Chapter Text
In a tavern, several streets from the palace gates, a blonde woman slid her coins forward. “Ale, Anko.” The purple-haired bartender nodded, turning to the barrels behind her.
“Busy week, Tsunade?” The other woman sighed.
“You have no idea.” Anko slid the ale across the table and Tsunade took a long drink. “It’s been nothing but bloody idiots all week, and that dumb pervert who can’t take a hint keeps trying to get me to come to dinner.” Anko raised an eyebrow and lent on the counter, her python-inked arm catching the firelight.
“It’s been two weeks since Jiariya got back. He’s a resilient one, eh?” Tsunade groaned.
“Unfortunately for me.” She took another glup of ale. “I’d like to give him a piece of my mind, but I suspect the city guards would get involved again.”
“Why would the Hyuga care about a travelling pervert?”
“He’s got some relation with the Northern Wolves, cousins with a warrior, I think… he’s been going on about it since we were apprentices. I don’t believe half of it, but the idiot has the guards wrapped around his finger.” Tsunade sighed and drained her ale. “Another.” Anko took the mug.
“Bunch of yellow-bellied lizards. Where where they when Danzo took over?” Tsuande hummed in agreement as Anko filled her mug again. A cloaked man came and sat at the stool next to Tsunade, tapping a coin on the wooden bench.
“Good lady, I beg you not to speak ill of the Emperor’s Guardians. Surely there is more to the matter.” Tsunade scoffed.
“And what would you know?” Anko handed her the drink back and starting on another for the man. Tsunade took a long draught. “You look old enough to have lived through the war. You know the so-called Guardians failed to save the capital from the Blood Sorcerer’s takeover.” Anko put the second mug onto the bench. The man sighed, removing his hood. The two women froze. Shisui Uchiha took a drink from the tankard, watching them with dark eyes. He replaced the drink gently.
“Maybe so, good lady, but you do not possess the full story.” He smiled, but it was forced and faint. “If it is your wish, I would share the tale in return for your help.” Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
“I’m listening.”
—
Blood stains the stone halls, the scent of copper overwhelming.
His body aches.
He does not know where he is.
There is a sinister laughing echoing, sending shivers up his spine.
He knows the man behind that laugh.
He knows death is near.
His kin lie dead around him.
They died to protect him, and he wastes their sacrifice.
The man wants him dead too.
There is nothing left in this world for him.
His kin are gone.
His home is taken.
Death beckons him to join them.
He knows little of his situation.
But he knows he must survive.
The Emperor will rule over the Uchiha once more.
—
Itachi looked up from his scroll by Obito’s bed. Shouting and clamouring met his ears from the hall behind the Emperor’s closed door. Tenzo stayed asleep in the chair by the window.
Perhaps Shisui has found Lady Tsunade at last.
The Uchiha stood, watching his cousin’s pale face. An anxious feeling bubbled in the pit of his stomach. The door to the bedchamber opened, and Shisui removed his hood. “I have the Lady. She agreed to accompany me here.”
Shisui code for: the guards didn’t get involved, but I almost resorted to it.
A woman entered behind him, her blonde hair tied back behind narrowed brown eyes. Itachi directed his eyes away from the low-hanging tunic that Tsunade wore, and nodded politely.
“Lady Tsunade. Thank you for your help.” The woman scoffed and nudged past Shisui into the room.
“I’m only doing this because pretty boy over there offered a deal.” She stood next to the unconscious form of the Emperor and bit her lip. “…what dark power is this?” She turned, sparks in her eyes.
Oh dear.
Shisui shrugged off his cloak. “Madam, I informed you that His Majesty was under an evil curse.”
“Not a damn blood curse, by Kami! You’d need a divine power to get rid of this! The most I can do is slow it.” Itachi nodded.
“That will do. Another will arrive to destroy this curse.” Tsunade raised an eyebrow, removing her cloak.
“Sakumo’s pup, huh.” She smiled faintly. “‘Course the old sap had to get involved.” Shisui and Itachi stared a confused look as Tsunade rolled up her sleeves.
Pup? Old sap?
The blonde woman licked her lips, running her fingers over the markings on her arms. “Stand back boys.” Green magic started to hum across her skin. “This thing won’t give up without a fight.”
•
The three children hurried after Kakashi, Naruto already puffing with the speed they’d been travelling. “I don’t get it! Why’re we going so fast, moon lady?” Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura walked a bit faster.
“We have to keep up with the bird,” his sister huffed, rolling her green eyes, “remember? He’s showing us a faster route.” The crow from the night before screeched. Naruto glared at it.
“Stupid bird! I’m going as fast as I can! Shut your beak!” Sasuke sighed.
“Yelling at the bird won’t help, idiot.” His brother sighed grumpily.
“We’ve been travelling all day! I wanna break!”
“We can’t have a break, we have to meet up with the others at the capital!” Sakura shook her head. “Right, Kakashi?” The silver-haired Wolf didn’t answer, having moved several metres ahead of the three. Sakura looked confused for a moment before grabbing the boys by the wrists and dragging them after her to catch up.
“Um, moon lady, could we take a break? Just for a little?” The Wolf turned, blinking at Naruto. Kakashi stopped suddenly, looked up at the sky.
“Three minutes.” The three siblings cheered and sat down in the middle of the road. Kakashi huffed a laugh. “Not there, silly pups. Off the road.” Her voice sounded far-away. Naruto didn’t notice, staying put and digging a piece of dry meat from the campfire fish he’d saved in his bag. Sakura and Sasuke did, and gave the Wolf a strange look. She ignored them. “I’ll go see if there’s any berries in the area. You three stay put and let me know if there’s trouble.” She headed into the trees, pulling her cloak hood up. Sasuke looked at his sister.
“She’s weird.” Sakura nodded, wrestling a piece of fish off Naruto.
—
The rest of their journey was uninterrupted, spare a momentary break so Naruto could relive himself, and the sun began to set as the four arrived at the gates of the Uchiha capital. Three soldiers stood guard, watching the curiously. Kakashi walked forward, the messenger crow swooping down to perch on her shoulder and glare at the soldiers. “I’m here per request of His Majesty Emperor Obito Uchiha.” The braver of the soldiers crossed his arms.
“Name, madam? We can’t just let anyone claiming to be visiting the Emperor in-“
“Kakashi of the Northern Wolf Tribe. Daughter and heir of the White Fang.” Something glimmered in her eyes. It made the three children behind her smirk. The soldier didn’t uncross his arms, and his fellow men were making wild gestures at him, Kakashi, and the eerie looks coming from the children.
“Big claim. Can you prove it?” The crow squawked indignantly. Kakashi’s eyes shone with light as the moon appeared clear in the sky. The moonlight twisted under her fingers, and the Wolf held out her hand, forming a small wolf. The guard raised an eyebrow.
“Nice trick.” Kakashi took a breath, her eyes closing. The moonlight wolf dissolved. “And your summon?”
She pulled a piece of paper from her inner cloak pocket, held it out. The soldier uncrossed his arms.
“Sighed by the Emperor? Yeah, I’d say that’s good enough.” The two men behind him sighed in relief and opened the gate mechanism. Kakashi stuffed the paper out of sight.
“Come on, you three. Better hurry.”
“I didn’t say they were okay!” Kakashi turned. The man shrunk as he caught the full attention of a moonlight glare.
“Follow, pups.” She spun on her heel and entered the city. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the guard as Sasuke smirked and followed their Wolf guardian in. Sakura gave the man a rude gesture with her middle finger before running after them.
•
A growl left Tsunade as she yanked her hand away from the black tentacles once again. “What are these things?” Tenzo tugged one off his wrist, greenery sprouting from the cracks in the stone walls.
“A defence system. Dark magic. I don’t know.” The Nymph traced another seal in the air, and the tendrils recoiled for a moment. The air felt colder, like the heat was being sucked from the room. Shisui prodded the fire in the background, muttering grumpily. The tentacles resurfaced, and Tsunade could swear on her grave that the dark magic was hissing.
Snakelike.
It was suspicious that she could recognise it, but there was little time to dwell on her thoughts. The Senju Healer swiped at another tendril that had started to crawl up her arm. It dissipated and reappeared, snaking back to Obito. Tsunade bit her lip.
“Where is the Wolf?” A screech sounded from outside the window, and the four conscious people inside looked up to spot the back bird outside the window. Itachi crossed the room and opened the glass.
“Thank Amaterasu. That means she’s here.”
—
The summon reached Zetsu late in the evening, a call from the castle gate, and so the advisor made his way to the guard post through the winter air. The soldiers themselves were confused, that was certain.
After all, how often does the Emperor’s Royal Advisor come down to the gate?
They’d bared the way for the Emperor’s guest, which had apparently irritated her immensely. Three men of the Hyuga guard were aside, a medic tending to their injuries. Zetsu smiled to himself.
A worthy Empress is she of our warrior ruler, and of Mother’s power.
The woman herself, the one Mother gifted her moon magic, stood with the captain of the guard. The captain had been summoned from the Emperor’s side as soon as the soldiers realised who they were dealing with. Shisui Uchiha was talking to the guest, with no great deal of concern. The woman was calm. Zetsu noted this before making his presence known to the captain. Shisui turned. “Zetsu. Good. You’re here. I’ll take the lady to His Majesty if you can deal with those fools over there?”
He thinks he can boss me around?
Zetsu nodded. “Of course, Captain. All haste.” He glanced briefly at the lady. She met his gold eyes with silver ones. Zetsu smiled and watched Shisui enter the castle with the Emperor’s guest and three children in Wolf attire. The Emperor’s Advisor turned back to the soldiers. “Now, what happened?”
—
Shisui cursed the curving stone steps, puffing, as he led the four travelers up to the Emperor’s chambers. The three children were puffing too, the blonde’s face flushed either from cold or the trek to the capital. The Wolf kept her hood up and followed silently. They finally arrived at the landing, and the wooden door to Obito.
Do not worry, cousin. Help has arrived.
The Wolf turned to the three children. “Wait here.” They nodded, and Shisui opened the door. Inside, Tsunade roared insults at the black magic that tried to wrap itself around her neck. Tenzo had slipped once more into unconsciousness from overuse of magic, and Itachi had moved the Nymph out of the tendrils reach. As soon as the cloaked Wolf entered the room, the tentacles hissed and recoiled. Tsunade turned.
“Well, look who’s finally here.” The Wolf smiled.
“Lady Senju. Nice to see you.” Tsuande laughed softly and moved away from the Emperor, grabbing Shisui by the collar when he went to move forward.
“We’ll wait outside. Come along, boys.” Shisui tried to protest, but Tsuande dragged him out, and Itachi slung Tenzo over his shoulder and followed, shutting the door behind him.
•
The window was open already, moonlight streaming across the bare form on the bed. Black shadows danced over the form, tendrils that wrapped around skin. Kakashi removed her cloak, hanging it over the chair beside the bed. The shadows moved back, recoiling. The Wolf smiled softly, outstretching her hand. The shadows recoiled and hissed. She tilted her head, noticing the scarred skin that the tendrils covered. Her fingers brushed a long line, tracing it like spiderwebs.
Did he do this to you?
The moonlight started to gather in her hand, and Kakashi licked her lip before moving her attention to the black veins that mixed with the scars. One of Danzo’s curses, no doubt, and one meant to destroy. Her eyes, now silver in the light, followed the veins up the Emperor’s neck to his face. The worst of the scarring was to the right of his face, deep lines etched into skin.
Danzo had hated Madara after all. He would have projected that onto you.
Kakashi found her eyes watching his face, then travelling back down his skin, Obito’s scarred, bare chest- she shook her head.
Focus.
The moonlight swirled in between her fingers, glittering and bright, blue this time instead of red. She gently pressed her fingers against his chest and released the moonlight.
The tendrils rippled and froze.
Then dove for her.
Kakashi twisted her wrist, keeping her fingers on Obito’s skin. The moonlight burst upward, slashing through the shadows bare centimetres from her face. She grinned. “Try harder.” The tentacles hissed and snarled, the shadows twisting away from the moonlight. Kakashi diverted some of the moonlight to her eyes, and then paused. She could see the extent of the curse’s damage.
It’s spread across his entire body.
Kakashi bit her lip and started drawing all the moonlight she could from the room, sending it into Obito’s body. The shadows burst through the moonlight, wrapping around her wrist and pulling it back. She hissed in pain as the tendrils tightened. The moonlight swirled under Obito’s skin as the black veins slowly shrunk.
Okay, just like that-
The tendrils wrapped around Kakashi’s ankle, travelling up her leg and driving her knee to the floor heavily. The shadows pulled on her wrist, wrenching it back. The Wolf ignored it and kept the flow of magic into the Emperor’s chest.
The curse concentrates around his heart. If I can-
A tentacle wrapped around her waist, clawing up to grab her neck. The shadows formed a hand and started to cut off her air. Kakashi was forced to her knees as the shadows hissed and strengthened their grip. She grabbed Obito’s arm, loosely hanging off the bed. Black dots spotted her vision, and the moonlight grew flimsy under her fingers.
No. No, not happening.
She sent the last of the moonlight out, barely keeping her grip on Obito as the shadows pulled her back. She hit the wall, hard, and the shadows morphed into a man. He had his hands around her throat and his knee to her chest.
You
dare
interfere
Kakashi gagged as the shadow-man applied pressure. Her vision darkened and the moonlight was out of reach.
Damn it. He knows how to fight me. Who even is this?
The shadow laughed, a twisted echo that turned to a scream as a scarred hand stuck itself through the shadow’s chest.