#7-Heaven

-

For the first time in years, Itachi's eyes registered bright light. He scrunched them shut and waited for them to adjust while he took in his surroundings with his other senses. There didn't seem to be any chakra for miles, nor any sound other then that of a gentle wind brushing past his ears. It was chilly here, but not uncomfortable.

The next thing Itachi noticed was the pain, or lack there of. All the wounds he had gotten in the span of the last hour or so were gone, along with the pressure and prickling behind his eyes. He brushed his hand against the corner of his mouth, but found no blood there either. He was completely healed. Moreover, he found that he wasn't wearing his usual clothes, or even his cloak, but some sort of silky fabric that fell over his skin but felt almost weightless. He would have been sure he wasn't wearing anything at all had he not felt it shift down his arm when he lifted it to touch his face.

Slowly, he was able to squint and look around. To his amazement, his vision was perfect; crystal clear and perfectly bright as it had been the day he awakened his Sharingan. More astounding still was the fact that he was not lying as he should be, but standing upright. All around him, a golden light was slowly fading, giving way to blue sky and clouds. A thick fog hovered just below his knees, but his feet told him he was standing on firm ground. His eyes however, showed that he was standing in an expanse of ground fog and sky.

A figure slowly drifted towards Itachi. Whoever they were, they were small, not quite yet an adult but not really a child either. They walked with grace that barely sent the fog rippling, a faint golden glow came from a ring hovering just above their head. It too wore the same strange outfit Itachi did; a sort of unearthly white fabric that floated rather then hung over its body.

As the figure grew closer, Itachi had to hold back a gasp as he recognized it. The same dark spiky hair, the same mirthful smile; the boy didn't look a day older then when Itachi had last seen him back when he was only four years old.

When the thirteen-year-old stood right in front of Itachi he stopped. "You've grown up quite well, Itachi-kun," Obito smiled.

Itachi opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. It was enough Itachi had no idea what was going on, but now someone who looked nearly ten years younger then him and should have been dead for nearly twice that was standing here in front of him talking about how much he had grown. Itachi promptly shut his mouth and blinked.

Obito just laughed. Not a mean laugh, but simply a happy one; the one that Itachi had been dying to hear again since his friend failed to return from a mission during the war. "I guess there'll be time for catching up later. Come on, we have to go now or we're going to be late."

"Late for what?" asked, although he already found himself taking his old role model's hand.

"Judgment," Obito answered quietly, taking Itachi's other hand as well. "Don't worry though I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Judgment for what? Where are you taking me?"

Obito just smiled and arched his back. From behind him, two enormous feathered wings stretched out to a span of nearly ten feet and with a single flap both Uchihas were lifted off the ground and ascended into the air.

Itachi tried to keep his panic in check and didn't let it show through in his face. He wasn't falling and even being pulled down by gravity. If might just as well have been standing on level ground with Obito just holding on to both his hands.

Below him, Itachi saw that what he had been standing on was not ground, but a cloud, and below that was an expanse of sea. Directly underneath him was a rocky coastline, and on a particular rock jutting out into the sea stood a figure Itachi recognized all too well. His eyes widened, and he jerked his head back up to look at Obito.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" he whispered.

Obito only nodded and looked up to where they were rising. "We're almost there," he informed Itachi. The older Uchiha barely had time to look up before his head was plunged into a cloud. The gentle hold Obito's hands had on his was relinquished, and for a moment Itachi thought he would fall down all the way into the dark waters below, but his feet soon met something solid again.

"You can open your eyes now," Obito told him.

Itachi didn't realize he had been squeezing them shut. The two of them stood between a golden gate bigger then Itachi had ever seen before. To looked to Obito in question, but the boy only extended his arm out, gesturing for Itachi to step forward.

With a final look to his old friend and to his brother far below, the elder Uchiha brother walked to his fate.