Kakashi POV~

I didn't know where to go next. I was completely lost.

Sasuke wasn't here. I didn't know if he was even alive. The dogs had lost the scent, we had no more trails, nothing.

If I wasn't panicking before, I sure as hell was panicking now.

He was gone. One day he was here, and the next night, he'd disappeared without a trace.

I scoffed. Deja vu.

Pakkun, with a solemn look on his face, apologized before leaving.

"It's fine." I sighed, "It's...we'll find him. He's not dead. He wouldn't die that easily."

I sounded doubtful even to myself. Pakkun saw it too, but all he did was give me one more apologetic look before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"You're right about that. He wouldn't die that easily."

That voice. It wasn't Tenzo's.

I whipped around, getting out a kunai but knowing better that to throw it by now. The so-called "Madara Uchiha" just stared at me silently. Well, whether or not he was staring at me I couldn't tell since I couldn't even see his eye, but that wasn't the point. 

"Sasuke is very much alive. In fact, he won the fight. Itachi Uchiha is dead."

I couldn't help the relief, along with the dread, of his words. 

Sasuke was alive. But he killed Itachi.

There was blood on his hands now, and I knew how hard it was to wash that off. It never does come off.

But Tobi kept talking. With each word, the pit in my stomach deepened.

Itachi was a spy. 

A spy.

Was he telling the truth?

I saw no reason for him to lie.

By the time he was done, I didn't know what to think.

"You can believe me or you can choose not to. What I say is the truth, though." he began to disappear, "It's up to you."

And then he was gone. I glanced at Tenzo, who just stared at the spot where Tobi vanished.

The day just got a lot more complicated than I thought it would.

Sasuke POV~

I had to admit, seeing Naruto and Kurama quarrel and argue in the good-natured way they do was nostalgic. 

The fox was as snarky as I remembered, but it was obvious that they cared about each other. I didn't realize a small smile had come to my face until Naruto glanced at me and smiled.

I hid my smile a little more after that, but not much.

"You know, Sasuke." he waved around, "What is this place anyways?"

I glanced around and thought about what he said about escaping Tobi. My chest tightened at the thought.

I didn't want to tell him. I really didn't. It was my fight and mine alone. I shouldn't involve anyone else.

And I knew Naruto wouldn't force me to. But I knew that Tobi was after him, and we were literally just sitting around near one of his hideouts.

Naruto waited for my response, not rushing me and instead messing with Kurama. The fox snapped at his hand when he pulled one of his tails and spouted some lame excuse, earning himself another smack in the head.

I realized I was smiling again. 

The dark, swirling hatred, guilt, and pain was still there, but for the first time since I fought Itachi, I pushed it back. 

I stood. There wasn't time to mess around anymore.

"Naruto, you should know that one of Tobi's hideouts is near here."

Naruto and Kurama froze, but they didn't look too surprised.

"Oh well." he stood and shrugged, "We've had to confront him a lot recently anyways."

"He says he's Madara Uchiha."

At this, Naruto laughed, much to my confusion.

"He walks around saying he's Madara, but he's not." he said.

"It's true. I've encountered both this man and the real Madara Uchiha before. They're two different people."

Huh. That was interesting. He must have had some reason to wear Madara Uchiha's name. I had a few theories, but none were solid.

"Anyways, we should go." Naruto stood and brushed himself off.

"Finally. You know how dangerous it is to stay in one place for too long." the nine-tailed fox, in his small, hardly intimidating form, turned to me, "Be careful, Sasuke. Naruto and I are here if you need us."

That was high regard, coming from the Kyuubi, and Naruto and I both knew it. I could only imagine how much teasing would ensue in the future between the two of them just for that sentence. 

"You have managed to avoid getting caught for so long." came a new voice. "You were stupid enough to throw all that away and come here, of all places."

In an instant, golden chakra surrounded Naruto and he leapt back several feet. At the first sign of it, I'd jumped back myself, activating my sharingan. 

Tobi just stood there and watched us carefully. He used whatever teleporting jutsu he had to get there, but I hated the fact that I hadn't sensed him until he announced his presence.

He raised a hand towards Naruto again, and Naruto dodged the portal that came his way. My sharingan was activated, so it was easy to track his movements. He was as nimble as ever, but Tobi was entirely ignoring me.

I sent a handful of shuriken in his direction, and they phased through him. As they did, he stopped activating the portals.

I locked eyes with Naruto. He noticed it too.

A giant chakra hand reached out from the chakra cloak around him and he swiped and Tobi. He leapt back, phasing through the shuriken that I had prepared. 

As long as we kept him intangible, he couldn't open a portal.

He seemed to notice that we figured it out, because he started to make more of an effort to dodge rather than just let everything pass through him. He was searching for an opening, but neither Naruto nor I were willing to give him one.

It was amazing, how easy it was for the two of us to get back into a rhythm. Naruto and I had slid right back into a smooth partnership in battle, as if we'd never left.

But there was a single moment. I noticed it too late. This was his territory after all, and I hadn't realized just how close he'd gotten to Naruto.

It was a split second. That was all he would need. I had forgotten, again, that I wasn't the target here.

He was.

The chakra surged before I'd even known it. It started behind my eyes, then came out to surround me like a shield. 

I was moving, then. One second Tobi was about to reach Naruto. The next, I was standing between them, surrounded in purple chakra and slapping him away with an armored hand.

Tobi hit managed not to get hit, but he no longer had such ready access to Naruto.

A giant, armored avatar made of chakra surrounded me. It looked like...

The Susanoo. 

Itachi had used it, I thought absently.

Itachi had Mangekyou. Looks like I did too now.

Naruto didn't let the shock sit with him long. Soon he was moving again, shifting to stand beside me. Both of us stood, surrounded in chakra: him with Kurama's, mine with the Mangekyou Sharingan's Susanoo.

Tobi didn't look surprised, but he stood a little warier now. I could see the slight tension in his shoulders now, something that I wouldn't have noticed without eyes like this.

"You've awoken the Mangekyou." he said, "Well done, Sasuke. I could never count on your loyalty, but it seems you've done well either way." he narrowed his visible eye, which I now noticed was also a sharingan, "You never had solid loyalty to anyone but your own clan. You've always been like that, hm? First you leave Konoha for Orochimaru, and, when everyone thought they'd finally had your loyalty for good, you leave again to avenge your clan. You've never been reliable to anyone but yourself, have you?"

"Don't let his words get to you." Naruto bit out from beside me. From how his voice sounded, his teeth were clenched together. 

I didn't respond for a moment. Then, in an even voice, I said, "You've mistaken me, Tobi."

Before he could react to that, I reached forward with the Susanoo. A massive bow materialized in its hands, and soon I had an arrow flying towards the spot where Tobi was standing.

It missed, obviously, but it gave Naruto a chance to do something.

Chakra hands, dozens of them, shot out from where Naruto was, forcing Tobi to dodge around them.

"Sasuke." 

I tilted my head towards him, indicating I was listening.

"I have a jutsu that I'd learned recently. I haven't had the chance to try it out much. It's a variation of the Rasengan, using wind style. Kurama calls it Rasenshuriken."

"Wind style." it clicked with me then, "You want me to use fire on it."

"You can?"

"Who do you take me as, dobe? Of course I can." in fact, there was something else I wanted to test as well.

"It'll take a moment. Cover me?"

I nodded, and continued to drive Tobi back while Naruto gathered his new jutsu. It made a whirring sound, high pitched and sounding like a shuriken spinning full speed. I spared a glance towards it. It really was like a wind-style variation of Rasengan, a large shuriken made purely of chakra. It was obvious Naruto was still new to it, but he had a relatively good handle on it.

Suddenly, I thought about black flames.

"Ready?" I asked, and he nodded.

Suddenly, Tobi lashed out, and I could feel power surging in my left eye. It blazed, pain and chakra ripping itself out in a controlled fire.

I glanced at the Rasenshuriken, and it burst into black fire. 

Naruto yelped in surprise, and looked at me. 

"Amaterasu." was the only explanation I gave. I was absently aware of blood dripping out of my eye.

He blinked at me decided to ignore it. The act now, questions later attitude was still there, apparently.

With a well-aimed swing, he sent the Rasenshuriken, armed with Amaterasu flames, straight at Tobi. It phased through him, only to swing around midair and attack him again. It was a powerful jutsu, from the looks of it when it exploded. Tobi was hardly affected by it, since he was intangible, but anyone else would have been ripped to pieces.

Good thing it only served as a distraction.

I wasn't on board with the idea of running away, but Naruto was an idiot and I figured that if this guy was chasing him I'd need to watch his back. A tactical retreat it is.

By the time Tobi noticed we were gone, there was no telling where we went.