The candle flame tilted again.
Space in the corner of the study twisted into a ring of dark ripples. A tiger-striped mask emerged from the distortion, followed by a black robe patterned with red clouds, settling onto the floor without a sound.
"Uchiha brat. You've got a sharp tongue."
Sasuke turned a page in the dossier and crossed a name off the list of Root remnants.
"Traitors to Konoha usually give a false name before they come in. Are you going with Madara Uchiha, or a dead man watching the show?"
Obito's gaze settled on his hand from behind the mask.
Eight years old.
The boy sitting behind the desk really was only eight.
Yet this child hadn't called for help, formed hand seals, or even left his chair.
Obito looked outside. The barrier hadn't reacted, and the Konoha Military Police Force stationed beyond the courtyard hadn't noticed a thing.
"You knew I would come?"
"You left a scrap of red-cloud paper hanging from the Hokage Building's eaves, and a space technique pierced the barrier. If your Akatsuki wants to watch the fun, you should at least know how to clean up afterward."
The gaze behind Obito's right eyehole darkened.
"Where did you hear the name Akatsuki?"
Sasuke finally stopped writing.
He raised a hand and closed the dossier. Its cover read: Transfer records for the Hokage Building's former ANBU units.
"Your people meet in a cave. Zetsu gathers intelligence, Pain sits there without moving, and Itachi sits in a corner playing dead. And you're asking where I heard it?"
Obito said nothing.
The only sound in the study was the soft collapse of paper ash in the brazier.
Sasuke rose, casually straightening his cuffs.
"Relax. I have no interest in drinking tea in that miserable hole of yours."
A low chuckle came from behind the mask.
"The more you know, the sooner you die."
"Danzo said that too. Now he's missing his right arm, paying his way with Sharingan, and even Orochimaru thinks he's filthy."
Obito took a step forward.
The floor made no sound, but his entire body seemed oddly displaced, as though he were standing outside the threshold.
"Itachi said you needed protection."
Sasuke looked up, his three tomoe spinning in the lamplight.
"His way of protecting someone is to slaughter their entire family first. If that appeals to you, take him back and let him protect Akatsuki."
Obito's breathing paused for half a beat behind his mask.
Those words were vicious. So vicious that even he, who had seen every sordid mess the shinobi world had to offer, heard a chill that left no room for survival.
"He bore a great deal for Konoha."
"Bore?" Sasuke tossed a scroll onto the desk. It rolled to Obito's feet. "That contains testimony about him helping Danzo harvest his clansmen's eyes. Why is everything he bore attached to someone else's corpse?"
Obito didn't pick it up.
"You want him dead?"
"Death is too easy." Sasuke stepped out from behind the desk, his black Hokage Robe trailing across the floor. "First, he'll watch every excuse he has fall apart. He'll watch Konoha stop needing him. He'll watch the Uchiha write his name into their register of clan traitors. Then he can die."
The gaze behind the mask changed.
Obito suddenly felt that Itachi's fractured silence during the meeting hadn't been caused by Sasuke growing stronger.
It was because his younger brother had burned Itachi's entire script of self-sacrifice to ashes, then smeared those ashes across his face.
"You hate him," Obito said quietly.
Sasuke scoffed.
"You think I'm discussing family matters with you?"
He raised a hand and pointed at another stack of documents on the desk.
"Today, the Hokage Building deployed its former ANBU units to inspect the outer barrier. The Third Hokage wanted to find holes in the police force's defenses. You crossed the barrier only fifteen minutes apart from their inspection. If I bring this up at tomorrow morning's Council of Elders meeting, the Third Hokage will spend half the day explaining himself."
Obito understood.
This brat had never treated him as a mere assassin.
He was turning this intrusion into political leverage.
"You want to use me to pressure the Hokage?"
"You're overthinking it." Sasuke walked to the window and tapped the frame with a finger. "You're too dirty to put on the table. I only need the Third Hokage to know that he can't even secure Konoha's barrier."
An edge crept into Obito's laughter.
"Trying to control Konoha at eight? Quite an appetite."
"Cleaner than pretending to be a dead man to manipulate others."
Chakra began to swirl behind Obito's right eyehole.
The candle flames stretched, and the papers on the desk trembled against its surface.
"Aren't you afraid I'll take you away right now?"
Sasuke turned, facing that eyehole with his three tomoe.
"You're welcome to try."
"You think three tomoe can stop a Mangekyo?"
"Itachi thought that too."
Obito stepped forward. Ripples in space spread from behind his shoulders, tugging the Sealing Tags on the bookshelves until they snapped and fluttered.
Footsteps sounded in the outer courtyard.
Fugaku's voice came through the door. "Sasuke?"
Sasuke didn't turn.
"Don't come in."
Outside, a scabbard struck a palm, and Fugaku stopped where he stood.
Obito glanced toward the entrance. "You do care about your subordinates."
"I'm afraid you'll get scared off."
Sasuke raised a hand, and the Kusanagi Sword sprang from the rack by the wall into his grasp.
"What did Uchiha Itachi say at your meeting?"
Obito's right hand, which had been about to move, stopped.
Sasuke pressed on. "Did he tell you not to touch me, or did he say Konoha's balance had to be maintained?"
The breathing behind the mask grew heavy.
"You even know about that?"
"So he did say it."
Sasuke's contempt deepened. "What a joke. A clan murderer hiding out there, asking others not to touch his little brother. Has he forgotten that he carved the deepest wound on me with his own hands?"
"He'll regret hearing you say that," Obito said coldly.
"He'll have more and more to regret."
Sasuke laid the Kusanagi Sword flat on the desk, pressing his fingertips against its hilt.
"Go back and tell him to stop sending blood-written letters to Konoha by crow. Next time, I'll gouge out every crow's eyes and nail them beside the Rogue Ninja Wanted List."
Obito stared at him.
"You're better suited to darkness than Itachi."
"That little bit of darkness you have is only fit to serve as evidence."
Outside the study, Kakashi landed silently on a corridor pillar, his Sharingan already exposed. Fugaku guarded the door with his sword held crosswise, while Yamada Naoto led two police squads to seal off the courtyard's corners.
Obito glanced at the silhouettes on the window paper, his tone turning mocking. "Can these people stop me?"
Sasuke raised his left hand. Blue-green chakra flickered across his palm before he suppressed it again.
"They can't stop you. But they can testify that you were here."
The muscles behind Obito's mask twitched.
Witnesses.
Witnesses again.
Ever since the night of the massacre, this brat's most vicious weapon had never been his blade. It was dragging every conspiracy into public view.
Obito suddenly understood why Danzo had been reduced to a beaten stray.
Someone like this didn't compete with you over loyalty or sacrifice. He fought with evidence, with rules, with who could strip the other of any ground to stand on first.
Obito's right eye spun faster.
"Looks like I can't let you keep growing."
Sasuke lifted his sword, its point hanging toward the floor.
"You finally said something honest."
An instant later, Obito surged forward. A spatial vortex spread from his right eye, and the Mangekyo's mental pressure bore down on Sasuke's head.
Outside, Fugaku slashed through the door bolt, only to be stopped by a single sentence from Sasuke.
"Whoever comes in gets punished first."
Obito's hand was already reaching for Sasuke's shoulder.
Sasuke stood his ground, his three tomoe spinning opposite that right eye. A Recording scroll sealed on the desk activated silently.
Just as Obito's fingertips were about to touch his collar, Sasuke suddenly spoke.
"Obito Uchiha, does your back still hurt from that Rasengan the Fourth Hokage hit you with back then?"
The spatial vortex stuttered in midair, breaking into half a ring of tangled ripples.
For the first time, the eye behind the mask revealed a shock he couldn't hide.
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