"Shit!" Haruka cursed, sprang to her feet and then started running, shouting over her shoulder: "Wait for Sai please and then send him after me!"
Lee shouted something after her, but she didn't listen. The Kyubi's chakra had suddenly erupted further down the river, which meant Naruto was not only fighting, but also in trouble. He only ever pulled on the Tailed Beast's energy when he was in danger.
Haruka didn't really have a plan for what to do when she reached the blond. He was more powerful than her, especially now that she was almost out of chakra and had a bleeding wound in her right side. Still, she couldn't just sit around when she knew he was in trouble.
"You are in no shape to continue fighting," Gaara remarked. In her weakened state catching up with her hadn't taken him long. She was actually kind of surprised that Lee had stayed put, but that was likely the redhead's doing as well. The floating sand cloud he was standing on was surprisingly fast, and she was glad when his sand picked her up and placed her next to him. She wasn't only not in a condition to fight, she couldn't even run properly.
"Thanks," Haruka wheezed, then pointed him in the right direction. Floating meant they wouldn't have to follow the terrain and could cut their path short.
"Lee said Naruto followed after your third teammate, apparently he intends to seek out Orochimaru on his own," Gaara informed her. It sounded almost like a question, but with his general lack of inflection these things were hard to tell. Haruka decided to answer him just in case.
"The idiot wants power no matter the cost, and he's decided that an untrustworthy snake will serve him just fine, even if he is the mouse in that equation. Well, at least I hope that's it because if he actually believes the bullshit Orochimaru has promised him something is seriously wrong with his head and I'm still hoping he's just stupid and not insane."
A massive wave of chakra, both Sasuke's and Naruto's, yet not, hit them a few minutes later. Gaara clearly felt the pressure and maybe even the wrongness, but for Haruka it was like getting torn to shreds by gale-force winds. Her teammates' chakra was mixed with one another's as well as the Kyubi's and that of the curse seal, which made for a very potent mix of opposing forces. It was laden with electricity, wind, fire, hate and hope alike, and it made her want to crawl into some deep dark cave to wait out the storm.
Haruka forced her breathing to remain as even as possible, but it was an uphill battle. Then the wave of chakra was gone, just as suddenly as it had come, and she lost her balance. She yelped in surprise, and would have likely fallen to the ground if sand hadn't held her in place. Her head was pounding and her skin tingled as if thousands of insects crawled beneath it.
A drop of water hit her hand, then another, and then the sky opened up. It wasn't quite torrential, but the rain quickly soaked through their clothes and Gaara's sand, which forced him to land. Moving the sand when wet was a lot more difficult than he was used to. It slowed them down so much that Haruka decided to try running again. She wasn't particularly fast right now, but certainly faster than Gaara, who generally fought stationary.
Haruka thanked him again for his help, but then left him behind to reach her teammates. By now she was close enough to sense both of them regularly. Their chakra was back to normal, but also relatively weak. Naruto's more so than Sasuke's, which made her think the Uchiha had either already or was about to win their fight.
She pushed herself as hard as she could without relying on chakra. What she had left wouldn't be enough for more than one or maybe two Body Flickers, and if Naruto had indeed lost she might need to protect him.
The scene she arrived at wasn't nearly as bad as she had feared. The boys had stopped at the Valley of the End, an appropriately dramatic place to have their battle. Her blond teammate lay on the ground next to the river. His clothes were torn and dirty, but physically he was completely fine. Sasuke stood over him, barely able to keep himself upright, yet he too didn't seem particularly hurt, only exhausted. There were two holes in the back of his shirt that made Haruka's eyes widen. The skin underneath was perfectly fine, but unlike Naruto the Uchiha didn't heal faster than normal people.
"That weird monster form gave you wings?" She guessed, half hoping that she was wrong, that he hadn't actually used the cursed seal, but of course she knew better. What else would have made his chakra feel like that?
Sasuke flinched when he heard her voice, apparently too distracted to notice her approach. She certainly hadn't been quiet, more concerned with speed than stealth.
"Yeah," he agreed, head still bowed and eyes focused on Naruto. There was a kunai in his left hand and he gripped it so hard that the knuckles turned white. "Sakura and Naruto already had their turn. Is it time for you to try and keep me in the village now?"
She laughed at that, shaking her head. It wasn't a happy sound, but her only other option would be to cry, and that would be even less helpful.
"That would be a tad hypocritical considering that I was leaving myself when I happened to hear about your stupid plan to join Orochimaru."
His eyes snapped up to hers, wide and disbelieving.
"You're defecting?"
She shrugged at him, then smiled.
"Well, unlike you I don't have much of a choice. There's a faction inside of Konoha that has, at least as far as I can tell, been operating independently of the Hokage. The leader wants me dead and since I have no proof of his involvement and no idea who exactly is under his command, getting out seemed like the only viable path." She nodded at his weapon and then at their blond teammate. "I take it your brother told you how to gain the Mangekyo?"
"You knew?" He asked, a little surprised, but then laughed. "Of course you did. Sometimes I think he told you more than he ever told anyone else."
"You're the only other person I know of that he really cares about, and he always wanted to protect you from all the monsters lurking in the shadows of this world. I already knew better at that time, but trust me there is more than enough he didn't share with me either."
"How does becoming a monster himself and killing my clan protect me?"
"I don't know, but I'll find out." Haruka put a hand on her wakizashi, widening her stance a little. "But if you try to go through with that," a glance at his kunai, "we're going to have a problem."
He laughed again, just as humorless as the first time, and shook some of the water out of his hair. It didn't help at all because the rain, even though it was lighter now, was still falling.
"I won't be his puppet. I'll gain power my own way."
She relaxed a little, letting go of her blade. Killing Sasuke wasn't really a viable option because of how much he meant to Itachi, and she'd kind of grown to like him herself, even if he was a massive idiot. Not to mention that Gaara had been right, she had a hard time standing without showing how much her side hurt, fighting would likely only get her killed before she achieved anything. Still, she wouldn't just have stood aside while Sasuke murdered their teammate.
"So instead you'll be Orochimaru's toy?" Haruka asked, one eyebrow raised. "That cursed seal isn't power. It's just the strings he'll use to maneuver you around."
"I know what he wants and I don't intend to give it to him. I will take everything he has to offer, then I will kill him," the Uchiha said with conviction.
It was more than Haruka had hoped, yet less than she wanted. He wasn't completely lost, but so, so blind.
"Let me know if you'd like some help with that last part. Killing Orochimaru is certainly on my todo list, but do you really think a man that is afraid of your brother can possibly give you the strength to kill him?"
"Why would one of the Sannin be afraid of Itachi? Jiraiya handled him just fine," Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed.
"Oh please," she scoffed in answer. "I heard all about that and that old pervert did not handle him. Itachi decided to leave, just like he did in Konoha. The Mangekyo is immensely powerful and only a handful of people have ever been able to activate it. Your brother is the only living Uchiha who possesses it and Orochiamru said himself that he wants you because of your eyes. Do you really think he would have settled for the regular Sharingan if he was stronger than Itachi?"
A long silence followed that statement, then Sasuke slowly turned away from her.
"That day… he said if I were to master the Mangekyo there would be three people who could use it."
"Three?" Haruka breathed, disbelieving, coloring her voice. If that was true that meant there was another Uchiha out there somewhere. One who had suffered enough and possibly killed the person closest to them to activate the Sharingan's advanced stage. That kind of power wasn't easy to hide and the Uchiha clan's dojutsu was well known throughout the Elemental Nations, yet she'd never heard about that person before. The massacre had been years ago, which implied whoever it was was deliberately keeping a low profile.
It could mean they were simply a recluse or maybe just didn't involve themselves with shinobi live. They could be hiding to avoid people like Orochimaru, but there were also reasons far more sinister to keep someone in the shadows. After all, good shinobi could become famous, but the best should be nothing more than whispers in the wind. Ghosts that only existed in the nightmares of their enemies.
Haruka didn't get a lot of time to contemplate all the negative implications that information could possibly have.
"Kakashi is coming this way," she told Sasuke. He'd only just entered the edge of her range, but he was moving fast and would reach them soon. The Uchiha grimaced at the news.
"Well? Are you just going to stand around and wait for him to drag you back?" Haruka asked with a raised eyebrow. He turned back towards her and she almost laughed at the confusion in his face.
"You're not going to stop me?"
"Of course not. I mean it's not like you'd just stay in Konoha. They'd have to put you in chains and lock you away to keep you put, and I'm decidedly against cages of any kind," she huffed. "I'd rather you come with me than go to the snake because he's a twisted bastard, who does terrible things to children, but you already know that."
"I will do anything to get the strength I need," Sasuke told her.
"Yeah sure, whatever," she said, annoyed, but perfectly aware that she couldn't change his mind. "Just don't come to me crying when he makes you torture puppies and sticks needles in you because I promise those things will happen, and he will laugh like the maniac he is while he does it."
Her voice had turned bitter at the end, which made Sasuke give her a quizzical look. She shooed him away though. Kakashi was too close and it was far too late to tell the Uchiha in detail just how deranged his new master was. If the things he already knew and could guess at didn't deter him the details of her past wouldn't either. He was so fixated on wanting to kill his brother that it had become his sole reason for living.
"This time everyone survived and because they followed you of their own volition I'll make an exception, but if you ever go after anyone I care about Sasuke," she paused to give him a hard look so he would know she meant it, "I will hunt you down like the mad dog you're turning into, and unlike you I won't play games."
Haruka wanted both Orochimaru and Danzo dead, but she wasn't consumed by the need to kill them. They would die eventually, by her hand or someone else's. She didn't need them to suffer to find peace of mind, she just needed them gone.
Sasuke was trying to prove something. His revenge was a blazing inferno of emotions that slowly but surely consumed him from the inside out. If he didn't stop himself there would be nothing left but a hollow shell by the time he was done. If he ever actually managed to kill Itachi he would also destroy his only reason to live, and who knows what someone that broken might decide to do next.
Her revenge was cold. It was something that needed to happen at some point, but she could wait. Her priority was the safety of the pack, not the death of her enemies. Sasuke was willing to cut all ties of friendship to get what he wanted, but she would not. Haruka's path was slower and she might not make it to the end before her time was up, but she also would be more than just an avenger. She had seen enough monsters to know there was no point in turning into one herself just so she could take others down.
"You're like Gaara pre-Naruto-intervention, only worse!" She called after Sasuke's retreating form, and then sat down next to the blonde to wait for their sensei. He probably wouldn't be happy with her, but she wouldn't leave without Sai. They'd simply have to hope that saving the ink bird for an escape would prove to be as useful as it sounded.
Gaara caught up with her almost at the same time as Kakashi did. By now the rain had stopped completely, which might be really good or really bad for her, depending on which side the redhead chose.
"Is he…?" Kakashi asked, and Haruka hastened to inform him that Naruto was fine. He crouched down and picked the blond up slowly, carefully, as if he might fall apart if Kakashi moved too fast.
"Sasuke's committed to his idiocy, but on the bright side he chose not to kill Naruto. I'm not sure I could have stopped him if he had," she added, putting some pressure on her side with her right hand. The wound had started to bleed again while she'd run to reach her teammates, but she'd ignored it until now.
"You okay pup?" Pakkun asked in his usual gruff tone. He'd let Kakashi to them and was now inspecting the scars Naruto and Sasuke had ripped into the stone.
"I'll live," she assured him while Gaara moved closer, presumably to confirm that Naruto was indeed still alive. She sensed Sai and Jubei in the distance, but no one else was following them. It seemed if worst came to worst the numbers would at least be equal, provided Naruto stayed unconscious.
Kakashi maneuvered the blond onto his back and then turned towards Haruka.
"Let's go home," he said with a tired sigh. That alone made her feel guilty. He already blamed himself and she'd just drive the knife deeper, even if that was the last thing she wanted.
"Can't," she told him, taking a step backwards and away. "Root wants me dead so I'll be taking an extended vacation."
Kakashi's typical slouch suddenly vanished, replaced by an alert posture in the blink of an eye. She could even feel his chakra rising in that storm it only ever did if he was really upset.
"Give me a name," he growled, gaze locked with hers as if he could get the information he wanted straight from her mind just by staring at her. She had no doubt that he would kill whoever she told him to in that moment, and ask questions later, if at all. It almost made her move towards him again. She really, really wanted to hug him, but couldn't risk getting too close just in case.
"You know it's not that easy, probably better than me," she sighed. "Sai got the order, but he warned me instead of going through with it. We're both leaving Kakashi. We have to. There's no telling who Danzo has under his thumb and Tsunade doesn't even know he exists, much less who she can trust. I left a note with everything I know in a code only Ibiki can read. Jubei should have placed it in your flat."
He offered to talk to the Godaime, make sure he wouldn't be sent out without her, so that he could protect her. Even told her she could live with him. Haruka stopped him before he got much further. Seeing Kakashi like this was too hard. He'd saved her, he'd watched over her and he'd taught her that family was more than blood. They both knew she was right, that going back was too dangerous for her, he just didn't want to believe it.
"I promise I'll be smarter than Sasuke, so please don't get yourself killed on my behalf and make sure Naruto doesn't either," she told Kakashi, forcing herself to smile. She couldn't quite keep the tears at bay, but it would have to do. Then she turned to Gaara and added: "You too Panda Eyes, you're a lot more likable when you're not liable to murder anyone in your vicinity."
Haruka used the last of her chakra to body flicker backwards and then sprinted towards Sai before either of her companions could react. The boy had waited on the edge of the forest and by the time she reached him a giant ink bird sat next to him. They climbed onto it and were in the air only seconds later.
She turned around when she felt Gaara's chakra surge, only to see a massive sand wall between them and Kakashi. Haruka had no idea if the redhead was just being careful or if her sensei had actually tried to stop her, but she was grateful for his help all the same. It was good to know that he had her back.
"Where are we going?" Sai asked her after a few seconds in the air. One of his sleeves was torn off and there were some scratches on his arms, but otherwise he looked completely unharmed.
"Don't care," Haruka yawned. "You're flying so you chose. Just wake me when we get there, and maybe make sure I don't fall off before then."