Chapter Text
Sasuke's Sharingan is on. He hasn't noticed yet, so she doesn't tell him; he’d surely die of embarrassment if she did. As it is, Sagi thinks he’s adorable. No matter how tall he gets, or how his face matures, or how much his frame fills out, she never stops thinking it. Oh, yes, he is handsome—there is no denying that. But to her, he never seems cooler than he is cute.
She doesn't tell him this either. After all, that would also cause his death by mortification—but he’d definitely find a way to kill her first. For now, she continues to watch him tap his foot and wait for Shisui's word. Poor kid’s more wound up than a spring. He hasn’t even touched the tea she poured for him.
“They'll come whether you're sitting or standing, you know,” Sagi eventually remarks. “So you might as well sit.”
“I can't,” says Sasuke. He crosses his arms. Then he looks away. “I’m nervous.”
Moments like these are when Sagi respects Sasuke the most. Like anyone else, he has his masks day-to-day. But unlike many others, and especially unlike her, he always has the power to take his off. His emotional honesty outstrips hers in every capacity. It’s taken her lifetimes to become half as truthful with herself as he is with other people.
“What’s making you nervous?” Sagi puts his old cup of tea aside and pours him a new one. Then she smiles at him with as much love as she ever has, and her brother finally folds.
“Just… you know.” He all but throws himself onto the cushion across from her, boiling with aggravation. But he does pick up his tea. “Just—it’s been a long time.”
“Yes. More than five years, if I recall correctly.”
“Five years, two months, and nine days,” he tells her. Sagi smiles again.
“You've counted, huh? I can tell it means a lot to you.”
Sasuke stares at the table for several seconds. Then he swallows. “I—yeah. It does. Living in Konoha wasn't great for me. They… they were the only good thing about it.”
“Mm.”
“But I… I left after everything went bad. I fought with Naruto, and I used a killing technique, and… and then I ran away, and Kakashi-sensei had to tie me to a tree. And when Sakura tried to stop me from going—” Sasuke swallows again. “...I was awful to them. And I never apologized for it.”
Silence falls over the room. Her brother clutches his fists and looks down at his lap. Sagi feels nothing but sympathy at the sight of it.
“I’m just worried that they hate me now,” he eventually whispers.
As someone who also catastrophically blew up her life in Konoha, Sagi thinks she can understand the feeling. She also thinks he’s not at all wrong to fear it. After all, when Shisui eventually came to Hikari, that was exactly what happened: he had hated her. Hated her guts, even. And there was nothing she could do about it, because he’d been entitled to hate her. Her suicide had shattered not only his life, but the lives of the people he cared about most. She’d done wrong and they'd all suffered for it.
And yet…
“Do you want my opinion?”
“...Yeah. What would you do, neesan?”
“Apologize, probably, first and foremost. Explain myself, if they were willing to hear it. And after that… I’d just give it time, I think.”
Sasuke frowns. “That's it?”
“That’s it,” Sagi answers. She looks down at her cup and sees a lake full of stars. Then she smiles. “There’s no telling if it'll work for you, but… it did for me.”
About a half-hour later, the window slides open. Shisui's head pops through.
“Hey, Sasuke. Heads up for you—the wards have pinged. They're just outside the city limits.”
Upon hearing these words, Sasuke manages to turn white and green at the same time. Sagi stands with a chuckle.
“All right, Mr. Envoy,” she puts on her haori and teases gently. “I’ll wait for you near the castle gates. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” he mutters.
“You’ve got this, Sasuke!” Shisui, still framed in the window, gives him a double thumbs-up. “You're gonna kill it!”
“No, Shisui, he needs the atmosphere alive. The point is to not kill it,” Sagi chides lightly. Shisui responds by pulling on his eyelid and sticking out his tongue. As always, he’s an impeccable mood maker. They can both see the way Sasuke's shoulders begin to ease.
“All right,” he says. “Okay. I'm going.”
“You'll be great, little brother. See you soon.”
Shisui and Sagi maintain encouraging smiles until their youngest flickers away. Once he’s gone, though, Sagi lets out a small exhale. Shisui scratches his head.
“You really think it’s going to be okay?”
“I can't imagine Konoha would send them if they were holding a grudge. They wouldn't make very good delegates.”
“Maybe. I guess we do have enough blackmail to make them play nice…” Shisui’s eyes are sharp. “On the surface, that is.”
“You’re worried about subterfuge?”
“With Sasuke’s teammates? Not really. But Hatake Kakashi… He’s highly competent and highly compartmentalized. He's also the closest thing the Leaf ever had to a Hunter-nin Corps. He’d supposedly mellowed out by the time he was working with Itachi, but…”
Sagi lets out a small snort. “I suppose we should be uncomfortable, being a clan of Konoha nukenin.”
“Well. You can't deny the optics of it."
“No, I guess not. But nevertheless…” Sagi waves a hand. “We may be a minor village, but these days we pack enough firepower to cause plenty of trouble if we need to. We would never win if they came at us in force, obviously, but between us and the alliance with Kiri, it would be an extremely high-cost war. And that's to say nothing of how the civilian government would react.”
“Yeah, that is true… And in terms of economics, Lamps isn't small in the north. Not anymore.”
“Indeed. I doubt the Fire daimyou would be very pleased if ninja destroyed trade relations with a wealthy neighbor.”
Shisui leans on the windowsill with his chin in his hand. “Guess I'll have to content myself with that, then.”
“If you need it, I do have one more piece I could say,” Sagi offers.
“Yeah?”
“Sasuke trusts them. And Hatake was good to him. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Shisui is exceedingly surprised. “You, Sagi? Giving the benefit of the doubt? Do you know something about Hatake that I don't?”
“I wouldn't go as far as to say know… but I do have an idea. He was around when I was in ANBU.”
After splitting ways with Shisui—though she doubts he’s gone far, not with foreign shinobi in their midst—Sagi makes her way to the castle’s main bridge. The Hikari-nin standing guard with the daimyou's men sees her and snaps to attention.
“Good morning, Meikage-sama!”
“Good morning," she answers with a smile. "Thank you for your hard work."
Sagi doesn't put on any particular airs as she takes up a spot beside him, but with Lady Hakuro at his side, the fellow begins nearly glowing. She bites back an involuntary laugh. Still, it’s not bad to see that she’s well-liked by her subordinates. She’s happy if they're happy.
After some minutes of waiting, she senses Team 7’s arrival. Her brother’s chakra, crackling and smoldering, is at their head. Behind him is a pair of well-matched signatures: together, they feel like a cheerful breeze through fragrant flowers. And at the back of the party…
Sagi smiles and steps forward when Sasuke, now in sight of the castle, points in her direction. His teammates are bright and colorful as they peer curiously over his shoulders. In contrast, their teacher is far more subdued, both in appearance and presence. But even if he’s trying to keep a lid on it, there’s no hiding the sound of thunder when his students let him shift to the head of the pack.
When Sagi was in the Special Forces, she generally saw Itachi’s captain go one of two ways. Mostly he was a pragmatically heroic kind of man—perhaps not a bleeding heart, but at least a compassionate one. But sometimes he’d be different. Sometimes he'd be deep in ANBU’s darkest pits, desperately trying to outrun every scrap of emotion he’d ever felt in his life. If this loop’s Kakashi is of the former kind, she has no concerns about this visit whatsoever; but if he’s the latter sort, well. There will be problems.
Luckily, there's an easy way to check. Whether Hatake is mean or whether he’s nice, this has always been constant: he is extremely awkward. Getting a read on him is only a matter of shoehorning him into a situation of sufficient social discomfort.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Shodaime Meikage-sama," the man says. "We are Konohagakure no Sato’s Team 7, come to visit your village as Hokage-sama’s representatives. Thank you for having us.”
His greeting is smooth and standard. It’s perfect stage-setting for a reply of equal propriety. She almost feels bad that she’s about to mess with him.
“Welcome,” Sagi answers anyway, effusive with warmth. “Thank you for coming all this way. How exciting it is to have you—I’m so happy that Hokage-sama has sent Sasuke's team over.”
She speaks entirely as if a group of Academy students have appeared on her back step, come to visit their friend’s house for the very first time. Sasuke begins to turn a vibrant shade of red; Kakashi is clearly taken aback.
“Ah…” he says uncertainly. “Yes. Thank you. Er—”
Sagi claps her hands happily. “Was your journey pleasant, Hatake-sama?”
“Ah, don’t—” The Leaf jounin hurriedly waves a hand. “No need for all that. Just Kakashi is fine, my lady.”
“Oh, I see! Very well, Kakashi-sama.”
Even behind his mask Sagi can see how magnificently the man begins cringing. She smiles. Yes, this visit will be just fine.
Her brother, meanwhile, is horrified. He storms up to her and begins whispering angrily. “What are you doing, neesan? Stop it!”
Sagi allows herself a laugh. “Just playing, little brother. Don't be upset.”
“I am upset! Don't play with foreign dignitaries. They're here on a mission!”
“Okay, all right. I’m sorry.” Sagi pats her brother’s arm, chuckling at his scowl. Then she addresses their visitors once more, now with less theater.
“The Village Hidden in Light welcomes your coming, Team 7. I’m honored that Tsunade-sama has spared you for a visit to this small country. There is a history between our villages, but I hope we will be able to establish more amicable relations in the days to come.” Sagi tilts her head towards the rest of Team 7 with a small smile. “Will you introduce me to the rest of your party, Kakashi-sensei?”
Kakashi’s relief is manifest. “Yes. Of course. Sakura, Naruto—”
“I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” Naruto bursts out before his teacher finishes speaking. “Nice to meetcha, Sasuke’s big sister!”
“Naruto!” Sakura, horrified, punches him in the shoulder. Then she hurriedly bows. “I’m so sorry, my lady. My name is Haruno Sakura. Please forgive my teammate’s rudeness, he’s—” she grimaces. “He’s… well.”
“Ow, geez!” Naruto, oblivious, just clutches his arm and whines. “Hey, why did you do that?”
“She's the Kage of this village, you moron,” Sakura furiously whispers back. “You can't talk to her like that! Address her as Meikage-sama, or Lady Hakuro—”
“Just Sagi is fine,” Sagi interjects then. She flicks her eyes towards Kakashi with a look of amusement. “No need for all that.”
Naruto takes her up on it instantly. “You got it, Sagi-neesan!”
He gives her a cheerful thumbs up; Sakura just about melts into a puddle. But she nearly catches fire after what he says next. Even Kakashi winces.
“Y’know, I met Sasuke's brother once, but you don't look anything like him. Aren't you supposed to be twins?”
The rest of Team 7 looks like it wants to die, but Sagi just laughs.
“Opposite-sex twins are always fraternal, Naruto-kun. We were born at the same time, but we're not any more similar than regular siblings.”
“Fer… fertur…?”
“Fraternal.”
“Ferternal,” Naruto repeats decisively. “Well, that’s cool, I guess. Anyway, you look way more like Sasuke than he did.”
Unable to take any more, Sasuke puts his head in his hands. “Please, dobe, I’m begging you. Can you just stop?”
The effect is instantaneous; even half a decade later, this nickname has the power to spark a team-wide quarrel. Naruto squawks with indignation; he and Sasuke begin trading insults; Sakura tries in vain to stop them.
“I knew this would happen.” Kakashi, muttering under his breath, shakes his head as he looks on. “I told you, Tsunade-sama.”
“Perhaps it’s what she wanted,” Sagi remarks. “I, for one, am happy to see it.”
“...Is that so?”
“It is. Sasuke outranked his chuunin squad long ago, and these days we’re the only ones who can argue with him. He’s too high-status for his own good.”
Kakashi snorts before he can help it. “That’s the worst thing for someone with his personality,” he says. Then he pauses, wary.
But Sagi agrees. “Indeed. You know him well.”
A brief silence follows. Sagi and Kakashi spend several moments looking at one another. Then, while the kids are still occupied, Sagi turns to face him. She clasps her hands and bows deeply.
“Sensei, I’d like to offer you my gratitude for looking after Sasuke. Thank you very much for taking care of my brother.”
“Ah, please don’t.” Kakashi holds up his hands. He feels angry eyes begin burning into him anyway. He supposes it can’t be helped; the sight of one's Kage bowing a full 90 degrees to a foreign jounin must be upsetting. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t for long, and I didn’t do much, anyway.”
“But you did,” Sagi assures him as she straightens. “You certainly did. He told me.”
Kakashi is bemused. He doesn’t know if there was a single day Sasuke ever respected his authority. “Really. What did he tell you?”
“That you talked to him before he left—and what you said when you did. You showed him another road when all he could see was the path Itachi set for him.” Her gaze becomes distant. “If not for it, I don’t think he would have come to Hikari. The fact that we have him today, living here with us, we owe to you.”
Kakashi blinks at her owlishly. Sagi’s eyes refocus, and she smiles. “In essence, you reminded him that he had a choice. So you see why I am grateful, yes? Others had designs for him, but you helped my brother choose his own destiny.”
Kakashi receives these words with a troubled air. Then he shoves his hands in his pockets. “But he had to leave to do it. We weren’t much of a village for him.”
“Yes… But that was beyond your control, I’m afraid. Those conditions were being manufactured long before you were born, and the one responsible was far beyond your power.”
There’s nothing Kakashi can say to that. After all, the sight of it is fresh in his mind: the grotesque limb, severed and bloody. Dotted with Sharingan and dangling with the wind… Kakashi puts a hand on his hitai-ate, over his left eye.
Sagi seems to perceive where his mind has gone, and she offers him a conciliatory smile. “For what it’s worth, Sensei, justice has been served. At this point, there's nothing else worth asking for. Will you tell Tsunade-sama for us? That though the Uchiha are small, they’re here, and they’ve moved on.”
Kakashi drops his arms and gazes at her in silence. Then he says, “Yes. I’ll tell her.”
“Excellent. Then shall we stop dallying on the doorstep and head inside?’ Sagi turns and calls to her brother. “Sasuke, stop bickering with our guests, will you? We’re supposed to be offering hospitality.”
Sasuke, abruptly reminded of his role as an emissary, snaps his jaw shut with an embarrassed flush. Naruto is delighted to see him taken down a peg.
“Sagi-neesan, you’re pretty cool,” he tells her jovially. “Tons nicer than your bastard brother.”
“Our parents were married, Naruto-kun,” Sagi answers mildly. Sakura has to be restrained from clobbering him again. “We’re both legitimate children.”
“Eh? What does that have to do with anything?”
“You don’t even know what the word bastard means, do you?” Sasuke says with exasperation. Then he grabs Naruto’s arm. “Whatever. Come on, dobe. We’ll show you the administrative compound.”
Chuckling, Sagi motions Kakashi and Sakura ahead. Then she takes up a position at the rear of the party. She tarries a bit before following them across the bridge, watching Team 7 walk alongside her brother. None of the morning's anxiety is visible in his face; she can't perceive a shred of fear in him. Whatever he and his team had said upon first reuniting, the air is clear... and she is glad. She can't help but smile at the sight of it.
Then she rams into the gate.
Sasuke and Team 7 spin around in shock as the Meikage, just feet behind them, crashes into a hinge post at full stride. Sagi rebounds from the impact and staggers backwards; then she falls to her knees, slaps a hand over her face, and lets out a breathless scream.
“Neesan?!”
“Ah—ahh, augh—Sasuke?” Sagi chokes, reaching blindly towards the sound of his voice. He races over and hauls her to her feet. Sagi grabs hold of his shoulder to steady herself, chest heaving. “What—what is—?”
She's still trying to regain her bearings when the Captain of the Guard appears on the far end of the bridge. He’s followed only seconds later by a pair of gray-clad ANBU, who move to surround the flabbergasted Team 7 with such threatening speed that Kakashi reflexively assumes a combat stance. Sakura, halfway through a motion to run forward and examine Lady Hakuro’s bloody nose, freezes in place; Naruto yelps and throws up his hands.
“W-wait a second! We didn't do anything!”
“They didn't do anything!” Sasuke shouts at the same time. “Shisui-san—”
Luckily, Shisui is high-ranking enough to diffuse the situation. “Stand down!” he shouts across the distance.
The ANBU immediately retreat with their hands behind their backs. Shisui flickers forward before skidding to a stop beside Sasuke and Sagi.
“Shisui?” Sagi demands at the sight of him, a little more lucidly now. Her gaze flickers from the bridge to the gate, and then to the castle. “Hikari?”
“What's going on?” Shisui asks lowly. As he speaks, several layers of genjutsu fall into place around them like a bubble. Sasuke feels a shiver go down his spine.
“I don't know,” the teen tells him helplessly. “She walked into the gate, and then she just suddenly screamed—”
Sagi abruptly springs into motion. She rips herself free from Sasuke's arms and grabs Shisui’s sleeve. "The date—what's the date right now?!”
“It’s the twenty-third of July,” he answers immediately. Sagi is horrified.
“It's already summer?”
“It's Sasuke’s birthday,” Shisui replies. Then he asks, “What's wrong with your eye?”
Sagi, who still has her fingers clamped over her face, inhales sharply and removes them. The boys immediately go still when she does. Her right iris is ablaze with the red of her Mangekyou; the blood on her face isn’t from her nose, but her eye.
Just her eye. Only one of them is bright. One of her Sharingan is active… but the other is dark.
Chapter Text
“I was aiming for the beginning of the year,” Sagi says, now seated behind her desk in her office. Shisui, Sasuke, and Team 7 are circled around it, and the two ANBU guards are in the corners of the room. “I was expecting to be in Water Country.”
“You’re over half a year off. Is your Mangekyou prone to misfiring like that?” Shisui questions.
“Never. This is unprecedented.”
Shisui regards this reply with a troubled look. Sasuke puts his hands on the desk.
“Something must have happened, neesan. When were you trying to come back from?”
Sagi is quiet for several seconds. The pause goes on long enough that her audience grows concerned. Finally she says, “I don't know.”
A beat. Sasuke asks, “What?”
“I don't know. The memory isn't there… I can't remember when I came from. Or why I came back.”
The room is silent. Team 7, already bereft of much context, exchange confused glances. The Uchiha, however, are stunned.
But eventually Shisui recovers, and his gaze goes dark. “You're missing half your jutsu,” he says. “Your ability is like Kotoamatsukami—it uses both eyes. It doesn't work right without its pair.”
Sagi touches her fingers to her eyelid. Then she says, “Someone’s taken it, then. My left eye… I must have lost it before coming back.”
“It must have just happened. It would explain the scream, anyway.”
“...Aren't you supposed to be super strong, Sagi-nee?” Naruto eventually asks. “You beat up that Orochimaru guy when you were a kid, and you're the best ninja in your village, aren't you? Who’d steal one of your eyes?”
Troubled, Sagi leans back in her chair. “That is the question, isn't it, Naruto-kun? Unfortunately, the list of parties willing to seize a kekkei genkai by force is quite long. The Sharingan is a particularly coveted prize.”
“But the list of people who could actually succeed is much shorter,” Shisui points out. “He’s right, Sagi. You're strong. Not many people would be capable of overpowering you.”
She can only agree to this. “Nor do I often go undefended… even when I was in Kiri, the Mizukage provided me with a guard.”
“But you traveled there on your own. So maybe you took a trip somewhere? Maybe it happened then?” Sasuke proposes worriedly.
“I can't imagine I would have. That visit to Kiri was the first time I've left the village in years… and those were very emergent circumstances. I never go solo lightly, Sasuke, for this exact reason. It's why I waited for Kabuto before making the return trip.” She goes quiet again. “But even in the case that is somehow true, it’s still bad tidings.”
“Because it would mean someone leaked your plans,” Kakashi remarks then. “You’d be dealing with a mole.”
“Mm…” Sagi falls into pensive silence. Her eyes flicker back and forth as she thinks. After a moment she seems to hit upon something, and she stills. Then she makes a face of profound perturbation.
“You have an idea?” Shisui mislikes the look of it, but he asks anyway.
“I do… Barring any of the other Kage, there’s only one person it could be.”
There's a pause. Then Shisui manages to string together the facts, and his eyebrows shoot up. “What? Are you serious?”
“Would I joke about it? If you plug me in as the target, his movements make sense, don't they?”
“What are you talking about?” Sasuke demands, displeased to be left out. Sagi and Shisui regard him somberly.
“You'd better read him in,” the Head of the Guard eventually advises. “Sasuke spends a lot of time with you. You'd want to be on the same page if he shows up while you're together.”
“I suppose I will, then.” Sagi lets out a sigh. “So much for S-rank secrets.”
Naruto blinks in bewilderment, but Kakashi and Sakura are immediately concerned. “Shall we leave, Hakuro-sama?” Sakura asks anxiously. Sagi regards Team 7 with a piercing look.
“...If you like. But I wonder if this wouldn't be of interest to you, too.” She tilts her head at them. “If it is, perhaps we can exchange information. Would you care to discuss the aims and actions of the criminal organization Akatsuki?”
“Eh? Aren't those the guys who were after me and Gaara?” Naruto blurts. “The one your brother went to investigate ‘cause he used to work for them?”
This time it’s Kakashi who drops a fist on the blond’s head. “You knucklehead. You can't go blabbing about people's secret missions.”
“No matter, Sensei—it’s no secret to me. I already knew.” Sagi waves a hand. “I stay apprised of the activities of all our remaining clanspeople.”
“You do?” Sasuke regards her with surprise.
“I do. Normally that would be your job, being that you're the head, but you would have needed my help regardless. Those two would be impossible to keep track of without relying on village resources.”
Kakashi sighs then. “Well. I'm not sure we have any intelligence we could exchange with you—you seem far more well-informed. Uchiha Itachi did indeed depart on a reconnaissance mission some time ago, but we've lost contact with him. Since then we've gleaned very little intelligence regarding the organization… we're not even sure if he's still alive.”
Sagi snorts. “Oh, he is. No question. Fighting fit, too—nearly turned me to cinders a while back. Not intentionally,” she adds when her family regards her with alarm. “I doubt he knew I was there.”
“He's been fighting with Akatsuki?” Kakashi appears to frown behind his mask. “That's beyond his mission parameters, at least as far as I know.”
“Well, it's an interesting development… he's fighting with one Akatsuki member in particular. The mastermind of the organization.”
“...Was Akatsuki’s leadership not based in Ame? Reports from Lord Jiraiya have indicated as much.”
“Yes, that is what he'd like others to believe. And the pair in Ame are nominally in charge, I suppose. But the agenda is all his.”
Sasuke interrupts before Kakashi can respond. “Wait a second, neesan. What did you mean when you said ‘those two’?”
The room turns to look at him. Sasuke continues. “Just now you said you keep track of all the remaining Uchiha. But Itachi’s the only one who doesn't live in Hikari. So why are you watching two people?”
Shisui puts up his hands and looks at Sagi as if to say I told you so. Sagi inclines her head in acknowledgement.
“Very astute, little brother. That is the S-rank secret, you see.”
“What?” Sasuke blinks in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that Itachi isn't the only rogue Uchiha. There's one more.”
“...What?” Her brother looks at her with wide eyes. Then he shoots forward. “There's another Uchiha out there?!”
Team 7 immediately goes as still and silent as possible. Even Naruto zippers his mouth shut, eyes wide.
“There is. And that's why I say it's interesting that they're fighting,” Sagi explains. “Because he was the one who helped Itachi wipe out the clan.”
Sasuke stares at her. Then he croaks, “He… Itachi had help? There was another killer?”
“Yes. They made a lot of effort to conceal it from others, but I fought him a few times while I was still looping.”
“And… he's strong?”
“Yes,” his sister sighs. “Very. Even when Itachi wasn’t assisting him, he was at least as strong as me and Shisui combined. They were impossible to overcome… I had to stop trying after a while.” Her vision seems to fog. “That's when I began trying political means to stop the Massacre instead. For all the good that did…”
“And that's why you're worried, my lady?” Sakura, tone tentative, gathers the courage to interject. “This other rogue Uchiha… you think he's the one who took your eye?”
“He’s the only person I wouldn't be able to stop,” Sagi answers softly.
A heavy silence falls over the room. Sagi and Shisui begin trading glances. Sasuke looks on as they have a silent conversation, fists clenched. Then he bursts out, “Who is he, neesan? Why does he want your eyes? How do we stop him?”
Sagi looks at her little brother for a long moment. Then her eyes drift towards Team 7. They settle on Kakashi.
“Well, he’s the most senior clansman we have left,” she begins softly. “He was fighting in the Third War before you and I were even born. Shisui probably wasn't even a ninja yet. But he was badly injured early on in his career.”
“Injured?”
“Nearly fatally. It was bad enough that the village concluded that there was no way he had survived. He held out hope for a while, and he even tried to go back to Konoha, but… well, a lot of things happened. He wasn't well, and he was vulnerable to manipulation…” Sagi is quiet for several moments. “But it's neither here nor there, at least for now. Right now what he intends to do is gather the tailed beasts. Akatsuki is his means of doing so.”
Shisui stares at her searchingly. “You seem to know a lot about him.”
“...I’ve had time to get to know him. Barring operations in Konoha, I’ve spent almost the entirety of this timeline keeping up with him. Surely you must have wondered why I spent all that time and money moonlighting with the Mist Rebellion? I had a reason for spending all the rest of my wealth on their coup, you know.”
Shisui regards her with surprise. “He was in the Bloody Mist?”
“He was responsible for it. It’s not known to the public there, but the current administration is aware. The Yondaime Mizukage was being manipulated with genjutsu.”
“And it was this clansman of ours who was responsible?”
“Who better to commit such abuses than an Uchiha?” Sagi raises an eyebrow at his tone of doubt. “Shisui, you would be lying if you said you’ve never attempted to use your talents to the same end. Perhaps for a different reason, but nevertheless.”
The strike is blindsiding, and its conviction is acute enough to knock him senseless. Shocked, Shisui spends several seconds staring at her in silence. “I… I have no answer,” he eventually manages to say, devastated.
“I’m sorry, Shisui. It's not my intention to judge or criticize you. I only say it so our guests understand what the Uchiha are capable of… even the ‘nice’ ones.”
“...And why do you need to do that?” Kakashi, who has spent some minutes now under the weight of the Meikage’s impenetrable gaze, finally speaks up.
“To demonstrate that even the most noble and well-intentioned of friends are capable of great transgressions. So long as they believe what they do is for the greater good, they can do it.” Sagi's voice becomes very, very soft. “Visitors from Konoha, I want you to know that Shisui is one of the men I respect most in my life. I would, and have, and would again, do everything in my power to ensure his safety and wellbeing. To do otherwise would be to rob the world. He is that good.”
“Uh,” says Shisui, taken aback. But her tone is so sincere that he can't even crack a joke about it. “Um. Er, Sagi…”
Sagi quirks her lips and signs later to him behind her desk. Her eyes are still fixed on Kakashi.
“Okay…” Kakashi answers slowly. “I understand. You hold him in high esteem.”
He’s clearly weirded out. Too bad it won't last, Sagi thinks regretfully. He would probably prefer it to what's next.
“All right. Then I will tell you this clansman’s name.” Sagi folds her hands in her lap. “He’s gone by many, but the one he was born with was Obito. Uchiha Obito.”
It is immediately clear that Kakashi has informed no one on Team 7 about his past. Sasuke and Sakura exchange quizzical glances, and Naruto is similarly bemused.
“That’s impossible.” Kakashi’s gaze narrows until his focus is something just short of Intent. Sagi catches sight of her ANBU shifting.
“Is it? You never found his body.”
“Because he was crushed to death,” he answers frostily. “He was ground into pieces. There was nothing left to find.”
Sagi casts her eyes towards the ceiling, thoughtful. Then she opens one of her drawers. “Have you ever seen or heard the description of Akatsuki’s masked man?”
“I have not.”
“I see.” Sagi withdraws both paper and pencil from her desk. Then her Sharingan’s tomoe spin into place, and she begins to draw. “He’s about your height, or perhaps a bit shorter—something like 175, 180 centimeters, I’d say. His hair is black. I've seen him wear it both short and long, but it’s rather spiky—less like mine or Shisui’s, and more like Sasuke’s, I suppose. When he wields a sword, he uses his right hand.” Sagi pulls out a fresh sheet of paper and puts her pencil to this as well. “Chakra sense suggests he is primarily fire-natured. His base Sharingan is fully mature, of course. He also possesses the Mangekyou Sharingan.”
Kakashi stills when Sagi picks up the two papers and holds them out side by side. Sasuke regards his sister curiously.
“Neesan, you can draw?”
“Only facial composites… though I don't suppose this would qualify. He is masked, after all.”
“You were probably too young to remember, Sasuke, but that’s a pretty common skill amongst the Uchiha. Or, well, it was.” Shisui shrugs his shoulders. “No use in having a photographic memory if you can't actually show people what you remember, you know?”
Kakashi reaches out, heedless of these asides, and takes the papers from Sagi. Then he says, “Why didn't you draw his other eye?”
“Because he didn't have one.” Sagi hands over her sketches and begins one last illustration. “He has no left eye... Or at least not his own. I suspect you know where his original is.”
“...That's—”
“Here, a picture of his Mangekyou pattern,” Sagi interrupts him. She holds out the drawing. “I got to see it up close a few times.”
“Sensei…” Sakura says slowly. She's glancing between his face and the paper. “That's…”
“It's the same as your Sharingan, Kakashi-sensei,” says Naruto. “Your fancier version.”
Kakashi is silent. Sagi leans back in her chair and examines him for several long moments. Then she says, “Would you pass these along to Tsunade-sama as well? I’d like to share this information as a gesture of goodwill. They're reliable illustrations based upon the recollection of a Sharingan wielder. I hope they will be of help in Konoha's efforts to both counter the Akatsuki and protect its jinchuuriki.”
“...Why are you telling us this?” the Copy Ninja eventually asks. His voice is tightly restrained.
“Goodwill, as I said. You of all people deserve to know, don't you think? Besides…” Sagi reaches up and pats the side of her little brother’s head. “Sasuke wanted to know who he was.”
“Hey,” Sasuke snaps as he bats his sister’s hand away. “Stop it, neesan. Kakashi—” he begins, and then pauses when he sees the way his sister's eyebrows begin rising. “—Sensei. Kakashi-sensei, your Sharingan—you got it from him? From Uchiha Obito?”
“...We were on the same team. I lost my eye during our last mission together. He gave me one of his.”
“What was he like? Can you tell us about him?” the teen asks urgently. “Do you know why he would want neesan’s eyes?”
Kakashi replies, but Sagi doesn't hear what he says. Her gaze has suddenly focused to a point. She's looking to her right.
“Meikage-sama?” one of her ANBU asks, alarmed, when she abruptly stands. An orb of lightning crackles to life in her palm, and Sagi strides forward and opens the window. The sound of cawing comes through; they glimpse a scattering of black feathers.
She's halfway to shooting off the jutsu, Sharingan eyes fixed on the fleeing crow, when she suddenly stops again. The room watches her with wide eyes.
Then Shisui inhales a sharp breath.
Sagi lets her technique fizzle out. She turns to look at him, one hand still on the windowsill.
“Meikage-sama,” he begins urgently, switching at once into the voice of the Gatekeep. “There’s been an arrival at the village boundary. He’s with the guards. He hasn't entered yet—he must be asking for permission—”
“Permission to come speak to me?” Sagi asks. She scoops up the pile of pebbles left by the fleeing summon. Her gaze has become chillingly sharp.
“...Yes, I would think so. How do you—”
She holds out her hand. Round, smooth, and black and white as crows and egrets, a handful of go stones are resting on her palm.
“He’s got some nerve coming here,” the Meikage says. She curls her fingers into a fist. Then she sticks the stones in her pocket. “But he has my attention. Tell the guards not to let Itachi in—I’ll go to him.”
Chapter Text
“Hakuro-sama!” the bridge guards call in relief when the Meikage appears. She’s got an enormous entourage of extremely powerful shinobi with her, ranging from their boss the Gatekeep to the foreign dignitary Copy Ninja Kakashi. Even Sasuke-sama is there, flanked by the other two members of Team 7.
“Thank you for your hard work,” Sagi tells the guards quietly. “Please retreat to the end of the bridge. I would like some distance.”
“Ma’am!” They salute and flicker away. The City Guard really do have such splendid Body Flickers. It’s clear that Shisui doesn't skip out on their training.
After thinking this, Sagi looks ahead. Her twin is standing in the clearing before the bridge. He’s clad in a plain black cloak, unmarked, and is waiting patiently with a crow summon on his shoulder. Sagi can only shake her head at his audacity.
“What are you doing here?” she calls across the distance. “I thought I had made it clear that you are not welcome in the Hidden Light.”
“I need to speak to you,” Itachi answers. “It’s urgent.”
“Urgent enough to get your head cut off?”
“Graver than even that. Please hear me out, Sagi. It’s intelligence you need.”
Sagi purses her lips. She turns the black go stone over in her hand. Then she says, “All right. Go ahead.”
“Would you like to have some privacy?” he asks. His tone is strangely rote, like he knows the answer but is asking anyway.
“...That depends on what you have to say. I’ll hear it first and then decide.”
“All right. It’s information regarding your impending assassination,” her brother replies without missing a beat.
Silence falls. Sasuke and his teammates are immediately alarmed, and Kakashi begins putting off the air of a person who regrets being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sagi, for her part, stares at Itachi for several unspeaking moments. Then she motions for Shisui to follow her, because she knows her brother, and that is not a bluff. That is deathly serious.
“It’s not just bloodline theft? It’s an assassination?” Sagi asks once they're standing before him. Her chakra sense tingles as Shisui drops a genjutsu over them.
“After a fashion. How much have you managed to put together so far?”
The manner in which he asks this question makes Sagi feel at once that something is strange. Unsettled, she begins looking her twin up and down.
“We know that she loses her left eye,” Shisui answers. “And we’ve begun to speculate that Akatsuki's masked man is involved. Tobi, who takes the pseudonym Uchiha Madara… otherwise known as Uchiha Obito.”
“Ah, good, I do have the timing,” Itachi says, more to himself than to them. Shisui quirks a brow in confusion, but Sagi knows instantly what that’s about. Her incipient suspicion blooms into terrible certainty.
“Itachi. Would you show me your Sharingan?”
It’s a non-sequitur, but Itachi doesn’t seem thrown. He simply activates his dojutsu in response. Once she’s seen the tomoe of his base Sharigan, he lets them spin into a pinwheel pattern that she knows very well. But there's a problem: it’s been overlaid with a ringed wheel. Her ringed wheel, specifically. She can see the spokes.
“...That’s the Eternal Mangekyou.”
Shisui’s head whips around. “The Eternal Mangekyou? As in the one you get by taking your sibling’s eyes?”
“Yes, the very same,” Itachi agrees. His sister puts the puzzle together at once. Then she puts her head in her hands.
“He took the other eye after I jumped back. You hunted him down and retrieved them. Then you transplanted them into yourself so you could go back and stop him… and now you’re looping.”
“You're always quick on the uptake.” Itachi, not at all bothered, regards her fondly. “No matter how many times I regress, I never have to explain. You can tell just by looking at me.”
“...Of course I can,” Sagi says. She's rather taken aback by the unconcealed affection on his face. She can't recall Itachi ever looking at her like that before.
It takes a moment, but Shisui eventually manages to catch up with the twists and turns of the conversation. Then he begins massaging his temples. “So Sagi’s eyes were stolen, her jump back failed because she didn't have the pair, and she died. You got the eyes back and now you’re using them to try and fix it.” He blows out a breath. “Shit, Itachi… how did this happen? Tell us from the beginning.”
“Of course,” Itachi says, and then begins reciting an explanation like lines from a script. “Uchiha Obito was antagonized by Hikari's interference in Akatsuki's tailed beast hunt. He’d previously foregone taking action against Sagi because the cost of eliminating her wasn't commensurate with her threat—at that point she'd only interfered with him in the Bloody Mist. But then she began briefing each village’s jinchuuriki about his organization with exceptional detail. Her information about the members, their fighting styles, and even their social dynamics was extremely comprehensive. It revealed how exceptional Hikari’s intel apparatus is.”
“...Oh, boy. Yeah, I can see where this is going.”
“Yes. The moment he found out, Sagi and the village went well beyond the threshold of a threat—they became an obstacle. So he decided to neutralize her even if it meant taking damage.”
“So he came to Hikari?”
“Correct. To be precise, he infiltrated. And in the course of that infiltration he learned that much of Sagi’s knowledge stems from her ability to traverse time.”
Uh oh. Sagi doesn't like the sound of that at all.
“Uchiha Obito’s purpose in collecting the tailed beasts is part of what he calls the Moon’s Eye plan—that is, the plan to enact a worldwide genjutsu called the Infinite Tsukuyomi. From what I've gathered, his motivation for doing so stems from traumatic loss. So when he learned of a Mangekyou ability capable of sending one’s consciousness back to the past, well…”
“Oh, hell,” Shisui swears. “He decided he wanted that for himself.”
“Yes. He believes he can use Sagi’s Mangekyou to return to the time before his bereavement. We’ve been stuck in endless loops of her murder ever since.”
Is that why Itachi had been in Kiri? He'd been heading off this loop’s murder? What a disaster.
“I won't question how he was able to infiltrate the village, but how did he find out about my eyes?” Sagi demands. “That's not common knowledge.”
“I’m not sure. I can only assume he heard it from someone in the know.”
“Aside from Team 7, who learned about it today, the only ones who know are fellow Uchiha and a handful of ANBU,” Shisui observes. “But the Konoha-nin wouldn't be here, the ANBU would die before they talked about it, and everyone in the clan is a trustworthy confidant.”
Itachi tilts his head. “Does the Uchiha clan include your spouse?”
“...Of course it does. Are you trying to imply something?” Shisui’s expression cools immensely. Wow, it's been a while since Sagi saw him make a face like that.
“My apologies, Shisui. She's the only one I don’t know—I have to ask.” Itachi pauses. “But it’s not necessarily the case that she’s a traitor. She simply could have let it slip.”
“I doubt it,” Sagi disagrees. “Tamaki is Hikari's chief spymaster. She knows the cost of a leak better than anyone.”
“I see. But then who does that leave?” Her brother frowns. “Surely it isn't Sasuke.”
After a beat Shisui pauses. “Itachi… how far into the future was this? The infiltration?”
“From the current calendar date? Something close to five years.”
The Gatekeep is quiet for several seconds. Then he says, “Rei is exceptional at lip-reading games. We play them all the time. Our room has sound seals, but not blackout barriers.”
“...Wait, what?” Sagi blinks. “Are you saying—”
“Five years from now, he'll be school-aged—old enough to leave the house. He must have seen us talking about you, Sagi… and he must have repeated what he’d seen.” Shisui puts a hand on his face. “It's my kid. My child is the leak.”
The trio falls silent. There’s a stormy pause. Then Shisui speaks again. “Itachi, can you—”
Itachi is shaking his head before he can finish speaking. “I have no means of contacting you. You've already left Konoha at my farthest point of regression, and Hikari remains inaccessible to me until well after it is too late. I have made attempts to force entry multiple times, but…”
It’s doubtful Sagi would ever permit that. Not after enforcing a formal expulsion. Severed ties are severed, the Meikage’s word is her word, and there would be very limited means to communicate the need to make an exception to that.
“If we implement countermeasures now, could we…?”
“If we were in the original timeline, perhaps. But even if I could go back and warn you, Shisui, it's still a moot point. The Obito we have now already knows. We've been looping in tandem.”
“What?” Sagi asks in dismay. “Is that even possible?”
“Evidently so. I suppose it's not something you would have experienced in your loops, though… You would have been the only one regressing back then.”
His sister covers her face. “This power was terrible enough when it was just me. I can't believe it's been duplicated for others. This is madness.”
“But hey now, wait a second,” Shisui cuts in sharply. “Why is he looping to begin with? If he got the eyes, he should have achieved his goal. There shouldn't be a need to keep coming after her.”
“Ah,” Itachi says. “Well. I can't be certain, but I suspect his regression limit isn't as far as he requires. It's likely he's trying to find a way to extend it.”
“His regression limit? …You did say something about a point of farthest regression.”
“Yes. I suspect anyone who uses this ability will have one. I don't know what determines it, though…” Itachi tilts his head. “What is yours, Sagi?”
“My limit? Age eight. I can fall back to any point after that freely, but never before.”
Itachi furrows his brow. “That’s five years farther than my limit. Strange.”
“Do you think so? I’m not surprised.”
“No?”
“No. Not in the context of irreversible decisions. For you, the Massacre would certainly qualify. If you haven't done anything else irreversible since then, it’s sensible that your limit is thirteen.”
Itachi and Shisui both frown. “What’s the criteria for an irreversible decision?”
“I’m not sure I know. They clearly do exist, but…” Sagi takes on a pensive look. “How do they come to be…? Maybe it’s a compression of timelines. If you make the same choice enough times, with sufficient knowledge and free will, perhaps it becomes permanent?”
As a theory, it's plausible. But there’s no way to determine its certitude, so Itachi just spends another moment watching her stew. Then he asks, “What did you do at age eight that was irreversible?”
Sagi stills. For a moment Itachi wonders if she won't reply. But she does eventually. “I became a ninja.”
“Oh…” Itachi gets the sense there’s more to it than that, but Sagi offers no further details. He tilts his head, puzzled. “But what else could you have become? You were a child of the head. You didn’t have a choice.”
Sagi looks at him sidelong. It’s piercing. “There is always a choice.”
Neither Shisui nor Itachi know what to say to that. Silence falls again, but after a few seconds Sagi’s face gentles. “Itachi… how many loops have you done?”
There’s a pause. Her brother stares. Then he looks away. “...I don't know. I've lost count.”
Those words fill her face with more compassion than Itachi has ever seen from her before. “Are they long loops?”
“No… not recently. I used to do longer ones, but they were…”
He trails off, but Sagi knows she can insert a number of adjectives there. Ineffective, exhausting, miserable… maddening. She doesn’t doubt any of them would be true.
“They weren't worth it,” he concludes after a beat.
Sagi regards this statement with a troubled expression. Then she says, “Itachi, you know…”
“I know,” he cuts her off. His face is tense. “You don't have to say it every time.”
Sagi looks at him with surprise. Then she creases her brow. “I see. My apologies.”
There’s another pause, this one far more awkward. But eventually Shisui plows on. “So I’m guessing you've got something planned, Itachi? Is it something we’ve tried before?”
“It is not. It’s a completely new avenue.”
“Really?” Sagi regards him with astonishment. “You’ve been looping this long and you still have new things left to try?”
Itachi smiles thinly at her. It’s a thing of terrible endurance, and her face drops again just at the sight of it. He really is stuck in it—an endless loop on her behalf, trying to prevent her death.
“It’s a seal that negates time-space ninjutsu,” her twin explains instead of answering her directly. He pulls out a stack of fuuinjutsu tags, each inscribed with exceptionally complex seal markings. “Uchiha Obito’s strongest tool is his Mangekyou ability, Kamui—mostly by means of teleportation and intangibility. We can use this to negate that.”
“...This is sealwork beyond anything the Uchiha can do,” Sagi remarks upon examining one of the tags. “I don’t understand half of this, and I’ve seen a lot of our clan’s seals over the course of my lives.”
“You didn’t make this,” Shisui agrees. “It’s not your handwriting.”
“Yes, and also no,” Itachi answers. “I did write the seals, but I did not make them. I only copied them.”
“I can’t imagine fuuinjutsu capable of negating space-time ninjutsu was just lying around for you to find. Imagine the chaos you could cause on the battlefield with that. You’d ruin everyone’s storage scrolls, cut off their summoning contracts…”
“It wasn’t lying around. I had to go through a lot to obtain it.”
Sagi regards him quizzically. “Like what?”
“...I asked the Yondaime Hokage to make it for me.”
Sagi frowns at him. Then she realizes he isn’t joking. “You—what? You asked the Yondaime—you asked the deceased Namikaze Minato?”
Her brother nods. They're flabbergasted.
“How?”
“With great difficulty. It took many loops to get it done.”
His twin’s brow furrows. Shisui is still baffled. “I thought he used an irreversible Uzumaki technique when he sealed the Kyuubi. It was supposed to be at the cost of sealing his own life.”
Ah, Sagi thinks as a hazy recollection rises in her mind. That is true. It is irreversible… to an extent. “But you can undo it,” she and Itachi inform at the same time. Then Sagi blinks, and Itachi looks at her again.
“...How do you know that?”
“You told me.”
“Really? How in the world did you get me to do that?” Sagi’s eyebrows fly upward. Telling people information obtained by looping is one thing, but sharing transmigration knowledge is something completely different. Time travel has already made her life convoluted enough, to the point that usually forgets she’d ever transmigrated to begin with; he must have done something truly profound to draw that out of her. “...How did you even know to ask me?”
“There's a reason why I died approaching Hikari so many times.” Itachi gives her a wry look. “It took a while to find the right combination of circumstances—and also the right thing to say. Regardless, you are the longest-lived person I know, so I figured you might have a clue.”
“You got yourself killed that many times chasing a clue? And not even a confirmed clue at that…”
“Death is cheap. I ought to obtain what I can with it.”
Sagi, halfway through opening her mouth, shuts it again. She’d been about to question how he got around the blood sacrifice needed to undo the Shiki Fujin, but now she’s not so sure she’ll like his reply. Time to pivot.
“But still, how could you possibly have spoken to the Yondaime? Unsealed or not, he’s still dead. You’d need to—” Sagi begins, and then abruptly realizes she already knows the answer to this question. “...What? No. Itachi, you didn't.”
Itachi just shrugs. She can’t believe it. “You broke into Orochimaru's lab? But it’s under Hikari’s control. Edo Tensei is under lock and key, and I respond to that site personally.”
“Yes, you do,” he agrees with a distant look. “But it was always going to be a process. An extra loop didn't change much in the long run.”
“...I killed you myself?” Sagi's expression becomes rather ashen. Itachi finds it quite novel. She’s never expressed outward grief about it in the previous iterations of this conversation.
“You threatened to, but no, not that time. You did cut off my arm, though,” he adds as if it's an afterthought. “You were most displeased with me.”
“I've killed you in other timelines, then? Not my subordinates, but me?”
“Never unprovoked,” he reassures her. “You always warn me first. It only happens when I proceed anyway.”
“...You don't seem very upset about it.”
“Not at all. Even one warning is quite generous, considering I’ve been expelled from your village once already. But you always give me at least three.”
Itachi smiles then. It’s that small, slightly lopsided smile he makes when he’s trying not to show how pleased he is about something. Sagi hasn't seen it in over a century, and she finds it frightfully nostalgia-inducing. They'd been so friendly back in those early loops… until the corresponding Massacres, anyway.
“And yet you’re here today,” she says uncertainly.
“Post your Mangekyou’s misfire is one of the only timings in which I succeed in meeting you.” Itachi pauses. “But only if I send the bird first.”
Go stones, Sagi thinks. She still has them in her pocket. Does he really remember that, their last game before she’d left Konoha? If he’s been looping, it would have been ages ago for him.
…But that’s a silly question, isn’t it? It’s not like she’s forgotten the time she's spent with Itachi, either.
Sagi pulls out one of the black stones with her thumb and forefinger. Then she lifts it up. She looks at Shisui, whose expression is pinched with deep contemplation. Then she looks at Itachi.
Impulsively, she flicks the piece at him. Her brother catches it without a glance. Clearly she’s done that before, too.
“Well,” she says then. “You are not deficient as a tactician. What sort of counter strategies do you have in mind?”
Chapter Text
She blinks into awareness between one breath and the next, surrounded by the stillness of deep night. For a moment she’s confused—but only for a moment. When the daze clears, she realizes at once that something is wrong. Why had she awoken? It’s dark and it’s silent. There’s no noise that could have disturbed her sleep. Has something moved? But if it has, that would have to mean—
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty.”
—that someone else is here.
Sagi looks up and finds a man looming over her. His black cloak is dotted with red clouds, and his swirling orange mask converges on a single eyehole. She can see the red of a Sharingan through its gap.
She stares at him. Then she rolls on to her back. “Oh, boy.”
Her visitor chuckles. “Not pleased to see me? But you set up such a warm welcome. You even put out brand-new seals. Excellent decor—I didn't even mind going the slow way.”
Well, that almost certainly means the traps have been disabled. Sagi doesn't know if she wants to be upset or impressed. A trap gauntlet set up by a quartet of Uchiha would not have been easy to get through, even for a fellow clansman… the fact that he’s done it without alerting anyone is a little shocking.
Sagi sits up. He’s sitting at her bedside with his leg propped up, and he’s leaning back lazily on one hand. The hilt of her sword, which she’d placed beside her futon, is under the heel of his sandal. Sagi looks at it, and then at him. He cocks his head to the side as if to ask what she’s going to do about it.
“...I’ll put some tea on,” she decides.
“Oh, tea! How fun.” He claps as she stands. “You really are something, aren't you? The people around you are all losing their minds, trying to find a way to save your life, and you go for leaf juice.”
“Is black tea all right with you?” Sagi asks mildly in answer.
“Sure, why not? I’m up for a midnight tea party.”
Despite the levity of his tone, she can feel his eye on her as she lets chakra spark in her palms. It's just a party trick ninjutsu, only strong enough to heat water, but his gaze is sharp all the same.
Steam begins to rise from the cups.
“Here you are,” she says after it’s steeped. She comes forward and hands it to him. Then she sits down in seiza atop her futon. Like many ninja, Sagi does sleep with weapons on her person, but she knows now is not the time to draw them. Not in a half-sleeved jinbei—she has no extra fabric to hide behind. She buys time by sipping her tea instead.
Her visitor stares at her. Then he sets his cup on the floor. His voice is low when he speaks again. “You really are the perfect Uchiha woman, aren’t you? No matter where we are or how many times I meet you, you're the same. It’s genuinely disgusting.”
Sagi finds herself smiling before she knows what she’s doing. She can't help it; she’s Fugaku’s Shame, after all. The mad daughter no one ever wanted to acknowledge he’d had… a black mark whose name was never uttered by the clan again.
“How would you like me to address you?” she asks instead of replying. Her guest chuckles.
“Oh, you're playing dumb? That's so cute,” he croons, once more in his jester persona. “But there's no need for that! I know Itachi's been through here.”
“...Very well. How can I help you tonight, Obito-san?”
“Aw, Obito-san’s so distant. We're family, you know? You’re practically my kid sister. Call me big brother! I don't mind.”
“I’d like to get to know you a bit more first,” Sagi demurs. Obito sighs theatrically.
“A stick in the mud as always. You never want to play, Miss Meikage.”
“My apologies. I'm a bit anxious. You've come without notice, and many others live in my house.”
“Oh?” Obito tilts his head to the side. His voice drops once more. “Then I suppose you'd better not raise the alarm. Things will be messy if you do.”
“Yes… it would seem so.”
By now she’s had several minutes of banter to think, but she still can't come up with a plan. He’s got her sword. Her armory’s on the other side of the room. She’s got a knife in her waistband and needles on her hip, but neither seems like a strong enough arm to take on this opponent. She doesn’t have much expectation for genjutsu, either—it’s almost always pointless between Uchiha at this skill level. Barring a quickdraw ninjutsu duel, which in this locale would be sure to result in extensive carnage, there's no choice. She opens her mouth to stall, hoping a better solution will occur to her.
Then all of a sudden he shoves her shoulder. The tea goes flying, and in the next second her leg is in the air. He's standing, and he’s got her by the ankle. Sagi scrambles to put herself in a handstand, but she feels his hand on her back before she can manage it. Then her weapons clatter onto the floor.
“Oh, you really are cute,” Obito tells her. Sagi uses her other leg to throw a blistering kick at his face, and he lets her go. He's laughing by the time she’s back on her feet. “You do that every time! It’s like clockwork. You really ought to change up where you stash your sidearms.”
Scratch all of that—this situation is not what she thought it was. He’s toying with her, and it's clear he knows how she moves. These are not conditions in which she can concern herself with damage control. She inhales.
“Hey now! None of that.”
In a flash he’s before her, using one hand to grab her head and the other to shove a wad of pillowcase into her mouth. She chokes—what the hell, her pillowcase?—but converts the chakra immediately, switching from breath-based katon to a handed raiton technique. But this is apparently her usual response; before she can shoot off the jutsu, Obito has her arms crushed to her sides. It’s the worst bear hug of her life, and less than a second later he’s ramming her into the wall with his shoulder.
“Fuck!” she gasps after she's managed to spit out the gag. “Holy sh—”
“Shh.” Obito puts a gloved finger over her lips. “How vulgar. You're ruining your image, flawless lady.”
Sagi could punch him right in his smug masked face. But the flare of anger she feels is undercut by the faintest beginnings of panic, and Obito seems to pick up on it.
“Now you've got the right idea,” he whispers. He puts his hands on her shoulders, lightly; then he smashes her into the wall and pins her there. Her back twinges.
“Why are you doing this?” she asks breathlessly. “You… you're just messing with me.”
“You don't like it? But we're having so much fun.” His tone is still light, but she can see how his Sharingan has narrowed into a slit. “What a shame. I have so few playmates these days.”
“Agh… I’m not surprised.” Putting an iron clamp on her fear, Sagi locks gazes with that eye and refuses to look away. “If this is your game, I doubt anyone would play twice.”
“Hmm. And yet here we are, together again.”
“You and I have never met in this life.”
“But we have in others, and you never cooperate.” He shakes his head. “No wonder the game’s no good.”
Sagi stares at him. Then her eyebrows slant, and it’s a familiar sight. She makes that face every time he comes to her.
“How many loops have you been through, Obito-san?” she asks, as she always does, and always with that same little glint in her eye.
“Not so many yet, but enough that I think I’m close to unlocking your Mangekyou’s last secrets. Would you care to tell me this time?” He leans forward until their faces are nearly touching. “The way to regress beyond my fifteenth year.”
The glint gives way, inexplicably, to sorrow. It’s another thing about her that Obito never quite understands.
“You’ve been asking me this each time? After using my Mangekyou and failing to go farther back?”
“Your brother never makes it easy. Every time I have to come and take it from you, and I always have to wait until you’re this age… but he gets to keep his power between loops. Ah, life is really unfair.”
Sagi lowers her eyes. “If fifteen is your limit, your loop lasts for seventeen years,” she whispers. “That is… so long.”
She lets her chin fall forward, but Obito doesn’t react when she presses her forehead to his mask. It makes her wonder if the other Sagis did this, too. They must have. He’s so tragic that they couldn't have done otherwise.
“I’m so sorry, Obito-san,” she tells him. “You—”
“Don’t say it,” he warns. His palms press into her shoulders until her back is nearly cracking against the wall. “I want the truth this time. Tell me how to go farther back.”
Oh, the terrible humanity of him. Sagi stares into his eye. Then she lifts her hand and puts it on the back of his head. He’s so much older than Sasuke, but he needs this more than her little brother ever could.
“You are in hell,” she says softly. She can’t even be angry—not anymore. This man needs every scrap of compassion she can offer him. “You need to leave. There will be no end to your suffering as long as you stay here.”
“I told you to talk,” Obito says. Anger is beginning to creep into his voice. “Tell me the truth. Right now.”
“You have the truth already. You were given the answer long ago. Now you need the resolve to accept it.”
His arms begin to tremble. She can hear him gritting his teeth. They’re so close together that she can feel it through his mask, the way his jaw is grinding. “I told you not to say it.” His voice begins to rise. “Now tell me how to go back.”
The force he’s putting on her frame increases until it makes Sagi feel as if her collarbone will break in two. She winces in pain, but she doesn’t speak. There’s nothing left she can say.
Obito snaps. Roaring with frustration, he drops her, grabs her by the collar, and then slams her into the wall again. “Fucking talk to me, damn it!” he howls at her. His whole chest—his whole being—is in his scream. “I need to go farther back. Tell me how to get back to her!”
The impact is hard enough that Sagi’s vision goes black for a second. When she comes back to herself he has her on the ground, straddled between his knees. He’s holding a knife to her throat.
“This is your last chance,” he utters. “You have one last chance to tell me the truth.”
Sagi just stares at him, dazed. He’s locked her legs down, and his elbow is obstructing her left arm… but he’s left her right side free. Almost without thinking, she reaches up and pries the mask from his head.
Water begins raining onto her forehead.
How many returns had she done, Sagi wonders, before having a breakdown? How far had she gotten before her sanity began to collapse? For someone whose loops last seventeen years, how long would it take to reach that point?
“Not long,” she whispers. He’s glowering ferociously at her, but a flood of tears is falling from his face. Streaking across his cheeks, running to the bottom of his chin, dripping from the tip of his nose… “Oh, Obito.”
“What, no honorific? Are we suddenly buddies now?” His tone is acidic, but Sagi can only see the way his shoulders shake as he says it. “Is that any way to address your elders, Sagi?”
Sagi doesn't answer. She reaches up and wipes the tears from his cheek instead. Has anyone ever done this for him before? She thinks of Sasuke again, small enough to sit in her lap. She can remember his little hands on her face. Did Obito ever have someone like that?
“This isn't the time, little sister.” His tone is increasingly agitated. “I’m about to slit your throat.”
“My older brothers always kill me,” Sagi answers softly. “It’s nothing that hasn't happened before.”
The only reply Obito can offer her is a wordless snarl. It sounds a little like despair.
It’s not a gentle cut. She feels awful resistance when the blade slashes across her windpipe. She gasps reflexively; then she keeps gasping, unable to draw in air. Obito tosses his kunai aside, shoves the hair from her face, and then presses down on her brow to stop her head from moving. He pulls his glove from his hand with his teeth.
Ah, she thinks as she feels his nails on her skin. Is this why Itachi can never save her? Perhaps it isn't because Obito comes and takes her eyes each time. No… perhaps it's because each time he comes, he is so in need that she cannot help but give them away.
Notes:
「鳶が鷹を生む」 tobi ga taka o umu: a kite gives birth to a hawk (an ordinary source gives forth extraordinary talent)