Even from his position on the border, Tobi could tell when Konoha first became aware of Orochimaru. The border guards went from wary to outright nervous, increasing and randomising their patrols. Tobi, who had no particular need to enter Konoha (especially while Orochimaru had them all on high alert) simply retreated further into The Land of Rivers, closer to the Wind border but still far north of the Akatsuki base, and ordered his bodyguard to stay close.

He considered summoning another ninja from Kamui for good measure. The redheaded woman had a prodigious sensory range that might have been handy. And there was Kakashi's kunoichi, of course; holing up somewhere with her might make the time pass more enjoyably, but he could hardly claim it would make him safer.

"What can my other soldiers do, Bodyguard?"

The bodyguard responded immediately, voice surprisingly soft considering his scary face. "Sensei is a medical expert. Manami is a puppet master. Chu-chan is a puppet. Pinch is an elemental polymath. Siren is a genjutsu specialist. Jun is a taijutsu specialist. Naomi is a weapons master. Red is a natural healer and sensory type. Konoha is a medical expert, swordmaster, and all-rounder."

"Konoha?" he snorted. "She never told me she had a nickname." It was hard to get that kind of information out of his soldiers without relaxing his control. He did it when he had to send them on missions that required a certain amount of autonomous thought, but it was tedious if you didn't get the level just right. Wake them up a little, and they could act almost normal. Wake them up too much, and all they did was scream.

He was considering his options when he felt a menacing aura on the edge of his awareness. But it was only one person, not a whole patrol unit. No need to give away his position by looking for trouble.

In hindsight, he shouldn't have dismissed a lone ninja traversing the border of two great nations so easily. After all, he had been a lone ninja traversing borders for years, and he was about as dangerous as they came.

The shinobi honed in on them immediately, and it was only his bodyguard's standing order to protect Tobi above all else that saved him from being cut in half. As it was, their sword (more like a long meat cleaver) passed so close to his body that he could see his own masked reflection in it.

His bodyguard had placed his own body between him and his assailant, parrying so forcefully that his feet sunk half an inch in the sandy soil. While his face remained as blank as ever, his opponent's face was contorted with emotion.

"Haku…" the man tugged at the cloth covering the lower half of his face, revealing a grimace of pointy teeth that matched the bodyguard's. His sword was raised in a master's stance, but instead of attacking he simply stared at the bodyguard. "She showed me how you'd look now, but…"

She? Just who had this man been talking to, that knew about his bodyguard? That origami bitch from Akatsuki had never really warmed to Tobi; had she figured out what he was doing?

"Who sent you?" he asked, trying not to reveal how much he cared about the answer.

The man turned suddenly toward him, but the bodyguard once again placed his body in harm's way.

"You cannot harm him, Zabusa."

"Why not?" Tobi could tell 'Zabusa' was absolutely furious, but struggling to keep himself in control. After all, an emotional swordmaster was no master at all. "Because of the other ones?"

Tobi relaxed his control over the bodyguard ever so slightly; just enough autonomy that he could use the history these two clearly shared to his advantage. He needed to get answers at any cost.

"Because he controls me." Tobi couldn't see his face from this position, but the bodyguard's voice was flat. Somewhere inside, the man was probably railing against his prison of obedience, but on the surface he showed neither deference nor resentment. "I am his tool."

"It wasn't too long ago that you were my tool," Zabusa said softly, and the bodyguard sighed.

"It was for me."

"So you were his old master?" Tobi raised his brows. He'd taken this one from the far west, and travelled all over since then. "Again: who sent you? How did you find us?"

"I'm not going to tell you." The man's voice was pure hatred, but he never raised his gaze higher than Tobi's ribs. Either he was a coward, or he knew what could happen if he made eye contact.

How interesting.

"Oh well then," he replied cheerfully, before slapping his bodyguard on the back. "Hurt him badly, but don't kill him until he tells us what he knows."

He leapt out of danger just as the bodyguard leapt into it. This swordmaster might hesitate to kill his beloved former tool, but in Tobi's grasp that tool wouldn't hesitate to run the swordmaster through. If he survived the onslaught, Tobi would find a quiet place to have a nice, long interrogation.

The swordmaster retreated a short distance, buying himself the space to parry the attack he must have known was coming; and indeed, when the bodyguard threw a fistful of senbon, he raised his sword almost reflexively. These two had clearly sparred many times.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the boy from a few months ago. That boy had been quite impressive, especially thanks to his curious bloodline limit; but the man that he had become in Kamui was in another league entirely.

Still, the fight was close. The swordmaster knew how to avoid getting caught in the bodyguard's ice mirrors and other traps, and his abilities were admittedly impressive. The awful meat cleaver might actually have been a legendary sword, because every time it so much as nicked the bodyguard, the blood seemed to disappear into the metal like it was drinking it. Was this one of the seven ninja swordsmen? Tobi had never bothered to learn their identities; Mist loved killing each other so much that their bingo books should have been updated hourly.

The swordmaster seemed to be trying to wear the bodyguard down with dozens of these cuts, never slicing too deep or hitting anything too vital. But he was receiving just as many cuts in turn, from the bodyguard's many needles and ice shuriken. It was probably the reason the battle was lasting so long; nobody was willing to land a killing strike.

After a few minutes, blood stained the sandy field and splattered the nearby trees. Tobi was watching from a safe vantage point near the treeline, ready to scoop up the enemy when the bodyguard had finished with him. A lucky senbon had just managed to find the man's achilles tendon, so it wouldn't be a long wait now.

Undeterred, the swordmaster raised his weapon, preparing once again to face down the bodyguard's exceptional speed. His footwork was greatly impacted, which was probably why he stood still instead of continuing to move around. This would be the strike that either stopped him for good, or forced him to kill the boy he had come to rescue.

The bodyguard seemed to suck all of the moisture from the air, racing forward in a flash of ice crystals. Tobi relaxed his control even more; the swordmaster was bound to have some final trick up his sleeve, and he didn't want to lose one in the process of capturing the other.

The enormous sword acted like a mirror, blending in with the flurries of snow so that it seemed to disappear in Zabusa's hand. But wait; Tobi flinched hard as he realised the sword really had disappeared from the man's hand, because it was flying straight at him.

He activated Kamui just in time for the sword to pass through his body; or more precisely, the parts of his body that were about to be hit went into Kamui and back again.

The sword thunked harmlessly into a tree somewhere behind him, and there was a grunt from the swordmaster as his former tool slammed into him with an armful of needles. Fresh blood splashed onto the snow, steaming.

"Haku…" The man swiped his hand down the bodyguard's cheek, leaving a smear of red.

The bodyguard looked at what he had done, and too late Tobi realised that his face was no longer an emotionless mask but filled with horror.

"Zabusa…"

Before he could regain control, the bodyguard threw up his arms.

With a great shrieking sound, the snow surrounding the two men turned to jagged spikes of ice. The splash of red became a carpet, and suddenly the only sound in the clearing was the soft creaking of melting ice, broken bones, and punctured lungs. At the centre, the men remained standing, impaled against one another in an almost-embrace.

"What have you done?!" He raced forward, grabbing the bodyguard's slender chin and raising it to look at him. Not even the connection to Tobi's own lifeforce could save the man now, but with the sharingan he could still make his final seconds last days.

The bodyguard's face was frozen in a jagged smile. His eyes were utterly destroyed, gouged out by the ice blast. The swordmaster's soon-to-be corpse was in much the same shape, and therefore useless. The bodyguard had used his first taste of freedom in decades to make sure that Tobi could never hurt him, or his beloved master, ever again.

Tobi raked his fingers down his masked face, rage warring with despair. Yet another setback on the road to saving everyone. Yet another distraction. Yet another betrayal. Why couldn't anyone see what he was trying to do for them? And why was he cursed to do it alone?

"Why did you have to get in my way?" He asked the two men, but they were beyond hearing now. He kicked at their bodies until the last spikes of ice cracked and they finally fell apart. He knew the bodyguard had carried nothing but weapons, which would be redistributed to his siblings in Kamui; but what of the swordmaster?

He patted down his pockets, and quickly discovered how the man had been able to track them. There was a coil of oil-black hair in his pocket, the exact same shade as his bodyguard's. It might have been cut before the boy was taken (the boy's hair had been girl-long even then), but the way it was tightly braided and tied with a scrap of cloth reminded him of someone else. Someone who should have been safe in Kamui, obediently waiting for Tobi to summon her.

"Kakashi's kunoichi."

A pit opened in his stomach. He tried summoning her now, forming the black vortex through which his possessions normally travelled. But nobody appeared.

He tried again, ignoring the rising panic and focusing on scouring Kamui for any sign of her. There were only seven living beings, only seven lights glowing in the darkness of his pocket dimension. He pulled them out one by one, putting them under his control until they were all lined up, silent, waiting.

"Where is Haruno Sakura?" he asked them, grasping desperately for the breezy attitude of his Tobi persona.

They simply stared, doll-like, ahead of them. He adjusted his control slightly. "Speak freely."

Now they could say whatever was in their hearts. They turned their necks to gaze at their surroundings: the glorious sun above and the bloodied corpses at their feet. They were all noise now, mostly inarticulate sobs and cries that were of no use to Tobi.

"Teeth," a brown-skinned woman spoke in a melodious voice, eyes on the bodyguard. "Oh, you poor soul."

"The Watcher got him," a shirtless man cried.

"Shut up!" he snapped. "Shut up."

The mewling ceased, replaced with a thick blanket of fear. Some whimpered silently, while others merely trembled. Only Yakushi Kabuto, the oldest and most defiant, dared raise his head more than an inch off the ground; but even he wouldn't quite meet his eye. Again, it might have been simple cowardice; or it might have been knowledge.

"Who am I?" He asked. "Tell me the truth to the best of your ability."

"The Watcher," they intoned as one voice. And then Kabuto continued to speak.

"Most likely an Uchiha, with a sharingan powerful enough to create a pocket dimension and exert absolute control over others through eye contact alone." His mouth twisted and grimaced like it did when he fought the curse seal Tobi had given him, but this time it was clear he was trying not to speak. "Possibly Uchiha Itachi, the only living Uchiha with a fully realised sharingan."

"Itachi…" Not a bad guess, and far too close for his liking. He knew Kabuto had been Orochimaru's man before he'd taken him, and therefore knew more than the idiot children he otherwise stole. The curse seal should have prevented him from sharing his suspicions with the class, but clearly Tobi hadn't been careful enough.

"Where is Haruno Sakura?" he repeated. "Where is the woman you call 'Konoha'? Answer to the best of your ability."

"Taken out," the red-haired woman he had snatched in Grass spoke up. "I felt her go. You took her out like you always do."

His hands clenched into fists. Taken out? For once he hadn't taken her out, but if she was indeed gone from Kamui and not just hiding somehow, then all his worst fears were confirmed. This was bad, not just for him but for his plans. The things he had told her could destroy him, if she ever remembered them. And even though part of him wanted to believe she loved him as much as he made her say, she wouldn't have sent the swordmaster after him if she did.

"We thought she was with you," a blonde woman said in a trembling falsetto while the ugly puppet in her arms flapped its mouth open and shut. "Or you finally killed her."

Rage finally won. He lashed out, striking the girl to the ground and wrenching the ridiculous puppet from her hands. He tore its head off, then twisted its stupid flapping jaw until the hinge warped. He threw it at the girl, who wasn't allowed to defend herself and therefore could only cry silently as it struck her.

The sight of her tears only made Tobi madder. How dare these tools act like their feelings mattered to this world? Kamui was meant to make them the strongest ninja possible, but look at them all: others were crying now, crying for the bodyguard, for the girl, for themselves, for the stupid fucking puppet. Didn't they know a shinobi must never show their tears? Kakashi had always loved reciting that one, every time poor Obito lost control of his tear ducts - which was often.

"You are all pathetic!" Tobi screamed at his victims, dismantling the puppet joint by joint just to keep himself from dismantling them. He hated them: their silence, their judgement. He hated that if he did turn his hand to them now, they would simply let it happen. Kakashi's kunoichi, Sakura, Konoha, the not-Rin of his heart, would have let anything happen to her as long as he was the one doing it. He had feared that power at the time, but now he understood that by sparing her, he had spoiled her. 'Freedom' was an illusion in this world, one that should be shattered as quickly as possible so that people could see through the cracks to the new world he was making for them. He should have hurt her worse, taken out all of his rancid emotions on her flesh, and watched as she still smiled, and kissed him, and told him she loved him. Then she might have been saved.

When the puppet was in a hundred pieces and his desire to hurt something was somewhat satisfied, he carefully wiped the memories of his last seven soldiers and sent them back to Kamui along with the broken pieces, the bodyguard, and the swordmaster (minus his sword and the braid of hair). Let their deaths bring them a little pain, as punishment for letting one of their fellow prisoners escape. Perhaps the bodies would rot, or perhaps his precious savages would give in to their endless hunger and eat them. Either way, there would be enough suffering to satisfy Tobi for a little while.

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

The Others stood in a cluster, silent but for the sobs and wails of Manami. This was where they had all found themselves, with Chu-chan in pieces, two dead bodies, and no memory of what had transpired. Blood and mud caked the soles of their feet, but aside from a nasty cut on Manami's forehead and Chu-chan's brutal murder, there wasn't a single scratch on any of them. Usually it was only Konoha who came back totally uninjured from Outside, and it wasn't a state any of them particularly envied. Better to be a tool than a toy, after all.

"Why Teeth, but not Konoha?" Karin murmured to herself, staring at the body of their old friend. Teeth had been missing for ages, but Konoha was taken out only recently; possibly only minutes Outside. If the fighting was as brutal as the state of the bodies suggested, even someone as skilled as Konoha couldn't have avoided some injuries. So either she was dead too - in which case where was her body? Or she was only injured - in which case, why not send her back Inside to heal?

"Maybe The Watcher didn't let their precious pet get involved?" Naomi suggested, scuffing her heel against the ground. "Or maybe she's the one who did it."

"No way." Jun came to Konoha's defence. "She wouldn't do Teeth like that."

"Not like she'd have a choice though," Naomi countered.

Sensei bent down to inspect their fallen comrade. "There are a few superficial cuts; possibly from a sword. And his eyes are destroyed, which might have been an act of mercy from whoever did it. But the worst wounds are too wide to come from a blade, and there's no rock or debris in them that suggests an earth jutsu." He stuck two fingers up to the knuckles inside one of the larger holes, and Siren gagged. "It's colder than the rest of the body. Teeth did this to himself, with ice."

"How?" Karin frowned. "Did the Watcher order him to? And who's the other guy?" Pinch had already started looting the other body, but the contents of his pockets hadn't revealed much, and nobody was interested in searching for smells beyond the blood.

Manami's sobs finally stopped, distracting everyone with the sudden quiet. Chu-chan's death had hit her so hard that Karin was worried she'd need to be sedated by one of Siren's genjutsu or else go all the way crazy, but the look in her eye as she picked herself up off the ground was the sanest Karin had seen her.

The next words out of her mouth, however, were not.

"Let's kill the Watcher."

There was a beat of awkward silence, before Naomi scoffed.

"That's a great idea," she said, sarcasm dripping from each word. "If only we'd thought of that sooner, maybe we wouldn't have had to rot here for so long." The word 'rot' was emphasised with a pointed glance at the bodies.

Karin loved Naomi, but she was the hardest one of them and Manami was the softest on a good day; let alone when she was still literally picking up the pieces of her best friend's death. But instead of breaking down all over again, Manami only looked more resolved.

"I know we all want to kill him, but we also let ourselves believe it was impossible for so long that we stopped trying to make it happen." She pointed at Sensei, still kneeling over Teeth's body. "Sensei and Konoha have been trying to figure out who he was for years, with their experiments. We have information, even if we can't easily test it and it never felt like we could do anything with it. It's something. And as for Teeth," her finger lowered to point at him, "I believe The Watcher made a mistake, and Teeth made the most of it."

Sensei stood and gently wiped his hands on the cleanest part of the stranger's body while the rest of them digested Manami's statement.

"I'm in, obviously. I've been here long enough."

"We all have," Pinch murmured. He still looked strange without his dark glasses.

"I'll do it for Teeth," Jun said. "He deserved better than this."

"For Teeth," they all repeated, like it was a refrain.

"The stranger, too," Siren added. "He's got the same pointy teeth, so there's a chance they were friends. Before."

"For the stranger." Once again they responded in chorus, leaning into the impromptu ritual.

A shiver ran down Karin's spine. Even after immeasurable years, the idea that their closest friends were all still out there, barely changed and waiting for their return, was a little overwhelming.

"Even if they weren't," she said, "any enemy of The Watcher is always a friend of ours."

"Fuck The Watcher," Manami whispered, clutching Chu-chan's broken skull to her chest.

"Fuck The Watcher!" Jun repeated, and the others laughed.

Naomi raised her tanto like a warrior dedicating their glory to a lover. "For Chu-chan," she declared. She may have been the most pessimistic, but even she understood that Chu-chan wasn't just a puppet. "A rat among rats."

"For Chu-chan!" The chorus was enthusiastic now, clinging to anything that made them feel brave.

"And for Konoha," Karin added, "wherever she is."

The Others nodded immediately, but their expressions became clouded with some complicated emotion. They were probably all thinking the same thing: Haruno Sakura was dead. And if she wasn't, the alternative was almost certainly worse.

"For Konoha."