"The only issue," Izumi had spoken, her voice soft and anxious, "is that you will take another severe injury, much like the last."

Kaisuki stared at them for a long, long moment, looking towards Saeka, then Izumi, and finally Khrai. She swallowed the lump that had built up in her throat. That wasn't the only issue, not by a long shot. She had grown up in Konoha; she was familiar with how the village saw her as it was.

"We'll have to leave," she whispered softly. "We can't stay here if we're going to kill that many people. They won't understand."

"Kaisuki, that's-..." Izumi began, but she shook her head and something about her expression must've silenced the irou-nin on its own.

"I don't want the team dragged down with me."

Naruto blasted them through the fence line with surprising ease but from where they were, it was impossible to see the actual situation. Kaisuki could see smoking rising in the area a ways away but it wasn't enough. She beckoned the others and they followed her to the building nearest to the Forest. Atop the atrium that had housed the first Exams, they could see to the other side of the village well enough. Khrai lent Kaisuki her eyes again and the Yurei squinted at the damage.

"Saeka, are you counting survivors?" She asked even though she knew the answer. The youngest spirit hummed a quiet affirmation. Her tone had changed and Kaisuki noticed it immediately. "What is it, Sae? Talk to me."

"He's here," she quietly replied, her chakra stirring nervously. "I can sense him. I knew he would be here but..."

"Where is he?"

"He's over there, in the cloud. That's not smoke." Came the hushed reply.

"Are you going to be alright?" She asked, turning inward to look the girl in the face. "Can you do this?"

Internally, she could see Saeka's clenched jaw, her stiff body. "I'll be okay." She had expected to see fear and nervousness more than anything else. Saeka had always seemed frightened of that man, but that fear was nowhere to be seen in that moment. Instead, the Yurei Hostess could only see hurt and fury reflected in Saeka's pink, malformed Sharingan.

The girl would be fine; Kaisuki trusted her judgment. She returned her attention to the outside world, turning to face her ragtag team of superheroes-to-be. She felt Khrai move forward and she stepped to the side to allow the Elf to move and speak alongside her. She planted her hands heavily on Sasuke's shoulders, looking him directly in the eye. He looked extremely uncomfortable, but she needed his undivided attention.

"Sasuke; t'ese fuckers are after you." She stated the fact alongside Khrai, the Elf's accent noticeable as ever. She watched the color leech out of Sasuke's face, felt him leaning away from her touch. "I don't know why, not fer sure, but I know for a fact t'at you are t'eir target and ye cannot be caught, under any circumstances."

"Luckily, t'e task I have fer ye is somet'ing ye've been practicing all along," she felt the Elf step back at that moment, and Kaisuki took full control again. Naruto's mouth had fallen open somewhat and Sakura's eyes were wider than saucers. Kaisuki ignored them, her attention fully focused on the raven-haired boy she considered her brother.

"Run, and hide." Kaisuki told him in her own voice, Khrai's accent no longer present. "Disappear, and don't come out for anything."

She dropped her left hand from his shoulder and made a fist, feeling Khrai and Saeka's joint focus moving their energies together. The Elf sang a short, soft chant within her mind and Kaisuki watched as red glow enveloped her hand. When she opened her fist, a small, blood-red stone sat in her palm. "Take this, don't lose it."

"What is it?" Sasuke asked as she dropped it in his hand. He raised an eyebrow, looking a bit suspicious, but he balled his fist around it.

"It'll help me find you later," she told him simply, knowing they didn't really have time to explain it in detail.

Sasuke's face seemed a bit paler than usual and she could feel the tremors in his shoulder as she dropped her other hand. He nodded silently at her, anxiety etched into his expression. She wished she could promise him that everything would be fine, but she was afraid to make such a promise when so much could still go wrong.

"Go," she told him. Immediately, she could feel him concealing his chakra to the highest possible degree before he started jogging away from them. She turned her attention towards Gaara and Naruto and Sakura, "I need to get much closer to put up this barrier. Keep up, you three."

The four of them jumped off the atrium and onto another building, using the roofs to get closer as fast as possible. The situation seemed to worsen the closer they got. The streets had been empty on the other side of the village but as they approached the source of the battle, they started to see people, injured and bleeding, struggling down the street away from the battle, running in terror, lying along the walls of buildings as others did their best to keep them alive. The hospital was far too close to the area being attacked. There were patients in danger as well, then.

In mid-air, Kaisuki stepped back and Khrai and Saeka stepped forward together. The Yurei watched carefully, her own heart beating a racket in her chest. She knew what was coming and she simply couldn't help being afraid of the pain that was sure to come. Khrai reached into her kunai pouch and pulled another vial of Izumi's medication, downing it in a single mouthful and tossing the empty vial aside.

Abruptly, Naruto shouted from her right. "There's Iruka-sensei!" He pointed out their old teacher, trying to help people as they stumbled out of the smoke-laden, burning portion of the village.

"T'en let's go to 'im." Khrai said, and they bee-lined in his direction. The heat was intense – though not nearly as intense as Saeka's chakra. The people stumbling out of the area where suffering severe burns, many collapsing to the ground before they could reach the Jounin and Chuunin trying to help them to safety. The smoke – or rather, the dark smog of demonic energy – was highly toxic to humans. The Shinobi trying to aid the evacuation seemed to recognize that it was toxic, as they wouldn't go closer than several meters from it.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called out to their former Academy teacher as soon as their feet touched soil. "Hey!"

"Naruto!?" Iruka spun around to face them, looking shocked and horrified. "What are you doing here?! Its not sa-..."

"Khrai," Saeka spoke up and Khrai didn't hesitate to give her control. On the outside, her eyes switched to hot pink and she grabbed Gaara and Naruto's sleeves, pulling them towards her.

"There are exactly one hundred and eighty-seven people in need of evacuation." Saeka told them, her tone deadly serious. "Khrai is going to put up the barrier in two minutes. Both of you should move to opposite sides of this mess so you can get the most done without confusing each other. Once the barrier goes up, get to work right away. You'll see it."

Naruto and Gaara nodded solemnly, the surprise at finding Iruka lost to the severity of the situation. Without another word, they both took off in opposite directions. Khrai switched back with Saeka again and wrapped her hands around Sakura's bicep, pulling her close to Iruka. "Keep watch over Sakura. I 'ave to find t'e Hokage. Stay 'ere, please."

With Saeka's direction, Khrai took them over to find the Hokage, who was under some kind of tent with a couple of Jounin and a single ANBU member, trying plan out their next move. As she approached, her blue eyes locked onto the ANBU member. He was the same one she had seen in the Tower ages ago, who worked closely with the Hokage. It never ceased to shock her that the old man hadn't been possessed himself.

"He's possessed, yea," Saeka supplied. Khrai grunted internally. The Hokage looked pressed and stressed; it was clear that whatever they had been trying wasn't working. Surprisingly, the lines in his face and the anxious glint in his eyes, alongside the slightest tremor in his hands reflected that he was, in fact, afraid. He had baited the attack for months and hadn't stopped to consider that he truly had no idea what kind of monsters he was trying to draw out of the shadows.

"Sarutobi," Khrai greeted the Hokage without an ounce of the expected respect normally shown to him. One of the Chuunin opened his mouth to snap at her to get off the battlefield but Sarutobi seemed to notice his offense and held up a hand to silence him. He nodded just once, encouraging Khrai to continue.

"Get all yer soldiers off t'e field, now, and quickly," she commanded, every bit the Elfin Warrior she was. "I can end t'is but I need everyone outta t'e way," Khrai explained quickly and shortly, before turning a frosty gaze on the Chuunin who had been about to chew her out. "Go, now!"

Khrai didn't wait for confirmation; she knew as well as Kaisuki did that the old man would listen. He seemed to understand immediately upon Khrai's arrival that she was there to help, that she could save them, and he looked relieved to hear it from her own mouth. The Yurei returned to Sakura's side quickly, Khrai noticing that Kaisuki's body was already feeling the strain. They really needed to improve her stamina.

"Sakura, I'm putting up the barrier." Khrai told her. Iruka looked completely lost, but the Elf didn't mind him and neither did Sakura. She had about thirty second to cast the barrier before Naruto and Gaara would leap into the fray to rescue civilians. They had to time this perfectly.

She started her chant, speaking the language of her extinct people, singing the words in low tones as white energy gathered around her hands. It wasn't chakra, nor was it chi; magic could only be cast with hye, a special energy source granted by the Goddess of Magic and Music to the Elven people. With a sweeping motion of both hands, a wall that looked like a sheet of glass went up, separating the evacuated, undamaged side from the affected, burning portion of the village.

"Naruto and Gaara are on the move," Saeka informed them right away. She was tracking their every move, counting every person they pulled out. Naruto had cast shadow clones to do the job as safely as possible, whereas Gaara was utilizing his sand to reach in and find the survivors. The moment the last person was out of the battle zone, Khrai would perform the full-body transfer and cast the purification spell she had prepared herself and her Hostess for.

She still didn't know for sure if Kaisuki would even survive it and she found herself praying to the Goddess she had worshiped while she was alive. She didn't want to kill Kaisuki; she didn't want to kill another human host.

Please, I'm beggin' ye; spare her.

Izumi was now standing just behind her, silent as the grave and ready for the absolute worst.

.

"Run, hide, and stay alive." Itachi's voice echoed in his head, too vivid for being just a memory. Leave it to Kaisuki to say something that reminded him of his brother. Sasuke stole along the shadow of a building, far, far away from the battlefield. He could still hear the screams and shouting, the crumbling of buildings. He was clear on the other side of the village at this point, having gone the opposite direction of Kaisuki, Naruto, Sakura, and Gaara.

With a combination of concealing his chakra and a genjutsu to make himself mostly invisible, he crept quickly around the back of the Hokage Mountains. There were evacuation tunnels and safe rooms all around the village and but he never liked to hide in known safe rooms. At the base of the Hokage mountains, on the side opposite the village, hidden within the shadows of flora, was a small, quaint house that had been there for... as long as he could remember.

At one point, he had asked Iruka about it and the man had vacillated between denying there was any such place and insisting that he stopped going there. That hadn't been particularly persuasive, but eventually Sasuke quit hiding there after the massacre anyway. He'd been too afraid to travel beyond the walls of the village alone for a long, long time. The fear that someday, at any moment, Itachi might come back to finish the job haunted him no matter where he went. There was something unsettling about that area of the woods but, at least as far back as Sasuke remembered, it had always been like that. Sort of like a silent warning, forbidding others from getting too close.

It was unlikely their invaders knew about the area; no one in the village seemed to be aware of it and it had been so long since Sasuke had gone to that spot that it didn't even make sense for the enemy to think he might go there. The small red stone Khrai had given him was clutched tightly in his trembling fist. She had emphasized the importance of him not losing it and, if he was caught, it could help her find him again. He didn't want to even put it in a pocket in case he didn't notice when he dropped it.

The woods darkened significantly around the backside of the mountain, which was normal for that time of day. In the morning, the place would be bathed in light but by the time the afternoon came it was dark as twilight. It was as dark as he always remembered it to be at that time of day but the shadows didn't seem normal. It was like the darkness itself had shifted, the way it sometimes did at his own home. There was a reason he kept all his lights on.

He slipped his free hand in his thigh holster and drew a kunai – was that the last one he had? That wasn't good. He continued to creep through the forest but something was making his skin crawl more than it ought to. His heart was beating hard and his instincts were telling him that he wasn't safe.

He felt movement behind him and flinched, spinning around and slashing with the kunai, only for his wrist to immediately be caught. Gripping his hand was a tall, ghostly pale man. He looked almost sickly, with deep, dark shadows under his eyes. The slightest twitch of a smirk accented his strangely unnatural-looking features. He sort of looked like he wasn't really there.

The man wore an old-looking gray haori over a black, sleeveless bodysuit. Instead of a normal haori sash, he wore a leather belt with several ornate, silver knives that hung around the curve of his right hip without any kind of sheath or covering.

"Interesting choice of hiding spot." The man drawled, tugging on Sasuke's wrist and drawing him closer. "You're so predictable, do you know that?"

Chills ran up his spine as Sasuke tried to pull his hand back. This was clearly the guy he was supposed to be running and hiding from but it seemed like the longer he was forced to stand so close, the more his energy seemed to be draining out him. His knees were shaking and dizziness rolled through him in waves. He couldn't think straight and it was getting harder and harder to hold himself upright. His body wouldn't move at his direction.

"It's been so long and you're already trying to leave? Come now, where's your manners?" The man leaned forward as he spoke slowly, hypnotically. "Its me, Teara. It's good to see you again, Sasuke."

His eyes held nothing but contempt and hunger, his corpse-like gaze felt like staring in the gaping jowls of that monstrous creature he'd almost been killed by in the forest. Why was this man talking to him like they'd met before? He didn't know anyone named Teara; he didn't know anyone who looked both like a hallucination and a walking dead person.

Teara reached up with his free hand, gingerly curling his long, sharpened claws around Sasuke's jaw. "You don't need to fight anymore."

Sasuke whimpered softly, his muscles seemingly giving out on him. He weakly trying to pull away but he couldn't move, his body wouldn't listen to him. He didn't know how to use the stone Kaisuki had given him. Wasn't it supposed to protect him somehow? Why wasn't it working? Had it been a trick all along? She had promised to protect him. His eyelids were difficult to hold open. He had to escape, but what could he do? His brain felt fuzzy and static seemed to build in his limbs.

Help help help please help me please

Abruptly, Teara's grip loosened and Sasuke found himself pulled away from him roughly and he fell backwards onto the ground. His senses rapidly began to clear and his muscles were working again, but his heart was still hammering away regardless. He looked up at where Teara had been standing, finding two cloaked people standing between himself and Teara. One of them was smaller and slighter, the other much taller and bulkier. The larger man carried a massive weapon that Sasuke couldn't have even begun to describe.

"Take him and go." The taller one commanded of his shorter partner, jerking his head towards Sasuke without turning towards him. The smaller of the two didn't waste a moment replying, instead immediately turning to face the youngest surviving Uchiha.

Itachi.

Sasuke froze, even his tremors stopping. Part of him was convinced that everything that had happened that day had to be a nightmare or a hallucination or something. His older brother had murdered their entire family. There was no reason for him to have come back to Konoha, other than to kill the last survivor. Yet, here he was, seemingly defending his useless little brother from danger and harm the way he had when they were still children.

You abandoned me... so why are you here now?

Itachi didn't say anything, he just grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt and his shoulder and hauled him to his feet. He immediately switched his grip to his younger brother's forearm and started dragging him through the forest, breaking into a run and simply forcing Sasuke to follow him.

He wanted to speak, he wanted to shout, he wanted to have stabbed his brother with the kunai he had been holding a moment ago and had dropped at some point. He wanted to ask questions, he wanted to know why Itachi had come for him at that moment, of all moments, after everything. Sasuke had been through so much, he'd endured so much – alone! He didn't want to entertain the depressing fantasies he used to have about Itachi coming back to take him away from Konoha.

"Why?" He found himself speaking before he even realized it. Itachi didn't even look at him. Sasuke felt like he was six years old all over again, being dragged to their parents after being caught doing some dangerous stunt to prove he was just as good as Itachi. Their mother scolding him and their father's disappointment that he had been so clumsy as to need rescuing. Sasuke's eyes burned and his chin felt tight as he tried to bury the emotions that wanted to rise up, to demand an explanation.

He already told me why he did it. There's nothing to ask him...

"But doesn't it seem strange to you, Sasuke!? It doesn't make any sense!"

"I need you to come home as late as you can tomorrow..."

If Itachi really cared about his well-being and safety, why had he left Sasuke in the village? All those years being bullied and interrogated and tormented and harassed. All those years of nightmares and loneliness. If Itachi was going to come and protect him from Teara, why hadn't he come back to protect him from ANBU? From his stalker peers? From anything!? Why had Itachi chosen now to finally make up for what he'd done!? Was he trying to make up for anything at all? Why?!

They passed by the quaint, empty house but Itachi dragged him deeper and deeper into the woods. It was so dark, despite being broad daylight. Sasuke couldn't bring himself to fight Itachi off and simply let himself be dragged along. His heart felt heavy and broken, tears stinging at his eyes relentlessly. Some small part of him crying out - "Why didn't you take me with you?" There was a maelstrom of emotion battering him from every direction.

He felt safe and he hated that he felt that way around his murderer brother.

There was a strange formation in the side of the mountain that hid itself in plain view, which Sasuke had truly never seen it before. Itachi's hand found a handle among what just look like a moss-covered rock and pulled up a hatch completely hidden by the overgrown plants around it.

"Go," Itachi ordered him quietly. Sasuke couldn't bring himself to say anything and simply did as he was told. Beneath the hatch was a few steps and then a rather steep incline that led into what Sasuke could only describe as a bunker. Itachi followed him inside and pulled the hatch shut with a loud thunk as it locked behind him, following Sasuke further into the place. The walls were a luminescent white and the lighting was bright and somewhat intense. The walls looked like some kind of metal but when he brushed his fingers along them, he realized that they weren't steel, or iron, or silver.

There were sheets of scattered paper covered with notes written in indecipherable glyphs. Oddly shaped contraptions, green glass that reflected information he couldn't read, mechanisms that he recognized as machinery but couldn't possibly imagine how they might actually work. Items that were truly alien to him filled every corner of the space. In the very back, tucked into a corner, was what looked like a huge, green water tank with hoses of some kind floating inside it.

What is this place?

Itachi crossed further into the bunker than Sasuke did, his eyes lit up with his Sharingan and scanning every surface. Sasuke slowly followed behind him, his own gaze trained on his brother's back.

The silence between them stretched and Itachi didn't speak to him at all. Since they were seemingly out of danger, Sasuke found the fear in his chest slowly being replaced a burning anger in his gut. Clearly Itachi had brought him there to protect him but why? After all that time, his brother could've come to his rescue and whisked him away to safety and yet...

His free hand clenched into a fist, the other still wrapped tightly around the stone Kaisuki had given him. "Why are you here?" Sasuke finally demanded to know, the anger in his voice betraying the hurt he felt. It only served to upset him more. "Why!?"

He watched Itachi take a slow, deep breath and exhale it in a sigh He turned towards Sasuke but wouldn't – or perhaps couldn't – look his little brother in the eye.

After a few seconds, Itachi quietly replied, "I wasn't convinced you would be safe."

What?

Why did he sound so solemn?

"Ask Saeka to tell you the truth." Itachi continued somberly. He talked to Saeka? When? "I think at this point she should understand that it's a matter of life or death that you know."

His throat tightened, the anger building to fury. "If it's that important, tell me now!" Sasuke snarled at him angrily, just loud enough that the walls reverberated. Itachi still wouldn't meet his gaze, instead tracing the architecture around them with his eyes. Sasuke wanted so badly to walk over and punch him but he couldn't bring himself to.

"I don't know what's happening," Itachi confessed in a tone that Sasuke couldn't get a read on. "She wouldn't explain to me either."

You have spoken to her recently, then?

Sasuke felt like he'd been slapped repeatedly. Itachi looked momentarily like he could tell. "Sasuke, things are not as they seem. I thought you'd be safer not knowing but I was wrong. You need to get out of this village."

"Why did you..." Sasuke words died in his mouth. Why did you leave me here for so long then? "Why should I even believe you?"

Itachi looked at him, finally, sadness reflected in his gaze. "I can't make you believe me. I just hope you'll accept the truth when you learn it."

The younger brother stared at him, angry, frustrated, defeated. He scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Not a single one of you is even trustworthy," he muttered to himself. He didn't know if Itachi had heard him and he didn't care. He hated all of them. His brother, his friends, the village and its awful leadership... he didn't want to deal with any of it anymore. Perhaps Itachi was right; maybe he would be safer outside the cage that was Konoha.

He gave up. Clearly Itachi wasn't going to tell him anything, no matter how "life or death" he claimed it was. How utterly pointless.

In the hopes of distracting himself from his frustration, Sasuke walked up to a metal desk that sat towards the center of room. There were random sheets of paper laying across it, notes written with glyphs that Sasuke didn't recognize. What language was that? He sat down on the desk chair and started pulling drawers open, poking at things disinterestedly.

In one drawer, there were more notes. Most of them were empty save for a few scarce pieces of paper. The drawer on the top right side, however, had more interesting items. A fountain pen, a few paperclips and more notes. Two green beans sat out in the drawer, dried out. How old could those be? What really caught Sasuke's eye in that drawer, however, was an immediately recognizable photo frame. He picked it up carefully and turned it over to look at it.

A family photo. They looked extremely foreign as well. Dressed in colors that reminded him of Naruto, ironically. A mother, a father, a brother and sister that seemed very close in age. Who were those people? Was this bunker theirs? Was that little house theirs? What had happened to them? They looked like a handsome, wholesome family.

His heart ached.

Sasuke looked up in time to see Itachi gently press down on a wide, yellow button. Sasuke wasn't the prodigy of his family but he found himself astounded and immediately he sucked in a breath, partially expecting the place to explode. A few seconds passed, though, and nothing happened. Nothing even lit up.

Itachi let out what sounded like it could've been a sigh of relief.

Why would you press it if you don't know what it's for?!

"I have to go," Itachi turned to face him, his expression schooled to a blank, unreadable gaze. Sasuke felt his heart sink in disappointment and hated himself for feeling that way. "Please, stay here. Kaisuki will find you. I have to go support my partner. We'll keep Teara away."

Sasuke didn't get a chance to respond at all; in a puff of smoke, Itachi disappeared. He had used a kage bunshin. He should've known his brother would never show himself in person. Sasuke squeezed the red rock in his hand, his chest tight with a mixture of anger and despair.

Itachi had spoken to Saeka, and Saeka knew everything. Why wouldn't she have said anything? Why would she withhold that kind of information? Was she trying to get him killed? Was she actively planning his demise? Did Kaisuki know? Did everyone know? How long had they known? Why didn't anyone feel the need to explain it to him? If Saeka had known Sasuke was the target the whole time...

But why?

Still sitting in the desk chair, he leaned over his legs, his elbows on his knees. Why would they keep it from him? Why would they lie to him?

"You need to get out of this village."

"We need you to come in again. Your brother's been active lately."

"I know fer a fact t'at yer t'eir target."

Who was actually setting the traps? Who was he really being targeted by?

Forgetting about the stone in his hand, he opened his fists and pressed his palms to his face, shaking all over. His eyes burned as tears built up in them and began streaming down his cheeks. Why? What now? Who could he trust? When would the next threat rear its head? Where was he supposed to hide? Why was he a target!?

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. He wished he could just stay in that bunker and die.

Too bad I dropped my kunai.

"You'll have more opportunities, don't worry."

.

Khrai had stood resolute beside Saeka and Kaisuki as they tracked the evacuation process. It had been only a few minutes but it felt like hours had passed. The moment the last man was pulled out of the affected area, Saeka stepped back from the reins and turned to Khrai.

"Go, Khrai," the young spirit imparted.

"Zenshin Kirikae no jutsu," Khrai chanted externally, ignoring the din from around her. People were still yelling and running around but she had a job to do and a limited amount of time to do it. Kaisuki's form was shrouded by a swirling cloud of white energy that did not at all feel like chakra, even to the non-sensory Shinobi around them. When the cloud cleared, a woman stood where Kaisuki had been. Her blonde hair was held up in a high ponytail, which was the only reason it wasn't sweeping the ground.

Khrai was also nearly twice the size of the people around them. Her shoulders were broad and set back and the posture she held spoke of untold power. Every part of her body was lined with defined musculature. Her pointed ears stood out against her thick ash-blonde hair. She could feel eyes on her but she wouldn't be distracted.

Khrai jumped up onto the ruined remains of a wall and began to sing the chant of the spell she'd been preparing. Like glass, the barrier she had put up shattered into pieces and fell. Above her, high above the entire village, a circle with runes and symbols and shapes that meant nothing to the Shinobi around them widened to encompass the entire hidden village of Konohagakure. It hung over their heads, sparks of glittering white energy falling like snow but never making it to the ground.

She extended her arms, palms open, and belted out the final note and the circle above the village began to rotate counter-clockwise.

Not a single person in the entire village could have prepared for what came next.

All across the village, people started coughing and choking on some invisible force. Their non-possessed loved ones began panicking and crying out for help. Then, the possessed started to bleed from their eyes, their ears, their noses and mouth. The coughing and choking rapidly turned into retching blood, asphyxiating on the spell Khrai had cast. The possessed humans – in the Forest, on the battlefield, hiding in their homes, trapped in the hospital – then began to scream.

The non-possessed around them had to clamp their hands over their ears. The sounds of the city had quickly shifted from fear and devastation to panic and terror. The guttural, awful shrieks of the demons quickly turned into a deafening roar. Glass shattered in places, some people collapsed from the volume, others found themselves violently sick.

Khrai remained still as stone, standing atop that ruined wall, her arms outstretched. Within her she could feel Kaisuki thrashing and crying out in pain. Tears streamed down her face. This wasn't what she had wanted but she kept telling herself it was for the best... even though she wasn't sure she could believe it.

The roaring grew to an impossible volume, black blood that reeked of rot and sulfur spilling to the ground in every corner of the village. As the roars slowly subsided and the people hosting the demons died with the monsters that had been exorcised from them, those inhuman howls were replaced by the horrified screams of the loved ones' who had been force to bear witness to sudden, grisly deaths happening all around them. Children, parents, the elderly and the sick, Shinobi, civilians – in every corner of Konohagakure, demons had hidden themselves and in each of those corners, Khrai's spell destroyed them and their hosts.

The magic circle that had been spinning in the sky slowed to a stop and dissipated into nothing. Kaisuki's body had barely lasted long enough. Khrai dispelled the full body transfer, another white cloud enveloping her.

Please don't die, Kaisuki.

.

Bodies dropped everywhere. There was so much noise, screaming, pandemonium. People who had been standing near her, who she wouldn't have suspected to be possessed, had been affected by that spell and killed.

Sakura had kept her gaze trained on Khrai the whole time, but she hadn't been prepared for what was happening around her. Her heart raced and her palms were sweaty, knees feeling like they wanted to buckle from the shock. She didn't know what to think. She knew that people had died, abruptly, on a scale larger and faster than anything she had ever seen. She knew from listening to the yelling around her that those people had been Shinobi and civilians alike. So many demons had infiltrated the village.

So many people are dead, aren't they?

The white light swirled around Khrai and when it cleared, Kaisuki was left standing there. Whatever was happening around Sakura was silenced as she watched Kaisuki's skin split open in a dozen places, blood spraying out of the wounds. Kaisuki's head rolled back as she fell backwards off the wall, more blood streaming from her lips and nose, her eyes still half-open. Sakura felt like her heart had actually stopped as she leaped forward to catch her falling teammate. Kaisuki landed against Sakura's chest and she barely managed to get them to the ground without dropping her.

Her teammate was not conscious despite her eyes being open. She checked the girl's breathing and though her heart rate felt weak and her breathing was labored, she was alive. Now that she was closer, she could see that the wounds were not slashes like she'd initially thought. The injuries were more like burns – no, more like acid had melted through her flesh, exposing bones and blood vessels and muscle, tissues ripping and tearing itself apart as the acidity seemed to spread along Kaisuki's body.

"Sakura!" She heard Naruto and she looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes. She had never seen anything like what Kaisuki's body was actively doing to itself right before her.

"Naruto, help, please!" She shrieked without even thinking of her volume, "it's bad! I need your chakra!"

Her orange-clad teammate's face had turned white at Sakura's words, the relief in his expression immediately replaced by terror. Sakura could hear him running up but didn't glance up again; she couldn't let herself lose focus. Her teeth were chattering as she trembled with terror. She didn't know if she could save Kaisuki; the injuries were so impossibly severe. How her friend was still managing to breathe at all was beyond her.

"Sakura! Kaisuki!" That sounded like their sensei, Kakashi, approaching as well. She ignored him, focusing on the Yurei seemingly melting alive on her lap. Sakura pressed a hand to Kaisuki's chest and reached out with her other hand, already starting her irou-ninjutsu, waiting for Naruto.

It wasn't a split second after she raised her hand that he grabbed on without hesitation, gasping beside her, even though she could feel that his own chakra reservoirs had depleted significantly. Did he have enough for her to heal Kaisuki? Would it be enough!? A moment later, Kakashi's hand descended on her shoulder as well, pushing his chakra into her rapidly. Sakura needed to heal Kaisuki while preforming the energy transfer. If she had been any other Kunoichi, that might've been completely impossible.

The wounds were bad and they seemed to keep spreading and worsening. They seemed to be fighting against her. However, as Naruto's Bijuu – the nine-tailed demon fox – began to send his own chakra through, Kaisuki's body seemed to give in. Her wounds started closing rapidly, but the damage was continuing to spread despite the healing.

"Not good..." she muttered, unable to disguise the panic in her voice, "where is this coming from?!"

Her patient coughed and a startling amount of blood spilled out of her mouth. The girl cracked a single pink eye open. "It's the chakra circulatory... system," Saeka weakly forced out. "Focus there..."

Naruto chimed in, his voice tense and serious: "Sakura, don't hold back. I'll be fine. Take all you need."

Sakura met his blue eyes for just a moment before she nodded, lower lip trembling with fear she refused to acknowledge. She doubled down on pulling chakra from Kakashi and Naruto, pulling more and more and ignoring his chakra reservoirs depleting. She felt his knees buckle beside her but she didn't slow down.

Focused entirely on healing the extensive damage, Sakura didn't even look up when she heard Kakashi speak.

"Naruto...?"

"If it's for Khrai," her head snapped up at that voice. She met a single red eye, it's slit pupil gazing at the patient in Sakura's lap. "I'll help with anything." He snickered, the sound unlike any laugh Naruto had ever made on his own.

The chakra from the nine-tails increased tenfold. With that much, it would be nothing. Simultaneously, in a feat of irou-ninjutsu that likely would never be repeated, Sakura healed Kaisuki's wounds, repaired the damage to her chakra circulatory system, and refilled her chakra reservoirs, without pause or error. Despite the absolute chaos happening all around them, Sakura remained still and focused on the direction of her chakra and the progress of her task.

"Okay," Sakura breathed out, a little winded. "Are you feeling better? Saeka? Kaisuki?"

.

She heard Sakura's voice as she quickly returned to consciousness. Saeka had pushed her back while she was being healed but the moment her teammate had finished, she was drawn back out. Kaisuki stared, stunned and amazed, at Sakura. Her eyes stung but she held back the desire to break down. They weren't done yet. There were still a few more things she needed to do.

"Thank you," Kaisuki whispered gratefully to Sakura and Naruto and Kakashi. "Thank you."

She grabbed their clothes and pulled them into a tight hug. "I have to leave the village, right now." She whispered to them, her mouth, face, and clothes still stained with blood. She was still winded, somehow. "Too many people have died," she told them. "They'll blame us, but if I leave... then they'll just blame me."

She pulled back, holding their hands and squeezing them for a moment. She subtly deposited a small red stone into Naruto's hand. "Sasuke... is somewhere on the dark side of the Hokage... Mountain." She told him. "Okay? Find him, quickly."

She was in pain. Her meds had worn off, or perhaps they just couldn't possibly have accommodated the level of pain she was at. She forced herself to her feet, stumbling a little as she reached into her kunai pounch. There was one more vial of Izumi's medication. She pulled it out and drank it all at once. Naruto and Sakura had stood up with her, afraid and in a state of shock. Naruto seemed a little weak on his feet but he held himself up regardless.

Kaisuki turned to Kakashi then, beckoning him. She took his hand as well when he approached, pulling him down to her level so she could whisper the same message to him. He was stoic and stiff but, when she pulled away, the gaze she met was filled with a profound sadness that she had never seen from him before. Kakashi placed a hand on her head and nodded in silent understanding.

"Let's go find Sasuke," Kakashi stated, looking at his team knowingly.

Naruto and Sakura couldn't hide their despair but they nodded nonetheless. Together, their team started running in the direction of the mountain. The stone showed a faint light trail to where Sasuke was, but only the holder of the stone could see it. As they passed through the undamaged part of the village, it was hard to say that they'd saved anyone or contained anything at all. Black smears of ink-like demonic essence mixed with the red, congealing human blood that stained the walls, the ground, and the people themselves. Cries and howls of despair could be heard all around them. The pain in the air was palpable.

Kaisuki remained stone-faced as they traveled. Her chest was so tight and her eyes stung and her throat was trying to strangle her, but she couldn't break down. Not until she was out of the village. Not until the job was done. As they approached the mountainside, crossing through a small gate that led out of the village perimeter and around the back of the Hokage Mountain, the air seemed to shift.

"Teara was here," Saeka said quietly to Kaisuki. "So was Itachi and his friend... they protected Sasuke."

Her throat was tight. Itachi and his friend... she had caught a glimpse of Saeka's recent interaction with Itachi as she had slept. She didn't know if her Guests realized that she was aware of it, but she had decided it didn't matter enough to bring up to them. They passed an empty, tired looking little shack of a house as they moved further into the woods. Kaisuki stopped, her team noticing and stopping as well.

"This is goodbye," she forced out around the lump in her throat. She blinked rapidly, trying to keep her eyes from spilling tears. "I'll stay in touch, somehow. You'll see me again."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, his devastation finally showing in his face, but Kaisuki held up a hand to silence him before pulling him into a silent hug. She sniffled, pulling away from Naruto and dragging Sakura into an embrace as well.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking as she pulled away. Naruto and Sakura were already fully sobbing and she wished more than anything that they would stop. "I love you guys. Be safe, okay? And be cautious."

Kakashi's hand landed on her head, petting her black hair gently. His voice shook just slightly as he spoke for the entire team: "Good luck, Kaisuki, Khrai, Saeka, Izumi. Keep each other safe."

Kaisuki smiled wider, but she couldn't take another second. She had to go or she'd lose her resolve. It was far too late for her to change her mind anymore. She turned away and jumped into the trees, running as fast as she could before the massacre she'd committed could catch up to her. Before anyone could think for even a moment that her team had somehow been a part of it.

Please, be safe without us.

She didn't know it, but she and Kakashi had the same thought at the same time.

On the other side of the world, on a continent an ocean and more away from the Shinobi Nations, a dark-haired girl approached a round, technologically advanced capsule that had crash-landed on the planet long enough ago that the people who built it were no longer known to exist.

The capsule was in a crater, and the crater was a mile from where the girl lived. She had been living alone for almost three years, or maybe four. Looking after the heirlooms of her lineage by training daily, holding on to their lost technology, and keeping to herself. She had been taught early in life that it was simply better for her to not engage with ordinary humans. It was better to keep to herself and live a simple, modest life. Her father had fled to this continent before she was ever born, to escape from the curse of being protectors of humanity.

It was safer for her to not connect emotionally with humans, because her emotions gave her greater power and that power attracted evil. It was better to avoid ordinary humans, because they would be insatiably drawn to her power and the safety she could guarantee them.

It was her duty to uphold that ideology. Protect them by protecting her own peace.

However, as she walked up to the capsule to inspect the beeping sound she'd been hearing – this thing is supposed to be dead, right? As in, not working anymore? - she found the radar had come to life and was showing her a map. It had picked up on a ping from a location very far from where she currently was. There was more of her family's technology in other parts of the world...? Wouldn't her father have destroyed it and taken the important things with him before leaving the area?

She mucked around with it a bit, trying to get it to cancel the ping. It was probably just an error, right? But when she pressed a small yellow button next to the radar, it started printing from a thin slot at the bottom of the dashboard.

Isn't this damn thing supposed to be broken?!

The pinging noise had stopped but now the capsule was spitting out paper stained with ink old enough to be considered archaic. The first was a picture of a young, beautiful man she'd never seen in her life. His name was there as well – Uchiha Itachi. There was more information too – his height, age, weight, family relations...

Who the hell is this guy? She thought in confusion. How would the allegedly non-functional space capsule even have that information? How had that guy figured out how to ping her capsule from what appeared to be the other side of the world? The printer loudly whirred and the next sheet that it spit out was a more precise set of coordinates, including a map of the world with a barely-visible mark pointing out the location of the original ping.

Be so fucking for real.

"Ugh," she sighed in annoyance. She didn't know what to do. She wasn't supposed to involve herself with humans but she wanted to make sure that the heirlooms of her people were not accessible to anyone. Maybe it was just a fluke but, at least in her opinion, it was safer to be surer. She couldn't just let her family's advanced technology sit in the hands of ordinary humans. She flipped back and forth between the two pages, trying to find something relevant or useful and finding nothing. Just a picture, a name, some random facts, and coordinates on a map that hadn't even printed properly.

"Guess I should at least check it out," Juritsu sighed, folding the pages up and slipping them into her pocket. It would be easier to find that Itachi guy if she hung onto his photo. Maybe someone would recognize him and point her in the right direction. The coordinates would prove useful at least until she got to that continent and could buy a proper map. With a sigh, she pushed the heavy, rusted capsule door shut again, making sure it latched properly. If she wasn't going to be around, it'd be best for it to be closed. No human would be able to force it back open.

At least I can fly for a while, she thought to herself as she walked out of the crater and looked at the skies. She rarely had a reason to fly for long distances, so that would be fun at least. Hopefully everything would be fine when she got there and she could just quietly extract or destroy whatever was at that location. The heirlooms of her family were better off burnt to ash than in the hands of ordinary people.

THIS IS NOT THE END.