The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body ~ Publilius Syrus
.
.
I flared my chakra high in a signal of panic. It would bring Sasuke running like a beacon - which I didn't want - but hopefully it would also bring Jiraiya.
Hopefully.
There was someone behind us, trapping us in the alley, and I forced Naruto behind me, standing us back to back. I kept my eyes on Itachi's neckline, the simple three looped necklace that he wore. It was too high, too close to those deadly Sharingan eyes, but I wasn't skilled enough to be able to ignore his arms.
Not that it would matter, in the end.
We didn't stand a chance.
On the other hand… we weren't dead yet.
I had no doubt that Itachi could have killed us before we'd even been aware that he was there. The fact that he hadn't…
Well. It was like Zabuza all over again, wasn't it?
He wanted something. But the thing he wanted wasn't what he said he wanted. Wasn't the outcome he seemed to be trying to achieve.
That wasn't that unique among ninja.
I knew the truth about the massacre. That Itachi had done it on orders. That he was a pacifist - if a ninja could be so.
That didn't change the fact that he was the type of person who had killed his family on orders.
If he thought it was necessary, if he thought it would protect Sasuke, motivate him, to maintain his cover, whatever, he would kill us. He might not want to, might regret it, but he would do it. Mercilessly.
He was still so very dangerous.
"Naruto. You're coming with us." It wasn't threatening or commanding. Itachi didn't need to be. He just said it softly, like a statement of undeniable fact.
No one moved.
Stall. Come on, Naruto, you're good at this! Get them talking!
The wind blew.
"What do you want with Naruto?" I asked, swallowing and trying to sound non-confrontational. It was late afternoon, so there was a decent amount of shade in the alleyway, but I doubted I would be able to hold Kisame even if I could catch him. His chakra was like a tsunami, looming overhead and threatening to crash down on us and crush us beneath it. Itachi… I wouldn't be able to catch at all.
"Our mission is to capture the Nine Tailed Fox," Itachi replied, perfectly smoothly. I was surprised he even answered.
"For what purpose?" He had to know I was stalling. Was he going to play the game?
"I cannot tell you that."
I swallowed again, abandoning that line of questioning. "Just the Kyuubi?" I asked, knowing perfectly well they were after all the Jinchuriki. It was risky to ask, it might make them decide I knew too much, might raise suspicions. Might, might, might…
There might have been the barest hint of a smile on Itachi's lips. "Clever. You are correct, we are also after the other Bijuu."
Keep stalling!
I could feel my heart racing, the slide of sweat across my forehead. There was the murmur of voices from the festival just meters away. We were so close, yet separated in a completely different world. The seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly.
"We? Are there more of you?" This was an informational goldmine. I hoped that Naruto was listening. He was steady against my back, but silent. I didn't dare take my eyes off of Itachi to check on him.
Behind me, Kisame shuffled, the sound of rustling cloth. "Come on, Itachi. There's no need to play nice with her."
"To be able to deduce so much from so little," Itachi mused.
"Yeah, well," I said, stumbling over the words. "You're wearing a uniform. That implies an organisation."
"You are correct," he said. "Have you ever heard of the Akatsuki?"
"Akatsuki," I echoed. "The red dawn." The red clouds on their cloaks… it fit. "If you're a member, I'm surprised that everyone doesn't know that name."
It was flattery, but also the cold hard truth. An organisation of S-ranked missing-nin should have been infamous. The fact that they weren't… was a little terrifying.
"In time," Itachi said. "In time they will."
I swallowed again, compulsively. That certainly sounded ominous.
Where are you, Jiraiya?
But it wasn't Jiraiya that came.
It was Sasuke.
He stood at the mouth of the alleyway, staring at Itachi. When he spoke, his voice was thick with anger and hatred. "Itachi."
No. You should have kept looking for Jiraiya, I thought with despair.
Itachi didn't move, didn't turn around. "Sasuke. It's been a long time."
"Well, that's interesting," Kisame said. "He has the Sharingan as well. Who is he, Itachi?" I wondered if he truly didn't know, or if he was just forcing Itachi to say it.
"My younger brother." There was no emotion in the statement. None at all.
"That's strange. Because the way I heard it, the whole Uchiha clan was wiped out." There was a drawn out pause. "By you."
Naruto gasped. Sasuke growled.
All I could hear was his voice saying "I lost everything once. I don't ever want to have to say that again. My trusted comrades falling, right in front of me…"
I knew he was going to do something stupid.
There wasn't anything left to do but stupid actions.
"I hope you're ready to die. It's just as you said. I fostered my hatred for you all this time. I lived my life for one single purpose. To see you die. It ends here." Sasuke snarled and leapt forward dragging the Chidori along the side of the building, the friction with the concrete helping to build up the charge and power.
I lashed out with my shadow, forwards and backwards, hoping to snare at least one of them. It was a futile hope, but Sasuke had initiated the fight and I couldn't do nothing. Behind me, Naruto was flaring chakra, clones popping into existence and being extinguished.
"Sorry, kid," I could hear Kisame say, just as Naruto's chakra cut off and I felt an extreme drain through my shadow. I killed the tendril reflexively, before it could drain me completely. It just happened so fast. "My blade, Samehada, cuts through chakra and devours it."
Sasuke darted forward, Chidori thrust out. There wasn't much space for a run up but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Itachi pivoted neatly, moving around my darting shadow, grabbing Sasuke's arm by the wrist and twisting. The Chidori imploded into the wall with a deafening boom.
Out in the street, people started screaming.
Sasuke twisted, tried to use Itachi's grip as leverage to kick him.
There was an awful crack. Sasuke gasped a broken scream, stumbling back clutching his arm.
"Foolish little brother," Itachi tsked.
I hurled kunai, desperate to do something to help. Itachi avoided them all without even looking. He was so close to Sasuke that I couldn't use exploding tags without getting my team mate too.
"You're still too weak," Itachi said conversationally, throwing Sasuke to the ground with a brutal kick. "You don't have enough hate. And you know something? You never will."
Sasuke screamed defiance, hurling himself back to his feet and at Itachi. There was no strategy anymore, no plans, just suicidal fury.
Itachi lashed out, efficient and brutal. A sweep of the leg knocked Sasuke off balance, a punch to the solar plexus left him retching and gasping, a pale hand curled around his throat and pinned him to the wall.
I knew, with sudden, blinding clarity what would come next.
There wasn't time to think. Only the split second now of combat. My fingers made the seals. My chakra surged.
Replacement!
Then I was staring into Itachi Uchiha's wide, Magenkyo eyes. Tugging, pulling, sucking me in…
I screamed.
I half expected it to be sharp and tearing, the clawing of crows feet maybe, but Itachi's chakra slid through my system like hot oil, slick and black and impossible to grasp. I flailed, trying to grab it and disperse it, but every move I made only spread it, only smeared it further, flushing my system with bitter and tainted chakra. My eyes burned, the site of the onslaught and it was still coming and I was drowning in it…
Then I could see, had to see, the wrong, wrong, wrong red sky with it's black clouds and the buildings that were white on black and too sharp and overexposed to be real. My eyes ached from the excess clarity and I tried to shut them, tried to block it out but I couldn't, I couldn't, because it wasn't my eyes…
This wasn't the kind of genjutsu that tried to fool you into thinking it was real. If that was a subtle knife of agony, this was a sledgehammer of torture.
In the world of Tsukiyomi, time and space are mine to command…
The world wavered, and I was in a dojo. There were two people kneeling on the ground. And Itachi was there, geared in ANBU armour, sword held ready.
"No. Oh, no," I whimpered, trying to spin away. But the world moved with me, turning around me like I was the sun. I ran, but the ground didn't move under my feet and I covered my eyes, my ears, but it didn't work because this wasn't coming through my eyes, it was being piped straight into my brain and I couldn't look away…
To test the limits of my ability…
The world moved. I struggled in the grip of this madness, chakra flaring and pushing and trying, but it was smothered, covered in oil and drowning like a poor, bedraggled seabird in an oil slick.
Person by person, he showed me the massacre of the Uchiha clan.
I didn't know these people and I wanted to be sick. Was screaming and crying and trying everything I could to escape. I bit my lip, clawed fingers across my wrists, tried jutsu, tried seals, anything, anything I could think of.
Nothing worked.
What would it have been like for Sasuke? To see this, these people he knew, had loved and lived with, to see them cut down like this? This had been intended for him.
There were over three hundred people in the Uchiha clan. Ninja. Civilians. Elderly. Children. Babies.
All dead. All brutally murdered.
I fought futilely; weak, exhausted struggles. I gasped for breath, broken shuddering sobs.
If you wish to kill me, despise me. Foster your hatred. By all means, flee. Cling to your wretched life…
Then.
The world wavered, and I was in a dojo. There were two people kneeling on the ground. And Itachi was there, geared in ANBU armour, sword held ready.
Seventy one hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds left…
"Oh, god, no."