part 4
Tōshōdai shows them a cleverly hidden trapdoor that leads down into a tunnel and then has to get back to his morning duties outside with the deer and wait for the likely pursuit squad. Shikako has a quick idea about that, too — she turns to Sasuke and asks, “You know shadow clone, right?”
Sasuke scoffs. “Naruto is my teammate. How could I avoid knowing shadow clone?”
“It’s possibly her version of Uzumaki Naruto doesn’t use it,” Sai suggests.
“How the hell would he have stayed alive long enough to become any good without being able to spam that jutsu?” Sasuke asks. “He must have it.”
He and Sasuke both turn to look at her, Sasuke looking kind of upset at the idea of Naruto not having his signature jutsu., despite dismissing the idea.
“My version of Naruto does have it,” Shikako says. “Do you know it, Sai?”
“No. I frequently make use of ink clones, however.”
Shikako shakes her head. “I don’t know who’ll be on the pursuit team, but I think shadow clones will be necessary to fool them.”
Sai turns and looks at Sasuke, Sharingan activated. Sasuke flips through the seals for a shadow clone, and soon there are two Sasukes. Sai copies his action.
“Great. Now the two clones go continue on like this is a normal mission while we hide.”
“Tōshōdai will not know about the change in plans,” one of the Sais points out.
“I’m sure he’ll catch on quick, he’s a Nara,” Shikako says. “Oh — give the clones the mission scroll. It’s not like we need it anymore.”
Clone Sasuke and Clone Sai go to catch up with Tōshōdai and express a great desire to stay for breakfast before heading back to Konoha with the shipment Shikaku had said was so very urgent. Shikako, Sasuke, and Sai drop into the tunnel and pull the trap door closed behind them.
Sai brings chakra light to his hand the way Shikako had taught herself to do as a child to see things in the dark. Shikako finds herself almost certain that Sai learned it from this universe’s Shikako and swallows hard to clear the lump in her throat before she says, “Here, put chakra into this,” and hands over an LED seal to him and Sasuke. They hold theirs in their hands, but Shikako sticks hers to her forehead out of habit, even though she doubts she’ll need her hands free to fight down here.
The tunnel reminds Shikako of the one in Land of Birds that Toki had used to conceal her coming and going from the palace. The tunnel terminates in a windowless basement room build of local field stone with neat pointing, and above them there are a half-dozen people, some of them sleeping. In one corner of the room there’s a ladder, which must lead up to some kind of trap door.
It looks like it would be hard to open from the ladder,but the passageway is probably for evacuation in the event that the farm is attacked, so they wouldn’t have planned for people coming up the tunnel to the house.
Shikako can sense the clones milling around above, making conversation with whoever it is that’s in the kitchen making breakfast. Now that she has a minute to focus on them.... the clones both lack that field-of-stars spark that Shikako has come to expect to sense from everyone, so... maybe that answers the question of what it is for sure now, although Shikako’s mind skitters away from the obvious conclusion.
She has enough problems for now; her new sensing ability isn’t impeding her so she can just... ignore it for now.
After a moment of looking dully at the empty basement, Shikako sighs and sits with her back against the cold stone wall and asks Sasuke about the Academy. “I wasn’t really expecting you to even know who I was, let alone be happy to see me.”
Sasuke is sitting immediately to her left, had settled in to sit at her side immediately like he couldn’t bear the thought of even just sitting on the other side of the room. Not that Shikako minds. It’s nice to have him and his familiar chakra so close. Sai sits in front of them, which his back to the rest of the room, including the trap door and the tunnel they’d entered from.
This is, Shikako is sure, Sai’s own form of showing intimacy — trusting them to watch his back.
“You — she — started inviting me to things, and I started accepting.” Sasuke shrugs a shoulder. Clearly more of a story there. Probably something to do with Itachi, though, so Shikako won’t ask. “She figured out how to blow things up when we were like seven, so... I spent a year hanging out with her and Shikamaru every day after the Academy let out. She even got herself excused from kunoichi classes so we’d have more time.”
Shikako can imagine it. The desperation. Deciding to do something about the massacre and then scrambling to do anything because children have no agency and Shimura Danzō is dangerous and ubiquitous.
“And then...” Sasuke pauses. Not a dramatic pause, but instead the kind that requires a kind of shaky breath. The kind her Sasuke usually takes before mentioning his clan.
Nara Shikako was a seven year old little girl when she was last seen , Morino Ibiki had said, but Sasuke says they had played together for most of the year — Shikako knows the timeline, knows what Sasuke is going to say, and she’s glad when he inches closer to her, so that their shoulders brush, although she doesn’t think he did it for her comfort.
“In July, just before I turned eight, Itachi told me I had to come home straight after the Academy let out, because he had a surprise for me.” Sasuke’s voice is quiet; it would be almost inaudible in a bigger room.
Shikako holds still for fear that the sound of her clothed back brushing against the stonework behind her might drown him out and she’ll have to ask him to repeat himself .
“We’re pretty sure she thought it was for my birthday, even though it was a week or two early, so she skipped class... and went to the compound... and you were there when Itachi started...”
Shikako nods so that Sasuke doesn’t have to say it .
“You set off explosive tags that drew all kinds of attention. We thought — we thought you, she, died saving the clan. But I guess something worse happened to you instead.”
For one wild minute, looking at Sasuke and his grief, this years-old pain, Shikako thinks maybe she should reassure him that that other Shikako, his real Shikako, had known exactly what she was walking in to. But that would mean explaining how they’d known about the massacre, it would mean explaining a lot of things, and... Shikako can’t do that.
She reaches for Sasuke’s hand instead. Slides her fingers between his.
“In my timeline... I didn’t invite you to anything. I didn’t interrupt the massacre. You were the last of your clan.” Shikako squeezes Sasuke’s hand as that information hits him like a punch to the gut. “It kinda sucks that this other me got caught up in it, but it definitely wasn’t your fault and it could have been worse. I was so glad to hear your mom is alive, Sasuke — I’ve never met her.”
Sasuke’s eyes flicker red, looking down at their hands. At her lime-green nail polish and the scars from Kimimaro fucking her hand up.. Memorizing it.
“You were my best friend,” Sasuke says. “You meant so much to me — and Itachi was so surprised when I told him it was you I was looking to avenge, not our father, when Hikaku and I went to kill him. Surprised I blamed him for your death... ”
Well, Itachi’s plan had been kind of terrible to begin with and Shikako can’t imagine that its execution improved at all with the addition of a sudden interruption. But Itachi probably didn’t even know that this universe’s Shikako had been there and set off the explosions. Obviously Madara hadn’t found native Shikako — because in that case native Shikako would have been genuinely dead — so she must have been snatched up by whatever ROOT agents were loitering around like vultures, waiting to start collecting bodies and looking to prevent interruptions.
“He probably didn’t realize Danzō pinned my supposed death on him,” Shikako says thoughtfully. “They couldn’t have communicated much after Itachi left the village, and I doubt my death rated a bingo book mention.”
Silence from Sasuke and Sai. Shikako looks between them
“What does Danzō have to do with Itachi?” Sai asks.
“Why would they have communicated at all, ever?” Sasuke asks.
“Uh, yikes,” Shikako says. “Itachi was in ROOT? Or... I’m pretty sure he was? And... Danzō ordered the massacre, to get rid of the clan?”
This does not appear to ring any bells with them.
“We thought he just harvested the eyes he stole because the opportunity to do so arrose,” Sasuke says numbly. “He planned it?”
“I mean, maybe that’s only true where I’m from,” Shikako tacks on. Maybe it’s only true in a manga series from Before, really; technically Shikako still hasn’t found any solid proof in her own world, although she doesn’t doubt it at all.
“Itachi said that... he was lured into it by Uchiha Madara,” Sasuke says slowly. “To test his power. To see if he was strong enough to join the Akatsuki.”
“Madara was there,” Shikako says carefully. “But... Danzō was putting pressure on Itachi and Shisui. He stole Shisui’s eye for his Mangekyou power. Kotoamatsukami.”
“We never found either of Shisui’s eyes,” Sasuke says dully.
“Itachi didn’t have one in... in one of his crows, or anything?” Saying it makes it sound a little silly, because a human eye shouldn’t fit in a crow’s eye socket and also because ‘in a crow’s eye socket’ isn’t exactly the first place one thinks to store an eyeball. But it’s what Shikako remembers.
Sai says, “Uzume-ba and I are the crow summoners.”
“Given that Itachi was slowly going blind, we’ve been sure for years that Itachi destroyed them after his transplant attempts were unsuccessful. My father was distantly of the Kotoamatsukami lineage, but he was picked more for skill at police work than for blood ties.” Sasuke looks at her, his eyes dark and lacking Sharingan again. They’re sitting so close Shikako can feel Sasuke’s breath stir the air in front of them. He asks, “You have a different theory?”
Shikako hadn’t known that the Uchiha tracked Mangekyou power lineages. It makes sense of course that they would, if children can only inherit one, but it’s still surprising to hear. She wants to know if Sasuke is Amaterasu lineage, then — but now really isn’t the time to ask.
“Danzō took them. And then Shisui did genuinely kill himself — in front of Itachi.” Shikako pauses. “And... before that, Danzō probably had at least one of Uchiha Kagami’s eyes. I think. Maybe. They were teammates.”
She can’t actually remember if that’s the case, and there probably won’t ever be a way to confirm it unless Danzō outright admits it, which Shikako doesn’t actually expect him to do. Also, he’s dead here. But it’s not unlikely , and the details don’t matter very exactly in this case, since Danzō is already dead.
“He could have done... so much damage with Kotoamatsukami,” Sasuke mutters.
Hesitantly, Shikako says, “I think he did. I think... even accounting for the different universe, Tsunade was... there was something not right about her in T&I. She was callous and a little... irrational.” Shikako swallows. “She didn’t even ask for my information on Akatsuki, really, she was going to have me tortured.”
“Torture doesn’t work,” Sai says, with the sound of a phrase he’s had repeated to him often. Probably by native Shikako. “Morino Ibiki doesn’t use it.”
Sai had probably been in T&I for awhile after killing Danzō in broad daylight.
“I don’t think Tsunade was going to let that stop her. What if Danzō used Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami on her?”
Sasuke’s frown only deepens. “Then we’re fucked. She’s Hokage and we need her. And the only thing that can undo a Mangekyou genjutsu of that power... is an equally strong Mangekyou. But Kagami only had the one descendant. The Kotoamatsukami lineage has otherwise faded, and even if the clan knew for sure who might activate it... the clan doesn’t force people to gain their Mangekyou.”
“Of course not,” says Shikako.
“I could probably kill Tsunade,” says Sai. “Though I would prefer not to.”
“No one’s killing Tsunade.” Definitely not, no matter how compromised she might be. Although Shikako does appreciate Sai’s willingness to come up with a plan and commit to it.
Sai gives her such a solemn nod in return that Shikako can’t avoid the knowledge that he’s taken her veto not as a rejection of a bad plan but as an order . That’s a lot of pressure, and Shikako doesn’t want to think about who she would have become in ROOT. What she would have done. What she did do, in this world. It’s too heavy, it’s not a weight that Shikako can carry if she wants to get home.
So it’s time for a subject change. She starts, “About the Akatsuki—”and then tells them everything she knows for sure from her timeline and some things she’s found no concrete proof of. She especially tells them about Hidan. It’s a struggle to get the words out, but they need to know about Jashinists.
Sai also briefly, unemotionally summarizes the mission where he and Sasuke killed Itachi together for her. Sasuke’s only comment about it is that Sai’s Mangekyou had been invaluable.
She looks Sai over. “What does your Mangekyou actually do, anyway? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I have the Yatagarasu.” The three-legged crow. “It’s a guide. It shows me where to strike. Where things are weak.”
“It can break a wall, a formation, or a person,” Sasuke adds.
That sounds useful as hell. And specifically, Shikako wonders — “Could it break a genjutsu? Could it break the Kotoamatsukami?”
Sasuke and Sai look at her, and then at each other, and then they shrug.
“Maybe?” Sasuke says.
“I would need someone to test it on,” Sai says.
It’s better than nothing. “You should update your clones,” Shikako says. “While you have the chance.”
She’s not actually sure that Sai knows you can give your shadow clones new information by creating a new clone and dismissing it, but whether or not he knows why, he follows Sasuke in creating and then immediately dispelling a new shadow clone. Up above them, Clone Sasuke and Clone Sai momentarily pause, one after the other, as they gain new information.
They talk a little more about the differences between their two worlds. Team 7’s first C-rank had been to Wave, too, but Zabuza and Haku had died. Sakura is still Tsunade’s apprentice. This universe has had no war with Cloud, just continued tensions with Sand.
“Really?” Shikako asks. “But... Gaara is Kazekage, isn’t he?” Obviously there wouldn’t be an alliance with Mist — the rebellion’s coup might still be going, even, without Zabuza and Haku to help them — but the alliance with Sand should have happened as long as Naruto and Gaara had their fight during the Sand-Sound invasion.
“No? He’s our age.” Sasuke looks genuinely confused. “I don’t think he or his siblings are very popular with Sand after fucking up the delivery of Sand’s reparations. Their teacher, Baki, is Kazekage, but I think they only picked him because he’s the best jōnin they’ve got. He’s not really kage-level. Sand is on the decline.”
Troubling. Shikako explains the progression of the renewed Konoha-Sand alliance — the fight with Gaara during the invasion, their involvement in the Sound 4 debacle, and the Grass chūnin exams, mostly.
Sasuke explains that after this universe’s version of the Sound 4 thing, when the Sand nin had been resting up and waiting for Tsunade to finish her reply to the Sand council, Katō Shizune had been murdered and blame had fallen on Sand.
“They denied it,” Sasuke says. “But the evidence was apparently overwhelming.”
“Apparently?”
“It was a matter of village security, so ANBU handled the investigation, not the police.” Sasuke shrugs. “So I haven’t seen the results of the investigation for myself. Almost no one has. But Tsunade was convinced.”
“ANBU Bear was in charge of the investigation,” Sai offers. Then: “ANBU Bear was a high-ranking member of ROOT.”
Sounds fishy to Shikako, too, but there’s not much to talk about. Instead she asks about ROOT, and learns that it was discovered and disbanded when Danzō was killed.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Shikako mutters. “Maybe they just got folded into ANBU? But Yamanaka Fū sure didn’t seem like he’d gotten out.”
And then, on the edge of Shikako’s chakra sense, a familiar signature — Kakashi-sensei. Or, well, the Hatake Kakashi of this universe, feeling painfully familiar.
“Pursuit squad’s here,” Shikako says, and their conversation lapses as they wait, tuck their chakra in tight, and strain to listen to the conversation going on above.
“Kakashi-sensei?” Clone Sasuke says.
“Hello,” Clone Sai says.
“How come my cute little genin are always getting in so much trouble?” Kakashi bemoans. “And it’s you so frequently, Sasuke, giving your sensei heart attacks.”
Shikako’s heart tightens to hear it, that familiar tone. This Hatake Kakashi feels almost exactly like her Hatake Kakashi, and Shikako could really, really use a couple minutes with her sensei.
“What kind of trouble am I supposed to be in?” Clone Sasuke asks carefully. Shikako can imagine his expression, carefully blank and a little bored, either eyeing the non-Kakashi members of the pursuit squad like they’re embarrassing themselves by turning up looking for him at all or ignoring them completely.
The pursuit squad who must be ANBU, because their chakra is packed tight, although since they’ve definitely appeared in the room along with Kakashi they’re probably not officially on duty or anything. Shikako is fairly sure that ANBU don’t do that.
Shikako only recognizes the chakra of one of them, besides Kakashi. Tenzō is part of the pursuit squad, and his chakra feels bad, wrong, and Shikako’s not looking forward to finding out what that means for Tenzō’s personality in this verse.
“You’ve been kidnapped, of course!” Kakashi says cheerfully.
“By who?”
“Uchiha Hikaku, obviously,” Kakashi says.
There’s an awkward pause
“Kakashi-sensei, we’re just eating breakfast before we head back to Konoha.” Clone Sasuke’s tone is perfectly contemptuous. “Why would my own cousin kidnap me?”
“He’s really only your fourth cousin once removed,” Kakashi says. “You’re practically strangers. And you caught him committing treason, so obviously he kidnapped you to keep you quiet.”
Someone else in the room, one of the civilians, asks, “Treason?” and sounds appalled. Treason is, after all, about the worst crime a ninja can be accused of. Especially a ninja sitting in your kitchen talking to Hatake Kakashi.
Sasuke’s clone asks, “Treason?” in a scalding tone usually reserved for Naruto’s worst ideas.
“Sasuke merely intercepted me as I was leaving for an urgent but low-stakes mission,” Clone Sai says. “He invited himself along because he didn’t think I could get to Kinchaku-gai alone."
Clone Sasuke makes a disgruntled sound. “ No,” Clone Sasuke corrects. “I thought this mission was a cover for... some other really urgent mission, so urgent they’d just grabbed whoever happened to be at the Tower when it came in. I didn’t think Shikaku was actually sending you on an urgent milk run.”
In the basement, Sai and Shikako both eye Sasuke with surprise. He glares at them for looking so surprised, so Shikako supposes it’s true. What Clone Sasuke actually probably means is that he assumed Sai was being sent on an ANBU mission alone — Sai and Sasuke both have the tattoo on their shoulder — but of course Sasuke can’t just talk about ANBU in front of the out-village Nara hanging around the house.
“Do you have a mission scroll?” Kakashi asks. One of the clones must hand it over because then he says, “Well, that’s definitely Nara Shikaku’s handwriting and signature. Tenzō, didn’t anyone ask the jōnin commander?”
“We also signed out at the gate,” Clone Sai says helpfully.
“Uchiha Hikaku was the last to sign in to the prisoner’s cell and the most likely suspect to aid in an escape,” Tenzō says, with the tone of someone repeating a mission briefing verbatim. While Kakashi had sounded like his usual teasing self when addressing Tenzō, Tenzō sounds flat. Shikako’s only met her own version of Tenzō once, but it makes the hair on her arms raise to hear him sound so empty.
“She’s missing?” Clone Sai asks. “She seemed very determined to cooperate as soon as she could be sure she was delivering her intel to a trustworthy source.” There’s no real concern in his voice, but then... one wouldn’t expect it. No, Clone Sai speaks with the same tone Sai always does, although Shikako can imagine him pulling his face into the very picture of concern, striking a strange contrast between expression and tone.
“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Tōshōdai breaks in, with a tone of voice that indicates he absolutely means to interrupt. “This is a working farm, not a debriefing room or what have you. Shikaku-sama’s mission scroll seemed clear to me. If there’s more gossip to impart, maybe you could do it elsewhere? We all have work to get to, and some of it requires the kitchen.”
“Of course, Nara-san,” Kakashi says. “We got a little carried away. If you two are done resting up, we’ll head back to Konoha now.”
His tone implies that this is less of a suggestion than it is an order. The two clones stand and thank Tōshōdai and the other civilians for their hospitality. Then the whole group leaves towards the village at high speeds.
After about five minutes, the trap door opens. Sai twists to look at it.
“C’mon up and have some real food before you go,” Tōshōdai says. “And I got a change of clothes for you, mysterious kunoichi-san.”
Shikako actually has several changes of clothing in hammerspace, because she doesn’t believe in being unprepared, but it hadn’t occurred to her to change out of the thin clothes T&I had provided. Now that it’s been pointed out, Shikako is a little frustrated to realize she’d presented herself to Tōshōdai in a ripped shirt, although he clearly hadn’t thought much of it.
Tōshōdai also tells someone out of sight that they’ve got three more people to feed. Shikako had been kind of planning to eat some combination of ration bars and powdered protein shake, but real food sounds great.
Sasuke says, “Nara-san, if you have work, we wouldn’t want to impose,” which is the kind of phrasing Shikako’s dad had coached her and Shikamaru in during clan heir training. It’s weird to hear it from Sasuke, though.
“Ah, ancient Akimichi saying,” Shikako says. “Eating is the only work that matters.”
Tōshōdai cackles with laughter, and so does the woman in charge of the cooking who had been serving the two clones.
Shikako climbs up the ladder first, followed by the boys, and is handed a small stack of dark, durable clothing, including a mesh shirt. The Nara standard, although when she goes to change she finds that the Nara mon is even printed onto the back of the jacket. Shikako’s things are usually embroidered, not screen printed, but embroidery is more expensive and this farm wouldn’t just have that sort of thing laying around, anyway.
It feels good to be marked as a Nara again
Breakfast is simple but perfect — rice, miso, fish, natto, and even farm-fresh eggs. Real food. It’s being served when Shikako comes out of the room she’d used to change, and a woman serving it, who looks like she’s probably an Akimichi, is asking, “Didn’t I feed you two boys already this morning?”
“Ah, those were clones, ma’am, sorry,” Sasuke explains, looking actually embarrassed. “You really don’t have to—”
The woman continues serving him and Sai. “Hmph,” she says. “Clever. You’ll get to taste my food twice.” Shikako sits down and gets served double what the boys were served, apparently because the Akimichi woman believes in the fair and equal distribution of food between teammates.
“You can get a message to Shikaku, right?” Sasuke asks Tōshōdai as they eat. They do have a fair bit of intel to pass on back to him and no guarantee that the clones will actually get to Konoha, let alone succeed in telling Shikaku anything. Shikako can think of a few things he should probably know that she hasn’t gotten around to telling Sai and Sasuke yet, too.
Tōshōdai is sitting at the table with them, doing some kind of paperwork and sipping tea. He looks up. “Sure. I made sure to leave some stuff out of that shipment I made your clones, especially since they might not even make it all the way back to the village. Someone will have to come by again soon, and Shikaku will probably send a Nara.”
“I’ll write it,” Shikako says. “I know all the clan codes.”
Tōshōdai’s eyebrows raise. “Well, alright,” he says. “I’ll go get you extra paper.”
“I’ve got that too,” Shikako says, and yanks a blank scroll out of hammerspace by reaching into thin air and pulling, just to watch Tōshōdai’s eyebrows jump higher.
She eats with one hand and writes with the other, a hard-won skill, and is surprised to find she actually finishes everything that was served to her.
Sai is looking at her, frowning. “Did they feed you?” he asks her.
“Uh,” Shikako says. “You brought me a ration bar and some water? Anyway, this is done.” She hands it off to Tōshōdai, stands, and bows to him. “Thank you for your hospitality, jii-san.”
“It was good to meet you,” Tōshōdai says to all of them. To Sasuke and Sai he says, “Hope that whole treason thing clears up — seems like Shikaku thinks you’re in the right of it, anyway.” To Shikako, he says,“I hope you’ll come back and visit some time, when you can introduce yourself.”
“I don’t think it’s very likely,” Shikako hedges. “But maybe next time you see Shikaku-sama he’ll explain.”
After breakfast they leave the Nara farm and stop to talk a few miles out because they hadn’t wanted to actually discuss where they’d be headed next where others might overhear. Better for Tōshōdai to be able to say he genuinely has no idea, should someone ask.
“I should probably check the temple in Hot Springs,” Shikako says, without any enthusiasm.
“That might be difficult, as a squad was dispensed to investigate where you came from and they’re likely still in Hot Springs now,” Sai says.
That could be a problem. Granted, Shikako’s pretty sure that she could sneak around most squads who might be dispensed to poke around... but given that Tsunade had sent Kakashi and a squad of ANBU-trained ninja for the pursuit squad, she’s not going to count on the investigation team just being a couple of chūnin or anything.
“We could just... hang out elsewhere until the investigation squad is done,” Sasuke muses. “Although the longer Sai and I are out of the village in parts unknown the more likely it is that we’ll be named missing-nin which... would be annoying.”
Shikako’s lips quirk, amused at the understatement. “Annoying?”
Sasuke huffs. “Imagine how Naruto would react,” he says. “He’s supposed to come back soon and I’m sure if he came back to hear that I’d defected he’d turn right back around to try and come find me.”
“Well, I’d hate to subject you to that,” Shikako says. Also, you know, Shikako really really doesn’t want to go back to Hot Springs. She’d be happy to avoid Land of Hot Water for the rest of her life , and now she gropes for a good reason to go absolutely anywhere else. “Plus I don’t really want to be on a never-ending camping trip. And I hate waiting. I think... I think if there had been anything obvious to be found in Hot Springs, I would have found it when I arrived.”
“Did you look for a seal there before coming to Konoha?” Sai asks.
Mostly she’d passed out and thrown up. But — “I can sense seals,” Shikako explains. “Active seals, anyway, anything with chakra. And I didn’t sense anything that might be, uh, relevant to interdimensional travel.” She hadn’t exactly been looking for that sort of thing at the time, but it would probably be obvious. “But I did... hear something. Do you think we can go to Wind? How tense are things?”
“Nominally we’re still allies, and Sand really doesn’t want to start a war they can’t win, so if we get there ahead of any message saying Sai and I are acting against Konoha, they can’t really say no. Although... we’ll probably get an escort from some grumpy Sand nin. What did you hear that makes you think Wind is the best place to look?”
“A... sound I recognized,” Shikako says slowly. “From a mission that took me out to the Dead Wastes. There’s some very, um, special seal work there. Or, there should be.” Considering that this universe still exists and everyone isn’t under the rule of the New Gelel Empire or anything, the invasion must have been thwarted and hopefully the temple is still there, and Gelel is still there, and... when Shikako gets there she’ll have some kind of bright idea about how to use the man-made kami of the Dead Wastes to get home.
Sasuke nods, like she’s told him everything he needs to know. “We can get you to the Dead Wastes,” he says. “Hell, Sand will probably be happy to send us blundering around in there, just on the off chance we die.”
It’s weird to think of Sand as the enemy.
They head west towards Land of River. It’s only about a day to the border. The trip to the Dead Wastes itself is a little complicated by the fact that it’s in the north of Land of Wind, where the sand sea desert fades into dry canyons, but they’ll have to stop at the River-Wind border stop, which is not to the north, to clear their trip through Wind. Annoying, but necessary.
After the trees become too small for tree jumping, they have to switch to running on the forest floor. Over a late lunch, Sai says, “My clone just popped.”
Clone Sai, he explains, went back to Konoha with Clone Sasuke and the pursuit squad. Both clones were hustled into separate interrogation cells. Clone Sai sat through what was probably the most frustrating, boring interrogation Morino Ibiki has ever given until a Nara showed up with an irate note from Shikaku wondering where his urgent shipment of stuff from the Nara farm was.
“He wanted to meet on Nara grounds,” Sai says thoughtfully. “And there was no one else in the house when my clone arrived. He even put up privacy seals so we could speak freely. It was very convenient.”
“Oh no,” Sasuke says “You didn’t.”
“I did,” Sai says. “It was the best chance I was likely to get. And it worked. My clone was able to see and break the Kotoamatsukami genjutsu on him...” Sai blinks slowly. “Regrettably, Shikaku-sama did find my attack on the genjutsu to resemble an attack on his person, so although I did manage to break the genjutsu my clone was not able to observe any long- or short-term effects.”
“Hikaku,” Sasuke groans. “Shikaku was probably the only person standing between you and real trouble.”
“I felt it was more important to free him of the genjutsu,” Sai says. He glances at Shikako.
Shikako doesn’t like thinking about her father — any version of her father — being under Danzō’s influence. She likes even less that Sai’s glance implies that he might have done it less out of loyalty to the village and its hierarchy and more out of loyalty to her. Shikako isn’t even sticking around. He shouldn’t really be loyal to her.
Shikako takes in a deep breath and then stands up. “Assuming he can tell he was under a genjutsu, he probably won’t do anything about it until he has all the facts,” Shikako says. “But we don’t know if he was aware of the genjutsu. Maybe not, since he took Sai’s clone breaking it to be an attack. We should keep moving in case the pursuit squad is sent after us or a hawk is sent to the border.”
“My clone hasn’t popped yet,” Sasuke reports as they start moving west again. “Probably being yelled at by my mom. And Uzume-ba-san.”
“Uzume-ba?” Shikako asks.
“She and Hikaku are both from the same lineage,” Sasuke explains. “She named him after her grandfather, who was the last one to have the Yatagarasu.”
“I had... a different name, before I became an Uchiha,” Sai says. “The name you know. But I... didn’t want to share it. So I accepted a new name.”
“You were always an Uchiha,” Sasuke corrects him.