***
Until we have seen someone's darkness, we don't really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone's darkness, we don't really know what love is.
Marianne Williamson
***
"We stand on the edge of a knife," Itachi spoke softly. "The time of clans should have ended when this village was founded, but we clung to it instead, and now we have war within our walls."
He was so calm, so measured. Tsunade was actually a bit envious of his ability to remain so in front of this crowd when all she wanted to do was start throwing punches.
"As long as shinobi have existed, there have been clans." Koharu snapped, and most of the room murmured in agreement. "You would have us throw away our families? Our blood?"
"Do not speak to a Uchiha of blood and family." Mikoto snapped.
"We all value family and blood." Chouza interrupted.
"Protecting that was the point of this village," Homura added.
"No, it was not." Itachi's voice cut like steel through the voices. "This village was founded to prevent children from being sent onto the battlefield to die before they had ever even lived. So that we could have a future, instead of watching it bleed out on the dirt." The room fell silent, and Tsunade could practically taste the shame in the air. "Apparently, we have all forgotten that."
"Nothing has been forgotten!" Koharu took on a measured tone. "Preserving that was the point of establishing the Senior Council."
"Indeed?" Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Naruto, how old were you when you first took a life?"
Naruto sputtered when the room turned to him. Shrinking in on himself next to Sasuke, he hemmed and hawed until Sasuke rolled his eyes and answered for him. "Sixteen."
Mikoto looked devastated but quickly gathered herself, and the Fuma Clan Leader's wife reached over to pat her on the arm in comfort.
"Lord Fuma, how old were you?" Itachi continued.
The Clan Leader looked thoughtful and then admitted. "Fourteen. I had a childhood illness that saw me join my peers late."
"I know General Hatake's was well before he was ten." Itachi mused, glancing at Minato for confirmation. "As was the Yondaime's."
Minato grimaced and nodded.
"Lady Akimichi, how old were you?" Choji and his father turned to his mother, curious.
She inclined her head and said. "I was ten, Itachi. It was quite traumatizing. I did not go on another mission for over a year."
"That is understandable," Itachi gave her a soft smile.
"And how were you, Itachi? Since you have brought up this pointless conversation?" One of the Shimura elders.
Itachi gave him a bland smile. "I was five. Coincidentally, that was the last time I slept through the night." A few chuckles and muttered agreements followed his admission. "And it is not pointless. Madara lost all seven of his older siblings before they reached the age of fifteen. Hashirama lost two of his younger brothers before they were ten. This village came from their dream of protecting the siblings they had left. And all the children of their clans. Forming a village was supposed to unite the clans into a single entity, but we still separate ourselves, still fight one another for space in the village that we agreed to build. The average age of death on the battlefield then was twenty, which means half of those dead on the battlefield were under the age of fourteen. How many family lines died out in a single battle? How many families never even started? Every clan here took an oath to uphold that dream when they joined this village. Do you know what the average age of death on the battlefield is now?"
"Thirty!" Someone yelled out.
"No, it's older than that. Thirty-five, maybe forty." Someone else snapped.
"Don't be ridiculous, we just had a war. It can't be more than twenty-five."
"Nonsense, we've made more progress than that!"
"Yes, it must be higher."
"It's seventeen." Itachi interrupted, and the room fell silent. Even Tsunade glanced at him in surprise, trying to run the numbers in her head and realizing with a terrible sinking feeling that he wasn't wrong.
"Tha-that's impossible!" One of the Hyuga elders blustered and then fell silent when Elder Emi snapped around and glared at him from next to Hinata.
Lady Fuma whirled on him, a little too eager to support Itachi. "He's right. At no point since the death of the First has this village made any effort to keep its children from the battlefield."
"My teacher died for this village!" Koharu hissed. "He upheld everything that it stood for."
"Tobirama was well known for his opposition to children on the battlefield." Itachi agreed. "But the fact remains that we are only dying younger than we were before, and if upholding the traditions of the village was the purpose of the Senior Council, then you have failed."
The jaws of Itachi's trap snapped shut, and Tsunade had to admire its elegance and simplicity.
Koharu seemed to realize what had happened a second too late. Years of political maneuvering, and somehow, such a simple trap had gone unnoticed.
She'd even walked right into it, and now she couldn't walk back out without tarnishing her word.
"If you are so certain we have failed and our ways no longer work, what do you suggest?" Koharu tucked her arms into her kimono sleeves. Itachi was a front-line soldier, a genius that she would admit, but he had no idea the work it took to get anything done in this village politically. The Senior Council had to maintain its power in order to get anything done in a timely manner, or the clans would simply argue themselves in circles until the end of everything. Itachi could make all the plans he wanted, they'd never get approved or enacted, even if they were supported by the majority.
Itachi didn't seem to understand the environment in which he was attempting to work, but the Uchiha had never been very aware that way.
Even her teacher had complained about their lack of interest in the world around them. Always lost in their own heads. Most of the details about what they'd focused on instead were lost to Tobirama's edits, so Koharu and the others had no idea what he'd discovered that was so bad. It drove Danzo mad in the early years after Tobirama-sensei's death, trying to figure it out, and it had only gotten worse after Kagami had died without ever answering their questions.
Itachi didn't seem to understand what he was up against. He even smiled at her. "No more clans."
Koharu scoffed. If there were no clans, there would be no way to maintain the balance of power. The clans canceled one another out and ensured that no one group could take supreme power. If the Council couldn't pit the clans against one another, there was no way to stop them from taking on the Council.
And here he was telling them all to their faces that they shouldn't exist.
"How bold of you to say that with this audience, Itachi." She waved a hand at the enraged clans. "The clans are required to maintain the balance of power-"
Minato's face twisted into a chidlish glare, but she ignored him.
"The Hyuga second Lord Uchiha's motion."
Koharu snapped around in shock, and she wasn't the only one. Only Mikoto seemed outright pleased; even the Fuma and the clans of Hinata's teammates were unable to hide their surprise.
"Itachi is right." Hinata continued, voice strong even if it was low. "We have created sides where there need not be any. How are we supposed to tell our children that village comes first when they are expected to place their clan's well-being above the village's?"
"Thirded." Tsume drawled, but it was impossible to tell if she thought it was actually a good idea or if she was just trying to cause trouble again.
"We can't just get rid of the clans." One of the few Sarutobi elders sputtered, and that set them all off until even the clan leaders, who had remained calm at terrible odds on the battlefield, were screaming.
She'd never actually seen Lord Akimichi yell, and from the shocked look on Choji's face, he'd never seen it either.
"If you have a plan, jump to the end." Tsunade hissed out of the corner of her mouth.
Itachi didn't respond, but his eyes slid briefly to her, and she swore she saw the corners of his mouth quirk up.
Fucking Uchiha.
Minato, annoyed, flashed a few hand signs, and a deafening crack of thunder sounded.
The room fell silent after the screams of pain and terror ended.
Tsunade and Jiraiya side-eyed his former student. Had he always been that angry?
Not that it wasn't unearned.
"There is a larger threat looming than your petty power struggles and pride." Minato snapped.
Apparently, he'd decided to play bad cop to Itachi's good cop, and he was doing it brilliantly based on the enraged faces throughout the room.
"Kaguya is coming, and we are ill-prepared for her."
"We have already defeated her once." Homura scoffed, and while the Shimura Clan Leader looked confident, his family on either side of him looked decidedly less so.
"You won a battle she planned to lose," Minato stated. "And you have no idea what she has planned next. Instead, you're arguing in favor of maintaining a system that has done nothing but cost lives and allowed Konohagakure to sink into a slow rot that's dragged it to the edge of destruction. You turned a blind eye to atrocities committed in the name of the village, but condemned those outside. You used the excuse of balance to retain power and justify starving your own people. Kaguya is already winning."
"Defeating Kaguya is only one task that needs to be completed if Konohagakure is to survive." Itachi broke in. "There is much to be fixed, and if we are not the ones who fix it, we leave it to our children and grandchildren. Your legacy will be a world you knew was broken but did not fix, and the knowledge that you did not care enough for your own children to make the effort."
At least a few in the crowd looked cowed. A few more looked heartbroken. Which was reassuring. Not everyone in Konohagakure had been infected by Danzo and his darkness or Kaguya and her miasma.
The doors flew open, ripping off their hinges.
Tsunade was on her feet with Minato and Itachi, but Jiraya threw himself in front of all of them, along with several clanless senior jounin.
"It feels quite strange to protect Lord Itachi," one of them murmured with a smirk. "After all these years of jumping at the mere mention of his name."
Itachi's eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. "Fear not, Jounin. I'm quite flattered. I've longed to return to your side."
They practically preened at his words, though Jiraiya rolled his eyes.
One of the doors shattered as it hit the floor, and a figure appeared, darkened by the sun behind them.
"Interesting," Itachi murmured, his Sharingan spinning slowly.
"Speaking of people who broke things," Minato muttered.
"I see bringing you back from the dead didn't make you more respectful," Danzo snapped as he stepped into the room. He looked as he had when Tsunade was young. Gone were the bandages that had hidden his terrible thefts and the truth of his character. He looked like the man Tsunade had seen visit her grandmother on her deathbed.
When she was young, too young to know better, she'd almost thought him attractive, but she was confident enough in herself to know that no matter what age she was, the moment she'd learned his true character, he'd become the ugliest human she'd ever met.
Minato snorted. "You'd have to be worth respect before death for that."
Danzo sneered.
Jiraiya let out a sound of inarticulate rage. Sarutobi Mari's necklace was in plain view around Danzo's neck.
Fugaku's hand landed on Mikoto's shoulder. There was no force to it; its mere presence kept her rage under tight control, though Tsunade could easily imagine what a mother would want to do to the man who had essentially tortured her children for decades.
"Lord Shimura," Nearly four decades as a clan leader couldn't keep the surprise out of Chouza's voice. "How are you here?"
Danzo sniffed, but Kabuto's voice rang out before he could respond. Though no one was sure where the white haired shinobi had come from. "Had your allies cut the red string before anyone could control you."
Danzo glanced at him and ignored the question entirely. "How dare you set foot inside the walls of Konohagakure."
"Oh, didn't you hear?" Kabuto smiled, far too cheerfully for anyone's state of mind. "The walls of Konohagakure are no more."
Tsunade snorted; she couldn't help herself.
Danzo spun on her, ignoring the fearful, whispering crowd. "Do you find your failures as Hokage amusing, Tsunade?"
"It's Lord Hokage," Tsunade offered her own violent smile. "Jounin Namiashi, Jounin Shiranui, place Lord Shimura under arrest for treason."
Danzo scoffed as the Senior Council, the only ones who hadn't looked surprised at the fact that he was alive, and the rest of the room again devolved into screaming.
Genma and Raido flanked him. As close friends of Kakashi and Tenzo, she doubted they had any respect left for the former village leader.
Before they could put a hand on him, several of the guards who'd accompanied Koharu and Homura leaped between them.
To add to the madness, Kakashi appeared in the doorway, covered in blood and flanked by Obito and several senior jounin, including Gai and one of the Uchiha's great wolves. The two young Uchiha, the girl with purple hair and the pale boy, peered around the wolf.
"Hey, Kisuke, is it still murder if I kill someone who was already dead?" She asked.
The pale boy opened his mouth only for Obito to slap a hand over it. He turned to Kakashi, smug. "See, I can be helpful."
Kakashi looked about as done with them as Tsunade was with Tsume. "We found the Root hideouts. Umino and the others are in the hospital."
Tsunade realized she could hear the sounds of battle behind him. This time, the civil war inside the village was real and taking place on its very streets.
"Genma, Raido, stand down." Speaking of pains. Tsume rolled herself to her feet.
To their credit, the two jounin glanced at Tsunade before they stepped back.
Tsume stepped in front of her clan, but didn't approach Danzo, who seemed to be preparing himself for it.
Instead, she stared at him, eyes narrowed.
After a moment, she smiled, and Danzo stiffened. "My, my, just can't kick that habit of stealing, can you?"
"Watch yourself," Koharu snapped, coming to his defense as always.
Tsume didn't seem to care, "Did you think I wouldn't recognize my godson's eyes?"
Itachi was terribly still, so were the rest of the Uchiha.
Naruto looked torn between horror and rage.
"Well, that's an easy fix." Tsunade announced, "I'll rip them out and put them back where they belong."
"You have no proof!" Koharu shrieked. Swords were drawn, and most of those present were quick to get to their feet and back away from the center of the room, where it seemed a fight was inevitable.
"I came back because I could not rest." Danzo puffed up, that presence that had helped him rise alongside Hiruzen coming out. "I have lived and died and lived again for this village. Everything I have done has been to protect it." And the sad thing was, he truly believed it, and so did his followers.
"All those years," Tsume sounded almost sad, disappointed. "And you learned nothing. How many Sharingans did you steal? How long have you been obsessed with that dojutsu, and you still know nothing?" She actually sounded impressed. "Your ignorance is impressive, boy."
Danzo snarled. "I know more about the Sharingan than you could ever hope to."
Tsume snorted. "I have watched that parasite for longer than most of the shinobi clans have existed. Only a fool would steal it."
Curiosity was getting the best of everyone watching, Tsunade included. But she was also thinking back to that night at the Uchiha compound with Iruka and Itachi and the talk with the three old gods.
They'd called the Sharingan a parasite, too.
"Tell me, Danzo," Tsume continued. "Are you still in control? Because the Sharingan takes as much as it gives, and it has a mind of its own."
"What?" More than a few people said it. More still didn't look like they believed it.
Danzo's lip curled as he drew his sword. "Of course, I am. The Sharingan is a tool. A weapon. It can be wielded by anyone willing to learn."
Tsume scoffed and took a step back, which was terrifying. "It cannot, you fool. The Sharingan's will is absolute. The Uchiha made a deal with it long, long ago, and they still bend to its will. The Sharingan would kill even the Uchiha if it felt the need."
Sweat appeared on Danzo's brow. "You're lying." His voice cracked.
Tsume raised an eyebrow. "Did you draw your sword?"
Danzo's entire body twitched and horrified, Tsunade remembered Kakashi in the hospital bed, desperate to rip out his gifted eye but unable to even scratch it.
"Kaguya tried to imprison the Sharingan. Tried to control it, and it rose against her, siding with Indra in exchange for its freedom." Tsume gaze turned calculating as she waved her own clansmen back to a safe distance. "It wouldn't allow the Mother of Chakra and All Shinobi to control it. Why on earth would it let you?"
Danzo let out a slightly hysterical laugh as Koharu hissed. "Nothing but lies leave your mouth, mutt."
Before Tsume or anyone else could respond, Danzo turned, movements oddly jerky, and beheaded his teammate and oldest friend.
Koharu's head rolled several feet before it came to a stop, and before anyone could react, he ran Homaru through with such force that the sword didn't stop until the hilt hit the other man's chest.
Even Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise.
"Fuck!" Naruto cursed, but the Uchiha around him didn't even blink.
"The Sharingan is a great power; it gives great gifts to those who bear it, but like all power, it comes with an equal amount of responsibility," Tsume explained, unbothered by the bloodshed as Danzo attacked the rest of the Root members who'd been disguised as the Council's bodyguards. "The Uchiha had to swear an eternal oath to battle Kaguya. Their blood carries the war forward, their memory ensures it is never forgotten."
None of the Uchiha were moving. Everyone else was too surprised by what Tsume was saying and what they were seeing to react.
Except Naruto.
Fearless Naruto, who threw himself at Danzo, screaming. "Wait! Wait! We can save them!"
Danzo snarled, but his words didn't match his terrified eyes.
"It's a seal," Naruto rushed to explain, one eye on the bloody blade. "We know how to undo it."
Danzo's arm jerked, trying to strike Naruto, but the movement stopped before the sword got anywhere near him.
How hard was Danzo fighting against the Sharingan? It was probably impressive that he'd managed that much.
The Root shinobi had frozen too, proof that what Naruto was saying was true.
The Sharingan appeared in Danzo's, no, Iruka's eyes, and spun wildly.
Danzo stumbled away from Naruto, towards Kakashi and the door.
"Don't let him leave!" Tsunade snapped. She probably didn't need to say it; Kakashi had his own grudge against Danzo.
As did Obito, she realized, who was frozen just like the other Uchiha.
It took her half a second to realize Kakashi was also frozen.
Minato seemed to realize it at the same time, and between one blink and the next, he appeared protectively in front of his former students.
Danzo stumbled to a stop, sword awkwardly chopping at the air. "No-, I-. Hrgk! St-" The sword dropped, clattering as it bounced on the ground. He tried to claw at his eyes, but his fingers stopped an inch away from actually touching skin.
Tsunade and the rest of the room watched in horror as his hands came together and formed snake.
Ram.
Monkey.
Bear.
"Shit." Tsume snapped, shoving her clansman behind her.
Horse.
Gai dragged Kakashi and Obito back as the wolf pushed forward, using its body to shield those behind it.
There were only so many ways that combination of hand signs could end, and they were in a confined room with minimal airflow.
It had been Indra who'd created the first katon. Asura had mastered all the elemental releases to Indra's three, but Asura's fire had never been as hot or as powerful as Indra's. Neither had Hagoromo's.
For all that the Senju and Asura had been masters, it was the Uchiha and Indra that were creators, and the katon had been one of his greatest creations. There were few jutsu that had such simplicity, but were capable of so much variation and advancement. Often overlooked, it was one of the greatest creations in ninjutsu.
As well as one of the most destructive.
Tiger.
The flames exploded from his mouth, but instead of sending them away at a target, Danzo's chakra flared, enveloped him, and the flames followed, immolating him where he stood.
Tsunade had to look away when his skin started to blacken and peel, and the fat and muscle melted off his bones as he screamed.
Even more horrifying, when all was said and done, and everything that had been Danzo was a pile of ash on the floor, Iruka's eyeballs sat pristine amongst the ash, the Sharingan spinning slowly.
Kabuto stepped forward, supremely unbothered by it all, scooping them up. "I'll just take these to the hospital." The rest of the room was still frozen in shock as he disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves.
Naruto looked torn between following him and staying with Sasuke and the other Uchiha, who seemed to take a breath and suddenly collapse as the Sharingan released its hold. Jiraiya barely managed to catch Itachi before he hit the floor, and the demonstration of exactly how strong the Sharingan was, to hold back such an impressive shinobi so completely.
The dojutsu was a monster, Tsunade thought. A parasite whose strength was so deceiving that the entire world longed for it, while the ones who had it suffered right in front of their eyes.
Her eyes drifted to the pale-eyed Hyuga. Itachi and Kabuto were training Hinata, were there more similiarities between the dojutsu than any of them knew?
The sounds of the battle outside drifted into the silent meeting room.
"Get the wounded to the hospital." Tsunade snapped. "Everyone who is able, join ANBU and take the remaining Root members into custody." Naruto had talked the Sharingan out of killing by promising they had a way to free them, and Tsunade knew that while he was distracted by Sasuke and Iruka right now, tomorrow he'd be reminding everyone that it was always better to save than slay.
Not all members of Root were victims of the seal; some of them she knew had joined Danzo simply because they agreed with him, and they would have to be dealt with, but the majority were innocent, having acted against their own will.
If they were capable of healing and moving forward was another matter, but Naruto was right, they deserved the chance. The village had failed them as much as they had failed Naruto.
***
Tsunade watched the rest of the battle from the top of Hokage Mountain. The heartbreaking feeling of despair as Konohagakure's shinobi fought one another in her streets. The alarms had rung while they'd been in the Council of Clans, and the civilians had barricaded themselves inside every building they could find.
By the grace of whatever other gods were out there, both sides ignored the civilians and non-combatants to focus on one another, but there was no doubt everyone was still going to end up traumatized.
Until Pain, no one had ever breached the walls of Konohagakure, and now, only a few years later, it had fallen completely.
Even worse, Konohagakure had finally fallen to the issues that had plagued all the other shinobi villages at some point, but which she'd held off for so long and which she'd lorded over them on multiple occasions.
Konohagakure was just like everyone else now, Tsunade thought, and found herself disappointed by the realization. Konohagakure had been the first, the greatest, for so long.
Maybe it was fitting that the first's granddaughter and the last of his clan was overseeing its downfall.
"The last of the Uchiha has been admitted to the hospital," Jiraiya murmured, joining her to look out over the city. "Wakahisa said it looks like chakra strain and exhaustion, which is apparently normal when the Sharingan takes control."
He was in a mood, she realized, and couldn't blame him. For all that Jiraiya played the disinterested fool, underneath, he was a bleeding heart who loved this village more than it probably deserved.
"Most of the Uchiha should be fine. Kakashi, too."
A weight lifted from her shoulders. "Good." With the way things were going, Kakashi was going to end up Hokage long before she'd actually intended. Jiraiya was silent, but she could feel the hesitation, the worry. "What?"
"They managed to restore Iruka's eyes, but his heart is giving out from the strain. Sakura and Wakahisa managed to bring him back on the table, but they don't think he's going to last long."
She snapped around, "The strain from his injuries?"
"From everything. There's something strange about the way his chakra works with the Rinnegan. I couldn't follow the white haired psycho's explanation."
Which was a lie. Jiraiya was brilliant, but he tended to use the excuse that he didn't understand when he was bothered by what he'd learned, and he stuck with it until he'd come to accept it.
Sometimes he just stuck with insisting he didn't understand. Like, whenever Tsunade got angry about his portrayal of her in his books.
They'd been having that argument for nigh on fifty years now, more out of habit than anything else.
"Hearts are difficult to heal." In all ways, Tsunade frowned, but it was rare that they failed outside of catastrophic injury or disease. Something else to thank the Sharingan for.
"They were talking about a transplant when I left."
Tsunade frowned. "We don't have one." The hospital tracked all available organs, but it was rare that they could keep anything viable for longer than a few days, and hearts were the rarest organ to come by and the hardest to maintain. "Let's go." She turned her back on the last moments of the battle. Iruka wasn't the only one who needed healing, and Tsunade was, above all else, a healer.
***
Iruka's eyes were covered by a medicinal cloth, but Sakura had promised Naruto that the surgery to repair his eyes had been successful.
Apparently, the bigger issue was his heart. Naruto didn't completely understand the explanation she'd given him, but he'd understood enough to get that Iruka's heart was under extreme strain.
It didn't make much sense. Iruka had the biggest heart of anyone Naruto knew. To think that it was giving up now, that his family had returned and his lifelong enemy was gone, seemed even more tragic.
Lying under a sheet in the stark hospital bed, all of Iruka's scars were on display, including his new ones, and Naruto felt a little foolish being surprised at how many there were. He felt guilty he'd never noticed when Iruka had been the single strongest adult influence in his life. He'd never noticed Iruka hiding them, but Iruka had always been simple that way, and somehow that had made him the most effective secret keeper Naruto had ever met.
Next to him, Sasuke studied Iruka's chart like he actually knew something about what he was reading. Sakura had stepped out to help with another patient, since there was nothing else she could do for Iruka. Mikoto and Fugaku had only left to check on Obito and Itachi and to see about moving them all into the same room so they could hover accordingly.
"He needs a new heart," Sasuke muttered, which was a repeat of what Sakura told them before she left.
Naruto slumped further. "Where are we supposed to get a heart?"
"It has to match his blood type, too," Sasuke added. "And it still might not take."
Naruto wiped at his eyes before the tears fell. How was he supposed to help Iruka with this? He couldn't go out and ask someone to give up their life and their heart for Iruka.
"I could find one," Sasuke muttered, but Naruto didn't think going down that road would lead anywhere good.
Fugaku returned, footfalls silent. For someone with such a ferocious reputation and resting bitch face, he was a surprisingly quiet presence in person. It was easy to see him in Itachi, less so in the others, who were much louder, like Mikoto.
Sasuke's mother, despite being portrayed as a simple, proper shinobi wife in the years after her death, seemed like she'd never found a battle she didn't want to fight. From what little Naruto knew about his own mother, it definitely seemed like they were well-matched as best friends.
Naruto had heard her arguing with the nurses when they'd finally been released by Wakahisa, who'd had to immediately go over and calm everyone down.
A scuffle in the hallway made both of them turn, covered and confused. Fighting in the hospital was expressly forbidden and punished severely, but when it didn't subside after a few seconds, both Naruto and Sasuke bolted to the door and out into the hallway.
Tsunade and Jiraiya had returned. Mikoto and a few Uchiha were also there. Sakura and Wakahisa had clearly come running from wherever they'd been. There were even a few patients and other medical staff who had poked their heads out when they heard the noise.
But most surprising was Ayame.
Teuchi's only child was covered in blood, a dripping blade in one hand and a beating heart in the other.
She had the hardest expression Naruto had ever seen her wear. Eyes cold and determined.
"What the hell?" Tsunade demanded what everyone else was thinking.
Ayame looked at Mikoto and held out the heart. "An oath fulfilled."
Even Mikoto looked surprised, but suddenly, her Sharingan spun to life and then spun backwards, and understanding dawned on her face.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" Tsunade demanded, pushing forward until she was between Mikoto and Ayame.
Ayame didn't answer, and Mikoto's voice was tinged with sadness. "Ran."
Sasuke stiffened. "Uchiha Ran?" One of the many who'd climbed out of his coffin to defend Konohagakure from the demons.
"Not everyone who came back wants to live in this new world," Mikoto said quietly, eyes locked on the heart. "The Sharingan agreed with his choice, or it would never have allowed it.
Tsunade growled, and Naruto could feel the fury radiating off her. "We will discuss this further," she paused. "After the surgery."
Kabuto appeared from Itachi's room. "Do you need assistance, Lady Hokage?"
For someone who looked so…not threatening, the air of menace that he always had would never not be impressive, but Tsunade didn't care at the moment. No one did.
"Prep the surgery." She snapped, putting everything aside except her duty as a healer. "Sakura, Wakahisa, both of you scrub up too."
***
With Iruka back in surgery and Naruto and Sasuke surrounded by the Uchiha, Kakashi decided to slip away. The whole thing was so overwhelming, more so than he remembered the losses of his original Team Seven all those years ago, but he was much older now, and he'd changed from the defiant, angry child he'd been then.
Whether he'd changed for the better or the worse was still up for debate and probably depended on who you asked.
He wasn't expecting to run into Fugaku and his father, of all people, in an empty hallway.
Sakumo perked up at the sight of him, like a dog excited to see its master. He looked that way every time he saw Kakashi, but he'd never approached him. He never hid that he saw Kakashi, even waved a few times, but he hadn't tried to talk to him.
He was clearly waiting for Kakashi to approach him instead, but Kakashi hadn't yet.
Couldn't work up the courage.
How ironic.
Sharingan Kakashi, the coward of Konohagakure.
Couldn't even talk to his own father.
"Are you looking for Jounin Maito?" Fugaku's voice startled Kakashi out of his thoughts.
Kakashi turned to him. Fugaku's eyes stayed steady and calm, like he wasn't standing next to Sakumo and he wasn't aware of any estrangement between them. He managed a small nod, not really any more interested in talking to Fugaku than he was his father.
Fugaku didn't seem bothered. "This way." He started walking, expecting them to follow.
That they did, Kakashi found very annoying. It was even worse when Sakumo's lips quirked up at the corners like he knew exactly what Kakashi was thinking.
Gai was in a private room in the ortho ward. He'd gone down while Kakashi was in the Root hideout. Lee and Tenten had carried their teacher straight to the hospital, leaving the remaining Root forces to ANBU. Kakashi hadn't heard what injury had finally brought down Konoha's Green Beast, but his students hadn't left his side since they'd brought him in. It wasn't life-threatening because Kakashi had checked as soon as he'd gotten to the hospital.
According to the nurse who'd been looking after Iruka, Gai's injuries were to his chakra lines, not his limbs, but the end result was the same.
A sudden, catastrophic onset, and Gai had lost all use of his limbs, rendering him paraplegic.
For someone who'd spent his entire life honing his body to its very limits, it was a devastating diagnosis.
Kakashi had been stunned. There were no jutsus that he knew of that could do damage like that in a single attack. Nor any poisons that are on the targeted chakra lines in such a specific way.
And if it had occured naturally, then there should have been signs long before now. Nowhere in Senju Tobirama's writings of the Gates did it mention anything about losing the use of their limbs.
Gai had recited it to Kakashi so many times over the years that he had it memorized now.
The other jounin was propped up in bed when they arrived, listening avidly to his student's descriptions of the rest of the fight and what had happened at the Council of Clans.
Neji seemed uncharacteristically animated as he told the story, so much so that he didn't notice Kakashi, Sakumo, and Fugaku enter.
It wasn't until Gai greeted them that Neji, Tenten, and Lee turned around.
"Eternal Rival! I trust the news you bring is good?"
Only Gai could be so cheerful, confined to a hospital bed.
"Fights pretty much over." Kakashi shrugged. "ANBU's tracking down the last of them."
"And Danzo?" Gai's voice turned grave; more than anyone else, he knew how Kakashi felt about Danzo.
"Dead." Kakashi's voice was flat.
"He lit himself on fire, Gai-sensei," Neji added, still disturbed by it.
"It's called Shoshin Jisatsu. Self-immolation." Fugaku explained. "Katon is not meant to feed on its own chakra. To make it do so requires a significant amount of strength and knowledge. And control."
"Or an angry Sharingan." Sakumo drawled.
Fugaku blinked, nodded. "Yes, or that."
"What of Iruka-sensei?" Gai asked, always more concerned about others rather than himself.
"He's in surgery now," Fugaku answered. "It will be hours before it is complete. What of your injuries?" He peered down at Gai, his Sharingan awoke, and spun.
Gai's smile waned, but didn't fade completely. He would never let anything get him that down. "Rather permanent, I'm afraid. It seems we'll have to stand at 52-51, Eternal Rival!"
"Maa, does that mean you've won?" Kakashi slouched and cocked his head to the side. He couldn't use his Sharingan without removing his hiate, and he didn't want to do that with all the people currently in the room.
Gai's booming laugh cleared out the gloom that had come at the mention of his injury. "Indeed, it does!"
"I'm sure there are other ways to compete." Sakumo sounded amused. "Go, perhaps?"
Kakashi glanced at him, but didn't respond.
"Have they told you what's wrong?" Fugaku ignored them and turned to Gai, who nodded solemnly. His students looked confused, so clearly no one had told them.
"What is wrong with you, Gai-sensei?" Rock Lee looked close to tears from worry.
Gai softened; he always did around his students. Which made him a far better teacher than Kakashi. "Nothing that was not eventually expected."
Even Fugaku looked surprised. "You knew? It was not in Tobirama's writings."
Gai nodded. "Ot was not. However, it was in my father's."
Kakashi didn't know what that meant, but clearly Fugaku and Salumo died.
Gai's students shared a confused look.
"Dai was extensive in his studies." Fukagu almost looked fond?
Sakumo smiled. "He was the strongest man we knew."
Kakashi may have been surprised by the revelation, but Gai clearly was not.
The now-paralyzed Jounin smiled. "He did mention that he tested much of what he learned against the Uchiha's Shunko."
"He came closer than anyone else to matching it," Fugaku admitted, and he didn't seem upset about it. "He always believed you would surpass him. And it seems you did. Opening the 8th Gate is quite the achievement. You should be proud, despite the outcome."
"Despite the fact that he's paralyzed?" Neji and Tenten sqwacked, and Kakashi agreed. It was one thing to drive yourself to become stronger to defend the village; it was another to do it knowing this was coming.
Kakashi wasn't that noble; maybe he'd been that suicidal once or twice, but he'd long since lost that rose-colored view of the village, especially after the nine-tails attack and the politics that followed.
Maybe Gai deserved to win their eternal rivalry if he was still willing to sacrifice so much for the village.
"Do you know why Madara-sama resisted the idea of the village for so long?" Fugaku asked suddenly, and he wasn't watching Gai…he was watching Kakashi.
Something knowing flared to life in Gai's eyes.
At least, Gai's students seemed just as clueless as Kakashi.
"He knew that it meant an end to the clans. Or it should have."
Itachi said something similar during the Council of Cleans, Neji remembered, but it had likely been forgotten amidst the nightmare that followed.
"Both cannot survive at the same time because they are diametrically opposed. It is the way of evolution." At their clueless looks, he smiled, oddly soft for such a terrifying man. "Humans come together because they long for connection, but in that coming together, they become more than the individual or the family. They become a civilization, and once the civilization comes into existence, everything becomes about the survival of the civilization, not about the individual. The people who live in the civilization cease to be as important as what they had created. That is what Madara-sama knew would come to pass and what he feared most."
A village that would sacrifice those loyal to it to maintain its own survival, Kakashi realized.
Exactly what Konohagakure had been doing was a slow slide into darkness.
"Madara-sama knew the village would always ask more than it would give back." Fugaku's Sharingan spun backwards, and Kakashi realized that it was looking back through the memories it had inherited from Madara himself.
What a terrible thing to carry, Kakashi thought. He strained under the knowledge of his own father. What would it feel like to carry the knowledge of an entire bloodline?
"Why did he do it then?" Neji looked troubled, Lee confused, but it was Tenten who asked the question. "If he knew it would go wrong, then why give in? He definitely seemed strong enough to fight back."
Strong enough to defeat the United Shinobi Forces, Kakashi could admit, because it wasn't Madara who had lost in the end…it was Kaguya. Madara had changed his mind.
"Hope." Fugaku simply said.
"It takes a great amount of effort to keep a civilization focused on its people instead of itself." Gai offered. "And it is very easy to mistake care for the civilization as care for the people in it."
That was what Danzo and the Senior Council had done. Horrific actions justified by the real conviction that what they were doing was for the greater good, the survival of the village. It was unlikely that they'd been completely wrong the entire time about every little thing, though.
What just made it all the more infuriating.
"It may not seem like it now," Gai interrupted his thoughts. "Maybe not for a while yet, but I do not believe this is the end of Konohagakure."
"We're cutting one another down in the streets," Kakashi drawled bitterly.
"Certainly a trying time." Sakumo agreed, but he didn't sound nearly as bitter as Kakashi. Which was something, given that he'd taken his own life as part of the secret war with Danzo.
How could he agree with Gai when he had done that?
Gai's students, at least, looked rallied by their teacher's confidence.
"The people of Konohagakure are too good and too hardworking to be stuck in this spot for long." Gai beamed, still capable of that megawatt smile that he was known more for than his fighting skills.
Fukagu and Sakumo shared an amused look.
"You are so like your father that it's rather intimidating," Fugaku admitted, which made Gai flush with pride. "He may not have solved everything if he had lived, but the world would certainly be a brighter place."
Even Neji, who'd often looked down on his teacher for his eternally optimistic outlook when he was younger, looked somewhat in awe at the praise.
It was just further proof that Gai was the better man, as well as the better shinobi.
"Could everyone give us a moment?" Gai asked gently, and Kakashi was halfway out of the room before he realized that he was the one Gai wanted to speak to.
Once Fugaku and Sakumo had ushered Gai's protective students out of the room, Kakashi slouched in one of the chairs next to the bed and did his best to ignore Gai's searching gaze.
"How are you, Eternal Rival? I understand the Sharingan…takes its toll." Which was a pretty polite way of describing the parasite that lived in Kakashi's head.
He shrugged regardless, because there wasn't much to say about it. "Fine."
Gai didn't buy it, but he was kind enough to change the subject. "And you're students?"
Apparently, he'd decided to ask all the hard questions now. "Still not talking to me."
"Have you tried talking to them?"
Kakashi sighed. "They don't want to talk to me, Gai. Why make them?"
Gai frowned. "You are the teacher, Kakashi. The leader. It is your responsibility to make the effort."
"I'm sure they appreciate it more that I don't." Sasuke looked particularly murderous when Kakashi ended up in his eyeline. And Naruto and Sakura had made their choice clear. Their teammate above all else.
A part of Kakashi was proud of them for their loyalty, even if another part of him was frustrated at their inability to see the bigger picture.
"And they are no doubt righteous in their anger. That does not mean you were wrong in your choices." Gai argued in that annoyingly quiet, competent way he had. "Part of being a teacher is showing them the world as it is and how to change it. You have achieved one, but your job is not finished until you have completed the other."
Kakashi turned a baleful stare on him. "They're learning that lesson just fine without me."
"And I suppose Iruka-sensei has decided he is also better off without you?" Gai continued mildly.
"If he's smart," Kakashi muttered. Something cold slicing through him at the memory of the still man in the hospital bed and a pair of eyes in a pile of ash.
Gai eyed him. "I do not remember you being such a fool."
Kakashi glared at him, as much as he could with just one eye. "I live to impress."
"You live to make your life harder for yourself out of an overdeveloped sense of hyper-responsibility and a guilt complex bigger than this village."
Where had he even heard that word?
Gai continued. "Perhaps it is not unexpected, given the influential figures in your life."
Kakashi slouched further down and muttered. "I don't recall signing up for a therapy session."
"If you would go to a professional, there wouldn't be any need for me to do it." Gai sniffed.
"Worry about yourself." Kakashi snapped, bristling, and then immediately felt guilty.
Thankfully, Gai knew him well enough not to take it personally. "So you always say when I force you to confront your feelings, Rival."
Kakashi scowled, not pleased to be that predictable or easily understood. Which was childish, he could realize in his more mature moments.
"I imagine now you will close yourself off," Gai pushed on. "Avoid any emotional attachments or moments that could make you feel something."
Kakashi scowled. "You're the one in here for treatment, not me."
"I even checked myself in," Gai said cheerfully.
"I can't believe you knew this was coming." And didn't stop, went unsaid. Kakashi let the anger spike; it was easier to focus it on Gai than to consider what it actually meant.
"I knew the choice I was making." Gai's voice was mild. So mild it was infuriating. "I considered the consequences to be worthwhile. I still do."
"You're never going to walk again." Kakashi snapped.
"That was my choice." Gai returned.
"There's a war coming, and now you can't fight." It was a low blow, driven by nothing more than Kakashi's fear for his friend and for Iruka and Naruto and Sasuke and everyone else who was in danger.
"I could die in the first moment of battle and be just as useless." Gai countered.
"So could I," Kakashi added bitterly.
"At a certain point, we only have so much control, Kakashi." Gai sighed. "We have both faced enemies in our time who should have won. There is always an element of luck in battle that is uncontrollable. All we can do is make the best choice we can with what we know at the time. There is no fault to be found in that."
He was right, but even acknowledging that didn't change the anxious gnaw in Kakashi's stomach. The endless worry that any decision would be the wrong one. The habit of thinking back and seeing all his choices as the wrong ones. Even his students, who were barely adults themselves, were smart enough to realize it was wiser not to listen to him.
Iruka was better off not getting dragged into it. Kakashi wasn't even sure he had the emotional capacity to form any kind of lasting bond anyway.
Everyone left him at some point. And they left by choice. His father, Obito, Rin, even Minato-sensei had gone into battle knowing he wasn't going to come back, and he was the one Kakashi had least expected to lose.
"Iruka-sensei will pull through." Gai probably meant to be encouraging, but all Kakashi heard was the reminder that Iruka was in the hospital.
Someone else Kakashi loved felt strongly for was in an uncomfortable bed covered by stark white sheets in a sterile room, hooked up to machines to keep them alive.
Kakashi's gaze darted around the room. He debated pulling out the newest volume of Icha Icha Paradise, but he was still slightly disturbed by the strength of the resemblance of the main character to Tsunade.
Jiraiya had definitely been getting less and less subtle as time went on, and Kakashi wasn't one hundred percent sure, but he suspected something had changed between them with Jiraiya's resurrection.
If Kakashi was paying attention, he'd probably say it was overdue, but the complicated personal lives of the Sanin were the stuff of his nightmares. It had actually put him off Icha Icha for a year when he'd first found out that it was all inspired by Tsunade.
"Iruka does have a unique ability to survive things he shouldn't."
"There is nothing wrong with admitting you're worried."
"What good would that do?"
Gai sighed. "You can always go sit with him."
"He's in surgery." Kakashi deflected. "Besides, we're not together."
Gai raised an eyebrow. "You are certainly upset for someone who's not in a relationship." He muttered.
"Hard to be in a relationship with someone who hates me. Not to mention, he's an Uchiha."
"I don't understand either of those correlations," Gai announced cheerfully, ignoring Kakashi's glower. "Don't be a coward now that you lost, Rival."
***
This is the closest I have ever gotten to voicing the truth: that I'm afraid. That for a long time now, between maybe the third and fourth move, the fourth or fifth friend I lost along the way, I've suspected that there's something fundamentally unlovable about me. Something that makes it easy for people to forget me the second I leave, to drift out of touch no matter how hard I try to keep them in my life. I've said before that my default setting is loneliness, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe it's really fear.
Ann Liang
***