It's not illegal."
Hinata stirs her drink thoughtfully. She'd been attentive and silent through his explanation and, when he'd described the mission itself, gotten up to wash his dishes. After the dishes she'd collected his laundry and methodically worked through it. Eventually Sasuke forced a drink into her hand and sat her down so she wouldn't do something insane, like make him dinner.
" Why? " Sasuke growls. "Is it not illegal?"
"Genetic material is exchanged through both the legal and illegal market all the time. And as far as I know there's no reason for the technology to be banned. No one even knows about it." Her hand twitches towards his unfolded towels. His hand twitches towards his knife. "We like to talk about the formation of Konoha as something idyllic. It was anything but. When ANBU was formed at the tail end of the Shodai's reign a number of smaller cells cropped up in response. Mostly from the Clans but a few merchant groups threw in. It would probably have been worse if not for the presence of certain limiting factors." She reaches down into her ever present briefcase with it's endless storage, fusses, and produces a neat pile of paper. "This is some surviving paperwork from the first ANBU secretary. One of those groups, one of the ones I have good reason to suspect is still around, made an arrangement with a merchant called the Dragon to keep a direct sale line open."
Sasuke frowns at the dragon seal on the shipping manifest in front of him. "Who?"
"No one knows who he is but he has something of a legacy in Intelligence circles." Hinata hands him another piece of paper. "The other name is more familiar."
That one is familiar. "Shimura Danzo."
"He founded a small cell a few years into the Nidaime's reign. It stayed underground but grew under the next Hokage. It was left alone to take root in the foundations of Konoha. A Black Ops unit inside ANBU, Root, operating wherever and however it wanted inside shinobi dealings. I haven't found evidence of civilian involvement."
"I don't see how it's connected." Sasuke frowns. "Even if Root took kids the ones we're looking at where taken out of the country."
"That's where this comes in." She produces a statement from her endless piles of paper. "Children, especially stateless ones, are considered the same thing as a cart of swords. Without the backing of someone bigger those kids...when your family died there was no one to advocate for them. When the Hyuuga children went missing they came from low families, one who would not ask for support or help, especially from me. It's like losing lint from your coat, or buying a second hand coat to some of the elders. Transferring them from owner to owner is as easy as applying for a license, providing you know how to word your paperwork. They have no rights in a court of law but what is afforded at the leisure of the court. There is no international binding agreement that prohibits the use of children as weapons of war. The Shodai tried to get it to pass at the first summit, but, well, no one else was interested." She rubs her eyes. "Konoha has many laws about the use of children in war and nearly all of them have been broken, with near to no consequences."
Sasuke leans back in his chair and then, without thinking, says, "What about the Summer of Sun?"
Hinata turns, wide eyed. "Excuse me?"
"We need a precedent for the Hidden Villages agreeing on the cessation of a kind of weapon making." He taps his fingers on his legs. "The Summer of Sun."
"Of course!" Hinata whispers. "Oh my god. Oh my god how did I forget about? -and it was brokered by Tsunade too!"
"What?"
"Ah, it's in the old archives no one reads. She and Orochimaru were granted a brief parley after they found a way to stop the Summer of Sun."
Huh. That fits. "So how do we get this to happen?"
"Oh? Oh." She bites her lip. "I think...I think you may have to ask Tsunade for something."
Explaining it to the Hokage is the easier part. She knows this already but is hamstrung by bureaucracy, history and disinterest. The Summer of Sun part perks her up but enough for Sasuke to grow confident. Has she already thought of that? Has it failed?
"You realises without proof this is just nonsense." Tsunade pours them drinks. "You have a trail, sure, but no actual children to show for it. You can't take him down without it." And evidence, Sasuke hears, is the crux of the problem.
Hinata hesitates. "I have a connection."
"All that business with Kabuto, huh?" Tsunade crosses her arms. "Sure kitten, do you want me to pretend two of my assets aren't seeking to undermine the stability of regime?"
"No." Hinata draws herself up to her full height. "I would you like to overlook this as your predecessors have. Not only because of precedent but because it would be...unwise to accuse the heir of the largest noble house and the only private citizen of Konohagakure. It would be unpleasant."
"I might as well go out topless is what you're saying." She laughs. "That's ballsy Hyuuga. What about you Uchiha, you got balls?"
Sasuke raises an eyebrow,
"Alright." Tsunade points at him. "But first you're going to do something for me."
"What?"
"Go to the Pool." Her tone drops to something subdued. He can see shadows dancing at the edge of her eyes. "Tell me what you find. Before the summit preferably but I...understand if it takes awhile." She dismisses them with a raised hand. "I'll see you at the next meeting Hyuuga and you at the strategy session with the other Hokages, Uchiha."
--
Halfway through plan making Tobirama frowns and says, "we need to talk about the Uchiha."
Sasuke frowns back. "I haven't done anything." He hands his papers to Sakura who hands it to Namikaze and so on. It's just the Hokages and Team 7 now. All in the family, so to speak.
Tobirama rolls his eyes."The other Uchiha."
He's dead, Sasuke thinks reflexively.
"Madara." Tobirama says, perhaps following Sasuke's thoughts. "I mean Uchiha Madara."
"The Mangekyou." Sarutobi frowns, "What can you tell us?"
Sasuke shrugs and relays what he remembers.
Sakura frowns. "So it's a medical condition," Sakura says.
Tobirama scowls. "What?"
Sakura ignores him. "You just said that the sharingan leads to the release of a special chakra that grows more powerful the more they feel. That's the hatred bit. Unstable chakra can have a debilitating effect on the body, obviously. So this special chakra erodes part of the brain that regulates certain impulses? Or reactions?" Sakura says slowly. "That makes it a degenerative brain condition, not a preordained path."
Tobirama snorts. "It's possible to access it without causing insanity."
"Right but the only person you know of personally who did that is Kagami and the only other person we know who did that was his son Shisui." Sakura puts her hands on her hips and glances at Tsunade, "Shishou?"
"Sorry Uncle, I think Sakura has a point." Tsunade laces her fingers together. "We no longer have access to many of the Uchiha clan records. So I don't know how much we can confirm."
"It's passed through the mother." Sasuke adds quietly. He expects his contribution to be rushed over but when it's not he carefully meets Hashirama's eyes. "That's what I know."
Tsunade frowns, looking to her grand uncle. "Do we know who Kagami's mother was?"
Tobirama shakes his head. "No. His father was one of the Uchiha who abandoned the village with Madara."
"His grandmother was Uchiha Michiko." Sasuke says without looking up. "He was the child of her second son."
"Michiko!" Hashirama says brightly.
"That would explain it." Tobirama says a touch more happily. "Strong woman."
Sasuke nods, marking down another point on the map in front of him. It is completely wrong and might be in the middle of the ocean. Naruto edges into his vision concern written on his face. Sasuke ignores that and corrects his mistake.
Tobirama shrugs his wide shoulders. "Regardless it causes insanity. We can't afford to tread lightly."
"That's," Sakura clears her throat, "that's a terrible attitude towards mental health."
Tobirama is borderline seething. Sasuke ducks his head to hide his smirk.
"Sakura," Tsunade says chidingly.
Sakura shrugs completely unconcerned. "As a medical professional I don't agree with his assessment."
Naruto bites his cheek to avoid laughing.
Tsunade rolls her eyes, "and as a ninja of Konohagakure you're going to shush because I said so."
Sakura nods. "Yes ma'am."
That effectively kills the session. As they file out -Sakura glaring at the Nidaime all the while, he has the decency to hunch his shoulders- Tsunade pulls him aside.
"You know he's coming for you now?" Tsunade says quietly. "I can't do anything for you. You're protected legally by the deal we came up with Hashira but he can still have you killed."
"I can handle it."
Tsunade snorts the same as Tobirama. "Better men than you have said that."
He has dinner with Sakura again. She banished Kakashi and Naruto for being too rowdy for the civilian night she wanted. She gets a weird kick out of his status in a way that confuses him. Although it does keep him in good barbeque. Late that night a little sparrow in the pale purple Hyuuga shades knocks on his window. It has a little note attached to its leg.
Tomorrow, the note says.
The little sparrow jumps up and down impatiently. Sasuke absently strokes down its small head. It nips him. "I want a treat!"
Sasuke snorts. Typical birds. "Yeah, yeah. I've got some dried fruit around here somewhere." He grabs the fruit and writes his reply. Tomorrow.
--
Hinata knocks on his door with a timidity that annoys him.
He tells her so as they walk towards one of Konoha's outer districts. "Why do you still bother with that gentle flower stuff. If you've got a spine, show it."
Hinata regards him mildly. They're both dressed as civilians today. Him in his usual pants and top combo, Hinata in a delicate purple dress and green cardigan. "If for all of your life you were treated as nearly sub-human, not worth loving or caring for, and one day you found yourself strong enough to prove them wrong would you? Would you just go out and prove it?"
"Of course."
"Of course," she repeats, tone just as mild as before, "but imagine you are a girl, not a woman a girl, and you live in a clan where the only reason you're tolerated is because of your blood. Until just a few years ago you weren't strong enough. You were beaten, you were hurt, you tried again but you could only see the gulf getting bigger. There's someone else ahead of you who is better, who always will be, and you can't make up the gap of gender. So yes, you can , but some things will still never change, and the only way to come at those things is with a veil. Even if that isn't you, you don't get to be you until the wheel of fate changes." By the end of her speech that mildness is gone and Sasuke can see the depth of molten steel at her core. Hinata recovers, placing a gentle hand to her lips as if silencing herself. "I apologise. It has been a...rough morning."
To his own surprise he finds he does get it. "Elders?" Hinata looks up in surprise. "I used to sit in my father's office when he was going through paperwork. Every so often he'd get a report from some officer of elder abuse. 'Elder abuse?' He'd say. 'More like the world spinning around right'."
She snorts. "That is a terrible thing to say," she replies, "even if it's accurate."
Sasuke shrugs. His father had never made a secret of how tiring he found the Uchiha Elders.
Somehow he'd expected it to go down in the middle of the night, like in a movie. It's such a wild thought for someone who once did this for a living. It's funny that some of it slid off so quickly. They walk to one of the edgier sections of town way past the red light district and step onto a boat. It's a pleasant day. The river smells like fresh grass and sunlight.
They get off a little way out of Konoha, at one of its satellite towns. Hinata walks comfortably through the streets towards a brothel with a brown door. Sasuke frowns behind her, uncomfortably reminded of Tawatsukawa. The guard lets them in without any trouble only sparing the briefest of glances for their faces.
Inside the brothel is cleared out. Despite the open windows and the cleaning products the place smells of sex and alcohol. Hinata tenses beside him and he almost wishes he knew her well enough to make a comment. A tense teammate is a bad one. She settles herself remarkably well for someone so uptight. She doesn't even flinch when the bar girl brings them refreshments. She's a working girl with a working girl's tired eyes and clipped gait, Sasuke pays her extra.
After a long enough period of time that Sasuke fears he may have to make small talk the door to the backrooms swings opn. A slight man and fifteen or so children fill the small establishment to capacity. Sasuke tilts his head, "Kabuto."
"Sasuke." Kabuto replies pleasantly. He waves a dramatic arm. "Here's the produce."
Sasuke has no idea what the going price is anymore but he can't imagine it's changed that much. He's looking at millions in potential revenue. It's stomach curdling to participate in this bullshit but it is what it is. That's what Sasuke tells his rolling stomach. This is the last time.
Hinata stands. The children immediately fall into two straight lines. She hesitates but pulls herself together enough to approach them. She pulls the heads off their heads one by one and asks for their names. They have none. Do they have families? No.
Sasuke holds his breath, even when Kabuto takes Hinata's seat.
He hadn't thought much about what meeting the child would mean. Each time Hinata pulls down their hoods and asks her questions he feels like he's taken a punch to the gut.
Hinata pauses over the second to last child. He has a cleft palate. "What are these marks on their tongues?"
"Silence seals." Kabuto slurps his drink. "They explode if you develop loose lips."
"Wait." Sasuke leaps to his feet. "I've seen these before, years ago, when I was working for Giri." His solo mission with Dosa.
"Unsurprising." Kabuto supplies. "Not disrupting this kind of trade was part of the deal."
"They were dead." Sasuke shakes his head. "Would he really kill-"
"Yes." Kabuto slams his drinks down. "Don't you know what kind of man you're dealing with yet?"
Sasuke shuts his mouth. He sits down.
Hinata finishes her assessment. "Are we still agreed on payment."
Kabuto pats his mouth dry with a napkin. "I'll get my pound of flesh, so to speak."
" After you testify."
"After you skewer Danzo, yes." Kabuto sighs. "After the war too. Good luck Sasuke, Hinata." He leaves without so much as a glance at the children.
Sasuke looks at their small heads and feels nothing but panic. "I can't-"
Hinata comes close enough to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I have arranged for carers. People I would trust to do this. They're loyal, caring and can provide the kind of emotional care you and I cannot." She squeezes. "Later on we can adopt them back or arrange a formal guardianship but I could no more ask someone in your position to do this than I could attempt to do it myself. Until such time as we have secured their safety we'll see that they're cared for."
We. Our. Binding their fates with the children. It's a neat trick. "You're actually good at this."
"Yes. I am." It's back to that mildness. That impressive self control. "This may be new to you but I have been planning this for a long time. It means something to me and you can rest easy knowing that I mean to see it through."
He'd always thought she was weak. Naruto has always thought she was gentle. When compared to Sakura she is. Sakura's strength may not have always been obvious but it is visible. A simpler person would mistake a lack of straightforwardness for cowardice. Weakness.
But Sasuke is not Naruto and even in his infancy he knew that power was many figured and didn't care a bit about gender. Hinata has something in her that reminds him of Karin. Maybe it's just emotional transference but it's not hard to see a touch of red in her hair. Clever more than smart. Clever is adaptable. Clever he understands.
He likes Hyuuga Hinata, even if he doesn't trust her all that much.
Trust can be earned, he counsels himself. God knows he's had to, still has to.
The boy holds up his hand and grabs for him. At first he thinks it's a plea to be held, which Sasuke can't answer, but the motion is wrong. The boy grasps for his shirt and then further up, up to his eyes. Sasuke leans down to let the boy feel along. Small hands cover his eyes, close them, and when he lets the boy close there's a spark of familiar chakra. Fire and grief. Fire and Uchiha blood.
--
It's with thoughts of the boy in his head that he goes to find the Pool.
Not hidden underground but near the ring of blossoming trees near a bend in the river. He was never allowed here as a child and in truth found it creepy. Tsunade told him that her grandfather's place was as barren as the desert in high summer and black as the aftermath of a fresh fire. Sasuke knew down to his bones that Madara's Pool was near the ever blooming trees where the elders had tea. There was something in the air, something too heavy for real life. Something that could be a story.
The way in is harder. He gets on his hands and knees on the forest floor and feels around. The dirt is cool, unnaturally so and he can almost feel...but no. No. It's not running water. It's still earth. He tries running his hands and eyes over the five trees in this little grove. Even wading into the chilly water. All that gets him is wet and irritated. Finally he gives up and has lunch.
It's when he's finishing up, haphazardly throwing an apple core over his shoulder, that he notices the shimmery space to the side of him. It's about human sized, a fizzle in the air. He approaches it sideways, sharingan activated. He's inches away when a noise like a foot out of mud rings through the air and-
It's a barren room save for an altar on which rests a small bowl of black lumps. The walls are covered in script. Ancient war tomes, treaties, love stories. With a stuttering breath Sasuke realises that this is where his legacy was buried. In the ground, with the lost stories of it's greatest traitor. He approaches the altar and it's small stone bowl. Walks through the seals on the ground. He kneels before an empty wall, closes his eyes and breathes.
When he opens them again with his sharingan the wall is no longer empty. Instead there is a man with sad red eyes and a face Sasuke sees in the mirror. He has black wings and a Tengu's stance. Indra. Between his hands is a glowing red stone, the same as he saw all that time ago in the eyes of the Rabbit Goddess, underneath all it says is be sure.
All Uchiha abilities are life and death. Mostly death.
He hesitates over the stone. What once was as easy as breathing -his whole life is just a risk, after all, one he was taking without ever knowing the cost of the roll- is complicated by the knowledge that he has someone like him, waiting, hidden wherever Hinata found for them. He can't leave them. Children need families. He can't- He can't go. He has to stay.
But- That doesn't change what's down here in this tomb of his own history and blood. He grasps one of the black lumps, closes his eyes and hopes that whatever this is, he's sure enough. It hurts. His hand spasms. The lump turns to fire in his palm. It hurts so much.
He opens his eyes. He swallows the red-orange coal whole. It feels exactly how you'd expect; he can't swallow, it's fighting to come back up. Instead of hot it's ice cold, ripping the flesh of his throat as it goes down. It rests heavy as the world in his stomach, pulsing, heating him up from the inside.
There's terrible glittering madness in his blood. Red on the back of his hands and the glory of flesh in his mouth. Tobirama had said that the fate of the Uchiha was to love until everything else gave way, to hate until reality swayed an unsteady beat at your fingertips. He was right. Sasuke sways with the enormity of what lives inside him. He wants it bad enough to beg, there is nothing but brilliance inside that madness. The power of a god. The power to be everything.
And to end it.
Somewhere in the village the Last Senju is eating the roots and dirt from her grandfather's legacy. The clans are two of kind. The madness of the Senju must be equally as brilliant. The power to create, the power to control. The power to leave things growing in your wake where the Uchiha will set it to burn forever. Something close to an absolute power here on earth shaping things with an ability that can't be surpassed.
In one breath he's the dream of Fire; Naruto's will all but pried from Hashirama's hands, shaped by loneliness and a passion that borders obsession. He's pulling new life from the ashes, clearing the air and drinking the water from the Naka river. He's the boy shyly hiding behind Itachi's legs looking up at the towering figure of his Hokage. The boy who knew he'd walk from hand to hand, strength to strength, because the heart of his family would guide him.
The next he's Itachi's downfall; beloved and wrecked on the rocks of Konoha's legacy. His family's legacy that once spanned a continent but now can only touch where Sasuke himself can tread. Madara's will inherited through the eyes of his dead brother is the only thing he can see. Come find me when you have these eyes Itachi said, and Sasuke is still not entirely sure he wants to give up that poisonous dream. He wants power. He needs it. The Will of Fire killed his mother, his cousins, his aunts and the beloved children who'd done nothing more than be born. It would be insanity to not want to be powerful enough to stop that from ever happening again.
Sasuke takes one deep breath, then another, and tries to take this to it's simplest form.
On the fifteenth breath out he lets himself think it.
It's the Valley of the End. His hand is either through his own chest or Naruto's.
Orochimaru's mark burns with the memories of what he did that night. His actions, no one else's. The responsibility of that burns in his chest right through to the heart. When he was a child Itachi chose vengeance for him but how Sasuke sought it is largely on him. Some things -Orochimaru, Sarutobi and Danzo, Itachi's relentless torture, even Kakashi's half-hearted attempt to teach him- were not his doing. But he can't deny the man he is, the man his blood has partially made him, and that man is a survivor. Selfish and stupid at times, ruthless and reckless, always looking out for himself because there isn't anyone else to do it for him. He can admit that, if only to himself, and take responsibility for it.
He's a selfish man and currently unclear on what exactly he's aiming for but there's no point denying what he'll choose in the end. Sasuke will choose himself. Just as soon as he figures out who that is.
--
He wakes up in his own home. The cats are sitting on his chest. Pakkun is on the floor. Stuck to his wall is a note in Tsunade's hand writing. Guess you were sure.
--
The day of the summit arrives on an otherwise unremarkable overcast day. They trudge into Kumogakure headquarters at the same time as everyone else. To say that Sasuke is not thrilled to be back In Lightning so soon is an understatement, but the Raikage formally called the meeting and is footing the bill. They've arranged special quarters for the open meeting, as it will involve several non-shinobi parties. They've already announced the date for the war: one month. The place for it: right here, a bare day's travel towards the seaside.
The room is set up so that the five Kage are equidistant from each other. Because their platform is raised so far above the speaking platform they will have an easy view of whomever is below them and their fellow Kage. Anyone wishing to speak to them will have to look up and move around to make their best impact. It's unsubtle and intimidating.
Sasuke...questions the wisdom of trying to intimidate someone like the leader of Giri.
And then Giri is there, silver edelweiss at their throats. Two men dressed in the traditional styles of their homelands. Dosa in a long tunic and the other man in a Water style top and pants combo. Fuyuki has dressed for the Festival of Twelve Singing Trees, hair twisted above her head, eyes magnified threefold by gold make up, the pale orange of a traditional Lightning kimono draped elegantly around her. Sasuke snorts, the climax of the Twelve Singing Tree's involves a maiden dressed in orange making a fool of a king by having him dance in a river with the branches of the trees wrapped around his neck.
Tsunade's mouth almost flickers into a smile when she too makes the powerplay connection.
Now that everyone is here the suspicious looks begin. The smaller Villages look dubious, the representatives of the daimyo's look ill, the bigger Hidden Villages eye each other with expressions ranging from relief to anger. Iwa looks at everyone with disdain. Kiri is watchful and almost defensive. Suna is calm and easy. Kumo is ignoring everyone. Konoha is watchful, especially of Iwa.
Although none of it, not even the hot hatred with which Konoha hates Iwa, can hold a flame to the sheer uncomprehending rage with which A regards Fuyuki.
"Don't I know you from somewhere?" Oonoki starts.
A snarls.
"Not recently, Tsuchikage." Fuyuki looks up at him from half hooded eyes, "but I am more than familiar with many parties present here today."
"Well, girl, introduce yourself properly." Oonoki grumbles. "I need to know who you are and why I should give a damn."
Fuyuki rises to her feet. The Giri-nin behind her coming to attention. "I am Hashira Fuyuki, former Commander of Lightning, current leader of Giri."
"Oh? You're the new Otokage?" Mei says, "I thought it was another boy."
Fuyuki smiles with genuine warmth at the Mizukage. Sasuke is reminded all over again of how thin the lines are here and how much history is floating to the top. "No Terumii. Sorry."
A snorts. "A missing-nin as a Kage?"
"Two missing-nin are already Kage, sir." She puts a lot of menace behind the sir. "And again, I do not rule a Hidden Village."
"Then what do you command? " A snaps.
"Giri."
Tsunade leans forward to clasp her hands together. "Which is?"
"Your local friendly hostage negotiators." Fuyuki says cheerfully. "For when hubris takes hold of those unfortunately afflicted with a sense of narcissism and a silly white hat, and you think of doing clever things like firebombing villages, kidnapping children or starting a whole war over something we can sort out at an negotiating table."
Okay , he thinks, she's got it . This is going fine.
She continues, "we're setting up an intergovernmental organization to promote co-operation between the elemental nations. Instead of declaring war on each other, getting your civilians killed, disrupting the peace and all that nonsense, we will convene to discuss your issues in an open space with an impartial party -like, say, my Giri- to oversee matters."
"We will not agree to this."
"You don't have a choice. I've already fucking done it." "I already have the agreement of all the major Daimyo's and merchant clans. Failure to cooperate will be met with serious sanctions."
"You can't be be serious." Oonoki says. "We could kill you."
"I am confident in my skills." Which translates to I'm Kage level too, bitches. "And you will find life difficult both in the immediate sense of fighting Madara and the wider sense of my complex network that has absorbed and replaced Akatsuki and contains most missing-nin of significance. I will have what I want."
Gaara clears his throat. "This can be discussed at length later."
"It can be discussed now," the Raikage growls. He leans forward in his chair. "How will you pull this one off, princess?"
"Raikage," Darui chides.
"Some conditions should be set." Oonoki leans forward too.
"Limitations of power?" Mei offers.
Fuyuki rolls her eyes.
Gaara spears her with his intensity. "Some sacrifices must be made." He makes a careful show of glancing at Naruto, B and who Sasuke has to assume are the two jinchuuriki not collected by Akatsuki.
Fuyuki grins, leaning towards him with a mockery of intimacy. "That sounds like something a politician would say."
Gaara inclines his head slightly. "We are all animals of one kind or another. I have learnt the folly of hubris, of assuming that my way is the right one. It took another boy, his hope-"
"Do you intend to make an alliance for a year or a day?" Fuyuki cuts in. Gaara blinks at her. "I'm glad this newest generation of leaders can hang their hats on the words of the Yellow Flash's son but I'm rather afraid that doesn't mean much to me and mine."
Gaara tilts his head just so. "I'm not sure what you mean."
"You think those of us you forced out give two shits what some legacy brat has to say?"
Tsunade snorts, unimpressed. "So says the woman with the only pedigree as long as mine, or did your family not literally build the foundations of Kumogakure?"
"And did our families not leave legacies we abandoned?" Fuyuki raises one hand to Tsunade beseechingly, one slim wrist extended, the knot work of the noose the king hung himself with glittering on her sleeves. "They are dead, and we are not. Don't we choose?"
They are dead, and we are not. The room stills and settles. All eyes on the two princesses. Tsunade relaxes her shoulders, releases her hands and settles in her seat. Her brown eyes show her age, and in them Sasuke can see she is decided regardless of what happens next. Oonoki watches Tsunade, with a grunt he too relaxes. After a long drawn out moment, lines being drawn and redrawn by international powers, don't we choose echoing around the chamber, Tsunade returns Fuyuki's gesture. One hand extended, she says, "Continue."
"You can't be serious." Temari hisses a shade too loud.
"Quiet, girl." Tsunade mutters back. "This is to be decided by us."
"Hmm." Oonoki grumbles to himself. He gestures for the woman beside him to step forward. They confer, she nods, he raises a hand. "Seems to me the unknown is the problem."
"A registration." Terumii offers.
Gaara nods. "Channels of communication."
A grins. "A fucking leash. "
Fuyuki smiles all the while.
Sasuke watches Tsunade and the way her face does not move. Her posture stays relaxed and she looks...perturbed by the proceedings. She glances just once, only once, at her fellow Kage as they decide the impositions to be put upon Giri.
Ideas, treaties, restrictions are thrown about by the other four Kage. The longer they talk the longer it becomes a matter of logistics and less a matter of life and liberty for people who are not their soldiers. Sasuke watches the crowd, the tightening of hands, the dropping of shoulders. Defeat, anger, fear. Respect, too, in the eyes of those standing closest to the Kage. Tsunade glances at the crowd too, her eyes meet his in a flash of acknowledgement. What of, he's not quite sure.
A outlines the beginnings of an extensive list of restrictions. After a few minutes of patient listening, Fuyuki queries, "And these are the conditions?"
"Yes."
"I see." Fuyuki nods once to show she truly does. "No."
Terumii's mouth makes a surprised noise. "No?"
"I am not a bitch Terumii and it lessens you to try and treat me as one. After all," she looks pointedly at Tsunade, Oonoki and Mei, "you know disgrace as well as I do."
Tsunade frowns. Oonoki and Mei flinch.
"I am not a bitch to be commanded, brought to heel," she smiles placidly casting a long unkind look at the Lightning delegation, "or bred. I will not so much as move my little toe for you let alone get on my back and let you fuck me. "
Sasuke's breath cuts out as Fuyuki's killing intent fills the room. Naruto shivers against his seat. He's a creature of the wind, small cuts and severance, Sasuke can only imagine what lightning must feel like against that. He worms a hand underneath Naruto's and gently pushes against it. Naruto's fingers twitch, but he clasps back. When he's satisfied Sasuke removes his hand and tucks it back into his kimono.
"Hashira-" Gaara starts.
But A is already on his feet, incensed beyond reason. "You insolent little curr. You traitorous bitch-"
Mei gasps. "A!"
"How dare you stand before me, before this delegation and tell me, princess, what I've done to you, what you will no longer stand for. How dare you slander the people we have bled and killed for. The men and women who died for you and your precious fucking sisters, the men and women who died in that godforsaken crater are on you -"
Darui bolts to his feet. "Raikage!"
A puts a foot on the ledge, face nearly purple with rage and opens up his whole body, moving past fury to a deep well of something that borders hatred. Fuyuki's lip pulls into a snarl when A loses the fight with his chakra control and floods the room with his rage. Neither of them can see beyond whatever ugly thing lies between them. "Now you'll stand here, you, of all those to have ever been loyal to Kumogakure, you will stand there and tell me I'm the monster- "
"ENOUGH." Tsunade's fist hits the table cracking it right down the middle.
"No." Fuyuki snarls back, and then, softly. "No."
That softness cracks whatever has a hold on the Raikage. He slumps into his chair, almost losing his bravado. "Damn you to the depths of hell, woman. Damn you there for as long as the mountains surround the home we have both given kin for."
For a moment the two stare at each other, eyes fathomless and deep, then Fuyuki tilts her head once and takes her seat.
Oonoki sighs. "Well-"
"Don't start old man," Mei cuts in, "some things stay between a girl and the man she used to kill for."
Oonoki scowls but subsides, after all, The Beauty of Bloody Mist is still one of the Mizukage's nicknames.
It takes long agonizing minutes in which both the Raikage and Fuyuki struggle to regain their composure before Gaara stands and says. "This meeting is over."
Mei nods. "Carried."
Tsunade and Oonoki both throw one sharp glance at each other before rising and leaving without preamble. The minor Kage and their attaches leave as well. Sasuke frowns. If someone doesn't do something soon the only people left in the room will be A and Fuyuki.
"Shit." Naruto mutters. "Fucking hell. Shit shit shit."
If Sasuke was feeling less beaten down he'd probably say I told you so.
They exit quickly, loudly, and Sasuke grimaces at the familiarity. Negotiation is the only way forward. He tucks himself away from the crowd half following the bristling electricity of Fuyuki's chakra. He follows the twisting corridors of the old temple out into a small courtyard. Fuyuki strides across the small green and stone place, pass the blooming shrubs and stone seats, to grab A by the back of his shirt. She spins him around and beats at him with her fists. He grabs one fist and pulls her forward. She stands her ground and hisses at him. A is a taller, bigger man than she is but he holds her wrist gently, the only admonishment in the way he pushes her fingers back too far. From here Sasuke can't hear them. He can only read their bodies. A turns his hold on her into something almost intimate, not sexual or romantic, just a physical comfort with each other they must have earned. Fuyuki almost lets her shoulders drop, almost lets her guard fall against someone she must have once followed without reservation, but just before she falls A says something.
She slaps him. A stomps away with a grimace. And Fuyuki...Fuyuki just looks sad.
Sasuke waits until he leaves to come forward. At length she turns her attention to Sasuke. "Nadeshiko."
"This should have been different." Sasuke snarls.
"It should have been." Fuyuki agrees, her head is still tilted away from him, eyes on the rapidly retreating line of her former Kage's back. Her hands aren't bloody right now but she's just as far away as she was then. "But I am who I am, and this is what it is."
Sasuke shakes his head. "You want this to be different."
Fuyuki looks at him, power unchecked, for the first time. For the first time he truly sees the strong back of Giri, the woman who so terrifies people that they would agree to something as radical as her vision. He's small in the face of that. A boy. A child. This is someone who fought the world and won. "I am what Kumogakure made me. I am...too far along this path to be the spot on which the world turns. I don't want peace, not really. What would I do with it? I can be a fulcrum, a lever, I can make a place to stand and push, but this dream is not something I'll see the end of," she says peaceably. "I've kept any number of things from you: the exact nature of your missions, the whereabouts of those you cared about, other such things like that." Now she turns so they're facing each other. She's soft, gentle, quiet. "Do you understand why?"
"Because I was an investment."
"You're a person," she says firmly, "but you're a shinobi too. We do not have that luxury."
"I'm not a shinobi."
"Oh?" Her face twitches into a genuine smile. She reaches down, past her sword, and pulls out a scroll. Sasuke's heart speeds up. "Then I should worry less about giving you this."
"What is it?"
She hesitates to hand it over. "The truth about what killed your brother."
"I already know about-"
"I don't mean that." She shakes her head. "I told you, we met once. We had a talk, tactician to tactician, and we made each other very uncomfortable. Please, take this, and know that I am sorry he died that way. You deserved to see him again even if it was to kill him. You deserved that closure. He deserved...well, at the very least he deserved to see the man you became. I am sorry to have taken that from the both of you."
"Why?" He snarls, the hot sting of tears behind his eyes. You too, this shit with you as well, you of all people. "Why?"
"Come sit over here." She pats the seat next to her. "Come on."
He stalks over and plops himself down. It feels absurd to do something as simple as sit next to someone he once massacred an entire city for.
"A knife is a knife is a knife." Fuyuki knocks him with her shoulder. "What I'm doing -what this has always been about- is swapping one blunt object for another. I'm not trying to make lasting peace only force us to an armistice we can keep. You are the ones who can make peace possible. I don't expect to succeed at even half of my aims, all I want is to put the idea in your heads, and hopefully gain enough ground that I can leave it in your hands."
"Why are you telling me this?" He can't keep the affront from his voice. When put like that it all sounds so simple.
"Still killing the messenger?" she chides. "That's all I am, Sasuke. You do understand that? I'm just the messenger. Whatever else you are your own man. As was your brother after a fashion. I haven't decided anything for you."
You can hate me if you like. It won't change what you lost.
Sasuke takes a deep breath. "Fine."
She knows him well enough to call bullshit but chooses to let him stew in it instead. She walks away, down the same corridor A took. He imagines she's still got some things to say to him.
"You know," he calls out after her, "that's almost the exact definition of the Will of Fire."
Fuyuki flips him off, but he sees her shoulders shake with laughter.
He rips it open, takes one look at it with his sharingan and then throws it in the air making the hand signs for the grand fireball jutsu. It goes up in a moment of flame and anger and righteous rage at everything around him.
'This was my backup plan.'
No.
'I was dying. Every day I was alive was a fight to give you a chance at being the man I could never be'
Not good enough.
'Mother and Father's last words were to look after you. I can't say that I was the son they would have wanted, and I don't think they'd forgive me for what I've done to you.'
Still not good enough.
'This world is for you, my dream is for you. You never have to forgive me. I will love you forever.'
Maybe that's his big fault, then. Making a mountain out of molehill, fashioning an enemy out of a comrade, leader, friend. There's the man at the centre of all that, the brother who was felled by someone else, who didn't have the decency to wait. There's the unshakeable, inescapable boy with a dream and warm hands. Goddamnit it all, but there is still Sasuke's conviction to be a better man without sacrificing himself, without throwing himself away. Save yourself first, always, since he was a boy and lying in blood and shit , because there was no one else, they were dead.
That is not what Fuyuki believes. It is not what Itachi died for. It is hellfire and brimstone away from what Naruto will defend till his last breath. Those people changed the world. When it didn't work they made it.
Sasuke is too damn selfish. He just wants it to make sense.
Why does the world turn on betrayal. Why do the Uchiha rise and fall by their hearts. Why is Sasuke always neck deep in other people's shit. Why is he always at the short end searching for an answer or for power or for truth. What the hell is honesty, anyway, in a world where someone can choose to murder a boy's family in the dead of night and wake up the next morning and pretend he never did? What kind of fucked up universe allows for this?
--
"Why didn't you tell us that Hashira was never going to agree?" Naruto demands hotly. "She made an ass out of Gaara and picked a fight with A-" He presses Sasuke up against the wall in their shared room with the heat of his body.
"A and Fuyuki have a very long, very bloody history." Sasuke feels tired all the way to his bones. He doesn't have the energy to explain, in a way that Naruto will understand, just how much Giri hates the Kage's. "She doesn't care about Gaara."
"Why won't she work with us?" Naruto throws his hands up in the air. "And what the hell was that about being a legacy brat? Just because my old man was the Yellow Flash-"
"Naruto."
"What?"
"You don't understand this." He makes it as gentle as possible. Naruto might have an uncanny ability to grasp the heart of something but he's never been much interested in the head. Sasuke has spent too long following the faults and failings of the shinobi system to care much about the heart anymore. "What she's talking about is different."
"I travelled too you know. I've seen what it's like."
"With Jiraiya," Sasuke mutters, not quite stamping out all the derision. No one with an ounce of sense would take someone with Naruto's heart into the dark soul of the shinobi world. "Whom I'm sure took you to all the sights. He has his own issues."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Just that," Sasuke sighs. "he's not innocent in this, neither is the Sandaime or anyone else. We are all fucking complicit."
"Complicit?" He opens his mouth to argue.
"No, no just- Don't justify this to me, not now- "
His hands shake, twelve thousand things living and dying in him at once. He's stupidly, vitaly aware that he's half hard. One part of him wants to shove it away but more of him wants to take even a glance of a promise as proven gospel and touch Naruto.
He kisses him.
"Um," Naruto's face is flushed and his breath is a little bit sweet. "Okay?"
"Fuck." Sasuke spits.
"Woah," Naruto's hand tightens briefly on his hair, when the fuck did that happen, both a scold and a comfort, "let's go through this one, yeah?"
Absolutely not.
"Oi," Naruto frowns, correctly predicting what Sasuke is thinking. The hand in his hair pulls. "I'm not letting go."
"Off." Sasuke snarls.
"Sure. Let's do that." he says agreeably, then drops his weight fully onto Sasuke's pelvis.
Oh, wow. He can't stop the rush of feeling at the sudden intensity of contact. He pulls hard on his arrogance and self-restraint to do something other than respond. He won't give Naruto the satisfaction of having it on his terms. "Fuck. Off."
"Nope." Naruto leans down to brush a chaste kiss against his cheek. His hips roll forward a fraction more. Sasuke breathes through it, hissing out, "Idiot-"
Naruto groans once and shifts so they're pressed together properly, he sighs at the contact, hips picking up a steady rolling motion. His lips comes down against Sasuke's nose, his ear, hand pulling so he bares his neck. Naruto kisses along the shell of his ear and to a spot near his pulse that makes his whole heart flip in his chest with how much he likes it. His mouth is always gentle, with a touch of teeth and tongue to remind Sasuke who's on top right now.
"Goddamn you- " Sasuke snaps, already shifting so he can get his hands on him. He tries to put one hand between them, maybe to shift the fabric between them, maybe to get himself off just to spite the idiot. Naruto laughs in his face, coming up just long enough for them to tussle. Sasuke ends up underneath with one leg over Naruto's hips pressing, pressing, pressing down. He's using what little leverage he has to his best advantage. Naruto's kissing him properly. Happily, hungrily biting his way in.
Unless he gets himself healed he's going to have some really pointed bruising tomorrow. Naruto spends a bit more time marking his face before muttering, "If you'd been less of a fucking moron you could have been here years ago."
"Shut up." Whether or not he'd ever admit it Sasuke has thought about being 14 and fumbling his way into Naruto's pants. He has gotten obscenely, uncomfortably hard at the thought of being the first and having Naruto be the only one to know him this way. Single mindedness and possessiveness are Uchiha traits.
Naruto pulls his other leg up so that Sasuke has no leverage whatsoever. His head hits the floor with an audible crack, pain lancing through and confusing the ever loving shit out of his cock.
Naruto notes the hard buck of his hips by grinding down. "Good to know."
"Stop being so-" Sasuke moans. He's not close, he's always taken an infuriatingly long time to come even when he wants it, but he's a little terrified to know for certain what Naruto would do with that. "So fucking calm-"
" I am not calm. " Naruto hisses. There's a hand back in his hair, checking for injury before it yanks upwards. Sasuke yelps, legs coming off Naruto's hips. He tries to take the upper hand out of blind instinct, flailing around before Naruto solves it by getting a hand down his pants to squeeze his cock. Naruto makes an offended noise before he has Sasuke's pants down. There's no relief in finally being taken in hand. Naruto's hand is too soft, fingers shaking as he touches from base to tip. His hand glides down a few more times as gentle as his kiss.
Naruto's eyes are blown, his breath is too quick. If Sasuke's dick wasn't hanging out of his pants he'd assume the moron was about to die. Naruto fumbles pulling down his own pants, moaning far too loud when his cock hits the open air. Absently Sasuke notes that he underestimated the girth. Naruto licks his lips, hand on his own cock, hot and red at the tip, precum leaking obscenely. "I'm gonna get us there."
"What? This year?" Sasuke drawls, leaning back casually to best display himself. Naruto growls and covers him again, contact so much better now if too dry. Sasuke attempts to get a hand between them again so Naruto bites him on the lip hard enough to bleed.
"This isn't for you." Naruto says as he maneuvers them so he can grip them both in hand.
Sasuke's heart drops -what the fuck does that mean?- before he has to, absolutely has to moan at the hand around their cocks. Finally his hand is tight enough, finally there's enough friction that he can feel it crest, finally the moron is doing what he's meant to and-
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, dobe." Sasuke gives him a congratulatory pat on the back then draws his nails down his back hard enough to sting. "You got us there."
Naruto laughs. "Believe it."
--
Itachi leaves breadcrumbs. He never was one for giving more information than necessary. But Sasuke isn't a child anymore, he isn't easily lead or running from things that hurt him. Itachi leaves breadcrumbs. And now Sasuke knows what he's looking for.
If he'd gone to the library, if he'd looked, he'd have found dozens of papers written by the local papers about corruption in the police force. He might have seen the erosion of goodwill. The court cases and the television pieces. His focus was so inward that he never even stopped to think- It's stomach curdling. Itachi truly believed that his family was past repair. From the oldest grandfather to the youngest babe. And- And- Sasuke might have agreed. He might have wanted- And suddenly, suddenly he's grateful he didn't read this when he was a child. This is- This is unfair to the person he was.
But then there's Kagami. Then there's Shisui Michiko. Tsuki, Yumi all the cousins he never got to know. Jinta. He can't ignore that, or Tobirama's insistence that his blood is evil. Maybe they're looking at this through the wrong lense. If he takes what he knows and shifts, pulls away from what he accepts so easily what does he have? They love too much. They grieve too easily. They don't ever bend. But they have and always will be guardians. For all their faults -and there are many - you can't say that the Uchiha aren't loyal. You can't say they don't care. The sharingan is driven by how much you care. That isn't evil.
So what does that mean?
He slows his head down. Holds himself still and lets the thought bubble to the surface, past all the bullshit, past all the bits of him that insist on living life around the singular principle of his brothers betrayal. Itachi was wrong: there must be another way to obtain the eternal mangekyou.
--
They've been...off since Lightning. Not that they were ever really on but usually Sasuke can gleam a little bit of what is driving Naruto. Lately Naruto seems as much a mystery to himself as anyone else. He's rabid about Sasuke, as usual, but rather than a need to control the world around him, to push and pull until he's by Naruto's side he's turned silent. They're in Sasuke's apartment, they're freshly showered and Sasuke is idling between getting on his knees for his best friend and doing the dishes. That's the other thing this relationship has a lot of: Sasuke is a domestic person now and Naruto seems to crave it. Doing his bills, sorting out his estate has Sasuke at home with his cats more often than not. He rarely gets more dressed than he needs to, to go to the market.
It's in one of these lowkey moments that Naruto says, "You don't need it."
Sasuke stops washing the dishes, hands clenching and unclenching in the water. "You don't get it."
Naruto snorts. "What, that you can't let the fuck go?"
"You don't understand."
"He's dead!"
"It's not about him!" Sasuke gets up in Naruto's face. Nose to nose, eye to eye. "I don't have anything left. There's no legacy! There's just what I do! There's just the clothes on my back and my dead family -" he's getting mixed up now. Anger at Itachi, at Konoha, at Oto for hurting him, at Giri for disappointing him, at the shitpile of the world still fucking turning on betrayal. Isn't there anything else? Is this all there is? At himself for killing one of the few things he's had in his life for no reason at all."I need power. I need to be the strongest I can be. There isn't anything else. I know you don't get that. But I need- I need something from-" the past, from his blood, a bodily anchor to something that seems to slip away the older he gets. Who is he if not a Uchiha? Who are the Uchiha now, anyway? One is dead, one is a genocidal maniac, the other is Sasuke. They're all traitors. They have all killed for power when there was another way.
"I never-"
" Listen to me! For once in your fucking life just fucking listen to me! Don't try to understand, don't try to commiserate. For once just listen, " Sasuke's voice breaks, almost pleading.
"I love you." Naruto says flatly. "I have done absolutely everything I can for you."
Except listen to me. "It doesn't make a difference. What I lost doesn't come back just because-" you love me and I probably love you back. "It doesn't come back. I had it and- You can't be everything, you can't be all of it."
Naruto looks at him, looks past him, looks through him. He nods once and then turns on his heel and leaves. He goes out the door, into the night and he doesn't look back.
Sasuke can't breathe. He knows he is because there's this awful heaving noise coming from his mouth and he hasn't passed out, but his brain isn't registering anything beyond pure shattering pain. His eyes spin memorising the sight of the open door, the smell of wood and sword oil. The exact spot Naruto stuck his hand in Sasuke's chest and repaid him for their fight at the Valley of the End. That asshole, to come here, to make him feel like that again and then to just, to not listen, to leave because it was difficult. Fuck him, anyway, it's not his head-
There's a thudding behind his temples and he may pass out. A horrific kaleidoscope of images: blond hair, blue eyes, skin he's cut, bruised, kissed. All of it stuck in his fucking head. All the times he was a dumb kid and relied on that strength. All the nights, hands on himself, thinking about what he might have had. All those times he couldn't get away from the pull, he had to question what he knows, what defines him and then Naruto just walked away.
Sasuke showed himself and he left
How dare he. Sasuke's not weak. He's not small or unworthy or forgotten. Naruto has to feel it too. The need to be closer, the need to be connected, he has to. How dare he. How dare he choose to be a coward now.
Tears don't fall, he's better than that he is not weak, but he rubs at his face regardless.
He can't turn his eyes off.
--
The journey to Lightning is tense.
Technically Sasuke should be at the civilian headquarters but...
He looks over at Naruto who is still not speaking to him. When the pain in his eyes died down he went out to look for him. It took hours but eventually he found him in a shitty dive bar. They fought again, all they've been doing is fighting, but that one at least ended with handjobs in the alley. Naruto is the cagey one right now. Lightning rocked what he believes in down to it's foundations and left cracks Sasuke is disinterested in healing. He can't talk to Kakashi about it. Sakura is even worse. She's Tsunade's right hand and struggling under the weight of that. Naruto should be able to turn to him for reassurance about his world view and Sasuke just...can't give him that.
So they walk beside each other on a mockery of Team 7's first mission. All around them are supplies, shinobi and the trapping of a major military effort. Unlike the first mission they ever went on Sasuke is in new boots and civilian hardware. He isn't cleared to fight. That hadn't helped his and Naruto's relationship any. When Tsunade had offered reinstatement all he could think of was what happened to the children if he died. Children need families. He'll have to leave before the fight starts.
The cross section of armies is a small circle of boulders. Each boulder has the symbol of an individual force carved into it. Giri's edelweiss is next to a blank circle, the symbol for the mercenaries who are throwing in. Behind each boulder is an open tent allowing everyone to see in. Sasuke heads for the whirlpool of Uzushio and steps quietly towards what must be their headquarters. Intelligence and coordination is a joint effort between Uzushio and Konoha and they requested he come in for a last minute check of information.
A tall figure with long hair rests on a low couch, feet on a table. He's reading a scroll looking perfectly at home in the land of the living.
"Nice hair," Orochimaru says, which is exactly what Sasuke should have expected really.
"Nice entrance," he replies.
"Always so cool," Orochimaru admonishes. "Not surprised?"
Sasuke shrugs. "Nah."
Orochimaru's eyebrows hit the roof, making every bit of Sasuke's too long hair and no longer worn in boots worth it.
Tsunade walks in followed by the Hokages and Kakashi.
"Orochi," Tsunade says sourly, "goddammit just die already."
Orochimaru laughs. "I could say the same princess. Where's the fool?"
"How the fuck would I know?"
"Ah," he scolds. "Language, Lord Hokage."
"Tsk." Tsunade throws up her middle fingers. "I'll language you. "
Orochimaru smirks, slithers to his full height and stops.
"Oh," Tsunade says sweetly, "did you think you were the only one who could?"
Orochimaru hisses in displeasure. "Now you make peace with your heritage? Where was that drive years ago Senju ."
"Tsuna," Hashirama says.
She holds up a hand to silence her grandfather. "Don't."
A familiar flicker hits Sasuke in the head announcing Karin's arrival. She enters through the back. Orochimaru claps. "Ah, Karin, you brought it." Karin scowls sourly still approaching with a bag in one hand. There's blood on the bottom. She chucks the bag at his feet and stomps away, rubbing her hands on her palms as if brushing off something disgusting. Orochimaru picks up the bag. "I believe I'm about to one up you sweetheart."
"Sweetheart me and I'll put you in so many pieces not even you could slither together again."
Sasuke tunes them out. He doesn't need to listen to this shit. The war ground is barren and large filled with empty grey space. It's so like where he was held when he was here a month and change ago that he feels discordant. He can see a dragon in the sky. See too much light. See Naruto next to him yelling at him to just keep walking. His hands flex and he is suddenly viscerally glad he isn't allowed to fight.
"Holy shit!" Sakura gasps. Sasuke frowns, turns and sees his mother's hair blowing in the wind. A mouth set grimly, ready for death and not at peace with it. Vertigo hits him like a punch to the face.
Sasuke is probably going to pass out.
In the battle between Itachi and the weight of the world the tumors covering his lungs win. He knows that now. He read it in his brother's hand after his brother's death from the hands of a woman who would never spare his feelings. In the battle for Sasuke Itachi took too many hits to keep going, some of them from Sasuke's own hand. In the battle to save Konoha Itachi was a crucial but ultimately expendable playing piece.
In the battle between brothers Itachi won far more than he lost.
None of that is going through Sasuke's head. All he can hear is a memory: 'When there's nothing else to burn set someone else on fire', is what Shisui used to say as he and Itachi passed Sasuke by. Itachi would grab Shisui by the elbow, the hair, whatever was closest, put him on the floor and say 'set yourself on fire. When there's nothing else to burn set yourself on fire. Incidentally, Sasuke, don't do that-'
There isn't anything else to set fire to. With his heart in his throat, Sasuke raises a hand and calls. "Brother."