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Chapter Text

Sasuke wakes up to shadows on white walls. Chemicals are sharp in his nose, and sheets are stiff and starchy against his skin. He can't remember - his head hurts- 

He startles as one of the shadows against the far wall moves. A tall figure steps forward. His face, bathed in moonlight, is pale, his eyes dark enough to match the shadows enveloping his body.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he says.

Sasuke doesn't have any time to reply. The man's eyes are black one second and then red the next and then-

he-

falls-

"Welcome," the man says, "to Hell."

And then Sasuke sees-

-he's seven and alone and swearing vengeance-

-he's twelve and on a team with three complete idiots-

-he's thirteen and Naruto isn't strong enough to make him stay, but Sasuke hesitates to kill him because he's weak-

-he's fourteen and he's not strong enough yet, and he knows Orochimaru is just waiting for his guard to lower so he can take his body-

-he's fifteen and he sees his team again, and he hates the feelings they evoke, the softness that he thought was cauterized from him-

-he's sixteen and Itachi stands before him and he fights until Itachi is bleeding and dying and raising his hand and calling him "Otouto" like the old times-

-he's seventeen and Madara is insane; Sasuke fucking hates Konoha, but Madara's solution won't leave any world at all, and if he's going to raze Konoha, he'll do it how he wants to-

-he's twenty and he has a last-ditch effort to fix it all, fix his mistakes, fix his uselessness and stop the infection at the source-

Sasuke gasps on his knees, head straining until it feels like it's going to burst, eyes burning and everything is so clear.

"Who are you?" he asks, eyes watering from the pain and strange dryness. Red eyes glare at him from an inexplicably familiar face.

"Idiot," the man says acerbically. "Isn't it obvious? I'm you." He steps closer until he's standing above Sasuke, looking down with those nightmarish eyes, bloody, feverish, manic. "But look at me as a mistake. You will not become me, Sasuke-kun. You will be better. You will be perfect."

He reaches out, and Sasuke can't move as he grabs his head and forces it back.

"You must understand what your weakness will do, what it will ruin. Scream if you want. No one will hear you."

Then, the world goes dark, and pain explodes-

…

The morning begins with Sasuke being late to training. This isn't great. Kakashi's most dedicated student being later than him is a problem, especially if he himself carefully measured out two hours to draw the most teeth grinding from his cute little students. Arriving to find Sakura and Naruto worried and pissed, respectively, about their third teammate's absence is. Disquieting.

"You're late!" Naruto jabs a finger at him a bit more violently than usual, which betrays more than he intends about the sliver of worry he's feeling about his wayward teammate. Wave is fresh on their minds, after all, and despite all claims otherwise, Sasuke did jump in to save Naruto at the risk of his own life, and the emotional fallout of that did trigger the release of the Kyuubi's chakra. Like good, emotionally repressed little brats, though, both are denying anything of the sort happened, especially for those reasons.

"Sensei, Sasuke-kun hasn't come yet. Do you think he's sick?" Sakura adds anxiously.

Kakashi privately thinks that nothing short of being on death's door would keep the kid away from training, which isn't an encouraging thought.

"Hm," he says slowly, taking his time so that he can watch them squirm. "Why don't you two stay here and practice walking on water? I'll check on him and make sure he hasn't suffocated in his sleep." Though the kid would probably resurrect out of spite if that happened.

Naruto immediately bolts for the pond a few meters away. Sakura chews on her lip in worry.

"Alright," she says doubtfully, "but, Sensei, don't harass him, if he is sick!"

Kakashi feigns offense. "I would never," he says blandly, making her huff. "Now, go on." He waves a hand at her in a shooing motion. She rolls her eyes but obeys. He stays long enough to make sure they actually start doing their exercises before Shunshining out towards the Uchiha Compound. Hopefully the kid's not actually dying and is just exercising some common sense for the first time in his life.

…

The morning begins with Sakura launching Naruto into a tree. Gods, Kakashi hates being a teacher sometimes.

"Maa, Sakura-chan," he interjects lazily as the girl shakes out her hand. She'll probably have to ice it; Naruto's lucky she's only started strength training recently, otherwise he'd have at least a broken nose. "Naruto can't really afford to lose the brain cells he has - please, stop hitting him."

Sakura scowls at him, then. "Does no one else care that Sasuke-kun has been out for a week?" she demands, frazzled beyond comprehension over Sasuke's absence.

Kakashi sighs and tilts his face up. "Sasuke is fine," he reminds her patiently. Sakura has come a long way. Wave jolted her out of the typical invulnerability mindset that many genin have nowadays, and she's genuinely focused on improving as a ninja. That being said…

"But Sensei!"

She's still a pre-teen girl. Gods help him. He doesn't know how Minato-sensei did it. 

Naruto sits up, rubbing his head. He squints around, and then his eyes fall on something in the distance. In a flash, he's on his feet and bolting for-

For-

Kakashi neatly maneuvers himself in front of Naruto before he can run his teammate over.

"What the hell, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto practically screeches, windmilling against Kakashi's hand on his forehead. Sometimes, Kakashi regrets that he never had a childhood, that he was independent before most people even start their education. Times like these make him glad that he can't remember much of the formative years when he was a child.

"Idiot," the child behind him says, and it's times like these that make Kakashi wonder why humanity bothers to reproduce at all. Surely, it would be much more productive to utilize cloning science and just...not have to worry about the messiness that is puberty.

"How kind of you to join us, Sasuke," Kakashi says, ignoring the growling from in front of him. "Feeling better?"

He glances at his student and finds him scowling for a change. Right. Unfortunately, while Wave thankfully inspired Sakura to make some better life choices - namely, putting her hair up in a braid instead of keeping it loose and finally wearing a color other than extremely noticeable red - it's made Sasuke backslide in the social department. Kakashi's not really one to talk, but he's also not willing to let Team Seven suffer the same consequences as his team did just so Sasuke will remove his head from his ass.

He removes his hand from Naruto's head, earning a crushing scowl that he cheerfully curves his eye at.

"You still sick, asshole?" Naruto demands, glaring at Sasuke. The latter scoffs. Kakashi notes the still-unhealthy pallor of his skin, the shadows under his eyes, and figures that, recovery be damned, his student probably just didn't want to stay in his house a second longer than he had to.

"Would I be here if I was?" he asks coolly. Naruto crosses his arms.

"I dunno. Maybe you'd try to get us all sick because you're such a bastard, dattebayo." 

Sasuke's mouth thins, and Kakashi is just wondering if he'll have to send them to timeout corners like six-year-olds, when Sasuke abruptly drops his scowl and looks away. Kakashi blinks. Naruto blinks.

Sasuke ignores those he thinks are beneath him, but he usually does it with a frigid apathetic mask and some less-than-subtle hostility. This...looks like he's standing down. Conceding a point. To Naruto.

Kakashi scratches the side of his head. It's quite possible the world is ending. Or someone has disguised themselves as his student without having done beyond some minimal behavioral observation.

"Are you...feeling okay?" Naruto asks, anger and aggression fading due to sheer bewilderment. Sasuke's eyes snap to him and then quickly flit away.

"Fine," he says. Then, he turns to Kakashi. "Are we going to train? Or should I leave for something actually productive?"

Cheeky brat.

"Maa, go walk on some water. Sakura-chan and Naruto are ahead of you by now." Kakashi's looking for a twitch of irritation that the Uchiha prodigy could actually be less skilled than his teammates. He doesn't find it. Instead, Sasuke just nods once and moves for the pond nearby. Naruto stares after him, eyebrows disappearing behind his hitai-ate.

"The hell?" he asks finally, eyes on Sasuke's retreating back. He looks at Kakashi. "What was that?"

Kakashi just points to where Sakura is waiting, clearly anxious, for Sasuke to get within speaking distance. "Spar with her," he says, and Naruto huffs when he leaves it at that.

"Fine," he says and moves off.

Kakashi looks and sees Sakura fling herself at Sasuke, who flinches very noticeably but doesn't side-step or brush her off immediately.

What the hell indeed.

…

To everyone's baffled appreciation, Sasuke's new-found civility towards his team doesn't stop. Another week passes, and he hasn't made one snide remark about Naruto's abilities, he hasn't shot any looks of utter disdain Sakura's way, and he no longer glares daggers at Kakashi's hidden eye. He still calls Naruto insulting names, but that feels more like vaguely amiable nicknames rather than true insults.

It's actually, Kakashi thinks, rather unsettling. Team Seven has - had, he corrects - a certain dynamic. Naruto and Sakura's volume had been offset by Sasuke's brooding silence. Naruto's painful, and aggressive, optimism had been counterbalanced by Sakura's truly blessed - if naive - level-headedness and Sasuke's cold cynicism. Now, though. Now they're all off kilter. Naruto is too loud, Sakura is too hesitant, and Sasuke isn't much of anything. Kakashi would love to pin this on Problem Child Number 1 and give him a stern talking to on clearly trying to unbalance his team like a brat, except-

Over the past week, Sasuke helped Sakura learn the basics of a new taijutsu style with an unprecedented amount of patience. He spent hours with her in training, correcting her form, teaching her katas, and discussing strategy with her. Or, rather, allowing her to bounce ideas off of him without brushing her off, even when it was well past the time for team training to end. He wasn't miraculously nicer - there were times when his face would drop into a familiarly withering scowl, or when his words became sharp and aimed to bleed, but then. He'd stop. He'd step back, shoulders tense, eyes shuttered, and he'd become painfully calm. Controlled. Off.

Then, there's the fact that Sasuke hasn't used his Sharingan once in training. Incredibly strange considering his over usage right after gaining them in Wave. The brat had almost exhausted himself into unconsciousness on their way back to Konoha because he wouldn't turn the damn things off. Not until Kakashi cheerfully, but sincerely, threatened to hogtie him and sedate him for the journey if he didn't stop. To go from one extreme to the other… Kakashi had asked him about it, casually, making it seem like no big deal, and Sasuke had shifted his eyes to the ground. He'd muttered something about not relying on them, which was just absolutely horseshit, because anyone with a Kekkei Genkai worth a damn abused it outrageously, Kakashi included.

Add in the fact that one day, out of the blue, Sasuke threw a large case full of brand-new kunai and shuriken at Naruto. When an explanation was demanded by the recipient, who held the case to his chest like it was his firstborn child, Sasuke only looked away. "Dented weapons are useless and could get you killed. We don't have time to train another teammate, Dead Last." Barring the money factor, and the fact that Sasuke had noticed Naruto's equipment situation, the incredibly subtle backhanded compliment had thrown everyone off for the rest of the day.

Kakashi should be happy. He should be ecstatic that one of his genin is finally growing up and becoming a good, productive, helpful member of society. Sasuke is downright civil, now, actually answering questions beyond the typical and dreaded "hn", and he's managing to pull his team into cohesiveness by way of befuddling them into compliance. He's better. A better ninja - Kakashi can see improvement in his tactics; they're more calculated and less about trying to be the center of attention - a better teammate - he even offered a terse tip for Naruto's chakra control the other day that had the other boy gaping in disbelief - and overall seems to be more stable and less of a flight risk.

But all Kakashi can feel is disquiet and unease. Because he looks at Sasuke, and something feels wrong. Maybe it's the newfound, constant and never-fading, tenseness to his shoulders. Maybe it's the growing circles under his eyes. Maybe it's the fact that this personality shift feels more like a step back in Sasuke's development rather than a step forward.

Kakashi can think of no reason for Sasuke's inexplicable and drastic change in behavior. He doesn't like the desperate, haunted gleam in his student's eyes, and he also doesn't like the nagging feeling that he's missing something very important.

It all started when Sasuke became sick, but he can't think of any reason why that would change his student this much. He asks about it. Very carefully casual. He asks if Sasuke is feeling completely better after his illness.

Sasuke looks at him, and there's. Something. Something searching. Something hopeful, almost. But as soon as Sasuke looks at him, it's extinguished, and he looks away.

"I'm fine," he says, rote. "I wasn't even that sick."

"I think your week-long absence would beg to differ," Kakashi says lightly, discomforted even if he won't show it. The skin around Sasuke's eyes tightens, but he says nothing.

Hm. Maybe something happened that Kakashi missed. He doesn't like that idea. However much trouble his students are, they're still his students, and it's his job to protect them. He'll look into it. Subtly. Until then, he'll just keep an eye on his cute students. With as much as Sasuke is tamping down on, something's going to give sooner or later.

Better intentions or not, a person can't go from a life of expression - cold and bitter as it might be - to complete silence. It's been building up like a plugged geyser, and Kakashi suspects that the impending explosion will be spectacularly horrible.

...

After Wave, Sakura does some thinking. Mostly about how she could have died. How her teammates, all of them, almost did die, and how she was useless and afraid in her too-red dress and her too-long hair, and how, for a long moment, she just really missed Ino.

She still likes Sasuke. A lot. But when putting things into perspective...well. She's the one who broke her friendship with Ino off, and that's always sat as a kind of cold, guilty regret in the back of her mind, shoved where she won't think about it too hard.

So, on a free day, about a week after they return, and Sasuke is thankfully back, if a bit strangely accommodating, she goes to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Teal eyes, wary, look her over, noting the changes. She decided, after Wave, that enough was enough and she had to be serious. Especially since she now knows the stakes, knows and actually understands them. Her hair is braided and coiled in a bun next to her neck, and she went shopping with her relieved mother for sensible clothing, nothing eye-catching or movement-impairing. Not yet, until she can handle herself.

"Forehead," Ino says, but she sounds less aggressive than usual. Sakura steps closer hesitantly.

"Ino-chan," she says, and the address doesn't go unnoticed. "Can we talk?"

Two hours later, hard but also good, both of them are a bit red around the eyes, but they're smiling. Sakura leaves with an invitation to Yakiniku Kyuu - extended to her team, Ino adds slyly, which isn't half as irritating as it once was - and hope in her chest. Sakura thinks she'll take her up on the offer. With her team. 

It shouldn't be disastrous; from what she remembers, Chouji and Shikamaru had been nice if slightly truant at the Academy, and they had interacted a bit with Naruto. Sasuke...that might be interesting, but considering his behavior this past week…

She offers the invitation up to her teammates, Kakashi included. Naruto immediately agrees, exclaiming excitement at getting to talk to Shikamaru and Chouji. Kakashi languidly gives a non-committal answer about teasing Asuma, which she takes to mean he'll be there. Sasuke hunches his shoulders slightly.

"Yamanaka will be there?" he asks, a wary edge to his voice.

"Yes - but she's really nice!" Sakura says, trying not to cringe when he casts skeptical eyes at her. Looking back on it now, the Academy must have been... uncomfortable, to say the least, with at least ten girls constantly vying for his attention during the day. "Please? Just try - you don't have to stay."

She's not expecting it to work. But she doesn't take into account his newfound cooperativeness.

His eyes shift back down and he shrugs. "Fine."

Relieved, she smiles and turns back to where Naruto is planning, out loud, what he'll tell the others about Wave Mission. She doesn't see Sasuke's unease, or the way he swallows convulsively.

It'll be great. Hopefully, they'll all be closer after, and she'll be able to coax her team into socializing more.

…

This is going to be a disaster, Kakashi just knows it. And, as he watches the tableau unfold, he finds his prediction being confirmed with each passing second.

Sakura's smile has waned to a pale imitation as the Yamanaka girl continues to lavish attention on Sasuke, something the boy has noticed if the ever-stiffening set to his shoulders is any indication. Shikamaru is sleeping, blatantly ignoring Naruto, who's trying to entertain Chouji with stories of Wave. Unfortunately, the Akimichi boy is unused to aggressively positive attention, and Naruto is more conscious of other people than he lets on, so Chouji's nerves are making Naruto nervous too, which only makes him talk faster and louder. A vicious cycle, Kakashi thinks with a tinge of disappointment, because Chouji does seem like a nice kid.

Asuma is lazily amused, too busy mooning over Kurenai - yes, dumbass, everyone sees it but you, just ask her out already, she's head over heels - to notice the rising tension that Kakashi's too curious about to break. And it breaks. Spectacularly.

Sasuke stands, shoving Ino's arm off his shoulders - a bad idea, anyone could have and should have told her, to touch the deeply traumatized and prickly genin with horrible PTSD - and looks coolly down at her.

"You should forget about me," he says flatly. Shikamaru's eye pops open in interest, proving that he was, in fact, awake the entire time and just faking slumber so Naruto wouldn't talk to him. Ino blinks, and Sakura looks alarmed.

"Huh?" Ino asks, confused.

"Forget about me," Sasuke repeats. "It's never going to happen. I don't have time to date, and I don't have an interest in girls who don't take their jobs seriously." He jerks his head at Sakura. "She spent three hours working up the nerve to talk to you. Stop being selfish."

Ino's gone pink, tears in her eyes, and Chouji's starting to look mad now. Sakura is half out of her seat, and Naruto's gaping. Interestingly enough, Shikamaru doesn't look offended on Ino's behalf at all. Just... contemplative.

Sasuke glances at Sakura. "Sorry," he says shortly. "I'm leaving now."

Then, he walks out, hands clenched into tight fists.

There's a moment of silence. Kakashi sighs.

"I'll go after him," he says, to absolutely no one at all. He walks out, hearing Ino's attempt to overcome the humiliation at such a public and brutal rejection. 

He finds Sasuke walking home, head down, shoulders tight, breathing carefully even.

"That was a bit much, hm?" he asks, and Sasuke barely doesn't flinch. "It's something she would have learned eventually."

"And if she didn't?" Sasuke asks harshly, showing that burning flame of rage that he used to display constantly. "Then she dies and maybe drags her team down with her."

Kakashi hms in thought. "True, but your team was something of an abnormality. Besides, I don't think her preparedness was really the issue. You didn't have to reject her so harshly."

Sasuke scoffs and glares. "So, I should have kept her hopes up?" he demands. "She was ignoring Sakura for something stupid and useless. I was giving her closure - that's what you're supposed to do!"

Kakashi doesn't slow down, but he studies his genin as Sasuke turns away, fists clenched so tight he's probably cutting into skin, and eyes too expressive for the blank, cold look on his face. Windows to the soul indeed, he muses.

"What's going on, Sasuke?" Kakashi asks, coming to a halt in front of the boy so he can't escape. "You've been off for a while, and while Yamanaka-chan wasn't being politic, she's certainly not the root of all this." He gestures to Sasuke's entire body. "You're not sleeping more than a few hours a night, I'd estimate, and you're probably not eating meals beyond MREs or meal bars. You're being strangely helpful to teammates that you barely wanted anything to do with a month ago. What's changed?"

Sasuke glowers at the floor, chest heaving. Kakashi waits, half expecting his student to curse him and walk away. Instead, Sasuke says, tersely, "It's not enough."

Kakashi quirks an eyebrow. "Not enough?"

Sasuke looks up, glaring, and there. There's that desperation that Kakashi's been catching glimpses of for the past two weeks.

"Itachi is still out there, and no one fucking cares." It's said in undertone, a hiss, but it packs enough of a punch that Kakashi has to work to keep from shifting expressions. Sasuke turns away, face tightening as he fights to clamp down on his emotions. "Naruto and Sakura - if he comes back for me, he'll kill them. And you - do you think you could beat him?"

Sasuke turns back, a derisive, unstable laugh edging out that makes Kakashi distinctly uncomfortable. "No, you don't, do you? But no one is doing anything even though I told the Sandaime what he said to me. He wants me to be stronger, strong enough to fight him, which means he's coming back. So, I'm teaching Sakura and talking to Naruto and listening to you for the slightest chance that, if he does come back, we won't all fucking die."

Sasuke takes a step back, shakes his head, and slides a shaky version of his usual apathetic mask on. "If people can't understand that, it's their problem. I'm not losing to him, or anyone else, Sensei."

Then, he slides past Kakashi and walks away.

Kakashi only watches him.

…

The Chunin Exam nominations, frankly, come as a surprise the next morning. Sakura spent a good few hours yesterday in the awkward position between comforter and forgiver as Ino alternated between apologizing for being a horrible friend and trying to build her self-esteem back up. Now, she shifts between trying not to rip her recommendation paper as her hand flexes and watching Sasuke, who doesn't look nearly as pleased as anyone thought he would.

Then again, he's been surprising them all for the past two weeks. What's another one to put on the list?

He studies his paper with sharp eyes, jaw clenching and unclenching as Kakashi-sensei talks about what an honor it is, but he thinks they're ready - something that warms her a little, if she's being honest - and they should start preparing now for anything-

"What if we said no?"

The question comes out of nowhere and surprises them all, even Sakura, who hasn't taken her eyes off Sasuke since he joined them at the field twenty minutes ago. Kakashi cuts off and looks at him, expression serious, searching.

"Huh?" Naruto glances incredulously at Sasuke. "Why would you - you don't wanna go?"

Sakura wouldn't have said it like that, but it's pretty much what everyone is thinking. Of all of them, Sasuke is the one who's verbalizing doubts.

Sasuke ignores them in favor of keeping his eyes on Kakashi-sensei.

"You don't have to, of course," the man says slowly. "But considering your ambitions…"

Sakura looks back to Sasuke and sees a flash of disgust before his expression smooths over again.

"You'd let us? No one's pressuring you to put us forward?" Sasuke asks, and. Sakura has to think about what he's really talking about. It's probably, she thinks, watching Kakashi tilt his head, politics.

The Last Uchiha, Rookie of his year, has finally awakened his Sharingan. It makes sense that their superiors want him promoted as soon as possible so they can have an Uchiha in their ranks again. She never really considered that Kakashi-sensei would be under pressure to push his students forward as fast and as hard as possible to make that happen.

"Interesting thought," Kakashi-sensei says. Then, the heavy atmosphere disappears as he leans back. "But no. This was my choice alone. Fortunately, the village isn't in dire need of higher-ranked shinobi, so the Jounin-sensei have leeway regarding how fast they want to promote their students."

Sasuke watches him for a long moment. Then, he nods and pulls out a pen. He signs his paper and hands it back to Kakashi-sensei.

"Is that all we're doing today?" he asks. It's barely noon. Still, Kakashi-sensei nods.

Sakura glances guiltily at Naruto, who's signing his paper, and then at Kakashi-sensei. "I want to...talk to my parents first, if that's okay," she says. To her relief, Kakashi-sensei just pats her head.

"At least one of you tries to think ahead," he says. He accepts Naruto's paper and tells them to enjoy the day off before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Sakura turns to her teammates. "Want to...get lunch?" she asks. Naruto grins and accepts immediately. Sasuke considers it.

"Where?" he asks. She tries not to sigh in relief. After the disaster of the last lunch, she wondered if he'd ever want to talk to her outside of training again.

"Ramen!" Naruto says. "Ramen's the best."

Sakura grimaces, an old reflex, and then says, "Yeah, okay," because her mom told her that, with the amount of exercise she's doing, she actually probably needs the calories. Sasuke just follows after Naruto.

She chews on her lips for a moment. Then, she works up her courage and says, "Sasuke-kun?"

His eyes slide over to her.

"How come you asked about our team being pushed?" She's just not sure why it matters. Maybe they're being politically maneuvered, but the outcome of a chance for promotion is one that any good genin should snatch up, right?

Something very dark and very angry burns in Sasuke's eyes, making her flinch back. Then, it's gone and he looks away, jaw working. "People have been manipulating me my whole life, Sakura. I'm sick of it."

Sakura exchanges a wide-eyed glance with Naruto - who would have thought she'd be on close enough terms with him for that - and says, lamely, "Oh."

As much as she wants to understand Sasuke, she's coming to the harsh realization that she won't ever be able to. She'll be able to support him, and care for him, and maybe even stand before him, but he has trauma that she will never be able to fully understand, and nor does she want to. Uchiha Sasuke, she's learning, is damaged in a way that is not at all romantic or fun, and she's ashamed she ever thought he was mysterious and cool because of it.

He is cold and aloof, but those aren't reasons to love him.

Sakura is so deep in her thoughts, that she doesn't notice their stalkers until she hears giggles. She turns around and sees an extremely obvious box with holes in it, shuddering as giggles fill the air.

"Uh…" She points. "What is that?"

Both her teammates turn around. Sasuke looks, briefly, very annoyed. Naruto, to her surprise, mimics the expression.

"Oi!" he shouts. "I know you're under there, 'ttebayo! Come out already!"

There's a pause. Then-

"As expected of Naruto-nii!" The box is pushed up, and three little kids get into some kind of formation. Sakura vaguely recognizes one of them. She tries to parcel out why.

"It's the Sandaime's grandson," says Sasuke shortly as Naruto stomps forward to meet them. Sakura nearly double-takes.

"The Sandaime's…?" She looks closer at the grinning, smug child and can't really reconcile it to the image of the ever-serious but kind Hokage in her mind. "Really?"

Sasuke just crosses his arms. "His name is Konohamaru."

Konohamaru, apparently, jabs a finger at Sakura and makes a gesture that she's forty percent sure is inappropriate, and Naruto nods- why is he nodding; she'll punch his teeth out, cha!

"Ne, Naruto," Sakura says, sickly sweet, taking pleasure in how he pales and starts to sweat. "What are you telling this boy?"

"N-Naruto-nii, your girlfriend is scary," whimpers Konohamaru, tugging on Naruto's leg. 

Girlfriend-!

"Chaa! Naruto!" Sakura cracks her knuckles.

"Shit- run!" Konohamaru bolts, his two followers stumbling after him, Naruto bringing up the rear. Sakura smirks and follows at a slower pace. Sasuke disappeared somewhere, but she's not worried about it. If he really left, he would have told her.

Probably.

She hears a scream and rolls her eyes. Konohamaru must have run into someone or something. She speeds up as Naruto starts yelling. Gods, she's surrounded by actual children, isn't she?

She catches up and sees Konohamaru being held up by a strange boy with cat ears, of all things, and kabuki-like makeup.

"-go, bastard!" Naruto yells. "I'll make you regret it!"

"Save me, Naruto-nii!" Konohamaru wails. The other boy sneers.

"Why should I?" he demands. "Little brat ran into me - probably gave me a bruise."

"I'll give you more than a bruise," says Naruto murderously.

"Kankurou," says a new voice. Sakura peers behind the other ninja to see an older girl with a - Sakura jolts - Suna hitai-ate around her neck.

"Why are you in the village?" Sakura cuts in. The other girl gives her a disdainful look.

"Konoha genin," she says scornfully. "Don't even know what's happening in their own village. We're here for the Chunin Exams."

"Eh? No way a kabuki-guy like you would be in the exams," says Naruto, nose wrinkling. Kankurou growls, tightening his grip and making Konohamaru squeak. Before he can say anything, there's a blur of gray, and a rock smacks against his wrist, making him release Konohamaru.

Sensibly, the younger boy immediately makes a run for it, ducking behind Naruto. All of them look up and see Sasuke standing in a nearby tree, another rock in his hand, eyes hard and intent on the Suna ninja.

"Do you want to start a diplomatic incident?" Kankurou challenges, which strikes Sakura as a bit odd. Sasuke isn't intimidated at all.

"Funny," he says coolly. "I was going to ask you the same thing. I bet the Sandaime would be thrilled that you put your hands on his grandson."

Kankurou blinks. Behind him, the girl curses and glares. "Idiot," she snarls.

"O-oi, grandson?" Kankurou repeats.

Then-

"Kankurou. You're making a scene." A new voice. It's cold and dead and it makes shivers run down Sakura's spine. There's a flash of sand, and then a smaller boy with red hair and a large gourd on his back appears.

"G-Gaara," says Kankurou nervously. "Hey, c'mon, they attacked me first."

Sakura wants to argue that statement, but Gaara just fixes Kankurou with a look and says, "Shut up. I'll kill you." Sakura shudders, because he means it.

Kankurou steps back. "Of course. I was totally out of line, you're right."

Gaara ignores him and turns around to face Team Seven. All of Team Seven, Sakura realizes, because Sasuke has joined them and is standing on her left with Naruto on her right. They're caging her in, she realizes, forming a protective barrier.

"Apologies for Kankurou's behavior," Gaara says flatly. He turns around and walks away with his...team.

"Damn," says Naruto, exhaling shakily.

Sakura doesn't scold his language and turns to see Sasuke's Sharingan flicker off.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asks, surprised. He shakes his head.

"Nothing." Which either translates to will talk to Kakashi-sensei about it first, or to none of your business. She's hoping it's the first.

"Naruto-nii, you're so lame!" says Konohamaru unexpectedly. Naruto whirls around, mouth falling open.

"Whaddya mean!" he demands.

"Sasuke-san totally stepped in and saved me, but you didn't do anything!" Konohamaru jabs a finger out. "Lame!"

"Eh? You little-" Naruto grabs Konohamaru and puts him in a headlock while the other two children, sensibly hiding from the Suna ninja, come out to cheer them on. Sakura smiles at them, though it dies when she looks back to Sasuke and finds him staring after the long-gone Suna ninja.

She feels a prickle of unease. Somehow, though she doesn't know how, she thinks that this Chunin Exams will be extremely, to borrow from Shikamaru's vocabulary, troublesome.

Chapter Text

Thoroughly, completely, troublesome, Shikamaru decides. Definitely should have stayed in bed two days ago when this absolute shitshow began. Participate in the Chunin Exams, everyone said. It'll be completely secure, everyone said.

What a damn joke.

The very first day, it became abundantly clear that, whoever was adjusting the results of the exams for more favorable outcomes, it definitely wasn't the home team. Getting an Earth scroll and being put next to three dangerous teams with Heaven scrolls is not the kind of situation a Konoha team would end up in if Konohagakure was pulling the strings. That first day, instead of having time to pull a strategy together, Team Ten spent six straight hours evading pursuers and fending off the various and extremely, aggressively, dangerous animals.

Now, three days in, Ino has a sprained wrist, Chouji is on half rations - never ideal - and Shikamaru has far less chakra than he's comfortable with. Not to mention that they came across an extremely messy slaughter by Subaku no Gaara, so they're trying to keep their presences low. But they still don't have a scroll.

Shikamaru scowls and throws a ration bar at Chouji, who nods gratefully. The rotund boy is looking far too peaky for Shikamaru's taste, and they haven't even seen real combat yet. They're worn out from running. He makes a mental note to talk to Asuma-sensei about increasing their endurance, because damn everything, they were not prepared for this exam. Assuming they get out alive, he's going to have to start trying, which is irritating.

Ino wiggles back from where she poked her head out to look at the surroundings.

"We're clear," she says lowly. "And Team Seven's stopped just a few dozen yards that way." She points to their left, which is... Shikamaru glances at the sky. Which is north-east. Maybe thirty degrees off from where the tower is.

They've been tracking Team Seven for half a day now, having picked up their trail after losing Gaara. It doesn't make Shikamaru feel good, per say, to go after a Konoha team, much less people he knows, but the alternative is far deadlier than they can handle, so Team Seven it is. With them, they have a chance at least. Team Eight would see them coming literal kilometers away, and between Shino's kikaichu and Hinata's Gentle Fist, they wouldn't last two seconds. Team Seven, however, in spite of how Sakura's changed her mind set and how they've clearly become a more cohesive unit, still has Sasuke as the only real threat, and Shikamaru is fairly confident he can outmaneuver the other boy.

"Let's go then," he mutters, pulling himself up into a crouch, sneering in disgust at the mud caking the front of his shirt.

What a fucking day.

…

Tsukuyomi, which can turn minutes into days, is the greatest tool. I will teach you what you need to know for a week, and you will learn like you had a year. The first lesson: Endurance.

…

Sasuke wakes up to a world on fire. Every inch of his body feels like it's being held in the middle of the hottest flame imaginable, and it is only by the skin of his teeth that he doesn't scream. Through the roaring in his ears, the tremors in his body, he looks up and sees Sakura being held at knife point and-

Something-

Clicks.

…

Have you heard of the Mangekyou Sharingan? No? Let me educate you.

…

Shikamaru, for once in his life, has absolutely no idea what is happening. They caught up to Team Seven, so that was good. Then, Shikamaru realized that something was wrong.

Sakura was holding back tears, Naruto was unconscious, and Sasuke...well. Unconsciousness would have been a mercy for Sasuke. Black markings had covered every inch of his skin, and he had been writhing on the floor, hands fisted and weeping blood, eyes screwed shut, jaw clenched and locked tight enough that he probably was on the verge of cracking his teeth. 

Then, before Team Ten could even summon the thought of stepping in - to help or to steal, Shikamaru's still not entirely sure - a new trio had arrived.

"We're here for Uchiha," the bandaged boy had said in monotone. "Hand him over and we'll make your death quick."

Sakura, shaking but falling back on her training, had stood up. "Fuck you," she had hissed. 

Sakura had actually held her own pretty well. She managed to get the sound-wave guy roped against a tree, and the boy with bandages nearly got a twisted ankle. Only, the girl had gotten behind Sakura and held her at knife-point. At this point, Ino was rearing to go save Sakura, and honestly, it was just a matter of thinking up a strategy that wouldn't get them all killed, because Shikamaru might have been about to steal from them, but he wasn't going to let Team Seven die.

That was about when Sasuke stood up.

And now, here they are.

Sasuke's eyes fall on Sakura, struggling weakly, and they flash red. A fraction of a second later, the girl holding Sakura hostage starts screaming.

Sakura is shoved away as the other girl bats her hands at the black fire that has appeared on her chest, which is only spreading faster and farther with every second.

"Kin!" The boy with bandages leaps forward as her screams rise in pitch and desperation, driving into Shikamaru's ears like screws. "Kin, no- stop it!" He's speaking, Shikamaru realizes, to Sasuke, who's swaying and being held up by Sakura.

"Kin!" 

Kin collapses as the fire spreads all over her body. Five horrible seconds later, her screams stop, and her body smolders in chilling silence.

"I'll kill you!" the boy yells, rounding on Sasuke, but the fire that had been dying down suddenly leaps from the ashes of Kim's body onto his arm.

Shikamaru won't forget his screams anytime soon. Sasuke detangles from Sakura, markings still visible on every inch of skin, and lurches over to the dying boy. He pulls out a kunai and-

Ino whimpers, and Shikamaru very narrowly doesn't hiss through his teeth. 

At least the screaming stopped. For about one second. Then, the boy tied to the tree starts in, yelling and screaming inarticulately as he struggles against his bonds. Sasuke turns to him, and Shikamaru has seen more than most kids, even among clan kids. He's seen more, because his Dad is Jounin Commander, and that intrudes on family life more than either of his parents would like.

But he's only rarely seen eyes like Sasuke's are now. They're full of a burning, haunting desperation. They flick between the screaming boy and Sakura, and then they settle on something equally terrible: determination. Sasuke moves almost too fast for Shikamaru to follow, metal flashing through the air. There's a brief gurgle, and then the forest is quiet again.

Sasuke shudders, sways, and then drops. Sakura squeaks.

Shikamaru shivers in spite of himself and rests his head on the ground in front of him for just a moment.

Damn. Troublesome.

…

The power is tempting the power is his but-

Pathetic. If you are not in control then you are worthless; this is hardly the worst thing you will experience-

Burning burning hurts it hurts he can't - remember the lessons the morals the reasons he'll be better he'll do better - no Sakura is in danger help her free her save her-

Amaterasu blooms, and everything burns.

…

Sakura is tired. Nothing is going right in this stupid forest, her teammates are largely unconscious, and even with Team Ten here to help them, coming in after Sasuke collapsed again, none of them are at ease. Ino is pale and won't look Sakura in the eyes, Chouji isn't fat, which Sakura knows is a problem, and Shikamaru keeps shooting Sasuke wary looks. Sakura would ask how long they'd been watching, but there's genuinely no time, and she doesn't want to start anything.

They leave the bodies - well, one body and two piles of ash, with no fire to be seen because it seems to have disappeared somewhere between Sasuke killing the boy tied to the tree and Sasuke collapsing - and move towards the tower. Sasuke is pretty much dead weight, but Naruto shows signs of waking up, which is encouraging. Sakura holds Sasuke, thankful for every bit of strength training he's done with her for the past month, and Chouji gets Naruto, still physically the strongest of them even with his diminished size.

They track a Kusa team nearby, and Sakura is left to guard her team as Team Ten moves in on them. She doesn't see what happens, but by the time Team Ten returns, scraped but victorious, Naruto is blinking awake. Sakura almost cries in relief, but she settles for hugging him tightly. Confused but pleased, Naruto doesn't take long to notice that Sasuke is unconscious.

"What's wrong with him?" he asks in a whisper.

"That snake person did something to him," says Sakura, pointing to the weird seal on his neck. "He's mostly been unconscious, but...he woke up, once. We were under attack, but he saved me and killed the other team."

Naruto's eyes almost bug out. "Killed?" he squeaks. Before Sakura can answer, Sasuke groans.

"Noisy," he says, sounding annoyed. Sakura is so relieved that she does cry, but only a few tears. As she sniffles and puts herself back together, Sasuke's eyes flutter open, one hand coming up to grasp the seal. He hisses out a curse but gets to his feet.

"Sasuke-kun, um," says Sakura, squeaking when his dark eyes turn to her. "You just woke up. Maybe you should take it...easy?" It's a stupid suggestion. She's fairly certain that taking it easy is not in Sasuke's dictionary of recognized phrases.

"No time," he says. That's when Ino steps back into view. She catches sight of Sasuke - standing if unsteady - and Naruto - getting there - and Sakura - hands outstretched to yank her idiot teammates back down before they collapse again from sheer bullheaded stupidity - and blinks.

"Oh," she says. "You're...awake." She doesn't beam sappily at Sasuke. Sakura doesn't know if it's because of the disastrous lunch, or because she watched Sasuke kill a team all by himself, but some of the dazed awe is gone, and she looks distinctly uncomfortable. Sasuke doesn't seem to care.

"Team Ten?" he asks Sakura. She nods.

"Yeah. You guys were out and they helped move you," she says. He nods once in acceptance, and even after a month of his strange behavior, his ease at getting help still catches her off guard. But she lets it go in favor of asking Ino where her team is.

The latter gestures wordlessly over her shoulder, and sure enough, Shikamaru and Chouji come trudging in, presumably with their second scroll.

"How close to the tower are we?" asks Sasuke.

"About two hours out," says Shikamaru, watching Sasuke carefully. "You going to collapse again?"

It's a reasonable question, though Sakura cringes reflexively at the surely cutting response Sasuke will have-

"I'll make it," Sasuke says instead. It's flat, but it's an honest answer, and Sakura is so done with not knowing her teammate anymore.

"Let's go, dattebayo," says Naruto, subdued. "This place is the fucking worst."

Neither Sakura nor Ino say anything on his language, and they all wordlessly head for the tower.

Sasuke falls back in step with Naruto and Sakura. "There's someone who might approach us," he says, low enough that Team Ten won't hear him. "He's a genin from Konoha, but we shouldn't trust him."

"Who?" Sakura asks, wondering how in the world he would know.

"We met him before the first exam. Kabuto," he says, and something very dark flashes in his eyes before it's gone. Sakura sees it, though, and she sees Naruto swallow, which means he saw it too.

"What's wrong with him?" she asks. Sasuke doesn't answer for a long moment. Then-

"Those cards he had. He shouldn't have been able to make them," he says bluntly. "Mission records are kept private; only team captains, Jounin-sensei, and certain chunin can access them, aside from the Hokage and the ninja themselves. Kabuto is a genin, but getting that kind of information legally isn't possible for him. He's either got someone giving him information, which means Konoha has a leak, or he's sneaking in and getting it himself, which means he's above even chunin level in infiltration."

Sakura swallows hard. Suddenly, the mild-mannered older boy seems a lot more menacing.

"Should we tell someone?" she asks.

At the same time, Naruto says, "Why hasn't someone else figured this out?"

"No one else cares about it," says Sasuke darkly. "The Chunin Exams are a perfect cover for revealing skills and information you shouldn't have, because most genin are too stressed to think about it. If it hadn't been for the exams, Nara at least would have noticed something. Yamanaka too, probably." He tilts his head at Sakura's worried face. 

"We'll tell Kakashi-sensei when we get out."

It's not nearly encouraging enough, but Sakura swallows and nods because there's nothing else for it. The rest of the journey is spent in fraught silence, and she keeps one hand near her kunai holster.

They're about half an hour from the entrance, taking a short break to let Team Ten catch their breaths, when Sasuke, who's been keeping watch by intermittently flicking his Sharingan on no matter how much it seems to hurt him, launches out of the tree he's sitting in to stand in front of them all as a familiar teenager with grey hair emerges from the bushes.

"Ah," says Kabuto, eyes flicking from Sasuke's clear hostility to where Shikamaru is slowly standing, also wary as a byproduct of Sasuke's fast movement. "It's okay, just me." He raises his hands in surrender like it should mean something, and Ino and Chouji are relaxing already in the face of someone who's already proven to be non-threatening, but Sakura trusts Sasuke and his reasoning, so she doesn't put her kunai down. Naruto, at her side, doesn't either.

Shikamaru, eyes sharp on Team Seven and Kabuto, says, "What do you want?"

Kabuto's smile flickers just a little. Sakura wouldn't have noticed if she wasn't looking for it. "I noticed you and wanted to warn you about the tower. It's got patrols around it; I'm guessing it's people who haven't gotten their scrolls and are looking to ambush incoming teams."

"You've warned us," says Sasuke, and it's been a long time since Sakura's heard his voice so frigid. "Now go away."

Kabuto's smile tightens. "Hey, now. We're all from the same village. Why don't we work together-"

"No." Sasuke shifts into something more aggressive. "Being from the same village doesn't mean anything. For all we know, you could try and steal ours in our sleep. Go away, or I'll assume you're stalling for an ambush."

For a long moment, Kabuto doesn't move, and Sasuke's hand tightens around his kunai until the skin bleaches white. Sakura is half thinking that Kabuto will attack Sasuke, his smile is so plastered on, but then he sighs and shrugs. 

"If that's what you want," he says in a faux defeated tone. By now, Ino and Chouji are on guard too. Both of them have good instincts, so it's no surprise that they've picked up on something being very wrong.

Kabuto leaves, and Sakura watches Sasuke. His eyes turn red, and they stay that way, following Kabuto until he, presumably, is a safe distance away. Then Sasuke's eyes turn black again.

He turns to his team and nods shortly. "Gone," he says. Sakura huffs in relief and Naruto flops back on the ground.

"What was that?" asks Ino, staring at them like she doesn't recognize them. Sakura's heart hurts a little at the thought.

"Security measures," says Sasuke curtly.

"But- Kabuto's a nice guy! I mean, before the first exam…" she trails off as he stares flatly at her.

"Trust no one," he says. "Not even other Konoha teams."

To soothe the sting, a little, Sakura says, "He might not even have been Kabuto, you know. We ran into someone...under disguise, earlier this week."

Her eyes drift to Sasuke's neck, visibly inflamed even if he's not covered in those horrible markings anymore. Immediately, they flinch away guiltily, but Sasuke's not looking at her. Instead, he's looking at Shikamaru.

"Spit it out, Nara," he says.

Shikamaru sighs and mutters, "Troublesome." Then, louder, he says, "We need a plan for the patrols around the tower."

Chouji frowns. "Kabuto could have been lying, right?" he says. Shikamaru shrugs.

"Maybe. Still need a plan." He glances at Sasuke's stony expression. "Calm down. I don't think we should have trusted him either."

"Shikamaru-" Ino sputters, cheeks pink.

"We're not ones to talk on this, Ino," Shikamaru points out, and her mouth shuts.

Sakura decides to ignore whatever that means, though Sasuke has moved onto scowling with Naruto frowning in confusion beside him.

"So," she says in the tense silence. "Plan?"

…

The plan goes something like this:

Naruto can't access his usual insane chakra reserves, so he'll have to sit back and guard the perimeter of the safe area where Ino and Shikamaru will be hidden, strategically targeting opponents, with Sakura on standby to help move Ino. Chouji and Sasuke will be the frontal assaulters, providing distractions for Sakura, Ino and Shikamaru to move from area to area until they get to the tower. Sasuke will also keep an eye out for traps.

This places a lot of pressure on Sasuke, but he shrugs off any concern, and they don't really have any other choice. They start the plan off with Shikamaru, Sakura and Ino a secure distance away, hidden. Naruto climbs a tree and keeps watch for incoming enemies. Chouji and Sasuke move out to stealthily get as many enemies as they can. Of course, it all goes to hell immediately.

Chouji, deflated from half rations for two days, manages to knock out two opponents, but he fumbles the third and finds himself surrounded by three very angry genin. Sasuke does better, but when the enemies are alerted, he has to speed up and try and help Chouji before he becomes overwhelmed.

Sakura, watching, doesn't recognize half of the moves he pulls. They don't look like his usual taijutsu style - they're a lot sleeker, a lot smoother, and a lot more brutal. There isn't any awkwardness from a new style, either, so he must have been working on this in secret for a while.

Sasuke kicks his opponent away, towards a concealed Shikamaru, and then does a back handspring to dodge a flurry of kunai from another genin. Sakura turns her attention to Chouji, who's weathering his attackers pretty well, though he's tiring, and to Ino, who's already slumped over as she puppets another genin into putting his teammate in a choke hold. Shikamaru walks a genin into a tree three times, and then he lets the unconscious girl slide to the ground.

"Uchiha's better than I remember," he mutters, watching Sasuke neatly maneuver his opponent into breaking his own wrist.

"Uh," says Sakura, somewhat agog. She knows that Sasuke is the best taijutsu user on their team besides Kakashi-sensei, but this is...another level entirely. Not to mention that he's not keeping his Sharingan on all the time, only flashing it at certain points, sometimes causing his enemies to freeze. Maybe he's using a genjutsu?

"Head's up!" Naruto hisses suddenly. "Got another team - think it's Bushy Eyebrows, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura blanches as Shikamaru repeats, "Bushy Eyebrows," under his breath.

"Oh, no," Sakura moans. "Sasuke-kun is going to lose it."

…

Day 1 of Chunin Exams:

Sasuke herds them past the genjutsu on the second floor, and Sakura thinks they might be in the clear. Sasuke is strangely agitated, like he wants to go as fast as possible, so she and Naruto just trade shrugs and speed walk up the stairs. Except, when they get there, a voice calls out, "Wait a moment, please!"

Sasuke looks like he's just going to charge ahead, regardless of what the voice says, but Naruto grabs his shoulder and pulls him around, ignoring the hair-raising glare Sasuke sends him. A boy in green spandex with black hair in a bowl cut jumps in front of them, eyes fixed on Sasuke.

"You are Uchiha Sasuke," he says. Sasuke doesn't reply, yanking his shoulder from Naruto's hand.

"What," he says flatly.

"I am Rock Lee! I have heard that you are being called the Strongest Genin, and have come to test myself against you, the Last Uchiha," Rock Lee declares. Irritation and something else flash across Sasuke's expression.

"I refuse," he says bluntly. "I'm not going to waste time or energy fighting you right before the exams."

"Ah, but-" Lee starts.

"No." Sasuke whirls around and makes for the stairs. Lee frowns and nods once to himself.

"I see that you are not taking me seriously," he says. "I shall simply have to make you."

And with that, he launches himself at Sasuke at a speed that leaves Sakura blinking at the empty space he previously occupied. Then, she glances over at Sasuke and finds him ducking under another attack and blocking a kick on his arm.

"Go. Away," says Sasuke through gritted teeth. He grabs Lee's next punch and throws him back. Lee lands on his feet.

"A fast and reactive opponent!" he shouts. "You are indeed worthy of the title of Rival!"

"What the hell!" Naruto demands, throwing his hands up as they watch Sasuke keep up and beat Lee's insane speed. In fact, the longer the match goes on, the more Sakura can see how much Sasuke is holding back. There are times where she can see him abort painful counters and blows, and also everyone can see how he's not actually attacking back, just defending and deflecting.

"I shall have to use my ultimate weapon!" Lee shouts.

"You're insane," Sasuke snaps, knocking away another kick.

"Yosh!" Lee launches himself up and forward, spinning-

An enormous turtle headbutts him into the far wall.

Sasuke immediately stands down as Lee struggles to pull himself upright.

"Let's go," he mutters as the turtle starts reprimanding Lee.

Then a man with a green spandex suit appears on the turtle and punches Lee in the face. Things devolve from there, and Sakura and Naruto are left gaping as the two embrace.

"Is that...a rainbow?" Sakura asks, scrubbing her eyes. Sasuke sighs.

"I am Might Gai, and Lee is my student; I apologize for his misconduct," says the man, grinning. Sakura hears Naruto hiss as the light glints off of his teeth.

"They're so shiny," he whimpers. 

"It has to be a genjutsu," she mutters.

"Tell me, how is my Eternal Rival doing?" Gai asks.

"Bwuh?" Sakura says, blinking spots out of her vision.

"Ah, I see he has not told you yet. Hatake Kakashi and I have been in a fierce rivalry since we were but genin. I am currently winning 50 to 49 at the moment," he explains brightly.

"No way," says Naruto immediately. "Kakashi-sensei...to you?"

"Indeed! For I am much faster and stronger than he," says Gai, nodding, which. Seems suspect.

"I must confess," says Lee, appearing in front of Sakura. "I indeed am strong, but I am not the strongest genin. That is my teammate, Hyuuga Neji. However, I not only wanted to face Uchiha Sasuke but I also wanted to speak to you, fair maiden." 

To Sakura's utter mortification, he winks at her.

"I- no, sorry," she squeaks. "I'm not ready for a relationship right now."

He nods seriously. "It is very youthful of you to be focused on your career. However, I hope that in the future-"

"We're going," snaps Sasuke, pulling her and Naruto away.

"Goodbye, Fair Maiden!" Lee shouts.

"Fuck off!" Naruto yells back.

"I hope we never see him again," says Sakura fervently.

…

Present:

Shikamaru quirks an eyebrow at her, but she ignores it and turns to Naruto.

"How far out?" she asks.

He grimaces. "About six minutes."

She sighs in aggravation. "Get Ino. We're moving up the timeline," she says. Naruto nods and comes down from the tree. Shikamaru watches them, confused.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"Sasuke-kun already doesn't like Lee," she says. "If he sees Lee now, it won't go well." There will probably be screaming and blood involved, though who from she's not entirely sure.

Shikamaru nods, not questioning it like he would have if he hadn't seen Sasuke slit someone's throat after killing the rest of the team with black fire. He stands.

"Let's go."

With Naruto's help, they carry Ino away from the incoming team, skirting around the fighting, and bypassing their first three rest spots.

"What's going on?" Chouji asks as they draw closer.

"We've got incoming," says Shikamaru briefly. "Staying would be bad." The boy that Ino's puppeteering catches sight of them and then calls something to Sasuke. The latter knocks his opponent back hard enough that he flies into a tree before glancing at them. Sakura signs to him the bare bones of the situation. He nods and quickly signs back.

Run. Cover. 

"We're making a run for it," says Sakura, signing an acknowledgement. Hopefully, Sasuke and Ino will be able to cover them long enough that they'll be able to reach the tower.

With Chouji bringing up the rear and Naruto at the front with Shikamaru and Sakura lugging Ino's body, they dash for the tower. There's a shout behind them that's cut off with a somewhat horrifying gurgle. Between one second and the next, Ino jerks awake in her own body.

"Ino-chan?" Sakura asks. Ino shakes her head and tugs on Shikamaru's arm to be put down.

"He told me to go on ahead," she says as she stabilizes herself. "I figured I'd only get in the way if I stayed."

Worry and instinctual pride war within Sakura. On the one hand, Sasuke is definitely way too tired to fight like normal. On the other, he still has things up his sleeve that she had no idea existed before today, black fire foremost among them.

"Bastard'll be fine," says Naruto, reading her struggle. "He's not gonna let some lame foreign ninja stop him from getting into the tower."

Naruto's probably right. Sakura nods and tries to focus on her breathing like the Academy taught her. They're not far from the tower.

There's a rush of wind, and then suddenly Sasuke is there beside them. Sakura trips in surprise, and his hand catches her upper arm and yanks her back up.

"Are you okay?" Ino pants, glancing Sasuke over.

"I'll live," Sasuke says curtly. It's not precisely encouraging, but even if he was bleeding out, they're close enough to the tower that it'd be better to just go for it anyway.

They make it into the tower, and Sasuke wastes no time tugging the scrolls out, glancing only briefly at the message, before handing one over to Sakura and saying, "Open on three."

As soon as they open them, Iruka-sensei appears in a puff of smoke, smiling broadly.

"Congratulations-" he starts.

"We need to report a sighting of Orochimaru no Sannin in the forest," Sasuke interrupts. "And also, this." He tugs his shirt collar back to reveal the strange thing on his neck. Iruka-sensei goes pale, and things happen very quickly from there.

Team Seven is whisked away, leaving Team Ten to open their scrolls. Sasuke is pulled away by an uncharacteristically solemn Kakashi-sensei, and Naruto and Sakura are intensely debriefed for what seems like hours. When they're finally let go, they're led to a waiting room. Sasuke comes to the room a while later, with Kakashi-sensei trailing him.

"Didja fix it?" Naruto asks, curiously reaching for Sasuke's collar. Sasuke bats his hand away.

"Not yet," he says shortly. "We have to go."

Confused, they follow Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei to a small arena area, where all of the other genin who, presumably, passed are waiting. Team Ten is there, and Sakura catches Ino's eyes before Naruto nudges her to keep moving. Kakashi-sensei disappears as they shuffle into the crowd.

"Welcome," says the Sandaime Hokage from the front of the room.

Sakura listens with half an ear as she stares at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. Frankly, she can't believe he's standing. Although, judging by the pallor of his skin and the tightness around his eyes, even standing is costing him.  

When the proctor asks for people who are going to leave, to Sakura's surprise, Kabuto steps forward. Her surprise instantly turns to suspicion. Kabuto, to her knowledge, is unharmed and doesn't look fatigued at all. Why, then, would he want to give up his chance? This is, by his words, his seventh try.

When he steps out, Gekkou-san calls again for people who want to leave. Her eyes stray to Sasuke, as do Naruto's and Team Ten's. Sasuke remains pointedly silent.

"Alright, then first up is Uchiha Sasuke against Akado Yoroi," the proctor calls, coughing a bit.

"Kick his ass, teme," Naruto mutters. Sasuke just waves a hand and goes down to the arena.

"Begin!"

One minute, Sasuke's there, staring down his opponent. The next, he's gone, and then the minute after that, Yoroi is tied up almost painfully tightly with ninja wire, arms at his side, legs together, on the ground with Sasuke's foot on his back and a kunai at his neck. There's a pause, and then whispers break out. Gekkou-san raises an eyebrow but calls it as Yoroi spits winded curses at Sasuke.

"What the hell?" Naruto complains. "That was lame, 'ttebayo," he says to Sasuke. The latter shrugs.

"Can't use chakra," he says shortly. Sakura's eyebrows nearly hit her hairline. He moved that fast without chakra?

"How the fuck-" Naruto sputters. Sasuke, in answer, pulls back one of his dark blue sleeves and reveals a cuff with writing inscribed on the fabric. Sakura leans closer.

"Weights," she says in realization. "How heavy?" And since when? Sasuke started wearing long sleeves and pants after he returned from that week of illness, and he wasn't wearing them before that. 

"Ten on the arms. Fifteen on the legs," he says. "Started after Wave."

Ten kilos on each arm are impressive, even if he started at five or six. Sakura must make a noise to that effect, because he shakes his head dismissively. "Rock Lee is on twenty-thousand."

"T-twenty-thousand?" Sakura chokes. He nods.

"Each. No chakra."

"No fucking way," says Naruto, casting an appraising glance at Team Three. "Bushy Brows is that strong?"

Sakura, a little dazed, turns back to watch Shino's match against Chouji. The former wins by a landslide, content to allow his kikaichu do the work. Chouji slumps to the ground, unconscious, and the match is called. Then, it's the Suna guy from earlier, Kankurou, against someone Sakura doesn't know. Kankurou wins with puppets, which she's never seen before. And then-

"Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura!" the proctor calls.

Oh.

"You got this, Sakura-chan!" says Naruto, cheering. Sasuke offers her a nod, and she takes herself down to the arena. She stands across from Ino and breathes.

Okay. She can do this.

…

He's in Hell when the door opens and he hears, "Sasuke?" In spite of every attempt to grind sentiment out of his body, to cauterize it like the poison it is, he feels dread burn like a slow acid in the pit of his stomach.

Get away, he wants to shout. But his throat is hoarse from hours-days-years of screaming, and he only manages a weak sound before he's contemptuously brushed aside by-

"Ah, the sensei."

"Get away from him." That's Kakashi like he's only heard him once before, in Wave, when everyone thought he was going to die. Cold, angry, ruthless. But Kakashi won't win here, in spite of everything, because-

"You won't be bothering us, I think."

And Sasuke closes his eyes and looks away because he's a coward-

"Sasuke?" A hand taps his forehead, and he flinches back, attention refocusing on Kakashi's unimpressed face. "Maa. If you have time to daydream, I'm clearly not working you hard enough."

No daydreams, Sasuke wants to say. 

Only nightmares.

Chapter Text

Sasuke takes to the Chidori with frankly unnatural ease. He gets it within three days and then has to be paced for the rest of the month to make sure he doesn't blow out his tenketsu. Kakashi chalks his aptitude up to his untested - but increasingly obvious - elemental affinity and leaves it at that. Sasuke also doesn't even try to reach for his seal to get an extra boost. Not once.

Apparently, Kakashi underestimated his student. Either he's not as impatient for power as he seems, or he's just a spiteful brat who doesn't want to rely on something given to him by an attacker. Kakashi could honestly see either being the case. His increasingly more complicated student strives to make everyone around him scratch their heads in confusion.

Seriously. Kakashi did not expect his vengeance-driven student to be his largest headache. That dubious honor had previously gone to Naruto, mostly because of the demon sealed in his stomach and the unfortunate twist of Kakashi's shriveled heart whenever he happens to look at the kid's blue eyes or bright grin for too long. Instead, he gets Naruto, difficult because of his past associations, and Sakura, a true blessing who will be a good kunoichi solely so Kakashi can rub her success in every clan kid's face, and motherfucking Sasuke, who has had one (1) complete switch in priorities and who has given Kakashi no less than five (5) serious headaches that required some venting of the violent variety.

Not only does Sasuke seem to have garnered the fear/respect of Team Ten out of the blue - no one will go into detail about the Forest of Death, but that might be because Kakashi whisked Sasuke out of the village for one-on-one training as soon as he could, and prying information out of Sasuke might as well be labeled a feat of the gods - but he also apparently got a spy working for Orochimaru put in T&I. Just. What. Kakashi didn't think that mentioning his student's suspicions about the Yakushi kid to Ibiki would result in that.

"Finished."

Kakashi looks over and sees his student back from his laps. He's getting faster. He added weights when Kakashi wasn't looking, the brat, so he's farther along than Kakashi thought he would be.

"Mm. You're practicing the Chidori. You've got weights. It's a good start. What do you think your greatest strengths are?" Kakashi asks languidly. Sasuke does not, like many genin Uchiha who awoke their Sharingan doubtlessly had, immediately jump to his dōjutsu.

"Speed," he says eventually. "Reaction times."

Kakashi hms in agreement. "I'd also say your maneuverability is good for a genin."

This makes something in Sasuke's expression tighten. Maybe he's not satisfied with that level. To be fair, Kakashi wasn't when he was a genin either, so. The expression clears a second later, leaving Kakashi to wonder just when his student got so skilled in hiding his feelings. He's always had that stone-cold, resting bitch face - or, he has for as long as Kakashi's known him - but he's quite expressive when he's angry, annoyed, or anything between the two. Now, though, instead of hiding behind icy disdain or soul-crushing irritation, he seems to have developed a true blank mask.

Kakashi pushes this strangely unsettling thought aside for later.

"What about your weaknesses?" he asks. Two months ago, that question would have resulted in a glare and a long pause before Sasuke resentfully spit something out. Now, there's almost no pause.

"I don't have fine chakra control, I rush into combat, my body isn't physically strong enough to back up my taijutsu style against anyone older or too much stronger than me, and I only use the standard Academy E-ranks and a couple Katon jutsu from the Uchiha arsenal," he says, rote. Then, he adds unenthusiastically, "And the Chidori, now."

Kakashi considers him. Sasuke isn't wrong, per say, about any of it. But the way he said it seemed...like it was a failure on his part that he wasn't better, even though he's only been a genin for less than a year. Kakashi, at that point in his life, had been confident enough to know that he was doing everything he could and that Minato would guide him through improvement. 

Sasuke, Kakashi thinks suddenly, has low self-esteem. It's a startling conclusion to make, because he always comes off as skilled and somewhat arrogant because of it. But maybe Kakashi hasn't been doing a good enough job of looking underneath the underneath. It's very easy, after all, to mistake arrogance for false bravado. The latter can hide a lot, if people don't bother to look closer.

"The weights and time will help with most of those," Kakashi says abruptly. It's definitely not what Sasuke wants to hear, but it's reality. Smaller ninja have to supplement their lack of physical strength with tools like weapons or jutsu. Most people can only handle channeling a small amount of chakra correctly through their bodies to give them extra strength or to stick them to surfaces, and it requires better control than many can manage. It's why Tsunade of the Sanin is so revered - her control is so impeccable that she doesn't have to worry about accidentally crippling herself by overloading her limbs with chakra. Even Kakashi, Sharingan and all, wouldn't be able to replicate her success.

"Which means, you'll just have to compensate for the time being." Kakashi claps his hands together, making Sasuke's eyes jump up to meet his. "So, my cute student. We'll work on your taijutsu and speed, and such, but to help with both of those, and to help you get around Gaara's sand, you'll be learning the Shunshin."

Sasuke's eyes widen. That's gratifying. There aren't many things that seem to surprise Sasuke anymore.

"Turn on your Sharingan. You'll need it. And while we work on the Shunshin, I'll be quizzing you on different battle scenarios to help your mindset of, as you said, rushing in."

Sasuke is by far his most complicated student, but Kakashi's heard the whispers and seen the distrustful stares. He'll take great pleasure in turning Sasuke and the rest of Team Seven into some damn fine ninja, and all of the rumor-mill gossips and fear-mongers will get to eat their rotten hearts out.

...

Sakura is expecting Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke to turn up at the last minute. Considering Kakashi-sensei's penchant for dramatics and complete disregard for propriety, she's expecting the proctor to get halfway through announcing Sasuke to be disqualified. But while they are late enough for the match to be pushed back, she's surprised when they appear right after Kankurou forfeits to Shino.

"You're late, asshole!" Naruto shouts, jabbing a finger at Sasuke. The latter aims a pointed glance towards Kakashi-sensei, who eye-smiles at the two of them and then turns to ruffle Sakura's hair.

"How's my least problematic student?" he asks. Sakura, already blushing a little from the hair ruffle, blushes even harder.

"That's- sensei!" she splutters. Naruto takes that as his cue to jump in, demanding to know what exactly that means, and if it's an insult, he'll kill him.

"Maa, so excitable," says Kakashi-sensei cheerfully, and Sakura can hear Naruto suck in a breath to bellow something. Except, Kakashi-sensei immediately follows it up with, "I heard about your win against Hyuuga-kun. Well done."

Naruto deflates, blinking in shock. He recovers quickly, grin turning almost blinding. "Uh- thanks. It wasn't much, 'ttebayo!"

"Hyuuga beats Lee on a regular basis. He's a prodigy in his clan and was the top of his class," Sasuke cuts in, almost a non-sequitur. "Don't be self-effacing, Dead Last. It's tiresome."

Sakura and Naruto gape at him. Naruto bounces back quicker, jabbing a finger at Sasuke and saying, "It's called humility, asshole! Try it sometime!"

Sasuke rolls his eyes and looks away, leaving Sakura to catch Naruto's scowl dropping into something almost vulnerable before he sniffs and hitches his scowl back up. Sakura turns away, smiling to herself at the image of Naruto's mouth twitching up at the corners in spite of his best efforts to keep scowling.

She catches Kakashi-sensei's eye, and it curves up to match her smile. The boys are, finally, growing up.

Time passes quickly. Sakura can't help giggling at Shikamaru's match - she looks at Ino and finds her practically bending over the railing to yell at her teammate for giving up when he'd won. Then, Sasuke appears in the arena, across from Gaara, and her humor slips away.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," says Naruto confidently. "Bastard wouldn't let that kind of guy beat him." Then, to punctuate his words, he leans over the rail and shouts, "You better kick his ass!"

Sasuke glances at them and then looks away. Naruto bristles, seeing it as being brushed off, but Sakura figures that being looked at at all is an acknowledgement. Before she can say so, though, an ANBU agent with a bird mask appears. He jerks his head at Kakashi-sensei, who puts his book away and follows to a more secure area. Sakura looks away when the proctor calls for the match to begin.

"Mother will like your blood," Gaara says, eyes gleaming with...something disturbingly like hunger.

Sasuke ignores this, disappearing in a puff of smoke and leaving behind a cluster of shiny objects. Sakura looks closer and sees that they're shuriken, buried in the ground, sharp blades sticking out. She frowns, looking around for Sasuke-

There!

Sasuke appears on the opposite side of the arena. Now that she's looking for it, she sees him drop a handful of shuriken at his feet before disappearing again.

"What's that?" Naruto asks, squinting. "How come he's disappearing like that?"

Sometimes, the gaps in Naruto's knowledge appall Sakura. She answers, "He's using the Shunshin - a fast movement jutsu. Kakashi-sensei must have taught it to him." Naruto's face scrunches up in his deep-thinking expression. Sakura leaves him to it, focusing on Sasuke as he makes his way around the arena, dropping shuriken periodically, dodging Gaara's thrashing sand. Finally, as the latter seems to hit peak impatience, Sasuke changes directions and throws shuriken at Gaara. They're batted aside of course-

Sakura looks closer. No, they're not. In fact, they stick in the sand and hold fast. But how? Chakra? Is Sasuke infusing them with- lightning chakra, must be, to make them pierce the sand at all. The air around them glints too, and Sakura realizes that they're also connected to strands of ninja wire, which are anchored in the shuriken surrounding Gaara.

"What…" she wonders.

"Hm? Sasuke's using an interesting strategy," says Kakashi-sensei from behind her, startling her.

"What do you mean? You know what he's doing?" Sakura asks, watching Sasuke duck neatly underneath a grasping tendril of sand.

"Yes. However, I won't spoil the show." Kakashi-sensei pats her head when she makes a disgruntled face. "But watch closely."

Sakura could only be watching more closely if she was down in the stadium with Sasuke.

"Enough!" Gaara says, utterly infuriated. "Your blood will satisfy Mother-"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Three Sasukes puff into view and dart for different sections of the arena. Then, before anyone can react to that, all of the Sasukes' hands crackle with electricity, and they say, "Chidori."

As one, they plunge their hands down against the clusters of shuriken at their feet-

Lightning flies almost faster than she can follow, all the way up to Gaara's sand shield-

Sand explodes outward, all of the shuriken doing their jobs as little conduits for the lightning. The real Sasuke blurs as his Kage Bunshin continue to channel lightning through the shuriken and ninja wire. Gaara reels back, but without his sand, he's nowhere fast enough to dodge-

A blood curdling scream rings out. Sasuke dances back, face set in something grim and wary. From behind his patchy wall of sand, Gaara clutches at his shoulder, which is bleeding profusely. Sakura looks closer. She doesn't think Sasuke went all the way through, but it was definitely a solid hit. 

"You- Mother it hurts- UCHIHA!" Gaara roars, lurching forward. The rest of the Kage Bunshin are dispelled as a furious sandstorm kicks up. Sakura blinks as feathers begin to fall into the arena-

"Kai!" She breaks out of the genjutsu, glancing immediately for her team. Naruto is still asleep, but Kakashi-sensei is fending off three fully grown Sand ninja. She risks looking down into the arena and finds Gaara charging out through a hole in the wall with Sasuke nowhere in sight. She wakes Naruto up with a burst of chakra just in time for Kakashi-sensei to knock two of his opponents over the rail into the arena. The third is removed by a distressingly familiar man in green spandex.

"Not him," Sakura mutters as Naruto boggles.

“Why this?” Naruto yelps as the man pulls a pose oh gods her eyes-

"Sakura, Naruto, Konoha is under attack from Suna and Otō," Kakashi-sensei says quickly, turning to face them. "Gather some of your classmates and go after Sasuke and Gaara."

Sakura would rather take her chances with the various Otō and Suna ninja than Gaara, but they can't leave Sasuke to do something crazy by himself, so she goes right for Shikamaru, who's only a few feet away. She reaches down to wake him up-

She shrieks and windmills back when he rolls over, eyes already open. "You were awake?" she demands. He scowls at her and gets up.

"Troublesome. I was going to just sleep through everything," he says, making her gape. He leans down and quickly wakes up his teammates. He looks at Sakura. "Sit rep?" 

"Kakashi-sensei wants Naruto and me to grab some people and go after Sasuke-kun and Gaara," she reports quickly. "They went out that way, towards the forest." She points to the large hole.

Team Ten exchange glances. "Alright," Shikamaru says, resigned. "Guess we're it, then. Maybe we'll find people on the way."

Naruto is already chomping at the bit when she looks at him, so without any further delay, they hurry out of the arena. Fortunately, Kakashi-sensei and Gai are still around to cover their exit, which means that they don't have to fight until they leave the arena. Kakashi-sensei summons a ninken for them - he introduces himself as Pakkun - and sends them on their way.

"Pakkun-san, can you track Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asks the pug.

"Have something that belongs to him?" Pakkun asks. Sakura glances at Naruto, who shrugs helplessly. Shikamaru mutters something that she doesn't catch before stooping down and picking up a handful of sand.

"This is Gaara's. Can you track him from this?" he offers it to Pakkun, who sniffs it intently.

"Got it," the pug confirms. "Forward, pups."

They move. After only a few minutes, they screech to a halt when Kankurou steps out of the shadows, perched on a tree branch above them.

"Hold it," he calls. "I can't let you stop him."

"He's going to level the fucking forest!" Naruto shouts angrily. "And he's going to kill Sasuke."

Kankurou shrugs. "Not my problem. Your friend shouldn't have gone after him alone."

More like Gaara was chasing Sasuke, Sakura thinks, but she doesn't say so. She can see Shikamaru sliding into a better position, and she tenses in preparation, but before they can do anything, a new voice speaks out.

"I will take care of him." There's a buzz as Shino lands lightly on a branch nearby, staring intently at Kankurou. "Follow Uchiha."

Sakura gapes at him, but Naruto is already moving. Pakkun tugs on her collar.

"Let's go, girly," he says. She shakes her head and darts after Naruto and Team Ten.

Because they have terrible luck, they lose Team Ten not even ten minutes later. Apparently, some enemy shinobi saw them leave and decided to chase them.

"Wait- you can't just-" Sakura splutters, eyes jumping between each member of Team Ten's faces.

"Go," says Shikamaru. Ino tosses her hair as Chouji offers them a small smile.

"Help Sasuke," says the latter, coming to a stop beside his teammates.

"We're ninja too, you know," Ino sniffs. "Don't look down on us just 'cause we're not crazy like you guys."

"That's not-" Naruto puts a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"Come on," he says, almost gently. "They're giving us an out, 'ttebayo."

"Get outta here, Forehead," says Ino, turning around. "It's our turn to kick ass and save the day."

"We're literally stalling for time," Shikamaru deadpans. Chouji laughs as Sakura begins to run again.

"You better survive so I can beat you for real!" she shouts over her shoulder. Ino flips her off.

"That's my line!"

Sakura laughs and turns back to follow Naruto. She catches up quickly.

"How close are we, Pakkun?" she asks. The pug shakes his head.

"Not far."

Within five minutes, they hear sounds of battle. Well. They hear a lot of crashing and a lot of screaming.

Sakura and Naruto exchange grimaces before doubling their speed. She catches a glimpse of a wave of sand, before an enormous gust of wind nearly blasts the three of them off of their branches. Reflexively, she digs her heels in with chakra, bending down to hold on with her hands as Naruto stretches one arm out and catches Pakkun by his collar.

Sakura ignores the pug's rumbling protest in favor of finding the last Sand sibling.

"What the fuck!" Naruto yells at her, thoroughly incensed.

"You won't be able to stop Gaara!" Temari shouts, cringing as another scream sounds. Fortunately, as horrible as it sounds, Sakura knows what Sasuke's screams sound like. These are all Gaara's.

Which is probably good, because it means that Sasuke is at least not losing. On the other hand, Gaara is clearly unhinged, and the more time they waste here, the longer Sasuke has to deal with that alone.

"You can run if you want," Sakura says with surprising calm. "But we're here for our teammate."

"Yeah!" Naruto jabs a finger at Temari. "So either fight us or get the hell out of the way, ‘ttebayo!"

Temari opens her mouth to answer-

Sasuke comes flying just over her head, crashing into the tree next to Sakura's. He doesn't even make a sound, landing unsteadily on his knees before straightening. He looks up, and Sakura's breath catches.

He looks horrible. He's pale and bleeding in multiple places at once. He's shaking from exertion, and his eyes are red and tight from his gleaming Sharingan. He glances around him, catches sight of them, and scowls.

"Took you long enough," he says flatly. He glares at Temari. "Congratulations. Your invasion failed, and your brother is going to kill everyone and then himself before the Sand demon lets him go."

Two things happen at once after he says that:

Temari goes pale and says, "How did you know-"

And Naruto flinches and says, "The fuck, bastard?"

Temari and Naruto stare at Sasuke. Sasuke looks, briefly, like he wants to either roll his eyes or strangle one of them.

"Does it matter?" he snaps impatiently. "Take care of the rampaging jinchuuriki now and ask questions later."

The what? Sakura is lost. Everyone else is less so, and it would be irritating, except Sasuke is totally right.

"UCHIHA!"

Gaara whips into view, and he looks demented and inhuman. Half of his face is covered in some kind of animalistic sand mask, and his eyes are wide and manic. He has claws for hands now and a growing tail sprouting behind him. Not to mention, sand is whirling around him so quickly that it's actually scoring marks in whatever trees he goes near.

He disregards everyone present in favor of reaching out a claw for Sasuke-

Sasuke, in the blink of an eye, disappears and reappears behind Gaara. His hand, already sparking and chirping, plunges forward-

A gust of wind blows him off course, and his Chidori skates off Gaara's far shoulder instead of hitting his spine. Sakura whirls around to see Temari, with her fan still outstretched. She only has time to make a noise of absolute fury, and then a thick swathe of sand wraps around the other girl and throws her through a nearby tree.

"No interfering," Gaara hisses. He turns away from the crumpled form of his sister to look for Sasuke, who is miraculously still standing.

Sasuke signs Distract, Plan at Sakura, and then he's gone, with Gaara close on his heels.

"Fuck," says Naruto.

"Go- go after them," says Sakura, biting her lip. "I- I'll check on Temari."

She probably shouldn't; the other girl is an enemy, and one who has proven that she doesn't care what happens to them. But it's probably better to tie her up anyway, and Sakura won't be much use to Sasuke at the moment.

"Okay," says Naruto. "Be careful, 'ttebayo." He's gone in a blur of orange.

Sakura sniffs, once, and then jumps lightly from her tree.

"Don't stab me, don't stab me, don't stab me," she mutters under her breath as she approaches Temari. She keeps a kunai out just in case, but the other girl seems to be truly unconscious.

She's just securing Temari with ninja wire, when an enormous roar shakes the trees, and a familiar, corrosive chakra fills the air. She's only seen it once, but she remembers the last time it appeared in this great quantity.

"Oh, no," she says, standing.

Naruto. Sasuke.

…

This is a dōjutsu you've never heard of before. Tell no one you have it, unless you want to die. It's the strongest dōjutsu, but if the wrong person knows you have it, your life and the world will be forfeit.

It's called the Rinnegan. With this, your enemies won't stand a chance.

…

After everything, after Gaara limps away with his arms around his siblings' shoulders, after they return to the village and hear the news that the Sandaime Hokage is dead and Orochimaru has fled, Sasuke corners Naruto.

"Don't tell anyone about what happened with Gaara," he says. That won't be hard, per say, because Naruto still isn't sure what the shit happened with Gaara.

"Why not?" Naruto asks, too tired to make it sound aggressive. "It was a good thing, you know. You stopped him in his tracks before he could squish Sakura."

"It has to do with clan secrets," says Sasuke, glancing around them like someone could be eavesdropping. "Forget you ever saw it. Say you took him down with your summon or your words." 

"Bastard, what the hell-"

"Promise me." Naruto's words freeze in his throat when Sasuke looks him in the eye. He's never seen the guy look so frazzled. So...desperate. It's not right. Naruto hates it, because Sasuke is a cold-hearted, condescending jerk, not whatever this is.

It's only because Naruto is weirded out, and not out of any concern whatsoever, that he grumbles but says, "Fine, whatever. Now, can we talk about how you know about...this?" He gestures to his stomach. Sasuke rolls his eyes.

"You have more chakra than Kakashi-sensei, Sakura told me you sprouted tails in Wave, and Mizuki used to call you a demon," he says flatly. "It's not that hard to figure out, Dead Last."

Naruto blinks. Absently, he appreciates that Sasuke didn't address Mizuki as sensei, because the guy sure as hell never earned that title. "You should also take a good look at a colored picture of the Yondaime Hokage." With that, Sasuke turns around and walks away. Naruto gapes at his back.

"Wait- what does that mean? Get back here, asshole!"

Sasuke just Shunshins away, the jerk. Naruto huffs. Then, because he's not an idiot, shut up Sasuke, he goes to find a picture of the Yondaime Hokage.

…

"Konoha damned our family, and if you think otherwise, then you're just as brainwashed as the rest."

…

This is the truth: the morning that the streets ran red with Uchiha blood, the Sandaime Hokage called in his advisors and the ANBU commander and captains, as well as everyone who had been on scene and found one comatose seven-year-old and half a village's worth of corpses.

Shikaku, Jounin Commander, had been one of the unlucky ones to be summoned. And there, he'd been told along with everyone else in the room about the truth.

One: Uchiha Itachi was on the run, fresh after wiping his clan out of existence save for his little brother. He was going to be labeled an S-class Missing-nin.

Two: The Uchiha clan had been planning a coup. Everyone in the higher circle of authority had been acutely aware of it and unable to come up with a peaceful resolution whilst maintaining authority.

Three: the Sandaime's solution? Order Itachi to kill his entire clan and then flee the village and become a spy.

Shikaku respected his Hokage. A lot. But he'd met Inoichi's eyes that day, and they'd both had the same thought: what, the ever-loving fuck?

It smelled of Danzō, who'd never particularly hid his animosity towards the Uchiha to anyone who had two good eyes. Or even one good eye.

Going home that day had been...Shikaku had visited Uchiha Sasuke in the hospital, once, shame prickling in his chest, because none of them had seen it coming. The kid didn't deserve this. He should have died with his family, but Itachi's twisted love and selfishness had kept that from happening, and now he was all alone. The Sandaime had ordered against any of the families taking Sasuke in, and he'd ordered against ever telling him the truth.

"Sasuke will grow up to become a loyal soldier and citizen," the Sandaime had said sternly. "There is no need to trouble his mind with such things. Better that he forgets about it."

Shikaku wasn't one for betting, but that...even the Legendary Sucker would go against that bet and win. It sounded to him like a desperate hope rather than a firm conclusion.

Sasuke and Itachi's fates aside, the entire matter had been disquieting. Everyone there, though they'd never say so, was thinking the same thing.

If that can happen to the Uchiha, one of the founding clans and one of the largest clans who consistently produced some of the best shinobi, could it happen to us?

The answer to that, of course, was yes. It wasn't even an if so much as a when. Especially with Danzō looming over them and the Sandaime capitulating to his old teammate's whims.

Maybe, Shikaku had thought tiredly, and not for the first time, it's time to find a new Hokage candidate. And, right on the heels of that thought, equally weary, Minato would never have let it get this bad.

Before his death, Minato, for all his village loyalty and youthful optimism, had truly never liked Danzō and had indeed been in the works of quietly forcing him to retire.

I've killed a thousand men in one day, Shikaku remembered Minato saying grimly, but that was for the village. Danzō...he's out for his own gain, and he'd cut us all down to see his will done.

Shikaku had meant to push, had meant to get others on his side and force the man down and out of power, but after the Kyūbi invasion, no one had wanted to rock the boat. Especially after the Hyuuga Incident. Then...then the Uchiha Massacre had occurred. 

And now…

Shikaku looks into the dark, tired, disdainful eyes of Uchiha Sasuke. Now, we're paying for it.

"Alright," says Shikaku, bracing himself inwardly. "Report. How exactly did you stop the Ichibi?"

Sasuke remains stone-faced. "Ask my idiot teammate."

Godsdammit.

It's going to be a long day.

…

Three hours earlier…

The invasion is not going according to plan. He finally killed his relic of a former sensei, but the delicious satisfaction of that act pales compared to what he lost in the process. Orochimaru flees, because his arms have been destroyed; one final act against him by the old man, another hindrance in his path to immortality. No matter. Uchiha Sasuke will be his soon enough, no matter that Kabuto got himself captured like an incompetent fool.

Kabuto will free himself, or he will die. Orochimaru has no use for minions that require rescuing.

“Leaving so soon?”

Orochimaru pauses, tilts his head, and turns. There, in the shadows of a ruined building, is a short figure with dark hair and eyes. Ah.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” says Orochimaru, not betraying his surprise. “So kind of you to come find me.”

Sasuke takes one step closer. Indulgently, Orochimaru lets him. The boy looks positively ragged, clothes torn and various limbs bandaged sloppily, as if he’s just come out of battle. Last Orochimaru saw, Sasuke was taking after the Ichibi. How did he manage to slip away?

“You tried to kill my team.”
“Hm? I was doing you a favor. After all, they’re only holding you back, aren’t they? The civilian girl and the mindless beast. You must have realized that, if you’ve come to see me,” says Orochimaru. There’s something off about this. He was expecting to have to take Sasuke, persuade him, and ultimately force him to choose between his ambition and his village. Obviously, with a boy like Sasuke, there is only one choice.

“You think I care about power. You’re not wrong.” Sasuke’s dark eyes bore into his. “But you missed one thing.”
“Oh?” Orochimaru is tired of this conversation. “What would that be, little Uchiha?”

Sasuke’s eyes flash red-purple-

“I’m getting really fucking tired of being told what to do,” Sasuke hisses in his ear. Then, as Orochimaru reacts, swinging his useless arms, opening his mouth to bite at a neck that is no longer there, a sharp pain erupts in the middle of his chest. 

Orochimaru’s knees hit the ground. His mouth gapes uselessly up at the child standing before him, red eyes spinning, flashes of purple in the left one. “You- how-” Orochimaru wheezes.

Impossible. Impossible. He, Orochimaru of the Sanin, S-rank Missing-nin, cannot be defeated by a child. He is meant for immortality, for breakthroughs in science, for-

“Rot in hell, and know that nothing you wanted to achieve has happened,” says Sasuke coldly. Then, Orochimaru’s head falls to the ground, and his glassy eyes watch as his body burns with a strange, black fire.

…

Sasuke spits blood onto the ground and braces himself against his legs, panting. His tormentor stares dispassionately at him.

“Orochimaru of the Sanin will offer you power,” he says. “He will come for you in the Chunin Exams and give you a Cursed Seal to try to take over your body. Use him, take his knowledge, things that he never taught me, and then kill him.”

“He wants my body, and I’m supposed to trust him?” Sasuke scoffs, looking up through sweaty bangs. This earns him a hard glare.

“Trust will kill you. Use people, or they’ll use you.”

Sasuke glares back, defiant and spiteful to the last. “What’s the fucking point, then? I’m supposed to save Itachi and stop Madara, right? Won’t that require something being left to save?”

His captor laughs, cold, harsh, and jagged. “You think there’s an ‘after’ for you? Saving Itachi will be your life. You either do everything in your power to save Itachi, trampling everything and everyone in your path, draining every resource dry, or give up now, because you’ll never get there. Playing happy family with your team makes you a joke. Forget about them. Forget about everyone except for your goals, and giving Itachi what he deserves, and making Konoha pay for what they did to our family.”

Sasuke shakes his head, hands clenching on his shaking knees. “What’s wrong with you? Do you hear yourself?”

The man smirks mockingly. “Scared, Sasuke-kun? This is your future; take a good look.”

Sasuke looks away and hears the man laugh again, scathing and condescending.

“You’re naive,” the man says patronizingly. “That won’t last long. Just remember, we’re the same person. Whatever I’ve done, you have the potential to do. Get off your high horse before someone yanks you down before you’re ready.”

Sasuke keeps his mouth shut. Blood drips down his legs from where his nails are cutting into skin.

“Now. I’m going to show you the Chunin Exams. It will be your job to approach Orochimaru and act believably. Appeal to his ego. And whatever you do, for fuck’s sake, don’t-” whatever his future self is about to say is cut off when he freezes and then disappears.

Sasuke stands up in alarm, eyes narrowing suspiciously as he looks around, because he wouldn't be surprised if this is another trick-

The man reappears, cursing viciously, holding his chest. “I’m almost out of time,” he says, tone reverting back to a cold flatness. “And we’ve talked enough.”

Without another word, his eyes flash red, and Sasuke’s world melts-

On the day of the Third Exam, Sasuke goes after Gaara.

At least, that’s what happens according to all possible sources, including Sasuke himself. And really, it’s on Konoha’s T&I department for not asking if he went anywhere else after Gaara was talked down. Or how he knows how to use the Kage Bunshin technique. That evening, after being debriefed for nearly two hours, truthfully claiming that he had little to do with the abrupt stabilization of the Ichibi’s defunct seal - he really just slapped the fixing agent on, that man designed it - Sasuke walks back to his house, drops the Henge that makes him look scraped and battered and battle-weary, and disperses in a puff of smoke. In his house, tucking away the head of Orochimaru where no one will ever find it and resurrect the monster it belonged to, Sasuke exhales harshly, swiping a hastily bandaged hand across his face.

One down. 

Now, it’s time to wait.

Chapter Text

Kakashi pulls Sasuke aside the day after the invasion. He’s spoken to Naruto and Sakura already, but he’s most worried about Sasuke, ‘progress’ or not. The kid hasn’t shown any sign of using, let alone relying on, the Cursed Seal, but he’s also developed a pretty decent expressionless facade in the past month or so.

Kakashi misses the days when all of his genin were open books, no matter how much he despaired for the future generation of shinobi at the time. It might be better for their careers to have good shogi-faces, but it’s not fantastic for his heart.

“I’m fine,” says Sasuke woodenly, eyes looking somewhere off to the right because someone taught the kid about how much eyes give away in conversation. Kakashi will find that person and give them a very stern talking-to. “The Suna kid didn’t even do anything.”

“I think the two-million ryo hole in the stadium wall begs to differ,” says Kakashi, just to earn the rolling of Sasuke’s eyes. Sasuke, the contrary brat, doesn’t oblige and just stares blankly off to the side. “Right. Well, I just wanted to check in like a good sensei-”

“Which you aren’t,” Sasuke mutters, which Kakashi ignores like a good sensei.

“And to tell you to make sure you dress nice for the funeral tomorrow,” he finishes. Is this how parents feel? Never in the Shodaime's green forest. Sasuke still doesn’t look at him.

“I’m not going.”

Ha.

“Excuse me?” Kakashi asks, dangerously light. “Are you refusing to attend the funeral of the former leader of this village, one of the greatest men in village history?”

A faint crease appears between Sasuke’s eyebrows. “Yes.”

Kakashi exhales through his nose and reminds himself that he is an adult who cannot pass off his problems onto his ninken. That would be irresponsible. “Explain.”

Sasuke, for the first time in his entire career, and Kakashi would know, obeys the order without pause. 

“He let my family die.”

Kakashi tips his head back in surprise. Sasuke meets his stare, eyes dark and tired and with not one iota less of deep-seated rage than before his shift.

“He let my family die,” Sasuke repeats, deliberately enunciating each word, “and you want me to go to his funeral like I respect him.”

“Sasuke, it was not the Sandaime’s fault that Itachi-” Kakashi begins carefully, and Sasuke’s face twists up in a snarl so fierce that he cuts himself off.

“He didn’t hold the sword, but that’s it,” Sasuke says savagely. “Itachi murdered everyone, but everyone in charge should have seen it coming. Why the fuck do we have mental evaluations if not to catch ninja before they snap? I remember. Everyone knew that Itachi was getting worse, but they just kept pushing. The clan, the Sandaime, the council - they failed the Uchiha when they let their ambitions for another goddamn Hatake Kakashi blind them to the fact that Itachi’s sanity was going downhill. And then, while I had the privilege of holding funeral rites for fifty-two family members, they all told themselves that no one could have seen it coming, and it’s not like the Uchiha didn’t deserve it anyway.”

Kakashi is struck silent. Sasuke watches him with burning eyes.

“I grew up hearing whispers,” he says, quieter. “And people always warned me. Be careful unless you want to end up like the rest of your clan, they said. Don’t follow Itachi’s footsteps. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The truth, sensei, is that I stopped being influenced by anything Uchiha when I was seven. As far as I’m concerned, if I’m rotten inside, it’s because this entire putrid village didn’t do a damn thing to help a teenager when his mind was breaking, and it sure as hell didn’t help the seven-year-old orphan left behind in the aftermath. Shinobi are allotted two months of mourning time when a family member or spouse dies if the village isn’t at war. Civilians take at least ninety days off from work. Do you know what I was doing in the two months after I woke up in the hospital and found out that my entire clan was dead?”

Kakashi doesn’t shake his head, but Sasuke plows ahead anyway, words spilling out feverishly, cold tones discarded in favor of an almost manic hiss. “For two weeks straight, I burned bodies at the funeral pyre and had to talk to accountants and other officials about wills and estates. I was informed that Konoha would be seizing the land from the Uchiha Compound, because why let one child keep it when there’s obviously such an overpopulation problem-”

Sasuke draws himself up, expression falling back into something cold. His voice, when he speaks, is sibilant and poisonous, “The Sandaime Hokage looked me in the eye, the day I woke up in the hospital, and told me that Konoha was sorry for my loss, and that he would personally make sure that I was taken care of. Two hours after he made me that promise, I was interrogated by ANBU agents for six hours.”

Kakashi’s mind doesn’t freeze. His mind never freezes. Instead, it goes into overdrive, and he finds himself searching Sasuke’s face for any hint of a lie. 

It can’t- the Sandaime wouldn’t-
Callously, his mind reminds him of protocol after a crisis. After a high-ranking betrayal. Find the links to the traitor and debrief them on everything they know about the traitor, the situation, and the event, his mind recites coldly. The closer the links, the more thorough the debrief. Use of interrogation techniques allowed.

“They told me that six hours was a mercy, that it was only because I was obviously not a part of anything that they didn't do six days," Sasuke sneers. "So, no, Kakashi-sensei. I won’t be attending the funeral of a man who never gave a damn about me or my family.” Sasuke Shunshins away without another word. Kakashi is left on the street to stare at the spot he once inhabited, feeling like his world view has been adjusted. 

An uncomfortably common trend, as of late.

…

“-sensei. Kakashi-sensei!” Kakashi blinks and turns his eye to Sakura, who’s staring at him with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. “Did you hear me?”

“Maa, I’m afraid my attention was elsewhere. What was it?” he asks lightly. Instead of rolling her eyes in exasperation, her frown deepens.

“I’ve been talking with you for, like, ten minutes,” she says. “We were talking about Sasuke, remember?”

Kakashi does not remember. “Refresh my memory, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura huffs.

“-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!” Kakashi blinks and turns his eye to Sakura, who’s staring at him with one hand outstretched like she wants to shake him. “Did you- are you okay?” she demands.

“Hm? I’m afraid my attention was elsewhere. What was it?” he asks lightly. Instead of rolling her eyes in exasperation, she throws her hands up and takes one step closer.

“Do you- I was talking about Sasuke,” she says, some of the urgency fading from her voice. “Remember?”

Kakashi does not remember. “Refresh my memory, Sakura-chan.”

Sakura stares at him for a discomfortingly long time. “You know what?” she says finally. “Never mind. It wasn’t that important.”

Every part of Kakashi’s lie-detection skills tell him that she is definitely lying, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have time to work it out right now. He only has a scant hour to meet with her, and then he has to go speak to Sasuke. He glances at her watch - a new accessory that he thoroughly approves of - and is vaguely alarmed to find that nearly fifty minutes have passed. He could have sworn that it had only been ten minutes or so…

“Maa, I have to go, Sakura-chan. We’ll catch up later,” he says, somewhat apologetically. She just nods and backs off.

“Okay, see you later.” She looks and sounds worried, but he puts it on the backburner of his thoughts and Shunshins away.

Whatever his most responsible student is hiding, he has plenty of time to speak to her about it later.

…

Naruto opens the door of his apartment and is surprised by who he finds on the doorstep. Sakura is biting her lip when she looks at him, a furrow between her eyes that makes her look deeply disturbed.

“Hey, Naruto,” she says. “Sorry- I shouldn’t have just come over, but I really don’t know what to do.”
“S’alright, Sakura-chan,” he says, recovering quickly. “C’mon in.”

She does so, hands flexing against her sides. “Thanks,” she murmurs.

“So, what’s the matter?” he asks. She purses her lips.
“Kakashi-sensei...have you spoken to him recently?” she asks, eyes distant. He frowns.

“No. He’s been busy with...everything,” he says. “Why?”

Sakura takes a deep breath. “I think something’s wrong. With him.” She meets his eyes. “And...I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Okay…” Naruto scratches the back of his head. What does Iruka-sensei do to comfort people? “Let’s sit, ‘ttebayo.” He leads her over to his couch - thankfully laundry free - and sits down next to her. “What’s up?”

Sakura stares down at her hands. “Remember when Sasuke was sick? He was out for, like, an entire week?”

“Uh, yeah, I remember.” Because, yeah, that week would be hard to forget. The bastard’s change - metamorphosis, Iruka-sensei had said when Naruto had confided in him about it all - isn’t something he thinks he could forget if he wanted to. Which he doesn’t.

“Kakashi-sensei went to see him, remember? And I never really thought anything about any of it, but then...this afternoon.” Sakura’s mouth twists. “It all started hitting me, I guess, when Kakashi-sensei lost an entire hour of time.”

…

Don't fight Itachi until you train more. You're weak; he will fight because he has to, because he is loyal to that cancerous cesspool of a village, and you will suffer. You won't be able to beat his Tsukuyomi; just stay away until you're ready.

…

Sasuke follows him. Sasuke follows him, and Kakashi will seethe for weeks about it, because he never so much as smelled the kid. Sasuke follows him right into a battle with Uchiha godsdamned Itachi and whoever the hell the other guy is. He’s definitely Itachi’s partner, though, which means that they are probably on equal skill levels.

"Get back!" Kakashi snaps at everyone present. He cannot believe the stupidity of his student sometimes. Whoever taught him to have zero self-preservation deserves to be drawn and quartered.

"Ah," says Itachi, cocking his head. His eyes bore into his younger brother. "Little brother."

"Ha! You got a brother?" Itachi's partner crows. He grins, wide and sharp, and hefts his sword. "Fun times, family reunions."

"Sasuke, get out of here!" Kakashi orders. Sasuke ignores him, because he's a fucking godsdamned stupid brat and Kakashi is going to wring his neck when they get out of here.

"You." There is a lot of anger, a lot of barely concealed antagonism, and a lot of hate, in that one word. "This is your fault."

Itachi sighs and shakes his head. "Run along, brother," he says. "I'm not here for you."

Kakashi half expects a scream of rage, a reckless attack, but when he risks a glance back, Sasuke just looks cold and grim.

"I know." Then, Sasuke disappears. Itachi's partner appears in Sasuke's place, utterly caught off guard, standing still long enough to fall into the hidden trap that Sasuke made when Kakashi wasn't looking and crashing up to his elbows in dirt. The man curses viciously, but Kakashi ignores him and goes for Itachi, who's frowning slightly.

"Take care of him!" Kakashi orders Asuma, who nods and turns for the partner. He's not sure where Kurenai went, but if he can't see her, then it's safe to say that no one else can either.

Sasuke, meanwhile, has engaged in a furious one-versus-one battle with Itachi, who's moved on to outright frowning now.

"Who taught you these things?" Itachi asks, dodging electrified senbon aimed for his throat. "These moves aren't part of Konoha's standard move set."

Sasuke bares his teeth. "You wanted me to get stronger," he says, ducking under a kunai. 

Itachi says nothing. Kakashi takes this moment to interrupt, launching a hail of kunai at him and putting himself in front of his student.

"Sasuke, you will retreat and signal for reinforcements, or I will ensure that you don't make chunin until you're fifty," Kakashi hisses over his shoulder. Sasuke scoffs and doesn't move.

"What kind of trash do you take me for?" he mutters, which, yes, is very heartwarming, but also-

"The kind that survives." Kakashi, if he had a free hand, and in any other situation, would actually be tearing at his hair. These are the lengths that his students drive him to.

"Living's overrated," says Sasuke, and then he disappears again. He reappears in time to kick down Itachi's arm from sweeping a kunai at Kakashi, and the older Uchiha jumps away as Sasuke starts after him like a rabid attack dog.

"Sloppy, little brother," says Itachi emotionlessly. "No finesse at all."

Sasuke's grin is hard. "I was trained by an asshole who just wanted to make me stronger. Sound familiar?"

Itachi's eyes narrow, which means he does understand, which means it's probably a family thing, which is just. 

Great.

Kakashi cuts in again, this time lighting up a gout of fire and smoke that he borrowed from Asuma's repertoire. Speaking of Asuma-

"Incoming!"

It's barely enough warning for the enormous shark made of water that comes charging towards the three of them. Kakashi grabs Sasuke and yanks them aside as Itachi disappears in a flock of crows.

"Watch your aim, Kisame," he hears Itachi say, sounding faintly irritated. "I only brought one cloak for this mission."

"Sorry, sorry - but, hey, your kid brother is pretty slippery," Kisame replies cheerfully. Kakashi turns to face them.

Somehow, it's once again turned into clearly delineated sides, them against the Konoha ninja. Asuma is beside Kakashi, breathing hard and looking battered. Kurenai is slightly behind them, uninjured but winded. Sasuke...Sasuke is untouched, thankfully, and behind Kakashi.

"Enough," says Itachi, eyes tracing each of them. "We're wasting time." His eyes turn red and begin to spin. Kakashi hears Sasuke make a cut off, choked noise, and doesn't think about how Itachi put his little brother through Hell and almost broke his mind.

"Close your eyes, everyone," says Kakashi. "Otherwise, he'll trap you. Only a Sharingan can face another Sharingan."

Kurenai and Asuma obediently close their eyes without protest, defaulting to his judgement.

"Idiot," Sasuke hisses behind him, oddly frantic. "Your eye won't beat his- close your-"

Kakashi meets Itachi's eye, and he feels a pull-

A dark shape appears between them. There is only enough time for Kakashi's stomach to hit his feet, and then Sasuke begins to scream.

…

"You pitiful fool. You pathetic, needy child. He is the source of your Mangekyou?"

...

The Uchiha brat is in the hospital. Kabuto wavers, grappling with the decision between escaping or sneaking into the hospital to grab the brat for Orochimaru-sama. In the end, his survival instincts win out against valor. He reasons that he won’t be of any use to Orochimaru-sama gutted on the bad end of Hatake’s accursed Chidori, and since the man is guarding his student religiously, Kabuto probably wouldn’t even make it into the hospital.

Mind made up; he slips out of Konoha with ease. The village is in turmoil, both internally and externally. Though he hadn’t caught much information in his cell, he had learned of the Sandaime’s death. Between that and the visible amounts of destruction all around the village proper, it’s not hard to bypass the guards and head back to Otōgakure.

Despite being mildly malnourished and dehydrated, he makes it back in good time. When he arrives, though, he doesn’t find the ordered assembly-like processes that he expects. That Orochimaru-sama demands. He finds, instead, pure, unadulterated chaos. It looks like Otōgakure was invaded as well, impossible as that is, with at least four fires that he can see burning up three separate complexes, and the sounds of screaming and fighting coming from all around.

Growling to himself, he makes for the Wardens’ barracks, lip curling up when any person who approaches him immediately backs away. Good. They should remember who can and will take them apart by the muscle.

The Wardens’ barracks are still in one piece, but the people inside might not be if he finds them slacking on the job. They’re supposed to keep order, not let chaos slide. As much as Orochimaru-sama doesn't interest himself overly much in the affairs of his minions, he demands organization and efficiency above all else, and obedience close on that list.

"Kimimaro!" Kabuto barks, throwing open the door. There's no response from Orochimaru's favorite test subject. Disquieting. Kimimaro is loyal to the death - he'd answer even if his bones had finally pierced through his soft heart.

Kabuto glances around the Wardens' barracks for any sign of life, and he finds a shuddering body propped against the farthest wall, still bleeding.

"Wano," he says, and the body jerks.

"Kabuto-sama," Wano croaks, crimson trickling out the corner of his mouth, hope flickering in his black eyes. "You- you're back."

"Report."

Wano coughs. There's a stab wound just below his left clavicle that matches with a bloody hole in the wall a few feet up. There's also an entire sword buried up to the hilt in his abdomen that seems to be pinning him in place. Someone wanted him to suffer and die slowly.

"Reports from the front lines…” he wheezes. “The invasion failed, and both Sunagakure and Konohagakure would be turning to us for revenge.”

Kabuto curses vehemently. Damn it. He should have had more time. He makes a mental note to increase the conditioning on new recruits; if they have the will to gossip and rebel, clearly the methods in place aren’t good enough. “What else?”

Wano gurgles. “Lower ranks...took over the science buildings and the food supply. With Orochimaru-sama missing-”
“Missing?” Kabuto crouches down next to him. “What do you mean, missing?” Impossible. Orochimaru-sama should have escaped the instant the invasion began to fail. He might have been delayed, depending on the condition his fight with the Sandaime left him in, but he should have at least made contact. “You haven’t heard from him?”

Wano laboriously shakes his head, and Kabuto’s insides turn to ice. “Not since...not since he left,” says Wano. “And the front lines...not since the invasion started.”

No. Impossible. Orochimaru-sama is anal-retentive about details, and he is demanding in his expectations. The invasion force, at least, should have heard from him.

“People say...he’s dead,” says Wano, unaware of the flash of murderousness that strikes Kabuto. “So they...they revolted. Kimimaro is...missing. No one’s checked on the Monster. Everyone else...gone or dead.” He looks at Kabuto pleadingly. “Report finished.”

Kabuto forces his lips into a calming smile. “Otogakure thanks you for your service,” he says soothingly. And then, in one motion, his chakra blade slices Wano’s throat. The man gurgles in betrayal, but it’s an infinitely kinder death than leaving him to bleed out.  The only kindness Kabuto would ever afford him when he failed his duties. Otogakure has no use for failed investments.

He should have run when he had the chance.

Kabuto stands, hands flexing against his legs. First things first, he has to confirm the whereabouts of Orochimaru-sama. Best case scenario, he’s simply found somewhere to weather the storm of his injuries and will return or make contact within the month. And if he’s dead, if Konohagakure killed him…

Well. Kabuto is patient. And Orochimaru-sama has connections in Konoha that will deliver its people - and Orochimaru-sama’s murderer - right into the palm of his hand.

…

“Tsunade-sama?” Sakura stares at Naruto. “Why?”

Naruto shrugs, grin coming bright but tight. Ever since Sasuke ended up in the hospital, in a coma caused by his older brother, all of them have been feeling off kilter. Yesterday, Sakura broke down in her bathroom and had to be rescued from the shower by her mom, who never said a word and just hugged her for an entire hour. So.

At least she’s processing, which is more than she can say for the rest of her stupid team. Clearly, no one taught Naruto or Kakashi-sensei healthy coping mechanisms - which they teach the second year of Academy, by the way - because both of them are so far from even a little bit adjusted that it would actually be kind of funny if they weren’t Sakura’s headaches to medicate.

Naruto, for example, belongs to the school of smiling his problems away while also pummeling his way through the majority of the training posts in Training Ground Three. Kakashi-sensei, in contrast, has apparently abandoned healthy sleeping patterns - if he ever had any in the first place - in favor of spending whatever mission and training-free time he has in Sasuke’s hospital room, where he proceeds to passive-aggressively harass the on-duty nurses and iryo-nin until they all rally together and present enough of a threat via shots to shoo him away for the night. Sakura’s pretty sure he’s just humoring them, though, because he definitely sneaks back in through the window when no one’s looking.

Honestly, as glad as she is that she’s the relatively well-adjusted one of the team - Sasuke included, dammit - it’s exhausting. As such, when Naruto tells her that he’s leaving Konoha to go find a long-gone legend, Sakura immediately tells him, “I’m coming with you.”

And she loves him because he doesn’t even question it. He just grins at her, more genuine this time, and says, “Fuck yeah, Sakura-chan. I’ll tell Ero-sensei to make room for one more.” He sobers a little. “What about Kakashi-sensei, though?”

Sakura shrugs. “He’s still at the hospital,” she says. “If he comes around, my mom will let him know.”

Honestly, she hopes with all of her heart that Tsunade-sama will be able to help Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, who’s been having more problems recently, not that he’s aware of it.

Between the spacing out, the memory loss, and the extremely off-putting periods where he just stares at Sasuke, he's scaring her a bit. He's not well, in any capacity, and there isn't a single iryo-nin in the village that he'll willingly see. And apparently, T&I is scared of him.

She'd asked Ino's dad about it, the other day, and the man had adopted a sort of fixed smile.

"Ah, Kakashi," he'd said. And then, he hadn't said anything else. He'd just patted her head and wandered away, looking vaguely dazed. Which, while funny, wasn't helpful at all.

"How long will we be gone?" she asks Naruto. He shrugs.

"Ero-sensei says to plan for, like, a month, but I dunno," he says. Sakura will probably never get over the casual disrespect that Naruto flings at legendary village figures. If she ever does, well, it'll at least be a sign of how far into insanity her team has dragged her.

"I should tell Ino," she muses. Naruto brightens. "Wanna visit with me?"

"Yeah, dattebayo!" he says cheerfully. "I owe those guys some ramen."

Team Ten, the genin, have all cloistered in the hospital following some complications with Chouji. They came out of the invasion fairly well - battered, a few broken bones, and definitely too many close calls - so they'd been hopeful for quick full recoveries. Chouji, unfortunately, ran afoul a nasty variant on one of the common Suna poisons, and he's been stuck in the hospital since while the iryo-nin scratch their heads over every new development. Shikamaru - his best friend - has essentially taken to living in the hospital with his friend, and since he’s newly promoted, no one bothers him much save to shove some paperwork into his reluctant arms. Ino - teammate and friend, albeit a temperamental tsundere in both cases - sticks around most days when she isn't at her T&I internship.

Which leads to this scenario:

"Hello!" Sakura knocks on the door. A pause.

"Come in!" Ino calls sweetly. That should have been the first clue.

"Wait- Ino, not yet-" frantically, Chouji.

"Dammit, Ino-" Shikamaru.

"MY EYES!" Aaand Naruto.

Sakura is very grateful that she encouraged him to go first. She pokes her head in the doorway and finds a blushing Chouji crossing his arms over his bare chest and thighs like some kind of shoujo heroine, while Ino laughs shamelessly under the dark glower from Shikamaru. Naruto pitifully scrubs at his eyes.

"Way to traumatize my teammate, Pig," says Sakura, sighing to hide the twitching corners of her mouth. Ino snickers.

"Comes with the trade," she says breezily. "They've started working me on 'Advanced Interrogation Techniques'." Her finger quotes are smacked out of the air by Shikamaru, who throws a pair of shorts at Chouji.

"Ah," says Chouji, blush darkening. "Sorry."

Sakura casually smacks Naruto's arm, and he stops grimacing. "Don't worry about it. He's seen worse."

That pacifies Chouji a little, though he still aims a disgruntled glance at his teammate. Sakura carefully does not let her eyes linger on his thin frame. It feels wrong to see him as skin and bones. For all the time she's known him, Chouji has been large, strong, and sturdy. Now, he looks like a good breeze could carry him off.

“What’re you guys doing here?” Ino asks, leaning back in her chair. “Coma ward too depressing for you?”
“Fuck’s sake, Ino,” Shikamaru hisses. “I’m not supposed to be the tactful one on this team.”

Ino rolls her eyes.

“Nah, we’re just saying goodbye to you guys for a bit,” says Naruto easily. “Ero-sensei-”

“Jiraiya-sama,” Sakura interjects.

“-is taking us on a trip. We’re gonna go get Tsunade, ‘ttebayo.” He grins at the stunned silence. 

“Tsunade,” says Ino flatly. “As in, left-the-village-and-wasn’t-declared-Missing-nin-because-the-Sandaime-is-her-sensei Tsunade?”

“Yeah, that one,” says Naruto brightly. At the looks he gets, he sobers up a little. “Listen, Bastard isn’t waking up. Whatever...whatever his prick brother did to him is keeping him under, and no one knows how the fuck to help him, yeah? So, we’re gonna get Tsunade, and we’re gonna drag her back to Konoha kicking and screaming if we have to, ‘ttebayo.”

Sakura nods. “Exactly.”

Team Ten exchanges glances. “Never took you for an optimist, Forehead,” says Ino finally, while Chouji smiles quietly.

“That’s really cool,” he says. “Good luck.”
“We’re not gonna need it,” Naruto scoffs. Sakura smacks the back of his head.

“Thank you, Chouji,” she says pointedly. Naruto pouts at her.

“About Sasuke,” says Shikamaru slowly. “Asuma-sensei said that he held off Itachi for a while. Without help from Hatake.”

That’s the first Sakura’s heard of it, but considering how Kakashi-sensei has gone mostly nonverbal, she shouldn’t be surprised that she’s missing information. “What else did he say? Kakashi-sensei...hasn’t told us much.”

Ino shrugs. “Not too much. He was pretty occupied with Itachi’s partner, y’know. But he was impressed, because Sasuke didn’t just immediately die. And also, he apparently jumped in front of Hatake? Which is why Sasuke is in a coma right now and not your sensei.”

That… Sakura isn’t sure how to feel about that. Maybe Kakashi-sensei is feeling guilty about that? She assumed it was something along the lines of survivor's guilt, but if Sasuke literally jumped in front of him, taking the kunai, so to speak…

“Anyway, I wanted to ask about Sasuke’s training,” says Shikamaru, waving away the topic. “When’d he get so good?”

Naruto and Sakura exchange glances.

“We're not sure ourselves. You have to understand, Kakashi-sensei...isn’t doing well,” says Sakura, trying to choose her words carefully. Confessing anything about what’s been going on with Team Seven’s leader feels like a betrayal almost, but when she thinks about the times she’s tried to talk to him about Sasuke’s strange behavior and drastic improvement, she feels like she’s on a capsizing boat in the middle of an ocean storm.

“He’s being fucking weird, ‘ttebayo,” says Naruto flatly. “It’s like he doesn’t even register when Bastard does weird stuff. Sakura-chan tried to talk to him about it, but…” He glances at her.

“He kept forgetting what we were talking about,” says Sakura quietly. “It was really scary. I would mention something about Sasuke, and ten minutes later he would forget what we were talking about. It went on for almost an hour, and then he had to go. That was just before Itachi.”

Ino frowns and sits forward. “That sounds serious. Have you talked to an iryo-nin about it?”

Sakura, in spite of herself, scoffs and rolls her eyes in exasperation. “Kakashi-sensei, willingly go to an iryo-nin when he isn’t on death’s door? Come on, Ino. You should know better than that.”

A smile tugs on Ino’s lips. “Asuma-sensei isn’t much better,” she admits.

“He calls them leeches,” Chouji says, grinning. “Ino had to bully him into going after our last C-rank.”
“He had a broken wrist, the idiot,” Ino grumbles. “Anyway, we’re talking about your crazy sensei, not ours. So, short-term memory loss, selective ignorance - what else?”

“Spacing out,” says Sakura.

“He’s been sleeping in the bastard’s hospital room recently, but I dunno if that’s just him being Kakashi-sensei.”
“It’s like he’s just ignoring the strange things about Sasuke,” says Sakura thoughtfully. “But I don’t know why. Is there a poison that could do that?”

“That lasts months?” Naruto says. “Nah. Whatever this is- it’s like...what did we learn about in the Academy, Sakura-chan? With the food and the dogs, and the bells?”

“Conditioning?” Sakura asks doubtfully. “Maybe, but who could condition Kakashi-sensei? He’s the most paranoid person I know.”

“The only thing I can think of, barring conditioning, might be a genjutsu,” says Ino thoughtfully. “But I don’t know of any genjutsu that could do all of that without the subject noticing. I mean, maybe on a new genin, but Hatake?”

Sakura grimaces. “That’s also something we’re hoping Tsunade will help us with.”

If Tsunade can’t help Kakashi-sensei, Sakura doesn’t know what they’ll do. But things can’t continue on like this. Kakashi-sensei is breaking down, Sasuke is in a coma, and Naruto and Sakura are scrambling to pick up the pieces.

Aren’t things supposed to get easier when you’re an adult? Sakura thinks. Either way, Naruto is right about one thing. Tsunade is coming back with them to Konoha if they have to hogtie her and drag her by her ankles.

…

This is the problem: Sasuke loathes Konoha with every fiber of his being. They're hypocritical, sanctimonious, and rotten from the bottom all the way to the very top, and he doesn't see that changing any time soon. One man decided to slaughter the Uchiha, and everyone else was content to sweep it under the rug because he was an old friend of the current village leader. As far as he's concerned, the Uchiha should have had the chance to remove as much of the cancer as possible before getting their coup d’état shut down. 

That being said.

Sasuke hates his future self more than he's hated anyone else, even Itachi. And his future self wanted him to do things a certain, destructive way, which means that Sasuke will be doing the exact opposite just to spite the remnants of his voice in Sasuke's head. Which means that when godsdamn Itachi goes after Kakashi, Sasuke ignores his future self's orders to not engage, and he shoves himself into the fight and in between Itachi's attempt to plant Kakashi in Tsukuyomi.

Fuck you, Sasuke thinks as he meets Itachi's eyes. Maybe he's talking to Itachi, the asshole who put Sasuke on this path in the first place. Maybe he's talking to his future self, the asshole who lost himself to his lust for revenge and blood. Maybe he's talking to Konoha as an entity, the assholes who turned their backs on his family. Maybe he's even talking to Kakashi, the absolute idiot who thought he'd be able to beat Itachi, Sharingan to Sharingan Whatever the case, he feels an insane grin stretch across his face as the world melts into red.

As he told Sakura, he's tired of being told what to do. And if he has to save the godsdamn world while working alongside Konoha, then it'll be fucking worth it so long as he disregards every single thing his future self told him to do.

Chapter Text

Sasuke is not prepared for the influx of lung-rattling emotions when he sees his team. It’s stupid of him, to not be prepared considering everything that man showed him, but he still has to stop in his tracks and force himself to breathe normally. After a small eternity of inhaling and exhaling carefully - a technique learned from a kindly and unnamed nurse, when he was seven and having nightmares in the hospital - he unclenches his fist and starts walking with purpose. He monitors his breathing carefully as he draws up to the training fields. His team is there, alive.

Of course they are. He takes in the sight with more hunger than expected. Sakura towards the back, near the pond. Naruto and Kakashi standing together closer to him. He can tell the exact moment that Naruto sees him, because the idiot he begins running immediately. Sasuke breathes through it, through the images of...his teammate running towards him at full speed, and braces himself for an ugly landing.

Sasuke hates to say it, will never enjoy confessing to weakness even in his own mind, but he’s still not steady on his feet. That man only left him an hour ago, and he did his work up until the very last minute. Perhaps, Sasuke didn’t quite think this through, but.

He has work to do. What are a few flashbacks, compared to the end of the world? He’s been handling gory images of the past superimposed on reality since he was seven. Adding his teammates to the list of family members won’t break him. Every single emotion he feels now, he can use as fuel for his determination to do this right.

As it turns out, Sasuke doesn’t have to worry about staying on his feet, because Kakashi also notices where Naruto is heading and neatly intercepts him with a hand to the forehead. Naruto screeches loudly. Sasuke shuffles one foot to work out the tension the noise brings and carefully doesn’t look at his sensei.

After all, the last time he saw the man…

Well. He’s better off not thinking of things like that.

“Idiot.” It slips out, but it seems to do the trick. Naruto’s ill-hidden concern drops away in favor of utter irritation, and Kakashi sighs, probably without meaning to.

“How kind of you to join us, Sasuke,” says the latter dryly. “Feeling better?”

And Sasuke knew- knows not to expect anything. Really. It’s not Kakashi’s fault he doesn’t remember. It’s just one more sin to lay at that man’s feet. But still. Looking up to meet his sensei’s eye is one of the hardest things he’s had to do. And his standards for difficult are...skewed. Especially after this past week. Sasuke, too busy trying to stuff down an unwelcome surge of nausea at the sight of Kakashi’s customarily blank yet normal expression, barely catches Naruto’s question.

“You still sick, asshole?” Naruto snipes. Sasuke scoffs. Sick. Right.

“Would I be here if I was?” he replies, keenly aware of Kakashi’s piercing stare. Answering questions with questions works better than outright lying, with the man. Naruto doesn’t seem satisfied by it, though.

“I dunno. Maybe you’d try to get us all sick because you’re such a bastard, dattebayo.” Naruto’s sneer is a weak effort. Nothing compared to-

-“How could you do that to her! She loves you, you monumental asshole!”-

Compared to what it will be- could be in the future. In the future that Sasuke will bring about if he follows that man’s instructions. In the future where he continues to be selfish and childish. Because that man was many things, things that Sasuke uncomfortably yet mercilessly recognizes in himself: damaged, angry, and proud. But something about him never grew up beyond that betrayed, spoiled child, and he took it out on the world for it. Sasuke refuses to follow his example.

Sasuke’s budding annoyance evaporates, leaving him with a sort of hollow chill. Unable to look his teammate in the eye, he turns away.

“Are you...feeling okay?” Naruto’s question forces him to banish the sudden bout of...something. Sasuke doesn’t look at him when he answers.
“Fine.” Then, to Kakashi with a desperation that he hopes doesn’t show, “Are we going to train? Or should I leave for something actually productive?"

Kakashi eyes him thoughtfully. Sasuke resists the urge to shift on his feet like a child. "Maa, go walk on some water. Sakura-chan and Naruto are ahead of you by now."

Sasuke swallows that as his due and nods. He walks away, skin on his neck prickling from the force of the two stares behind him. He purposely doesn’t try to hear them talk about him. He imagines that, by the end of the day, they’ll have far more to talk about.

Sakura flings herself at him, and Sasuke flinches, still sore and not at all prepared for an overwhelming amount of physical contact. Especially not friendly contact.

“I’m so glad you’re doing better!” Sakura’s smile is bright and sincere, so innocent and pain-free that Sasuke has to look away. Coward. You take that away from her, his mind hisses. You ruin her.

Sasuke flicks the thought away like an irritating insect and carefully extracts himself. “Kakashi...sensei said to walk on water.”

 Sakura blinks. Then, she nods, brightness dimming some. A muscle twitches under his eye, and he clenches his jaw. “Yeah. It’s not that hard - actually, it’s easier to learn water walking after you get tree walking down. Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto hollers from across the field. “We gotta spar!”

Sakura grimaces. Relief trickles down Sasuke’s spine like cold water. “Just let me show Sasuke-kun how to water walk!” she calls back. Sasuke shakes his head immediately.

“I’ll be fine,” he says. “Go.”

She hesitates. Clearly, she was worried about his week-long absence, but if he has to spend an excessive amount of time in her presence before he figures out how to deal with the memories her, he’ll crack a tooth by the end of the day. That’s not something he wants to explain.

“Okay,” she says reluctantly. “But ask if you need help!” He nods once, and then he goes to the pond.

He inhales. Exhales. Then, he recalls what that man showed him for water walking. He remembers the sensation, he remembers - ish - how it works and the principles behind it. That doesn’t mean, much to both of their frustrations, that he’ll be able to do it immediately. If it was just movements, he could, but chakra control is...harder.

Apparently, watching the memories of someone do something does not immediately mean that he can do it, even with his Sharingan. Go fucking figure.

Sasuke thinks about it. He takes one step. It sinks down immediately. He withholds a sigh.

This will be a long day.

…

Day one of training is the most eye-opening of them all. He knew it would be difficult going in. The emotions alone would be overwhelming, potentially crippling. But if they had to be beaten into submission, cauterized, then he would do it. And he does have to do it.

“Fucker,” says the boy, on his knees and spitting blood. Angry red eyes glare murderously at him. As if he’s afraid. He’s faced scarier things down to get breakfast.

“If you can still speak, then I'm not working you hard enough,” he says coolly. “Get up. We’re trying again.”

Frustratingly, the process of transferring his skills and knowledge to the boy via Sharingan is not as smooth as he planned for. The boy can get the technique down, the hand-seals, the posture, even the channeling, but his control is shot. This, he admits, is in part due to his own meddling. Slowing giving the boy the chakra to handle everything he needs to learn is and will continue to be an excruciating process. For the boy.

But it was necessary. In addition, reconfiguring the future effects of that abominable Cursed Seal kept the boy unconscious for the better part of six hours. He only woke up when he was shocked with a mild Raiton. He woke up hissing and spitting, but he woke up, and he listened when threatened with a stronger, far more painful shock.

The boy stands again, swaying. “Chidori,” he pants, and his hand lights up with the familiar sound of birds chirping. Due to the transfusion of his own chakra, the boy can now use the Chidori more times than Hatake himself. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the expertise to use it efficiently, resulting in-

A stifled yelp of pain.

Resulting in electrical feedback that burns his forearm.

He sighs, harsh and impatient. “Three hours, you’ve been working on this,” he says, irritation sliding into his tone, sharpening it. “And still, you can’t control it.”

The boy glowers at him. “This is my first time,” he hisses. “I can’t get it in one day. You didn’t.” The boy is against the wall of his house, arm at his throat, in an instant. He leans in closer to those wide, young eyes.

“I had no idea of what was coming. I had an excuse. You don’t.” He presses harder, until the boy starts to struggle to breathe, feeble fingers reaching to pry his arm away. Mercilessly, he keeps it in place. “You do not have the option of failing here, Sasuke-kun. Or do you want the world to end to that damn moon goddess? Stop being a child.” He drops the boy to the floor and turns away at the ragged gasps that fill the air. “Get up. If I don’t see improvement in the next hour, you’ll learn what you actually can and can’t do.”

Soft, weak, and young. Close to useless- far too close for comfort. He thought the end of the world would be enough motivation, but clearly, he still needs to find something to push the boy.

An hour passes with no progress, and he loses his patience. He grabs the boy by the arm and drags him closer. “It seems like you need a reminder of what is at stake,” he says, and the boy rears back in alarm.

“No- wait-”

He disregards the boy’s words and lets Itachi’s Sharingan bloom. “Tsukuyomi.”

The boy sinks to his knees as he begins with the death of the world at the maw of the Juubi.

“This is what you face,” he hisses in the boy’s ear, holding him up from complete collapse by one hand on his shoulder. “If you fail. Do you understand?”

A choked noise is his only answer. The boy is closing his eyes, like it will do any good. 

“Itachi’s work, gone for nothing,” he says. “And your ‘team’. Do you think they survive this?” He flicks to a new memory, one with dirty, bloody, pink hair and a limp body, speared on the end of Madara’s sword.

“Stop…” the boy’s word is weak and almost plaintive. He ignores it. Better for the boy to be acquainted with the idea of his team’s death now. Next, the Kyuubi’s container. The boy gasps, wheezing almost, at the macabre display. All that remains of the container is a strew of blood and tatters of orange cloth. 

“What you’re feeling now,” he says in answer to the rattling breaths, “is the price of sentiment. It will cripple you like a rotted limb if you let it sit for too long.”

“F...fuck off,” the boy breathes, defiant to the last. He summons electricity to his hand in answer and places it on the boy’s chest. He sneers at the rasp of a scream.

“If you won’t cut the infection out, I’ll do it for you,” he promises. Then, his hand pulses again, and electricity flies. He sighs as the body beneath his hand arcs in a painful seize.

This will take more effort than he thought it would.

...

Unconsciousness isn’t kind. Sasuke swims back, feeling like there are weights around his ankles the size of Manda, and when he surfaces, it’s to Sakura’s teary smile and Naruto’s “I’m not concerned” frown. The spike of pain at his neck is to be expected, but he claps a hand to it anyway and hisses out a curse that would make Suigetsu proud. He gets to his feet, shaking off the nausea that rises up from his stomach.

There’s no time for that. He’s not sure when Kabuto is going to approach them, and the last thing he wants is to be caught off guard by that bastard. Not again. Or rather, not this time.

"Sasuke-kun, um," says Sakura, squeaking when he glances at her. "You just woke up. Maybe you should take it...easy?"

It’s a nice thought. One he won’t be able to entertain for the rest of his likely short and miserable life. “No time.”

Sakura deflates, but Yamanaka steps into view before she or he can say anything else. That’s probably for the best. Sasuke has proven to be less than stellar at consoling people over the last month.

"Oh," she says unenthusiastically. "You're...awake." Sakura looks nervously between them, but Sasuke has neither the energy nor the desire to piece out whatever is keeping Yamanaka at a distance. He frankly doesn’t care, and as long as she continues with the alliance that Team Ten has apparently struck up with Team Seven, it doesn’t matter.

He looks at Sakura to make sure. “Team Ten?”

She nods, still nervous, eyes flitting between Yamanaka’s uncomfortable shifting and Sasuke. "Yeah. You guys were out and they helped move you," she says. Good enough. He nods, or at least, he thinks he does - Sage, he’s tired - and looks back at Yamanaka, who beckons over her shoulder. Her teammates walk out of the tree line shortly. He doesn’t particularly care about them, but assuming they have their second scroll now, they can make for the tower.

Which is where Kabuto will be.

-gleaming blades, a taunting laugh, “Sit still, Sasuke-kun. This is a delicate operation; you wouldn’t want my hand to slip, would you? Just a little...oopsie?”-

"How close to the tower are we?" Sasuke asks, shaking off the memory with a roll of his shoulders.

"About two hours out," says Shikamaru, eyes keen. "You going to collapse again?"

Sasuke keeps his expression straight. He disregarded Nara - all of the graduating class, actually - before. That man’s memories showed him how stupid that was. Nara is smarter than he is, and he’s dangerously slow. He doesn’t have the same hot temper or impulsive need for action. He isn’t someone to piss off. If possible, he’s someone that Sasuke should make an ally of. Sasuke has no fucking idea how to do that, has never bothered before with anyone, but snapping at his questions probably isn’t a good start.

"I'll make it.”

Nara seems to accept that, though his eyes keep sliding back to Sasuke.

"Let's go, dattebayo," says Naruto, subdued. "This place is the fucking worst.”

They travel fast, keeping a slow enough pace to conserve energy in case they run into enemies, but fast enough that they won’t have to spend another night in the forest. Sasuke lets Team Ten draw ahead. He slows down and keeps pace with Sakura and Naruto.

"There's someone who might approach us," he says, low enough that Team Ten won't hear. "He's a genin from Konoha, but we shouldn't trust him."

Sakura frowns at him thoughtfully. “Who?”

"We met him before the first exam. Yakushi Kabuto.”  

-“Hold still, Sasuke-kun. It will only hurt more if you struggle.”-

Something must show in his expression, because he catches Naruto swallow nervously. With effort, he reigns in the anger and settles back into frigid, hollow apathy.

"What's wrong with him?" Sakura asks, not looking like she really wants to know.

He’s a bastard who experiments on people - kids - without their consent, is the first answer that comes to mind. Following that is, He’s Orochimaru’s number one lackey. People fear him because he’s almost better at putting them back together rather than taking them apart. Almost.

He settles on something less self-incriminating. "Those cards he had. He shouldn't have been able to make them," he says bluntly. "Mission records are kept private; only team captains, Jounin-sensei, and certain chunin can access them, aside from the Hokage and the ninja themselves. Kabuto is a genin, but getting that kind of information legally isn't possible for him. He's either got someone giving him information, which means Konoha has a leak, or he's sneaking in and getting it himself, which means he's above even chunin level in infiltration."

That earns some nervous glances, which wasn’t what he was going for, but if it keeps their guards up, he’s satisfied.

After that, Sasuke loses time. Just a little. He goes from wrapping up the conversation with Naruto and Sakura to halting with everyone else, a short distance from the tower, without any idea of what happened in between. It’s the seal, he knows it is. It’s whispering at him even now, though he doesn’t grab at it again because his team is already shooting him unsubtle glances of concern. He ignores the whispers without too much effort, but the real problem is the effect it has on his impulses and reactions.

Every violent, aggressive urge he has is magnified by a thousand, and it takes every inch of concentration he can muster to keep his hands away from his kunai and each other. His Sharingan itches to be activated, but that’s an older irritation.

He’s used to keeping his Sharingan hidden during emotional spikes. Still, he silently curses that man for doing the bare minimum in regards to the seal. It won’t take over his body, or mind, anymore, and it gives him the chakra without the consequences, but it’s an irritant and a pain, and the adjustments were clearly only made for utility.

By the time they all land for a brief rest, Sasuke is almost shaking from the urge to light something on fire or ram his bare hand - lightning and all - through someone’s heart. To stave off the burning desire to rip-tear-kill, he tersely says that he’ll take watch. No one argues, which leaves him free to activate his Sharingan and alleviate some of the strain. He doesn’t leave them on - drawing on the Cursed Seal may be easier and without permanent consequence, but it still hurts, and it will continue to do so until Kakashi can take a look at it and finish off what that man started - but slowly his agitation dies. For now. It’s a stop-gap measure, and he knows it. Hopefully, there will be enemies in front of the tower for him to vent on.

Then-

A familiar face-

Sasuke moves, blood rushing in his ears, that damned voice echoing in his ears- 

-“Don’t worry, Sasuke-kun. This will hurt you far more than it will hurt me.”-

“Ah,” says Yakushi Kabuto, in all of his rat-like glory. He looks surprised, mild and innocent. Sasuke has a kunai in his hand before he can really register moving for it. His eyes burn with the desire to set this man on fire and leave his ashes for the breeze. “It’s okay,” says Kabuto, raising his hands slowly “Just me.” 

-“Little old me? I think you may be paranoid, Sasuke-kun.”-   

Sasuke struggles to speak words that aren’t, Get the fuck out of here before I char you too badly for your ‘Master’ to recognize you. Fortunately, Nara - ever smarter than Sasuke ever gave him credit for, either Sasuke - picks up on the tense atmosphere and reacts accordingly. 

“What do you want?” he asks flatly, not at all relaxed or welcoming. Sasuke feels a flash of satisfaction at the flicker of annoyance that crosses Kabuto’s face. The bastard isn’t quite good enough, not yet, to fool Sasuke, who now knows what to look for. 

That man trained himself to gauge Kabuto and Orochimaru’s moods by their expressions, words, tones, and behavior. He passed that on to Sasuke, and it helps Sasuke now, warning him. Kabuto’s expression twitches in the way that means he’s about to try pacifying, appealing to their better natures and making himself seem like an ally.  

Too bad for him that Sasuke doesn’t have a better nature to appeal to. 

“You’ve warned us,” he says, as cold as he can make it, nearly cutting Kabuto off. “Now go away.” 

This time, the annoyance is clear. “Hey, now. We’re all from the same village. Why don’t we work together-” 

“No.” Not a chance in the Shinigami’s deepest pit. Sasuke barely registers what reason he spits out, concentrating on Kabuto’s body language. If he gets ready to attack, Sasuke will sever his head from his body and burn both pieces until nothing remains except a dark smear on the forest floor.

For a long, tense moment, it looks like Sasuke will have to do exactly that. Then, Kabuto sighs and gives up. “If that’s what you want,” he says, faux agreeably. Like anyone would believe it after a display like that. Even Yamanaka and Akimichi are suspicious now.

Sasuke watches him leave until he’s actually out of sight, not turning towards the tower. Then, he turns to his team and nods once. “Gone.”

As they relax, he hides a long exhale.

For now, Kabuto is not a problem. Doubly so, once Sasuke tells Kakashi about him, making sure to detail all the ways he’s far too skilled for a genin who’s taking the exams for the sixth - seventh? Does it matter? - time. Hopefully, T&I will have a field day with Kabuto, which will only leave Sasuke to handle Orochimaru. The latter can kill the Sandaime and ruin the exams for all Sasuke cares, but he can’t leave Konoha alive. Fortunately, Sasuke has a plan for that.  

It involves a lot of fire.

…

For two days after the sensei’s interruption, the boy is silent. He keeps his mouth shut, but the murderous scowl on his face is a permanent fixture. It doesn’t matter. As long as the boy does as he’s told and perfects what he’s taught, he can have his temper tantrum for the entire week if he wants.

“Your Rinnegan,” he starts, and the boy jolts, gingerly touching the new addition. Likely, it’s still sore. He received Hashirama’s cells - kindly retrieved and preserved by Yakushi shortly before his death - transfusion in the early hours of this morning. “Your Rinnegan is your ultimate tool, but it is not infallible. You must use it in conjunction with your Mangekyō, when you obtain it, and other skills. We begin with Amenotejikara - the ability to slip through time and space in an instant, replacing yourself with another object in range.”

“I can do that already,” the boy points out.

“I wasn’t finished.” He waits for the boy to visibly clamp down on a retort before continuing. “The substitution applies to any object or person of your choice. For example, if someone were about to stab you with a sword, you could substitute the sword with a blade of grass.”

In spite of his mulishness, the boy’s eyes narrow with interest. Good.

“Get into position. We’ll fight until you understand the technique completely.”

Used to his methods by now, the boy shifts back and draws the temporary chokuto that he was given. He activates his Sharingan-

Lightning crackles through the air as Kirin rumbles threateningly above him. The boy’s eyes widen. He swears effusively and drops his sword, hands flashing through familiar seals-

“I think not,” he hisses, closing his own hand over the boy’s. “Use your Rinnegan.”

“I don’t know how!” the boy shouts at him.

“You do know how; you’re just panicking!” he snaps back coldly. “Use it, or risk heart failure and severe electrical burns. Try to use the E-rank again, and you will sorely regret it.” He Shunshins back, and Kirin falls. The boy’s eyes are wide, blown out at the pupil, but he finally must reach for his Rinnegan, because as Kirin descends over his head, he disappears-

He meets the boy with a kick to the head. The boy goes sprawling as Kirin crashes into the training post behind them, sending wood chips flying through the air.

“Again,” he says. “Faster. And be prepared to fight where you land; your enemies won’t give you space to breathe.”

The boy gets to his knees, hand clenched around a handful of grass, which abruptly disappears in exchange for his dropped sword. He raises it in time to catch the second kick, levering it and forcing the leg back. Burning red and purple eyes glare up, and he feels his mouth tick up slightly at the fury there.

Good. Anger will take him far, especially since he’s learning to use it and think with it.

“Chidori,” he says, and his hand sparks to life. The boy grimly braces himself. “Senbon!”
The boy changes places with him, and he lets out a cold laugh, easily evading the needles of lightning. “Better,” he says. Then, he appears behind the boy and plants a foot in his back, forcing him to hit the ground face first. “But predictable.”

The boy grinds his teeth and pushes himself up on trembling arms as he bears down on him. He hooks his foot under the boy’s stomach and kicks him over. The boy coughs harshly and stares up at him, too winded to glare. He stills at the blade placed under his chin.

“Escape this,” he says. The boy musters a glower as the blade starts to press in-

It slides through a mud clot. He turns around and sees the boy get to his feet, lightning crackling in a makeshift barrier around him. The boy himself aims a bow and arrow at him.

Daring.

He summons his Susanoo in answer to the challenge, and aims the arrow right for the boy’s chest. His mouth slides into a cold grin.

“Aim well,” he calls. “You won’t get another shot.” Then, he does the same, and they both fire.

The boy’s almost ready. He just has two more important lessons, and the work will be done.

…

Seeing Itachi again should be more conflicting, Sasuke thinks. He knows everything, now. Itachi is innocent. He’s been working for the village this whole time. He cried when he killed their parents.

Instead, Sasuke’s anger doesn’t abate a single bit. He still feels that burning rage, that helpless betrayal.

There were other solutions, he thinks viciously, that didn’t include murdering our entire clan. The children, the civilians, our mother.

What he told Kakashi before the Sandaime’s funeral holds true. The man was practically responsible for the death of the Uchiha. Itachi was cornered into genocide, and still, Danzō sits on the council, free from punishment and still considered a village hero.

Sickening. Sasuke felt no remorse in letting him die.

Still, although it was less Itachi’s fault than he originally thought, he still holds blame. He had friends, teammates, ANBU teammates even, and connections. He didn’t have to kneel and offer the Uchiha on a silver platter. And he definitely didn’t have to send Sasuke on an ill-advised, mindless path for revenge just to give himself some semblance of peace of mind. He thought he was doing Sasuke a favor, no doubt, but that little piece of advice was the most selfish thing he could have done, and Sasuke might never forgive him for it.

Still. Sasuke is working to be better. He’s not that man, and he will not become that man either. He keeps his wits about him, attacks with precision and without letting his feelings get in the way. He stays cool and collected, meeting Itachi’s eyes in challenge and managing to spit out a code just for the two of them-

And then history begins to repeat itself, and Itachi locks eyes with Kakashi, ready to pull him into an eternity of hell.

Sasuke wants to say that he thought about it. The decision to get between Itachi’s Tsukuyomi and Kakashi. He wants to claim that it was a strategic decision - this will, after all, spark the search for Tsunade, who is an infinitely better choice than Danzō for Hokage. But the truth is very simple.

Sasuke sees Itachi’s eyes spin and Kakashi not closing his eyes the fucking idiot-

He panics. Not again, he thinks, and then- 

He doubts anyone notices, but he uses Amenotejikara, and he plants himself in front of Kakashi with a surge of mixed dread and satisfaction.

Fuck you, he thinks to anyone who might be listening and a few who definitely aren’t, and he barely catches the edge of Itachi’s frown before the world melts into a curtain of black fire, and he’s back.

“Oh, foolish little brother,” Itachi says, staring him down as he stabs their mother through the heart.

That’s not how it happened, you bastard, why , Sasuke wants to say, but he opens his mouth, and the only thing that comes out is a scream because Itachi takes his sword and shoves it through Sasuke’s chest. Then, he twists.

“So sentimental,” says Itachi dispassionately. “Will you never learn?”

Sasuke can’t breathe. Or maybe he can, but it doesn’t matter, because Itachi isn’t letting him, and Itachi is unmistakably in control.

“Still attached to that team of yours,” Itachi sighs lightly. “Don’t you remember the last time you were attached to someone? Most of them died. The other stabbed you in the back.”

What a godsdamned-

Sasuke screams and screams, but when he stops, he grins with blood on his teeth and air fluttering in his collapsing chest.

Fucking got you.

“Hurry the fuck up, Dead Last,” he mutters when Itachi gives him a second to breathe. “And get that old woman in the village already.”

He can handle Tsukuyomi, and he’ll count on his team - stupid, naive, crazy, but his - to get him out of it.

…

Of all things to make the boy see the Mangekyō.

“Sentiment,” he hisses into the boy’s ear. “Will destroy you.”

Wet but defiant eyes meet his. “Fuck...off,” the boy croaks.

He thought that using Shisui’s eye on the sensei, forcing him to forget this ever happened and to ignore any strange occurrences with the boy after this, would seal the boy’s weakness for good. After all, the sensei will be of no help at all. Shisui’s genjutsu, Kotoamatsukami, is the strongest known, unmatched only by the Tsukuyomi variants. The boy will receive no help there, now or ever. The boy could be bleeding out in front of the sensei, and if it doesn’t follow the beat of what happened in the original timeline, the sensei will just read his book and let it happen. Even the infamous Copy Ninja can’t beat reality being rewritten in his mind.

“See how far this gets you,” he says, leaning back. “You’ll learn soon enough. He’ll disappoint you - fail you. He already failed to save you once.”

“I don’t need him to save me,” the boy says bluntly as Tsukuyomi fades. Then, pointedly, “Not anymore.”

He scoffs, crossing his arms. “Then what do you need him for? Company? The man isn’t fit for society.”

“Like you would know,” the boy sneers, getting to his feet. “Forget it. You wouldn’t understand why I don’t have to use people to want them around.”

He flicks an irritated hand. “They have to be strong enough to stand behind me.”

“He was strong - is strong enough,” the boy counters. “He fought Kotoamatsukami until he almost hemorrhaged his brain. You had to knock him unconscious.”

“It was an...admirable effort,” he concedes. “But ultimately useless. He succumbed. He forgot. He failed.”

“I failed,” the boy corrects him. “I wasn’t strong enough to break free of your control and stop you.” He grimly draws his sword “It won’t happen again.” 

“You failed Itachi,” he says flatly, humoring the boy by pulling out his own sword. “Your sensei, who you’ve known for less than three months, gave you your Mangekyō, not the brother who sacrificed everything for you.”

“Itachi,” the boy practically snarls, incensed now, “is a coward who needs to visit a licensed Yamanaka. He should have killed me with everyone else, but he wanted someone alive who he knew wouldn’t give up until they killed him.”

There’s a dangerous silence. “I think,” he says coldly, “that you need a reminder to watch your words.”

The boy’s answering grin is vicious, no longer intimidated into submission. It seems that the final straw was that memory of the sensei. “Make me.”

“You will regret that challenge.” Then, he disappears-

His sword is blocked by the boy’s, and that grin stretches into something almost manic.

“You did your job too well,” the boy taunts. He snarls wordlessly and blows fire into the boy’s face. Before the fire stops, he hears a whistle behind him, and he whirls around to block the chokuto coming for his face.

“Insolent.” He channels lightning up his blade, and the boy curses and breaks away before he can get electrocuted. “Arrogant.”

“Like looking in the mirror,” the boy sneers, ducking under a stream of lightning senbon. He sends a beam of lightning back, obliterating a tree as his target immediately Substitutes away.

“Enough.” He lands lightly and casts Amaterasu in a large circle around them. The boy glances warily at it. He’s already experienced its burn. Four Shadow Clones pop into existence. “Let’s see if you’re so cocky when the odds are stacked against you.” All of them close in.

The boy sets his shoulders. His eyes glow red and purple. He bares his teeth like a mad dog - fitting, considering his sensei - and raises his sword arm.

“Kirin!” he shouts as the clones close in. Lightning spears the sky and crackles down in the form of a dragon. Their eyes meet. Susanoo closes around the boy’s form as he speaks one word full of murderous intent.

“Perish.”

…

That man's plan might have worked; Sasuke can admit it to himself. Except, he made one critical error. He showed Sasuke the price of his revenge path, what he was willing to do. Who he was willing to kill.

The instant Kakashi's- Kakashi's death at the hands of that man gave Sasuke his Mangekyō, rather than Itachi's death, he should have known that Sasuke would defy everything he'd just been told. After all, Itachi had, yes, bartered for his life, but he'd also tortured him and unwittingly set him up for failure. Set him up to kill his last remaining family member, even when he would discover the horrible truth later.

Kakashi, though. The man is perpetually aggravating, deliberately confounding, incomprehensibly loyal, outrageously strong, and the only adult in Sasuke's life who gives a single damn besides Iruka-sensei, who really doesn't count because it had been his job to nurture them. Kakashi does it because he, somewhere in that cracked heart, genuinely cares about them. All of them. Even though he doesn’t have to - probably shouldn’t, all told.

Sasuke is greedy. He'll take that undying loyalty, the stunted shows of affection, and he'll hold on with both hands, because he lost it once and there's not a chance in hell that he'll ever lose it again. Not willingly. And Uchiha are cursed with maddeningly strong emotions. When they value someone or something, they go that extra thousand klicks, and they guard it and hoard it possessively.

So, he doesn't regret jumping in front of Tsukuyomi at all, rash decision or not. And he won't be doing what that man wanted, and he will value his team and guard them. His family is dead, inaccessible, or hell bent on burning the world down to reshape the ashes. His team is here, ready to stand beside him and before him, and he doesn’t plan on losing them. He’ll protect them, probably die trying, and he’ll consider himself accomplished because of it.

...

"I was trained by an asshole who just wanted to make me stronger. Sound familiar?"

The words echo, clamoring, a large, bright, alarming sign. A code. A reference.

Shisui used to speak derisively of Father. He used to call the man stricter than the stick lodged up Hyuuga Hiashi’s ass. He used to call him an asshole who only cared for prestige and power. 

He was not entirely wrong.

Still. The code. The reference.

Shisui is long dead, gone, most likely forgotten by the village as a whole. He’d been one of many killed, after all, even if his death was by his own hand. But he still has traces left behind. Mostly memories of the few who knew or remember him. More alarmingly, he has a very physical, literal remnant still in existence.

And it’s this that the code is referring to. His eyes. Shisui’s Mangekyō eyes, with one of the most powerful abilities to date. One, in the hands of his best friend. The other, in the hands of Shimura Danzō.

“You’re thinking hard.”

Uchiha Itachi opens his eyes and meets his partner’s gaze. “Yes.”

“What about?” Kisame is a solid partner, a good fighter, and is utterly loyal to the Akatsuki cause.

“Old family problems,” Itachi says blandly. “Taken care of, now.”

Now, that he’d left Sasuke comatose, under Tsukuyomi’s unforgiving glare. Still, his little brother had passed on a message. Even if Itachi isn’t entirely sure of what it is, the fact that it exists is worth investigating.

He stands. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be late.” Kisame stands without complaint.

His little brother’s obscure message will have to wait. After all, it will be a long time until Itachi can even confirm its meaning.

“I hope the others have got food on,” Kisame says, hefting Samehada and leaning the wrapped edge on his shoulder. “Hey, did you hear? Orochimaru is missing. Deidara says that Sasori’s actually in a good mood for once.”

“Is that so.”

For now, Itachi still has a part to play. He’ll continue to do his duty until such time that he can be released from it.

And what a relief it will be, when that time finally comes.

Chapter Text

Naruto waits to catch Ero-sensei off guard. He does it very sneakily, in a way that would make Iruka-sensei secretly proud, and he gives the old man two days to let his guard down before abruptly interrupting dinner with, "So, how come nobody told me that my dad is the Yondaime Hokage?"

Naruto watches with extreme satisfaction as Ero-sensei chokes on his roasted squirrel and starts hacking up a lung. Sakura stares with enormous eyes at Naruto for a moment, and then she shakes her head and turns to glower at their temporary mentor.

"How the fuck - pardon my Tsuchigo - does Naruto not know who his parents are if other people do?" she demands. And- yes, Sakura-chan, get it! She definitely has her priorities right.

"Who- who told you that?" Ero-sensei coughs, wiping at streaming eyes. Naruto's immense satisfaction grows.

"I wasn't sure 'till just now, dattebayo," he says smugly. See, Iruka-sensei? See? He doesn't always have "less subtlety than a neon orange, screaming, flying pig". "And it doesn't even matter. Did the old man really make a law saying I couldn't be told?"

It has been a long, painfully eye-opening, few days. This, his parents, are just the tip of the iceberg. Doesn't that say a lot?

Ero-sensei shifts, stalling by wiping at his mouth. Naruto vibrates impatiently.

"Listen, Naruto," the old man says, tone far less dramatic than any of the other times they've talked so far. "The Sandaime was… The Yondaime had enemies. Notably, Iwagakure wouldn't have stopped trying to kill any of his children." Jiraiya meets Naruto's eyes, and for the first time, Naruto can kind of see where Sakura is coming from when she rails on about respect for certain incredible village figures. The man's face could be carved from rock.

"Hiruzen-sensei made your heritage a secret to keep you safe, the same way he tried to outlaw any mention of the Kyuubi or you being the Jinchuuriki."

Naruto is…

Well, the first emotion that wells up like stomach acid in his throat sure isn't understanding, or thankfulness. In fact, it kind of tastes like-

"That's bullshit, dattebayo!" he roars, jumping to his feet, indignation, fury, and hurt all coursing through his veins. Sakura jerks back, and he can't even muster remorse for it. Jiraiya just watches him. Naruto whirls around on him, the only suitable target for his anger since Jii-san is-

"You know who told me about the damn fox? Huh?! It was that bastard, Mizuki! The traitor Academy sensei!" Naruto bellows, ignoring Sakura's jolt of surprise. "And you know who told me about my dad! Fucking Sasuke!" He grabs at his hair, an old reflex from his orphanage days when the adults would yell at him for putting his hands on furniture so he learned to turn his hands on himself, because no one cared if he was damaged.

"The Uchiha told you?" asks Jiraiya, frowning slightly. "He can't have known - he's too young."

Naruto stares at him in disbelief. Something sour starts to spill out of the cracks in his heart. "I don't know," he says, grinding his teeth on the words until they ache. "Maybe he just looked at the picture and found out. Is that the damn point? I grew up thinking I had been abandoned, that I was hated by everyone including my birth parents, that-" He gulps, swallows, "That I'd never had a family, and I'd never get one, either, 'cause demons don't get families, right?"

"Naruto…" Sakura's soft whisper reaches him, and it grates like a steel blade pressed into his ears.

"Do you know what- what I woulda' done for the name of my dad?" he asks, staring Jiraiya in the eyes, beseeching him for answers. Something. Anything. "I'd have kept it a secret - I'm good at that."

He is, too. He's never told a soul about some of the things that were said to him, about him, by villagers. He's never said a word about the way some of the orphanage staff would give him such terrible looks that he braved sleeping on the streets on certain nights, rather than going back and risking their wrath.

"Kid," says Jiraiya with a sigh, "you don't know what you're saying. Letting that information out - it would have been a death sentence. Assassins from other villages would have flocked to Konoha to slit your throat in your bed."

Like I didn't have people in the village trying to do that, Naruto thinks. "Then- then why couldn't anyone adopt me?" he asks, hands finally falling from his hair and curling at his sides.

"You know the answer to that," says Jiraiya, not unkindly. "It's the same reason your Academy sensei can't adopt you, though I know he's asked."

Before Naruto can process that - Iruka-sensei really- for him? When? How? Why? - Jiraiya shifts and says tiredly, "Letting someone adopt you would have been complicated. It would have had to be a shinobi, and ideally a married couple so that there was always someone to keep an eye on you. They would have had to be jounin ranked. Letting anyone from a clan adopt you was out, because other clans would see that as unfair favor and advantage. Letting someone who wasn't from a clan adopt you was feasible, except that most of them either weren't ranked high enough, were too young, or weren't suited for raising a child."

Naruto wants to cover his ears. He didn't mean for- he doesn't want to hear about the could-have-beens he'd always dreamed of and why they never would have come true. He doesn't do that, and he doesn't say anything. Instead, he stares at the ground as it blurs and wavers with water that he refuses to let fall.

Iruka-sensei wanted to adopt me. Someone- the old man, had to be, said no.

"I'm sorry that your childhood was the way it was, Naruto," says Jiraiya heavily. "But it's how it had to be to keep you alive."

Naruto says nothing.

Then-

"Is that what you tell yourself at night?" Sakura. And she sounds incandescently furious. Naruto looks up at her, almost lazily, eyes dragging from the ground, up to her shoes, then to her hands balled up in her lap, and finally to her face, pink from anger and blazing at the eyes.

"Sakura-chan," he says, hoarse from the tightness strangling his voice, "S'okay-"

"Naruto, kindly shut up for one second," she says, and his mouth snaps shut. "You, old man," she says, and Jiraiya glances warily at her. "Was happiness ever a factor in those big, noble decisions you made about Naruto's life? Or mental health? What about physical, overall health?"

"Kid-" Jiraiya starts, dismissive. Sakura is on her feet in a flash.

"I may be twelve," she practically snarls, "but I deserve to be acknowledged as an intelligent human being. Answer me: did you, or anyone else on whatever shit committee that decides things for orphans, think about Naruto's happiness?"

Jiraiya studies her. "It was assumed," he says slowly, "that being raised in Konoha would foster happiness and general health."

Sakura laughs, and it's far from a happy sound. "Was it?" she says. "That's funny. When I was growing up, do you want to know the things other kids would say about Naruto? They used to say that their moms told them not to play with him, because he was bad and dangerous. No one talked to him, no one listened to him, barely anyone even looked at him- oh, don't look at me like that, it's nothing he doesn't already know."

Sakura inhales deeply. "He used to get spit on, you know, by people in the streets. They'd throw stuff at him - trash, bad fruit - and he wasn't ever allowed into any of the shops in the nicer districts. They had signs for it, for him, that he wasn't allowed in on pain of KAMPF escort or ANBU surveillance.

"And I don't know everything. Obviously not - I didn't speak to him until we ended up on the same team." Sakura aims a guilty, half-ashamed, half-fond look towards Naruto, whose chest squeezes. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to be looking for a response, and she carries right on while Jiraiya visibly ages with every word she spits out. "I do know this: Naruto grew up alone, hungry - because the orphanage didn't care, and the school didn't care, and no one cared until Iruka-sensei - and ignored or yelled at, or spit on. And you want to tell me that keeping him from being adopted or knowing who his dad was kept him safe?"

Sakura sneers, something she's picked up from Sasuke in the months of being on his team, and it's simultaneously bitter, condescending, and furious. Naruto absently thinks that the bastard would be impressed.

"Honestly, sir, fuck that." 

Her declaration echoes for a moment. Even after all of that, she doesn't seem empty or drained like Naruto would have been. Her chest heaves, her eyes gleam, and she's practically bristling with anger. She's like a vengeful kami, Naruto thinks in slight awe. But for him.

For a minute, it seems like Jiraiya will dismiss them. He looks like he wants to shut the conversation down, but he makes the mistake of meeting their eyes, and he deflates, blowing out a long breath.

"Alright," he says. "I hear you." He tilts his head at Naruto. "For what it's worth, I haven't been back to the village in over ten years, so I didn't know most of that. If I had…" He grimaces. "The council has a lot of sway. Even if I'd been there, I couldn't have done much."

Sakura crosses her arms. "You're one of the legendary Sanin," she points out. Jiraiya chuckles mirthlessly.

"Still just a soldier, kid. Tsunade-hime and I? We still rank jounin, you know. No amount of glory from the Second War changes that. As jounin, and not even a clan head on my part, we don't got as much pull as you think we should. We're mostly following orders, just like your legendary sensei," he says.

"Tsunade-sama isn't," Sakura says, refusing to give ground. "She's been out of the village for longer than you."

Jiraiya grimaces again. "Hime got special permission from the Sandaime for that. He put her on a long-term 'reconnaissance and population-analysis' mission, on top of apprenticing her niece to her. She sends quarterly reports on the welfare of various counties' citizenry and the state of their economies. It's the only way she was allowed to leave in the first place."

Sakura falters for the first time. She glances at Naruto, who shrugs. He's always been aware of Jii-san's issues with the council - maybe not the extent, but definitely that they existed - but it's still striking to hear one of the - apparently - best shinobi talk like this. Like the village is a big, terrible entity that treats its citizens like...well, like tools.

"That's wrong," he mutters under his breath. "That's-" He looks up, catches Jiraiya's eye. "But we're the good guys."

The older man's mouth twists almost meanly. "Use your head, Naruto," he says, words harsher than his tone. "Do you really think there are any good guys in the company of murderers for hire? Good is about being loyal to the village and your Hokage. For a shinobi, anything else is a privilege."

Naruto scowls at the floor. That's wrong, he thinks. A lot of this is wrong. Because it's not just him. If it was, if it was just Uzumaki Naruto, container of the Kyuubi, he could...swallow it. It'd sit badly in his stomach, but he could swallow it. But it's not just him. It's Sasuke, whom he remembers going home alone after school, back to an empty apartment with no more supervision than Naruto even though he was supposed to be from a special clan. It's Neji, who grew up angry, alone, and bitter at his clan even though they're his clan. 

It's all the kids in the orphanage, with hard eyes and bitter mouths. The lucky ones were adopted or apprenticed. The rest either aged out, ran away, or were...disappeared. They all knew that the orphanage overseers had no time, patience, or energy to really care about them, and if the people paid to look after them didn't care, surely no one else would either.

It's Kakashi-sensei, whom Sakura and he had investigated a few weeks after becoming a team. Sasuke had been distant and uninterested then, but Sakura had recognized the name and so they had gone looking. What they found… At least Naruto hasn't ever been called a traitor by his own village. Or a friend-killer. At least he doesn't remember seeing his parents die, and his team is alive. And what support did Kakashi get as an orphan? He got a teenaged jounin-sensei. That's it. No therapy, no medication, no time off. As the son of a scapegoat, he might have been hated more than Naruto.

Dinner finishes in silence that night. Jiraiya wordlessly takes watch, and Naruto curls up in his bedroll. Sakura, nearby, is still stiff with anger, though she says nothing. For his part, Naruto closes his eyes.

This is all wrong.

He doesn't sleep well that night.

…

Breakfast the next morning is chilly. Literally and otherwise. A cold front swept through overnight, and now Naruto's breath fogs if he tries hard enough. Sakura has clearly not calmed down with time, and she addresses Jiraiya with the barest linings of politeness when he sketches out their path for the day.

"Hime's definitely gambling," says Jiraiya, who's apparently doing his level best to pretend that nothing's wrong, "which means she has to be in a more commercial town. We'll try Tanzaku Gai and work northeast from there."

"Lead the way," says Sakura sweetly, smiling woodenly. Jiraiya pauses, almost like he's about to say something, but he eventually just shakes his head. Naruto's glad.

He's not sure what any more excuses would do to Sakura's temper or his own stomach. It's a bit strange, not being the one with one fingertip on the bowstring, but it's also relieving in a way. Jiraiya doesn't know him well enough to know that Naruto typically gets loud when he's angry, and Sakura's angry enough for the both of them. It lets him just...go silent.

Running is methodical. Rhythmic. It's kind of like the meditation that Iruka-sensei used to tell them to practice when they were in the Academy. It clears his head. Helps him ride out the never-ending waves of why-how-please.

By the time they stop for lunch, Naruto feels less like he's about to explode. Lunch isn't any warmer, because Sakura keeps either staring pointedly at the ground whenever Jiraiya speaks or she stares at him with almost palpable animosity when he isn't, but it's not worse either. At this point, Naruto thinks that's the best he can hope for. He's forgotten that Sakura holds grudges. Years-long grudges. Her and Ino used to be best friends, after all. 

They start moving again, and Naruto inhales deeply. It's mostly familiar scents: trees, things on the wind, the odd dead animal, Sakura's shampoo and Jiraiya's weird oil. This, too, is like meditation. His nose definitely isn't as strong as Kakashi-sensei's, but it's better than most people's. The familiar, natural scents relax him. By the time they get to Tanzaku Gai, he's...better.

"Where's the bar supposed to be?" he asks, squinting around at all of the buildings. It's no Konoha, but it's in far better shape than his only other comparison, Wave.

"Right in the middle of town," replies Jiraiya, apparently comfortable with just pretending that the last twelve hours never happened. He leads the way, which is the perfect opportunity for Naruto to hang back where Sakura is hunching slightly over crossed arms.

"You good?" he asks lowly. Flinty green eyes flash over to him.

"Peachy," says Sakura. "Just, you know, they say to never meet your heroes. I get it now."

Naruto's never heard that expression in his life, but he hopes his expression conveys sympathy and understanding. She snorts lightly at him, expression defrosting for the first time since last night. "It's fine. I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Naruto hardly wants to talk about himself anymore. "Yeah, of course, Sakura-chan," he says with a grin. "Always am."

Her face falls a little, which is not what he wanted. She looks away. "Yeah," she says quietly. "That's the problem, isn't it?" Then, she refuses to talk anymore, just smiling painfully when he tries to cajole her into conversation. Eventually, he gives up on getting a talking partner and just starts pointing out interesting things in the town. By the time they reach the bar - apparently there's more than one, but Jiraiya wanted the biggest one - Naruto's just talking about the fresh paint on some poor guy's ass, and Sakura doesn't look quite so angry or sad.

It's a win.

Jiraiya leads the way into the bar, ignoring the slightly judgmental stares he receives when Naruto and Sakura follow him. He walks right up to the counter of the bar.

"Hey, there," he says, grinning widely at the barmaid, who giggles at him and then looks a bit constipated when she sees Naruto and Sakura.

"Hi," she says. Her eyes trail over the genin. "We have an age limit, you know."

Jiraiya dismisses this with a wave. "No problem, gorgeous. We're just looking for someone. She's about yae high, blonde hair, has a big che-"

And Naruto, struck by the urge to get some retribution and exercise his title as Number One Unpredictable Ninja, sniffles loudly and obviously. Then, he says, "Have you seen our mommy?" in the most plaintive tone he can muster. Jiraiya freezes. Sakura chokes on a peal of laughter, turning it into a painful-sounding cough at the last minute.

The barmaid looks at them with utmost sympathy. "Hi, dearies," she coos. "What's your mommy look like?"

Naruto is very glad that he and Sakura removed their hitai-ate when they came into town, just to avoid unwanted attention. Jiraiya's face is amazing.

"Dunno," says Naruto, rubbing his eyes. "Don't remember her. Pa took us when we were young and we never seen her since."

"Pa's real busy, y'know," Sakura chimes in, offering a shy and watery smile. "So, he thinks Mommy should take us. Even though she lost the house gambling."

The barmaid aims an extremely unimpressed glance at Jiraiya's frozen visage. "'Blonde', you said?" she asks curtly.

"Yu- yeah," says Jiraiya. "Blonde. And she...has another girl with her. Younger woman, dark hair. Knowing Hime, she's probably gambling too." He smiles faux ruefully. "She's a risk taker. It's why I fell in love with her."

"Mommy's got alcohol problems," says Naruto wickedly. "And she cheated. But it's fine. Pa's busy and important now."

"He doesn't have time for us anymore," Sakura agrees sadly. She seems to perk up. "Hey, d'you think Mommy will? She doesn't work, and she drinks a lot, so she has lots of hangovers, so she's probably not that busy, right?"

Jiraiya is too good a ninja to gape at them in horror. But his jaw twitches as the barmaid scowls openly at him.

"Come back in a couple hours," she says to Jiraiya furiously. "And maybe do some thinking on who exactly you're leaving your children with." Then, she turns away and pointedly ignores him. Jiraiya sighs and raises his hands in surrender.

He waits until they're out of earshot before saying, "Proud of yourselves? That's a good information source gone."

Naruto hesitates, but Sakura scoffs. "You just wanted a chance to look down her shirt, sir."

Jiraiya doesn't answer, which is damning enough. Instead, he digs out his coin purse and hands them both a small amount of money. "Go see the town. Cool your heads. Leave me to work in peace. But be here in two hours." He waves them off, and they waste no time in walking away to explore.

It's fun. No one knows Naruto here, so all of the stall owners and shopkeepers are friendly and inviting. Naruto and Sakura eat free samples, giggle at some of the stupid tourist clothing, and eventually spend their money on food and matching facemasks. They buy one for Sasuke too, and then brainstorm all the ways they'll convince him to wear it. Puppy eyes and blackmail are the favorite strategies, but Naruto says that if worst comes to worst, he'll get Kakashi-sensei to order the other boy to wear it 

"You think he would?" asks Sakura, munching on a skewer of cubed lamb.

"You think he wouldn't?" Naruto says. "I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but Kakashi-sensei can be kind of a dick sometimes."

Sakura considers this and then nods sagely. "You're right," she agrees. "Just for the purpose of making Sasuke do something he doesn't want to do, Kakashi-sensei would make him do it." She yanks the last cube off and waves the stick around thoughtfully. "If he doesn't kill him when he wakes up, anyway."

Oh, yeah. Kakashi-sensei, who told them to leave him to die on their first mission, will definitely have something to say about Sasuke jumping in front of him to take the hit.

"Kinda weird how the bastard was there," Naruto muses. "I mean, weren't they meeting for lunch or something?"

Sakura shrugs. "I don't know. I guess he could have heard about it."

"From who? Everyone who knew about it was fighting." Naruto frowns. "Bastard knows a lot of things he shouldn't. Like my- dad."

Sakura raises an eyebrow. "You look a lot like him. It's not hard to see the connection," she points out. He nods but waves his stick emphatically.

"Yeah, but they didn't. No one did, except him," he says. "And remember the way he reacted to that Kabuto guy in the forest? How did he even know who he was?"

Sakura purses her lips. "I don't know," she admits. "It is weird. We were noticing weird things about him even before the Exams, but since Kakashi-sensei didn't say anything…" She huffs and glances at her wrist watch. "We need to go," she says. Naruto reluctantly stands. "Hey, it's just something to ask him when he wakes up, right? I've definitely got a list for both him and Kakashi-sensei. Starting with, why do they both keep getting hurt?"

Naruto finally breaks into a wide grin. "Yeah! Selfish jerks! Leave some for the rest of us, huh?" Sakura nods emphatically.

"We'll show them. While they spend days in the hospital, we're gonna get super strong and kick everyone's ass." 

Naruto fist-bumps her, and they both toss their sticks in a nearby trash can before heading towards the bar. "First," he says, slinging an arm over Sakura's shoulder, "we're gonna get this old granny to come home and fix everything."

"No matter what," Sakura agrees.

Tsunade better be ready; she's got two members of Team Seven coming after her. Naruto's kind of looking forward to arguing her into compliance.

…

They get within eyesight of the bar. Then, half of the closest wall explodes outward. They watch as Jiraiya goes flying, crashing hard into the ground and skidding for another ten meters before slumping in on himself. Their heads swing around when a woman with blonde hair and a green coat steps out of the hole in the bar, shaking out her fist.

"-off, shithead!" she snarls over her shoulder. "I'll pay for the damn wall after I kick this idiot's face in."

Behind her, a slightly distressed voice says, "Please stop destroying walls, Tsunade-sama!"

Sakura blinks.

"You!" Tsunade stomps over to Jiraiya and picks him up by the neck. "You track me down after all these years, and the first thing you say to me is that I need to go to Konoha and become Hokage?" She shakes him, and Sakura swears she hears the teeth rattle from where she is. "Then you hit on my niece?" Tsunade rears back, almost like she's going to throw a ball- "Die, idiot!"

Jiraiya goes sailing through the air. Sakura cringes at the crash.

"Tsunade-sama, please!" says a young woman with dark hair, carrying a...pig?

"You heard 'im, Shizune," says Tsunade disdainfully. She turns and sees Sakura and Naruto gaping at her. "What? Never seen a woman throw a man before? It happens more than you'd think, especially in b-"

"Tsunade-sama," squeaks Shizune. Tsunade barks a laugh.

"In battle!" She grins toothily, and Shizune sighs.

"Really," she says in quiet despair, "how old are you?"

Naruto visibly shakes himself out of his gaping stupor. Sakura, starting to develop a sense for when her teammates are about to do something stupid and/or reckless, reaches for his sleeve. Unfortunately, she barely misses as he rockets towards both women.

"You're Tsunade, huh?" he says loudly. Tsunade flicks an eyebrow up.

"What's it to you?" she asks.

"We're here to take you back to Konoha, dattebayo!" He gets right in her face, heedless of the way her jaw tightens dangerously. "You gotta' come heal our teammates and Bushy Brows, because your other dickhole teammate invaded the damn village and killed a tonna people."

There's a brief silence. It's broken by Sakura slamming her face into her hands at the same time that Tsunade bursts into raucous laughter.

"Brat," she says, "you've got another thing coming if you think anything that happens in that village has to do with me." Naruto glowers murderously at her.

"You're a Konoha shinobi, dattebayo!" he says fiercely. "The hell do you mean, nothing to do with you? Hah? You're an iryo-nin, aren't you?" He jabs a finger at her. Sakura's not sure if he doesn't see the way her expression shifts dangerously, or if he just doesn't care. "You're supposed to be some- some pinnacle of iryo-ninjutsu, 'ttebayo! And what're you doing? Surveying villages? What kinda bullshit is that?"

Clearly, Naruto's anger hasn't been diminished in the slightest. Sakura's all for him finally working through his actual issues out loud and proud, but at the same time…

The punch comes, and Naruto flies screeching down the street. Compared to how far Jiraiya went, he got off with a love tap. Still, Sakura winces as he lands. He immediately springs back up. "What the hell?!" he yells.

"Shut your damn mouth, you brat!" Tsunade bellows. "You have no idea what you're talking about! Who the hell taught you diplomacy?"

"Tsunade-sama," says Sakura, deciding to step in before Naruto incites the woman into destroying another wall. Or. This quarter of the road. "I'm so sorry for my teammate's rudeness. He's stressed, because a few of our friends were hurt pretty badly during the invasion of the village. And things are chaotic there, so the organization of medical staff is lacking."

She takes a deep, steadying breath, and continues, making it as report-like as possible. "Also, Uchiha Itachi recently infiltrated the village and hospitalized our teammate Sasuke, and our sensei, Hatake Kakashi, is having problems that no one except us is noticing. So, I am sorry that Jiraiya and Naruto are horrible at communication, but if you would come back to the village at least for medical reasons, it would be greatly appreciated."

Tsunade eyes her warily. Her expression flattens down into something far less forgiving than her previous loud annoyance. "Sorry, girl," she grunts. "That village is a death trap. Nothing good ever comes out of it, and I'm not going back there unless they put me in a body-scroll first." Behind her, Shizune makes a noise but doesn't contradict her. Her eyes, when Sakura meets them, are pitying.

The thing is, Sakura has spent the last week or so in a veritable twister of emotions. She's hit all five stages of grief at some point, she's sure, and she's started cycling back through them thanks to Jiraiya's infuriatingly blasé attitude towards Naruto's childhood. She came on this trip for her team, yes, and to support Naruto in any way she could, but also because she needed to come. She needed to get out of that village, needed to be reminded that life exists beyond the ruined buildings and wailing widows and full hospital beds with familiar faces. She felt like a drawn bowstring before they left the village, and after the revelations of the past day, the bow's starting to splinter.

"I see," she says, voice like ice water, and makes up her mind about something she's been waffling over for a few months now. She can feel her hands clench, so she hides them behind her back and puts on her widest smile. Tsunade's eyes narrow. "May I ask you a question?"

"No." Shizune elbows the older woman firmly, and she grits out, "Yes, fine."

"Have you completely abandoned your medical duties to Konohagakure?" Sakura asks calmly, still smiling. 

Tsunade scoffs. "I'm not exactly out here on a picnic, girl."

"Here is not the village," Sakura points out. "So, I'll ask you again: have you completely abandoned your medical duties to Konohagakure?"

"No," Tsunade bites out. Sakura nods in exaggerated understanding.

"I see. Do you know that the hospital's policy for on-leave medics states that unless they have health complications themselves, iryo-nin are to report to the hospital for clinical duties within three years of external missions, barring war efforts?" Sakura cocks her head. "How long have you been outside of the village, Tsunade-sama?"

"What are you trying to say?" says Tsunade, darkly amused. "That the hospital would revoke my license? They don't have the balls." Sakura nods in agreement. She knows that's true; despite the years-long absence, many in the medical field have Tsunade on a pedestal right up there with the Professor.

"They don't," she says. "But when I become head of the hospital, I will. For abandonment of duty, for poor mental health, and for refusal to aid one of the founding clans of the village."

"Poor mental health?" interrupts Naruto, coming up on Tsunade's other side. The woman turns to face him and stills. "Whad'ya mean?" Sakura nods at the bar.

"Drinks every bar dry, racks up thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of ryo in debt, and," she watches Tsunade's eyes follow a trail of blood on Naruto's cheek, "has a crippling aversion to blood." She watches Tsunade blink slowly, a trained response to a drastic increase of adrenaline and possibly symptoms of shock. That she hasn't spoken up to defend herself speaks volumes.

Casually, Sakura walks over to Naruto and thumbs away the blood. He gives her a startled look, but there's a heavy exhale behind her. By the time she turns back around, Tsunade's face has regained some color, and she's scowling.

"Bold words for a brat just barely out of graduation," she says condescendingly. "Can you even name all the bones in the body?"

"I'm sure that whatever examiner I do have at the time of my medical apprenticeship will be more than satisfied with my knowledge," says Sakura tartly. 

"If you're the future generation of Konoha's medicine, the village is going to shit," sneers the older woman, and Naruto inhales to yell. Sakura puts a hand on his shoulder and keeps on smiling.

"I can't see why you'd possibly care," she says sweetly. "You've made it abundantly clear that the village and its occupants aren't your problem anymore. Furthermore, you have obvious problems with the medical system, and even the village itself, but have done absolutely nothing with your considerable clan and individual influence to fix them. The only people who care less for the village are probably Missing-nin from other villages, because at least traitors want to see it burn. You would sooner shut your eyes to the flames and walk away as people turned to ash behind you, isn't that right?"

Tsunade's jaw clenches. "You have no godsdamned idea what you're talking about, brat," she says threateningly. "That village is a cancer. All it does is kill and churn out little metal soldiers to throw themselves at death, and medics are the ones who have to patch them up or watch them die. You think you're ready to see that? I don't fucking think so."

"If you have such a fucking problem with it, then why don't you try to fix it, hah?" Naruto pushes forward, jaw set mulishly. "You're going on about how the village is horrible, but people like you, who have power but don't use it, are just as shitty as the rest of 'em!"

Tsunade laughs mockingly. "There's no fixing that village, brat! It's poisoned down to the roots."

"You're an iryo-nin!" Naruto exclaims. "You have healing hands - fucking use them, godsdammit! And if the roots are fucked, then yank 'em out!" This time, Sakura manages to grab the back of his jacket before he stomps up to Tsunade again. He squirms but settles for raising his voice even more. "You're such a hypocrite, dattebayo! You're talking about all the problems and all the reasons the village sucks ass - you and Ero-sannin both - but neither of you tried anything to fix it!"

"That village is beyond fixing!" Tsunade shouts back. "It's got so much shit covering it that it'd need a godsdamned Tailed Beast to shovel it out! Its problems won't be solved by a couple of optimistic kids who know jack shit about war, death, or being a shinob-"

"YOU'RE PART OF THE FUCKING PROBLEM!" Naruto screams. "YOU AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING PERSON IN THE VILLAGE WHO CAN DO SOMETHING BUT NEVER. FUCKING. DOES. BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO SHITTING SCARED!"

Tsunade moves, fist raised, teeth bared in a snarl. Shizune lunges for her, misses, and Sakura-

Probably does the stupidest thing ever, in her entire life, because it's contagious and there's no vaccine or cure, and her teammates are patient zeroes for new strands of it every single week.

She shoves Naruto down and a split second later feels her entire rib cage shatter as Tsunade's fist craters her chest.

"SAKURA!"

Truth be told, she doesn't even feel the landing. One second, she's looking into Tsunade's honey-gold eyes, livid and shiny-wet, and the next she's gasping at the sky as her bones crumble like a demolished building. Pain splinters down every part of her skin, and her nails dig into the ground as she tries to breathe. A half-second after that, that same corrosive chakra from the bridge in Wave explodes into the air, and she hears a ferocious snarl from somewhere to her right.

"Fuck! Shizune, get back!"

"You- you hurt Sakura-chan!" Naruto howls.

"Unless you want her to die, you'll get out of the way!" Tsunade barks. There's a long, painful pause, as Sakura tries to keep breathing and not focus on the fact that she can feel pieces of bone pressing against the inside of her skin. Then, finally, Tsunade's scowling face appears above hers. "Idiot!" she snaps. Hands press gently against Sakura's chest, and she chokes on a scream. "Brat, come here and keep her still before she punctures a lung."

A few seconds later, Naruto appears before her too, eyes still slit-pupiled but heavy chakra dissipating. He hesitates, but a scowl from Tsunade has him pressing his hands very carefully to Sakura's shoulders.

"Good," says Tsunade absently. "Fool girl. What the hell were you doing, shoving him out of the way? He's got a damn Tailed Beast in his stomach - he'd have taken this a lot better than you did."

Sakura doesn't answer. Can't answer, in fact, because Tsunade has finally started healing, and the sensation is a curious mix of relieving and agonizing. Her eyes flutter, which makes Naruto squeak anxiously. Tsunade's face is set in concentration, glowing from the reflection of her iryo-ninjutsu, and Sakura is struck by the understanding of why this woman was so revered during the wars. Why so many people sigh and whisper hopes that she'll come back. 

Her temper is horrendous, she swears like a sailor, drinks like a sink, and scowls like a dead woman walking who resents being stuck among the living, but-

But her hands are gentle. Her words are never cruel, just pointed and rude and sharp. She has a heart somewhere, under all the bile and spite and grief.

"You heal so well," Sakura croaks, causing Tsunade's eyes to flicker up in sharp surprise. "But all you're doing by staying away is hurting."

Tsunade's fingers convulse around her still-tender ribs, and that, combined with the sensation of her sternum snapping back into place, is enough to pull the darkness in and cause Sakura to pass out.

…

Sakura wakes up to honey-gold eyes taking up her entire field of vision.

"Gah!" She jerks back, flinching when her head meets something firm. The eyes back away, revealing a wryly amused smirk.

"First time I've had that reaction to someone waking up seeing me," says Tsunade. Sakura stares at her. The woman cocks her head. "What, lose your voice? Did I knock it out of you?"

"I-" Memories of what happened flood back in. "You broke my entire rib cage!" she accuses. Tsunade shrugs carelessly.

"Shouldn't have taken the hit if you couldn't handle it. That blond brat and that idiot pervert could have shrugged it right off; you managed to perforate three organs and nearly rendered your spine unsalvageable," she says. "Now sit up and tell me if there's any pain."

Slowly, suspiciously, Sakura does so. There's no pain. She does feel a bit light-headed, but Tsunade waves this off when she says so. "You've been out for a day and a half - that'd be mild dehydration kicking in."

"I- I get what you mean about Naruto," says Sakura slowly. "But how come the old man would have been fine?" Though, come to think of it, Tsunade had sent him flying to the other end of the road, and she hadn't gone to heal him up.

"Your body's maturing, girl," says Tsunade. "Experienced shinobi are sturdier: they cycle their chakra instinctively, giving them stronger bones and muscles. Not to mention, Jiraiya's a dumbass, but he knows how to take hits the right way. You don't."

Sakura opens her mouth to ask more questions - how exactly does one take a punch like that the right way - but Tsunade turns on her heel and strides over to the door. She wrenches it open, causing the hinges to squeal in protest, and shouts, "Girl's up!" Immediately, there's a series of loud, thumping footsteps that get closer until-

Naruto bursts into the room and beelines it to Sakura. He starts to throw his arms around her, but then freezes. He whirls around on Tsunade. "Is she fixed?" he demands. The latter rolls her eyes and nods. "I'm not gonna break her if I hug her, right?"

Tsunade scoffs. "Who the hell do you think I am?" she says.

"A cranky old lady," he snaps, but he turns back around and hugs Sakura tightly. "Gods, I'm glad you're okay," he mutters. "I'da killed her if she killed you."

"You would have tried," Tsunade corrects. Sakura ignores her.

"Idiot," she says fondly to Naruto. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm the only one with any common sense on our team."

He snorts but pulls back. A devious grin spreads across the lower half of his face. "The old lady's coming back with us," he says conspiratorially. Sakura's head jerks around to look at Tsunade in surprise. "Yeah, she felt bad about you, and everything else, so she's gonna come back with us and fix up the bastard."

"Piss off, brat," Tsunade says without much heat. "I just got sick of your whining. Besides, Hiruzen-sensei left some stuff for me in his will; Jiraiya's being a shithead and won't tell me if it's money, so I need to look at it myself."

Naruto rolls his eyes mightily. Sakura looks at his exasperation, and then at the way Tsunade's crossing her arms and almost pouting, and she tips her head back and laughs.

"Gods, maybe there's brain damage after all," mutters Tsunade. "Or the hysteria's kicking in."

When Sakura doesn't stop laughing, the woman sighs and leaves without another word, slamming the door behind her. Naruto pats Sakura on the shoulder, apparently under the impression that she's suffering a mental break and applying Kakashi-sensei's tried and true response to emotions of any kind: addressing it like the person is a dog in need of pets.

"I wanna make a bet," says Sakura, laughter finally dying down. She grins at Naruto, who immediately grins back in response to seeing her happy.

"Yeah?" he says.

"Uh-huh. I'm gonna bet two-thousand ryo that Tsunade comes back to Konoha, fixes Sasuke, and everyone else, and gets locked into an argument with the council. They'll piss her off so much that she'll take the hat out of spite."

To his credit, Naruto doesn't immediately call her insane. Instead, he thinks about it. "Alright," he says eventually. "But I'm adding that she'll call someone a dumbass at least five times, 'ttebayo." She nods in agreement. "Who're we betting against?" he asks. "Don't think that lady Shizune would take the bet, and the old lady doesn't have any money."

"I don't know. The Sage of the Six Paths?"

"Who?"

Sakura sighs. "Really, Naruto, didn't you pay attention at all in the Academy?" He shrugs sheepishly at her. "Whatever - anyone will do. Just. Two thousand ryo. That's like three dinners at Ichiraku's." He brightens.

"Now we're talking!" he says, and she doesn't bother to tell him that they'll probably never see the money for this bet. It's mostly about the satisfaction of being right. The latter is something she adopted in the Academy, nursed during her rivalry with Ino, and shot full of growth hormones after joining Team Seven. They're all of them competitive, petty, smug assholes, and they all know it.

"Sasuke better appreciate us," she huffs, flopping back on her pillows.

"He's gonna owe me so much ramen," agrees Naruto. "I'ma make him go into debt." 

Sakura shakes her head, but she smiles. Sasuke'll probably scowl at the notion, but he'll be awake to do it.

…

The worst thing about Tsukuyomi, he muses, is that it evolves. It's not content to keep replaying the same illusion over and over if the target is not being tormented, so it changes and shifts until it gets a response. Unluckily for it, it's still based on the horrors imagined by the person the Mangekyou belongs to, and frankly, he's seen worse than anything Itachi would think to throw at him. As he hangs suspended, no light as far as his eyes insists there is to go despite his mind knowing better, in silence save for the sound of his own breath and heartbeat, he wonders how long he's been here.

That man turned a week into a year, and then some, and he's fairly sure that it will take at least that long to find, persuade, and then return with Tsunade. Until she does come, he's helpless to do anything except let Tsukuyomi happen to him. Except, it doesn't feel like any of the other times he's experienced this so-called "Hell". There's pain, a lot of it, and nightmare-fuel for the rest of his life, but there's also a spark of satisfaction and vindictive victory.

I chose this, he thinks as the leagues of gray fog fade away and drop into a burning landscape that chokes him with ash and dust. 

I chose this, he thinks, fire burning him from the outside in like a pig on a spit.

And that, he thinks the next time he can, is why. There's a difference between being thrown into Hell, and flinging yourself there for the sake of someone else. He can't do anything here, but he can remember why he's here, who he's here for, and the fact that he forced Itachi to act on his terms. Victory tastes like ashes and blood and pain, and the savage, snarling knowledge that the enemy is ruined too.

Light blinds him as he thinks with morbid amusement, A pyrrhic victory's nowhere near glorious, especially with shinobi, but that doesn't mean it can't feel perversely good. He feels something latch around his waist and haul him up towards that blinding light, that brilliant sun tinged green, and he lifts off and away from the burning land behind him until he's hanging, briefly, suspended once more.

This time, he's surrounded by thousands, millions, of stars. They all flare once, twice, as a strange beeping sound fills his ears, and-

Sasuke opens his eyes.