The Eternal Dying Flame

The Eternal Dying Flame

Chapter Fourteen: Eternal Miracles

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't have to wonder what the heck Kishimoto is planning to do with Sasuke's new goal. I don't own the series, so I have to sit here and wonder and eagerly await the next chapter.

Warning: Spoilers for Naruto manga chapter 392.

A/N: Wahoo, school's out! (Well, it is for me at least.) Yay, summer break! That means I get more time to write, which is a good thing for all of you. And for me, it means I don't have to go to school! Yeah!

All he could see was whiteness. There was no ground, no sky, no shadow, no nothing. Just an impenetrable, all-consuming whiteness.

Where am I? he wondered through the haze in his mind. He looked around, hoping to find something else here, anything existing in this strange world besides the overwhelming whiteness. There was nothing. He was alone here.

Where is here? Why do I exist in this place? Why am I alone? None of the questions seemed relevant. The only thing in the world was the blinding whiteness. That was all. That was the only thing that existed. That was the only thing that mattered.

"Sasuke. Sasuke-kun." The word was a faint whisper on the air. Sasuke, he repeated in his mind. Sasuke. What does 'Sasuke' mean?

"Sasuke-kun," he heard again. It sounded like a voice, a human voice. The person, whoever they were, was crying as they spoke. Why were they crying? Did it have something to do with 'Sasuke?'

"Teme," a new voice whispered. It sobbed quietly before continuing. "No… Sasuke." Teme meant you, he remembered. Did that mean that the person was talking to him? Was he Sasuke?

"Sasuke!" This time the name was spoken in a different voice, one that contained much more demand and force. It released some kind of block in his mind, causing him to be assailed by a barrage of memories. Itachi was carrying him home after he sprained his ankle training; he watched as Itachi beat up the police members sent to accuse him of Shisui's murder; he watched through Tsukuyomi as Itachi killed the entire clan; he was twelve and graduating the Academy, first in his class just as his father had hoped; he was a Genin assigned to Team Seven along with Naruto and Sakura; he was in the Land of Waves, thinking that he was dying after protecting Naruto from Haku's attack; he was in the Forest of Death, screaming in unbearable agony after Orochimaru branded him with the curse seal; Naruto was fighting to protect Sakura and himself from Gaara during the invasion by Suna and Oto; Itachi had defeated him at the hotel and was forcing him to live through Tsukuyomi again; he was waking up in the hospital after Tsunade healed him to find Sakura hugging him; he was fighting Naruto on the Konoha Hospital roof; the Sound Four were attacking him to try to convince him to join Orochimaru; Sakura was begging him to stay, confessing her love to him; he was fleeing with the Sound Four towards Otogakure no Sato; his curse seal had just been accelerated to the second state and he was awakening from his time in the barrel; he and Naruto were fighting at the Valley of the End; the two of them held hands one last time before he left for Otogakure; Orochimaru was telling him that he was 'the chosen one' who would be the next container for the Snake Sannin's soul; he met Naruto and Sakura for the first time in two and a half years and fought them; it was the day of the transfer and he had just killed Orochimaru when the Sannin tried to take over his body; he had rejoined the village, forming an agreement with Tsunade that would allow him to remain there until he could fight his brother; he was seeing his teammates as their friend for the first time in years; the Akatsuki were invading the village; Karin was attacking Sakura; he had thrown himself in the way, his life was fading, he was dying.

He was dead. That was why there was nothing. The world did not exist for him, because he was no longer among the living. He had died to save Sakura from Karin.

At least that means that she's still alive then, he attempted to console himself. Really he was glad he had thrown himself in the way; he would have regretted it forever if he hadn't. But now, now that he was dead… he would never see her again. Until Sakura died (which hopefully would not be for a very long time), the two of them would be separated. Naruto too would be lost to him until the blond's time in the world was up.

Sasuke fell to his knees. He had, despite his better judgment, nursed a small hope, a dream, that after the battle, he would be allowed to be with his teammates again. He knew that that could never have come true (he had promised that the Council of Elders could punish him for his crimes after all), but some small part of him had desired it all the same. They had been… his family.

"Sasuke," someone called again. This time, he was able to recognize the voice. It was the same one that had called to him to awaken his memories, though it was different from the first two. He would know this voice anywhere.

"Itachi," he spat, feeling a surge of hatred for the man who had destroyed everything he had.

"Hello, foolish little brother," the former Uchiha heir greeted him, stepping into view. Oddly enough, Itachi's face held none of the smugness that normally manifested itself when he called Sasuke that name. Instead, if the younger Uchiha had had to name the emotion visible in his brother's face, he would have called it grief.

Sasuke noticed something else that was odd about his sibling's appearance. While his body, when he looked at it, was faded and translucent, Itachi's was bright and solid, saturated with color and glowing with vitality. Was that a sign that his brother was still among the living, while he Sasuke was dead?

Itachi took a step towards him and, instinctively, Sasuke moved to take a step back. However, something was wrong. His feet were rooted to the spot; he could not retreat from Itachi. "What's going on?" he asked. Itachi ignored him, instead continuing to move purposefully towards him, rapidly closing the distance between the two of them. Again and again Sasuke struggled to lift his foot and move away, each time only succeeding in frustrating himself further. His desperation began to show, provoking a reaction from the curse seal on the back of his neck. The black marks spread rapidly over his spiritual form like fire, just as they would have over his real body had he been alive.

This caused Itachi to halt, though he had by no means been stopped. Before Sasuke would even have been able to catch them with his Sharingan, he had performed a series of hand seals and activated a jutsu. Behind him appeared a skeletal ghost warrior holding a bottle containing some unknown substance.

"Behold," Itachi said calmly, "the final weapon in my arsenal: Susano'o."

"Su…sano'o?" Sasuke repeated. He had never heard of such a technique before. In response to the question, he felt something stirring within him, a malignant chakra that was not his own. His left eye began to change, becoming yellow and snake-like.

"The third and final technique," Itachi explained, "along with Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu that awoke within these eyes on that fateful day." In response, Sasuke's seal began to spread further, pushing him into the second state. He needed more power if he was going to face Itachi here. When he died, all of his chakra had fled his body, leaving him with the curse seal as his only weapon. But there was only so much he could do with just the seal…
"Rgh," he gasped in pain, screwing his changed eye shut in pain. Shall I lend you my power? asked a voice in his head that was not his own. This voice was hissing and snake-like… and very familiar. "Shit… no…" the young Uchiha moaned, trying to suppress the foreign power he felt stirring within him. He had none of his chakra to use to keep the beast contained; now that he had died it could go free… Admit it, Sasuke-kun, the voice purred, you need me. "Ungh." He curled up in a defensive ball, attempting to use his willpower to suppress it. You do want your revenge on Itachi, don't you? The voice asked. You want to die in peace knowing that you've sent him to hell along with you? "Kuh…" his limbs were trembling with effort. Come… unleash me… and your wish will be granted.

Sasuke's flesh began to bubble sickeningly, as it did when his wings sprouted after he mutated. This was no effect of the curse seal though. Instead of his hand-like wings forming, there were snakes sprouting from Sasuke's left shoulder, growing obscenely there like a monstrous growth. "Aah," the Uchiha cried, his eyes widening as he gasped in pain. Itachi stared at his younger brother, wondering what was wrong with him. "Guaah!" As Sasuke gave a final cry of agony, the snakes burst forth fully, each one well over fifty feet tall. They hissed evilly, moving to attack Itachi's Susano'o.

"I know this feeling," the elder Uchiha brother began, "Orochimaru's Hydra technique…" The snake lurched forward, intent on its attack. The Susano'o warrior pulled the cap off of its bottle, spraying something that was not quite physical matter in the air. The substance, whatever it was, formed itself into a sword that easily loped off the attacking serpent's head. With a cry, the warrior sprang forward, attacking the snakes with its otherworldly sword. Within moments, only one of the many snakes retained its head. It hissed, rearing back its head. Something black and wet began to appear from within its mouth.

"…You finally show yourself," Itachi addressed the thing. Orochimaru pulled himself up from within the mouth of the snake, laughing insanely. He barfed up a katana, preparing to use the blade to fight Itachi.

"Here and now!" he cried. "The chance I've been waiting for has finally come! And it's all thanks to you forcing Sasuke-kun to use my curse seal when he had no chakra with which to keep me suppressed! I'll take his body for my own and defeat—" He never finished speaking. The Susano'o warrior's sword pierced the Snake Sannin through the torso, assuring his demise. Itachi smirked.

"All right, Sasuke, got anything else?" he asked mockingly.

"Kuku," Orochimaru laughed at the elder Uchiha, "you don't really think a little cut like this would be enough to stop me—" his voice cut off abruptly. The Sannin's body jarred painfully. "Th-this… it can't be," he hissed, "the Sword of Totsuka?! Itachi… you had it all along…?" His body began to melt away.

"What did you… do?" Sasuke asked his brother.

"He is gone," Itachi informed him. "The Sword of Totsuka possesses the power to seal anything it touches in a genjutsu… one that lasts for eternity. Orochimaru will never awaken from it." The final remains of the Sannin were absorbed by the Susano'o warrior, returning to its bottle along with the spiritual sword. Sasuke's flesh hissed slightly as it returned to its normal, humanoid form.

Without the threat of Sasuke's curse seal to deal with, Itachi continued forward, closing the last of the distance between the two. Sasuke's elder brother now stood directly in front of him, the same blank look as usual on his face. He raised his hand and Sasuke reflexively shrunk away from it, a little frightened now that his brother had just revealed his full power. The elder Uchiha smirked as Sasuke screwed his eyes shut in a sudden and uncharacteristic surge of fear. Sasuke didn't know why he felt so terrified of Itachi, especially when it had been his dream to fight and kill him for so long, but reasoning didn't get rid of the fear he felt. All he could understand was that he didn't want Itachi to come any closer to him. The elder Uchiha extended his index and middle fingers and, reaching out, poked Sasuke gently in the forehead. Sasuke opened his eyes, staring at his brother in shock. That was it? Had Itachi really come to this otherworldly place and defeated Orochimaru just so he could poke him?

Itachi smiled at his confusion—not a smirk but a genuine smile.

"Farewell, otouto," he said, his voice growing faint though he was practically speaking in Sasuke's ear. "One last thing, Sasuke… stay away from… Madara. He'll try to tell you… that you were wrong. Never believe him, Sasuke. He lies. He used the Kyuubi to attack the village and he… helped me that night when… I killed our clan. He is no longer fit to be… the head… of the Uchiha clan." His body began to fall forward, as though his legs not longer possessed the strength to support it. Sasuke tensed, bracing himself for it to fall on him.

It never did. Itachi's body faded, becoming as specter-like as Sasuke's, allowing it to pass through him to fall to the ground. Even as this was happening, Sasuke's body was solidifying, the colors becoming more defined, as though Itachi's essence and spirit were being poured into him. He blinked when he started seeing pale splashes of color in the whiteness. They began to form themselves into definite shapes, the resulting scene looking like the battle that was being waged in Konoha…

Sasuke gasped as his eyes flew open. He sat bolt upright, breathing deeply as his mind struggled to process what was happening.

"Sasuke-kun!" He turned around to stare into the startled face of Haruno Sakura. Tears of joy were falling from her apple green eyes as she looked at him. "Naruto!" she cried. "Sasuke's alright; he's alright! He's alive!" Several meters away, Naruto turned to face them. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki gasped in shock once he noticed that Sasuke was sitting up, was breathing, was alive…

"Teme?" he asked in amazement. Sasuke nodded, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu. He was reminded forcefully of an event several years ago, when they were all younger and a lot more naïve. It had been in the Land of Waves, when he woke up after he thought he had given up his life to save Naruto, and realized that Haku had consciously chosen to spare him—a decision he would never have expected from an enemy in battle. This time though, it had not been the enemy that saved him. It had been some else…

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried as the situation fully sunk in and he realized that his best friend was indeed still alive. Without a second thought he ran to them, pulling Sasuke into a bond-crushing hug that all but choked the Uchiha.

"Too tight Naruto!" Sasuke sputtered between attempts to breathe.

"Sorry," Naruto said, loosening his grip slightly but not letting go. "I just can't believe it! You stopped breathing; Sakura-chan said you were dead! And now you're fine and you're alive!" Sasuke smirked at him.

"Yes, dobe, I'm alive." Naruto grinned.

"It sure is a good thing that hag Karin didn't kill you," he said, "'cause otherwise we never would have gotten to prove who was the best. We wouldn't have been able to do that if you had gotten yourself killed." Sasuke's expression promised him that they would indeed get a chance to prove that after the battle. Naruto grinned again in anticipation.

"Come on," Sasuke said, rising to his feet.

"Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't be standing up yet," Sakura told him, concern on his behalf plainly evident in her voice. She had abandoned her use of the suffix –san, because surely Sasuke would have noticed that she said 'Sasuke-kun' earlier. Any further attempts to pretend that he didn't matter to her were futile.

"I'm fine, Sakura," he told her, already beginning to walk away. "Well, are you coming?"

"Coming?" she repeated. "Where?"

"Itachi," he answered simply. Naruto's face broke into a wide grin.

"So you trust us not to die after all, huh teme," he stated. Sasuke nodded once. "Yetta! C'mon Sakura-chan!" Sakura stood up and followed him, walking slightly behind Sasuke.

"Anou, Sasuke-kun," she began after about a minute. He turned to face her. "I was wondering… W-why did you do that? W-why did you save me?" She was fiddling with her hands like Hinata used to, and Sasuke could definitely see a blush spreading over her face.

"Why did I save you…" he repeated, trailing off at the end. Sakura nodded, her expression a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. Sasuke smirked. "Hn, I'd think you would be able to figure it out." Sakura looked at the ground.

"You've always called me annoying," she said sadly. "I thought it meant you hated me."

"You're wrong," he said quietly. He turned to face her. "There's no way that I hate you, Sakura." He looked almost furious with what she had said, and Sakura instinctively quailed back. There was a powerful mixture of passion and rage in Sasuke's eyes, making him look strong and dangerous and almost painfully beautiful in Sakura's mind. Her throat had suddenly become as dry as Suna's desert, and she had to swallow several times in order to be able to talk.

"How—how do you feel about me then, Sasuke-kun?" she asked him, almost afraid of the answer.

Sasuke's response was not what she had expected. Instead of one of his usual single word answers, he responded in a manner that required no speech at all. He kissed her on the lips.

Sakura's eyes widened as much as they could and for a solid half a minute she wondered if she was dreaming. Then she decided she didn't care and kissed him back. His mouth was warm and soft on hers, making her feel alive like she never had felt before. This was her first kiss, her most important kiss. As a little girl she had always thought that her first kiss would be with Uchiha Sasuke, but as she had grown up she had begun to doubt that that dream would ever become reality. Never since her teammate left the village had she even allowed herself to hope that he might return her feelings. But now he was kissing her, and it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her.

The two of them finally broke apart for air. Sakura's face was flushed, and she could see a faint hint of redness on Sasuke's cheeks as well. He smiled down at her and lifted a hand to stroke her cheek.

"Sakura," he addressed her in that beautiful, rich voice of his. She smiled widely, almost singing with happiness.

"Yes Sasuke-kun?" He smirked at the return of the usual suffix to his name.

"You're beautiful," he told her, giving her a peck on the cheek. Her face flamed with a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure.

"Ahem." The two shinobi turned to face their third teammate; Sakura's blush intensifying (if that was even possible at this point) as she realized that Naruto had been standing there the entire time. The blond Jinchuuriki looked serious and almost reprimanding for a moment, before his face broke into a wide grin. "It's about time, teme!" he told Sasuke. "I've been waiting for you to tell Sakura how you felt for forever! Man this is so great! Sasuke finally admitted that he likes Sakura-chan, and Sakura-chan's happy 'cause he finally said that he likes her back—"

"Dobe," Sasuke interrupted him.

"Yeah teme?" Naruto asked.

"Shut up." None of them appeared to have noticed that the rain had stopped as soon as Sasuke's eyes opened and the clouds were beginning to drift away. The full moon shone down on the three Konoha ninja, looking like a mournful and remote eye of heaven.

Sakura kept staring ahead at Sasuke's back as he walked ahead of her, still unable to believe that he had been serious. He said that he loved her. He loved her. Sakura's inner self had almost died of happiness when he had spoken those words. She had begun to think that her feelings would forever go unrequited, that Uchiha Sasuke was incapable of feeling such tender emotions as love. Sakura began to make plans to tell Ino about this as soon as the battle was over (her blonde friend loved to be the first one to know about any new gossip or romances), not yet knowing that she would never see Ino alive again. Her best friend would never hear Sakura tell her about her first relationship. Ino would never hear anyone tell her about anything again.

Sakura halted as Sasuke stopped walking and turned to face her and Naruto, his expression grave.

"Are you two sure that you want to come with me?" he asked. Sakura gaped and Naruto made a noise of outrage.

"Teme!" he cried. "We already told you we were coming! We promise we won't get killed by Itachi, dattebayo!" Sasuke stared at him with haunted, dead eyes.

"My parents didn't think they would be killed by him either," the Uchiha survivor said quietly. Naruto inhaled sharply at the pain in his friend's voice, while Sakura felt her heart lurch with pity. She hadn't seen her parents very often since she'd moved out of their house and into her own apartment, but at least she knew that they were still there if she ever wanted to visit. Sasuke hadn't seen his parents in almost nine years, and he wouldn't see them again until he died.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered his name sadly, reaching out a hand to stroke his cheek. At first he stiffened at her touch, but after a moment he relaxed, closing his eyes. When he opened them, there was a hint of desperation in the look he directed at his teammates.

"I don't want to lose you two as well," he told them quietly.

"We won't die," Naruto repeated firmly, "dattebayo. I promise." Sasuke smiled sadly.

"You already failed to keep one promise, Naruto," the Uchiha reminded him. "You never did bring me back to Konoha."

"You're here, aren't you?" Naruto replied. His friend smirked. Silently he beckoned for them to follow him. Naruto grinned at his victory. "Remember," he told Sasuke, "I also know what it feels like now to lose the person you care the most about. I understand exactly what you're worried about Sasuke. But I still let you fight here."

"It's not the same," Sasuke told him.

"Why not?!" Naruto cried in exasperation. The former apprentice of the Snake Sannin smirked at him.

"Because… you're an idiot." Naruto gaped for a moment before the unavoidable shouting began.

"T-teme made a joke! He exclaimed, looking equally thrilled and horrified at the idea. He threw his arms around Sasuke who smirked again.

"Get off dobe," he said not unkindly. Naruto detached himself with a small sigh of frustration at his friend's continued refusal to allow physical contact with anyone. (Naruto conveniently chose to forget that Sasuke had just kissed Sakura a few minutes ago, an activity which definitely qualified as physical contact.) "Now come on," the Uchiha addressed his companions, already turning away. Naruto and Sakura, too used to Sasuke's lack of warmth to think anything of this rather harsh command, followed without complaint.

The entrance to the Uchiha Compound had barely changed at all in the nine years since the Massacre. It was a simply wooden archway with banners bearing the Uchiha clan crest hanging on it. The colors on the banners had faded some with the passage of time, but apart from that it was a scene taken straight out of Sasuke's childhood. If only he was going home to see his mother and father, or to visit his aunt and uncle's store now, instead of to kill Itachi…

"Come on, Sasuke-kun," Sakura addressed him gently, taking hold of his arm and gently pulling him onwards. He didn't resist, merely following her docilely through the archway and into the neighborhood in which his entire family had been slaughtered.

Less than three steps into the Compound, Sasuke stiffened. Naruto and Sakura turned to face him with puzzled looks. "I can feel his presence," Sasuke told them in a voice full of shock. "I know where he is." Without further comments he sprinted off in the direction he felt Itachi's chakra emanating from. This chakra, it's so powerful… almost like he wants me to feel it. He turned a corner, not halting for a second as he continued to make a beeline for his brother. But why? Why would he want me to find him when he knows that I want to kill him? Is he mocking me? Sasuke's expression hardened in fury at the thought. The youngest Uchiha didn't even waver when his course took him to his parents' old home and his current place of occupancy. He opened the sliding door calmly however, remembering with a small pang of sorrow his mother's voice scolding him for slamming the front door.

Sasuke moved through the old house, heading towards his brother's chakra signature. He realized exactly which room it was coming from once he stepped onto the outdoor walkway. It figures that he would use there, Sasuke thought bitterly. The room where Itachi was waiting for him was also the room in which he had first found his parents' corpses on that night all those years ago.

His footsteps slowed as he neared the room. He had not bothered to mask his chakra during his furious run here; Itachi would be expecting him no matter what he did now, so he might as well not run right into an ambush. It would not do for him to screw this up again, after all those years of training with Orochimaru in the Sound Village. He had hurt Naruto and Sakura by staying away all those years—they'd better have been good for something!

His Sharingan activated as he reached for the handles on the double doors of the room, throwing them open in one powerful movement. He gasped at the scene that awaited him. Instead of Itachi boldly standing there to challenge him to a fight, his brother lay in the center of the room, as still as death itself. There were no signs of wounds of any sort, but Sasuke knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his brother was dead. So how then had he felt that chakra signature? It had, without a doubt, been Itachi's. His Sharingan deactivated itself as he stared at the corpse, his mind lost in contemplation.

"It looks like you've won," said a voice. A man wearing a full black outfit and an orange mask stepped out of the shadows. It was he who had spoken. "Or at least, you think you have."

Author's Notes:

Note 1: Okay, that SasukeXSakura scene was really hard to write. I spent about two days on it alone. Sasuke's lack of emotions makes him really annoying to have to write love scenes about. I apologize if he seemed OOC, but really, how can you give Uchiha Sasuke the ability to show affection for anyone and keep him in character?

Note 2: This chapter was posted early because I will be away all long weekend and won't have access to a computer. However, I do have the next chapter mostly written out already, so I'll probably be posting that once I get back instead of making you all wait until next Saturday. (Although, it would be fun to be evil and make you all wait, especially since this chapter ended on a cliffhanger…)