Chapter 12

The presence of the ninja that appeared before him surprised Naruto, the young ninja on edge. However, Zabuza barely looked at Naruto, obviously disregarding him. With his low amount of chakra and youth it was clear that the older ninja thought him too little a threat to take seriously.

Naruto began backing away from Zabuza, confused at first before he saw the mist to his left disappear. Zabuza also looked in that direction, obviously surprised that his subordinates released the Mist Evaporation jutsu. Naruto saw the Hidden Mist shinobi clash with his comrades while Gato fled out of the way of the fighting warriors. At first he began to fear for his teammates before finding that two of the enemy ninja were limping and clearly having trouble standing.

They must have found a way to inflict damage to their bodies. He thought. Nice job, guys!

But the fighting quickly got out of hand. Hinata and Sasuke couldn’t seem to land a hit on the Hidden Mist shinobi fighting them, the rival ninja too fast and elusive. Naruto was watching Hinata most carefully, knowing she hated violence and wondering if one of the reasons she could not strike her opponent was because she didn’t want to.

He almost missed the Terror Jar Surprise kill Sakura. Naruto subconsciously knew Sakura was making a poor decision in merely avoiding attacks but he didn’t think much of it. He was merely being a passive observer, too calculating to move in and possibly make the situation worse. Naruto had been aware through studying ninja combat that one could make a bad situation worse by jumping in if one didn’t have a good understanding of the fight.

But his eyes were on her alone as she crumbled to the ground, her throat ripped out and dying the pavement red with blood. Her lifeless green eyes were open wide and blank, Sakura’s entire body limp. Tears immediately stung Naruto’s eyes.

“Sa…?” Naruto gasped. “Sakura…?”

The world seemed to stand still for Sasuke the moment Sakura died. The quick, calculated movements of Hinata and the Hidden Mist shinobi seemed to slow to a crawl. Existence lost its meaning to Sasuke as the life in Sakura’s eyes faded.

“Sa-Sasuke,” were her last words.

Sasuke backed away from her body, shaking his head in denial as she lay still. Tears stung his eyes. His skin began to be covered in goosebumps as the shaking wouldn’t stop. Somehow, all Sasuke could think of was Itachi.

Someday you’ll have someone that you protect. He remembered Itachi telling him.

He began to dry heave, his body desperate not to start vomiting on the battlefield.

I-Itachi… Sasuke thought. Why can’t I get you out of my head? Why can’t you leave me alone?!

But he knew the answer to that.

“Because you wanted to protect her, like Itachi protected you,” Itachi’s voice spoke. “You wanted to keep her safe…so that you could be like me. Because if you became like your brother…you thought you’d attain the same power I did.”

He could now see Itachi standing behind him. If Sasuke turned around and stared straight at him he was not there. But out of the corner of his eyes, Itachi was standing right there.

“Why do you kill so many people?” Itachi asked. “Why does death follow you wherever you go?”

It was your fault they died! Sasuke shouted. You’re the reason they died! Why couldn’t you just be my brother and love me?! Love me, Itachi! Not others! I’d give up everything for you! Why wouldn’t you do the same for me?!

Sasuke put his hands to his face, clenching his fingers down on his head as though trying to make himself bleed. He couldn’t believe what he was experiencing. He’d read about this before.

Chakra phantoms. Sasuke thought. The emotions of those that we’ve had strong interactions with are pressed deep into our own emotions and it causes part of their lifeforce to never leave our own. The last words and feelings of that person stick with us as ghosts that haunt our very existence. You…Itachi…have become the phantom that haunts my dreams. And in a way…I tried to protect you…from the others. And I could not even protect this woman I love…just as you could not protect me.

Sasuke’s chakra surrounding him began to flare up with passion. It was reddened with intensity. He turned to see Hidden Mist shinobi standing across from him, keeping a safe distance as he attempted to analyze his opponent. Sasuke closed his eyes once again as they began to bleed.

“I wouldn’t normally use this power against an insect like you,” Sasuke said. “After what I had to do to acquire it…I wanted to save it for Itachi…”

The three tomoe in his eyes changed to a six sided star shape that almost looked like a pinwheel as he stared at the Hidden Mist shinobi. The enemy ninja stepped back in surprise as he let out a loud gasp. The Hidden Mist ninja quickly began backing away.

“N-N-Noooo…” he said. “Th-that Sharingan…it’s not normal!”

After Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan his fire chakra expanded by another three feet, producing a chakra layer longer more seven feet in radius. From Hinata to Gato to the Hidden Mist ninja, all eyes were on Sasuke. They were probably witnessing the widest chakra field than they’d ever seen in their lives.

“But the anger you have incited in me…” Sasuke said. “It is overwhelming.”

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Sasuke began weaving hand signs to activate the jutsu that he created. The ninja across from him tried weaving hand signs as well but not only was Sasuke faster, his technique only required three seals. They were all corruptions of regular hand signs. A mi hand sign except with the pinkies and thumbs extended upward, a tora hand sign except with the index fingers just barely separated instead of touching and a u hand seal but with the index fingers bent.

After swiftly weaving these hand seals, six feet of fire chakra was separated from his body. The chakra spread across the ground in scarlet flames before six cracks appeared in the bridge and widened. The shinobi across from Sasuke rushed toward the Hidden Leaf shinobi to attack while his guard was down but it was too late. What crawled from the ground already emerged before the ninja had time to respond.

From the holes in the pavement crawled black figures that looked like they were recently burnt. Their ashen black bodies were gaunt and thin. Their limbs were abnormally long and almost wiry. When they stood up, they were more than seven feet tall. Their skin was withered and putrid looking, as though all moisture had been suctioned from them.

However, their faces were the strangest of all. The faces were weirdly detailed and almost pale in color, as opposed to the black that made up the rest of their body. They were very individualized and unique, like a normal person’s. They bore the appearance of members of the Uchiha clan while they were alive, including Sasuke’s mother and father. However, all their Sharingan were activated.

The red eyes of the Uchiha clan members were not normal in that they glowed and the tomoe in each was two. The air around them began to smell putrid, like burning flesh as the figures around Sasuke began to emit smoke. It was as black as soot. After crawling out of the hole, one of the figures touched the Terror Jar that had killed Sakura. Upon contact it burst into black fire.

“Sacrifice of Abandonment,” Sasuke named the technique.

The ninja in front of Sasuke quickly struck the figure in front of Sasuke that bore his father’s face. The swift punch however, did nothing to harm the sacrifice guarding Sasuke. Rather, the black figure’s entire body rippled as though he had punched the surface of water.

The entirety of its soot black figure began to shake violently save for the pale face of Sasuke’s father, Fugaku Uchiha. The sacrifice looked curious at his attacker for a second, not in any severe pain, merely mystified with the state of his body. Eventually the rippling across its body stopped and stilled, again like the surface of water after being struck.

The same could not be said of the Hidden Mist ninja that hit it. He fell to the ground, yelling in intense pain. He began to writhe on the pavement of the bridge, squirming in agony. As he did, the ice blue chakra covering him began to melt from the black flames spreading across his body. After his chakra melted away, his body went soon after.

“Wh-What jutsu is this?!” the ninja that killed Sakura shouted.

“My Sacrifice of Abandonment,” Sasuke said. “They carry both the body and memories of my dead clan. Only by activating my Mangekyo Sharingan can I use it. These sacrifices carry the bodies and memories of some of my slaughtered kinsmen. Anyone who attacks these sacrifices will become engulfed by flames that cannot be melted–the Amaterasu.”

“A higher Sharingan?” Hinata gasped.

Sasuke then performed a normal tora hand seal and a corrupted one before the six figures surrounding Sasuke slithered toward him. After writhing through the air toward the Uchiha, their bodies wrapped firmly around him, again like snakes. His body felt hot, like his skin was on fire. He recognized this as the Amaterasu within them burned continuously. If he did not finish this quickly, Sasuke could be potentially burned by this jutsu. However, the greater the sense of loss Sasuke felt at that moment, the more durable the armor was.

“Sacrifice of Abandonment,” Sasuke said. “Form 1: Armor of Despair.”

The Hidden Mist shinobi around them began fleeing as the jutsu neared completion, too afraid of this alien threat. Their ashen bodies then plastered over Sasuke like malleable clay. They covered him in armor that burned with a thin layer of black fire. The pale faces of the six Uchiha groaned in pain as they were grafted into the armor, his mother in particular screaming in terror. After all six sacrifices wrapped around him to create a dense robe, Sasuke stretched forth his hands.

“Sacrifice of Abandonment,” Sasuke said. “Chains of Revenge.”

From the black material that covered his arms, black chains extended forth. Two from each arm sprang to life to wrap around the fleeing Hidden Mist shinobi. They didn’t get far before they were bound with the chains and fell to the ground. After being restrained, the chains began to retract toward him. Once the four had been captured, Sasuke watched as the Amaterasu burned through their chakra layering.

The four enemy ninja squirmed in their fetters as Sasuke watched, smiling in catharsis. The Amaterasu in this form did not kill its victims but merely dealt them pain after burning chakra. The chains themselves were how damage was inflicted. The chains were stronger the more vengeful Sasuke felt in that moment. He felt pleasure seeing the ninja eventually stop squirming before their bodies erupt from the pressure of the chains. Blood burst like water within a balloon around him, their white masks skidding across the pavement of the bridge.

However, once the targets were dead, the black armor around Sasuke faded. The chains disappeared into thin air. He fell to the pavement, holding his stomach in pain. He knew this would happen as a result of using that jutsu.

Sasuke closed his eyes to deactivate the Mangekyo Sharingan but even as he did, he recognized it was too late. The side-effects of using such a powerful dojutsu were already hurting him. As a result of using it, Sasuke’s vision was no more. He could see nothing around him except hollow blackness. The world was as featureless as a starless, moonless night.

Darn it! He thought. The Mangekyo blinds and exhausts the user after usage for an undetermined amount of time. If I’m correct, then this should last for hours.

He groped around him, feeling only rough concrete. Sasuke tried to crawl forward but that only made him retract his arm in pain. He shouted in agony, the loss of his sight disorienting him.

If I use the Mangekyo enough times…Sasuke remembered. I’ll be blinded forever. The greatest power of the Uchiha…to have such a hindrance is not worth the ability. Only by transplanting my brother’s Sharingan into my own eyes will I be able to avoid this drawback.

He gritted his teeth, too proud to allow the others to hear his agony.

Itachi…He thought. Itachi…! This is all your fault! If you had not been so good…not so talented…I would never have been forced to endure what I did!

Sasuke turned to lie on his back, staring up with his vision still pitch-black.

I never wanted to get close to others…He thought. It forces one to do what I just did…poor…Sakura…she was too fragile for battle. I know all too well the pain of having parents who only look at their child as…another weapon to raise. That’s why I loved Itachi more than anything in the world…he saw me…he saw me as something more than a weapon…more than a tool…

Sasuke glared up despite knowing it would not enhance his vision at all.

I know the pains a man will go through to feel like something more than just a tool…He thought. To feel like they have some true humanity. That’s what you saw in me, Itachi. And that’s what Sakura saw in me. A way to escape the way of shinobi…to escape a destiny as nothing but a weapon…

He smiled.

And by bonding myself with her I let myself be vulnerable. He thought. I cursed her…by giving her purpose beyond a tool…just as Itachi cursed me by thinking I was something more than a tool…even though us shinobi can never escape that dreadful fate…