X

There was his favourite haunt, where he could meditate the mind and reflect on his thoughts. The merciless ocean breeze that swept through the shores, even up to the peak of a coastal cliff, where Uchiha Itachi sometimes loitered. Not a single day passed without some remanence resurfacing to plague his soul, and here was a shelter that he would sometimes retire to renew his conscience.

Sometimes memories came too, of father...mother...Sasuke...times when he somehow believed they were still alive. But only just.

"Ay, big brother, won't you teach me the shuriken technique today?"

"Not yet, Sasuke. Today is the arrival of important guests."

Nearly the entire Uchiha clan is disposed to making arrangements for these guests. Itachi had long forgotten who they were and everything...he only remembered the bright, festive party that was formal, but nevertheless a sensation; their honoured guests; he smiled when he saw her.

After the party was over, they went outdoors and walked together in the evening mist; she dressed in her finest, and they were so close...he could hear her breathing.

"How is Sasuke?"

"Very well."

"I heard from my father you got into ANBU. Haha- My brother would be better off- father gave him a five hour lecture on how he wasn't as good as you."

"And you?"

"Well, to my guilty conscience, I watched quietly; but I am a woman; I let men have their quarrels."

She teased him, and he let her have it; but she never dared tease him more than subtly; Yuki firmly believed as a mere member of the great Uchiha clan, her life was devoted to the service of other clan members, and she feared offending the upper class. But she did not know he would let her go on and on, only to hear her speak.

It had begun to snow. He laid his cloak on her back...it was winter after all...and he walked her home.

Things were milk and honey...but he knew, even then, disaster was breeding...

How they all fell at his feet...his home...his family...some were his friends...his clothes would be drenched in their lifeblood...and she would appear sometimes, her unbelieving eyes that stared into his hardened heart.

"Why did you do this?"

The sound of footsteps woke him; he did not know the person approaching him...he turned.

Her face appeared again, almost with transparency; it was a dream, surely it must be...

"Yuki?"

But she continued forward without retarding nor hastening; she was like a ghost...her eyes were lifeless, as it had been...for the first time in a long time, he tasted fear...

"Yuki..."

Yet he knew she would not harm him. He stood there, unwilling to move. She came closer...she still had the same sweet essence...

She suddenly drew her blade and thrashed at him; it only narrowly missed; a few strands of his hair fell before him; death was so close...

She didn't stop. She attacked him a second time, but he dodged with ease. No...this was not Yuki...her eyes were always mild and tender, but this...her eyes were nothing but emptiness and hatred.

"Dammit!"

She dashed for him, the cliffs were there behind him, welcoming him with their open arms...no. Zero raised her grasscutter and released a series of thrashes. Yet as sudden as Zero appeared, he was gone, perhaps no more than a wisp of wind.

Zero held her blade, as the tenseness rises in a crescendo around her...a dangerous enemy is an unseen enemy, she thought. "Come on out!" she cried. "I went looking for you for several hours and I'm not leaving until you're dead!"

The air above her stirred fora fraction of a second, and she lent her arm to screen herself from whatever was coming, but too late- three shurikens struck her arm, and there they stayed. Itachi was high above the sky...

"Humph..."

She appeared before him; her arms had transformed into great, demonic limbs, and a pair of monster wings sprouted from her shoulder blades, cloaked by a coat of sable plumages; she thrust her Serapha Arm at him, and he dissolved into crows at once, carrying the moon's lustre on their wings. They glided lazily away from her, and he reformed as easily as ever.

"The Cursed Seal of Heaven..." he muttered. "Were you sent here by Orochimaru?"

"Nobody sent me, I came here of my own will-" Her Angelo Wings gave a stroke, and she plummeted skyward, her Serapha Arm ready to attack- but Itachi was fast, and swiveled out of every blow. Frustrated, Zero yielded a punch with all the force she mustered- Itachi spun away- but her grasscutter was waiting for this, and out from the shadows it came and swung about- it slaughtered him in the face and he fell into the shallow tides.

Without a sound.

That's it? That is all of the strength the Uchiha Itachi conceived?

He's dead, she thought. And I, too, will soon embrace the death.

And she suddenly started to wonder- AT THIS MOMENT- what was death? Will it hurt? The prospect of never able to wake again startled her for a second- but she soon relaxed. There was nothing in the world left for her that is worth living for- Segan's gone...and took the world with him...

But she still wasn't dead yet.

A tingling sense overcame her and wiggled in the back of her brain. What was this feeling? The sense that it was over- too soon?

She whirled around in such a violent manner her wings almost betrayed her- and now it came clear to her the man who just died a second ago was still withstanding on the sea cliff. The waves still crashed into the cliff's underside; it was as if nothing happened.

"You- I killed you a second ago-"

"But I did not move from here," he replied.

XI

She came to an abrupt realization that this man was powerful...far more powerful than he appeared...she shivered in fear, great fear, but began to laugh; wildly.

"Alright then, let's get this started!"

She gave another violent reel of the grasscutter, and from it expelled her great power that fluctuated into the blade; but he had disappeared as mysteriously as he did before. Zero was getting tired of his tricks; if he did not put up a proper fight with her, she shall be seriously pissed.

"See how you like this one!" she concentrated the energy in her grasscutter again- the mirage of the blade pulsates against the horizon and sent it out in a shockwave, rippling in all directions. He ought to be here somewhere- even if he was using some sort of genjitsu- but not a shadow flickered, and before she could even think about her next move- an image was provoked to life in her mind:

She was standing in semi-nothingness, that reeked the smell of the deteriorated and unholy. She felt herself, a flimsy paper doll, ready to be shredded and devoured...she was burning, burnt like the flames of hell's Ninth Circle...she tried to scream, and it was impossible to produce sound...she lost her voice...was this the powers of an Uchiha's Sharingan?

And she lost levitation, falling back to earth...the dream-like ceil above her now seemed the world of the unrepentant...she found that she could not move, her body paralyzed from that moment of eternal nightmares..."Come on," she heard herself scream. "Move, get up, and fight!" but her body denied all commandments.

"You cannot overcome me," she heard his voice, haughty and noble, high above her, the defeated... "I have not yet unleashed a tenth of my strength, and you have already fallen."

She landed roughly unto the cliffs. Was this fight necessary? She did not care who would win...she simply cannot lose...if she lost, she could not die, and she must dawdle the world, scarred and branded as a murderer...an outlaw...

She was never meant to live!

She strived to move, just a finger...an arm...she could fight again...

"I see," he said, after he discerned the rekindled wrath in her eyes: "You bear her body, but not her soul." he sounded somewhat disappointed...and both knew who "she" was.

"Good thing I didn't- or I would've loved a pussy like you to death!"

Her body found its nerves and joints, and she bolted up- she grasped her grasscutter and performed an uppercut- he deflected it easily with a kunai, and even sent her skidding back a few metres- he was just too powerful...

"I won't... I've come this far... I cannot lose!"

Desperate, Zero no longer bothered the massive energy pumping through her body; liberated, it relinquished all at once, pumping her body to its extent- she darted to her target, who was all she could see- yes, just kill him, and she'll die along...she'll be free of suffering...

A bright light appeared before her- the light of destruction- it whirled towards her, a great fireball that consumed all things before its path. Zero felt the heat enveloping her...but it did not matter...

Itachi performed a fireball jitsu, but it was easy to dodge...once she dodges, he'll- what—

Incredibly, from the giant gas of flames emerged the tips of black feathers- the Angelo Wings guarded her from the flames, but they were pretty burnt up, too- Zero opened the sheathed wings, and extended her Serapha Arm- she must hold him in her clasp- he would not disappear again- she would not allow it—

-But there, in her hand, was nothing more than a piece of cloth- she only dispatched part of his sleeve- he was gone- where was he?

WHERE WAS HE?

"NNNAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!"

There unleashed a cry that she could not decipher between her voice or that of a beast's. She collapsed, and on her knees like an injured creature; furious, she struck the cold, stony ground with her Serapha Arm—

"You thought I was her, didn't you-" each blow dealt was heavier than the one before- "Whatever you had with- did to her- it is no business of mine. I ain't her- don't pity me for what I'm not!"

The moon still lingered in the sky; and the sky remained silent. There was nothing except bitter defeat.

"I am Zero, not Yuki!"

With all her strength she thrust her head to the heavens and screamed in her passion. Perhaps she wanted to cry, but no tears would come- anger and remorse bounded to her and would not let go.

I was made to look like her in body...but I could never be like her...she loved him, loved him...she was human...and I...I am but a demon twisted in a human body.

"Just let me die," she whimpered. "Let me die."

She did not care if she was plunged into another hell once more. She tried so hard...but she still could not bring him down...why was she not born into a family, where she could always retreat to if she needed...instead she was a CLONE, an ungodly, inhumanly clone...

"Why do you want to die, Zero?"

She felt him standing behind her...she could not answer. There were too many reasons...she endeavoured to stand, but her wings are burnt, her feathers bent and broken, and she lost all of her strengths... "I...lost...everything," she replied. "I lost him...I lost love...I lost hope...I have no intentions of living any more...but this cursed body...it won't die...only when you died, I- I could-"

She stopped, presumably noting how childish she sounded. She just realized who she was speaking to, and great, pearly tears were dropping from her lights- they landed on the rocks, and shattered- like liquid glass- into a thousand pieces.

"Zero..."

"Call me Yuki if you want- it doesn't matter now."

"But Yuki's fate is sealed- and so is the rest of the Uchiha clan. My fate, too, is sealed. I am a man doomed to die. Yours is not."

"I have, Orochimaru will take me away if I don't die now- they'll take away my liberty- the only thing I have!"

She turned back, and saw nothing except the rhythmic movement of the sea, that sung the silent hymn rocking the earth.

XII

Kill...the desire to kill overwhelmed him...that power was too great...even for him...he lost...

"You had it all along, Itachi...?"

That was what he screamed before Orochimaru was sealed into the boundary of darkness. Sasuke grimaced...his mind...nothing...he could think only of nothing...

"Now I shall take out your eyes, Sasuke."

And that man's lunatic smirk transformed into utter shock as his chest contracted, and he complied to it as he curdled on the rocks; from his throat, blood kept coming...

Frantic, Sasuke withdrew his bladed explosive notes and thrust them at him...but Susanoo still burned with great, apocalyptical energy, and his weapons were no more than dust and ashes...Itachi walked forth...

"Those eyes are mine..."

His last, feeble attempt to havoc the Yata Mirror was hopeless from the start...it knocked his grasscutter away...alas, he lost...he will die...or live in hell...

Itachi reached for his eyes- his knees shook- he could not close them- his eyelids- he would soon yield to him—

"This is the end, Sasuke."

He felt a light plod against his forehead.

What?

That's...

Sasuke will be fine on his own...he's gotten stronger...and my mission is complete...I will die an exiled traitor...but Sasuke will walk on...he'll be fine...I've done all I can...

With his fading vision, he somehow saw...his family, those days when peace continuously lapsed the village...he was with his father and mother...Nagami...Yuki...they were all there...live on, little brother...my niche...my stage...will curtain.

He fell at his brother's feet.

Even in death, I dream of peace.

A slight afterword:

(You don't have to read my rant, only if you're really bored)

Yay, the afterword, when an author gets his/her sweet reward at the end to juice his/her story.

Starting from the beginning, Zero was a character I created way back before I even knew what OC and Mary Sues were. So you can guess she wasn't very impressive. I looked back on her and thought "Oh, she'd make a good OC" but she needed LOTS of polishing up - member of a supposedly dead clan- BFF with Nagami- and WTF, Orochimaru's sister? Hell, is that even possible?

So I cut her down and fixed her personality (which was sunshine and rainbows!) and then I edited her a few times in minor spots, but I hoped she would still retain some "Sue" qualities to make her somewhat interesting. I was severely tempted to give her a shot of Dante/Nero antihero badass attitude so she could taunt her enemies. I gave her a little, but all it did was make it look like she vaguely had split personality. Oh well- came out OKAY. She was anguish and stuff, but somewhat hopeful and persistent. I liked her better.

About Zero's Cursed Seal- originally she was supposed to have an ice&fire sword, but that'd get in the way of fighting and it's not really Naruto-like. So I slapped a seal on her. Also I read about the term "Sable Plumage" in Agnes Grey, meaning "black feathers" so I thought: wow, I think this would make a great title- especially when Zero can grow monstrous feathers out of her. Why black feathers...? Because it sounds kinda cool & original.

If you're disturbed Zero actually killed people, have no worries- I don't agree with it either, but it's a plot device. I'll tell you, those memories haunted her for the rest of her short life as a consequence.

I gave the story some other self-imagined OCs to back it up. Yuki, for example, was Zero's original copy. Madara told Sasuke that Itachi "killed his lover" but never said who it was, so it left room for imagining. I guess because of that, when I did some Mary Sue tests, there were a lot of "technically yes" answers (eg Q: are you related to a canon character? A: technically yes). In my POV though, Zero's an entirely different entity from Yuki, besides the fact that they share chromosomes and DNA. Some differences are that Yuki is a really focused, motherly matron-like character who lived a simple, tamely romantic life. Zero is more wild and confused, though somewhat similar to Yuki...doesn't give a damn about Itachi or anything, really. Like how twins have different (but not polar opposite) personalities.

Segan was a really unexpected OC. I didn't originally intend to include him in, but he just popped outta nowhere. The hip, confident dude with a heart of gold (sort of), just your average down-to-earth guy. Well, I needed someone to give Zero some hope and joy in her meaningless life- so I could crush it outta her. Segan did a good job, I guess :D

A canon character like Kabuto was totally unexpected too, but I needed someone to know everything, and who better than Orochimaru's right hand man, who values free will and loyalty? Itachi...his coming in was all planned, Zero wants to die, so she went recklessly searching for him. Pretty straightforward. The ending I had less taste in...I originally planned to have Zero die next to Itachi, since once Itachi died she would die too, the backlash of having an indestructible body, but that just sounded morbid and illogical- how the hell would she know there's a duel anyways? So I just started and ended with Itachi VS Sasuke.

I think Zero and Itachi's duel were somewhat similar to Sasuke VS Itachi, but in my defense, allow me to say I never watched the entire duel before I wrote chapters X and XI. I only watched a third of it, the part where Itachi died, on YouTube. I watched the rest afterwards. Then again, Naruto fights are all somewhat similar anyways.

Anyways, tell me what you thought—you liked it, you didn't like it, general critiques, really. I'd appreciate even a sentence.

If you actually finished reading this top to bottom- wow. You're my hero. Just wow.

I love you.