Obito-Sensei Chapter 98

Cannot Murder or Be Murdered

The epiphany crept up on Sakura, so quiet that she didn't notice it until it was already accepted as true.

Face to face with the Kazekage, exchanging blows, dodging a rain of gold blades and leaping away from deadly waves, striking back, forcing him to duck, weave, jump as her blade smashed through the glittering shield that surrounded him…

She was winning.

Sakura Haruno was taking on one of the Five Kage, and she was winning.

Rasa was getting desperate. His attacks never ceased, but Sakura's body danced out of the way of every single one, hardly a thought crossing her mind as she automatically evaded swirls and whorls and slashes of brilliant, sparkling gold dust. Neither of them had yet struck a decisive blow, but Rasa stumbled closer to a mistake second by second. He was trying to get tricky, hiding explosive magnet mines under the snow that burst into deadly abstract shapes when stepped near, trying to mix his gold dust into her blade and disrupt its structure, creating gold clones when the clash of their jutsu obscured her vision for just a heartbeat.

But Sakura couldn't be stopped. She cut down his clones with her stolen swords, chasing him around the sparkling battlefield they had created with their hail and gold, an arena carved from the snow and stone aside the fortress. Her jutsu should have been weaker than Rasa's; the elemental match-up, the gap in skill and experience, the inherent unfairness of a Kekkei Genkai. But Sakura pushed herself to unimaginable heights; her Flowing Hail Blade overcame everything the Kazekage threw at her.

On the other side of the fortress, a greater battle was raging on a scale Sakura could hardly comprehend, but here, they were shielded from its lightning and gales, and they drew closer and closer together as they both sought the killing blow.

All this, and she was winning. She hadn't even brought out her trump card yet.

That could change, she noted. Their battle had an observer, one who had not involved himself.

"Gaara!" Rasa roared again. "Help me! Kill her! Now!"

Gaara of the Desert looked back and forth between Sakura and his father as they dueled, and if she'd had time Sakura would have laughed at the forlorn, bewildered expression on his face. Last time she'd seen him, he'd been deluded; now, he simply seemed hopeless, a lost boy with no understanding of his place in the world. He was a weapon dropped in the snow, ownerless. Whichever one of them picked him up first would have the decisive advantage, enough to push the end of the fight.

"Gaara!" she called out in between strokes of her swords, and this time she couldn't hold the laugh back; both at how he flinched at her voice, and at how Rasa's face went puce with fury, vile curses spilling from his mouth as he tried to press her relentless attacks back.

"This is your chance!" she giggled, somersaulting over a wave of gold and nearly cutting Rasa's arm in return. "To make a decision for yourself! What do you think you'll do?"

"What will I…?" Gaara murmured, and then Sakura's attention was torn back to his father as Rasa intensified his attacks, sending out slicing arcs of gold that collapsed into rings, trying to crush Sakura to paste.

"He is a perfect Jinchuriki!" Rasa declared. "He knows what he has to do: obey orders! There's a chance here, Gaara! The Summit has collapsed, and the other Beasts are raging! It's everyone for themselves now: whoever survives this battle will be able to shape the world!" Another hail of golden blades, and this time Sakura couldn't avoid several small cuts. She started slowing down, taking deep breaths as she circulated her chakra. "Sand won't be left behind!"

"Everyone for themselves?" Gaara asked, and Rasa's attention snapped back towards him.

"Yes!" he said with a morbid grin. "It's the greatest battle of our time! After this, Gaara, you'll be able to do whatever you want! You'll have earned that!"

Gaara gestured, and some of the stone that had been ground to pieces by the battle flew out in several muddy lumps, slamming into Rasa's gut and knocking him on his back. Sakura paused in her attack, her blades shrinking. The opportunity drew closer. She channeled more and more chakra to her stomach, molding and collecting it with frantic urgency.

"If it's everyone for themselves," Gaara said as his father slowly rose from the snow, murder in his eyes, "why can't I do whatever I want now?"

"You ungrateful little wretch," Rasa growled, his aura of dancing golden particles freezing into sharp sheets in the air. "After all I've done for you?"

Sakura watched the family drama with detached interest, continuing to build chakra in her core. She started rotating, and Rasa did as well; the three of them became a constantly shifting triangle, cautiously watching one another as they prepared for a renewed fight.

'If he dies, his Beast dies too. You need to be careful.'

"I'm not sure what to do here," Gaara said, eyes flitting back and forth between Sakura and his father. "I don't know what's happening. I don't know how to handle the pain I'm feeling." His flat green eyes settled on Sakura, and where before they had been a featureless desert, they had become an oasis, filled with pain and curiosity. "You told me you didn't care about me. But now you and your team are here."

"To free all the Jinchuriki," Sakura said, keeping herself passive.

"To free Namikaze's wife, most likely," Rasa said, and Gaara nodded thoughtfully. "You won't find anything in this girl, Gaara. It's true that she doesn't care about you. You're just a tool to her."

"And to you?" Gaara asked, and Rasa paused. "I cannot imagine you think differently, father."

Rasa didn't have a response. He should have lied, Sakura thought, but something kept him from speaking. Guilt, fear, anger, arrogance? She didn't know and didn't care; the only important thing was that his silence was to her advantage.

"I'm not sure I want to kill Sakura anymore," Gaara eventually said, and Sakura held back a laugh. As if he could. "I have been thinking about that. Perhaps I could try protecting her, and see how it feels."

"You can't protect anything, Gaara," Rasa said with sudden venom. "That's not why you were born. From your very first day, you were a monster that murdered your mother. If you intend to help her, you'll only doom her."

Sakura expected a reaction, but Gaara didn't give one. He spread his hands, chakra taking hold of the dust and stone of the arena.

"But then, I shouldn't be surprised that you couldn't even understand that," Rasa spat.

Father and son went at one another with sudden, vicious energy. Golden clouds enveloped Gaara, but his chakra transmuted to sand and pushed them back, an invisible struggle dominating the space as Rasa and Gaara pushed against one another.

Sakura saw immediately that they weren't equals. Gaara would lose. Rasa's gold dust had an existential advantage over his son's sand despite their similar nature; it was heavier and overwhelmed Gaara's technique in a direct clash. Sakura dropped one of her stolen swords and lashed out with the other, adding her Flowing Hail Blade to the battle and forcing Rasa onto the defensive. Her now free hand stayed near her core, focusing on her rotating chakra.

Gaara surged forward, sand surrounding his father as Rasa fled up into the sky on a cloud of gold before being immediately pulled back down by tendrils of Gaara's transmuted chakra.

It was interesting to watch, but Sakura was done; the Cannon called to her, and the battle on the other side of the fortress only grew brighter and louder. The fight needed to end. She skittered to the side, dropping her other stolen sword and focusing everything she'd gathered from her core into her hands as Gaara reeled his father in, tangling his sand into fronds of gold that tried to drag him down.

"I don't think I want to kill you either, father," Gaara said. "I'd like to figure out what comes next. There's-"

Rasa broke free, launching himself forward with a golden scythe leveled at Gaara's neck. Gaara stumbled backwards, a wall of sand coming up before him and obscuring the Kazekage. For a second, Sakura could have sworn there was a vague shape in it, the suggestion of a feminine, sorrowful face.

She didn't care about that either. As Rasa crashed through the wall and Gaara flung spikes of sand at him, inevitably turned aside by the Kazekage's gold, Sakura put her hands together, crushing the chakra in them into an unspeakably dense ball. She'd maneuvered to place herself behind Gaara: she, him, and his father formed a neat line, each not more than five feet apart.

"There's something I'd like to tell you!" Gaara said as his father loomed over him, scythe about to descend. Sakura leveled her hands at his back; she felt a thrill of satisfaction run the length of her body as Rasa's eyes darted towards her and saw her stance, the way her chakra exploded out of her. His eyes went wide, and he plunged forward, altering the angle of his attack.

Too slow.

Suiton: Uzushio Rasenzan.

The Water Rasengan: Whirlpool Spiral Cutter was, in principle, an extremely simple jutsu. Sakura had extrapolated its basics ages ago, on a normal day training with Karin and Haku out on Amegakure's lake. Since that day, she'd considered it; starting in the Land of Frost, she'd begun to create it. Every time she used it, the bittersweet memory threatened to overwhelm her.

Create a Rasengan and then transmute its chakra into water, the most pliable and least volatile element. Compress it. Compress it further. Compress it even further, until all that power was contained in a whirling sphere of near frictionless liquid the size of a grape that floated between her hands, so heavy with her chakra that her wrists ached.

Then, the hard part. Open a hole in it. A hole so tiny that it couldn't be perceived with the naked eye.

Keep the chakra spinning.

Let what may emerge from the pressure differential of the hole.

With an air-splitting crack, a hypersonic jet of water barely a millimeter in diameter erupted out of the sphere between Sakura's hands. Even she couldn't follow its path, only predict where it would emerge by the feeling of her own chakra. She swung to the left, whole body vibrating with the force of the jutsu as she struggled to control the beam.

The jet pierced through Gaara's side, leaving him with a bleeding but non-fatal wound below the shoulder. As it moved to the left, it carved through an inch of Gaara's torso, sending him down; shock and pain brought him to his knees.

The beam swiped through Rasa, Gaara's wall of sand, and the fortress beyond. The chakra ran out, the jutsu collapsed, and Sakura was left panting with damp, bloody palms, countless scratches engraved into them by the technique bursting.

Rasa continued forward, but only for a moment. His body slid smoothly into two halves, joined for the briefest of moments at a point an inch or so above his hips, before he fell with a wet splat. His torso went one way: his legs went another.

Gaara, on his knees, stared speechlessly. His father clawed at the ground, eyes wide with agony and fury. He pulled himself forward.

"You…" Rasa hissed, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.

Sakura breathed out, pulling herself up straight. Her legs trembled for a moment, and then steadied.

"Heh." She couldn't help it; the laugh slipped out her lips. Gaara looked back at her in horror.

Battles between S-rank ninja were determined by the first mistake, but they could be complicated by a second. As Rasa's body went still, Sakura made that mistake.

She relaxed, confident in her victory.

She should have realized that there wasn't enough blood around Rasa's body: that while his legs colored the snow freely, the ground around his torso wasn't as red as it should have been.

Rasa surged into motion, his hands clapping together.

'What?!'

Sakura leapt away, trying to dodge. At the peak of the fight, it would have been easy. But now, just like Rasa had been, she was too slow. There was a sonic boom, and a golden ball the size of a fist exploded from between Rasa's hands, compressed into a teardrop and superheated by electromagnetic force.

It was a copy of her Rasenzan's principles. The Kazekage had understood the jutsu in just a glance.

The golden shot expanded in a net, steam exploding off of it, and slammed into Sakura head-on. Her Akatsuki hoodie was shredded, the gold searing an inch into her flesh from every angle and leaving her crosshatched with fatal burns. She screamed and fell, experiencing pain that she'd never imagined before as she desperately tried to cut the molten net off her burning body.

Rasa pulled himself forward, a knife forming from gold dust in his hands, and stabbed out at Gaara, who was paralyzed by shock. He aimed for his son's temple, obviously intending to take fatal revenge for Gaara's betrayal.

But even though Gaara couldn't possibly hope to respond, a whorl of sand shot out and wrapped around Rasa's hand, restraining him less than a centimeter from his son's head.

At the same moment, Sakura felt a burning in her gut, one infinitely less painful than the molten net that had nearly killed her. She lashed out with water blades from either hand, cutting the net away and rolled, whimpering, into the snow. As she did, Naruto's seal activated.

Yakushi Shiki.

The inspiration for the name had been obvious, just like the inspiration for her Rasenzan had been. The boiling chakra Naruto had stored away in the seal raced through Sakura's whole body, steam bursting from her skin as her deadly burns closed up, not even leaving scar tissue behind. In just seconds, it was like she'd never been injured; every bit of energy she'd expended since arriving at the Summit was restored, and every lingering wound obliterated. She'd never felt better.

On her stomach, the seal faded away.

"No…" Rasa didn't pay any attention to her. All his focus was on Gaara as he tried to push the golden knife through the sand and into his son's brain. Blood began to rush from his lower half, and Sakura finally realized what had happened: somehow, the Kazekage had used Magnet Release to keep his blood inside his body. Now, his jutsu was failing. Shock was finally catching up to him.

If she'd wanted to instantly kill him, she should have gone for the head or heart. She'd remember that.

"Karura… why him?" Rasa asked, his voice soft and weak.

He seemed on the edge of true death, but she didn't want to take any chances. Sakura lashed out and cut the Kazekage's head from his body.

Rasa's head fell in the snow with a soft thump, and Sakura rose to her feet breathing heavily. The burned remnants of her Akatsuki uniform clung to her, the rest left behind on the ground. She was left with the black, sleeveless vest she'd worn under the jacket. Sakura bent down and retrieved one of her stolen samurai swords, feeling her chakra rush back into it.

'So close to the end… you got overconfident.'

A giggle escaped her as she stared down at her destroyed uniform. It was true; she'd gotten overconfident, and while fighting a Kage to boot. But now he was dead, and she was still standing. The laughter bubbled out, uncontrollable. She felt unstoppable. She was unstoppable. She barely even cared that her uniform had been destroyed.

Gaara looked up at her, blood pouring from his shorn shoulder.

"He's dead," he said, like that wasn't the most obvious thing in the world. Sakura sneered down at him, seeing nothing but Gaara's weakness, the scar she'd given him that dominated his face. He was shaking. Shaking!

"How many thousands have you killed?" she asked, laughter lurking under her words. "Ninja, civilians, your own teacher? You threatened to do the same to your brother and sister, didn't you? Isn't this what you wanted, Gaara?" She crouched down, coming eye to eye with him as the winds from the battle beyond the fortress slammed over the both of them. "Didn't you hate your father? He led you around like a dog, calling you to heel, feeding you scraps. Back in Waves, you told me killing made everything worth it. Was he exempt from that little rule?"

Gaara kept shaking, staring in her eyes but not responding. Sakura stood back up with a chuckle and kicked Rasa's head away.

"You don't know. Of course you don't. You've never known what you've really wanted; always looking to fill that void inside you, not sure if it should be death or love or both. But don't worry, Gaara. I know exactly what you're needed for. Stay right here, and don't bleed to death. I need to finish this."

Sakura stepped past Gaara, senses stretched out to make sure he wouldn't attack her from behind. But there was no fear of that: he was hyperventilating, overwhelmed by the situation and paralyzed by the emptiness inside of him. He'd stay there for some time, long enough for everything to be finished.

Sakura set her eyes on the Cannon; it rocked back and forth on top of the teetering fortress, buffeted by the winds created by the ridiculous battle on the other side of the plateau. She had to get there, and quickly; now that everything had descended into chaos, she knew exactly what she needed to do to end the battle. End everything, really: all the powers of the world were engaged in this final struggle.

Everything the Cannon might need to destroy was already here.

Sakura started climbing, eager to put a gun to the head of the world.

###

Sasuke lingered for what felt like a long time, paralyzed by indecision and more than a little fear. Naruto had left him behind in the ruins of the Fortress after patching him up, off to find his mother, and Sasuke knew he should have returned to the fight. His sensei was still fighting alongside the Bijuu against Nagato, the confrontation shaking the mountains. He needed to go back and help in what had turned into the most decisive battle of his lifetime.

But his hands wouldn't stop trembling. He was torn in too many directions at once; the battle with Nagato had ripped apart a courage he'd taken for granted. A single look, a single flick, and he'd almost died. Itachi could be dead; his mother could be dead; without clarity, Sasuke was trapped, unable to move forward or retreat.

Thankfully, the only person that could have provided clarity in that moment arrived.

"Sasuke!"

He whipped around and found Hinata and Might Gai landing beside him in the rubble. They seemed untouched by the cataclysm bar scrapes and scratches, and Sasuke felt some of the tightness in his chest relax. Hinata staggered towards him, eyes wide and Byakugan active. She could see everything, Sasuke knew; more than anyone present, Hinata fully understood the savage battle engulfing the Summit.

She was just as scared as him; he could see that in an instant in the darting of her eyes and the twitching in her fingers She had a right to be. They'd both come here with clear hearts, but the reality of the Summit outstripped their imagination.

"You're okay?" he asked, and she nodded, looking him over.

"You?" she asked, a tremble in her voice. He reached out and took her hand, and the shaking that was overcoming the both of them stopped.

"Naruto fixed me up," he said, looking back towards the battle. It was like staring into a hurricane made of flames; six Jinchuriki assaulted Nagato from every side, half of them fully manifesting their Bijuu. They were coordinated, striking with mountain-shattering power in sequence as they chased after their prey. But despite that, the Amekage remained indomitable, only barely kept from landing finishing blows by the constant intercession of his opponents. Even Sasuke's eyes couldn't follow the chaos in full.

"I believe we should have a conversation about this," Gai said, watching the battle with seemingly envious eyes. "But perhaps that should be saved for your sensei, Sasuke. Hinata said you were fighting; are you returning to the battle?"

I am, Sasuke tried to say. Of course I am.

"I can't," was what came out. He paused, shocked by the admission as Gai and Hinata were, and then let out a choked laugh. "I'll just be in the way at this point." His brain had turned back on: things had begun to make sense once more. "Gai-sensei, Hinata told you why we're here?"

"An exceptionally foolish thing to do," Gai said. "And it threatens to burn the world now. But it's too late to turn back." He squared his shoulders. "Nagato's technique makes ninjutsu a waste; he's my perfect opponent. Even if it endangers the village, I'll confront him with everything I have-"

"Wait," Sasuke said, and to his surprise Gai did. The man stopped: his hand had begun to move up towards his chest, a thumb raised in a rock-solid expression of resolve, but he paused, and looked towards Sasuke with obvious curiosity and respect. Sasuke couldn't quite believe it. "There's more going on here than Hinata may have had time to say." He turned back towards her and squeezed her hand, and Hinata squeezed back. "Where is everyone? Naruto, Sakura, Itachi, my mother, and sensei?"

"I've been watching," Hinata said, speaking quickly. Sasuke could feel her pulse through her palm, her heart beating out of her chest. Seeing the way it heaved as she took in quick breaths inspired feelings in him that were completely inappropriate given the circumstances. "Sakura's killed the Kazekage-"

"What?!" Sasuke couldn't help it, but Hinata shook her head with a firm look.

"Don't interrupt!" she pled, speaking faster. "She was hurt, but Naruto's seal saved her. She's heading towards the Cannon; the Amekage left behind a guard, that Juugo boy. She'll confront him at any moment. Obito-sensei has found Rin-sensei; they're talking, but she's healing his wounds. His seal wasn't triggered. Naruto's helping Kushina, and your mother and the Hokage are there too. I'm sure he'll heal them both-!"

Her voice was cut off by a pulse of chakra that surged over the whole mountain range, running over Sasuke like a wind made of blades. He turned towards the source, spotting a distant golden light across the plateau.

"Something's changed," Hinata said, her voice barely a whisper. "Kushina's gotten up; she's healed. She's covered in a golden cloak. It's…" Her face twisted in confusion. "The Kyuubi's chakra?"

"She managed it again?" Gai said, and Sasuke shot him a questioning look. "During the invasion," he clarified. "Kushina did something with the Fox's chakra; I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself. It gave her the power to defeat Kimimaro."

"What about my mother? And the Hokage?" Sasuke asked as Hinata continued to watch.

"Naruto is staying with your mother. The Hokage, and Kushina… they're both heading towards the battle. They're going after Nagato," Hinata said in disbelief.

That made the decision infinitely easier. Sasuke felt everything snap into place. "Where's my brother?" he asked, refocusing Hinata. "If they're going to Nagato… we need to find Itachi."

"Your brother?" Gai asked. If he judged Sasuke for involving Itachi, he was an expert at hiding it. "You came here as allies, did you not? I'm sure he's well equipped to handle himself-"

"Itachi is our ally," Sasuke said desperately as Hinata scanned the mountains. "But there's something attached to him, controlling him, that's not. A shadow. It's what caused everything: the Massacre, the theft of the Bijuu, everything he's done! And if Nagato's going to be busy with the Hokage and the Bijuu-!"

"I found him!" Hinata interrupted, pointing north. "Naruto's seal healed him; he's avoiding the battle." She swallowed, her grip on Sasuke's hand tightening. "I think he's headed for the Cannon."

Gai didn't question a thing; Sasuke reckoned that was one of the things that made him such an incredible shinobi. "I don't understand," he said with a serious look, "but if that is the truth, Sasuke, such a thing cannot have access to a weapon of that caliber."

"We'll leave the Cannon to Sakura," Sasuke said, starting to move. "Gai-sensei, help us take down my brother's shadow. I'll explain everything afterwards."

Hinata was moving with him, and Gai too. "Hinata," he said. "You can kill the Shadow, right?"

"I'm sure of it," Hinata said, not sounding very sure. "But Sasuke, do you think we can defeat your brother?"

"We don't have to," Sasuke said, seeing Hinata's doubt but choosing to ignore it. "We only have to distract him long enough to destroy Black Zetsu. After that, we can finish everything else."

It was enough. They set off, rushing through the rubble and snow at Hinata's direction, set on a collision course with Itachi. The battle continued to explode beyond control or rationality to the east, hurricane gales throwing them off course and even ripping Sasuke from his feet once when he was mid-leap.

Hinata guided them north past the fortress, towards the inner ring of the second wall. Much of it had been shattered by the battle with Nagato, but Sasuke spotted his brother running atop it.

"Itachi!" he called out, and his brother stopped. They locked eyes from a hundred feet away, the furor of the battle to the east growing even more intense. Something had changed; Kushina and Minato had arrived, and things grew impossibly fiercer.

"Sasuke." Itachi's mild voice couldn't cross the deafening gulf between them, but Sasuke could read his lips perfectly and imagined his brother's voice with clarity. "Perfect: you're safe. The Tailed Beasts will tire themselves out fighting Nagato. We need to make sure the Cannon is secure while he is distracted." He nodded towards the tottering weapon at the top of the Fortress. "Help me out?"

"Itachi," Sasuke said, his whole body vibrating. "Come down here."

His brother shifted, and Sasuke imagined his shadow did as well. "Why?"

"Come down here, or I'll come up there." He needed to slow down, to explain, but that was impossible, not when Black Zetsu was right there. The shadow that had murdered his father and stolen his brother was right there, mocking him.

Itachi blinked. "Now's not the time," he said. "The Cannon-"

Sasuke threw himself forward, Gai beside and Hinata behind him. Itachi moved as well, silent lightning that hurled itself down off the wall. Sasuke could only barely follow the movement, and he adjusted, slamming into the great wall and then rocketing off of it to intercept his brother in mid-air.

They clashed, forearm against forearm and knee against knee with an impact that shook both their bones and blew away the storming snow around them. Sasuke stared fearlessly into Itachi's eyes, feeling a genjutsu worm into his brain and seizing it in a mental iron grip, making it his own. Time started to slow as they both fell, Gai and Hinata coming in from either side to catch Itachi in an inescapable pincer.

"What's caused this?" Itachi said, his lips not moving but his voice audible nonetheless. "Have you decided to take revenge after all?"

"It's not like that at all," Sasuke said. "It's what I told you back in Frost: Black Zetsu is still in you. It's what made you do all these terrible things. Now that Nagato's distracted, I finally have a chance to rip it off."

"That's foolish, Sasuke," Itachi said mournfully. "As I told you then, if that's what happened, then the shadow is gone. There are more important things to focus on now."

"If you really think that, then I'll have no choice but to show you," Sasuke declared, and time sped back up as Hinata and Gai arrived.

Gai led with a kick that Itachi caught and flipped over, moving with preternatural speed in the air as if he were light as a feather. Hinata had prepared a Lion Fist, but Itachi gingerly caught it in the palm of his hand and twisted her aside, only a breath of his chakra being snatched away as he spun and hurled Hinata back down to earth. Sasuke struck out, and he and his brother exchanged twenty blows as they fell, fists, elbows, knees, and feet smashing together into a precognitive duel.

When they landed, it didn't end. The last time they had fought, atop Chomei's back over a year ago, Sasuke had seen the cliff between him and Itachi. He'd seen that he hadn't had a chance, that the summit was out of sight and out of reach.

But today, he could see it. Face to face, neither backing down, exchanging blows with every breath and tearing the earth to pieces around them from the force of their counters-

Sasuke could see the summit.

Two seconds in, and they both foresaw a future to their liking without perceiving its dangers. Itachi struck out and chopped Sasuke in the throat, sending him down gagging and desperate for air with a crumpled throat. But in the same movement, Sasuke countered: he landed a solid kick on Itachi's kidney, and his brother staggered back, his body folding from the concrete-shattering strength of Sasuke's strike.

It wasn't quite a tie; if Sasuke were alone, Itachi could have seized the advantage and stomped on his head, ending the fight. But Sasuke wasn't alone. Even as he watched his future defeat, Gai arrived once more.

Itachi spun, eyes flashing and genjutsu spiraling out. But Gai wasn't snared.

He was watching Itachi's feet and ignoring the rest of him. After so many hours of sparring with Obito, it shouldn't have been a surprise that he had a method for avoiding Sharingan genjutsu, but Sasuke was still caught off guard by the Green Beast's grace and ferocity as he laid into Itachi without being fully able to see his opponent, landing two solid strikes before Itachi grunted and his chakra raged.

The Susano'o burst out and a skeletal hand caught Gai in a full-body grapple. Gai strained, and the bony fingers creaked before Itachi grunted again, blood running from both his eyes.

"Enough," he said, brooking no dispute. The hand squeezed, crushing Gai who let out a pained wheeze as he prepared to open the Gates and burst free. "I must be the one to-!"
Hinata came from behind without a sound, both hands formed into a prayer-like gesture. She slammed into the Susano'o's spine fingertips first, and Sasuke winced as one of her fingers bent and broke from the force of both her chakra surging through them and the impregnable Susano'o pushing back.

The Gentle Fist energy burst out, piercing right through the Susano'o without harming it and striking Itachi in the back. To the Sharingan, it was like a glittering purple lance that cut into Itachi's side.

Itachi sagged, his right latissimus muscles collapsing as Hinata's chakra swept through them like anesthesia. The Susano'o flickered and began to fall apart; Gai's Gates opened, four of them, and he flexed and tore apart the skeletal hand binding him, ripping it with as much difficulty as a handkerchief.

They all struck Itachi at the same time: Gai from the front with a blow to the solar plexus, Sasuke with a sweeping kick that took his brother from his feet, and Hinata from the back with a raging Lion Fist. Itachi crumpled, brought to the ground with the sound of breaking bones, and Sasuke rolled on top of him as his brother drew a knife.

"Hinata!" He pinned one shoulder as Gai stepped down on the knife and pinned Itachi's hand, keeping him from fighting back. "Do it now!"
Hinata shouted out a kiai, striking down at Itachi's shadow in the snow like it was a brick-breaking exercise and buckling the earth around it with the force of her punch.

That was it. They'd done it. Sasuke expected a screech, the kind of scream Itachi had described happening in Amegakure. He expected the shadow to come to life and attack, to writhe and surge and strike back with all the venom of something born from Madara Uchiha.

Nothing happened.

Sasuke looked down at Itachi, his brother grimacing in pain. A raw anger unlike anything he'd ever felt before ran through him, so violent that his teeth started chattering.

"Come out!" he screamed in Itachi's face. The shadow was here. It had to be.

"Sasuke…" Itachi said quietly.

"Come out, you coward!"

"Sasuke," Hinata said, her gentle voice cutting through the acid anger that was about to burn Sasuke irrevocably hollow. He looked up at her, his whole body shaking, and she slowly shook her head. "I didn't feel anything."

"It's hiding," Sasuke insisted. "It's waiting for us to give up. If you keep hitting it-!"

"It seems unlikely," Gai said, too calm, almost patronizing. Sasuke fought the urge to whirl and strike him. "Perhaps there's been a mistake?"

"It's here! Black Zetsu is here!" Sasuke insisted. "We just have to kill it-!"

"It's not here," Itachi said, his voice choked by pain. "You were right, Sasuke. I think there was something. But it's as I said. My head is clear. I'm…" He coughed up blood; Gai's brutal center mass punch had done internal damage. "I didn't want to admit it. But I'm weaker. I'm slower." He tried to move, but Sasuke just clung to him harder, pinning him to the ground. Itachi gave up, closing his eyes and lying back. "My surety is gone. My strength is gone. It was too humiliating to admit, so I ignored it. But I'm not the shinobi I was. Something changed."

"No," Sasuke shook his head, because it was obviously wrong. All this was wrong. Itachi ignored him.

"I would have won this fight before," he said. "Now, it wasn't even close. Madara's shadow was there; it was helping me, somehow. Now, it's gone, and I'm…" His lips quivered into a mocking smile. "I'm a shadow of myself."

"But you haven't changed!" Sasuke said, almost spitting down into his brother's face from the fervor of his words. "You're still obsessed with the Bijuu! You haven't apologized! You haven't-!" His voice and heart broke at the same time. "You haven't realized that what you did was wrong! That what you did to me was wrong! You're still the same!"

Itachi didn't respond; he just lay there with a pained look plastered over his face. Sasuke felt himself start to spiral out of control.

"And if the shadow's been gone-!"

He couldn't confront it. He was about to break. He'd already lost too much: his innocence, his family, Suigetsu, hope for the future. He'd had one thing to cling to, one perfect explanation for the thing that had taken his brother's place and ruined the life he'd thought they would have, and now it had all shattered in an instant.

He'd wasted his time. He'd resorted to delusions instead of confronting the truth, and now they'd been ripped away at the worst possible moment. He'd been right the first time, all the way back in Waterfall.

It had only ever been Itachi. That's all it had been since the beginning.

Black Zetsu might have helped him, but everything his brother had done had been him. Not an imposter, not a shadow.

Just Itachi.

A gentle hand came to rest on his shoulder, and then shifted to his cheek. Sasuke sucked in a breath, looking up into Hinata's sorrowful eyes.

She'd proven herself the more perceptive one, he realized with a full-body jolt. The eternal rivalry between the Sharingan and the Byakugan had been resolved.

'What happens if we free Itachi, and he stays, well, a murderer?'

He could feel blood and tears running from his eyes, and Hinata brushed away some of them with her thumb as she cupped his face. She spoke softly to him, leaning in, her breath and hair tickling his shoulder and ear.

"It's okay," she said, and Sasuke shook his head, his whole body vibrating, on the edge of shaking apart and coming undone. "It really is okay. I promise."

Hinata gingerly pulled him into a hug, and Sasuke collapsed against her. He fell off of Itachi and left Gai restraining him, his whole body wracked by silent sobs and shudders so intense they made his organs ache.

"Sasuke," she said quietly. "I'm here. The Shadow's gone. You have your brother back."
She said it so plainly and so gently that it couldn't be mockery. In anyone else's mouth, it probably would have been. Somehow, impossibly, it helped Sasuke calm down. He was still blubbering, too emotional to speak or control his body, but he felt a warm lucidity fall across him as he sank into Hinata, her arms encompassing him.

The Shadow was gone. Black Zetsu had left Itachi behind. His brother was a monster and a murderer, and he needed to come to terms with that or be left a shell, unable to accept reality like his mother had warned him of. He could do that. In that lucid second, Sasuke was pretty sure he could do that. It would take time, and there would be terrible days where it felt impossible, but he could do that. But his own neurosis wasn't the important thing right now.

Because if Black Zetsu had left Itachi behind, then where was it?

Sasuke retreated into himself as Hinata murmured and held him, her comforting words washing over his mind and granting him the clarity he needed. He was split, his mind working the problem to keep from collapsing as his body fell into what was nearly a coma.
Why had Black Zetsu left Itachi, despite his insane strength as a ninja, despite having spent years molding him into an ideal tool to serve it? Because Itachi had noticed it: because Itachi had perceived the 'other' in himself, and told Sasuke about it on the pitch-black and blood-soaked night that Amegakure had been attacked. The Shadow didn't like being perceived: it inevitably fled from light.

So then, when had Black Zetsu left Itachi? Sometime between now and that conversation in the Land of Rain, the Shadow had crept away, either off on its own or by latching onto someone else. If it was on its own, it could be anywhere. It would probably be impossible to find again.

But what if it had jumped to someone else? Itachi had been confronted by several powerful shinobi that night, plenty of people that Black Zetsu could take advantage of, or at least tag along with while it found its bearings. Rin, Obito, Sasuke and his mother, Sakura-

Secure in Hinata's arms, Sasuke froze.

'You idiot!' He'd laughed.

'That's exactly what Sakura thought you were up to! She read you like a book!'

"Sasuke?" Hinata asked. His body and mind were reunited. His mouth was dry. A hundred small moments and conversations that he, Sakura, and Naruto had had since the attack on Amegakure ran through his head in a millisecond as a single run-on sentence, ended by a period that burned itself into his brain.

'Don't worry, Sasuke. We'll get that shadow. I guarantee it.'

"Oh fuck," he rasped. Somewhere far away, something exploded with such volume and force that the sky went blue and Sasuke felt his face develop an instant sunburn, but he didn't care. He only had eyes for Hinata, her concerned eyes locked with his own.

"What?" she asked.

"The Shadow's still here," he said, certainty burning though him, and he felt Hinata's fear resonate through their connection. He couldn't blame her. He was still obsessed. He could be wrong. His delusion could be inescapable; his certainty could be a fantasy.

But because Hinata was an amazing person, she didn't pull away. Instead, she took a deep breath. "What makes you say that?" she asked, and Sasuke truly fell in love with her and her infinite empathy.

"Because I know exactly when it left Itachi," Sasuke said, his voice so quiet that only Hinata could hear. Gai was talking, having some sort of conversation with Itachi that Sasuke didn't care at all to hear. All his focus was on Hinata. "It left on the night of the attack on Amegakure, when he rescued me from the city."

"And?" Hinata said, her focus just as intense as his. He could feel her heart speeding up again.

"And it went to Sakura," he said. Hinata blinked. "We were right. Black Zetsu's after the Cannon."

He tried to pull himself to his feet and found his legs were shaking too much to manage it. "We have to go. We were tricked from the beginning." Hinata helped him up, and Sasuke sucked in a breath, trying to prepare himself for what came next.

"Sakura's the one we have to stop."