At long last ... I've done it.

Uchiha Sasuke stood dominantly over his brother's body. His usually cold, uncaring eyes were ablaze, flushed with the heat of victory and fiery with vibrant blazes of having finally completed the deed that had haunted and driven him since the tender age of eight.

For ten years, ten laboriously torturous years, he had done everything in his ever growing power to come closer to his goal. This goal.

Uchiha Itachi lay dead before him. In his chest, where his heart should have been, was a gaping hole that was surrounded by heavily charred flesh that was torn and twisted by the tremendous torsion of the Chidori, the assassination jutsu that Sasuke had employed to dispatch his elusive prey.

Blood trickled in jagged rivers from the corner of both brothers' mouths. The younger one was heaving heavily and roughly wiped away the crimson liquid from his chin, leaving a dark red stain on his sleeve and a light pink smear across his pale right cheek.

The elder brother couldn't do the same. He was dead, and there was nothing to stop the blood from oozing out of his numerous wounds and pool around his dead body. A full moon hung over head in the clear night sky. It was placed ominously close to the earth and was not the usual pale silver that cast clear light across the darkened land, but a sickly yellow, with the barest hint of red.

Sasuke's face grew clammy as the wind blustered around his figure; as his dark silken tendrils, matte with sweat, clumsily whipped around his face and slapped against his skin. He could feel the endorphins that ran in his body subside. Adrenaline levels in his blood levels dropped steadily until a dreadful chill, an undeniable emptiness swallowed his soul.

Pain, laced with an unidentifiable feeling, pierced and clutched at the lone Uchiha's core. With an unearthly shriek, he fell to his knees; the scream rebounded across the hills, echoing but not fading. It seemed to grow with every repeat, until his own scream taunted him, haunting him.

Weakly, his head fell forward; if his arms had not been there to catch him, Sasuke would have fallen unto his brother's body. Instead, his head hung there, almost nose-to-nose, his eyes connecting with unseeing, filmed-over, orbs of scarlet, each with three suspended drops of black.

Even in death, Itachi's Sharingan goaded him.

Sasuke knew that his nii-san, the one he had admired to the heavens above, had bought this eye with the price of his best friend's life. In order to keep it, he had killed his entire family.

Sasuke knew all too well that he was no better. The ten years since he had seen his parents fall by his brother's hand, right before his own, then innocent, eyes, he had followed Itachi's path.

He had betrayed those close to him. He had sacrificed and hurt masses. He had killed one, and then many. He was no different, after all, after victory. This phyrric victory.

What doesn't kill me will only make me stronger.

How very true. But... at what price?

Uchiha Sasuke was already beginning to feel the pain of living without a purpose.

He was feeling the torture of remorse and regret.

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"He's back!"

"Who?!"

"HIM."

"Okay, you lost me."

"Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."

Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke.

After six years of absence from Konoha, after six years of being marked as a Nukenin, Uchiha Sasuke had set foot into the village he had once, once upon a distant past, a forgotten childhood, he had once called a home.

He noted that not much had changed. Somethings looked old, dying. Some looked newly made. The people grew, but retained their original appearance. They were both caught in the streaming flow of time, but remained untouched.

His name, however, had changed. It was once four syllables uttered by nearly all girls his age as a prayer, and by all boys his age as a reluctant sign of respect. Uchiha Sasuke was once held in the highest regards by everyone.

Now, his name was a curse. Wherever he took a single step, came dead silence.

Eyes followed him. Eyes of recognition soon turned into eyes of anger and eyes of shock. Eyes that leaked tears and eyes that poured hatred. Eyes that openly showed such potent dislike and eyes that did not know what to show.

All eyes were one Uchiha Sasuke as he headed towards the red-topped building in the center of town. His dark eyes betrayed nothing as he clutched at two heads, one of Orochimaru. Another of Uchiha Itachi.

Tracing his path through the once filled roads of Konohagakure no Sato was a single trail of blood that came from the decapitated head of the man who pushed the Uchiha Clan to extinction; Sasuke gripped this man's scalp with his right hand.

The second head whose hair was bunched in Sasuke's left fist was that of a man who had killed Sandaime Hokage and led an attack on this village six years ago, resulting in numerous casualties. The skin and flesh were peeling off the skull as flies flew about.

Uchiha Sasuke was going to ask for forgiveness.

That much was evident.

But what remained unsure across the minds of every village citizen was whether they were ready to give it.

A pair of dark hazel eyes had followed Uchiha Sasuke since he had set foot within Konoha. These eyes held massive barriers, letting no one pass, allowing none to see just how much she loathed this man.

There was no uncertainty here. Keikaiya will never forgive Uchiha Sasuke. She would rather live to the end of her years, clinging to her hatred of this man and refusing him what he would ultimately want more than anything.

Uchiha Sasuke set down the two skulls, still gruesomely decorated with flesh, before the Hokage within her office that was filled to the vaulted ceiling with Jounin and security personnel.

Then, slowly, deliberately, he sank to his knees and reached out before him, holding his hands out, his palms facing the sky.

Those hands were clean to the eye, but anyone who knew anything about Uchiha Sasuke would know that these hands had been bloodied with the deaths of masses of people in the wake of his quest for power. These hands had alternately held flickering lightning which when coupled with speed and precision, would cut through everything under the sky. It was his hands that formed oceans of blood that, with time, were absorbed and dried into the earth, leaving the cent of copper and the texture of ash.

With gravity, Sasuke touched his forehead to the floor.

He had said nothing upon returning to the place that was once home, but in Tsunade's office, his actions said everything.

Uchiha Sasuke was begging.

He was expecting them to behead him, but for what seemed like hours, like an entire day, Sasuke was bowing before Godaime Hokage and her guards, all two scores of them.

Nobody so much as blinked. They didn't dare to. Who really knew what were this man's true intentions were? Who knew what he could do?

Throughout a silence filled with hastened breathing, Tsunade contemplated her next words; what she decided could either send the last Uchiha to the highest ranks of respect or damn him to hell.

Any person standing in that room, at that time, might have sworn that the tension was so thick, it was tangible. It pressed and pulled against the bodies, suffocating the people, covered in a shiny layer of sweat, within such a rancid vacuum.

Sasuke slowly raised his head, tentatively meeting the honey-brown gaze of the Hokage. Her eyes were sharp and narrowed to near slits; she was boring into his mind. As she probed about his conscience, he could feel her hidden dislike.

Then, with deliberation, Tsunade stood up and leaned lightly onto the table, closing the space between them.

Sasuke returned to his previous position; again, his forehead graced the floor and his hair fanned out. His judgment was arriving.

"Welcome back, Sasuke-kun."

It was obvious by the way they stood with each other that they were together. Their hands were almost touching and their bodies were intimately adjacent to one another.

They were together.

Sasuke could only look on with a twisting feeling in his stomach. His two teammates, Naruto and Sakura, looked happy in the other's company. He was left out without someone by his side.

But the life he chose and the road he walked was one of solitude. However, he had reached the end of the path, and knew not of where to go.

They stiffened as he drew near. Naruto watched warily, a strange smile on his lips. Sakura also looked strained as she shied away from Uchiha Sasuke, using the now tall and still blonde boy as a shield. The couple looked wary and hesitant.

They too, did not know what to do.

After a solid five minutes of silence, Naruto broke the spell. With a funny little spasm in his neck, an attempt at nodding, he said, "How have you been, Sasuke?"

It was a simple greeting, one used both generically and heartily every day with anyone.

Sasuke felt obliged to answer, to return the greeting. He, after all, owed his two teammates that much.

But words escaped him. Such a simple question, the brilliant Uchiha prodigy-gone-wrong, could not answer.

So, he too, simply nodded and then walked away.

He knelt before the large, grey stone, his eyes alternately sliding in and out of focus.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of names engraved in the smooth rock, light grey veined in darker shades and pure white and black hues.

Surrounding the small edifice was a ring of dried flowers; it showed how much the people had been loved. In his hands, Sasuke held a large, white chrysanthemum, it's entire bloom exceeding the widths of his palm. Its many thin, pale petals were beginning to wilt in the warmth of his hand and was dying in the cold of his heart.

He was looking for a single name, one that hid among the many.

It was the name of the one person that could have been considered 'close' to the solitary boy when he was merely 12. It was the name of the person who had been apprenticed to Tsunade before she had became Godaime Hokage. It was the name of the person who was able to give a little bit of what Sasuke had coveted so in his younger years.

But it wasn't enough. Keikaiya did not have enough power to give and to teach to the young avenger. It wasn't enough to defeat Itachi.

She was a child, a woman, who was six months Sasuke's senior. She too had the inherent hatred of Uchiha Itachi, for her parents were killed by him. She also despised the man known to be Orochimaru for reasons she would not speak of.

She was bitter, intelligent, and hell bent on revenge, leaving little to nothing distract her.

But upon her arrival to Konoha, one thing did.

Sasuke wanted just about the same things. The two of them had almost become close. Keikaiya nearly trained the then poor boy to death on several occasions, but with time, he did become strong.

But not strong enough. Not strong enough to defeat Itachi, not strong enough to maintain his position of superiority to his blonde, knuckle-headed teammate. She was only thirteen, afterall. There was only so much she could give.

And so, one cold summer day, at dusk, Uchiha Sasuke turned his back on Konoha.

This act of treachery had caused the hokage to send a team of shinobi he had known for all of his life. These people were his classmates during his academy years, teammates and opponents during exams. These five young men were sent to by any means necessary subdue and reconnaissance him on his trek to Orochimaru, the man she hated so.

They had all failed. Only one actually caught up to Uchiha Sasuke, and after a mad struggle, was knocked unconscious. Naruto only caught glimpses of him throughout the next six years, but like smoke, he could only be seen, and never caught.

Sasuke did not kill Naruto because he was no threat. But she came, and she was a threat.

Keikaiya was a fully head taller than he was. She had frumpy black hair that had been cut short and light brown, or dark hazel, eyes that easily burned with emotion. If any eyes were windows to a soul, Keikaiya's would be it; she wore her heart on her sleeve.

But as she confronted him as he limped away from Naruto's unconscious body, her eyes no longer showed any emotion. Her trademark temper had vanished, and through the rain, Sasuke only saw her lips form a single word.

"Why?"

It was a loaded question, one with many answers but not enough time.

Keikaiya had learned Tsunade's strength. She had vicious speed to match and possessed unerring skill with a bladed staff.

"Konoha doesn't have what I want." He had said with intent to harm, to hurt. "You and the rest of that village can't give me what I want."

She would have easily subdued him. She outclassed Sasuke, but as far as he knew, the tough, sarcastic faade she wore was one that thinly covered an easily bruised body. She took everything anyone would ever say to heart, and held it there, a poison that at away from inside.

When he had said those words, she only stared in hurt and regret. Her expression only donned the faintest look of surprise and shock as Sasuke drove his Chidori straight through her midriff, roughly grazing her spine.

He left her on the forest floor, bleeding, dead.

He was looking for her name. One name hidden among many.

"You won't find her here." A voice he had not heard in years said with its usual nonchalant undertone.

Sasuke minutely turned his head and looked at the speaker from the corners of his eyes. There was a tall mass of grey hair that stood lopsidedly at attention. A lazy black eye stared down at Sasuke, who could see Naruto and Sakura standing a little behind their former sensei.

"It's just like old times, isn't it?" Kakashi continued, now watching the clouds with unusual interest. "Only thing is, you guys are twice your twelve-year-old size and I'm approaching my mid-life crisis."

After suppressing a snort, Sasuke asked, "What do you mean, I won't find her name here? Naruto only survived Chidori because he's," his dark eyes roved away from Kakashi to the tall blonde who stood impassively behind him. "...special."

Silence fell and flooded the conversation, or lack thereof. Everyone knew of just what made Uzumaki Naruto click...

Sakura stepped forward from behind her once-teammate and once-sensei, her light green eyes, once filled with desire upon seeing the tall, dark, brooding boy, now inundated with consternation. "Sasuke....kun. Her name isn't on the stone."

The addressed boy averted his eyes to stare at the kunoichi that had been on his team. She too had grown, but for the time being, Sasuke cared not for what had happened in the last three years. What she had to say now, mattered most.

"She's not dead."

"You're forgetting, Sasuke," Naruto said as he cheerily inhaled his ramen at rather alarming rates, "Keikaiya was Tsunade's student since she was little. From what you're telling me, even if you did run her through the stomach with your chidori, I wouldn't be surprised if she learned a few tricks from her sensei and just about drain herself of chakra to heal what should have been a fatal wound. You said you two didn't really fight, so she didn't use any chakra."

It was true. Sasuke had not allowed her the first move. If he had done so, it would have been on his head.

"But, how did you guys find her?"

They were sitting at Naruto's favorite ramen restaurant. Kakashi did not eat and both Sakura and Sasuke had finished with their meal, their chopsticks placed neatly on the rims of the empty bowls. Naruto was still guzzling down his noodles.

"You knew how she was. Stubborn. She dragged herself to where you left Naruto. We found her clutching your hitai-ate." Kakashi commented stoically. His eye followed the pedestrians who made their way past the ramen shop, covertly shooting Sasuke looks. "If you're thinking of meeting with her again, I'd advise against it."

"Why? Does she still hold a grudge? If Keikaiya had healed herself, wouldn't there be no lasting damage?"

No one said anything for a good few minutes. Ayame, the girl who ran the ramen shop with her dad, cleared away the bowls as Naruto glumly handed over some ryou to pay for the ramen, all 20 bowls of it.

"You can say that," Sakura interjected when the silence had become unbearable. "Keikaiya has changed. Sure, she laughs and jokes as she used to, but her laughter ... never really reaches her eyes. Surely you remember her eyes, Sasuke? Before... they had been warm, light. Now they're just dead and cold. When she thinks no one is watching, the look of hatred is almost tangible... And she doesn't go anywhere anymore. Besides her home and the supermarket, she only goes to her therapy sessions..."

Sasuke jerked at the last two words. "Therapy sessions?"

Sakura looked uncomfortable under his intense gaze. She turned to stare at the table and played with the soy sauce packets.

"On Mondays and Thursdays, she has therapy with Tsunade and myself. She... She...." Sakura stumbled and stuttered over her last few statements.

"She can't walk."

This time, it had been Naruto who said it. Sasuke's gaze turned to him, but the blond jinchuuriki did not elaborate. Now, Sakura's words came tumbling out, as if she had been steering herself not to say these words.

"When you had ran her through with your chidori, you had ruptured three of her lumbar discs on her lower spine. As far as we know, no one has seen her walk in the past six years. At the therapy sessions, we try to get her to walk, stand up even, but she just firmly sits in her wheelchair, cracking jokes. Tsunade personally thinks she can walk, she just refuses to walk in front of anyone because her legs haven't withered away from disuse yet. If anything, they look to be in really good shape."

"What about that time with Shikamaru?" Naruto quipped laughingly. "Didn't he use the shadow manipulation thing and made her do cartwheels?"

"Yeah, but once he released his jutsu, she collapsed on the floor and sent us her famous glares." Sakura shook her head and laughed softly, sadly. After a moment of inspecting her cuticles, she opened her mouth once again. "But Sasuke? Don't go near her."

At this, he jerked out of his reverie. He had been slowly taking in the information, testing it, not quite believing it.

"Why?"

This time, it wasn't just Sakura who shook her head. Even Kakashi and Naruto looked serious as they clearly motioned no to his unspoken request.

"Just no, Sasuke. I doubt she'll take well to seeing you once more."

His posture slumped slightly and he unseeingly inspected his own nails, reminiscing of how Keikaiya had once painted his nails a vibrant magenta, just to annoy him.

Several days passed.

Not a single day did Uchiha Sasuke not linger in the aisles of the Konoha Supermarket or haunt the foyer of the hospital, hoping to catch sight of a girl in a wheelchair, a girl he had previously thought to be dead.

There was no sign of her.

The only thing he could see, much to his annoyance, were groups of girls of all ages, constantly standing on the sidelines. They giggled, they pointed, they were all around annoying. More than once was Sasuke reminded of the time before he had became a Nukenin.

It was just like old times.

Only this time, Keikaiya wasn't there to shoo the flies off by waving her bladed staff at them. This time, Kaikaiya wasn't there to kick him in the ankles when he was running too slowly.

There was no sign of her.

"You actually allowed him to stay?!" The girl who sat in the wheelchair demanded, anger profusely evident in her none-too dulcet tones. Her voice was harsh and grating as her hazel eyes glowered darkly at a pair of honey-brown ones. "You actually allowed Uchiha Sasuke to stay? To live in Konoha?! Here?"

Tsunade grew tired with her former student's repetition. Sighing, she brushed a strand of hair from her eyes and looked pointedly at Keikaiya Seramitsu.

"Yes, I actually allowed him, Uchiha Sasuke, to stay. In Konoha. Here." Tsunade stood up, leaning heavily on the cherry-wood desk. Time was getting to her, and no matter how young Godaime Hokage looked, the same did not reflect internally. "I understand, Keika-chan, that he's done you wrong. But that was six years ago... It's kind of time to move on."

The addressed girl opened her mouth to squack her protests, but Tsunade interposed.

"And besides. There are conditions to him staying here."

"Conditions...? Can I sabotage?"

"Possibly, but I'd rather have Uchiha Sasuke-san succeed. You are familiar with the Uchiha Clan massacre, are you not?"

The dark-eyed girl nodded. She had informally been the discussed man's sensei years ago. She knew of his history and his hatred for his elder brother.

"That day, a great deal of valuable shinobi perished at the hands of Uchiha Itachi, Keika-chan. These shinobi all carried the Sharingan blood limit, and many of the younger children who were murdered were deluged with potential. You must understand, Sasuke-san is the last of his kind, and he is, you cannot deny, a potent weapon against any other threats to Konoha. We would like to, ah... oh say, duplicate Sasuke's power, if you catch my drift."

Keikaiya's black hair, not unclean, but definitely unkempt, fell into her eyes and pooled around her shoulders. Her eyes lost the anger it held and returned to its usual dead look, only this time, laced with hints of disgust.

"You've been reading Jaraiya's novels, sensei."

Tsunade did not deny her accusation as Keikaiya wheeled her wheelchair around and silently opened the door. She slowly pushed the large rubber wheels forward and was now situated in just beyond the doorframe. Her back faced Tsunade, who watched with curiosity and amusement.

"What if he asked you to be his wife, Keikaiya?"

At this, she stiffed, turning her head ninety degrees to glare at the blonde woman from her left eye.

"What could've possibly driven you to ask such a vile proposition, Tsunade?"

"You two were almost close before he almost killed you. He has also asked several questions about you, from what Sakura's telling me. It doesn't matter. But, what I do want to know is what would you do?"

Once again, Keikaiya turned away from the hokage, her face cast into shadows as the hallway was completely unlit for no sunlight could penetrate the small dusty window.

"He's nothing to me. He, who destroyed my life, will get nothing from me. He is a fool to expect to, and so are you."

With a quick, vicious movement, Keikaiya slammed the door shut, casting herself into darkness.

The sun temporarily blinded the pale girl with dark, brooding features as she emerged from the red-roofed building. Growling her displeasure, she blindly pushed through the crowd in her wheelchair, paying no heed whatsoever to the complaints and yowls of pain of the people whose toes she had run over.

Her whole body was tense. She never really relaxed since she had saw him step foot into Konoha. Today had been her first therapy session, which turned out to be a complete disaster.

Even her legs, two long expanses of pale skin that sagged slightly from disuse, were tense.

Everyday since she discovered that her legs were no longer functional in its most basic use, she had taken her hatred of him to her heart. It was a poison, and she relished in it.

Hating him was the first thing on her mind when she woke up every morning. Hating him was the last thing on her mind as she fell asleep.

Hating him was her entire life, rotting the once lively girl from within. The shell still existed, but who she had been once upon a time was now gone from this world.

Her eyes seemed to gleam scarlet as she pushed her mobile chair wildly through the town, careening into vendors' stands and nearly running over children on several accounts.

She was nearly blind with rage, and she was quickly losing the control she had utilized in the pass few days to block him from every thought in her mind.

Keikaiya's sanity was on the verge of breaking.

She sat like a statue by the lakeside. Her eyes had glazed over and the ripples and waves of the water reflected in her glassy brown eyes.

Tears laced her bottom eyelashes and dried salt deposits made trails from the corner of her eyes to her chin.

In her hand she held a small round pebble that had been neither small nor round a mere hour ago. Keikaiya may be only the ghost of who she had been, six years past, but now at nineteen, she retained her strength, and the heated abhorrence inside her only strengthened her strength. The same could not said for her speed.

She was barefoot. She had torn off her sandals and thrown them into the water, the perfect, flawless water that reflected the gorgeous setting sun and her hollow eyes and sunken cheeks. Her shoes were floating the in the distance.

She sat in her wheelchair, the open training field were barren and soundless behind her.

At the sound of a small branch breaking, Keikaiya's eyes became alert once more. In one fluid movement, she twisted one wheel forward and the other backwards, causing her to spin a full 180 degrees around, facing the one person she most desperately wanted and did not want to see.

Uchiha Sasuke was taller. In the six years, he had grown. His eyes, too, were dark and empty, dead; the look of death was only amplified in their eyes by the matching dark circles.

"I thought I would find you here." He commented lightly, limply holding a white chrysanthemum. "We... we trained here six years ago... Before... before I..."

He faltered upon seeing Keikaiya's expression. Her face reflected the hatred that both burned her heart and froze it to hell.

"Before you what? Almost killed me?"

He flinched, something he would have never done six years ago.

"Keika-cha---"

"Seramitsu-san. You will address me by nothing else."

"I'm sorr---"

"Would you have just accepted Itachi's apology if he did humble himself enough to apologize to you?"

"No, but that's diff---"

"Different? Not really, Uchiha-san. Do you expect me to forgive you?"

"I didn't kill---"

"Do you think that matters to me? I no longer have any true living connections to this world. Only I matter to myself, not you, not Tsunade, not Sakura or Naruto or Kakashi."

"But---"

"Didn't you realize that this would happen? Did you really expect everyone to welcome you back with open arms?"

At this point, Keikaiya was spitting at him. Her arms were taut at her side, her legs itching to stand up and run to him, hurt him, maim him.

"You wanted to kill Itachi!" He burst out, evidently frustrated. "You hated him as much as I did! Maybe even mor---"

"And I hated Orochimaru even more!" The dark girl screamed, violently cutting him off. Struggling, she vied to stand up; her legs twitched and her knees buckled as she hastily threw off her balance to stand up straight. With her left hand resting heavily on her wheelchair's armrest, she stood for the first time in six years.

Leaning and breathing heavily, Keikaiya submitted to attempting to slice off the head of the man, the boy, the traitor who stood before her using her eyes.

With her voice low, deep, and undeniably dangerous, she threw up every hateful feelind memory she had harbored within her for the past six years. "You betrayed Konoha. You betrayed your team, the hokage, your family's home. You betrayed me. I could have made you stronger, Sasuke, but nooooo. You just haaaaad to go running to that rotting snake. Dead is he now? And Itachi too? I saw you carry their heads into Konoha. And for your information, I didn't care. And now, I still don't care. Because the only thing I have left is honor and the fact that I didn't hurt anyone I cared about!"

She took a wild step forward, but her balance was lost and she fell to the grass that was once, ephemerally, beneath her feet. Sasuke took a step forward, and made motions to help her up, but with a scream of true rage, Keikaiya reached behind her and seized her wheelchair. Her eyes were alight with a crazed frenzy as she lifted and threw the wheelchair at the last Uchiha. It caught him full in the gut.

He had collapse mere inches from her.

Keikaiya struggled once more to stand, this time gravity had nothing on her.

At long last ... I've done it.

Seramitsu Keikaiya stood dominantly over Uchiha Sasuke. Her usually cold, dead eyes were ablaze, flushed with the heat of victory and fiery with vibrant blazes of having finally, finally caused this man pain. Her want and need to hurt Sasuke had been her driving, living force since she was 13, and after six years, a true smile, albeit a demented one, appeared on her face.

His eyes reflected fear. Dread. Regret.

Tentatively she took a small step forward.

Success.

Another step. Another step. Again, again, and over and over again.

The distance she had traveled was no more than two feet, but she had walked.

His head laid at her feet. She was wearing a skirt, but she cared not for such trivial matters. He was at her mercy.

Her eyes reflected madness. Insanity. Hatred.

The impulse to kill him, to end Uchiha Sasuke's life at that very moment was overwhelming. He was, after all, completely at Keikaiya's mercy.

After a moment of intensely staring into each other's eyes, a slow, sadistic grin spread across the madwoman's face.

She did not want him dead. She did, however, desire to cause him pain. To torture him.

Like he had done, for the past six years.

Cruelly, she rolled off the broken wheelchair, almost singing at the sight of Sasuke's bloodied abdomen.

"You've grown weak, Sasuke." Keikaiya hissed as she brutally stepped on and down on Uchiha Sasuke's torso. "When you were twelve, you would have jumped up if you were knocked down. I see revenge has weakened you. Revenge is for the weak, those who could not stand living with the existence of another. But then again, I suppose I'm weak as well..."

The boy was on the verge of unconsciousness. His eyes were foggy and from all prominent facial openings ran blood.

"You destroyed a beautiful, brilliant life, Uchiha. My life. I was a great shinobi. I could arm wrestle with Tsunade, on par, and leave all you Leaf villagers breathing my dust. You destroyed that."

After hearing a single, soft crack, Keikaiya withdrew, stepping back. She had successfully fractured a rib bone; one small enough to not kill him, but large enough to cause substantial damage to his vital organs. Just shy of killing him.

Keikaiya smiled mirthlessly down at her victim as she took slow, awkward steps back.

You are nothing to me, Uchiha... Nothing.

His breathing was shallow as blood oozed to the surface, pooling around him.

From this day on, you shall live to the end of your days as nothing...

Keikaiya turned around and stumbled to the water's edge. Tentatively, she put one foot onto the rippling surface, almost expecting to fall in.

You will live and you will die a ruined person, much like the one I've been for the past six years... I want you to feel that pain again.

But she didn't. With a growing grin plastered against her features, she took experimental steps out on to the water.

You have already, when you killed Itachi, and before... You must have.

She walked so that she stood several feet from solid earth. The water below her feet was shallow.

Keikaiya looked heavenward and softly muttered a prayer of thanks to the kami.

Solitude. We both know how much it hurts...

She looked over her shoulder and saw that Sasuke was sitting up now. It was too far away to see just his features in detail, but Keikaiya could feel his gaze on her.

A single tear formed at the corner of her right eye and slid slowly down the white canvas of her cheek, creating a shiny line. As the drop of moisture drew near her chin and and then dropped to the water, Keikaiya could feel all the euphoria, the joy of finally hurting him, go with it.

Her face was blank and dead again.

You'll die alone, because you're nothing to me. You're just a stranger to me.

Without a second look, she turned and ran. As she gained speed, she held her arms up and out, creating an illusion of flight...

"We'll be strangers again."

No one could catch her now.

A U T H O R ' S N O T E

Originally posted on my quizilla account (find at quizilla (dot) come (slash) SkyDancer15), this is the first of the few oneshots I've decided to repost here. This was originally written before the entire Uchiha Arc in Naruto was published so the ending is, of course, different from canon. Whatever. I've read worse permutations.

APtMH might be updated on the weekend of June 13th (after my ACT exams.

I'd love some feedback.

Lyra :3