Chapter 48 - Arc VII: Still Human- Chapter 2

“To hell with that!” was Naruto’s immediate response. “Why is he doing this?!”

The clone shook his head. “He won’t share that with anyone. Only two people besides the original know. And they won’t tell. I’m sorry. These are the wishes of the original.”

“I’ve never heard a clone talk that way…”

The newly-arrived Jiraiya was escorting Uzume and Shoki. He looked at the clone, scrutinizing it.
“Don’t tell me…He’s managed it…”

“Not completely,” the clone informed Jiraiya. “He’s going to fight with his attempts at separation and joining incomplete.”

That was cryptic to everyone but Jiraiya and Uzume. By way of explanation, he told them:
“Call it an advanced form of meditation. It involves removing worldly desires from one’s life entirely. You replace it with additional strength, or another mental state. Ryouko had only partially managed it.”

Uzume knelt down, touching one of Ryouko’s clones. It didn’t reject her touch, though it seemed to know something.
“I see…he’s managed to parcel out his emotions. Each one of these clones holds an emotion. It’s a half-way measure of the ‘separation’ Jiraiya mentioned. A meditation exercise I developed for him. I had no idea he would go this far…”

The clones all seemed to be showing one emotion or another. The ‘lead’ clone was showing sorrow. Another ‘happiness’. The other two clones were harder to discern.

“Is this…dangerous?” Sakura chanced, breaking the ice. She was, first and foremost, concerned with his well-being.

“Yes. Tantamount to suicide,” Uzume told her, head bowed, voice serious. “Emotions are one of the body’s controlling mechanisms. It lets you know when you’ve come too close to the edge. When you’ve reached your limit. For a while now, Ryouko has been painfully aware of his limit. It seems that this is his response.”
Uzume drew herself up, eyes half-closed, as though in a trance.
“He’s chosen to deny those limits exist. One’s limits are set by a variety of things. Individual strength of body; individual strength of mind; individual physical limitations; individual mental limitations. In short, everything contributes to you reaching your limit. It takes enormous discipline and suffering to surpass them on the scale Ryouko means to.”
Her hand at the barrier now, Uzume withdrew it, sparing Ryouko a little bit by not telling them what triggered this display.
“He’s denying the emotions now. The real concern will come when he’s injured. But the positive is that, once injured, this barrier will fall. And then I can help him.”
--

Ryouko had run for about ten seconds before he stopped himself. Leaning against a tree, he steadied himself. It took only a moment to gather his thoughts. And he realized something:
I’m making it harder on them. I’m their friend; their burden is my burden. I promised to let Sakura go. And I promised to protect their relationship, whatever it may be. I’m only an observer now. The time to pass the torch to them has come. I have to restrain myself!
…
But it’s hard. I want them to grow, but I don’t want to be left behind! Not again!

Ryouko had realized it before, but it was his fear of being left behind that was REALLY the roadblock. His friends, like it or not, were going to surpass him. It was destined. It was fore-ordained. It was hitsuzen. Whatever term you used, Ryouko wasn’t going to be the strongest ever. He had to let that dream, too, die. It needed to die here and now. And so it would.

But it meant opening a void in his heart so big it may not ever close.

Duty or not, that was a hard thing to think about. Destiny or not, it was hard to accept.
Difficult or not, it was fact.

Ryouko looked around; he had felt the chakra around here. It wasn’t Pain’s chakra. But it was incredibly malicious. And there were three others. It seemed that Ryouko would be involved now, some way.

It was time to let them shine. Sakura and Naruto’s time to shine was now.

With quivering hands, Ryouko released his barrier. The coward in him considered plunging a kunai into a non-vital area of his leg to make it look as if he had been injured and been forced to drop the barrier, but he was determined to handle this with the utmost dignity. At least while other’s watched. Ryouko suspected he would crumble later. And that would be okay.
It would have to be.

The others ran by. Ryouko kept his head down and went the opposite way. His place now was beside the Fire Daimyo, Uzume, and Shoki.

It was Naruto, Sakura, and Jiraiya that ran by Ryouko, giving him worried looks. Jiraiya even stopped, but what must have been the last of Ryouko’s pride allowed him snarl:
“Don’t pity me, you bastard. I don’t need your mocking sympathy. I’ll die before I’ll accept it.”

That was hard on Jiraiya. He had only been doing what needed to be done. Whether or not Ryouko would ever realize that, or could be allowed to realize that, wasn’t something he knew right now. All the white-haired legend could do was keep moving, his eyes on the next generation.
--

“I was thinking too small. I’m going to target EVERYONE that was involved. ANYONE who benefited from Itachi’s sacrifice. The entire Land of Fire is guilty. And I will be the executioner!”

Those words came from Sasuke Uchiha. His face was so calm that he almost seemed insane himself. His three companions knew that was not the case. Sasuke was as clear-headed as ever. His face was set in determination. And these three would support him. Not simply because it was safer than crossing him. No, they believed in Sasuke. Directly or indirectly, he had given them all a second chance at life. A life taken by Orochimaru. Through deception, kidnapping, experimentation, or even through work. They had all suffered, whether or not they had been aware of that suffering.
Strangely, as a whole, they lacked anger, or even the mocking sort of pity the Akatsuki displayed. Their feelings didn’t gel, though their cohesion as a group was impeccable.
One wished to stop killing.
One wanted only to kill.
One wanted love.
One wanted vengeance.

Love is a dangerous enough emotion on it’s own. As is a desire to murder, and a thirst for vengeance. The most innocent emotion, the desire to stop killing, was partly marred by the other three.

An insane quest made possible by even more insane strength.

Now, standing at the edge of the temple’s grounds, it was going to be a reality. The Fire Daimyo would parish. All his protectors would have to go as well. No one would be left alive. Not even the pure priestess. No one could be allowed to live and reap the benefit’s of one’s heroic fall from grace.

Sasuke was at the lead, no trace of concern on his face. On his right was Suigetsu, Zabuza’s ponderous sword on his back. To Sasuke’s left was the sensory type, Karin, in all her bespectacled fury. Bringing up the rear was Jugo, a neutral frown on his face.

“Well?” Sasuke demanding, glancing at Karin for the briefest of moments.

“Shut up! I’m trying to concentrate!” she snarled. Inwardly, she swooned at the authority in Sasuke’s voice.

“Hurry the hell up, will ya? Personally, I think we should have left you outside, Karin. We don’t need to know what we’re up against.”
Hefting his sword in one hand and stretching it out in front of him, Suigetsu grinned, his pointed teeth jutting out from his mouth.
“I think we just need to kill them. That’s the plan no matter what you tell us is waiting. Right, Sasuke?”

Sasuke didn’t even favor Suigestu with a look. This bickering got old quickly. Instead, he said flatly:
“Enough, Suigetsu. Underestimating our enemy is a stupid mistake. Even though we have the means, working blind when you don’t have to is idiocy. This calls for strategy.”

Karin looked up, suddenly seeming panicked. “I’ve got them! But…this can’t be right! There are two of them with odd chakra. One is a Jinchuuriki. The other…I can’t describe it…”

Even Suigetsu didn’t dare crack a joke.

“Naruto, then, and someone else? Fine. Let’s move.”

Sasuke led the way.
--

Naruto’s face suddenly cracked with emotion. Seconds later, Sakura felt it, too. Sasuke.
Their Sasuke.
His chakra.

“Sa-su-ke?” Sakura choked out, tears filling her beautiful emerald eyes. She looked at Naruto, as if confirming it with him. When she saw he had tears in his eyes, too, she allowed a smile to cross her face. When she smiled, she glowed with a brilliant radiance. At least, that’s what Naruto (and Ryouko) thought.

“Who’s with him?”

Jiraiya brought the two back to reality with his question. That was what he intended. But all the while, he frowned.
They’re all kids. But they’re not average by any definition. That means I need to even the odds. Naruto will insist on facing Sasuke. I’ll fight the one with the strongest intent to kill besides Sasuke. One of the chakras is female. I’ll leave that one to Sakura.
Their forth is more gentle, but very deadly. I’ll need someone like that. And unfortunately, the leading candidate wouldn’t give me the time of day right now. But I have to try to get him out here.

Jiraiya tossed a tracker toad out of his pack, sending it to find Ryouko.
--

When Ryouko shuffled back, the others breathed a collective sigh of relief. But at this point, it seems not even Uzume could reach him. Asuma and Shikamaru tried to talk to him, but Ryouko only gave them a slight look to acknowledge that he heard them. Puzzled, they looked to Uzume. But she wasn’t going to tell them what was wrong with Ryouko. That was his private struggle.

He sat down near Uzume and Shoki, talking in a low mumble, pointing at different things on the ground. Apparently, it was strategizing of some sort. Asuma glanced at Shikamaru, wondering why his resident genius wasn’t being included in what he did best. It made no sense.

Apparently, Ryouko picked up on that sentiment, because he looked over at Shikamaru, clearly considering asking him. Shoki tugged on Ryouko’s sleeve, pointing back at the crudely drawn diagram on the ground. Asuma titled his head, trying to make sense of it, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He spied Shinmaru looked curiously, then nodding with understanding.

“What’s going on?”

Shinmaru raised an eyebrow at the question.
“I’m not allowed to say. Lady Uzume’s wishes, at least until all this is over. It’ll be obvious by then. Our role, along with your student, will be strictly the last line of defense.”

Asuma exhaled, trying to swallow his dissatisfaction at not being included. Shinmaru grinned, reading his old friend like a book.

“Don’t be that way. It’s not because you wouldn’t do well out there. It’s for the boy’s protection. Shoki’s got a secret, and we can’t let it get out. As it is, we’re not sure all this will work. Hence the reason we need to be the failsafe.”

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