Author's Notes: Apologies for the long break. I was having a lot of trouble getting motivated to work because I thought I had things figured out, but it turned out that I really didn't. And then then holidays came, so, yeah. I'd say that this time I'll update faster, but I don't want to end up lying.

Fair warning. This is a short update, and I'm doing that for a reason. I needed to close out the action in a dramatic way, but I'm also transitioning (finally) into a more emotional/story-driven scene. Things will change after this chapter (you'll see what I mean), so I thought that having a breather might improve the pacing.

Anyways, enjoy!

[Also, since I don't think I've done this: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke would have had a satisfying redemption arc.]

A series of grey blurs streaked towards her, but Sakura was ready. Her muscles flexed with Sasuke's donated energy as she mentally calculated the arcs of her defensive parries and maneuvers. Then, she charged.

And was abruptly stopped by the sudden appearance of a wall of flaming purple energy. Shin's shrapnel impacted it roughly from the opposite side. Cracks rippled along the construct's form but were nearly instantly repaired.

It was only after a dizzying moment of confusion that Sakura understood. Susanoo'.

There was a sharp, wheezing gasp. Sakura saw Shin recoiling with in an impotent rage through the purple barrier.

"No…it's not possible," Shin said breathlessly, his remaining eyes wavering back and forth in a blank stare of sheer horror. "I…you were…"

Sakura smirked. It wasn't often that she took pride in seeing her opponents brought low, but the kunoichi figured she could make an exception for Shin.

"You shouldn't be able to…it's not…but you gave your chakra to her," he protested, voicing Sakura's own doubts.

The medic-nin in Sakura made her wheel towards Sasuke. The Uchiha's body twitched with visible effort as he struggled to maintain the spirit guardian with his low chakra reserves. Even worse, blood was beginning to leak from both eyes.

She titled her head questioningly, but Sasuke ignored her with a cold demeanor of reckless confidence. He quivered slightly as the Susanoo raised its arms and drew back the massive war bow that materialized from nowhere. It was half-formed, and armor plating was curiously absent in seemingly random patches, revealing the bare bones and knitted muscle tissue of the frame beneath. The doujutsu wasn't complete, but it was fully formed enough for Shin's attacks to be rendered meaningless.

A black tip of churning Amaterasu appeared at the tip of the arrow.

"It's not fair," Shin whined, "I am the true—"

There was a rush of air and the tainted smell of Amaterasu's demon flame. Shin convulsed once, then stared down at the gore-dripping hole that had appeared in his torso. He began screaming as black fire consumed his body from the inside, peeling away his existence with unnerving efficiency and leaving only ash behind.

Seconds before the edge of ebon fire licked at one of the active sharingan, it flashed with pale crimson light. Shin's body become incorporeal, extinguishing the Amaterasu. He reappeared a heartbeat later, already sprinting away.

Sasuke's construct calmly loosed another black arrow at point blank range, but this time Shin had collected himself enough to dodge. He somersaulted sideways through the air in a twisting motion, perched on a nearby pillar and kicked off. He jumped agilely back and forth between several more salt-crystal protrusions. Each time he only managed to lift off seconds before his perch was obliterated by a flying black arrow.

"Sakura!" Sasuke shouted.

The kunoichi charged again, and this time the walls of the Susanoo' parted around her like flaps of flesh, permitting her to leave their safety. As she went, Sakura grabbed a fallen chunk of salt crystal and flung it directly at Shin's next landing spot.

"Hrm?" Shin mumbled, barely seeing the projectile coming through the cloud of white debris powder. Then with a groan of surprise, he kicked off early and swung towards the next safe spot.

Which was exactly what Sasuke had planned for. He raised his purple bow, aimed at the flying Shin midair, and released another shot.

Shin panicked but was unable to change trajectory. He watched helplessly as another death came sailing at him from across the cavern. Predictably, a sharingan flashed, and he re-appeared a short distance away.

Sakura already had another boulder in hand.

Shin's eyes scanned the scene, flitting back and forth between Sasuke's bow and the Sakura-catapult.

He laughed. Maniacally. It was a spine-tingling sound, eerily rebounding from the walls of the cavern. The last laugh of a sociopath resigned to his fate.

Then he began to sprint directly at Sasuke, his limbs pumping with unbelievable intensity. His eyes bulged and were bloodshot. Sweat broke on his frighteningly alabaster skin. He cleared half the space in an instant, swerving from a barrage of Sasuke's arrows and Sakura's rocks.

"DIE! DIE!" the suicidal Uchiha roared.

Sasuke willed his bow to remold itself. Then he took several steps back, raised the katana carefully, and slashed.

The strike should have felled him, but Shin thrust out his arm at the last second. A nearby chain wrapped around a sharp piece of metal and then flung itself at Sasuke's guardian with enough force to embed inside the construct's ribcage. Shin's arm flexed and, with a dizzying blur, he yanked. Hard.

Before either of them could react, Shin had pulled himself flush with the section of Susanoo' directly in front of Sasuke's real body. The sword stroke had missed completely.

There was a moment of tense silence as the Uchihas stared one another down.

Shin broke it first.

"This is the end, Sasuke."

His hands blurred in a summoning seal, and Sakura could tell that Shin had used the last of his strength. Smoke curled around him, then dispersed, revealing rows upon rows of paper bombs covering every inch of his body.

They began to catch fire.

He was a living bomb.

Sakura kicked. It was by far the most powerful she'd ever performed, causing what seemed to be miniature earthquakes all around the enclosure as she propelled herself through the air.

Everything seemed to pass in slow motion. Sasuke stood, dumbfounded, the wheels of his brain spinning as he tried desperately to think of an escape. Shin's lips curled in a smile, and low, warbling ripples of the impending concussion blast could be heard.

She had once chance to save Sasuke.

Sakura let her body collide with Shin's, then struck his chest open-palm style. The man, and the burgeoning explosion that surrounded him, flew backwards.

And so did Sakura.

A chain wrapped around her waist, and Shin tugged a final time. Before she knew it, Sakura had been grappled in a literal death hug by the abomination, his limbs straining so hard that if he lived, his bones would surely break from the exertion.

There wasn't time for words, nor even a backward glance at Sasuke. All Sakura could do was stare into haunting void of Shin's eye. It seemed to taunt her, and the kunoichi could well imagine his thoughts.

If the blood traitor won't die, then I shall deal him a far worse deathblow by taking you with me.

"NO!" Sakura snarled, covering Shin's putrid face with spittle.

With a burst of tendon-ripping force, Sakura brutally forced her hand between Shin's body and herself. Then, with her other hand, she gripped the chain and broke it with a sudden squeeze. Sharp bits of metal invaded her skin, but Sakura ignored them and shoved once again.

She was sent sailing backwards at the same time Shin's velocity doubled, and hoped it would be enough to escape the blast.

It wasn't. Orange fire and bone-shattering kinetic energy battered her.

"Sakura!" Sasuke screamed at the top of his lungs before he knew what he was doing. His chest burned and his voice broke pathetically halfway through. Ordinarily, Sasuke would have felt humiliated at his outburst of emotion, but at the moment, he simply couldn't bring himself to care.

He deactivated the Susanoo' and leapt after her.

Sakura's limp form came flying out of the blast radius, and Sasuke braced her as best he could with his meagerly singular arm.

There was a sharp thud, followed by a stinging pain in his knees as he and Sakura collapsed to them in a slumped position. He caught her from falling, but just barely.

"Sakura? Sakura!" Sasuke heard his own voice at high volume, and wasn't sure if the name was a plead or an irate admonishment.

An immense sigh that dripped with more emotion Sasuke managed in most years escaped his chest. His fingers had found her pulse, and it beat semi-steadily. She was alive.

"Kami, Sakura. You didn't need-"

The kunoichi stirred, eyelids fluttering, and smiled lightly.

"I disagree."

Relief flooded Sasuke. He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. Up until now, it had always been him saving her. Sure, she'd pulled him out of the fire he'd created for himself with that stone Otsutsuki construct, but it hadn't exactly been suicidal for her to do so.

What did she owe him? How was this fair? Even his decision to take a sword stroke for her when they'd reunited all those weeks ago (and how it felt like a lifetime instead) had been carefully calculated. Not spontaneous and genuine.

Was this fate, in the cruel shinobi world? Were things always meant to come so annoyingly, so beautifully, so frighteningly full circle in an endless cycle of pain and bloodshed and undeserved sacrifice?

"I hate you," Sasuke muttered, but there was no life in his tone. It was painfully obvious to the both of them that he lacked even the barest hint of conviction.

No reply. Sakura just let Sasuke hold her burned body as she began running her glowing palms over the worst areas. The damage had been light: second-degree at most, and it did not take her long to get herself moving again.

Shin had clearly taken the brunt of the explosion, Sasuke noted. Between that and the double-shove, he had been nearly plastered against the far wall of the cavern, which was now covered in spiderwebbed cracks. At some point, his body had flopped to the floor like a failed sticky toy.

Sasuke examined the body, noting the life signs and chakra activity, then deactivated his kekkei genkai. His chakra was running on fumes, and it was time to end this.

"Can you move?"

Sakura nodded and broke the embrace, which Sasuke hadn't even been aware of. He waved pink strands of hair from his fingers, brandished his sword, and began to advance upon Shin's defeated body.

"You can't do it anymore, Shin," Sasuke taunted calmly. "You lose."

He made it halfway.

A sudden blur of dark brown sailed past him. A cold chill ran down Sasuke spine and fear lanced his heart. He recoiled, waved his sword defensively, and prepared to assess the newcomer.

That's when it hit him.

The Mastermind. Shin's accomplice. He's been here all along.

There was a rush of pink and red, and Sakura was suddenly standing next to him in a battle stance. The duo shared a brief look of uncertainty. If they tried to fight seriously any longer in their state, they were as good as dead, and they knew it.

The enigmatic figure kneeled over Shin and withdrew a long syringe filled with a clear chemical substance from his heavy robes. He clucked his tongue while injecting the needle into Shin's neck and pressed the stopper.

Sasuke grit his teeth. Shin was his kill, by vow. By honor.

But the opposing uchiha didn't die. As the substance was slowly injected to his veins, he quivered once, then fell into a relaxed coma.

Sedatives? Why? Sasuke searched the image of the strange figure for clues, but saw none. His form was dark and obscured. Potentially anyone...or anything.

The figure discarded the syringe and held his hands over Shin's body. Scaly white hands. The hands of a snake.

"Oorochimaru!" Sakura barked. "I don't know how you eluded Anbu supervision, but I will not let you reclaim this...monstrous experiment."

There was a low chuckle, and the green light of medical ninjutsu appeared around the figure's hands. Shin's grevious wounds were expertly mended, flesh un-burning, broken bones re-molding with sharp cracks, and flesh binding with papery crackles. Within moments, the wounds were merely downgraded from 'laughably hopeless prognosis' to 'you're going to be in bed for a week'.

Sakura lunged, but Sasuke blocked her with his sword. "No," he warned her sharply.

The kunoichi glared at him and flexed a fist. "He's a monster, Sasuke! He killed the third hokage! I thought we agreed-"

"I know," Sasuke acknowledged with a nod, never once taking his eyes from the figure's back. "The snake sannin didn't use medical ninjutsu."

Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion. "What? Then who…" she trailed off, realization dawning.

The figure stood up straight, it's movements perfectly fluid and deadly.

"That's because the old, weak fool had someone to do it for him," the figure's voice spoke ominously. Then it broke into a laugh, arrogant and beautiful and cruel and altogether too snake-like, leather rubbing against sharp rocks. "Someone far stronger, someone destined for much greater things. Someone with conviction, someone who sees the truth of this world. Someone like you.

"Honestly," the man mused, his tone wistful. "I'm shocked you didn't figure it out sooner, Sasuke."

And then he turned around and gently pulled back his hood.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, but Sasuke only narrowed his to sharp points of aggression.

"Just like before, I'm pulling all the strings from the shadows. Only this time, your dear brother isn't here to hold your hand."

Cold laughter filled the cavern again as Sasuke and Sakura contemplated the image of the man who had been their true enemy all along.

"Kabuto Yakushi," Sasuke breathed.