That one really burned, but I wasn’t allowed to argue with him unless I had solid proof I was right. Had I ever beaten an opponent just by fighting them, instead of using the loop to out-level them or take them by surprise? With my muddled memories I wasn’t sure, but I knew people like Nagato could still crush me like a bug. Besides, as much as I hated being considered weak I had to admit it would be nice if I didn’t have to fight alone anymore.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, reluctantly giving up on arguing the point. “In that case, should I be working on anything in particular?”
“Your chakra is recovering, but you’re still barely a third as strong as when you were healthy,” he said thoughtfully. “Beyond that, we’ll need to see how your special abilities can be used to support the plan. But first, follow me.”
He led me to a disused portion of the tower, and into a fairly large chamber with a door like a bomb shelter. When he sealed it shut behind us a surge of chakra flowed through the thick steel, and I knew no one was getting in or out who didn’t know the proper code for the lock.
“It’s time for you to learn what we’re fighting for, Sakura,” he said at my questioning look. Then he turned, and rattled off a long series of hand seals. After a moment a spinning disk of shadows coalesced in the air before him, and then space itself ripped open with a strange hissing sound.
“A time portal?” I exclaimed. “Then you did activate your Sharingan’s temporal powers. I thought you must have, but how? You don’t have a daughter to—”
“Stop,” he said harshly, and I did. “How do you know about that?”
“Um, that demon I absorbed? She had a sort of operator’s manual for the Sharingan in her head. I know all about the higher Sharingan variants and how to activate them.”
“Hnn. Never speak of that again.”
“Yes, sir,” I said contritely. “Sorry, sir, I should have known not to bring it up. Are we going through the portal?”
“Yes,” he said shortly. “Stay close. The other side is dangerous, and losing you now would be bothersome.”
He stepped through the gaping wound in the air and vanished.
I contemplated leaving an aspect here just in case, but realized I had no idea what it would do to me to have two connected aspects at widely different points in the time stream. Besides, I didn’t have permission to aspect myself. So in the end I just followed him through.
The portal led to what I recognized as the top of one of the steep hills overlooking the capital of Fire Country. It was night, but the moon overhead was a crimson orb marked with black tomoe. In the bare instant it took to notice this I felt myself caught in a genjutsu more powerful than anything I’d ever imagined. There was a momentary feeling of being measured by some malevolent, invisible intelligence, and then an angry whispering invaded my consciousness.
Give up. Despair. Stop fighting. Your cause is lost. Your gods have abandoned you. Darkness reigns forever. Die now, while you still can, or your soul will be lost with the world. There is no one left to save. Every mortal is corrupted now, and they will all hunt you down like an animal. Your own mother will strangle you. Your sensei will shove a chidori through your chest. Your first crush will stab you to death with a spear made from the bones of the boy who once loved you. The civilians you’ve saved will mob you, and burn you alive…
The urge to just kill myself now was overwhelming, and I might have done it if I’d been able. But Sasuke didn’t want me dead yet, and besides I didn’t have permission to reset my loop. The despair ate into my conditioning like acid, and I realized with a terrible clarity that it would only hold for a few minutes.
Then Sasuke turned my face to meet his eyes and caught me with his own Sharingan, and the compulsion faded to an annoying background buzz.
“Thank you, sir,” I said shakily.
He nodded. “Look around,” he said shortly.
Below us the city lay in ruins. Here and there a bonfire burned, and I could see human shapes gathered around them. Ragged figures dancing in the flickering light, running and fighting and rutting like animals. Here and there an especially sturdy structure still stood, surrounded by screaming crowds. As I watched one of them suddenly shifted and partially collapsed, undermined at one corner by an earth jutsu. A crowd poured in through the opening, and faint screams drifted up from within.
There was a surge of black chakra nearby, and a foul presence cloaked in human form appeared beside Sasuke.
“Back again, kid?”
The oily tone was familiar, and after a moment I realized it was Kogura.
“I hope you don’t plan on hanging around long,” he said cheerfully. “We’ve only got six left on our list, you know. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours now.”
“Six what?” I asked. He was only a class two limited, so I was pretty sure I could take him if it came to that. But something about this situation was making me feel like I’d forgotten something important.
“Oh, you brought a minion this time,” Kogura said, looking me up and down. “Not bad. An older Sakura, right? Well, take a good look, sweet cheeks. This is the end of the world, and we won.”
I frowned. “Sasuke? What’s he talking about?”
“This is the true end of Akatsuki’s plans,” he replied. “They claim the power of the bijuu, and Madara uses it to create the red moon. Then his genjutsu drives the whole world mad, and the demons take everything.”
“Heh. There goes another one,” Kogura said gleefully. “Oh, you should see the party down in ops central right now. Only five righteous mortals left in the world, not counting your little pet there. You are going to get her out of here soon, right kid? Or, hey, the system says we’ve got a pending recruitment offer out on her. Sure you don’t want to say yes, Sakura? Hell, I’m in such a good mood I’ll even throw in a couple of souls as a sweetener. Who do you want? The local version of yourself? That Ino girl, or maybe Hinata? They’re all roasting on the barbecue, just waiting for someone to save them.”
“No thanks,” I said, feeling a little ill. Five righteous people left in the world? They wouldn’t last long under these conditions, and when the last one died it was all over.
Wait. I was a righteous person, but Sasuke wasn’t? How could that be, when he was the one who taught me to be a good girl?
Because a good man wouldn’t be brainwashing people into serving him, obviously. Suddenly my understanding of my own place in the world seemed terribly fragile. Was I really an evil person who’d been rescued and redeemed, or was I just a victim of a psychopath? Was there even any way for me to know? And did I want to, when knowing might lead me to get myself punished again?
Was Kogura planting seeds of doubt in my mind on purpose? That was the kind of thing demons did, but even if he was it was still the truth. Demons can’t lie about things like that. But then what was the slimy bastard up to?
Then I saw the rest of the implications of his offer, and smiled a tight little smile. If I was just a hapless bystander who couldn’t do anything the demon in charge of Fire Country corruption operations wouldn’t have known who I was, and he certainly wouldn’t bother trying to tempt me at this point. Offering souls to a corruption target like that was almost unheard of.
“You know, Kogura, your boss isn’t going to be happy that you just told me I’m a pivotal figure in all this,” I said. “I don’t know how to stop you yet, but I can keep trying as many times as I want to. Sooner or later I’ll figure it out.”