Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto or Highschool DxD. All I own is my laptop and my chair... *sigh*
This is my first Fanfiction so be warned - There will be mistakes and inconsistencies - so be kind and offer constructive criticism so that my writing skills can improve and we all can all have a good time
This is Rated M so expect Mature Content- IE- Fights, "Romance";) , Bad Language Ect.
Anyway, now that that is done with, on with the show
Chapter 1 - Second Chance
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Edo Tensei no Jutsu... Kai (Reanimation Jutsu... Release)"
The words echoed around the cave, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, lasting for seconds upon seconds and then silence returned.
The light in the cave was non-existent. The darkness felt like a cage, forever trapping the three figures within it for all existence and for one, he knew, it would be his final resting place in this world.
That figure though didn't care. In his mind it was what he deserved. He was the scum of the earth, the most worthless man alive... well not alive but that wasn't the point. He was just happy that he had gotten a chance to bring some redemption to his accursed life. After all of the atrocities he had committed he was all too happy to leave this world behind. Maybe he could finally get some rest without getting haunted his regrets.
Hopefully he wouldn't be getting tortured in the darkest pit of Yomi for all eternity. But one could hope that the gods would be merciful.
Suddenly the silence of the cave was broken again by the powerful wind that seemingly appeared from nowhere. It blew outwards from the three men, disturbing their cloaks, making them flap erratically. If one where to look at the figures, they would see two young men as well as some sort of monster with one of the men a standing in front of the creature.
The creature was at about average height for a human being. His skin was wrinkly and pail, almost snake like, with scales mixed in with the skin. Strange marks ran up and down its body and surrounding its eyes were strange purple markings. Its arms were up and his hands were pressed together forming a hand sign that seemed to be where the wind had originated from. Something, seemingly a snake, hung down limply across the ground from where it was connected to his body near its abdomen. It eyes contained slits for pupils, just like a snake and had yellow irises which were open and were staring forward, but were unfocused, like the thing was statue. Its head was still. The grey hair hung down its face and horns protruded from its skull pointing backwards.
One of the men, the one furthest away from the others, stood there impassively, his face downcast. He had fair skin, which some would say was too pale. Like he had spent the last three years of his life locked inside a dark room as well as two onyx black eyes. His hair was black and spiked up messily backwards while having two long bangs that hung down either side of his face, framing it nicely. His face was what most would call attractive and would probably make girls swoon if he walked down the street. He wore a sleeveless grey high collared shirt with a red and white fan on the back and baggy dark blue pants fastened down by a large purple rope around his waist acting as a belt which was holding a sword strapped behind him.
The last person was standing next to the beast. Like the other man he had jet black hair but instead of the wild and spiky hair the other man, his was pulled back into a pony tail leaving only two long tufts of hair that flowed down both of his cheeks to his shoulders. His eyes however looked totally different from each other. The normally white sclera of his eye where a murky black which surrounded the two different irises. The left one was a pale white with no pupil at all. The right was a pale red. It had a black pupil with three tomoe encircling it. Even though both his eyes were different, you could see that they would usually hold a frightening intensity, but that was currently missing. All they held now were a deep sadness and were tinged with regret.
His skin was not what people would call healthy. It was a very pale white and had almost cracks running along it. He wore a long red cloak, which ran down his whole frame as well as having overly long sleeves and a hood. The thing that stood out most about this man wasn't his attire though. It was the long pronounced tear-troughs that ran down his face.
After the wind had finished blowing around the cave for a few seconds, the figure who had spoken those words next to the snake-thing started glowing. His form turned ghostly and looked increasingly more ethereal. Like he was not of this world and was returning back to where he came from. A small humming sound started emitting from him.
Slowly he turned around his head pointed towards the ground. His skin started tearing from his body and started floating up, following the light beam towards the sky.
After a few seconds his arm started to rise, taking almost an age to get up and it quivered as he tried to point it towards the younger of the two men.
"There's still time" he said as he took a step forwards, his open-toed sandals clacking on the ground as he struggled to walk, his whole body rocked to the side as he took another. As he advanced further forwards he struggled to keep his arm up with his index and middle fingers extended. It shook and wobbled as he took another step.
"I feel like my consciousness is slowly fading"
He took a second to balance himself and raise his arm again so that it would point towards the other man.
"I need to tell you everything before we part"
He took more steps forward, advancing quickly on the other man. His sandals clacked with each step he took, the only sound to disturb the constant silence and small humming noise. Suddenly he stopped and kept his gaze glued to the floor.
"There's no need to lie anymore"
His sandals once again clacked as he continued his journey, his gaze still tilted down.
"The night I left you, I did do everything Danzo and Tobi told you"
The other man finally reacted to what he said, dropping his jaw and taking a step back in surprise, his eyes full of disbelief.
"I'll show you the truth… the whole truth"
Finally the man who was advancing looked up, his gaze locking onto that of the other mans. After a few seconds his right eye twitched and the technique took effect.
It lasted less than a second but the younger man stumbled back and his eyes widened, his vision switching back to that of the cave and the sound of the other man's voice.
"There's nothing more to say"
As the young man's vision finally cleared his sight stayed locked on the other man's. His eyes were almost stuck open in what appeared to be sadness, guilt, surprise and, most of all, regret. His mouth hung open but no sound came out, its corners turned down in a frown.
"I have told you the whole truth"
His walk carried on as he closed in on his target. The almost constant, systematic clacking of the sandals echoed loudly throughout the cave.
"I won't have to ever again…"
His arm once again fell but he carried on his endeavor as he neared the other man.
"I always lied to you and asked you to forgive me, deliberately keeping you at a distance by my own hand"
His arm shot up again as he neared his journeys end. His body visibly drained as he wobbled and rocked.
"All because I didn't want you caught up in this"
The other man couldn't move. Turned to stone by what he was hearing and by what he had seen.
"But now, I believe… that perhaps you could have changed them. Otou-san, Kaa-san and the rest of the Uchiha"
The man had finally reached the end of his journey, within touching distance of the other.
"If I had been open with you from the start and looked you straight in the eyes and told you the truth, then I wouldn't have had to stand before you, as a failure, telling you all this. So this time I want to impart this truth to you"
The man reached his already pointing hand forward and reached towards his forehead. Slowly, however, he wrapped his arm around his shoulder and took hold of the back of the man's head, pulling it forwards.
"You don't ever have to forgive me…"
The looked each other in the eyes as he spoke while his head started moving forwards.
"And no matter what you become, from here on out know this…"
Finally stopping, the two men stood in front of one another, one shocked at what he was hearing, the other wearing a content, almost happy smirk on his face. Their foreheads resting against each other, the man spoke once more.
"I will always love you"
As the two men looked into each other's eyes, the cave once again went quiet. The small humming sound was the only thing to be heard. Everything was still as they searched each other's eyes, looking for anything and everything they felt and wanted to tell each other. Their lives were shown to each other in them few seconds; how they thought, their dreams and regrets were all too clear. They had wasted their lives for what they thought were the most important thing; be it revenge or becoming a martyr. One of the men knew he had change and was already thinking of a way to redeem his long standing feelings of hate towards someone who was truly a model person.
However for the other, it was truly too late. And he knew it. He was just truly happy at getting a chance to correct one of his many bad choices and was content to spend his last few seconds being with his brother who he had loved unconditionally for his whole life. He could feel his life fading. He knew that he would have to go soon, but before he went to an eternity of damnation for his deeds and actions in this world, he would spend time with his precious sibling.
His time however was short and when all of a sudden the strange ethereal glow intensified and the buzzing grew he could feel himself being ejected from his body, or at least his vessel. His grip grew weak and his knees bent as all of his senses dulled and his feeling disappeared, the only thing that he had kept was his vision and even that was blurring, reverting back to how it was before his first death. He could just make out the outlines of everything. The cave, which had been lit up in the magnificent light, was just lines of rocks and columns. He however was looking at one thing that was, he assumed, looking up at him. Feeling an immense satisfaction at final goodbye and his last time on this earth, he smiled. Finally he could move on from this cursed existence that was his life.
Seeing himself rising up the light, as well as the ground getting smaller, he managed one last thought. His vision was darkening rapidly and he knew his end was arriving
'Goodbye… little brother"
And then all went dark.
To the sound of flowing water and darkness, Itachi awoke.
'I'm not dead?' Was the first thing he thought.
He should have been, damn, he better be. All the effort he had gone through for his little brother, so that he could leave the world of life knowing that he had done one right thing in his short and miserable existence and finally disappear from the world and people's minds. He had just wanted to go to Yomi and live out the rest of eternity in peace and if anyone else had dared to Re-animate him again he was going to give them a big piece of his mind.
And probably shove his foot up there ass…
…Yeah defiantly that.
As he thought about his current situation he noticed that no matter how hard he opened his eyelids his vision wouldn't return. Again and again he forced them open but darkness remained. As he started worrying, the thought clicked in his mind.
He couldn't have been reanimated. If he was, it wouldn't have been his body and the eyes would have been fine. Calming down he took stock of the situation.
To say his current situation was odd would be an understatement. He couldn't feel his Chakra for one thing. He could feel it there, sitting idly in his coils, but it wouldn't travel along his Chakra system no matter how much effort he put into it. He also felt strange. He knew he was lying down, but the ground felt weird, like he could and couldn't feel it touching his back at the same time. His senses where mixed up and disorientated.
He could smell and hear just fine. The river flowing helping him calm down slightly, letting him know that something was normal. It was a bit weird however that, apart from the river, it was silent. He could smell the fresh water and the dirt that he was lying upon, but again, nothing to directly indicate what had happened and where he was.
Knowing very little of his surroundings he began trying to flex his muscles, only to find that he couldn't. His body would not react to any command and he continued laying there.
Stopping in his attempts to move he finally noticed one crucial detail.
He wasn't breathing. He finally realized that since he awoke he had not taken a single intake of air. He cursed himself for not noticing it sooner. The act, he realized, usually so frequent that one doesn't have to consciously control it.
The fact that he wasn't breathing could therefore only indicate one thin.
That he was dead.
'Where am I then?'
Itachi could only guess from his very limited range of the location. He supposed that this could be the afterlife. He thought that it was fitting that, again, it was his eyesight that was gone and that the prized sight of his clan would not help him.
"Perhaps this is my punishment?"
He definitely deserved it. He had, after all, led a life of deceit and betrayal. He had killed countless people and instilled terror into countless more and had aided in evil for his final years.
This was what he thought he would get when he died to his brother, but after nothing happened and he awoke in a new body he had thought that when he once again left the living, his soul would depart and he wouldn't feel again. That however didn't seem to be the case.
He knew that he was 'alive' to an extent. He just didn't know what he was doing lying on dirt and listening to the endless flow of water.
"I see that you are awake"
The new voice that had interrupted his musing made him jump and set him on edge. Not only had it suddenly appeared but he had not heard an approach. Nothing had moved as far as he could sense or hear. The voice had literally come from the air.
"There is no need to be on edge young one, I mean you no harm"
Getting over his initial shock at the intruder, he took in everything that he could from his current situation.
The person's voice was odd. It was distinctly female but it gave a sense of being superior. It however didn't give off a sense of arrogance or that she was looking down on him. Just that her existence was more important. It also came from a few meters away from his head. No ninja could have ever gotten so near to him without him noticing. He could also notice that her words held no ill intent behind them. A life of lying and faking his identity and words had made him a specialist at picking up the smallest of details. Finally concluding that she was honest in her words, he relaxed slightly and calmed down. Wanting to investigate what was happening, he decided to speak.
"What are you?"
Itachi decided that that was a solid starting point to begin his expanding his knowledge upon and waited for her reaction.
The women, seeing that he was calm and was relaxed enough to ask a question, approached his prone form.
"I am a lot of things young one, and am known by many names and titles… I however prefer my name"
Realizing that he had asked something that could be considered very rude immediately replied while blushing.
"My deepest apologies, I meant no offence. Might I ask your name?"
The woman who had sat down next to his still body giggled at his red face and replied to his question.
"No offence taken Itachi-Kun, I was just poking fun at you. My name is Amaterasu and it's very nice to meet you"
Happy that he hadn't caused offence his mouth, it moving faster than his brain, he instantly replied.
"It's an honor to meet you too Amaterasu-San, my name is-"
And then his mind caught up.
He knew that name from somewhere and it was very distinctive. He also took stock of everything that had happened so far and could only come up with one conclusion.
She was that Amaterasu.
Starting to sweat and instantly fearing for his being for referring to her like any other women; he tried to apologize as quickly as he could. Something that was not made any easier by his constant stuttering and his shock at being in the presence of a god.
"M-m-my most sincere o-of apologies K-K-Kami-Sama, I wasn't thinking when I s-said that"
Waiting for some sort of punishment from her, he was surprised when he instead heard her once again giggling.
"No offence taken Itachi-Kun, in fact I think I like being referred to casually, it is a refreshing change"
She was obviously amused by his surprised face if her continuous giggles were anything to go by. Hearing the light tinkling of her laugh instantly relaxed Itachi again and he let go a sigh a relief.
"Are you who I think you are Amaterasu-Sama?"
Hearing her laughter die down he awaited her reply. His mind focusing on her answer and what that would confirm.
"I am"
Letting out a sigh he once again thought about his situation.
He was most defiantly dead and the appearance of a god proved that. She must be here to give him his punishment. Still wanting to know where he was he asked another question.
"Where are we?"
The sound of the river had been present the whole time and the darkness dampening his senses hadn't helped.
Her voice turned somber and serious "We are in the realm of the dead; Yomi"
His thoughts confirmed, he knew he was here to repay his sins and he was about to ask her about his punishment when she spoke before him.
"You however are not here for what you think you are"
Confused, he got ready to ask her another question when she cut him again.
"I will answer your questions in good time, for now… I think that will need your sight back"
Wondering what she meant, a strange sensation met his closed eyes as she most likely laid a hand over them. It felt like the strange sensation of medical chakra that would tickle you as it restored the damaged areas and he also recognized the small humming sound and faint warmth from the healing techniques but it felt different. It felt… superior.
All of a sudden his vision returned and she removed her hand. His eyes were met with a powerful and bright light, like waking up with the sun in your eyes.
His sight was a blur of shades and outlines; an undistinguishable mess of colours until, after a minute, the brightness started retreating and he could once again see through his eyes without his vision being a mess.
The first thing that met his eyes was the smiling face of the Goddess smiling down at him. Her face was so beautiful and radiant that he turned his eyes away and couldn't control his blush.
Knowing what had happened to make him act like that she, once again, giggled and raised her head until she was sitting crossed legged again.
The woman above him was without a doubt one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, her features could be called perfect, in every sense of the word, from the shape of her nose and the light tan of her skin; she literally made him speechless with her radiance. Her eyes were molten gold in colour and shined with the wisdom and power that the owner of them had. She wore her long, luscious charcoal coloured hair down, letting it flow down over her shoulders and down her back. Letting his eyes fall from her face he saw that she wore an elegant red and white kimono that hugged her… features?
He couldn't help but think that he shouldn't be checking out an almighty goddess but… damn. She was faultless. Quickly fighting down another blush amongst other things he changed his focus.
Now that he could see his senses spread out again like when he was alive, he could finally take in everything around him. Instantly the fact that she was a god was confirmed. The power, while seemingly being compressed, was literally emanating off of her coming off as a thin golden light which only further empathized her beauty. Apart from the physical manifestation of her power he could also feel a sort of pressure when he tried focusing his senses on her.
Taking his eyes away from her the thought to check out where he was came to the front of his mind. Letting his eyes wander around, Itachi immediately took in his surroundings.
From what he could see, he was on a bank of a wide river. It had to have been a good 30 meters across, the dark, almost black, water moving very slowly at a snail pace making only the smallest of sounds as it flowed down its path. The depth was impossible to tell as the bed was hidden from any position along its length. The banks of the river was entirely made up of dirt and rocks and stopped before dropping down a good meter into the water leaving no sign of a slope into the water, just a fall.
From what he could tell from both river banks, one side was definitely a more desirable location to be upon… and that wasn't the one he was on. The bank across from him was bursting with life and spirit. It was almost literally bursting with life. Flowers and plants littered it with small animals of many sizes and types. Everything from rabbits to butterflies were just lounging about on the far ground. Even animals like wolves could be seen lying around totally ignoring the free food in favor of relaxing. It was sight that put Itachi off more than settling his nerves, the peaceful content of coexistence was a foreign concept to him who had had a life of alienation and hatred. The plants went back a distance before merging into a tree line that was full of healthy and colourful trees that stretched along the length of the river. All the colours almost hurt his eyes with the brilliance of them.
The far bank was a stark contrast to the one he was one. The bustling life and colour was totally absent from his surroundings, the ground was bare and lacked any sort of wildlife, no animals were relaxing and no plants grew; even the ground lacked the vibrancy of far bank, the dirt was almost grey and lumpy with no green to help cover it. It looked alien in every sense of the word. The only thing similar to its counterpart was the trees that followed the bank of river and even they were noticeably different; the trees were almost grey and withered and they grew in improbable, almost gruesome directions.
His mind took in every detail and came up with a single conclusion.
"Is it what you expected?"
At some point the goddess had stopped laughing and followed his gaze around, rightly guessing his train of thought. Itachi let his gaze fall back onto the other person there with him who he had almost forgotten was there. She literally gave off such a faint aura that unless looking for her you would miss.
"It's more than I deserve"
In all honest Itachi hadn't known what he was expecting. He was after all one of the worst beings on his planet, worse than dirt, the atrocities that he had committed had dulled his sense of humanity and right leaving him with only his goal of helping his little brother along on his quest. If anything he had expected spending eternity in the darkest pit in hell.
The goddess noticeably frowned and her eyes softened. About what Itachi hadn't a clue but he supposed that she would tell him soon.
"As you have noticed, you are now in the land of Yomi; the Land of the Dead or an 'Underworld'. That river is what separates us from the land of the living."
She confirmed his thoughts, her voice once again somber and loosing it's playfulness. Itachi, while not a religious obsessive like one of his past coworkers, was familiar with them, especially the most widely excepted one in the elemental nations; Shintoism, where most of his formidable attacks were named from and from which the goddess in front of him belonged too. He would even say that he followed that faith in his youth but that he had stopped when he betrayed his people. He had also noticed that she had said 'an underworld', but he decided to ask about it later.
Once again looking around to confirm his thoughts, his sight wandered towards the sky. To say it was strange was an understatement. Instead of the blue sky that he was familiar with, a large roof stretched the length of it. The roof almost looked like the roof of a cave with stalactites stretching down and hanging above them. Even odder still was the fact that while having a clear roof, the light was not hindered. The only change of light was the river and that it was brighter and clearer on the opposite side of the river which changed to the dull grey on his side. The name Underworld suited this place both metaphorically and literally.
Broken again from his revere by the goddess who was sticking a hand into his face. At some point she had gotten up from her position and stood with her hand out waiting for him to grab it. Itachi was going to say that he couldn't move when he tried to stretch out his hand and it jerked up into hers; control seemingly coming back to him. When he looked up for an explanation she merely winked and pulled him up.
"Anyhow, this is hardly a place to be discussing anything. Let us go somewhere where I can tell you the decision, it has had plenty of time after all"
Itachi was just about to ask her what she meant when she shushed him and started pulling him by the hand towards a gap in the trees and gave him a mysterious look.
"All in good time"
Itachi with no other choice apparent and not wanting to upset what was probably one of the most powerful beings in existence muted his questions and followed the goddess into the wilderness, the trees soon closing in on him on all sides and blocking off the already bleak light into an almost unbearable darkness.
After a few minutes of walking through the dense undergrowth in almost pitch black, with his only way of knowing that he was going anywhere and that he wasn't walking in circles the extremely soft hand of the incredibly powerful goddess pulling him along, he finally saw a light ahead of him, starting off as a speck and gradually getting bigger as they approached.
When they finally broke into the light and out of the dense tree line an unexpected sight met his eyes. Well Itachi didn't know what he expected to be honest but this would definitely have been low on his list of what he expected.
In a clearing, surrounded on all sides by thick foliage except for the small gap that he had come out of and another gap on the opposite side of the clearing, was a stone table covered by a mass of plant life. It was just sitting there like it was natural; somehow looking like it belonged, like a bunch of flowers in a field. Surrounding the table were chairs, almost looking like miniature thrones, each one had plants and foliage growing over it again blending them into the landscape. Mentally counting the chairs it turned out there were about sixteen of them with five running down each side of the table and two at each end.
When he turned to the goddess, wondering what this about he sent her a questioning look. She pouted a bit and stepped forwards towards the table
"Maybe I should have cleaned up a bit"
Lifting her arm she gave a single waved and immediately things changed. The table that had been previously filled with plants was cleaned with all the plants retreating over the edges of the table and retreating back into the ground. When she did the same, but this time directing her arm downwards towards the chairs, the plants did the same thing and shrank back into the ground again. Now cleaned off she once again inspected the table. Looking dissatisfied she gave off a small huff and walked around it. When she looked like she had an idea she suddenly clicked her fingers. Small globes of light started raining down from the sky and started moving toward the table. The light started gathering in various shapes and formed into different objects. After a few seconds the now formed objects sat there glowing until suddenly the light faded and, stood in their previous places, were an arrangement of decorations. Brass candlesticks with burning candles, large glasses bursting with flowers and a jade vase now stood on the table. When Itachi looked at the chairs he saw that on the previously barred stone seat was a large red pillow.
Saying the only thing that came to mind, Itachi muttered
"That was pretty cool…"
Once again he looked at the goddess, and even though he had pretty much whispered to himself, she gave him a knowing look - as if to say "I know right" – and winked at him.
"Have a seat Itachi-kun"
Seeing that she had taken the seat directly In the middle of the row of five on the opposite side of table he took the one opposite to her so that they could talk easier.
Sitting down in the chair he realized that he could actually feel the pillow underneath him, well the pillow, and it was extremely soft.
"Sorry about that, we haven't used this place in so long that nature must have retook it"
Trying to think about what this place could have been Itachi could only come up one answer
"Is this a meeting place?"
Giving him a smile the goddess replied
"Yes it is, or at least it was. We haven't used this place in millennia. This was the one place where every god would meet up and discuss urgent matters or where we would hold the annual meeting"
Listening carefully to her words and taking in every detail he picked up on something.
"What do you mean "we would"? Why don't you anymore?"
Smiling at him, she clicking her fingers making a glass appeared in her hand which was full of a golden liquid. She took a sip while her eyes stayed on Itachi. He resisted the urge to sink back from her gaze. It felt like, even though being kind and gentle with him, that she was studying him and forming an opinion of him. After a few more seconds she sighed and replied, gaining a look of melancholy on her face.
"Times have changed young one. Many years have passed and the sands of time moved on. Of course you wouldn't know this. You were dormant for so long after all"
Itachi once again took in what she said and grew worried at the implications of what she said. If the she, an immortal god, said that time had passed then it must have been a long time. And what did she mean he had been dormant, he still remembered his last moments in a cave with his little brother like it was an hour ago. How much time had really passed?
"What do you mean? I couldn't have been unconscious for much longer than an hour or so, I can still remember my last words after all"
Looking directly at the goddess her eyes once again brought on a new look. From what he could tell it was… sympathy.
"It may have felt that way to you; unfortunately that was not the case. You see when you died, once again, in that cave after releasing that technique, your soul once again left the Earth. It joined the life stream and as all souls do and entered the stage of death. It is where all life, human or not, will eventually return to."
After explaining this she continued.
"Once in the life stream, everything enters a state of stasis. There is no thought, no individuality and no consciousness. It is just an eternal state of subsistence. Once a part of it time will pass and you will have no knowledge of it. It could have been one second or one thousand years, you would not have felt a thing"
After she finished and Itachi took in all the information his eyes dropped to the table and he grew worried. If any amount of time could have passed what had happened with his little brother. The world as he knew it could have come to an end and he would not have felt a thing. Once again looking up at her and asked her the most important question.
"How long has passed since I entered the life stream?"
She simply looked at him for a few seconds examining his face. She looked at him for what felt like hours before finally answering.
"1.5 million year's"
…..
…..
…..
Itachi simply sat in his chair staring at the goddess in front of him; his face devoid of emotion had left him. The goddess had lost her playful look and now wore a somber expression, empathizing with how he must be feeling. Everything and everyone he had loved and protected were gone and nothing could change that. His family and home were dust in the wind and he knew it. Nothing could stand for a million years.
Slowly his gaze lowered to the table and his face fell into a frown. His mind stopped and slowly started thinking about everything that he had once knew. While looking down at the table he noticed small drops hitting the table forming dots of moisture and when he brought his hand up he confirmed it. He was crying. Something he hadn't done since killing his own parents for the sake of his brother. His mind seemingly rebooting after taking a moment to grieve for family that he had had and for the family that he had not known about until what would have been more than a million years after the last one of their blood had died.
"What happened to my brother? Did he live? Did he save the word?"
Amaterasu's face lifted back into a gentle smile before she spoke.
"Yes he did. He decided to carry on your legacy and helped his friend stop the world from falling into darkness. After saving the world he committed his life to healing the damaged and trying to bring peace to the tainted world. He lived on for many years close to his friends and family spreading his new beliefs until he died with his family. He never forgot what you did for your beliefs and even named his son after you. The idea of peace had been spread so much that the need for the hidden villages of your time became unneeded and the usage of life energy became unused and forgotten"
A sense of relief and embarrassment filled Itachi. The knowledge that he was an uncle and that his little brother lived a long and happy life with a loving family, something he couldn't and didn't deserve, brought a small smile to his face. Also the idea of a world at true peace, so much so that they left behind the knowledge of utilizing chakra to help stop the cycle of war, brought happiness and satisfaction. After all, Shinobi were only good for one thing; and that was war. He had had enough experience in that.
Now feeling once again content and at ease about this situation his brain once again thought about what the goddess had been talking about. But before he could ask another question she suddenly spoke again.
"That peace did not last forever though. After a thousand years of prosperity and advancements in technology it was suddenly brought to an end… and it wasn't humanity that ended it"
Confused Itachi asked "What do you mean? Who else could have destroyed the peace? …was it a god?"
Gently the goddess shook her head. Thinking for a minute, on how best to explain what had happened, she took another sip of her drink before continuing.
"It was not a being of your world - or even of your dimension for that matter. It formed in the great void between dimensions; The Dimensional Gap. Life force from your dimension as well as all others drifted though small natural rifts in space. That life force eventually coalesced into one being. That being of excessive power made of pure power stayed in the space between spaces for millennia before eventually leaving its 'birthplace'. It travelled through a great tear, the biggest rift that had formed. That tear was from your world due to the excessive usage of chakra in the past"
The goddess once again went quiet again before continuing.
"It destroyed everything. Every trace of human life was decimated. It was a being of so much power that it literally reshaped your world in a single day"
Itachi shivered. If something could exist that wasn't a god but could change the surface of the world… He dare not think of how much power it possessed.
"What did it do after that?" Itachi asked
If something could pretty much destroy a world in a single day what would it do the next day? Did it settle down? Did it force dominion on all creatures? Did it create its own perfect world from which it could have full control? The possibilities were literally endless for a being of that much power. Letting himself come out of reverie, he looked up at her and waited for her answer which would tell him the fate of his world.
…
…
"It left"
…
…
Well.
…
He should have thought of that.
The goddess continued what she was saying.
"It went through a different rift into a different dimension and seemingly vanished"
Taking in this new information his mind once again went back to his old world. If it had that much power, what had happened to his world? Thinking this, Itachi asked
"What happened to the world as a whole? You said it reshaped the world. What do you mean?"
The goddess, who while Itachi was speaking had somehow created a small plate in front of herself which had some strange round purple fruit on it and was taking small nibbles from it, once again replied.
"Well. After it killed off the most dominant species on the planet, which were humans, it started unleashing its powers onto the ground itself. It was so powerful that it ripped holes that travelled down towards the center of the planet which in turn caused the super continent that was the elemental nations to split and literally pull each other apart becoming multiple continents instead of a single landmass. It seemed like it was trying to leave behind its mark on the world to show that nothing could stop it"
Digesting the knowledge Itachi thought about what this could mean and asked
"What happened to humanity? Did it die out?"
Amaterasu shook her head
"It didn't die out. It was however pushed back into its earliest stages. All technology and advancements that were made were taken away from them as they retreated back to caves and living underground."
Her eyes took on a feel of reminiscence for a second before she continued
"Nearly all of civilization was destroyed with only small pockets surviving the initial destruction… and even less the drifting of the land. My brothers and sisters watched as the life we had watched grow from its infancy was destroyed in the blink of the eye. Some of them decided that humanity would not recover so they decided that it wasn't worth persevering with."
The goddess once again gained a look in her eyes and her face lost a little of its glow.
"…They left and have not returned, even after all this time…"
Seeing her despondent look, Itachi could only give a pitiful scrap of consolation in the form of a small "I'm sorry"
She gave a small nod of thanks with her eyes still downcast and the atmosphere of their talk becoming somber.
Now with the knowledge of what had happened to his world and wanting to change the subject, Itachi decided to investigate what had happened in his million year absence.
"If the peace ended and humanity was attacked a thousand years after my death, what has happened to the world in the 1.5 million years after that?"
His attempt to change the course of their conversation seemingly working, she answered
"It took about a million years before anything changed on the planet. The continents had drifted apart until there was land all over the globe. It was then, about five hundred thousand years ago, that the humans that had survived came out of their holes in the ground. They slowly started again and, over time, have begun to reclaim their former prestige"
Nodding his head, he waited for her to continue
"It took until about Two Hundred Thousand years ago when they started to once again develop. They did not however reach a stage that resembled there former selves until around Fifty Thousand years ago. And that was also the time when… other things started to develop…"
After that cryptic statement she went silent and lowered her gaze making Itachi wonder what had happened that could make a goddess react like this. Deciding not to interrupt what she was saying he waited until she would continue. Suddenly looking up she spoke once again.
"The left over life force from the beast had been slowly collecting in different places all over the globe. Because of the sheer amount of energy that was left behind it just collected and collected until, after many years, the energy coalesced in them areas and formed a new life form or as many people call them nowadays… Gods"
Itachi was speechless. New gods had formed. How was that possible? Sure he had heard of them fake gods like Jashin but he didn't know that there could be anything else- excluding that monster-that could rightly be called a god.
"These new gods were largely passive and peaceful for many years with many of these gods taking up residences on the various continents and rarely interacting with each other; they instead started their own factions and preferred living in peace. There was one war that occurred between three of the bigger factions that had always been interconnected and it killed a lot of their own until they literally had to ceasefire or risk extinction"
The goddess took a breath before clicking her fingers. The light once again gathered into a rectangular shape and glowed before forming into what appeared to be a book. Slowly she laid it on the table before continuing.
"After these factions had formed, a lot of the left over life force started to morph and change. Some of it leeched onto the humans and some of it formed into whole new beings called Youkai which started to populate the world as well. Creatures like Nekomata and Phoenixes came into existence and lived in a peaceful contentment."
"Over many years humanity lived in peace with these newly made creatures and in blissful ignorance of the gods. Or at least that was until around Five Thousand years ago. Because these 'gods' were formed from pure life force, and were not formed like me and my past family, they had lost the immortality of a real god. They were growing older and were losing power. The gods, knowing this, developed ways they could gain power and one of these was using the power of human faith"
Taking this in Itachi couldn't help but think that sounded a bit suspicious.
"What do you mean? How did they do that?"
The goddess smiled at him and tapped the book that she had been resting her hand upon.
"They showed off some of their powers. They sent down people that preformed miracles or spoke about their gods and humans, wanting to believe that could live a happier life, believed them. The gods, naturally, lived in different places all over the globe so all over the world, multiple religions were founded. Some had more faith then others and others seemingly died out but still a lot of the religions survived and the gods stayed alive"
Knowing this, Itachi asked
"And what about your religion? Surely none of the humans remember the teachings from a Million years ago. What did you do?"
The goddess nodded at his question and then answered
"Well as soon as I saw these new gods creating their own religions, I thought it was time to… restart my own. I went to a nice little island off of the largest continent and set about teaching the people all about it, leaving out the destruction of the previous world of course. No one needs to know that that beast exists"
The goddess once again had a smile on her face as she must have remembered something
"It was a very nice country actually. I called it Japan. They did create some weird customs though. A lot of disembowelment to regain their' honor', it wasn't quite my thing"
Did she say Disembowelment?
Itachi decided he wouldn't ask and seeing the goddess start to talk again, he focused on her words
"After many years of following these various religions, the humans started to grow disenchanted by a lot of the other creatures that lived among them. They started to hunt a lot of the new creatures that had 'supernatural' powers. Powers that humanity thought that were a threat to them. The creatures hid and left their homes and after Thousands of years became stories of myths and parts of legends"
After going silent for a few seconds, her face turning wistful before a light bulb seemed to go off in her mind as her eyes suddenly opened and her mouth opened.
"I'm sorry I got way off track, this isn't what I wanted to talk to you about. I was going to tell you why you are here now"
Itachi's mind stopped at that. He then sighed and scolded himself for not thinking clearly and wondering WHY he was talking to an all-powerful immortal goddess after he died over a Million years ago
'What is a matter with me and no thinking about the important questions? My mind must be rusty after so long'
After a few seconds the goddess continued
"Well… if I'm honest, I don't even know why you are here myself"
"What" That made Itachi pause again
"Didn't you bring me here?"
"Nope, even I don't have the power to pull an individual out of the life stream"
Stumped by her answer he asked
"Then do you who did? Or why?"
Amaterasu merely shrugged her shoulders before saying
"I have no idea why or what brought your consciousness back, let alone fully reincarnated you. All I knew was that something had released a lot of power on the bank of the river and, being the only god of this realm left, I decided to check it out only to find a young man from the past had washed up"
The goddess then reached into one of the sleeves of her kimono before pulling out what appeared to be a piece of paper
"I also found this on your body when I found you. When I picked it up, a foreign energy that had been placed into the paper reacted to me and I received a mental channel. It showed me your whole life and all of your actions as well as some instructions"
Wearily, Itachi asked "Instructions?"
"Yes. The instructions were that you are to be sent back the world of the living, a world that has been tainted by evil. And you are to change its course. You are to save it from itself and the constant wars it had had and create a new peace. A peace not only for the humans, a peace for every race and being on earth"
After she finished there was silence.
"Why is it me?"
It said that you were a man plagued by the sins of his past and were followed by your errors."
She paused
"It said that you deserve another chance. A chance to do right where you did wrong. Too help these new worlds on the path of right and gain redemption for your past. It also said that you are to walk a path that you could never have for you had sacrificed yourself for others… the path of life, and too enjoy yourself in a new world where you don't need to disgrace yourself and cast off those you hold dear. You deserve to earn a chance to be happy and that is what you will get"
When the goddess finished, Itachi was shocked. Saving worlds, redeeming himself and to be happy. That all sounded foreign to him. He would be happy to sacrifice himself if it helped the world gain peace but to be happy for himself… he didn't know what to say. Before he could reply the goddess spoke again and her eyes hardened.
"You must be warned however. Even though you are a peace-loving man, there will be bloodshed, violence and destruction on this new quest. You will have to once again dirty your hands on the path to peace"
Amaterasu's gaze softened before she spoke again, her voice filled with emotion
"But I believe in you"
As Itachi blushed by being praised by the beautiful goddess she stood
"I'm sorry but we have talked for too long. You have been given a new duty and you must start it soon"
Waving for Itachi to follow as she started to walk towards the gap that he had seen before, opposite of the one they had originally come out of
He stood and followed her towards it
When they got to it he could see that like the previous passage it was almost pitch black and she took his hand before pulling him into the tree line. However this time, when Itachi tried to channel chakra to his eyes, his vision almost immediately became clear signaling that his Sharingan had activated but almost as soon as they did his vision went dark. Wanting to know what the situation would be with his chakra if he had been reincarnated he decided to ask her as soon as they left this creepy forest… hopefully it wouldn't be long. As much as he would deny it, he was always apprehensive about entering enclosed wooded areas. It reminded him too much of one of his former colleges that would kidnap children whenever he got the chance…
He was such a creep; he'd even tried to take his eyes…
And had a special tongue technique…
Yeah, definitely a creep.
After a few minutes, like the last time he had gone through the small wooded tunnels, he eventually saw a light coming from up ahead. Wanting to get out of the wood as soon as possible he sped his pace up slightly.
Seeing the light rapidly approaching he let out a sigh of relief when out of the darkness he heard the goddess giggling. His cheeks going red he tried to pretend he wasn't afraid of the dark, or at least the creepy child molesters that he had had experience with.
Finally leaving the dark space behind him, his vision was blinded by the intense light, forcing him to quickly hold a hand over his eyes for a few seconds before his retinas cleared up.
Raising his hand when he thought it was safe to look he was once again left speechless. In front of where they now stood were a few meters of dirt before eventually stopping and turning into a steep, massive, vertical drop. Looking left and right he saw that this sudden cliff extended from the horizon to horizon. In front of the cliff was nothing but white. It was like looking directly up at the sky on a cloudy day. Taking in a few cautious steps towards the edge, he looked over it and saw that it dropped down possibly Thousands of feet before it was coated in a layer of white.
Slowly he asked
"What is this place?"
The goddess, who had walked over to him and stood beside him, replied
"The way out"
Carefully taking a few steps back Itachi decided that now was the time to ask his final questions.
"Do you know what condition my new body is in? I can feel the chakra fine but I can't seem to draw it out or channel it to my Sharingan. And also what is the condition of my Sharingan? My eyesight is definitely better but is my Sharingan also restored properly?"
Amaterasu, taking in what he had said, lifted her arm up until her palm rested on his heart.
"You have been almost entirely… rebuilt. Your soul is the only original component left. Not to say that anything is wrong with your new body, it's just that your body won't have the same attributes that it once had. Your Chakra network has been restored to its default standard. That is also the same as your body. You will have lost a lot of the reflexes and muscle of your previous body"
Itachi's face fell at the news
'How am I going to achieve peace in my current condition? My chakra control and reserve are worse than a Genin's. And all the training and conditioning that my body went through have been for naught'
She lowered her arm before continuing
"But that just means that you will have to regain what you once had if you are to succeed. It will be a long journey and you will have to work hard before you can finally achieve peace. As for your Sharingan"
She gave him a wink
"It should be fine. I personally saw that that was in good condition. I restored it to its prime, before you went blind anyway, so it should be fully functional. All it requires to use is your body to regain its former power".
Itachi opened his mouth but before he could say anything she, seemingly reading his mind, finished
"It also shouldn't be eroding your sight when you do use it as it is not the same one you were born with. Also all of you techniques should be fine as your mind"
Itachi audibly sighed in relief. He didn't think he could take going blind twice. And remembering all of his techniques would definitely come in handy. Especially because of his Dōjutsu. Looking down at his arms he could see all the marks that littered his skin. That was good. That meant that all of the things he had sealed would still be available. He couldn't help the feeling that he would need some of them.
"I must say though. Your Mangekyō does have some interesting abilities. Especially one of them – The flame that burns everything"
Taking a moment before realizing what she meant he saw her wink at him again
The goddess once again looked like she remembered something as she clicked her fingers and spoke
"And lastly before I forget"
Slowly, behind her, three objects appeared in a puff of smoke
"These were linked to your soul"
As the smoke cleared, the three objects slowly came into view and he recognized them
The Sword of Totsuka and the Yata Mirror. He could instantly tell what they were; he had taken a lot of time finding them after all. The third object took him a moment to recognize before he remembered what it was.
The Sword of Kusanagi.
He didn't remember taking it so how did it get into his possession? The only answer that he could come up with was that it was sealed along with the man. Well he wouldn't argue
It was a nice sword
"These objects are very powerful and have a long past and can cause monumental amounts of damage in the wrong hands"
The goddess then waved her hand forwards. The three objects which had been hovering behind her slowly came forwards until she plucked each one out of the air and holding them out towards him
"I don't see any reason not to give them to you though. I hope they will come in handy on your quest"
Itachi reached out and took them. He couldn't believe that she had just given him these immensely powerful objects for nothing and was just about to protest when he looked down and saw his reflection on the Yata Mirror.
What?
Why did he look so… young?
He clearly remembered that he had turned Twenty-One just before his death. So why did he look a little past Seventeen?
Looking up at the goddess with raised eyebrows, she replied to the unasked question
"What? Recreating a body from a cellular level couldn't be easy. Anyway it doesn't matter, your body is perfectly normal in every way, just a little younger than you were"
She reached out and grabbed one of his hands before taking three of her fingers and lightly pressing on his skin before a light glow and hum occurred. Suddenly the Three objects in his other hand disappeared in a cloud of smoke. When she withdrew her fingers he could see three marks now stood on his skin from where the objects seemed to have been sealed.
Not thinking of anything else to ask, Itachi prepared himself for departure before the goddess pulled him towards her leading him to rest in a light hug for a few seconds.
"I don't know when I will, but I'll try to contact you when I can, I want to see your progress after all. You must remember though, Itachi Uchiha, the path to peace is long and dangerous and can change a man, but you must stay true to yourself and you will definitely succeed"
Pulling out of the hug, she held him at an arm's length before continuing.
"In the instructions it said that you would be reborn in a new world so before we part I will give you a gift"
She pulled him down before he could react and kissed his forehead gently before once again pushing him to an arm's length
In the split second the kiss had lasted his mind had been filled with information. Like when you receive the feedback of a shadow clone, images and events filled his mind. Equations that he had never seen before were now as familiar to him as throwing a Kunai. Looking up in a daze at the smiling goddess, about to question what that was about, she answered
"That is the basic information that you will need of this world if you are to go where I have been instructed to send you"
Becoming confused once again at what she meant, something that was starting to annoy him, he asked her
"What do you mean by that, where am I going?"
The goddesses smile suddenly gained a devious quality before she answered
"Back to School"
The next thing that Itachi knew he was falling downwards rapidly, the wind stinging his eyes and whistling loudly in his ears
Had that goddess really just pushed him off a cliff?
Managing to get a glance upwards, he got an answer in the form of a hand sticking over the edge waving at him as he continued his descent downwards
'Wait… Did she say school?'
Before he could he could even begin to formulate a reaction, the world around him flashed a blinding white. The strain on his eyes proving to be too much as his vision was slowly engulfed in darkness and he fell unconscious
LE END
And there it is
If anyone read through the whole thing, I must apologize if it was too long winded and went on. I originally wrote this at half the length but it didn't feel right. I felt that it needed more and more detail and more build up before actually getting to the crossover part
I went through it again and again and added to it until it became this monstrosity. In the end what took me originally a week turned into a three week project. Oh well
As this is Highschool DxD, It will contain... Mature content and will be an ItachiXHarem - Still not decided actual pairings- Probably will have most of the canon pairings
Anyway, please review and tell me how I can improve, like I said this is my first Fanfiction so tell me what you think-I'm still getting used to the Document editor but that should be fine in time
Also give me any ideas that you wanna see in the story; I am planning to follow canon but I also have new and original plot-lines in my mind so tell me what you want
Again please review - Liked it or hated it I wanna know
Until next time, see ya