Obito-Sensei Chapter 27
Inferno
In the pre-dawn light, Spotter deposited the rest of their team high in the great tree of Takigakure, which had a name they had not bothered to learn. Doll was the first to leap off their owl, and Venom the second. Spotter was the last, and as their feet stuck fast to the ancient bark of the tree the owl silently departed, doomed to fall apart in a welter of ink in the darkness beyond the village.
They glanced at each other. There was no need to speak, and no expressions to read behind the plain white masks that hid their faces. Communication was pointless, unless it was for the benefit of the mission. Spotter unslung their great bow, larger than their own body, and settled back against a nearby twisting branch, bracing it with an arm and a leg. They looked down at the village below.
It was only their steel discipline that kept their face from twisting in disgust beneath the mask. The whole village made their stomach turn.
Jiraiya the Toad Sage was down there, the most odious of the Sannin, the man who'd slain their master in defense of the Nation he'd unwittingly help create. He sat beneath the great tree, legs crossed, body still, heart barely beating, bubbling with sage chakra, straining to protect a place that was not his home. He was failing, Spotter could already see; his senjutsu senses could not reach far enough to detect their team up in the tree, or the rogue ninja converging on the village from every direction. Spotter's sight far outstripped it.
As they slowed their heart and drew an arrow, they searched for other targets, signaling to Venom and Doll with the slightest shift of their legs. It would start soon. They beckoned Doll over, and the man stood behind them, aligning their body and souls as they searched for a target.
A traitor to strike down. The thought sparked something that Spotter was loath to dwell on, but the notion would not leave them.
The whole village was about to become a festering boil of traitors, ready to burst.
Traitors: the children from Konoha, blissfully unconscious behind their barrier. Traitors: Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, the hands of the greatest traitor of all, the peace-addled Yondaime. Traitors: that loathsome Itachi Uchiha, more like a worm than a man, slinking into the depths of Waterfall's enormous lake from below. Traitors: the dozens of rogue ninja Itachi had bribed, blackmailed, brainwashed, following the instructions of the traitor with five hearts with religious reverence, skipping through the sensor net around the village with consummate ease. Weapons without handles or purpose, with no choice but to cut anything and everything around them. No greater purpose than continued existence. They were no longer shinobi, just human trash that hadn't yet realized they were dead.
Spotter was sure that those below would call them just another traitor hiding behind a mask, but the roots of a tree could not betray it, only correct its course.
But they would die before they would see that truth.
They settled on the most natural target, and waited for chaos to engulf the world.
###
How do you destroy a hidden village?
Waterfall may be a minor village among greater players, but it is still a large town. It houses over eleven-hundred people. Of those thousand and some, four-hundred and sixty-four of them are shinobi. Of those shinobi, two-hundred and twelve of them are out on missions of various importance and drama on that cold and dark February morning, leaving two-hundred and fifty-two to defend Takigakure. It may seem illogical that, knowing the threat, Waterfall would not withdraw all its shinobi to defend the village, but doing so would be economic suicide. More than two hundred shinobi in the village is, by itself, extremely unusual. Usually, barely a hundred shinobi are within Waterfall at any given time, with the rest on constant missions.
This tirelessness is responsible for Waterfall's incredible reputation for excellence, and one of the secrets to its strength. For indeed, Waterfall is strong. It has survived honest attempts by Sand, Stone, and Mist to end its existence. What this can tell you is that numbers alone can't be enough to destroy a minor village, especially one like Waterfall.
Shinobi may be superhuman, but all but a few can fall prey to the same failures that prey on ordinary human soldiers. Lack of information, lack of leadership, morale. In the past, Waterfall has always repelled attacks by cutting the head off the snake, their high quality shinobi striking out from the security of the village and slaying leadership elements with remarkable efficiency and brutality. It's the same plan they intend to use for Itachi Uchiha's attack, and it's a well proven one.
Now, that doesn't mean numbers aren't an innate advantage, or that Takigakure will always hold the edge in quality: only that it has in the past. From that, you could divine that if you cannot simply bury it in bodies, as Uzushiogakure was, the best way to destroy Waterfall is from within. If Waterfall is collapsing inward, it cannot send out shinobi to hunt leadership elements. If its excellent shinobi are too busy putting out fires, if they lose the initiative, it is just as vulnerable as any other town.
The best way to destroy any village, minor or not, will always be from within. To know its secrets ahead of time, to understand the battlefield, and if possible, to have people already on the inside.
Itachi Uchiha must have known that, because that was how he went about things.
There was more to it than that, of course. When the attack on Waterfall begins in the minutes before dawn, Itachi is accompanied by thirty-two rogue ninja, a rather tremendous gathering, especially considering the rate at which Rain and other villages has been snapping them up over the last couple years. How could he have convinced such a collection of men and women who fought only for themselves to assault a minor village with Waterfall's reputation? No one knows, though some had suspicions that were nearly correct; the Sharingan was known for its hypnotic power, after all.
But put that aside. Regardless of how they'd been convinced, these ninja are going up against more than five times their numbers. Where does that boldness come from? What are they after?
What you have to understand is that all of these ninja have made names for themselves. They are all after money, or fame, or secret techniques, or the power of a trapped demon. They are all in it for themselves. All of them have accomplished something notable that could be a story in and of itself. All of them have trained their whole lives to kill.
And all but two of them will be dead within the next twenty minutes.
They swim up through the central lake, crawl up past the sensor nest. This would have been completely impossible for them normally. Were it not for one among them, all of the attackers would have been detected by the sensor net or the Earth Defense Force and swarmed or crushed alive.
But Waterfall's greatest traitor is among them, practically leading them, carrying with him all of Waterfall's secrets, including some that the village itself had forgotten in the decades since he'd been banished, and his grudge carries the rogue ninja up into the village without a word in edgewise from Waterfall's peerless defenses.
When they reach the top of the plateau, there is no dramatic announcement. No one pauses to take a breath. In the depths of the lake, Itachi Uchiha simply puts his hand together. He releases his chakra, and up above, twenty-six shinobi of Takigakure jerk up, eyelids fluttering, hands twitching.
To them, the village bursts into flames.
Moments later, reality mirrors their delusion.
This is the best way to destroy a minor village. To crush it from inside and out.
###
Sakura woke to the sound of explosions.
She rolled out of bed, still mostly unconscious, her sword already in hand. The whole safehouse shook once, twice, and then several more times all at once. Fuu was up before her, already at the window.
"The village!" Fuu cried, and Sakura shook her head. It was still mostly dark outside, with only faint traces of sunlight, but there was a hungry brightness coming through the window. Fires, casting violent light with abandon. Many fires. "What's happening?!"
Sakura had no idea, and another explosion shook her bones. She staggered to the window, trying to wake up. They were under attack. She needed to get it together. She gripped her sword, trying to focus herself. More than twenty buildings had exploded, gutted from within, spreading flames throughout the entire village. People were screaming, shinobi were running everywhere. Some were using water jutsu to put out the fire. She watched it all blankly, trying to understand how it had happened so quickly.
From the safehouse's elevated position in the fourth ring, Sakura could see almost half the village. That meant that when she saw the first ninja from Takigakure torn to shreds by a bladed chain, she was able to instantly understand even through her sleep-addled eyes that Waterfall was under attack.
"Naruto!" She left Fuu at the window, pounding out of the room and looking around wildly. "Sasuke!" Right on cue, Naruto came tumbling down the stairs to a stop in front of her, half-dressed and eyes wide. "The village-!"
"Is blowing up!" he interrupted, scrambling to his feet. "We gotta-!"
"Stay here," Sasuke said, leaping to the bottom of the staircase. Unlike Naruto, he didn't look like he'd just fallen out of bed in a panic. "Obito told us to stay put."
"He's right," Sakura said. Center yourself. Calm down. She gripped her sword. "We gotta stay by Fuu-"
There was a tremendous crack, and Sakura's stomach flipped upside down as invisible weight vanished. She stumbled, and so did both her teammates. Naruto looked up with wide eyes.
"The barrier!" he shouted, and before the words had even fully left his mouth the kitchen wall exploded. Team Seven leapt back, and two figures barreled through the debris. Sakura blinked. They were both shinobi from Takigakure, an older man and younger woman she didn't recognize.
What? She couldn't even voice her confusion. Had they attacked the barrier? Turned it off? They'd certainly blown up the wall. Why? It didn't make any sense.
"Where's Fuu!?" the woman demanded, her eyes wild, pupils huge. Naruto stepped forward, and the woman's head jerked towards him. She bared her teeth. "What have you done with her?!"
"I'm here!" Fuu said, rushing through the doorway. Somehow, she was smiling. "It's okay!"
The woman took one look at Fuu, her eyes somehow growing wider. Sakura felt her teeth grind. She unconsciously drew her blade, water dancing on its edge.
"You're not Fuu!" the woman from Waterfall screamed, and faster than Sakura could follow she flashed through over a dozen hand-signs and threw a razor storm of wind right at Fuu. The man at her side rushed forward behind the wind, also intent on the jinchuriki.
Were they imposters, or rogue ninja in disguise? It didn't matter. Sakura stopped thinking and started swinging. Her blade rippled out. Sasuke was doing the same at her side, hurling a kunai without hesitation.
"No!" Fuu struck out, not at the shinobi attacking her, but at Sakura's water blade. Her arms were suddenly covered in a thick yellow chitin. Sakura's eyes widened, and she tried to divert her attack, but it was too late. Her Flowing Water Blade, which could cut down a tree without resistance, crashed right into Fuu's right forearm.
The blade shattered, falling apart in a spray of water that soaked the entire room, and Sakura fell forward in shock. Sasuke's kunai wasn't stopped, and it struck the male ninja in the shoulder. The man howled, and then Fuu moved, rushing the injured man as he turned towards Sasuke. She grew wings as she went, pushing herself faster, and struck the man in the back of the head so hard that he was unconscious before he hit the ground.
The woman let out the same mad howl and rushed the Jinchuriki, and Fuu turned to her, expressionless, and struck out. Three, four, five brutal punches that buried themselves deep in the woman's gut. She vomited and fell back, and Fuu's foot snapped out and crashed into her chin, snapping the woman's head back with a sick crack. She hit the ground and didn't rise.
Fuu slowly lowered her foot, standing there looking at both of the unconscious shinobi, and burst out crying.
"This isn't what I wanted!" she screamed at the downed ninja, tears streaming down her face. "I'm not meant to fight you!"
"Fuu," Sakura said, lowering her sword and stepping forward. "It's okay." She wasn't sure if that was true; she just wanted to calm the other girl down. "We'll be-"
THUNK. An arrow as long as Sakura's arm buried itself in the floor right in front of her, and she froze. Everyone in the room did, watching the quivering projectile without comprehension. Sakura looked up, the water around her sword violently vibrating. There was a hole in the roof, a patch of darkness in the ceiling. The arrow had penetrated straight through all three stories and nearly hit her.
Had it been luck, or-
Sakura blinked. Her eyes never opened back up.
Her body vanished. Her sword was gone. Her heartbeat disappeared.
Sakura would have screamed, but she had no mouth.
She was small. She was entirely enclosed in someone's hand, trapped and immobile.
Sakura had never been confined to the sixth sense that all shinobi had, the indefinable gravity of chakra that pressed down on them at all times. Unless you were a trained sensor, it was usually too subtle for even an experienced shinobi to rely on. The only time she'd been forced to notice it was during her fight with Gaara. The chakra of a Tailed Beast burned with a pressure that couldn't be ignored.
Now, in that interminable moment after blinking while staring up into the darkness beyond the safehouse, Sakura had no sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch. She only had her chakra, enclosed within and emanating from her spirit. She was suddenly defined by utter absence.
She panicked, unable to thrash and scream and all the worse for it. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know what was happening. She was being held. The chakra of the person holding her was so cold it felt as though her soul would be frostbitten.
It was satisfied. It was murderous.
Sakura was in danger, and there was nothing she could do.
As she descended into incoherent dreadful silence, Sakura had a last gasp of clarity before she was submerged in total darkness.
'Where's your body?'
###
As Naruto watched, the water around Sakura's sword suddenly splashed off. His teammate staggered, her gaze shooting down to the blade.
"Sakura?" he asked, and she looked up at him, eyes wide. "You-?"
"We have to go!" she yelled, the sudden shout making Naruto jump. "We're sitting ducks here!" She sheathed her sword and started sprinting for the door, blowing past Sasuke.
"Sakura!" he called, chasing after her. "We're supposed to stay here! With Fuu!"
"Go!" Fuu cried out, kneeling over one of the unconscious shinobi. "I'll be fine! Follow her!"
Sasuke cursed, following Sakura out the door, and Naruto found himself following after his teammates. They burst out into the burning village; everything was light and heat and confusion, and everywhere he looked people seemed to be fighting or ready to burst into violence. People were screaming; the fire lit the village up as though it were midday, but the light couldn't penetrate the predawn darkness that hung just meters above the flames.
"Sakura!" he shouted, but his teammate didn't look back. They were running through the wildfire, dodging through bodies living and dead. Nothing made sense. All he could focus on was Sakura's back, her long flowing hair. "Where are we going?"
"We have to find Obito!" she called back, and something pricked in the back of Naruto's head. "He'll tell us what to do!"
"He already did!" Naruto said, but his words were drowned out by a nearby scream. A man stumbled out of a nearby alley, steaming and covered in burns, and stopped Naruto and Sasuke in their tracks. He was wearing a Waterfall headband; as he turned towards them, eyes wide in confusion, a shuriken passed right through his throat and he fell to one knee, hands trying to stem the sudden explosion of blood.
Sakura kept running, apparently unaware of the commotion behind her.
A woman leapt out of the alley after the dying man and jammed a kunai up to the hilt into his spine; the man stiffened and fell, and the woman reared up, staring at Naruto and Sasuke.
"Konoha?" she said. "That's…"
She smiled. No joy, all malice. For some reason, that clarified things for Naruto. Sakura was long gone. She hadn't turned around. Maybe the arrow had panicked her. He just didn't know. Not much made sense right now. But right there, there was an enemy in front of him, and Sasuke at his side. He couldn't focus on more than that.
"Perfect!" the woman shouted. She launched herself forward, her bloody kunai in one hand and the other crackling with blue flames. She stabbed out, and Naruto ducked backwards, going horizontal and catching himself with one hand behind him.
"Sasuke!" he shouted, kicking up to try and buy himself some room. The woman sneered and thrust down at him with her burning hand, and Naruto had to turn his kick into a hasty roll. The hand burned a small crater in the concrete beneath him, and he kept rolling as Sasuke jumped in to attack. He came back to his feet just in time to watch the woman kick his friend away. Sasuke hit the wall and landed on all fours with a snarl.
"We can't waste time here!" he said. "Let's end this quickly, Naruto!"
"Ha!" the woman laughed, the kunai in her hand burning up with more blue fire and falling to pieces. "Adorable!" Her laughter grew angry. "And typical!"
She went for Sasuke first. He didn't try to fight back right away; instead he retreated, his Sharingan whirling as he watched the burning fists. The woman chased after him in a fury, punching craters out of everything in her way.
"Hold still!" she shouted, and Sasuke snarled back as he scrambled out of the way of another fist.
"Where's my brother?" he said, and the woman laughed.
"That Uchiha?" she said. "Do you miss him? Don't worry, I'll make sure to kill him too when I'm done with you!" The battle was waging on around them, but it felt like they were trapped in the eye of a storm in the middle of this street, insulated from the heat and screams.
Naruto focused, trying to look for an opening. The woman was fast, and her fists were deadly, but she was reckless and cocky.
Right. No time to waste. Three shadow clones rushed in, trying to swarm the woman. She turned her attention from Sasuke, punching one out of existence. Naruto flinched; the memory alone was incredibly painful. The other clones dogpiled her, and Naruto dropped back, putting his hands together.
"What're you thinking, you little shit?!" the rogue ninja howled, and then Sasuke kicked her in the back of the leg. She dropped to one knee screaming and attacking wildly, and Sasuke skipped back with a hiss as both Naruto's clones died, a couple centimeters of skin clearly burned off his shoulder.
He should have retreated again but instead, he swept in with the insane confidence that only his Sharingan could give him and caught her left arm in an iron grip, both his arms wrapping around the joint and immobilizing it. It was a suicidal move that left him completely defenseless.
"Naruto!" he shouted. The woman made to punch him in the face and burn a hole in his skull, but as she drew back her fist Naruto screamed and charged. He wasn't sure if it was him shouting or the sound of his jutsu, but the woman's head snapped towards him and keening Rasengan in his hand. Her eyes went wide in unmistakable fear.
Naruto thrust the Rasengan out like the world's deadliest handshake and the woman's remaining fist came down to meet him, trying to deflect the attack. Her flaming fist met the spiralling sphere, and for a second that didn't exist, stopped it dead in its tracks.
Then, Naruto's heart beat, time resumed, and the violent rotation of the Rasengan tore the woman's clenched fingers to pieces. Her hand was reduced to a stump. The rogue ninja shrieked in pain, and the Rasengan detonated from the pressure of her flaming chakra, sending Naruto tumbling backwards and badly wrenching his wrist. The shockwave traveled up her arm, grotesquely twisting it; the bones shattered, splintering through her thin purple jacket, and wrenched her whole torso sideways. The woman fell backwards, and Sasuke twisted.
There was a simultaneous pop and crack, and the woman's other arm dislocated at the shoulder and broke at the joint, swinging like a door with one hinge. The flame in her other hand guttered out and Sasuke kicked her away, and the rogue ninja hit the ground and rolled as though she were on fire. She shrieked, and it was the most painful sound Naruto had ever heard.
"Go!" Sasuke shouted, and they both continued down the street, sprinting through the chaos and leaving the crippled woman behind. Someone tried to stop them, a rogue ninja or one from Waterfall, Naruto couldn't tell, and they shoved the man out of the way. His hand stung; he looked down, and was shocked to find that his palm and all of his fingers were bright red, the top layer flaking off and revealing weeping raw skin beneath it. The woman had burned him even through the Rasengan. He clenched his fist, determined to ignore the pain, but he could already feel his hand tightening up, like what skin was left was a badly-fitted glove.
"Where's Sakura?" he shouted, and Sasuke shook his head.
"Gone. She was looking for Obito. But Naruto-" He paused, raising a hand, and the both of them came to a stop just in time to avoid getting trampled by two squads of Waterfall ninja who barreled down the ring yelling orders and firing water jutsu at a distant target. "I don't think that was Sakura."
"What?" Naruto asked, staring at him. "Of course it-"
He paused. The water had fallen off her sword. She'd left, even though Obito had told them to stay with Fuu. And she'd called Obito… just Obito, not Obito-sensei.
And...
Sakura wouldn't have left them to fight alone. Naruto felt a poisonous fury bubble up in his gut.
"You're right," he said. A light flickered on in his head; someone howled in pain somewhere close by, and almost derailed the thought. "It was right after that arrow came through the roof. That was when she got weird."
"We have to find her," Sasuke said, setting off again. Naruto took the lead this time, leaping up onto a roof and off the streets. The fire was growing wilder; he could no longer tell friend from foe. The only people he could trust were his team.
"And Obito," he said. "That's who she's after."
With a clear goal in sight, they hurled themselves into the chaos burning Waterfall to ash.
###
As Obito's arms tightened around the Takigakure ninja's neck, the man's hands beat a futile rhythm against them, scrabbling and trying to scratch through his steel armguards. He strained, tightening his grip: his legs were locked around the man's torso, holding him in place, and the maddened shinobi gagged and slammed him once again into the wall of the building to his back. The concrete cracked, but Obito didn't flinch.
"Go to sleep!" he grunted. The brainwashed man's movements were growing less frantic. Around both of them, the semi-circle of Waterfall shinobi pressed in, seven strong.
"Just give up, Keima!" one of the women shouted. "It's alright!"
"It's…" The man gasped, his eyes fluttering closed. Even a shinobi needed to breathe. "Burning… down…!"
He slumped, and Obito gingerly released him, making sure the man's head didn't smack to the stone floor. "Sorry," he said. "Even then, I couldn't break it."
The genjutsu snaring the crazed Waterfall shinobi was like nothing Obito had ever seen. The scale and strength of it was simply terrifying; more than two dozen of Waterfall's own ninja had turned against it, and they refused to leave the delusion no matter how much pain they were subject to, or how often their chakra was reset. It couldn't be anything but Itachi's work, but when had Itachi gotten this strong?
"It's okay," the woman said. Her comrades bound the unconscious man up and spirited him away. "Can you help us with the next one?"
"He can't resist," Rin said, running a glowing hand over Obito's chest and back. He felt a bruise on one of his ribs disappear, fading away under Rin's gentle touch. He gave her a smile. "Let's go."
They set off once more, this time with only four ninja from Waterfall accompanying them. Obito looked around the village, his Sharingan picking out everything in perfect detail. The fires were spreading with more and more ferocity, but the shinobi of Waterfall were fighting back with impossible determination, using water and earth jutsu to keep the flames at bay. Half the village had been given up, transformed into a firebreak of horrifying scale. It was, thankfully, not the half that contained the safehouse.
Obito was confident his team was okay. They wouldn't have disobeyed his orders, and the barriers around the safehouse were strong. Even if it was breached, Team Seven had a Jinchuriki as their ally: Fuu would be able to keep them safe from anyone short of Itachi.
And so far, Itachi hadn't shown up. He was certainly here, though; he wouldn't have been able to trigger the mass genjutsu upon the Takigakure shinobi without being close by, and his black flames had appeared as well. To Obito, they had been what had started the battle. He and Jiraiya had watched as Takigakure's lake had begun boiling, letting off steam, and they'd looked within to find the Amaterasu flickering in all defiance of reality at the bottom.
Jiraiya had dove to the bottom of the lake without hesitation. It was no good to save the village, he'd said, if it just boiled to death after. Obito hadn't seen him since. That just made him more sure Itachi was nearby; he'd known one of them would have to take care of the Amaterasu. It had been a ploy to separate them, for sure.
It was that thought that made him change course. "Can you take the next?" he called, having to raise his voice over the crackle of flames. There had been a lull in the attack as both the rogue ninja, the brainwashed shinobi, and Waterfall's elite took stock of the situation, and Obito could feel it rushing to an end. "We're going to head to the safehouse!"
"The Jinchuriki?" the woman from Waterfall whose name Obito had not learned hesitated. "And your team. Go. We'll handle them." She called out as they changed direction. "Keep an eye out! Someone is hunting the elders!"
They split up, the Waterfall ninja making their way towards a madman weeping and flipping homes upside-down and burying them in earth, and Obito and Rin heading towards the upper ring.
"Don't worry," Rin called, and Obito looked back. There was sweat running down her cheek, past her tattoo, slipping down her neck; it made Obito's jaw lock up. That wasn't appropriate. He shook his head, and Rin gave him a funny look. "They're smart kids. They'll have stayed put."
They leapt through a wall of flames, the water of the third ring burning as if it were oil, and found Sakura on the other side.
Obito's brain short-circuited, and he stumbled when they landed. Sakura looked terrified; her sword was out, and her face was covered in ash. She was looking around, but there was no one else here; the battle had washed over this part of the village and left it a wasteland dotted with bodies and covered in puddles of blood and water that reflected the dancing flames.
Stupid, Obito. You're so goddamn stupid. They're barely thirteen. Why did you think that they wouldn't do anything stupid? That they'd just sit still? Had Naruto and Sasuke dragged her out into the fight? Where were they?
"Sakura!" he roared, and her head snapped towards him, relief flooding across it. "Over here!"
"Sensei!" she started running towards him, sword out.
"What were you thinking?!" he shouted, drawing closer. Rin was at his side. Her chakra was drawn in tight, vibrating, ready for a fight. Why? "I told you to stay put!"
"The safehouse was broken into!" Sakura screamed. "Someone was shooting at us! It wasn't safe!"
Broken into? Shooting at them? Then where were Naruto and Sasuke? They wouldn't have split up. Obito slowed down a fraction, his eyes narrowing at the impossibility. It was definitely Sakura. No illusion or disguise could fool his Sharingan. But something was wrong.
They were four feet apart now. Over Sakura's shoulder, Obito saw Naruto and Sasuke turn the corner, skidding past a sputtering building. He took a deep breath. It was okay. They were all alive.
Naruto's eyes went wide, and Obito blinked. His student threw his burned hand up, starting to scream.
There was a jolt. A flash of pain. The world slowed to a crawl, flames frozen, water like ice, Naruto's scream hanging in the air unheard.
Obito looked down, wondering why he was having a near death experience, and found Sakura's sword sinking into his chest. The phantom pressing ahead of the real blade created by his Sharingan's prediction only made it more surreal. He watched it with a detached academic fascination as it slid centimeter by centimeter in, passing through his vest with barely any resistance. It really was a fantastic sword. He felt it scrape past one of his ribs; the blow had been perfectly placed over his heart. In a blink, Sakura would have skewered his most vital organ. He would have bled out in less than a minute.
Kamui.
Obito breathed out, his body carried somewhere else, and Sakura passed through him, stumbling and swinging back. The blade passed through him once more, and Obito turned, reaching out. Sakura leapt back, as if to attack again, but instead, her sword came up to her own throat.
"You damn ghost," she hissed, and Obito's chest burned. The sword hadn't pierced his heart, he was sure, but the wound was deep and hurt like nothing else in the world. Because of its depth, or because it had come from Sakura's sword?
"You're not Sakura," Obito said, almost to himself, and whoever was wearing Sakura's body laughed.
"Brilliant," they said, the words full of a cruelty that Sakura wasn't capable of. "Take out your sword, Mangekyo no Obito. Kill yourself, and I might not kill your student." The hate filled eyes shifted to Rin. "You too, traitor. End your miserable life right here, or her head goes flying."
"That's a mind-body switch," Rin said calmly. Naruto and Sasuke were drawing closer. Rin and Obito had begun circling Sakura's body, and the person inside her was rotating as well, eyes darting back and forth. "You'd kill yourself as well."
"Not a good trade," Sakura's voice said, and her body shrugged. "But one I'd be willing to-"
Obito's eye burned, and Sakura's sword twisted out of existence. The world grew a little blurrier, and he felt a migraine coming on. Sakura's face twisted in hatred.
He leapt forward and brought Sakura down before she could claw out her own eyes, pinning the girl by all four limbs and leaning back as she tried to bite out his throat.
"I'm going to find you," he said, and the girl stilled, entranced by his Sharingan. "If you're smart, you'll start running now."
Sakura passed out, the genjutsu robbing her of consciousness, and Obito staggered back to his feet. He didn't have time to catch his breath.
"Obito! Above!" Sasuke shouted, and Obito looked up just in time to find an arrow hurtling right for his forehead. It passed through him without consequence, and his eyes narrowed. There were more coming, a half dozen. Not all of them were aimed at him. He ran through six hand signs, a boiling rage overcoming him.
'Hosenka.'
He spat a fireball that burst into a dozen individual jutsu, eating up the arrows without resistance and spreading yet more flames around the village. He looked to Rin, feeling his lips curling in disgust.
"They're in the tree," he said, and Rin cracked her knuckles.
"Then my mission's starting," she said, and Obito snarled.
"Too risky to go alone," he said. He whirled back towards his team. "Take Sakura. Go back to the safehouse. It's still the safest place in the village."
"The Kamui-" Sasuke started to say.
"The Kamui is going to be filled with all sorts of dangerous things in a minute," Obito said. "You'll be even worse off in there. Take her. Keep your heads down. Go."
Naruto picked up Sakura and both boys began running back the way they'd come. They wouldn't be safe, but nowhere would be right now. The pain was giving him clarity. Obito turned back to face the tree, and Rin offhandedly put a hand on his chest.
"Deep," she said casually as the wound stopped bleeding. "You could have died."
"If they were going to use Sakura like that, they needed to kill me in one shot," Obito said, and he began running. More arrows were coming: they thunked into the concrete around him, buried up to their shaft. They weren't trying to kill him, he thought. They were ignoring his students to strain his chakra by forcing him to maintain the Kamui. They knew exactly who they were after. He bared his teeth, a killing anger coursing through him.
"I won't forgive them."
He and Rin sprinted towards the base of the tree passing through the two remaining rings. Three ninja took shots at them as they blew past, but Obito and Rin both ignored them: their focus was solely on the enemies above them now.
A moment later they reached the tree and began running straight up the side. As they did, more arrows rained down on them. Only one made contact, piercing straight through Rin's hand as she raised to block it. She didn't slow down, didn't lose a step: she broke the head off and ripped the shaft out in two fluid motions, the wound already closing.
"How many?" she asked, and Obito shook his head.
"Can't see them. At least two, probably a third. One archer, and the controller. They should still be out of commission-" Another set of arrows came, and Obito started. These ones were covered with something.
"Dodge!" he shouted, leaping off the tree to ricochet off a lower hanging branch, and Rin did the same. These arrows didn't just sink into the tree: as soon as they made contact the bark began rotting away, disintegrating before their eyes. Obito focused.
Insects, he realized. Insects so small that he could barely tell what they were. Only the intelligence with which they moved betrayed them. That meant…
"An Aburame, and a Yamanaka!" he said, leaping back to the tree. They were maybe a third of the way up now, and more arrows were sure to come soon. Vast swathes of bark had been stripped away below them; even if the Kamui kept him safe, he'd lose his footing if he didn't work to dodge those insect-covered arrows. "And the archer!"
"Got it!" Rin said. "I'll go around the back: see you at the top!"
Rin vanished out of sight behind the tree, and Obito focused on running. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. The village below him was an inferno, but the darkness around it was slowly being eaten away by the rising sun. More arrows came, melting away the tree, but they couldn't hope to slow him down.
A couple seconds later, he found his target. He could see two of them: one was the archer, still focused on him, waiting for him to slip up. Their bow was comically large. They were both wearing white cloaks and plain masks; weapons without ornamentation. Another arrow passed through his forehead. There was definitely a third, maybe more if they had someone to guard the mind-switcher. If they weren't here, they had probably gone around to deal with the Rin. Good plan on their part.
It wouldn't work.
He took a final leap, soaring up and straight through the tremendously thick branch they were perched upon. Both spun to watch him as he went through the branch. He reached up to grab another branch to slow himself down, and the archer nocked another arrow in her greatbow.
So they at least knew he had to release the entire jutsu to touch anything. That could be trouble. Obito feinted, but the archer didn't shoot. It was only when he actually reached out that they released.
His Sharingan told him the path of the arrow, and instead of piercing through his side it only skimmed him, leaving a red trail just below his flak vest. Obito swung around the branch, slamming into the bark and sticking there like a spider. There was a sudden detente. He stared down at the ninja and they up at him, neither willing to make the first move. A drop of his blood dripped down and struck the branch with a silent plop.
"You really are scum," he said, feeling his face twitching. "You really picked now to try and kill me? Why not help Waterfall?"
"Waterfall is not Konoha's ally," the archer said. It was a woman, and her voice was frostbite. "There is no point in assisting it."
"It could be." Obito grit his teeth. "This is why you ROOT morons always failed. You can't see a good opportunity right in front of you."
"Watch your words," the other one said, a man with long pale blond hair. The Yamanaka, if Obito was given to stereotyping. "And stay where you are." He raised up a little wooden doll in his hands, and Obito gave it an uncomprehending look. "Your student is still ours."
Obito looked at the doll, really looked at it. The little wooden idol was saturated in Sakura's chakra. As he watched, it shook slightly, a tremor from within. She was struggling, even without a body to struggle with.
He thought he might explode.
"Interesting technique," was what came out of his mouth. "So you place her in there, instead of just suppressing her."
"It makes breaking free impossible," the ROOT agent said. "Much like your situation." He removed a knife from his pack. "All damage will reflect to her, naturally."
"What, this again?" Obito said, and the archer nocked once more, her whole body bending with the bow. "Why would you kill her? She's as loyal as they come."
"No one who was truly loyal would be approached by Rain," the man said, his fist tightening around the knife at the doll's neck. "She's an obvious liability." Obito could imagine the man sneering behind his mask. "And you won't be able to pull the same trick twice, Uchiha."
Obito considered the situation, the smoke from the village below watering his eyes. What was left of ROOT clearly knew more about the Kamui than he was comfortable with. From the way they were acting, they were banking on him not being able to use both of his Mangekyo at the same time. He could put Sakura in the Kamui, without a doubt, but that would leave him vulnerable to an arrow through the skull.
You can protect yourself or you can protect others, Obito. That's how it's always been.
He needed help. He needed Rin. He needed to stall. But how to stall a bunch of amoral murderers? The smoke from the village below was making its way up in larger waves by the minute, trapped by the canopy and choking them all. Charge, Sakura died. Stay still, Sakura died. Unacceptable.
Only thing to do was give them what they wanted.
"Well, that sucks," he said. He dropped down off the branch, coming level with the enemy. Ten feet between them. Not close enough. The knife pressed in, resting against the doll. Obito sighed. "How would you prefer I kill myself?"
"Take out your sword." The Yamanaka repeated what he'd said below, and Obito complied. "Up through your jaw, into your brain. Do not damage your eyes. Do that, and we won't kill her."
"No way to know if you're telling the truth," Obito said mildly as he reached behind his back. The knife dug into the doll, scraping away a curl of wood, and he flinched. That would be a nasty cut.
"We are not liars," the archer said. "Do it."
He unsheathed the White Fang's blade, giving it a considerate look, and placed it against his own neck.
"Now-" the Yamanaka said, his grip relaxing just slightly.
Obito snarled, his eyes burning, and the man's elbow twisted out of existence. The doll fell, plunging through the smoke and darkness still clenched in the severed hand's grip. The forearm bounced when it hit the bark. The ROOT agent gasped, his blood soaking the branch, and stumbled forward.
But even as Obito's eye tore the man's arm off, the archer released her shot. The White Fang flashed up, cleaving a silver trace through the smoke. The blade knocked the arrow off course, but not far enough. Instead of taking Obito through the heart, it pierced clean through his shoulder, punching right out the other side with a meaty THUNK. Obito tumbled backwards, holding back a scream as the shaft jostled against the branch.
He rolled to the side. His arm didn't matter: Sakura did. He and the Yamanaka raced for the doll lying between them, two men with one arm scrambling towards one another. He was the first to reach it, but as his hand wrapped around the doll, another arrow blasted right through his bicep, pinning his arm to the tree.
Obito yelped, and the Yamanaka kicked him in the face. The blow passed through him, and he tumbled back, free of the arrow in his arm. His shoulder was still incapacitated, but Sakura was at least safe. Safe as she could be trapped in a tiny wooden doll, anyway. Another arrow followed him, looking for an opening and finding none. Obito scrambled back to his feet with a laugh.
"Gotcha!" he yelled, and then the branch beneath his feet collapsed as an arrow tore through it. He fell with a yelp, reaching out before he realized that his only working hand was holding Sakura. He almost smashed her against the tree, barely managing to catch himself by sticking his knuckles to what was left of the bark. He looked down, watching his sword fall into the village, a silver streak twirling hundreds of feet away into the fire below.
The whole tree shook, leaves and sticks raining down on the both of them. The ROOT agents looked up, and so did Obito. There was a sudden hole in the canopy.
Rin, covered in blood and backlit by the setting moon, was perhaps the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. His teammate flew through the air, landing about thirty feet away, and as she did the third ROOT agent appeared as well. The man was gasping; his mask had been torn off, revealing yet another face covering under it that concealed everything but his chin.
"Venom!" the Yamanaka shouted, and the man threw out his hand.
"Get back!" he yelled, and Rin launched herself forward. "She-!"
'Has a hangover,' Obito thought, and then Rin punched. Her fist made contact with the branch beneath the man's feet, and the whole thing exploded. One moment it was a branch thicker than most trees, and the next it was nothing but splinters; the ROOT agent was sent hurling away, slamming hard into a brace of spiraling leaves and spitting up blood.
Obito grinned, trying to haul himself up.
The Aburame wasn't done, not nearly. Even as he groaned and struggled back to his feet, he pulled his shirt off, revealing crawling purple skin beneath it. More insects, Obito was sure: the man was coated in them, like venomous armor. He ran forward, trying to make contact with Rin. His teammate snarled and leapt away. Whatever the man touched corroded away into nothing in moments. Even with her enormous strength, Rin was at a disadvantage.
"Obito!" she called.
"Little busy!" he called back as the archer dropped their bow, charging straight at him. He let her first attack sail right through his chest, and then struck out with a counterkick to her kidney. The blow landed true, but the woman happily took it. The second it landed, burying itself deep in her side, the Yamanaka came from the side with his knife, ignoring his missing arm. Obito barely avoided the counterattack that would have torn a hole in his throat.
With both arms, with fewer holes in his body, this wouldn't have been a challenge. But Obito was nowhere close to one-hundred percent, and Sakura was keeping his remaining hand occupied. He fell back, but both ROOT agents pursued him without mercy, attacking constantly.
His chakra wouldn't last at this rate. Obito struck back, trying to knock the archer unconscious with a high kick. The kick landed, snapping the woman's head back so hard Obito heard something crack, but she struck back with the same unerring accuracy of her arrows at the same moment, punching up into the meat of his thigh.
It was a light strike, not even enough to throw him off balance, and yet Obito's whole right leg suddenly became dead weight. He lost all control of it, and almost fell as he tried to right himself. The woman fell onto her back, her mask cracked down the middle and blood running down her chin.
What? How? He limped back, unable to escape, feeling his chakra drain even faster. Two of his tenketsu had been blasted open; his chakra was pouring out of his leg like blood from an open wound.
A jutsu? No, he was an idiot. The woman had been a perfect shot, able to track him across the village and up the tree. She'd been able to read him like an open book the whole time, always striking just when the Kamui dropped.
The only explanation was Gentle Fist.
An Aburame, a Yamanaka, and a Hyuuga. He and Jiraiya had merited an impressive kill team. It was almost flattering.
He limped back, and the archer shouted as she shakily rolled to her feet. "Venom! He's slow; do it now!"
The Aburame above them grunted, leaping away from Rin. She made to follow, but the man slammed his hands down into the tree below him. He was nearly at the top now, just a couple feet from the crown.
A jutsu formula spiraled out from his hands, and Obito's eyes went wide. They'd sprinted right up into the enemy's trap.
The top of the tree split open like a grotesque egg with a sick retching sound, and an uncountable number of the microscopic insects the Aburame was covered in spilled out in a purple flood.
They'd been nesting there, Obito thought, his heart overcome with dread. They'd been grown with both the man's chakra and the tree for sustenance: he'd seen other Aburame use similar techniques, but nothing on this scale. The insects poured down in a great tide, blocking out the starlight, and Obito dropped, launching himself down the tree with one leg to buy himself some space. He could Kamui through, but what about Rin? What about the village? Fire below, and insects above: the center of Waterfall would be completely annihilated if the flood of disintegrating insects hit it.
The other two ROOT agents were chasing him, apparently suicidal. He had no idea where the third one had gone, or Rin. He could feel the Kamui fluttering; between the fight and the Hyuuga's draining technique he was quickly running dry, like an animal cut and left to bleed.
The Hyuuga struck at his back and he ducked to ignore her killing hands, instincts screaming at him. He spun, trying to kick her off the tree. His foot struck her in the hand, crushing several of her fingers, but the Yamanaka was already there. He stabbed forward, putting all his weight behind the blow. The Kamui flickered, and the knife went into Obito's forearm, barely missing Sakura's doll. His hand went slack, and the Yamanaka released the knife and caught the doll as it fell.
"Gotcha," the man hissed. He and the woman leapt off the tree, but before they could fall to their death the Hyuuga removed a book from her pack. Her mask had continued to crack from the force of Obito's blow, further fragmenting as blood ran down her face. She scrawled in the book with her own blood, and something dark and red erupted out of it. It had wings, and it caught both the falling ROOT agents, retreating in the dark.
Obito choked. Sakura was gone. They were keeping her as a hostage. His chakra crackled around him, coalescing into a dark orange shadow. It felt like his head would split open, but he only had one option now.
"Obito!" Rin landed next to him, panting and bleeding from the shoulder. Obito jerked towards her, the gathering chakra around him fluttering, and she slapped something in his hand. He looked down at it. His heart restarted, a furnace that filled his whole body with fire at once.
The insects were still racing down at them, barely fifteen feet away now. Rin punched out at the tree beneath their own feet, once, twice. Her monstrous blows blew enormous craters in the trunk; the tree shuddered. Obito kicked as well, adding his meager force to her blows.
Whether by coincidence or because of that tiny bit of help, the top sixty feet or so of the tree began tipping, swinging in an arc away from them with a tremendous sound of cracking bark and whooshing air. Obito saw the Aburame now: he was still up there, in amongst his insects.
"FUCK OFF!" Rin screamed, and she kicked out at the tree with both feet, bracing herself with both hands between the severed trunk and the toppling tip.
There was a deep crack as the tree gave up. Everything above them exploded away, over fifty feet of decaying wood shooting off towards the horizon like a shot from a bow. It carried the Aburame and his deadly payload with it; some of microscopic insects rained down on Obito and Rin, eating undetectable holes in their clothes and skin. It was painful, but not nearly enough to kill them.
As Rin kicked, Obito threw. He hurled the kunai that Rin had thrust into his hand as hard as he could directly at the blood-bird the Hyuuga had summoned. The woman was ready for it; she was already reaching back to draw one of her last arrows, but her crushed fingers fumbled. The shaft slipped and she had to catch it with her chakra, and by then the kunai was too close.
It missed, soaring past the Yamanaka's head by more than a foot. The man flinched away, swinging out instinctively with his missing arm. It fell short. A kunai missing you by more than a foot was usually nothing to worry about.
But this kunai had two prongs.
One second, the Yamanaka was alive, breathing heavily, blood still dripping from his forearm and mixing with the bird, remaining hand tightening around Sakura's doll in a last bid to crush it.
Then he was dead, his skull pierced by the knife.
The Hyuuga had commendable reflexes, and abandoned her ally without hesitation. She fell off the bird in the same instant he died, not even bothering to jump. Her haste wasn't quite enough; falling just meant that instead of being decapitated, her throat was only deeply cut. She was still moving as she fell, her blood flying out in a crescent arc, red as the rising sun.
The bird began evaporating; Sakura's doll fell. Obito didn't care. The second the Yamanaka had died, Sakura's chakra had vanished out of the doll. His jutsu had gone with him. Even if it was a twist on the standard Shintenshin, Obito was sure that his student's mind was back where it belonged.
The man that had killed one ROOT agent and cut the throat of another in the time it took to blink fell as well, and then threw the same knife Obito had right back at him. It was covered in blood now; it struck the tree next to Obito and then-
Minato Namikaze was there. There was a spot of blood on both his hands; he was wearing pale white pajamas and yellow slippers, and his hair was a mess of blond spikes. Whether he'd been padding around in the early morning or still in bed, Obito had no way of knowing.
But it didn't matter. He'd come at the call without hesitation, as he'd always said he would.
"ROOT?" the Fourth Hokage asked. Obito nodded.
'He killed them without even knowing who they were.' That was just how much his sensei trusted him. Why didn't that make him feel better?
Minato looked around, out at the crowning sun, down at the burning village, at both his students. "Rin," he nodded, and Rin smiled back.
"Sorry we wouldn't manage it without you," she said. Minato frowned.
"Looks like a real mess. What's the situation?" The Yondaime flickered out of existence for a second, again, a third time. After the third flicker he was wearing his flak jacket over his pajamas, and had four knives instead of one.
"More than twenty rogue ninja, and at least that many Waterfall shinobi went crazy and started attacking the rest," Obito said. "Itachi's nowhere to be seen. Jiraiya's here; still down there."
"Good. You're both alright? Your team?" Obito both admired the man's discipline in not saying his son's name and felt a cold jolt at it.
"We're fine. So are they, last time we saw them. They're with the Jinchuriki; they should keep each other safe."
"Should," Minato said with a slight nod. "If that's all, let's get down here and clean up."
They started sprinting down the tree, Rin healing Obito sporadically as they went. He felt some of his strength return as the tenketsu in his leg closed back up. His arm was still useless; it would take more than some on-the-run medical jutsu to fix up the hole in his shoulder, even from someone as amazing as Rin.
"He's definitely down there, sensei," he said, and Minato glanced at him. Obito grinned. "It's like you said. Kushina's not here. It'll be different this time."
They reached the base of the tree. Obito looked around, but his sword was nowhere in sight. It could have fallen anywhere in the village; he couldn't count on locating it until things had calmed down.
Minato looked around the village, taking in the chaos. There were still fights flaring up throughout Takigakure, but the tempo had calmed. It seemed that for now, Waterfall was winning. The Hokage was calm; the destruction washed over him without leaving any impression.
"The village can handle the rest. Where's the Jinchuriki?" Minato decided. Rin pointed.
"The safehouse is right over there," she said. The spot she was pointing at promptly exploded.
It was a flash of steam and angry orange energy, erupting dozens of meters straight up into the sky. A blast of crushing chakra washed over all of Takigakure in a physical wave that knocked Obito back a step, and he squinted and clenched his teeth as his heart missed a beat.
Fear. Hatred. Desperation. Were those his own feelings, or had it been carried by the chakra that had nearly knocked him down? Obito couldn't be sure as he surged back to his feet.
The safehouse, and a fraction of the village along with it, was gone. A huge insect with the body of a beetle and six luminous orange wings rose up out of the ruins, casting a shadow over all of Waterfall; even the great tree seemed small next to it.
Nanabi. The Tailed Beast had been unleashed. There were five figures on the monster's back, four fighting, one watching. Even at the distance, Obito's Sharingan could pick out all their chakra with perfect clarity.
His team, and Itachi. Even as they were carried away on the back of the Beast, Team Seven was fighting with all the strength they had.
The fifth person, Obito didn't recognize. As he started to focus, to bring the Kamui to bear on Itachi as the man spun and slipped among his students' wild attacks, the fifth shinobi leapt off the Beast right at him; whether by their own instincts or Itachi's instruction, Obito couldn't say. He shifted his focus, and the man threw a bolt of lightning at him, the ninjutsu so sudden and violent that even with his Sharingan, Obito couldn't hope to dodge.
Minato stepped in front of him, so fast there was no moment of motion, and met the lightning with a Rasengan. Both jutsu burst, blowing the Hokage back into Obito, and they crashed to the ground. As the lightning exploded, the enemy in the air was intercepted by someone from the ground, coming from the direction of the safehouse. They crashed into each other, grappling in mid-air, and then were sent hurtled away from each other by an unknown force.
It was Jiraiya. He landed next to Obito with a grunt, turning towards him. He was covered in burns, and patches of his huge mane of hair and beard were missing. His eyepatch was gone, revealing an empty socket.
"Minato?" the Sage asked, and the Yondaime gave him a short nod. The Nanabi was rising, up and away, moving away from the epicenter of the explosion and gaining speed. It was fast for its size; even its current sedate passage was deafening, seven wings buzzing with more and more vigor.
"Sensei," Minato said. "We can't let it get away."
"No chance." The enemy ninja was striding towards them; a black cloak covered his whole body and a black mask his face, but his voice was like a gravel factory and his eyes were flat green circles. "That's my paycheck."
Rin advanced, and it was a line of four ninja against one. The man looked over them all with obvious disdain.
"The Yellow Flash," he said. "Did you know they don't even bother with a bounty for you anymore?"
"Kakuzu the Immortal," Jiraiya grunted, spitting up a gob of blood. "He's working with Itachi. I couldn't stop them in time."
S-Ranked missing ninja. From Waterfall, if Obito recalled correctly. No wonder the other rogue ninja had gotten in with such ease. Itachi had found the perfect ally.
"Sensei," Rin said, pounding her fists together. The Nanabi was picking up speed; it would clear the plateau in seconds. "You and Obito go after Itachi. You have the best chance against him and that Beast. We'll handle this."
Obito looked back at her, and she nodded.
'Go.'
"Let's go." The Yondaime took off. Obito followed him, arm swinging limply at his side. Kakuzu watched them go, one eye focusing on them and the other on Rin and Jiraiya.
"That's fine," he ground out as they passed him, focusing all of his attention on his new opponents. "You two are worth plenty."
The Nanabi cleared the plateau, soaring out towards the sunrise as Team Seven continued to struggle on its back. Obito and his sensei picked up speed, sprinting through the burning village and across its outer ring, and jumped. They leapt out into the open air, flying for a moment like the monster they were chasing, and left Waterfall behind.