So the story has changed but no by much. I was basically writing a story for a story that I couldn't think of a story for. And eventually I was just posting chapters for the sake of posting chapters.

I've gone back reread what I've posted and took the time to revise everything. And hopefully I set a cleared path to what the story is about. I hope that you all will continue to read the story. Like I've said before somethings are still the same but somethings have been added or changed. Please read and review, and tell me what you think.

P.S

I'm going to post the first two chapters back to back and then post on a bi-weekly basis.

Chapter one

This was the end of Tetsuna's long winter journey. Her warmth and her consciousness was slipping away from her. The edges of her vision was turning dark and beyond the confinements of her body she could feel the gentle lulling of death ready to lead her soul fully to the spiritual plains.

Tetsuna was filled with such a warm feeling as the memories of her life filtered through her minds eye. It was beautiful. So beautiful that it brought tears to her eyes. With quick and shallow breaths she tried to explain that to them, to Itachi and to Sasuke. That she didn't regret anything she'd done. That she wasn't afraid. And that she loved them.

The last thing Tetsuna felt as her final breath pushed past her lips on a final sigh, was Itachi's hard grip on her hand. And a splash of something wet and warm on her cheek.

Sasuke felt the single tear roll from his eye, as the light faded from Tetsuna's pale blue eyes. He slumped backward, his body shagging against the ruined shard of a wall among the debris of what used to be an Akatsuki base. His blank dark eyes rolled toward the sky, avoiding taking in the destruction that he and Itachi had caused.

An icy sensation slithered across his skin, seeping down into his bones past that and into his soul. The feeling squeezed around his heart and bleed out what was left of him. The anger, the hatred, and the anguish was all pouring out , just like Tetsuna's blood pouring from the blade in her chest.

His blade in her chest.

Sasuke felt empty and repulsed with himself. With Itachi. Was this the legacy of their clan? Was this all the Uchiha were capable of - to poison, corrupt, and eventually destroy what they had held close to their hearts. All that they had left was a darkness that they could not escape. That they had never been able to escape.

The tears came pouring in rivulets, and their salt stung the cuts on his cheeks . Sasuke grit his teeth and swallowed back a sob. Were was the sense of fulfillment that revenge was supposed to give him?Why did he feel so bitter?

He knew the answer to that didn't he.

Because Tetsuna had always been right about him and his brother. They were both fools. They always had been fools and had been played for the fools they were. Making assumptions and resolutions based off shaky pillars of beliefs that in hindsight didn't make any sense at all. Sasuke closed his eyes to escape his tears - to escape his reality.

Tetsuna's final image burned behind his lids.

Her white hair curled from beneath her skull, and her lips parted from her last breath. Her unseeing eyes peered up knowingly and her fingers were still curled from when she had feverishly held his hands in hers, as she babbled about this being beautiful, and how she had loved them, and how she had missed them so much. And how she wished she could see Naruto one more time before she had to go.

His eyes snapped open, and he took a sharp breath. Sasuke knew with the clarity some men boasted of having before death that he would no longer dream of his families bloody murders. The sounds of screams echoing in the night, and the smell of blood, and the feeling of helplessness would all fade in the wake of guilt, of a monochrome backdrop, and the fading blue eyes of a woman who probably loved him more than anyone else besides the man on the other side of her body, and the other man who he had come to love just as much as his actual brother.

His eyes rolled over to Itachi now, and if it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest, Sasuke might have believed that he was dead too. For the first time in Sasuke's life he felt sorry for his brother. Itachi had loved Tetsuna in a way that made Sasuke and Naruto's love pale in had always been connected on a level that Sasuke couldn't and probably would never comprehend.

Death.

Itachi had seen it before. Had been the cause of it, had stood over it and watched it happen apathetically - unmoved. Yet...he had never experience death like this - he could not stomach it but he couldn't look away either.

So he stared at it until his eye burned and spots appeared in his vision. He felt so listless, lost, mentally exhausted. Not even the pain from breathing with his shattered ribs, or the cold dirt digging into his cheek, compared to the unexplainable pain rooting in his chest and spreading to the rest of his limbs.

The worst was the feeling of her fingers - colder than her usual low temperature - curling in his own hand . It seared his skin like a hot brand and he refused to let go. He was scared that if he let go now, than the reality that he would never be able to pull her to him might become true.

Her blank gaze peering into his face would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The truth of it sent a chill pricking down his spine. It made him want to sob, to release his grip on sanity, to give into hopelessness and follow her into death. At this moment the lucidity of his vision was a curse rather than the blessing it was meant to be. It mocked him now, as he traced the features of her dark face with his gaze.

A bitter seed was planted inside of him. He had lived through the guilt of killing his clans men, his reprieve that his brother would eventually deliver just punishment for his deed. But were was the reprieve from this? What would protect him from the memories of Tetsuna's touch, her scent, her warmth, her love.

He resented her. She had not even allowed him the escape of death. It was extremely ironic. Tetsuna had created the cruelest punishment imaginable in committing the most selfless act of human nature. She had let him watch his future fade before his very eyes, all his hope gone like the sigh of her last breath.