I don't own Naruto or the cover image.

One day after Naruto sealed Shisui's body away, she once again, stood atop the highest point in the village. The sun had set once again, though, long ago. It would rise again in three hours time.

Naruto gazed out to the village. All of the houses, and the buildings, and the streets, were asleep. A person wondering about here and there through the darkness. Store owners rising early to stock their shelves and clean their floors and whatnot. But overall, Konoha was resting. ANBU were hidden in the shadows, protecting silently the place they called home. Protecting... from the shadows.

'Shisui...' She grieved.

Naruto felt the early morning breeze behind her shift, someone materializing behind her with the softest sounds of beating wings.

"Itachi." She stated.

"Naruto." The raven greeted simply. "I have returned. And I know what I must do."

The blonde's hair stirred in a sudden gust of wind, the moonlight setting the fair strands alight in an eerie white glow.

Naruto turned around to face her brother, blue eyes half mast and full of unending sorrow and guilt. The Demon Yankee had exhausted her rage yesterday, but Naruto Uzumaki knew she would return in due time.

Naruto Uzumaki was left with the consequences.

"What did the old cripple say?" She finally asked, voice holding no real bite.

She had killed for the very first time yesterday. Yes, she had been overtaken by rage and sadness, but Naruto thought she was done with that. She thought such anger might not ever reach her again.

But... it actually had gotten worse.

After she met Shisui... She began to believe that maybe she could be who she once was... but it would seem she had locked that part of her too deeply away, and the monster the villagers had created still lied just beneath the surface of humanity her precious one's gave to her. Naruto's broken heart was rendered to shreds when she realized what she had subjected the ROOT shinobi too as the sun rised. She was simply a monster that had fell in love.

And now her hands were stained with blood. She could never return to the child she had once been.

"The Uchiha must die." Itachi stated. "It is the only way to save our village from the destruction of civil war."

Naruto's hooden blue eyes widened, catching a ray of moonlight that made them glow with horror.

'No... NO!This will destroy them!' She thought, abhorred. 'Sasuke... Itachi... what will become of my brothers? Is this what sacrifice means? Is this what it means to protect from the shadows?'

"You can't be serious." But she knew he was. "You would kill your family for this village? The village that took Shisui away from us?" It wasn't the village. She knew. It was Danzo.

"This is the only way," Itachi's glowing, new mangekyo eyes wept mournful tears of blood. "This is the only way to keep the least amount of bloodshed from staining Konoha."

"So you will create a disaster to prevent another?" Naruto spat. "Please explain to me the logic of that, because obviously I'm too dense to see it myself!"

Itachi's face remained indifferent.

"It is the closest to the right thing to do." He stated. "The Uchiha name will not be sullied by their foolishness, innocents will be allowed to live happily, free of war, and Sasuke will rebuild the clan anew, with your help, the cursed hatred of the Uchiha will not live on."

"I'm full of just as much hatred as any Uchiha!" Naruto argued. "This world will eat Sasuke alive without you, Itachi."

Itachi smiled.

"Perhaps, but you are also kind." The raven said. "I believe time can heal you, Naruto. I believe you can protect Sasuke in my stead, because he is innocent now, you can guide him. What I am going to do will ruin him, but I truly believe you can save him."

"Itachi..." Naruto breathed. "If you are not strong enough to protect Sasuke, what makes you think I am?"

Itachi took a step forward, and closed the space between them by hugging the blonde.

"Because you are my sister." He whispered into her hair.

And just like that, tears were pouring out of her eyes.

"You Uchiha's will never bring me anything but grief, will you?" She asked weakly.

"I'm sorry..." Itachi said.

'I'm sorry... He says... And it only makes things so much worse.'

But you know you can't fail him.

The voice was right.

"Okay..." Naruto sniffled, voice muffled by the raven's shoulder. "Okay, you win..."

Itachi pulled away, looking deep into Naruto's tearful eyes.

"The next time we meet, we will be enemies. No one must ever discover the truth, Naruto."

"Shisui intrusted me with his eye, and I have instrusted it to you. Protect Sasuke, the village, and Shisui's memory."

It would be done. All of it.

"Very well." Naruto bowed her head in acknowledgement. "I will protect are foolish little brother, Itachi. I promise."

The raven stared deep into her azure blue eyes. He saw her resolve.

And he knew.

He knew she would not break her word unless she was dead. That was enough. Because Naruto was not going to die so easily. He and Shisui had made sure of that.

Assured, Itachi's form burst into a flock of crows, silent as death as they fled skyward, towards the Uchiha district.

Naruto's eyes followed until the distance swallowed him from sight.

'From the shadows... Self sacrifice... protection... suffering... you...' She thought. 'Itachi... you are a true shinobi.'

But is that a good thing? The voice wondered.

Naruto did not know.

Naruto returned to her apartment, and retired to her bedroom.

What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

Shisui's tanto lay on her bed with a note.

The familiar lazy scrawl made fresh tears pool into her eyes.

"So we can protect the village always together, Sunshine."

Six months went by.

Naruto trained in the Forest of Death. Sasuke was having his genjutsu broken mind pieced together in the psych ward of Konoha's hospital.

When Naruto saw him again on Academy graduation day, he had a fully matured three tomoe sharingan in both eyes. The blonde aquired the shadow clone jutsu from The Third, having caught a traitor who had worn a teacher's skin for years in the act of trying to make off with the sacred scroll of forbidden jutsu. She found out about the fox.

She was too tired with the world for it to break her even more.

The blonde tried to speak to Sasuke the way she used to, before the Uchihas' unfortunate end.

He was too full of hatred.

Naruto resolved to protect him from the shadows.

Team seven consisted of one avenging Uchiha, one grieving Uzumaki, one screeching Haruno, and one aloof Hatake.

After three months of dysfunctional team dynamics, they received their first C rank.

They departed to Wave in one day.

Naruto silently wondered why she felt uneasy.