Against the World

"I am not perfect. I do not always know best. I can make mistakes. Sometimes, it's easy to forget this."

-x-

Minato sat in his office, staring at a series of photographs. No one else knew about them, not even his wife. They existed only because he was fortunate enough to be able to steal a camera and develop the film without anyone's knowledge. The benefits of his rank and position in the village, you know. It also probably helped that he could functionally teleport.

There were only six photographs, one for each page of the notebook he'd found in Sekai's apartment when he'd been sent to pack up her things. Originally he'd intended to keep the notebook, but when Sekai returned after escaping and destroying one Rock's larger bases, he knew he couldn't. So he took photographs.

Her room had been bare, most of her possessions sealed up in scrolls and stowed away in drawers under her bed. He was sure though, that, that was only a fraction of her belongings. He didn't doubt she kept almost everything sealed up on her arm.

The notebook had been one of the few items left scattered around the room, and the only one that seemed of any particular value.

He'd gone through the other scrolls, and found notes on genjutsu and mathematics that made his head spin. Nothing else like the notebook.

Each page was covered in the strangest symbols he'd ever seen, with a few numbers and the occasional kana thrown in. He couldn't make head or tails of it.

It was clearly a code of some sort, but he couldn't decipher it. It was hardly his specialty, but Minato was no slouch when it came to code breaking, but even after months, he was no closer to a breakthrough.

The symbols repeated themselves far too often to be substitutions for kana. He tried matching groups of symbols to kana, but that didn't work either. Without understanding how the symbols connected to words or sounds, he had no way to meaningfully check for other specific types of ciphers.

The symbols seemed to rotate, and he had no idea if there was significance to it, or if Sekai simply was trying to obscure things further.

When basic tactics didn't work, he had a clone visit the library to study advanced code breaking, but nothing he learned seemed at all helpful.

He couldn't figure it out. He doubted even the likes of Nara Shikaku could decipher it without extensive time spent on it, and even then he was doubtful.

And that terrified him.

He sighed, and locked the photos away in a seal drawn onto the back side of a false bottom of a drawer in his desk.

How had an eight year old come up with such a complex code? And more importantly, why?

-x-

Eighteen

Shortly before nightfall, Itachi gave the order to retreat. By that time I'd already taken two more of Sakura's soldier pills, and had been considering taking a fourth, despite the fact that it was inadvisable to take more than two in a twenty-four hour period.

I'd been sticking close to Itachi since Sakura healed me, as she recommended, and we worked surprisingly well together. It wasn't as smooth as working with Aiko and Sakura, but the years of periodic lessons with him paid off. His superior experience undoubtedly helped, and he covered my back more times than I could count, but I knew he was getting exhausted too. He never did have the best stamina, if Shisui was to be believed.

After giving the order, he took yet another soldier pill, and told me to stay with him. Instead of pulling back with everyone else, he pushed forwards, slicing at the Cloud nin with his katana, helping fellow Leaf nin disengage. I followed him closely, providing back up where I could.

The number of Leaf nin around us declined as they obeyed his orders and ran, and I began to understand what Itachi was doing. I redoubled my efforts, even releasing a fourth chain, to help him keep the Cloud nin back, away from our retreating comrades.

Abruptly, he grabbed me, and slung me over his back as he too ran away, dodging the nin that came at us, and leaving a trail of black flames, burning tall and wide, behind us. Sweat dripped down my entire body from the intense heat. As we ran, Itachi let out a gasp, and though he didn't stop, he was no longer producing that eerie black fire.

It didn't matter. The fire spread out in every direction behind us, consuming the entire landscape. From my perch on Itachi's shoulders, I stared behind us in wonder.

Cloud nin tried to extinguish it with earth and water jutsu, but they only succeeded in feeding the flames further. I don't even want to describe what happened to those who tried to go through the fire. They never even got the chance to scream.

To my horror, of those who I saw try, at least two were from my own village. I didn't want to imagine how many were stuck there, abandoned and doomed to death, either at the hand of the enemy or the fire, while we ran away.

Itachi stumbled, so I jumped off his back and ran by his side. It made no difference, even without my weight, he continued to falter. He wasn't going to be able to go on.

Why did he bring me as his backup for this? Sure, I did okay until now, watching his back and defending him, but I was far too small to help support him, let alone carry him!

Looking at him as he struggled to keep upright, I let out a slew of curses in both English and French. His face was pale, a stark contrast to the blood that dripped down his cheeks from his eyes. The blood did little to obscure the deep, dark bags.

I spread my chains out behind me, crisscrossing them into a facsimile of a net and gestured for Itachi to climb on. With a small, relieved smile, he did. He didn't even protest. That's how I knew it was bad.

It wasn't long before he lost consciousness.

The effort of maintaining four chains and bearing Itachi's weight on them was a constant drain on my already dwindling reserves, so I caved and took a fourth soldier pill. With the additional weight, I was far slower than usual, and it was taking me longer than I thought it would to catch up to everyone else. My own exhaustion certainly further contributed to my slow pace.

We must have fought far longer than I thought after the order to retreat was given. It seemed so quick, but the sun had only begun it's evening descent when he gave the orders, but now there was little light beyond the faint illumination from my chains, and the stars above us.

I ran, and ran, and ran.

Corpses littered the way. Some belonged to Leaf nin, but most were from Cloud ninja who had tried to give chase. The further I travelled from the battlefield, the less bodies I saw, until none remained.

I never did catch up to everyone else. The longer I ran the slower I moved, but I didn't stop.

We arrived back at the base almost an hour and a half after everyone else, and Itachi was still out cold. We were both immediately herded to the medical sector of the base. They tried to take him from me, and carry him the rest of the way there themselves, but I refused to let him go until Sakura came for him.

Despite her youth, Sakura had been appointed the base's head medic, above the two others stationed with us. The perks of being the apprentice of the legendary Tsunade, I suppose.

I could tell she was exhausted, but she still pulled herself together for me, and by extension Itachi.

It probably also had to do with the fact that she was one of the only medics to have clearance to work directly on an Uchiha's eyes, again due to her position as apprentice to the world's best medic. The blood staining Itachi's face made it clear something was happening with them, not that I had any idea what could have happened. I never saw him take any damage to the face.

In an emergency, if no one with clearance was available, other medics could intervene, but Sakura was present, so the task fell to her, exhausted as she surely was.

"Take care of 'Tachi, s'one else can take care o' me." I told Sakura, as clearly as I could.

"I will, Sekai. Why don't you just lay down right here for the moment, okay?" She agreed with a smile. "Someone will be here for you shortly, while I handle Itachi-taicho."

"'Kay." I agreed, climbing onto the cot she indicated, and promptly passed out.

-x-

I woke up two hours later, sore and cranky. It was still the middle of the night, and the medical sector was dead quiet.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, despite my body's protests, and let my eyes adjust to the low light. On the cot across from me was Itachi. He was sound asleep, but the blood had been cleaned from his face and he no longer looked ghostly pale.

Reassured of his health, I was able to focus on my own. I was still exhausted, and my chakra coils burned, but my head felt a lot clearer, and I knew my concussion had been healed.

Sakura had cautioned me about taking too many soldier pills, and I could tell the burning in my coils was from over production. It was unfortunate, but I'd have to refrain from even the most basic of chakra use for the next twenty-four hours. I would need a big meal, too. Soldier pills contained a lot of concentrated chemicals to help with chakra production, but even the best still forced the body to consume fat and tissue. Taking too many soldier pills had effects similar to starvation, and if you didn't have much fat to spare, it went after muscle. Generally speaking, a woman could usually consume more than a man, since we tend to carry more fat.

I was mostly fine in that regard, though. Sakura's soldier pills were better than most publicly available, and she packed them with calories. The downside to that was that they were more difficult, time consuming, and expensive to produce.

I bit my thumb, and let the blood drip onto the seal on my arm, releasing a steaming container of Kushina-sensei's ramen. The use of chakra stung, but I ignored it. It was just this once, and then I'd be a good girl and stop.

While I still wasn't sold on ramen the way sensei and her family were, I appreciated that she had made a batch for me to seal away, and it was a high calorie meal, which I needed. I slurped up my ramen, barely tasting it, tossed the container in the bin by the door, and curled up on my cot again.

-x-

The next time I woke, it was to the sound of someone entering the room. I tossed myself out of the bed, reaching for a kunai in my weapons pouch, only to discover I didn't have my pouch on me. As awareness returned to me, I realized where I was and relaxed.

"Hoshino, you're awake, I see." A man said. He was sort of familiar, but I couldn't place him. He was probably in his late thirties or early forties, with dark green hair. He wore his forehead protector in the standard position, and there was a red pin fastened to it, indicating he was an elite jounin.

I nodded, but remained quiet.

"Your medic advises that you are recovering from a soldier pill overdose and are to remain here until further notice, however you are sound of mind." He said. His tone carried a hint of derision. "Do you agree that you are of sound mind?"

I pressed my lips together. Who was this man? "Yes," I finally answered. "I am."

His expression grew pinched, like he wasn't happy with me. It was, quite frankly, an expression I was intimately familiar with. However, I wasn't actually sure what I did this time.

"Very well then. Hoshino Sekai, you are hereby ordered to report on the events leading to the hospitalization of Uchiha Itachi." he barked.

My eyes narrowed. "On what authority? Who are you, exactly?"

I was hardly going to tell just anyone anything. He may be a jounin, but that alone didn't entitle him to a report, and he didn't identify himself. I wasn't going to risk spreading information to someone without authorization.

The tips of his ears turned the slightest bit red. "I am the commander of this base, Hoshino," he ground out between clenched teeth. "And you will afford me the proper respect."

"That doesn't tell me your name. And can you get someone to confirm that for you? I don't believe we've properly met."

He exhaled heavily through his nose. "I am Aoki Fumihiro, and we indeed met, shortly after you arrived on base."

I blinked and things clicked into place. Oh. I did meet him. Very briefly, when I arrived on base, as he said. Itachi introduced me. I hadn't really thought much of it, to be honest. Generally speaking, I was to report first and foremost to Itachi, who would then report to this guy. In most situations, I would hardly see him, let alone speak to him. So when we met, I didn't deem him to be terribly relevant to me, and paid him no mind. But Itachi was out of commission, and now I would have to report directly to him.

Oops. My bad.

"I do not recall," I lied. After all, I was hardly going to admit I was wrong and had just forgotten him, because he hadn't seemed important enough to remember when we met. "I suffered a concussion during the battle. It was treated, but nonetheless, perhaps that has impacted my memory. Could you please get someone to verify your identity? I don't want to give my report to someone without authorization by mistake."

In lieu of replying, he marched out of the room and returned a few moments later with Sakura in toe.

"Haruno-sensei, please verify my identity to Hoshino. It appears due to her head injury she is having memory problems." he commanded.

Sakura, whose hair usually neat hair was pulled back in an unusually frizzy bun and had large bags beneath her eyes, gave me a look that said she knew head trauma was not the reason for my lapse in memory, but dutifully confirmed his identity for me, then promptly excused herself again.

"Ah, thank you, Commander." I said, widening my eyes to give off an aura of innocence, as Dollface had taught me. I doubt he bought it. "If you are ready for my report?"

He grunted in affirmation, and I launched into my report. My usual monotone lost the little warmth it held, becoming cold and detached as I described the events to the best of my ability. He asked a few follow up questions, but I deflected by insisting I couldn't speak to Itachi's thought process and did not understand the nature of the jutsu he used.

Fortunately for him (or perhaps more so for myself), as he was cross examining me, Itachi woke up.

He looked exhausted, and like he wanted to just go back to sleep, so naturally I drew attention to him. The commander seemed like he wanted to question Itachi immediately, however I helpfully reminded him that Itachi needed to be cleared by a medic first, and went to fetch Sakura again. I found her in a small little office, trying to curl up for a nap on a desk.

"What is it now, Sekai?" she asked. "I'm exhausted. I've been up and down all night. I only got two hours of rest since we retreated."

I frowned. "Are they allowed to do that to you?"

She sighed. "When they need a medic, or a medic with certain clearances? Then yes. What is it?"

"Ah. Itachi's awake."

She grabbed a pencil from her desk and threw it at my face. I caught it on pure reflex and set it back on a different desk. "Next time lead with that, idiot." she grumbled as she got to her feet and headed towards the door, tugging at her clothes to straighten them. Abruptly, she paused. "Sekai..."

"Hm?" I tilted my head.

"What the hell are you doing out of bed?!" she screeched, swatting at me gently. "Get!"

We arrived to the commander, whose name I'd already forgotten again, pestering what appeared to be a barely conscious Itachi. Sakura promptly lost it.

"Excuse me, commander!" she snarled, hands on her hips. "Given the serious condition he arrived in, Itachi-taicho needs to be cleared by a medic before you can question him, which has yet to be done, as you very well know."

As the commander turned away from Itachi, the latter seemed to perk up and look much more awake. Heh. The faker.

"You realize, Haruno-sensei, that the situation is urgent, and as your teammate has proven not to be able to provide answers, Uchiha-san is the only one who can." The commander said.

Sakura shrugs. "Then you'll be happy to step outside so I can examine the patient and clear him as soon as possible."

He opened his mouth, but Sakura glared at him, and cracked her knuckles. He closed his mouth and exited without further protest.

"Sekai, bed, now!" she ordered as she pulled the curtain between my side of the room and Itachi's closed.

Knowing how stressed and tired she was, I obeyed, and climbed back under the sheets of my cot.

She and Itachi spoke quietly. I could hear the murmur of their voices, and see a faint green glow through the curtain, but that was all. After a few minutes of this, Sakura pulled the curtain aside again, and left with a nod.

"You cleared?" I asked Itachi, who had moved to a sitting position.

He nodded. "Unfortunately."

I would have snorted, but at that moment the commander reentered the room, and promptly demanded Itachi to report.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hear it, but the commander didn't ask me to leave the room or do anything to maintain privacy, so I listened in.

From the report and discussion Itachi had with the commander, I learned many things. First, that the commander was furious with Itachi for ordering a full out retreat back to the base. It was against protocol, as in most cases it would just lead the enemy right to us. Essentially, if he wanted to retreat, what he was supposed to have done was leave the expendables behind to hold them back while the rest of us ran.

Suddenly, I didn't feel so sick about the handful of people we left behind. It was much better than the alternative.

Itachi defended his actions, in that he was able to prevent the enemy from following us, which the commander grudgingly accepted. This of course, opened questions to the jutsu Itachi used.

The black flames, or Amaterasu as I learned they were called, were part of his bloodline limit. Because of that, he was not obligated to say much about it to anyone but the Hokage. He did say that the flames of Amaterasu would burn for seven days and seven nights, minimum, and it was the most destructive fire in existence.

I got to hear Itachi's reasoning for many of his decisions in the field. We were losing, badly. They had reinforcements coming in and we didn't. Amaterasu was too dangerous to use around so many allies, so he waited until almost all of ours had fled. To use it to the extent that he did utterly exhausted him, and without me he wouldn't have been able to make it back.

He chose me because I was the only one here he trusted enough to see him in the state he knew he would be putting himself in.

I couldn't help but smile at that. Just a little. It quickly evaporated when shortly afterwards, the commander finished with Itachi and turned to me.

"Hoshino, for the record, I'm being lenient this time, given the circumstances," he growled. "But in the future, you will address your superiors with due respect. Your behaviour today has been borderline insubordinate. If you don't shape up, I will give you a citation. Understood?"

I nodded from my position in bed, trying to look as small and contrite as I could. Small I had down pat. Contrite, I doubt I pulled off. "Understood, sir."

He stomped out the door without looking back, leaving me and Itachi alone. Itachi just looked at me and sighed.

"Sekai-kun, what did you do?"

-x-

I was released the next day, and moved back to the barracks. I was on light duty, since I still wasn't supposed to use chakra too much, which meant I was essentially given chores to do around the base.

It was boring and tedious. You'd think life on a secret ninja military base would be more exciting, but it really wasn't. I felt like I was a genin again. They kept me on light duty for a week, and during that time I barely saw anyone I knew, except at night.

The first few nights I didn't see Sakura, but as everyone recovered from the worst of things, she had more free time and was able to make it back to the barracks to sleep.

Aiko, fortunately, made it through the battle with only mild chakra exhaustion and no significant injuries. She had stuck it out with a group of other chuunin, and mostly fought defensively, instead of jumping in the fray as I did. Now that we were back, she was kept busy with the base's intel department.

I was cleared for active duty just after Itachi was released from the medical wing, and was immediately summoned to his office.

"Sekai-kun, have a seat." he said absently from behind his desk.

His office was small. Just a closet, really. But it had a desk, shelves behind it, and a small chair in front, which I sat on.

"Why did you call me here?" I asked bluntly. It was clear that it wasn't often one was summoned here.

Itachi let out the barest hint of a sigh. "First of all, Commander Aoki has informed me of your behaviour." He paused and gave me a significant look, but I maintained my blank expression. "Sekai-kun, while in the past you have been afforded leniency, that is not the case out here. Before you only interacted with people who didn't care, or overlooked it due to your position. People here care about hierarchy and order. They expect you to be professional. Do you understand?" I nodded. "Good. Next, we need to discuss your performance on the battle field."

"What about it?" I asked, tapping on my knees.

"I want to preface this with saying I know you're inexperienced. In the past you have never had to deal with so many opponents at once." he said. "We had hoped I would have time to prepare you, but there was obviously a breakdown in communication."

My eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Irrelevant," Itachi dismissed with the slightest shake of his head. "What matters is we did not intend to send your team out immediately, but I was overruled by the commander." His voice was steely, and I could tell he was angry, or perhaps frustrated, with the commander. "With that said, your initial performance in the field was unacceptable."

I barely managed to control my expression at his blunt tone. I nodded without responding verbally. He didn't want a verbal response.

"The moment we were attacked, you went off on your own. You didn't even think of regrouping or working with your team. You were reckless. You weren't paying attention to your surroundings. You didn't think, you just acted. You had no plan, you didn't even think about conserving your chakra, and ended up wasting it. You could have died, Sekai-kun." With each sentence he spoke, I felt a weight against my chest grow heavier and heavier. "Do you realize this?"

I swallowed, and nodded.

"Do you realize this?" he repeated.

"Yes, sir." I whispered.

Itachi closed his eyes and sighed. "You don't need to call me sir, Sekai-kun, and I want you to know I'm not blaming you, or upset with you. Your performance did improve significantly after Sakura-san healed you, and you began working with me. It also was not a unique response. Many other ninja have similar experiences when first put in that sort of situation. Do not be ashamed."

His tone was gentle, comforting. He meant well, but it made me feel like a small child. I nodded anyways.

"With that said, since your restriction to light duty has been lifted, it's time to discuss your next assignment..."

-x-

Notes: Keep in mind the Naruto world here has no computers, and even IRL cryptography went hundreds of years without too many significant improvements until recently. The world also has zero concept of other languages. So yeah, good luck figuring out that's a thing, guys.

Disclaimer about soldier pills: I'm no expert about human biology and the functions. I'm like, the opposite. In regards to the pills causing the body to consume fat/muscle in chakra production, just go with it. It's chakra magic, okay? (Invoking artistic licence—biology)

Sakura trying to nap on a desk in her office is inspired by me, trying to nap on my desk in my office at school. I miss my office. And school.

According to my sources, "Fumihiro" means "large sentence."

General note: I'm completely nerfing the mangekyou sharingan. And other things eventually. For details see databook on AO3.

I had hoped to get this out in May, but sadly that did not happen. My apologies. But look I also wrote like 2K of a future chapter. So. Yay.