time resumed.

He was back in front of Itachi, standing away from the fire with a fish skewer in his hand. His brother sighed, blood leaking from his eye.

"This is an embarrassing day," he said, peering into the trees to the east. "But I've got good news."

"Yeah?" Sasuke found himself wielding the skewer more like a shiv, but he knew stabbing his brother would be pointless.

"Yeah," Itachi said. He smiled faintly. "Your team is still alive."

###

Sakura already had her Flowing Hail Blade out when she arrived. She, Naruto, Hinata, Mikoto, and Obito arrived in a rough semicircle that closed around Sasuke and Itachi, leaving Itachi an avenue of escape to the west.

Sasuke was holding a fish. For some reason that detail stuck in her mind. He was as burned and battered as she and Naruto were, but he was alive, whole, and holding a fish as he backed away from his murderous older brother.

"Itachi." Sakura had expected Obito to be the one to issue commands, but it was Mikoto who spoke. She had her sword out in a reverse grip, and blue fire danced along the blade. "Back up."

Itachi raised his hand, the light of the fire dancing along his back. His and Sasuke's shadows stretched out into the darkness towards Sakura and the rest, long and flickering shards of black. "One moment," he said, marvelously calm despite the ninja arrayed against him.

"Not one moment. Sasuke, are you okay?" Mikoto called out. Sakura glanced to her side to see Naruto bouncing on the balls of his feet, his eyes fixed on Sasuke. Hinata and Rin were the same; the forest seemed ready to explode.

They'd been traveling for hours through the utter darkness of the night after coming out of the Kamui, but none of them had had anything of substance to say. It wasn't the reunion with her sensei that Sakura had pictured; Obito had been completely focused on getting Sasuke back, and she and Naruto had been too emotionally exhausted to do more than greet him like nothing had ever changed. Hinata and Mikoto had been the same way; Sakura had at least gathered from Hinata that she'd been the Hyuuga with the longest range currently in the village, and so had been assigned to the retrieval mission.

A happy accident. After today, Sakura couldn't help but assign it some import. They'd followed Hinata on a zigzag pattern through the Land of Rain and then Fire, covering hundreds of square miles and avoiding any other shinobi as she searched relentlessly. She'd known what she was doing; between this and the Land of Waves, Sakura's admiration for her was through the roof.

"I'm okay," Sasuke said. He sounded exhausted, and looked worse. "It should be fine. Let him finish."

As he spoke, Itachi very deliberately ran through several signs: a summoning jutsu. He tapped his palm and a tattered crow appeared in a whirl of feathers. It peered at Sasuke suspiciously, and he looked back with just as much.

"Think about what we talked about," he said, and Sakura was shocked to see Sasuke nod. "If you need to send me a message, you can use this."

Sasuke accepted the crow, and it hopped over to perch on his shoulder. Only then did Itachi back away, looking over the rest of them with a blank look.

"Mother, Obito, Rin. Twice in one day, huh? I guess I'm as surprised as you are." He glanced at Sakura and Naruto. "And you're both alive too! I guess things have worked out as best they could have, then. And-" He paused, looking over Hinata. "Sorry, I don't know you. Pleasure to meet you, Hyuuga."

Hinata nodded her head with all the grace of someone meeting a foriegn dignitary, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

Itachi stepped back and everyone stepped forward in a mirrored motion. His shadow deepened in the light of the fire, growing longer and darker and eclipsing the forest.

In that darkness Sakura couldn't help but shiver.

'It's the shadow of a kinkiller that you're standing in; a mass murderer. Why wouldn't it be cold?'

Itachi stepped back again, and the feeling passed. This time, the retrieval team didn't pursue him. Sasuke started moving forward, and with all the care of a surgeon separated himself from his brother.

He joined the semicircle, looking back at Itachi, and his mother stepped to his side and placed her hand on his shoulder. Sasuke looked up at her; Sakura couldn't read his face.

"Will you let me go?" Itachi called. He was past the fire now, stooping over it and collecting a kettle as he kicked dirt over the flames. "I understand if not, but frankly, I think Konoha and its ninja have bigger things to worry about than me tonight."

Obito grit his teeth; Sakura could see that Itachi was right. Beside him, Rin jerked her head, and Obito sighed. "Run," he said. Mikoto stiffened up, glancing at him, but didn't intervene. "Before I change my mind."

Itachi nodded. "Well, good luck then," he said, and then was gone.

They were all tense for a moment, watching and waiting to be sure that he was truly gone. Eventually, Mikoto and Sakura sheathed their blades. Naruto rushed to Sasuke's side.

"You okay?!" he asked, and Sasuke shrugged. The group coalesced around him, Rin running glowing hands over him; Sakura watching her sensei carefully.

It might almost be time to make a run for it.

"I'm okay," Sasuke said dully. Rin looked like she wanted to disagree, but he cut her off before she could speak. "Suigetsu's dead. I passed out after the blast; woke up here."

"Shit," Naruto muttered. He pulled Sasuke into a hug, but Sasuke just stood there, rigid, still grasping the fish in his hand as the crow on his shoulder shuffled uncomfortably.

"Naruto," he said, and Naruto drew back with a worried expression. "Sakura. I'm really…" He shuddered. "I'm glad you're okay. But there's no way you left Amegakure on your own. Did Orochimaru take you?"

Sakura blinked, her thoughts derailed. "Orochimaru?" she asked, the name bringing up a pale face in her mind but nothing else. "The Sannin?" Naruto looked similarly confused. What the heck was Sasuke talking about?

"Just me then," Sasuke muttered. Sakura noticed Obito was giving them all a peculiar look. "We'll talk about that when we're back."

Now or never. "We shouldn't go back," Sakura declared, turning to face Obito. He sighed and looked over at her with a tired expression. Rin looked like she wanted to laugh.

"I'm glad you're patient at least, Sakura," he said with a sad grin. "Figured you'd argue it out with me instead of the Hokage?"

"Sensei, you know that it's better for us to go back," Sakura said, and Obito shook his head. "If you were seeing things clearly, if you'd seen what we saw-!"

"I did see what you saw," Obito said flatly. "I watched Amegakure burn."

"You weren't in it," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes. "They need to know it was the Hidden Cloud!"

Sasuke stirred, and Sakura gave him an affirmative nod. "It was them," she said. "Obito-sensei confirmed it."

"I already sent a clone," he murmured, a tight expression on his face. "How did they do it?"

"A cannon," his mother said, and Sasuke gave her a perplexed look. "A tremendous gun powered by a Tailed Beast, according to Obito. Probably fired from the Land of Lightning itself."

Sasuke put his hands together and produced a Shadow Clone, dispelling it in the same instant. He was spreading the information, Sakura thought: Shadow Clones shared their memories. "Itachi told me some stuff that Rain should know," he said, and Sakura noticed that Mikoto looked anything but happy about that. "I sent a clone to Amegakure about fifteen minutes ago; I'll tell them about the Hidden Cloud. I'm a Jonin; they'll listen to me."

"You're a Jonin?" Mikoto asked, her bitter expression warming up. "Well, in another village, but still… congratulations, Sasuke."

"Can we do this at home?" Sasuke said. Hinata was drawing closer, Sakura saw, and he gave her a desperate look as he pulled away from his mother. "I'm just… I'm going to fall over."

"He needs rest," Rin confirmed. "Your system's a mess, Sasuke. I'm surprised you're standing, to be honest."

"Of course," Mikoto said, sounding pained. "Obito, take us back."

At that, Sakura stepped back. She realized that neither Naruto or Sasuke had done the same, and the notion made her chest hurt.

'You always stood apart from them, from the beginning. Things are just getting back to normal.'

"Sensei, you have to let me go back to Rain," she said. To her infinite relief, Obito didn't just run her down: he crossed his arms and listened with an understanding expression. "Sasuke's a Jonin, but I'm a member of the Akatsuki. I'm the most trusted of any of us. No offense Naruto, Sasuke."

Sasuke just shrugged, but Naruto was beginning to look angry. Sakura couldn't understand why.

"Sasuke is already delivering all the news they'll need," Obito said calmly. Sakura flinched. "And the Hokage has ordered your return. Sakura, if I let you go, you'd be an actual rogue. And not even one assisting a Leaf ninja on a legitimate mission like these two," he continued, gesturing at her teammates. "You already made plans with the Amekage to return to the Leaf yourself; it will be better for everyone if you do."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

'He doesn't believe in me.'

"Why are you doing this? Can't you see it's stupid?"

"Sakura…" Obito shook his head. "What's to stop Cloud from shooting again?" Now, he stepped forward. "What happens if I let you go, and Cloud learns their first attack wasn't a complete success, and fires again? What could you accomplish?" His face was cruelly honest. "There's a good chance that anyone who's in Amegakure right now is on borrowed time. How could I face your parents if I let you go back to get killed by something that you only survived by a miracle the first time?"

He reached out his hand, an invitation. "I understand that you made friends. That you lost them. That you felt like you belonged there, that you were important there, understood there. I get all that. But right now, you're safer in Konoha. It's as simple as that."

That wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to dissuade her. Sakura was going to slap his hand away, to turn away from everything again, to run, before a soft voice stopped her.

"Sakura." Hinata, so quiet and so obviously frightened, looked like she was going to cry. "I can't claim I know what you went through. It sounds… awful. But everyone misses you." She brought her hands up, tried to articulate something, and failed. "Your friends, your family. Everyone is just waiting for you to come home. And…" She glanced at Obito. "Obito-sensei was treated terribly for all of you going the last time. If he came back again with Sasuke and Naruto, but you were gone… some people wouldn't forgive him."

"It's true," Rin said. "You're not an island, Sakura. People care about you, and about what happens to you. You have more people waiting for you in Konoha than in Ame; think about them."

They didn't understand, Sakura thought.

Or maybe, she thought in a moment of terror, she didn't understand. Maybe right now, she was the one blinded by fear and pain.

She hesitated.

"Seriously, Sakura." Naruto grabbed her hand, and she jumped; she'd been so far inside her head she hadn't seen him coming. "Let's go home."

Sakura looked into Naruto's eyes, and saw that there were two ways this could go. She realized she couldn't handle the pain that it would cause him if she went the other way.

She sighed.

"Okay," she said, and took Obito's hand as well. The group circled up, Mikoto and Hinata staying by Sasuke's side and Rin taking Obito's other hand.

"I'm sorry. Let's go home."

Sasuke would do it, she thought as she was whisked away. Sasuke would tell the Amekage everything they needed to know, and when things made more sense Sakura would go back and apologize to them herself.

But there was a lingering midnight thought that followed her all the way back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

'It's easy for one person to start a war. It's a lot harder for one person to end it.'