Sakura, Kushina, Tsunade, Minato, Inoichi, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen sat at the table.

Hiruzen's eye was twitching in a more-than-a-little concerning way, but he seemed… fine.

Mostly.

Tsunade was keeping an eye on him, anyway, and whatever was going on with his brain didn't seem to have a quick fix, so that had to be enough.

And this meeting wasn't about him.

This meeting was about the beast.

"How long, actually, do you think we could keep it secret if we did make another jinchuuriki?"

Jiraiya's expression wasn't very encouraging. "Not long at all. The only reason we all can get away with coming here so often is because everyone's assuming that Konoha is trying to create a secret third base in Kiri, so that's good, but at some point people are going to put two and two together and realize there's a missing beast."

And when that happened they'd be looking for any sign, any suggestion that Konoha possessed it.

"We can order all who know to keep it quiet," Hiruzen suggested.

"Practically speaking, that won't be effective," Jiraiya quietly rebutted. "People give things away without meaning to all the time, through their expressions, through their chakra, through their omissions. And people will have to know of the jinchuuriki—jinchuuriki chakra is distinctive by itself, and at some point the child would need to be trained."

"That's about what I thought," Minato admitted. He didn't look very happy about it. They'd given up on treating the current jinchuuriki—his brain was past the point of aid—which meant it was time to start looking into other options.

The problem was that there was frustratingly few of those.

"Don't forget about spies," Sakura said. "We might have the cats to… minimize invasive summons, but Orochimaru has proven time and time again that human spies can be just as problematic." Particularly given that everyone felt certain that he had one still hiding, still transmitting information. They just couldn't find them.

"And we already have the mokuton user to hide."

The mokuton user.

That had been… a shock.

The clan elders had not been happy that she was being left in her current home—her foster-father was a clanless chuunin firefighter, her foster-mother taught calligraphy lessons; neither, many argued, were suitable guardians for a resource as valuable as she.

(Tsunade had gone back to Konoha just to yell at them, and Minato had been very clear that he'd let her get away with far worse if they continued complaining, and that had been that.)

Someday, though, the mokuton would get out.

If the current Shimura Head was anything like his predecessor, he'd likely leak it himself.

And everyone—everyone on the whole continent, not just the eastern half—remembered exactly what kind of danger Senju Hashirama was.

"Sakura, do—"

And then Minato disappeared.

That… was new.

.

"Sensei!" Obito shouted. The byoki was all around him, his improved sensory seal warning him of the danger on so many fronts that it was outright overwhelming. "It's in front of us!"

The epicenter.

The controller.

The threat.

They were good, which was why they were still alive; they'd been able to fight back the byoki, keep a central area secure for the handful of seconds it took to realize the danger and call Sensei.

They were good.

Sensei was great.

Byoki in all directions blasted back—because byoki tended to find it difficult to fight through force, fight against pressure. They could do it, but it took time, and Sensei didn't give them that.

Byoki blasted back, and it was revealed.

"You are powerful," the figure laughed. "More powerful than I thought. The sealing happened in Fire, you know; I'd always wondered if that was made you people so… prone, to that special sort of strength.

"That manipulable sort of strength."

Sensei growled. "You were with the Mizukage."

He—she—it? Laughed. "You could sense me, could you?" It's voice was mocking, clearly certain of its own strength.

Then Sensei—

It was hard to tell.

Obito had only been able to half-focus on their conversation, spending the rest of his time, energy, attention, on staying alive.

The byoki in human form—it could come from all directions, could use jutsu.

It was far, far more powerful than the little bits of it.

If not for Sensei, then they'd definitely be dead.

But Sensei almost—almost paused.

When he spoke again, his voice was hushed. Outright fearful. "You're weak."

The byoki screamed in rage, began attacking so quickly and with such force that it was all Obito could—

He just had to—

(It was weak?)

Just a bit longer—

Couldn't escape, had to watch Sensei's back—

Just a bit longer—

(Weak?!)

There were clones, and trees, and—

(Weak?!)

The byoki was flexible, dodged out of the way of any physical attack so far as to be clearly inhuman.

When Sensei got a hit in, which was rare, it would just fall apart into the little byokis, form again somewhere else.

"Don't let it touch you!" Sensei shouted.

Obito had already been trying to do that—the previous attacks had shown just how deadly that could be—but Sensei—Sensei still sounded scared.

More scared than he had been before.

What else could the byoki do?

"One stupid day—"

It shouted.

"One stupid day, and all my plans—"

Sensei was still terrified, still fighting, fighting. He'd thrown up flares, Obito was pretty sure. Was trying to get anyone, everyone, to their side.

Obito didn't even know what country they were in.

Sensei was recognizable, however, and Kakashi had them where their masks with the sign for Konoha on the outside—

That wasn't important.

Whoever came would come.

"How long have you been weak?" Sensei asked, and Obito realized that he couldn't speak he was so out of breath.

How much longer could he—

"More than twenty years," the byoki laughed, and Obito hated that it could talk while fighting. "More than twenty years. That's alright, though. I'll get you, now, and you'll be a perfect host."

"No—no—no—" Sensei was shouting.

Host?

Host?!

The Sannin Tsunade—she'd said that the birth rates were low because people had byoki inside them.

They'd thought that it was just too little byoki to kill them, but what if—

"Kakashi!" Sensei shouted. "Let out the Six-Tails!"

"Sensei?"

"Now!"

And then Sensei disappeared.

And Kakashi did as ordered.

Obito wondered what Sensei had noticed, wondered—

Was it something he sensed?

Something he'd been separately researching?

What was it?

And then he didn't have time to wonder at all.

The Six-Tails (who Kakashi said was sentient, could understand Kakashi, wasn't responding yet but Kakashi was working on it), it caused the byoki to react.

And then Sensei was back.

With Kushina.

And there were two jinchuuriki.

And then—

And then there was a man on the floor, clearly not awake, and Obito could feel the chakra-pressure of a tailed beast.

And—

And the byoki was reacting.

"You were right!" Sensei shouted. "It wasn't just the acid!"

Kushina laughed. "I know I was right!" Then she went to say something else, but cut herself off with a gasp, diverting an absolute torrent of a chakra attack aimed at Rin. "Can you—wait, nope."

Obito supposed he'd been wondering why they were still here.

Obito supposed she'd figured it out—without all of them watching each other, they'd be dead.

And still the fight went on.

The byoki was everywhere, was deadly.

It didn't seem as eager to touch the jinchuuriki as the rest of them, which had… implications, but—

It was eager.

It wanted them dead.

Sensei was shouting, Kushina was shouting, everyone was—

"It's trying to escape!" Someone cried—Kakashi? Rin? Too high pitched to be an adult, anyway.

"Shit!" Sensei said.

Sensei'd told the byoki it was weak, and it hadn't agreed—had more or less agreed, actually.

And they were barely keeping up.

Shit.

They couldn't let it escape, couldn't let—

No—no—no—no—no—

And then Kushina was slamming into him, grunting as she did something with her chakra, with the Nine-Tails chakra.

"Come on, work with me," she muttered. "Work with me, work with me, work—"

Whatever it was—

It was doing something, but whatever it was reacted weirdly with his seals, functionally made him blind again.

Obito gasped, but didn't ask her to stop—couldn't; for all he knew, she was all that was keeping the byoki near.

But wow, he was so much more scared now.

And he'd already been terrified.

Before she'd slammed into him, though, he'd noticed chakra signatures at the edge of his chakra-sight, noticed ninja from all directions coming to the very large signals Sensei had sent.

Back-up.

Hopefully.

Though, if they didn't know how to fight the byoki—

"You need to tell them!" Obito shouted, to the world, to his team, to anyone. "They need to know how to hurt it!"

He wondered if he should announce that he couldn't see, but worried—worried that it would draw the byoki's attention, lead to his death or someone else's.

He stayed very still instead, hoped that someone noticed something was wrong.

There was a grunt, and Obito hoped it was in response.

He could hear lots of fighting, shouting, gasping.

No one had addressed him, though, and he couldn't get any tenser. His heart couldn't race any more than it already was—he was so, so scared. Every noise, every change in air—what if that was the byoki? What if it was attacking him?

He'd been lucky enough to fall in the middle of everyone, but how long would that last?

Oh, right. Hoping that the byoki didn't know ANBU sign, Obito flashed the blind signal, then pointed to himself.

"Shit, really?" That was Kakashi's voice. It didn't sound good. Sounded exhausted, in pain.

Then he felt something brush against his leg, and Kakashi was pulling him to his feet. "Stay behind me, okay?"

Obito had no idea where behind was. "I'll stay here."

Everything around him seemed to pulse.

"It's not dying!" Sensei growled.

"Hello!" Someone shouted. "Temporary alliance?"

"Sounds good!" Sensei shouted. "Help me figure out where to put this undying thing!"

There was silence.

Not true silence; people were still fighting, Obito could hear it, just… no answer.

Then, another voice. Somewhat familiar, Obito thought. "Space?"

"Space?"

"Well, why not? Wasn't that your plan with—oh shit!"

"Yeah, but I only ever—duck!—I only ever—shit, fuck—got to—so I don't even know how—" Sensei cut himself off, trying to figure out how to finish the question. Then, "Now?!"

"You've got the seal masters, don't you?" Another voice, low, growly.

Obito stayed frozen, hoped all the screams were not from dying people.

More silence.

More sounds of fighting.

There were definitely more people, now, and Obito could hear Sensei's toads hopping along the floor. When Sensei had told them about the byoki, about all the death, they'd immediately started working to literally evolve acidic slime, and while the ones that could do it were still quite small—literal babies, except that they weren't tadpoles any longer—it was still a defense.

One that was only temporary; the toads were very easy to kill.

It was still something.

Obito could feel hundreds hopping around his feet, could feel the pain as they brushed against his skin.

Every time he wondered if it was actually the byoki, if he was about to die—

But it was always just the toads, eating his skin with their acid but otherwise on his side.

Then, a second later, a different sensation—a firmer one.

Obito nearly had a heart attack before he realized it was the sannin Tsunade's slugs, doing the same work as the frogs.

And there was her voice, arguing with Sensei, mere snatches of conversation. And the Head of Research, that must've been her voice, shouting something about atmosphere and how she wasn't built for combat.

He really hated not being able to see, being helpless.

Really hated how painful the acid from the toads and slugs was as they covered the floor.

Probably, he'd end up being put on bed rest just to give his feet time to heal.

Well, if that was his only injury (that and a sprained ankle, and multiple pulled muscles, and too many bruises to list, and a headache, and—) then he'd be lucky.

And then the shouting got louder.

Obito could hear the sannin, and the Research Head, and who knows how many others besides—

(Wow, did he hate being blind. It was better than the first time in some ways, because this wasn't permanent, but it was so much worse in others—Obito had the sneaking suspicion that there had been more than a few near-misses, and he couldn't recognize any of them, could only guess by the proximity of grunts as his fellow nin fought the thing back.

"You're—"

"What if—"

"Duck!"

"—could we—"

"—fast, and—"

"—no—"

That was Kakashi's voice, across the room.

That wasn't good.

Who was protecting him?

Who would stop the byoki?

"Hey, Obito," a voice gasped.

Obito wanted to slump, but he was still too alert.

"Hi, Rin. How you holding up?"

Rin hesitated before responding, and that said enough. "We've got it boxed in, kind of… ish. The—well, everyone—is trying to figure out how to, you know…"

"Shoot it into space?"

"Yeah, that."

"Are they going to succeed?"

"…I hope so. Sensei had apparently been planning something like this, based on something Research Head Yamanaka mentioned once. But he hadn't really—um, focused on it. Or anything. We weren't expecting—"

A scream, and Obito could feel Rin flinch as she healed some of the worst of his injuries.

"Did someone just—"

"Die? Yeah. Didn't see who. I think another Iwa?"

"There are Iwa-nin here?"

"Yeah, and Hanzo the Salamander, and disturbingly many Kumo-nin, and lots of Konoha-nin too… this is…"

"Yeah."

"I can't figure out what's wrong with your eyes," Rin said.

"Oh, that's whatever Kushina's doing."

"Oh. Okay, you can cope with that. Look, I have to go—just stand there, okay? The toads and slugs have surrounded you and Tsunade's got a really big slug on guard duty and Kushina's got some sort of tentacle smacking everything that comes near you, so you're safe. Mostly."

And then she was gone.

And then, before Obito could worry too much about how many dead there were, how many dead Obito knew personally—

"Are you sure—"

"No, do it!"

And everything warped.