Blue Skies

Chapter Two: Information Overload

As the war between light and darkness continues

Heroes and villains become harder to identify

Kindred spirits separated at birth

Fighting for their place in time to be solidified

The clock ticks faster and faster

While time runs a marathon in this Babylon

But see, the end is only the beginning

The beginning of the calm before the storm

x

They had made camp a little ways away from Konoha, making sure to cover their tracks. It had been a few days before Aozora had worked up the courage to tell Imawa what had happened to her clan.

Imawa had been meditating when Aozora relayed the information to her. She transferred Naruto's memory and knowledge to her directly after she broke the news. Imawa opened her eyes and stared at nothing in particular.

"Massacred?" Imawa inquired, "Because they were going to betray the village?"

Imawa's eyes began to glow red, her hair began to levitate due to her aura solidifying.

"That is what my people turned into? They wanted to disrupt the very same village their ancestor helped create?!" Imawa was yelling by now, completely furious, "Am I not in their books? Am I not the one they should respect 'for I gave them LIFE!?"

In a fit of rage, the old Uchiha pulled a tree from its roots and threw it, panting.

Aozora watched in silence as Imawa's aura began to turn into flames. It had been so long since she had seen her angry. It had been so long since either of them had delt with such discourse. It was like pulling the stitches out of an infected wound. A wound that could never close.

"Aozora..." Imawa started, "Come. We need to find this 'Itachi'. I must know the truth. We have given up everything, but I will not give up my entire clan!"

Imawa sat on the ground and put her hands together, trying make her mind reach those with her blood.

"Well?" Aozora asked.

"He's close."

x

Itachi had been walking in the forest, contemplating his time with the pink haired kunoichi. She was foolish but he could not force her out of his mind.

Itachi stopped dead in his tracks, feeling a presence behind him.

He turned around slowly, wondering what type of ninja was after him. Had he been anyone else, he probably would have gasped. He was graced with the presence of a noble looking woman in ninja gear that looked new.

"Itachi," The woman growled.

Itachi eyed her carefully. She was tall and built. He took note of her sharingan but the most peculiar aspect of her was her long black hair. Her hair was not just black, it was the color of a black hole, it did not even shine in the sun.

It was nothing. It was sinister. Then suddenly it dawned on him.

"Uchiha...Imawa? Itachi asked quietly, disbelieving himself.

"Ah...so it seems I am recollected somewhere." She spoke, visibly irritated, "Come here boy, I need to see our story."

Boy? Our story? The legends can't possibly be true. they were just books. Despite himself, Itachi walk towards her, not able to look away.

He stopped in front of her, waiting for her next move.

My descendants are lovely, she thought sadly. Imawa connected there foreheads.

Itachi sighed, completely taken aback by the peace he felt by her touch. She was warm like a mother, and gentle in his mind.

After a few minutes, Imawa pulled away violently, face incredulous.

"This...is complete mind fuckery."

Imawa turned away from him, in an attempt to hide her distress. Tears built up in, but she decided not to cry...she felt that the man behind her would not understand her ability to express emotion in this now cold and distant place...the severity of the situation, the grievance it caused. Her clan- and his - were created from the children she was not aloud to raise and had to watch destroy themselves...

You did the right thing, Itachi," She praised him, turning around, "I would have done nothing different but..."

Itachi swallowed, not sure how to react. He did notice her close her eyes and begin to glow with a sickening red color.

When she opened her eyes she looked truly evil, and Itachi felt fear for the first time in a long time. Her eyes were completely black with red stomas swirling leisurely.

"I must find this Uchiha Sasuke," Imawa growled, voice deep, "And I will make him pay."

She then bit into her thumb and performed a summoning jutsu. In a flash a giant wolf was before them. Big and black and terrible, black oozing from his mouth, his three eyes blinking in different times.

"Imawa!" Aozora warned, jumping from a tree. She ran to where Itachi was and pushed him backwards. He gracefully landed a few feet back from where the two woman were.

"Imawa!" Aozora yelled again, voice pleading, "Calm down!"

"He destroyed my clan!" Imawa yelled, "And that cannot got unpunished! Now Deimos, lets go find that wretched bastard!"

Imawa jumped onto Deimos and they disappeared in a flash of flames. Imawa could no longer control herself. She had not destroyed in so long. The hate she could feel, it was almost rolling off the poor land. So much had changed since she had been there last!

Itachi stood up and stared at the other woman who had appeared. He could hear her sniffling. Kunoichi are trained to not cry, he thought to himself, why can she not control herself.

Aozora wiped her eyes. Why had any of this happened? This world had been so peaceful. She felt sorry for this Sasuke boy, from now on his life was not going to be easy.

"I'm sorry for pushing you." she blurted out, voice uneven.

Itachi stood there, unsure of what to do. Ninja didn't normally cry so openly, especially the ninja he was acquainted with.

Her eyes pierced him when she turned around,

"I'd stay and explain but we'll both die if we aren't near the other. Forgive me."

And with that, she ran off.

x

Sasuke's head snapped up as he heard the trees rumbling from a distance. It bothered him that he could hear it, but not feel it.

Before he knew what was happening he was knocked to the ground by a huge surge of heat. When he looked up he was faced with a giant wolf, black sludge oozed from the spaces between its teeth and fell onto Sasuke's face.

"That's enough, Deimos." he heard a voice command. The wolf snarled and broke eye contact, allowing Sasuke to get up. He immediately activated his sharingan and prepared for battle against his enemy.

After a few moments he realized he wasn't being attacked and finally took notice of Imawa standing in front of him. He saw the red stoma in her eye,

"You! Why do you have the Sharingan?"

Imawa didn't answer. She appraised the young man before her, mildly surprised by how put together he looked, and also surprised by his gull.

"How rude," She drawled, "I am an Uchiha, of course."

By this time, Sasuke had regained his composure.

"You're lying. My brother killed them off. I saw it."

She rolled her eyes at his arrogance. Without warning she slammed her hand onto his forehead and grabbed his scalp. As she let his memories flow through her, she began to shake with emotion, anger began build in her gut. It must be genetic, Imawa thought bitterly, this inherent need to be bad. The flames surrounding her licked Sasuke's skin and burned him, causing him to cry out.

Completely disgusted with Sasuke she grabbed onto his neck with her other hand and let his forehead go.

"What did you to me," Sasuke hissed, completely in rage by his lack of control. She was looking straight into his eyes and his sharingan was not affecting her at all.

Imawa was very insulted by this entire situation. This...thing that was wiggling in her grip was a disgusting piece of trash. She placed her free hand over his eyes and Sasuke began to scream in agony as she slowly drew a deep red ball of flame from his head.

When she was finished, she let him drop to the ground and Sasuke could feel that something was wrong immediately. He couldn't' activate his sharingan.

Imawa smiled wickedly at him holding the flame close to her eyes and laughed.

"This is what makes you an Uchiha...and I have taken it away."

She gave Sasuke one last withering look, brought the flame to her mouth, and swallowed the flame in one swift movement.

Imawa kicked him in the face, and her smiling eyes were the last thing he saw before he slipped into black

x

"That was cruel." Aozora berated her companion as they rested near the late Uzushiogakure.

"How can you say that after what he's done. I showed you everything," Imawa retorted, brushing her hair.

"We promised not to fight anymore."

"No, Aozora, you promised. But that could not be considered a fight...it was more like like a...massacre."

Imawa snickered at her own sick humor.

"And you wonder why the Uchiha clan is all types of fucked."

"In retrospect, I'm not really surprised anymore," Imawa mused, becoming serious, "I do personify all that is evil. I suppose they can't help it, its in their bones to cause chaos. Itachi is a very surprising black sheep."

Aozora studied Imawa for a second, and he tone softened.

"I see your hair is longer."

Imawa sighed,

"I took away some of his hate for him. I could not leave his soul in that state. It would have been irresponsible of me."

Aozora let them fall in silence. Her mind wondered to her dear Naruto. How she longed to interact with him, to love him. She called Deimos over to her to lean on while she thought of all the information they had gathered.

"We need to decide the best course of action."

Imawa joined her, laying on the back of her wolf. They had a pretty good picture of all that had went on since they were gone.

"Agreed. I think we can both guess that your brood with eventually come here to seek answers after that stunt you pulled. We should just wait until then. Work on healing our energy," Imawa chattered excitedly.

Aozora groaned. She hated doing slow exercises with Imawa. Sure, they helped her energy flow but if she didn't execute a move in just the most particular way, Imawa bitched her out. Imawa studied Aozora for a moment and said slowly,

"So...tell me what do you think of Madara's involvement."

She heard Aozora inhale sharply.

"I don't know what to think. Those are the holes in our information; holes that I don't think Obito or Madara would be willing to give it up easily."

Imawa glared at Aozora's vague response.

"What do you think Madara is after," She pressed on.

"I don't want to talk about him," Aozora said robotically.

Imawa frowned and realized that was the end of the conversation. It was not exactly the two Uchiha's fault that they came out the way they did. Her dear friend had always been too soft for her own good.

When Imawa had first came into existence, she was literally a condensed body of hatred and terror. Aozora was created milliseconds after and was the embodiment of all that was good, and the chaos and destruction that reigned the first age was not easily forgotten.

Only after the Old Ones created the Sage was the world at piece. He held them down and forced their souls to merge into each other, successfully balancing them. Afterwards the Old Ones punished them severely for their discord. Giving birth to the sack of fur she was currently resting on was only the beginning of the torture.

She digressed. It would seem that Sasuke was repeating history...but there was no reason, no cause.

And that was unforgivable.

x

"Come on, Naruto!" Sakura whined playfully. She and Sai were tidying up the last of Naruto's small apartment for their departure.

"Sakura-chan, I don't know what to pack," Naruto yelled, panicked. So far he had thrown his green frog stuffed animal and his walrus hat but that was it.

"What am I supposed to bring?!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and threw another duffle bag at him,

"Just pack two, you never know when we'll be back."

After about fifteen minutes and a few break downs later; Sakura, Sai, and Naruto were ready to leave.

In a moment of weakness, Sakura asked softly,

"Are we sure we're doing the right thing."

"Of course, Sakura-chan. This is our village, and it is our duty to protect it. Especially if I'm going to be the next Hokage."

Sakura smiled. Naruto had such hope. She on the other hand was worried about Tsunade recovering from her body being torn to pieces and whether the hospital could handle it without her.

Thoughts of Itachi suddenly flooded her mind. If he could do that for Konoha, she could do this. Sakura's eyes widened as she realized what she was thinking about.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, half smiling.

"Oh!" Sakura gasped, "No, sorry, I'm fine. We're doing the right thing."

Getting out of Konoha was an easy feat. Sakura had simply accepted a D class mission in some honky tonk town to protect their field some hungry deer. Of course the village leaders questioned her, but she told them that team seven needed a break, that Naruto was going to go crazy and he needed to get out, if only for a few days.

"No one will know," She had told them.

They were now running in top speed. The trees were starting to turn yellow and orange with the coming of fall and Naruto was ecstatic to breathe the air of a free world.

"It should takes us about a week of nonstop traveling to get there," Sai called out to them.

x

"It seems our little Sasuke has lost his Sharingan." Madara said lazily.

Obtio said nothing, but nodded; shocked.

The cave they were in was moist and cold, and he couldn't help shivering. Madara was an amazing sight to behold no matter who you were.

"I should like to find out how this came to be."

Obito nodded once more, receiving the hint. Things had been going not so well lately. Itachi had somehow escaped his grasp when the Edo tensei was released.

Madara only grunted and settled into the wall, making a serious attempt at sleep.

x

Naruto started the fire at their makeshift campsite. Sakura was humming to herself while reading a book and Sai was drawing.

He sighed and tucked himself into his sleeping bag. His thoughts wandered to Sasuke for the one millionth time since the Uchiha had left.

Sometimes, when he was blue, he wished he could leave Sasuke alone and not bother with him. But something drove him, something he couldn't name made him not give up. How he longed to see his best friend again.

It would ease the ache in his heart just a little to know he was happy.

Naruto laughed at himself sadly before drowning his own emotions out with fuzzy feelings of his parents.

On the inside, Kyuubi listened intently to Naruto's wishes and feelings, feeling rather hopeless himself.

He knew the kid could do it, there was no doubt in that. But his level of sanity when this was all over? Not guaranteed.

Kyuubi could only barely recall Imawa and Aozora. Their souls had such a life force that did not exist anymore. His power had been rekindled by the presence of Aozora, but he could not share his comfort with his boy.

When Aozora met him those weeks ago, she had made him promise that he would keep her a secret until she saw it fit to unveil herself.

He had argued with her of course. He had a better understanding than most of the current happenings in this world. Naruto had been told nothing for almost 17 years, did he not deserve to know she who brought him, his mother, and his people to this world?

But the stupid woman had remained adamant. Regardless, Kyuubi could feel that this time she was waiting for was coming close. He had been secretly pushing Naruto into the correct direction he needed to be. Ever so slightly so the other two wouldn't notice.

Kyuubi closed his eyes and used his chakra to lull the three of his kits to sleep.

x

If Sasuke thought he felt lost when his family had been massacred or when he had found out the truth about Itachi...he had not yet known what it was like to lose the one thing that set him apart from the rest.

He was still laying where that woman left him. It could have been hours, days, or weeks and he wouldn't have known. There was this pain in chest, so acute in nature that he was sure he was going to die.

Was this how Naruto felt everyday?

Tears streamed down his face. What was he then? Was he an Uchiha without the sharingan? He knew he was no match for Naruto or his brother and anyone.

He literally had no one. Juugo and Suigetsu were off somewhere. He had tried to kill Karin and Sakura. His own brother didn't even agree with him despite how much Konoha had fucked up. He didn't even want to think a single thought about the blonde haired blunder that would not leave him alone.

And in the sanctity of his fragile mind, with the vast and endless universe staring down at him, he finally had a bitter taste of how insignificant he was.

He was no one.

x

Aozora tried to be patient as the duo waited for Naruto. She had explored the ruins of Uzushiogakure enough to make her thoroughly depressed .

Currently, she was inspecting her tarot cards, attempting to note any abnormalities for their pictures changed with the times. All of her cards had faded to grey, which was not a good sign.

She had no one to to practice with (she couldn't very well predict her own or Imawa's futures) and she wasn't even sure if her medium was alive anymore.

She felt a sting of pang as she thought of her medium, and the woman she received it from.

Haruno-sensei, Aozora thought sadly. During that time, Haruno-sensei had been the greatest fortune teller to date. Her skills, beauty, and intelligence had won over the heart of Uzushio and she had been next in line to become the second Ijikage.

"Stop thinking, Aozora, if it is only going to make you sad." Imawa said, in the middle of her chi healing.

The blue and purple haired woman only sniffed in response.

Imawa stopped what she was doing and plopped down next her friend, relishing in the soft grass of the clearing.

She grabbed the cards out of Aozora's hand and inspected them.

"I was thinking, you know, that after this is all said and done we could maybe rebuild this village."

Aozora only grunted and leaned back on a tree.

"How old are we supposed to be, anyways?" Aozora murmured, changing the subject.

"Quite old, I'd imagine," Imawa replied, beginning to do the math, "Technically we are a couple hundred years old, give or take."

"Well I know that. I mean...I've been around for so long and I look like I'm barely a day over twenty. And lately...I feel like I'm not even that old."

Imawa whistled for Deimos before she replied.

"We are not gods, Aozora. Though it may seem that way sometimes."

Aozora began to cry again,

"How I long to die."

Imawa hugged her and rubbed her back,

"One day, Aozora, we won't have to be here anymore. We'll die together just like we were created together. But until then, we can only do our duty. I need you, y'know!"

By this time Imawa was crying herself.

x

Aozora hid behind a tree quietly as Naruto, Sakura, and Sai walked by. She felt such joy from seeing them. She didn't quite know how to introduce herself yet, so she chose follow them as the ventured into the ruins of Uzushio.

"This place...is beautiful," Sakura gasped, staring out to the clear blue water. Even the haphazardly strung about pillars from the old village were a sight to behold. Everything was green and lush, the flowers such exotic colors.

"This is where my family is from," Naruto said proudly, his chest puffed out slightly. The air was so much different here than in Konoha. There was not hate and no war. It was all flowers and sunshine, literally!

The three of them pranced around, enjoying their brief time of innocent fun.

Aozora watched them intently from her perch in a nearby tree. She could feel the love and anguish of Kushina, the pride of parenthood, and the solemnity of what was to come in one instance.

she nearly doubled over at the feeling. Her affinity for predictions had served her well, but more than once had she longed to live in blissful ignorance.

As the three explored, Sakura noticed a peculiar slab standing straight out of the ground near the edge of the water.

"I wonder..." She trailed off before bounding near it, Naruto and Sai followed suit.

Sakura recognized the painting as soon as it was in sight.

"This is it!" She called to her teammates. To her disappointment though, there was no further text to illuminate their situation any farther.

Aozora figured this was a good time as any so she appeared through the wind in front of the painting and smiled nervously,

"Um, I can answer any of your questions..."

x

As the mask of deception falls off the face of humanity

Unveiling the grim reality of duality

In which everyone is a casualty, no one will be exempt

Truth has many shades

It's not a matter of black and white, but gray

Although many, we are one, so in the final analysis

Could it be we are fighting a war that can't be won?

x

And there you have it folks. Chapter two. So...I'm having a real difficult time deciding how to categorize this story.

This is seriously like, the first un-humorous thing I've ever written. I'm hoping some people actually read it and stuff. The next few chapters will focus more on cannon characters, and cannon characters interacting with non cannon. Sorry if the non cannon characters seem like godmods at the moment. Trust me. They aren't.

Buddha help me. .

LOVE,

Yo lady princess bitch,

Ramenism