There I stood, inside that tall building. I had traveled for five hours to get here... to see him one last time. I stared at my husband from across the huge room. His eyes were cold, yet gentle, and his hair was in its usual ponytail, but seemed a little messy. I noticed the drops of dried blood on his hand; he'd obviously coughed up some blood since he left home.
"I thought I told you I didn't want you to see this." He glared at me like I was an old enemy.
"Itachi, look at yourself! You look horrible..."
"Which is exactly why I didn't want you here. I didn't want your last memory of me to be like this."
I knew why he was being so cold. He did love me, but he was mentally preparing himself... to fight. I saw he was struggling not to show emotion. So, I walked toward him until our faces were inches away. He silently warned me not to... but I had to. I kissed him. My arms wrapped around his shoulders and soon he kissed back. I opened my mouth, and he took full advantage. I could taste the metallic tang of fresh blood. He'd been coughing more often...
When we broke, I looked into his onyx eyes. A look of slight regret showed in them, and I held back tears. He didn't want to die when he committed his crime, but he wanted it even less after we met. He hated to leave me, alone with two young children, but he knew it would come sooner or later. He had to do it now, for Madara was getting closer to what he wanted, and closer to finding out about us. Itachi's told me everything about Akatsuki and the Uchiha Clan. He told me about his parents and Shisui, his best friend, whom he had to kill to retrieve the Mangekyou Sharingan. After hearing about Fugaku, Itachi's father, I realized how Aishira ended up with brown hair.
I suddenly heard slight footsteps, like someone was walking to the building entrance. Itachi looked at me, and I knew it had to be Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother. Itachi always said Shinsuke greatly resembled him...
"He's almost here, he can't be allowed to see you. Nor can Zetsu..."
"Zetsu? He'll be watching?!"
"He almost always watches these battles. But that's not important. If he sees you, he won't hesitate to tell Pein when he sees I'm not alive to stop him. You have to leave." He noticed the stubborn look on my face, then added, "Or hide. They may be able to sense you, but your chakra isn't even close to a threat. Sasuke's eyes will be only on me, and he won't pay attention to any surrounding spectators. He's not clever enough to think of why you're there, sadly. But, if I pay attention to you, he'll take you as a minor threat and kill you quickly." He noticed some boxes in the corner. "Hide behind those, and don't speak or move. Even afterwards, wait until everyone's gone, and then some--."
We heard a small sound, and he motioned for me to hide. I knew it was over. I couldn't stop him, or even say anything. Quickly, I yelled, "Itachi!" He turned to me for an instant, "Goodbye."
I saw the man enter the room. They were definitely brothers. Sasuke's hair was the same colour, and he wore the same facial expression Itachi did when he became dreadfully serious. I looked up to the ceiling and saw the face of a man, half black, half white. This description matched that of Zetsu, the Akatsuki spy.
Itachi presented himself on a throne, and some things he did made me laugh to myself. Like making Sasuke think he'd killed him, and Itachi's clone would reach out to poke him, then pull back and point to the real Itachi sitting lazily in the throne. That's my Itachi... that crude sense of humour. Anything to amuse himself, and make his opponent feel stupid.
As the battle began, I noticed something: Itachi looked pale. His face lost more and more colour after each attack Sasuke threw at him. He seemed to lose his balance sometimes, and he didn't try as hard as he could've. He was giving a little more effort than he did when I'd watch him train.
Then Sasuke said something about "Recreating his death". I shuddered at the thought that this young boy had been planning out the way his brother would fall since he was seven. I felt bad for him, then I remembered he was going to be responsible for my husband's death.
Itachi was using clones and genjutsu for quite a while, as if he was toying with Sasuke. He wasn't making much effort to hurt him... After he thought he had Itachi, attacking him from behind the stone throne, Itachi told Sasuke about Uchiha Madara.
Then Itachi said something that made me think. He said, "In order to survive, we cling to all we know and understand. And we label it reality. But knowledge and understanding are ambiguous. That reality could be an illusion. All humans live with the wrong assumptions." It scared me that he thought this way... that all that we had together may just be fake and unreal. He had to believe this. How would he come up with this if it was something he didn't believe? It made me extremely sad... To think my husband thought our love could be an illusion, and that we believe it because we want it to be true. I almost yelled, 'No! I do love you! How could you even think that?!' ...But I stayed silent.
Sasuke seemed pretty cocky, and it shamed me that he'd think he won with that attitude.
Itachi then began to tell the story of Uchiha Madara, and how he took his brother's eyes to keep himself from being blinded by Sharingan. He suddenly spoke hatred of Madara, and how he wasn't fit to be the ultimate Uchiha... but Itachi was. I shivered that he would speak of himself so highly, when he usually had a little humility. He spoke quicker, deeper, more excited. I got scared very quickly. He suddenly yelled, "Sasuke! You are my new light!" He smiled maniacally, and I thought he would kill all of us. He as talking crazy, and it was hard for me to believe he was still acting. He didn't seem like he was stalling the fight anymore... but promoting the violence. He raised his hand, and summoned fire with Sharingan eyes behind him, yelling, "You have my spare eyes!" I almost wanted to get out of there... almost.
He said how families and friends killed each other off to obtain the eyes he had. Then he said something that shocked me, "They are a tainted Clan!" and, "I shall kill you... to free me from this fate." He'd talked about how he had little respect for his Clan, but this time he spoke like he wasn't even part of it. He knew just how it'd ruined lives, including his own. ...Those eyes. The last thing he said that made my tears flow was, "I will be free of the constraints that bind me!" I started to cry. I knew he must be suffering from having been born into that horrible Clan, but I had no idea he hated those eyes as much as I did...
I blinked, and they were both standing how they were before, like it never happened. How did he put both Sasuke and I in the same genjutsu...?
They both suddenly started throwing shuriken at each other, tens by tens, and fast as light. Then, as quick as it started, it ended, with hundreds of shurkien on the floor between them. They didn't move for quite a few seconds, not an inch. Sasuke then fell to his knees, his hand gripping around his left eye in agony. But when he took it down, his eye was there. But he as sweating dreadfully, and Itachi, too, bent over clutching his eye. I heard Zetsu say Sasuke broke through Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
The look in Itachi's eyes became serious, and he began to weave signs. But Sasuke threw a giant shuriken that split into two before it got to Itachi. He easily jumped between them, and I saw Sasuke pull his hand back, like he was tugging at something. I saw a glimpse of string and I immediately realized it was rigged. The shuriken burst into pieces, flying everywhere. I ducked back behind the boxes to protect myself, and I saw a piece of the metal hit the wall next to me. When I look back to the fight, I saw Itachi on the ground awkwardly with a piece of the metal embedded into the back of his left thigh. I cringed.
Itachi yanked it out, tossing it to the side. His face was coated in sweat, probably from the pain he was in. He tried to stand until he was on one knee and squinted at Sasuke for a bit to try to see straight. That last genjutsu definitely came back and bit him in the ass.
This whole time, Zetsu just watched. Half of his face talking to the other like a two-person conversation. They would speak every time one of the Uchiha would break out a new jutsu.
After Sasuke lured Itachi to the roof using both a fire and lightning jutsu, I got scared. I couldn't see him anymore. Sometimes I could see the edge of Sasuke's shirt or pants, but that was it. I also saw that Zetsu left, probably to move to the roof to see the whole fight. He expected Itachi to win so easily...
As soon as Itachi was on the roof, he knew it was alright to release the Amaterasu.
After a while, I got startled by Sasuke blasting a crack in the ceiling and jumping down. He looked sweaty, but he was smiling. I knew this wasn't good. He looked away for a second, and his smile disappeared when he locked eyes with me. He stared at me for a moment, but didn't say anything or attack. He probably saw the frightened expression on my face. He finally looked back up, transforming into a gray creature with wings. I heard Itachi cough, and I gasped. Sasuke prepared and fired a ball of fire back at the crack in the roof. I knew Itachi was right there...
The jutsu broke several giant holes, which broke together into a huge, gaping one. I put my hands on my head to protect me from any rubble. Sasuke squatted from exhaustion, and I vaguely saw Itachi squatting from above. He looked down and saw me staring up at him, but he soon turned his attention to Sasuke. Itachi looked terrible... I knew he'd coughed up some blood, and used the Sharingan so his eye was bleeding.
Sasuke's animal-like form disappeared, and he huffed, exhausted. Sasuke was out of chakra, and I saw rain fall from the gray clouds. He said his last jutsu was one that cannot be evaded. He gathered up chidori in his palm, and jumped onto the roof, and then jumped onto something much higher that I couldn't see.
I suddenly realized, which Itachi and Zetsu probably did, was that Sasuke's fire jutsu was meant for the sky, not Itachi. He did it to cause an ascending air current to create thunderclouds, which in turn would be used to make an incredible lightning-style jutsu. I heard him call it Kirin, and he surged the chidori into the sky, making a large lightning dragon come down. I saw it throw itself at Itachi, making most of the roof fly into large rocks. It was too fast for him... I knew it had hit him. I guess Itachi would be murdered, and not die from his disease.
I saw a large cloud of smoke cover everything, and I knew it was my chance. I used the only jutsu Itachi would teach me: Transportation Jutsu. I was to use it to get out of trouble, but I needed to see what was happening. I made the hand signs and transported behind a large rock made by the Kirin. It was directly between Itachi and Sasuke. I saw Itachi face-down on the floor, not moving. Sasuke had used the rest of his chakra, and his eyes went black. I closed my eyes, thinking Itachi had died. Then I heard, "Is this... the death you wanted to recreate?" Both Sasuke's eyes and my own flew open. I, happy, and he, frightened.
Itachi stood up slowly, blood dripping from his mouth. I noticed a burn mark on his arm, probably from a previous fire jutsu. Sasuke changed back into that odd-looking creature and swore at his brother.
A giant, fiery skeleton formed behind Itachi, and he introduced it as Susano'o, his final trump card. He explained that it was another ocular power that takes root in the Sharingan eyes after you awaken both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. He told Sasuke not to hold back.
The sky turned blue, light streaming from between the parting clouds. The skeleton transformed into a man with armour and a cape, only showing shimmering, golden eyes.
Then, suddenly, a giant, eight-headed snake emgered from Sasuke's left arm, which soon covered his entire top half. Itachi's fiery, armoured man held a gourd in which a blade of fire grew out of. It used the blade to slash through most of the snake's heads. Then, one snake head spit up a creepy, white man who was called Orochimaru. Itachi had mentioned him once or twice before.
Orochimaru began to talk, but the blade interrupted him, sucking him and the snake off of Sasuke and into the gourd. The blade was called the Totsuka Blade, which sucked everything it touched into a genjutsu of drunken stupor forever. Then the discarded snake heads disappeared.
Itachi bent over and coughed up more blood and claimed Sasuke's eyes once again.
His expression suddenly changed from calm and tired to that of sealed pain and agony. He clutched and clawed at his shirt, as if he was having a heart attack, and grunted in extreme pain. He finally flew forwards onto his knees, coughing up a large pool of blood into his hand, while the other still gripped at his chest. The blood was so plentiful that a lot stained the floor because it couldn't all fit in his hand.
The Susano'o turned back into a skeleton and Itachi continued to cough. As soon as Sasuke saw that, he threw an explosive kunai at Itachi, only for it to be shielded by an orange dome around Itachi. Itachi stood up, huffing, and began to walk toward Sasuke, swaying side to side as he did so. Sasuke backed up and threw a whole string of explosive kunai at him again, but it was blocked by the shield, which Zetsu called the Yata Mirror. It made Itachi invincible. Even though Itachi tried so hard to lose, maybe he'll end up winning anyways. I took this chance to move to a large rock as close to Sasuke and Itachi as I could without being noticed.
Sasuke jumped and tried to stab Itachi with his blade, but it was blocked and his blade went flying, while he was flung in the opposite direction into a giant cement wall with the Uchiha symbol on it. Itachi neared, outstretching his bloody and burned arm at him. Sasuke's back was now against the wall, where there was no escape.
When Itachi's hand was almost at Sasuke's face, he stopped and whispered something and smiled, which made Sasuke's eyes widen.
Then, Itachi turned his head to face my direction and spoke clearly, "Aishiteru... Kana."
He faced Sasuke again, still smirking, and poked his forehead, his eyes on the ground. His fingers remained on his forehead for a few seconds, but slowly trailed down his face until his hand fell, leaving a trail of blood from Sasuke's forehead, to the edge of his chin.
Itachi fell forwards, hitting his head on the wall next to Sasuke, and collapsing to his knees where he turned to lay flat on his back, dead.
I couldn't look away from him, as Sasuke was refusing to look. He stared straight ahead, and I stared at my dead husband's body. It was that way for a long while.
Then, Sasuke turned to look at me, peeking from behind a boulder. We stared at each other. He knew I was someone ho cared for Itachi, but he didn't quite know how. He was happy he got his revenge, but now he knew he killed someone that I actually loved. He seemed a little frustrated as to how anyone could ever love his brother, but he didn't argue with it. His eyes changed to show a little confusion, but a little satisfaction as he said half to himself, "Kana..."
He finally felt the courage to look at his brother's face. His didn't completely turn, but his eyes moved to see the dead man lying next to him.
It finally hit me, and everything looked blurry and I felt dizzy. I began to lose balance, and for a moment I thought that maybe I was dying, too. I leaned against the rock and shut my eyes. When I opened them, both Sasuke and Zetsu were gone. I waited a second before walking slowly to Itachi's body, which had remained untouched. I got on my knees beside him and wept. After several minutes of sobbing, I looked into his eyes for the first time without some sort of fear. And I smiled to see they were gray. I now loved his eyes... I wished they were that way when he was alive. Now they weren't Uchiha onyx, or Uchiha Sharingan... Just Uchiha Itachi.
I took his bloody hand in mine and kissed it, tasting the little blood on my lips.
I smiled, satisfied, "Finally..." I said, "You're freed from those damn, tainted eyes."