Shinobi: Team 7
Act III
Chapter XIX
Red Eyes, Blue Blood

"I can't see an outcome in which we're not royally fucked."
-Gekko Hikaru, ANBU Captain under the 3rd Hokage

Kakashi sat in a luxury hotel room looking over the entirety of Iwagakure. The view was astounding – to the right, he could see the sparkling blue waters of the Kitaura ocean, to the left the full expanse of the village itself. The room he was in was even larger and more richly furnished than the suit he had helped purchase, fit for a king. Or, Kakashi supposed, a visiting Kage.

The Konohagakure council, such as it was, sat assembled. Though they were seated at a round table, with no technical head, Itachi commanded the room from his seat facing the window. Danzo, flanked as always by Inoichi, sat opposite him. Kakashi himself faced down Koharu and Homura. Hiruzen and Jiraiya were both notably absent – most likely in case an attack took out everyone present. A nice thought.

"We lost two ROOT agents, but ultimately I believe that a small price to pay for the successful recovery of our only Jinchuriki," Danzo was saying. "You should, of course, seek Jiraiya's opinion on the matter at a later time."

"I will," Itachi assured him. "Have his doctors been taken care of?"

"Inoichi just got finished with them. They believe Naruto's injuries to have been relatively minor – that the boy used a genjutsu to make Gaara and the rest of the audience believe he had been grievously wounded, to stop him from being finished off in the water."

"That's clever," Itachi said, turning his look at Kakashi. "Too clever, for Naruto?"

"I'll make sure he knows an appropriate genjutsu," Kakashi said.

Itachi nodded. "Thank you. Clearly what transpired in that hospital room is deeply troubling to us all. Especially you, Kakashi."

Kakashi waved it off, doing his best to look nonplussed. If any of the others noticed his hand shaking (which, come on, they were all veteran Shinobi) they didn't mention it. "It just…" he trailed off.

Itachi inclined his head. "It just what? Feel free to speak your mind, Hatake-san. Might be best for you to begin getting used to it."

So Danzo had told Itachi of his thoughts of having Kakashi replace him. Somehow, that made Kakashi even more apprehensive. It was one thing to be informed you were being considered. Quite another to have it pointedly dropped in conversation with the Hokage. That meant Kakashi was most likely at the top of a very short list.

Kakashi blinked himself back to reality. He couldn't afford to think about this now, not when the Hokage had just asked him a question. There would be plenty of time to brood about his future prospects later. "I was just wondering, Hokage-sama, whether steps were being take to teach Naruto to control the Fox. I've never seen anything like that healing before, but to release that…that thing every time it's used…"

"It's a good question," Itachi admitted, rubbing at his iconic tear troughs. "We thought Jiraiya might be able to help him – he's a sage, we figured it was similar – but no progress was made. The seal on Naruto is the first in history that has both allowed the Jinchuriki to access the chakra of the Fox and remain in control, but the result is that we're walking on entirely unfamiliar ground. Whatever progress Naruto makes, he will have to make it himself."

Kakashi grunted. A bad habit he was picking up from Sasuke. "He's terrified of it."

"As he should be," Kohura cut in, her tone as hard and sharp as steel. "It's reasonable to be afraid of that kind of power. And besides, a little fear would do that boy some good. The stunt he pulled today, endangering himself like that, was not only foolish but arrogant."

Kakashi straightened up, ready to argue back, but before he could Homura was speaking. "Foolish?" The old man asked, pushing his glasses back into place from where they had slid to the tip of his nose. "Arrogant? The boy sacrificed himself for his teammates and allies. We used to give out medals for that, as you would well know, Kobaku."

Koharu flushed scarlet, Itachi was just left somewhat confused. Kobaku? A nickname? Baku was an old word for explode, but he was having trouble making the connection.

As if reading his confusion, Homura turned to Kakashi. "In the opening days of the Eight Month war, Kohura and I were part of a team scouting Iwagakure black sites."

Kakashi nodded. The Eight Month war was a war fought between Iwagakure and Sunagakure just a few years before the Third Great War kicked off. Kohura and Homura must've only been sixteen or seventeen at the time. Jiraiya wouldn't even have been born yet.

"We got careless, and we got captured," Homura continued, "all of us except Kohura. Twenty good Shinobi, rounded up like cattle. Iwagakure was sure we were Sunagakure spies, and they were all set to execute us – until Kohura strolled into the prisoner camp, threw off her cloak, and revealed she was wearing three rolls of explosive tags around her chest."

Explosive tags. Explode. Baku. Ah. Kakashi was beginning to piece it together now.

"The motherfucker in charge got so scared he let us all walk out of there. And when we were out of earshot, Kohura revealed they weren't explosive tags at all! They were fucking pieces of paper with random Kanji scribbled on them!" He slapped the table and laughed as he said it. "She did exactly what your boy Naruto did – walked up to the table with nothing but his balls and went home with the pot."

Well, shit.

"As enlightening as that little history lesson was, circumstances were different," Kohura said once Homura's laughter had died down. "I was not a Jinchuriki. What Naruto did may have been brave, but it was also foolish."

"Doesn't matter if it was a foolish choice," Homura said, the laughter in his tone replaced with a pensive coolness. "It was the right one, given the situation he found himself in." He looked over his glasses at Itachi, who nodded slowly.

"Is that an accusation?" The Uchiha asked.

"We were surprised by the kill rule. Sunagakure wasn't."

Itachi frowned, ever so slightly. "That is a failure by Jiraiya's intelligence network, and he will be reprimanded severely. That being said, our spies aren't exactly sitting on their asses. Shinobi forces from all over the world are gathered here in this city. There's no end to the work needing to be done."

"Then we must prioritize better," Kohura said, rapping her knuckles against the table. "We cannot afford to be blindsided like that again."

"Though it wasn't a total loss," Kakashi mused. "Well, for my team, anyway. Sorry, I'm still working on looking at the bigger picture first."

"No need to apologize," Itachi said. "Be sure to pass on my congratulations to my little brother."

Violets are blue, roses are

The moment Sasuke's feet left the platform he knew he had made a huge mistake.

He watched his oldest friend grow smaller as he flew through the air, facing down a trio of murderous royalty, and knew instantly that he never should've abandoned him. Naruto was his teammate. They were a unit. They fought together, and yet-

And yet he had run away, and left Naruto to cover their retreat.

Sasuke had always known that Naruto was a better Shinobi than people thought. He was someone who had overcome his lack of natural advantages with sheer stubbornness, and that made him dangerous in a way few other elite Shinobi were. There was a difference between power that came easily and power that had to be ripped from the unjust hand of the universe, kicking and screaming. Not that one was better than the other, just that they were different.

His feet hit the platform he and the others had leapt to, abandoned except for its Jonin proctor. His chakra hardened skin and muscles absorbed the force of the impact, then tensed again as he prepared to leap back to Naruto's side.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted, and then a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled with chakra enhanced strength. Sasuke tumbled to the ground with an undignified yelp, and only barely noticed the sword that cut through the air right where his face had been a few seconds earlier.

"Focus!" Sakura said, pulling him to his feet, and then the battle was on them.

Temari and Kankuro had followed them, frustration clear on their faces, and they seemed intent on relieving those frustrations by carving up Sasuke, Sakura, and Team s209f. Sasuke just barely got his sword up in time to parry Temari's next flurry of blades, then leapt backwards to gain distance.

Across the platform of him, Kankuro was holding Sakura off himself while using his puppet to distract Hinata. Smart. The puppet had no chakra points for Hinata to plug, no internal organs for her to liquefy with the Gentle Fist. It was a matchup that went all the way back to the Warring Clans era, and for good reason – it worked.

Temari followed up, pin wheeling her arms and directing her swords back at him. Sasuke kept a careful eye on her as she did so, letting his other senses keep track of the general position of the swords. Her technique was excellent, but her arm movements betrayed her intentions. Unlike her brothers, who could use their bloodline limit without motion, she had to direct her weapons, as if she were the composer of a particularly deadly orchestra.

Of course, that didn't stop her from just being really fucking good. Four of her swords weren't focused on Sasuke at all, instead barreling at Kiba and Shino. The two Genin were forced to retreat further and further away from their allies as the swords cut off available avenues of escape, and finally took a flying leap to another platform to avoid being eviscerated. Two teams were already battling it out on the platform they landed on, and Sasuke lost them in the chaos.

They were getting separated. Not good. Their strategy had hinged on numbers, and now they barely had that. Sasuke ducked under a pair of blades and tried to find Naruto, but all his eyes found were sand.

Pain. Sasuke gasped as one of Temari's swords found their mark, digging deep into his side and spraying crimson across the platform. He remembered, suddenly, that they were still in the kill zone. No proctor would rescue him from the finishing blow here. He would die for the entertainment of a mob of drunken civilians.

The thought filled his veins with fire, and he sprung forwards with the speed he had been famed for since he was a child. Temari's advantage was her range. He had been assuming that getting distance would allow him to catch his breath, but he had been wrong. The answer was to push closer, take her out of her comfort zone. He swung his sword out, prepared to return the favor of the wound in his side.

Easier said than done. Temari plucked one of her swords from midair and countered his blade, directing her remaining swords with her free hand. Sasuke knocked them aside and plunged forward again, slowly growing more desperate.

Between them, he was the better swordsman. Temari's footwork was shoddy, her movements elaborate and wasteful. But she has twelve swords, and Sasuke has to admit that sometimes all the quality in the world is trumped by simple quantity. She always has a defense, and her offense is lightning fast. Little by little, he finds himself giving ground, forced further and further away. He pivoted and prepared another charge, a charge he knew would be useless but one he had to at least attempt, and then-

Lightning. Sasuke felt the familiar touch of ozone on the back of his neck and threw himself to the ground instinctively. The arc of lightning that had been meant for him instead barreled into Temari, throwing her back and nearly off the platform.

Sasuke grit his teeth and moved sideways, bringing his sword into a defensive position. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Temari struggling to her feet. Her body armor had taken most of the attack, but she was obviously still woozy.

With his other eye, Sasuke sized up the newcomer, pushing down his shock when he realized who it was. Shunji Karui. The Kumogakure Shinobi he had fought blindfolded just the other day. Her katana rested casually on her shoulder, edge just barely brushing her light brown ponytail. Her eyes were gold, a feature surprisingly common amongst the darker skinned men and women from the Land of Lightning, and her lips were pulled into a slight frown. "You weren't that fast yesterday," she accused him, keeping a close watch on both him and Temari. "You shouldn't have been able to dodge that."

The threat of imminent death did wonders to your speed. Sasuke didn't bother telling her that though. Naruto probably would've tried to start up a bit of banter, but Sasuke preferred to focus all his energy on the fight.

Naruto. Shit.

Before he could take another look for his friend, Karui was on him. They exchanged a few blows and then disengaged as Temari's swords entered the fray, threatening to separate their heads from their bodies.

Though he may have been a better swordsman than Temari, Sasuke realized quickly that he was far outclassed by Karui in that department. The girl's fast paced, acrobatic style meant she was everywhere and once and yet never in front of his blade. She pivoted and leapt, cartwheeled and spun, and generally made herself a pain in the ass. Her sword practically danced through the air, and the worst part was that she made it look effortless. It was only Sasuke's superior speed and strength that was keeping her at bay, allowing him to react to her attacks and batter her backwards whenever his sword managed to connect with hers. Surprisingly, a third combatant actually made Temari's swords easier to deal with, since she was forced to split her forces between two opponents – but then again, Karui's constant swiping at his flank made it impossible to close, and he didn't even have time to think about ninjutsu. The moment he sheathed his sword to perform the hand signs he would've been skewered. So instead he settled into the rhythm of the stalemate, focusing on the pounding in his ears, the burning in his muscles. It was strangely comforting, in its own way.

And then the fighting on the other side of the platform stopped.

Sasuke pivoted ever so slightly, stepping out of his rhythm, and only Temari's decision to redouble her offensive saved him from getting bisected by Karui. Sasuke didn't care, because right now he was too focused Kankuro.

While he had been staving off Temari and Karui, Sakura and Hinata had been staving off Kankuro. But they had not settled into a stalemate – instead Kankuro had won. He had Sakura pinned to the dirt and his puppet lifted Hinata into the air by the neck with a casual strength, a small blade extending from its wrist.

Somewhere in Sasuke's brain, on a level even deeper than instinct, a decision was made. Chakra gathered in his legs. His muscles protested, threatened to shred themselves, and still he poured energy into them, until they were no longer merely meat but something more, something tight and fierce and ready. His hands gripped the hilt of his sword so hard that the wood of the handle twisted and splintered beneath his fingers, tiny daggers slipping through his skin, but he didn't care. His vision had narrowed, a tiny circle of light and action surrounded by a tunnel of darkness. All he could see was Hinata.

All he could see was RED.

He was moving. He was screaming. He was seeing something dark and terrifying, power that swelled up and threatened to crush him, power that raced through his bones in ecstatic waves of fire and water and wind and earth and lightning, he was on a platform, surrounded by spectators, he was knee deep in snow, looking up at the corpse of an ancient God, he saw Hinata, shaking from exhaustion and fear, he saw the unmaking, bloody figures on a backdrop of black, he saw a wheel, turning, inexorably, and the fire rose and the world threatened to die over and over to devolve into the chaos from which it came and he screamed and his sword cut through something metal with a shriek and his legs exploded in agony and Sakura screamed his name and was cut short with the sound of steel on flesh and he couldn't see he couldn't hear he couldn't breathe Naruto pounded Hinata's face into the dirt his eyes wild and RED RED RED.

He came back to himself and stumbled from the effort. Kankuro's puppet lay at his feet, split clean in two, and Hinata lay beside it, shaking but alive. She struggled to her feet and it was all Sasuke could do not to embrace her there, take her in his arms make sure she was really alright.

And then he remembered Sakura.

He turned. He saw. Sakura lay in a pool of rapidly expanding blood, a kunai in her stomach. Kankuro clutched at his face – blood dripped through his fingers, mixed with purple face pain. Sakura had clawed him while he stabbed her, nearly taken out an eye from the looks of it. She lay unmoving except for the gentlest rise and fall of her chest, and she was pale and suddenly very small. It was a visual he could now never forget. His eyes found Kankuro, every detail vibrant, every tense muscle clear as day. He could tell where the Sunagakure Shinobi was going to be before he was.

Sasuke lunged. Or at least he tried to lunge. The muscles in his legs had apparently revolted and were no longer interested in following his brain's commands. Instead he stumbled and threw his arms over Kankuro's throat and squeezed until he could hear the older boy choke. Elbows slammed into stomach – he ignored them. He turned to Hinata to see standing alongside a young boy with dark hair and a female Hyuga. Both of them wore Konohagakure headbands, and neither could've been older than fourteen. More elbows – he grit his teeth and bore them – and he watched as the young Hyuga threw herself into a spin, Chakra spilling from her outstretched palms, knocking away three four five of Temari's swords. The boy grabbed Hinata by the wrist and pulled her from the platform, soaring through the air towards the next ring. Closer to the center. Out of the kill zone.

One of Kankuro's strikes hit a rib Sasuke hadn't known was cracked, and stars exploded across his vision. He gasped and weakened his chokehold despite himself, and Kankuro shoved him backwards in between wheezes. Sasuke felt his legs collapse, the last bit of their strength gone, and as he tumbled he grabbed Sakura's ankle. His momentum pulled them both over the edge of the platform and plunged them into the icy safety of the water below.

Look at us now, we are already dead.

To his great surprise, Sasuke woke peacefully. No screaming, no panicked shrieks. He could feel the sunlight on his face – a sunrise? No, a sunset. The hum of distant chakra reached his ears, familiar and comforting.

He didn't open his eyes – he needed to take inventory first. He hurt all over. His legs especially ached, as if molten iron had been poured into them and then left to harden. He had pumped too much chakra into them when he had charged the puppet, and the excess energy must've practically blown them apart. The fact that he still had feeling in them at all meant that the healing had gone well.

His stomach ached when he breathed. His rib, probably. It felt better. Not fully healed, but better. Good enough that he could probably get it back to one hundred percent himself, given some time and yin/yang exercises. He made a mental note to fall to the feet of whoever had headed up his healing and thank them profusely.

His side burned with dull fire. Temari's sword. He could feel the cut, long but shallow, and put it out of his mind. The doctors had likely ignored it in favor of his more serious wounds. A body could only take so much healing at a time – too much foreign chakra in your system was never good, but sometimes it was necessary. When he had had time to rest, and flush the medical chakra from his system, he could have it properly healed up. It would leave a scar, which was honestly sort of a bonus. All Shinobi had scars, their bodies a tapestry of close calls and near misses. What didn't kill you made a great story.

What else, what else…

His eyes hurt.

He sighed, deep and heavy. The images he had seen on the platform had repeated themselves in his dreams. He didn't care to think any more on them. He had known awakening the Sharingan could bring visions. He hadn't known they'd be that…intense.

Awakening the Sharingan.

He had awakened the Sharingan.

The thought should've filled him with elation. Instead it just made him tired. Some Uchiha never awakened their famed bloodline, some had to wait years before they were in the right place at the right time. He had heard stories of cousins, desperate for the gift, throw themselves into harm's way for the chance to see the world bleed red. (Though he had never heard of that actually working. The Sharingan was a cruel, exacting mistress.)

He remembered how Sakura had looked, lying in a pool of her own blood, pale and very small. He could see it, in the darkness.

He opened his eyes.

He was in a hospital. He was getting awful sick of hospitals. Shisui sat next to him, dark onyx eyes regarding him curiously. He smiled when Sasuke met his gaze.

"You're awake."

Sasuke hadn't heard him, sitting there. Hadn't felt his chakra. Shisui had spent his entire life learning how to hide from people, and it showed.

Sasuke grunted.

Then he said, "Are they okay?"

"Sakura's recovering from surgery. Doctors say she's gonna be fine," Shisui said. His voice was light, confident. Calming. Distracting, too, in it's own way. Sasuke had barely noticed that he hadn't fully answered the question.

"Naruto?"

Shisui pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. Rolled it around for a moment. "He's in surgery now. They've got the place locked up tight."

Sasuke didn't need to ask if it was bad. That answer had told him everything he needed to know. But Naruto was tough, too tough for his own good sometimes. He would survive. There wasn't anything in the world that could kill Naruto.

There wasn't anything in the world that could kill Naruto.

And if there was, and it had, then it was Sasuke's fault.

"Did he win?"

That actually brought a half smile to Shisui's face. "He tied. Blew up the platform, dropped them both into the water. It's all anyone's talking about. I feel bad for the Iwagakure team that actually won the damn thing."

Sasuke thought about laughing, then decided it would hurt too much. He settled for a quick exhale. Shisui nodded knowingly. "We got close. Senju Keikan's team held the hill for a bit. But they got picked off. I think you guys were the only ones with a real shot but…" he shrugged. "Shit luck."

"Shit luck," Sasuke echoed. Then he paused. When he spoke, it was very slowly, very carefully, very quietly. "On the platform. I…"

"Awakened the Sharingan?" Shisui asked. His words were quicker, but just as careful and quiet.

No. Yes. That was technically true. He had awakened the Sharingan, after all. But that wasn't what he had wanted to say. On the platform, he had…

Sakura, pale and small. Surrounded by her own blood. He had abandoned his teammate. He had abandoned both his teammates. He had saved Hinata, but now his two closest friends – his two only friends – lay in the hospital, one in critical condition. He was supposed to look out for them. Ever since he was a kid, people had been telling him how much talent he had. What use was all that talent if he pissed it away with terrible decisions?

And then there was the fact that even though the choices he had made down on the lake made him feel like shit, made him want to curl into a ball and die, he didn't regret them. His stomach tightened. His face flushed. He had saved Hinata. When he looked at it that way, it was all that mattered.

Sakura, pale and small. Surrounded by her own blood. He jerked back in his bed, breathing heavily. His body protested the sudden movement the only way it knew how – by making everything hurt like hell. Beside him, Shisui winced in sympathy. But he said nothing.

What was happening to him? Sasuke had always prided himself on making the rational decisions. He looked at the issue rationally. He had known Naruto and Sakura since he was six years old. He had trained with them, fought with them, laughed with them, vandalized Konohagakure property with them. He had started a riot with them. They were his teammates. His friends. His family, as cliché as that sounded. He would be proud to call them brother and sister, which was more than he could say for pretty much any Uchiha, save Shisui.

He had known Hinata for a few short months. Through quite a bit of that he had been drugged halfway out of his mind. If he had been in full control of his mental faculties he more than likely never would've started talking to her. Her hobby was pressing flowers. She loved red bean soup and cinnamon rolls. She…

Sakura, pale and small. Surrounded by her own blood. He had done that. He had put cinnamon rolls and pressing flowers over someone he considered his own blood. Why? Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he understand himself anymore?

"Sasuke?" Shisui asked. "Sasuke, are you with me?"

Sasuke took a deep, shuddering breath. His side twinged. His ribs hurt. He embraced the pain. It brought clarity.

He opened his mouth. He closed it again. He tried to explain to Shisui what was happening, tried to put it into words the Jonin could understand. He found nothing. It was like words had abandoned him, leaving him with only flashes of confusion and memory.

Sakura, pale and small. Surrounded by her own blood.

"I can't stop seeing it," he said finally.

Shisui grinned a sad grin.

"It won't ever stop, will it?" Sasuke asked. That was the curse of the Sharingan. What you saw, you saw forever. Priceless for gathering secrets, stealing techniques, reading enemy movements.

"There's a Yamanaka with a small practice," Shisui said after a moment. "Not far from the Clan compound. Near the bakery."

Sasuke nodded. He knew the bakery. When the wind was right he could smell their bread cooling from his window.

"Over the years, she's gotten good at editing memories," Shisui continued. "Can even take away Sharingan memories. Poof." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

Sasuke took that in for a moment. Imagined the memory vanishing into smoke, whisked away by an unnatural wind. Poof. He could visit the Yamanaka when he returned to Konohagakure. Could sit down in a chair and go to sleep, forget the sight of his teammate who he failed. Maybe he could even forget why he had failed her. When he woke up all his problems would be solved.

"You never go, do you?" He asked.

Shisui shook his head. He wasn't grinning anymore. He looked surprisingly somber. Sasuke decided that his face didn't look quite right like that. Shisui's face had been made to have a smile on it. Not necessarily a happy smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Because once you go you never stop. How could you? Who could live like this, seeing this every time you close your eyes?" He was talking louder now, probably loud enough to disturb the patients in the rooms next to him, but he didn't care. "You just forget and forget and forget and you keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again." His palm stung. He looked down at it and realized he had dug his fingernails into his skin so hard he had drawn blood. He didn't care. "Don't you?"

No response.

"Don't you?" Sasuke practically shouted.

Shisui sighed and held up a hand. I surrender. Quiet down. Sasuke slowly settled back down. He wiped the pinpricks of blood off his palms. "Yeah," Shisui said. "Pretty much."

"What if…" Sakura, pale and small. Surrounded by her own blood. "What if you feel like you're gonna make those mistakes anyway?" Sasuke asked. His voice sounded very small and very tired, even to his own ears.

"Whatever you decide, nobody is going to judge you." Sasuke met Shisui's eyes and found only compassion there. Somehow that made him hate himself even more.

"I'm going to judge me."

"Well then it sounds like you've already made up your mind." And then Shisui stood up and left. There was no malice in his leaving, no anger or frustration. He simply understood that there was nothing more for him to say or do, and so he left. It was for the best.

He needed more sleep. And so Uchiha Sasuke settled back in his bed and closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the shame, the fear, and the image of his slowly dying friend now permanently engraved in his memory.