Rain gathered into thin streams along the ruined eaves, striking the stone slabs with an icy patter. Sasuke leaned against a broken wall behind a half-collapsed side hall, panting heavily, his face white as paper. His brief confrontation with Itachi, particularly the hatred that had nearly overwhelmed his reason, had been like a plunge into boiling oil, violently provoking the dark power within him. Now, purple-black markings flickered uncontrollably beneath his skin. A cold, viscous sensation of corrosion spread along his chakra pathways, battering the seal formed by Indra's chakra. His mind teemed with chaotic whispers and visions of slaughter, tempting him to destroy every obstacle-including the people from Konoha who had followed him.
"Lord Sasuke!" Karin was the first to reach the rendezvous point. The sight of him drained the color from her face, and she immediately moved forward to use medical ninjutsu.
"Stay back!" Sasuke growled, his voice hoarse with pain. He abruptly raised a hand, faint wisps of black vapor curling around his palm. "I... can't control it..."
Guren and Jugo arrived right behind her, their expressions changing sharply when they saw Sasuke. The monster within Jugo seemed to have been provoked by this dark power of the same origin. It, too, began to growl uneasily, and his arm showed signs of mutation.
"We have to stabilize him now!" Guren said urgently. She formed hand seals, and pink crystal swiftly rose around them into a simple barrier, isolating the auras within from those outside.
Yet this seemed to provoke an even stronger backlash from the power inside Sasuke. He jerked his head up, his Sharingan a vivid, almost dripping crimson threaded with black vapor. His disordered gaze swept over his three subordinates with a trace of unfamiliar, icy appraisal, as though he were considering whether to turn