Interlude: A new day Pt 7

2nd story: The summoning of the sword master and the return of the genius
Chapter Three: The things which are truly important
Nightfall. “Is he still following us, Keisuke-o-toto-san?”
“Step-by-step, o-nee-sama. His speed is quite impressive. If we camp now at the Valley of the End, we might be able to get him tonight.”
“This means that we might be able to return him to normal society and to show him truly important things before sunrise. Let's go!”
Ten minutes later, they set up a fire on the northern cliff (Sound country side), making themselves ready for camping. Kamikashi however threw the cage with Itachi over the cliff, making him hanging from the chains he was wrapped in. After she secured the chains on a pole, she went down to him, standing on the wall. She smirked. “In your position I wouldn't try to move or to escape.”
Itachi was not impressed. “Why this?”
“If you move, the chain will begin to strangle you. If you manage to break it, you will fall down on my very icy very sharp spikes, for the real chain is as thin as a necklace, it only holds together with our combined chakra. Anyway, you are not able to break it, so that's just a warning policy.”
“Which spikes? And why should not I be able to break the chains?”
Kamikashi made some hand seals and pointed to the bottom of the valley. “These spikes. And you cannot break the chains because they steal your chakra, feeding it to me. Good night, stupid weasel.” She turned around.
“Why did you capture and not kill me, just like Kisame?”
“That's easy. I want your brother. Now shut up.” she forced into his mind. She threw a poisoned needle (senbon) at Itachi’s neck, causing him to be paralysed. Afterwards she ran back to the camp.
“Let's pretend that we are asleep.” she mentioned to her siblings.
“Got it, o-nee-sama.” two spirit reader voices answered. Inariko stretched casually (again). “Time for bed now. Good night, everyone!” And a few minutes later the siblings had fallen into some kind of half-sleep mode. (Do you really think they are asleep?!)

An hour later, Sasuke came out of his hiding place and climbed on the head of the Madara- statue, watching the sleepy shinobi. “Damn, where is Itachi?” Then he saw the cage and the anti-escape traps. “Looks like they want to make sure that he does not even try to break free. I’m sure that those ice spikes will attack him if he does so.” Before he had come out in the open, he was only able to listen; now he was only able to see. “I wonder why they are able to use Ice Release, just like that guy I fought years before. Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t take root here. I certainly do not have so much time.”
He rushed down the statue and ran along the wall, drawing his sword (Kamikashi’s comment: Do you really think this is a sword? I forge better cooking knifes in my free time!). “ITACHI!!!” he screamed as he reached the cage.
Yet before he could strike, countless chains ensnared him, causing him to hang headlong from the cliff, and crashing noisily into his brother's cage. “Foolish little brother, wasn’t that a bit too obvious?” The sword fell down into the valley.

”Shut the fuck up!” Sasuke tried to break his chains, but the more he tried, the less power and chakra he had.
Suddenly, Kamikashi stood at the edge of the cliff, smirking nastily. “O-toto-chan, i-moto-chan, it looks like we have a BITE! Let's reel them in!” She pulled up the two Uchiha on solid ground. Quickly, her siblings came to their feet. “Well done, Inariko. That Genjutsu was pretty useful.” She cleared her throat. “»Ninja fishing rod number two: vindictive idiots«: SUCCESS!” Afterwards she kicked the elder Uchiha unconscious.
Confused, angry, and ashamed Sasuke began to yell at them. “How were you able to cast a Genjutsu on me?! I can see through every Genjutsu with my eyes!”
Inariko shook her head, a condescending smirk on her face. “Not if it is bloodline limit based or supported. We can cast Genjutsu with our voices. A single word which reaches your ears and you are trapped. As you listened to us an hour ago, you were already trapped.”
Kamikashi threw the Itachi-cage back down the cliff and turned to the younger Uchiha, an evil smirk on her face. “And now to you, Sasuke… how about a trip to hell?” She grabbed him with the help of her chains which were coming from a launcher on her left wrist by the collar of his shirt. Before Sasuke could answer, she focused her eyes on his. “Do-jutsu: Mahiru Sharingan: Tsukuyomi: Kokoro no Futsui-yomi Fuku Shakai [瞳-術: 真昼・写輪眼: 月読: 心・の・払い-読・復・社会] (Eye technique: Noon Sun Copy wheel eye: Moon reader: Spirit clearing and reading Return to Society)!” In the same moment, Kamikashi's second self appeared (Kami bunshin no jutsu!), who began to burn out Sasuke’s cursed seal. “Bloodline master: Seal vanish-making fire!”
“AAAHHH!”
Inariko focused on her brother. “What now, o-nii-san?”
Keisuke shrugged his shoulders. “Well, now we got to wait until she gets him back. Afterwards you have to heal him, i-moto-chan.” Keisuke took over the control over Itachi's chain.
“Got it.” They sat down and made up a new fire.

Sasuke woke up in the world of Tsukuyomi, but it was not the world he was used to from his brother. Instead of a full, bright red moon there was only a copper red crescent in the sky, and they were standing not on a platform but in the middle of a forest clearing. Out of a sudden, Kamikashi stood in front of him.
“Good evening, cry baby. How are you?”
Sasuke fixated her with his Sharingan, which were of course completely useless now. “Let me go!”
“You are not in the position to give orders, Baka. Well then, let's see what you are made of…” In an instant, Kamikashi began to read his memories, analysing his emotional and mental status. “I see… quite interesting, you are. How sad that you waste your talents and your good nature with revenge…”
Sasuke was horrified that someone could read him so easily. He fell on his hands and knees, panting. “How are you able to use Tsukuyomi up to that level and to read me that easily? I thought you need Kaleidoscope Sharingan to do so.”
Kamikashi grinned. “I am Kirikumo Kamikashi, eldest daughter of the Kirikumo clan, a family of Kekkei Genkai collectors. It was more than five generations ago that we acquired the abilities of the Sharingan. Now we have the ultimate eye technique: The Kamigan, the eyes of the gods. And I managed to get the positive version of Kaleidoscope Sharingan, the Mahiru (mid day sun) Sharingan. In combination with my telepathic abilities, I have quite interesting abilities to cure disturbed minds like you. Well, we should go on. Number one… you have fought here at the Valley of the End already. Let's take a look…”
Sasuke tried to escape. “No!” But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even move a single finger or his head as the scenery turned into the Valley of the End and he was fighting one-tailed Naruto, his best friend.
Kamikashi turned to him with an interested face. “Looks like you lost your true dream a long time ago. Let's dig a bit deeper…”
“No…stop this!”
It was too late. Reminiscence after reminiscence kept coming up and vanishing, some good, and many bad ones. After hours and seemingly days of enforced memorising, chased and haunted by his past, Sasuke collapsed, courtesy of the unbearable emotional pain in his soul-body. “It looks like you reached the limit. Ah, it starts already!” Out of the collapsed soul-body crept a six-year old boy, covered with blood, tears and the cursed seal, and a twelve-year-old teenager with a cool smile and sad eyes. A ghostly version of the grown-up Sasuke rose out of the “corpse”, stepping to the side of Kamikashi. The young adult spirit was horrified – and curious. “What the hell is this?”
Kamikashi closed her eyes. “That is the main conflict in your soul: your past, your ties to your old family and your dream, your future.” She opened them again and pointed at the small boy. “Your name and your blood ties you to revenge, the cursed seal of Orochimaru is tying your soul. He is now in control of your body, powered by the cursed seal. But that's not you yourself; it is just your sense of duty to your ancestors, the manipulation by Orochimaru and the very childish wish for getting back what you lost in the past.”
Now he was furious. “That is not child…!”
Kamikashi cut it. “It is childish and foolish. One of the greatest clans of Konoha, the Yakushi clan says that there is no turning back in life. Your other self knows that quite well. He is your dream. But it seems that you do not know your own dream.”
“Which is?” He felt confused, tired, and shaken. “And who are the other parts of my self?”
Kamikashi smiled. The smile was not kind, at least for Sasuke. “Easy, young one. The spirit you are now is your reasoning part; or in other words, the question. As I said before, the twelve year-old image of you is the one which holds your dream and your true self. The reasoning will obey the wishes of the spirit who is in charge of your body. Currently, with the help of Orochimaru, your younger self rules. I don't think that you like to be haunted by your past. If it was not the cursed seal, he would have lost to your true dream already a long time ago. And I am quite sure that you know your dream quite well by yourself.”
Under her smile and these words, he was crumbling. The reasoning spirit began to cry, again falling on his hands and knees. The Dream-Sasuke tried to comfort him, but was stopped by the spoiled, manipulated child, who started to fight the older Sasuke-part.
Kamikashi's smile became much nastier. “Who do you choose, Uchiha-sama? This will determine your future. And it will decide if you are still Orochimaru’s pet or the true heir to the Uchiha clan! So, can you answer my question and make the right decision? Can you find inner peace?”
Main/spirit Sasuke got onto his feet and turned his head from the “avenger” to the “dreamer”. Thanks to Kamikashi's spirit reader session, he remembered everything in his life and knew which memories were related to which one, and the truly bad ones were all related to the spoiled child which knew no peace. Out of the blue, Naruto came into his mind, the day he became a shinobi and his friend had proclaimed that he wanted to become Hokage and the greatest ninja alive. And he remembered his own dream he said that day…
Before he could rush to help one of the other parts of himself, he was stopped by his interrogator. “What…? Let me go!” he shouted as she grabbed him by the collar.
Kamikashi however, offered to his surprise one of her swords out of her basket. “Take this one. Its name is Amanomurakumo (Heavenly Cloud Bush/Gathering Clouds of Heaven). It will show you the right way.”
The Sasuke-spirit stared at the sword with astonishment and disbelief for the blink of an eye, before he nodded and took it. “She trusts me…” “I will not fail, Kirikumo-sama.” The sword in hand, he rushed to his dream-being, fusing with him. In an instance, the level two mutated Avenger-Sasuke had to face a grown-up version of Dream-Sasuke armed with Amanomurakumo, which was even for someone powered with the cursed seal of heaven too much to handle.
Real-Sasuke made some hand seals. “Lightning release: Thousand birds current! AAH!” He charged Amanomurakumo with his lightning power as his other self began to charge a Chidori. Suddenly out of nowhere, he heard Kamikashi's voice in his thoughts.
“I tell you now a secret technique I know from the Uchiha clan. These are the hand seals…” A Kamikashi illusion stood in front of him, making the hand seals while he copied them. “Good, now make them before you strike with the sword and charge the new chakra into its blade. Your victory is guaranteed then.”
“What is that for a technique?” he thought a bit confused as he was dodging the Thousand Birds.
“Uchiha secret sword technique: Kakiri Uchiha (fire cutting fan). Developed by your father in the last Great Ninja wars as he was fighting my mother in order to acquire a blade. You do not have the time, just do it!”
Quickly, Sasuke did as she said, forming the hand seals. As he finished the technique, flaming hot chakra was gathering itself on his left hand, which he forced into the great katana.
“You have to avenge your parents, BAKA!” the younger spirit yelled as he charged towards the adult Sasuke, still Thousand Birds in his left hand.
Without thinking, Sasuke dodged the thundering attack by leaping over the boy's head and decapitated his older, non-evolving self with a scream. “HA!” He landed on his feet, perfectly balanced, his eyes closed and the sword in front of his face. “I will not be the puppet of my past anymore! I will find my true path and I am going to make the right decision!” Behind him, the seemingly dead body of his other self caught fire, burning down to nothing but a book with the Uchiha clan's symbol on its cover, held by a stuffed puppet of young Sasuke.
Kamikashi smiled again as the young Uchiha turned to her, giving her back her sword, which she put back into its saya. “I am… impressed. Well done, Sasuke-kun.” She picked up the book and the puppet.
Spirit-Sasuke was breathing heavily. “What should I do now, Kirikumo-sama?”
“First: take this.” She gave him the puppet and the book.
“Why?” He stared a bit confused on them.
“This leads to second: Return to your Soul-Body. The book and the puppet are part of you; if you leave them behind, you truly will be incomplete if you return to the outside world. The book is your duty, your heritage, the law delivered by your blood; the puppet is your past. There is no present and no future without a past.” Kamikashi's face was serious.
“I see… well then, here we go…” The puppet and the book in hand, Dream/Spirit-Sasuke went to his soul-body, fusing with it.
As he awakened in his full soul form, dressed in a traditional Uchiha suit, Kamikashi was standing by his side, offering him a hand. “Thank you, Kamikashi-sama.” He took the hand, stood up and shook his head. “Great Gods, this was truly a trip to hell!”
Kamikashi grinned. “It seems that my efforts were successful, what you think?”
“Yes, thank…”
“Say that in the real world, Uchiha-dono. Shall we go now?”
“All right, show me the way.”
“Just take my hand.” Sasuke did so, and a second later, he was lying on his back in the real world, still in chains. Inariko's hand was on his forehead, healing the side-effects of Tsukuyomi: Spirit Clearing. “Thank you, Kamikashi-sama. And you too, Inariko-sama.”
Inariko smiled. “No problem.” It was around midnight.
Kamikashi, who was kneeling beside him, slightly exhausted, released him from most of the chains. Her second self had finished burning out the cursed seal and re-fused with her. “Hmm, a great part of it was your own decision, Uchiha-dono. Do you know now your true dream? Do you know now what is truly important?”
Sasuke closed his eyes. Now he knew the answer to Kakashi's question eight years before. “Yes, honourable siblings. But I will not tell you now. I still have something to do before I can pursue my dream. That dream is so simple that people would laugh about it…”
Keisuke smiled. “We know that, young heir of the Uchiha clan. I think we have a suggestion which can satisfy all of us. Kamikashi-o-nee-sama…”
“I know. To be honest, our plan was to bring back you and not capturing your brother, he was as I said before, just the bait to lure you out. But Hokage-sama ordered us to capture your brother alive in order to execute him to make this bait possible. In order to get your revenge, we offer you now that you will cut his head off instead of one of us. What you think?”
“These three are truly incredible, they even have a solution for that problem,” Sasuke thought astonished. “Thank you, Kirikumo-sama. That would really solve my problems.”
The siblings smiled. “Oh, and before I forget, we should introduce ourselves,” Kamikashi said. “My name you already know, Uchiha-dono. This one is my younger brother, Keisuke, and the other one is our younger sister, Inariko.”
“Hey.” “Good evening.”
Inariko stretched like a cat. “I think we should get back to sleep. Tomorrow we fly back to Konoha. Good night, everyone.”
A few minutes later, everyone was asleep, thanks to another Genjutsu of Inariko.