Chapter Seven: "Hate is spitting out each other's mouths, but still sleeping like we're lovers." ~ Still, Daughter
Kosuke stared at him. "No." He said and then tears were in his eyes. "No, Dad, no why?"
"I'm sorry, Kosuke."
"Why?!" The question was now full of anger and sorrow and he could see his little nine-year-old brother asking the same question in the storage room of his family's home. "Please, don't leave us, please! Dad, why?!" And the tears finally started to roll.
Itachi smiled sadly and tilted his head slightly. "Kosuke, people die every day. There isn't a correct answer, an explanation or a rationalization. I'm really sorry." He said and tried to touch him but instead Kosuke took a step back. "Kosuke, please." The boy sat back down on the bed and looked down as he brought his hands onto his lap. Itachi sighed, seeing him fight back tears that had already swelled in the boy's eyes. Itachi sighed, and brought himself closer to his son.
"Can I tell you about my home?" He asked. Kosuke looked up at him momentarily, the brilliant combination of black and blue seemed slightly bluer to Itachi today to match the child's mood. "I'm from Konaha, you know the village, correct?"
Kosuke nodded his head. "Yeah… if you follow the river, it's right there, the gate is anyway. It's one of the five major hidden villages." He muttered softly.
Itachi nodded. "We believe in something called the Will of Fire." Kosuke tilted his head. "We believe that the dreams, ambitions, values, morals and strength of the previous generation is handed down to the next generation. I want to hand mine to you."
"The Will of Fire?"
Itachi nodded, "It will stay with you forever, even when you hand down your own will someday. It will be with you forever right here." He poked Kosuke's chest and then chuckled. "It'll also be right here." It took Kosuke by surprise when Itachi poked his forehead. He pouted at his father, raising his hand to his forehead started to rub the offended area. Itachi smiled and Kosuke laughed at this situation before tears started to swell in his eyes once more.
The boy stepped forward and hugged Itachi again. "Can you stay longer then? Can you be at home longer? Be with me and mom?" He asked.
Itachi sighed again, a seemingly norm of the conversation, before placing a hand on Kosuke's back. "I will try but I don't think I will be able to." Kosuke slid down and sat next to Itachi. "I have everything prepared for you, your mother and sibling." Kosuke looked up at Itachi but before he could question him further, Itachi continued, "I haven't taken care of my own sibling and I must." A sad smile placed itself on Itachi's lips. "I've taken care of the three of you much better than I have taken care of him."
"Sibling?" Kosuke mumbled.
Itachi looked down at Kosuke, "Mine or yours?"
"M-mine, I know I have an uncle…"
Itachi smiled, "In seven months you will have a little sibling. I won't have an opportunity to meet him or her, so you'll have to be the man and take care of your sibling." Kosuke's tears finally spilt over the edge of his eyes at those words. Itachi stroked back Kosuke's hair. "I promise you, it'll be alright, I have hope in you, that you can make this family, this clan, a place of love and care." Itachi whispered placing his forehead against Kosuke's, you can break it out of its spiral of hate and death. Closing his eyes to find his chaotic thoughts at peace as piercing red light poured in from the bloody red sunset.
Yuki felt weak, tired. Of course, she was supposed to be feeling like this. She sat up in the bed and for the first time in months she was met with a flattened stomach, not swollen and stretched like it had been. She tried to force herself to sit up, to go look at Kosuke. She knew the crib was just a few feet away.
Instead, her knees refused to comply; she simply fell back onto the bed. "Caw!" She heard the sound of the crows. Her head lifted and she saw black crows lining one side of the crib. All of them were looking all around the room; however, the largest one had its eyes on her. "Caw!" It called again. She didn't know what to do, she knew Itachi's summons were crows but… could they speak like some summons? She didn't know.
"Izumi." Yuki looked at the door. Itachi was standing there. "She's not in danger."
He set up… crows to watch over them? "She can't stand, Itachi-san." Yuki gasped and looked over at the crow. So they could speak.
"Yuki, are you feeling well?" He asked.
She nodded, "Still tired, I suppose." She whispered, finding that speaking was difficult. "Izumi?" She asked.
Itachi nodded. "Izumi, Kei, Hama, Rei, Oki, Sora, Yuu." He said pointing them out. "There are more but I have a closer affinity with these seven." Yuki nodded in understanding and then she couldn't help but smile. "Is something wrong?"
"Sorry, I'm just realizing that there is so much more that I will learn about you." She thought.
"There isn't that much more about me."
"I don't believe that." She said catching Itachi by surprise, "With the person you are, part of me believes that I will never fully know you."
"I bet I can prove you wrong."
She smiled again, "I hope so..." She tried to stand again with little luck. He walked to her and helped her to her feet. "Thank you, I don't like not being on my feet." She whispered.
"I know."
"Anything you need, we can get it." Izumi said.
Yuki smiled, "Thank you very much." She said to the bird and then looked at Itachi, "I am not used to being catered to." She whispered.
"Until you fully recover, they will help and care for you. Should anything ever happen, they will come to you."
Itachi opened his eyes again he was seated, comfortable. My foolish little brother… He reminisced; he couldn't help but do so. Forcing himself to remember for whom and why he was laying down his life for. He remembered for whom he went on dragging his life out. He was living for this moment, the forgiveness he earned from his family and the final end to a life long odyssey that only one other person knew of. He forced himself to see the child… the children he was dying, to see what he had put them through and what he would continue to put them through in his death. He kept doing this until he heard the footsteps in the hall he was in. He pulled his goal forward and placed his emotional mask to end the scenes rehearsing in his head.
He was met with the same red eyes staring back at him. "What do you see with that Sharingan of yours?"
"What do I see?" A few more steps towards him, "With these eyes of mine, I can see only one thing clearly." He stopped walking, brother facing brother, Sasuke before Itachi. "Itachi, I see your death."
"My death?" Itachi questioned Sasuke, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, imagining the words. In the surreal speed of his, he was suddenly beside Sasuke. "Try to make it happen." A familiar light caught both their eyes as they moved suddenly beginning their fight. Their moves were quick, full of energy, blades clashing until the first attack that landed was Itachi delivering a kick into Sasuke's face.
Sasuke completely withdrew his sword from its sheath but the swing did little as Itachi avoided it by grabbing a hold of Sasuke's cloak to pull himself over using that momentum to throw Sasuke into the ground, his katana being lost to the top of the ceiling and Sasuke moved away from Itachi. Sasuke wasted no time in quickly weaving hand signs as he got into his crouching position. "Chidori!" The bird chirping began and Sasuke looked up at Itachi and sneered in frustration at the blank expression he was receiving. Sasuke… always wears his emotions on his sleeve.
Sasuke charged at Itachi and stopped half way in his built of momentum and placed his hand onto the ground, "Chidori nagashi." The electrical waves ran through the ground towards Itachi, Itachi jumped up into the air to avoid them and let it pass, only he miscalculated, missed that the Sasuke in front of him was simply a clone and that Sasuke was on the ceiling with his katana waiting for that moment. He pulled it out and while Itachi was momentarily defenseless, Sasuke stabbed him through his stomach with the katana.
They landed on the ground, Itachi seemingly barely holding onto his life. "You've gotten stronger…" He said.
"In the end, there is something I wanted to ask you Itachi." Sasuke said bitterly, only then did Sasuke realize the familiar words, no the same words had been delivered to Sasuke before and that time his seeming death had been a rouse. He knew that this time it was the same but was still shocked as two fingers raised the familiar gesture catching him off guard before it turned to nothing but a point to the obvious Sasuke was missing.
Itachi was still sitting casually in his seat, resting most of his weight on the back and right armrest. His sharingan beamed its bright red at the boy below him. Sasuke stood up full and the body dissipated into the familiar crows. The cawed as they flew away. "Just like last time, you've created crows using genjutsu while saying the exact same line."
"What do you want to know?" Itachi asked, ignoring Sasuke's commentary. "It's not over, but I'll still listen." His words… so much like his old self. Do all people become so sentimental at the time of their deaths that it's difficult to keep up my mask completely? Itachi wondered momentarily. He supposed the answer was yes, if you know you are dying at least.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the form of his older brother, "I'll say it once more…" Sasuke's katana pierced Itachi through his seat and into his chest passing right through his body. He was bleeding the shock caused a bit of blood to escape his mouth. Itachi realized that the Sasuke in front of him was made by the same trick as his, genjutsu, as the body dissolved once more but this time into white snakes and Sasuke was behind him the entire time. "I told you there is something I want to ask you in the end, you bastard." He shifted the blade to all cause Itachi more pain. "Now, answer me! The pain in your chest won't subside until you give me a proper answer."
"So you purposely avoided a critical area…"
"Back then you said… the third person. Who else is a Sharingan user of the Uchiha clan?" He questioned.
Itachi let his head rest against the back of the seat momentarily before he raised it to properly answer. "Why woud you want to know such a thing?" he asked.
"After I kill you, he's next on the list."
Itachi's weary eyes looked towards the back of the seat. "Kill him?"
"On the night of the clan's massacre, you told me there was a third person. There is another member of the Uchiha clan you didn't kill, which means they helped you massacre them. Even you wouldn't be able to take out the entire police force by yourself."
Itachi smiled, "It seems as though you have figured it out."
"Who is it?" Sasuke asked and was answered with silence. As promised, Sasuke shifted the katana and pushed it further in. Itachi remained stone faced and answered, "Uchiha Madara."
"Uchiha Madara?" Kosuke asked. The three year old seemed to ponder this information.
Itachi smiled. "He's a dangerous man, Kosuke."
"But he's dead, Dad. Why would we worry if he was dangerous or not?"
"Do not believe everything, truth and reality can always turn out to be illusions, Kosuke."
"Dad, what does that mean?"
"You'll find out when you get older."
"You're weak…" "Big Brother!" "Dad!" "Itachi!"
"Honestly…" "Can we train today?" "Look at what I made!" "It's been a while."
"I guess there's no choice." "I don't understand, brother." "No, why?" "Did something happen?"
"You're pathetic." "What are you doing?" "Do you have to go again?" "I'm so sorry."
"Settle for hating me." "You told me you'd teach me…" "Another red bead…" "…Good bye."
"Sorry Sasuke, some other time."
"… A new shuriken jutsu."
"… for a new family member!"
"Welcome home, Itachi."
"Forgive me, Sasuke. This is it."
It was struggle for Sasuke to open his eyes. The ache he felt in between his bones let him know that it was still raining outside; the ache in his muscles let him know that his body was still undergoing massive recovery from his battle with Itachi. Regardless though, he forced himself to open his eyes and look at his location, after all he wasn't soaking wet… so he wasn't outside, but in an indoor location. For a moment the thought of safety passed by his mind, and just a quickly went out the window because frankly… he didn't give a single damn about his safety.
When his finally forced his eyes to open he saw the spiked ceiling of a cave and the orange, warm light of a candle. "I've treated your wounds." A deep voice informed him as his mind slowly placed together where he was, underneath a blanket. He forced himself to sit up pushing the green cloth off of his body. He looked around taking in his very bare surroundings. With the exception of two barrels, a box and a stone pillar to support the cave there was nothing. Sasuke's body began to curl over itself and his eyes finally laid onto the darkness of the cave, where the voice was coming from.
"You won." It told him. Sasuke's expression lacked enthusiasm to say the least. His eyes were glazes over and his mind's eye did not allow him to tear away from the image of Itachi's calm face after his death. "Although, you suffered quite a bit of damage yourself." Footsteps came closer, "You shouldn't overexert your body like that." Sasuke looked down towards his hands and not at the man in the orange mask that stepped out of the shadows. "We've met once before." He revealed to the boy. "We were enemies then but you can forget about what happened with Diedara. I am not your enemy anymore."
Sasuke gave a very shallow nod, "I brought you here because there is something I wish to talk to you about." Nothing, no expression, no nothing. "You don't seem too interested. Then how about I phrase it differently so you'll want to hear me out? It's about Uchiha Itachi." There was a flicker of something in Sasuke's expression before Sasuke's dark eyes moved to the masked man. "That's right, you believe that you know so much about your brother and yet you really know nothing." The expression on Sasuke's face read of doubt and disbelief, the man in front of him was full of lies. The strange man raised his hands to his mask and held it. "Well, okay then. I guess I'll start by introducing myself first. Like you, I am but a living remnant of the Uchiha Clan. … and the one who knows the truth about Uchiha Itachi." He said as he moved his mask to reveal the sharingan eye.
It was then that Sasuke's eye pulsed, blood began to pour from his eye and red filled left iris, Itachi's mangekyou sharingan forming and shooting black flames at the man before him. It caught its hold on his shoulder and started to burn him. Sasuke and the man groaned in pain, each for different reasons. Sasuke shut his eyes and pressed the heel of his palm to his eye to try to withstand the pain. Slowly it trickled away leaving in its wake shock, shivers, and panting. "What… was that just now?" Sasuke questioned.
For a moment he thought the man was dead but then he heard the footsteps, "That was the Amaterasu that Itachi implanted in you." Sasuke felt cold sweat running down his back as the man picked up his fallen mask and put it back onto his face. "Typical Itachi. Even in death he still amazes me. He's even taken measures for this occasion."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke demanded.
"He transferred his technique to you in order to kill me." The man answered casually. "No, actually to put it bluntly, it's to keep me away from you. I'm guessing he set it up so once you saw my sharingan you'd activate Amaterasu, somewhat like a trigger. He planned for this amidst his dying breath, however, he failed against me."
"Tell me, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Before he died, Itachi did something to you, didn't he?" Sasuke recalled the familiar jab to the forehead. "At that moment, Itachi transferred all his ocular powers into you."
Sasuke's head began to swim. "What the hell are you saying? Why would someone like Itachi do that for me?!"
"You don't get it, do you?" Sasuke didn't want to say it, didn't want to admit it, it was against everything he believed Itachi to be. It couldn't be! "He did it… in order to protect you."
It was pouring outside; Itachi had left the previous day. Left, well… he had kept a clone with them, so Kosuke would believe he stayed, Yuki knew and it would tell her where Itachi was and what he was thinking on their last few days but the clone finally left. She knew why Itachi was expression his emotions, she knew what he was feeling and thinking and the validation hurt. I love my brother and I love you and Kosuke. I need to die for my brother but I want to live for you and our children. With all the power in her, she would talk him into why it was necessary to go through with his will every day. At night, when Itachi would come for a few hours, it would be nothing but her whispering 'would be's and 'what if's into his ear, comforting him as tears rolled down her cheeks. By morning, she would attempt to keep coping with the future lose of her husband and lover. Though, every time she saw the clone with Kosuke she knew when the time came… when Izumi flew into the house, it would mean nothing. Her mental preparation would mean nothing.
Yuki was reading to Kosuke about another famous ninja, ironically, it was the great Sasuke, who Sasuke Uchiha was named for. The words felt empty, her tongue felt raw and nothing of what she read made sense in her mind. The language and words she had been raised with seemed utterly foreign to her suddenly. When she saw his eyes slowly drift shut and the words came to an end at her lips, momentarily grateful that he had finally fallen asleep. She kissed his forehead and stood up. She placed the book onto his nightstand. Kosuke and her had not talked about Itachi's death privately and she worried, worried terribly, that she would have the mental strength to endure such a conversation. This was why when he whispered to her as she went to the door, "My uncle and I are going to inherit Dad's Will of Fire and I will make him proud…" She broke down in their room.
Tears rolled and she had to place a hand over her mouth to suppress the audible sobbing that tried to escape. She fought to keep the images of their times together out their mind. Their story vividly played in her head beginning with their innocent love, moment of passion, fear and worry over an unborn child and forming mutual complete love with each other over a family. A family they both came to love and adore as they came to love and adore each other. Quietly, patiently as he learned the depths of her simplicity and she learned the depths of his complexity. Amidst all of this, they dealt with the insanity and instability a child brought. But then how it became such a joy in their lives, how it saved Itachi from the depths of his own despair, how he realized that it could save him and forgive him. But the sins of the past don't go away, they always remained like a cloud over Itachi's head. After all he would always and forever be…
Yuki lifted her head and saw the fan sitting on display over the bed. "Uchiha…" Silly me… she couldn't even be mad at him. Just… love and help him endure his pain, whatever that may be. She placed her hand on her stomach. "You too… will know of your father's will…" She smiled sadly. "Even if he's not with us, I promise." That was when she heard the tapping on the window. She looked at the window and saw Izumi sitting there tapping away against the glass. Yuki got out of bed, drying up her tears and opened the window. "Izumi…" The crow flew in and sat on the headboard of the bed.
The crow looked at her and she at it. "Itachi-san… died, the sickness took him before Sasuke-san could."
Yuki felt her heart shattering. "Ah. I see…" She simply said, fighting the emotions, trying to shut them down. She tried to think of Itachi and how he had techniques to keep his emotions in check and tried, tried hard to do as he said, she started by forcing herself to breathe evenly.
"He told us to tell you… 'I will always love you' and to give you this." The crow lifted its leg and showed a key tied to it. She nodded and went to unwrap it from Izumi's leg. "He said it was a lifetime of helping you three cope."
Yuki smiled. "He always does outdo himself." She held the key and knew where it was meant to go. She smiled. "Will you stay with us, Izumi… you and the others?" She asked. Izumi nodded. "Thank you… I am going to go to the kitchen."
"Cry you will be one of the few who do." Izumi said.
Tears started to silently roll down Yuki's cheeks. "I know," her voice cracking in sorrow.
