Read and review this grand finale. Thank you all so much for the support and love that I felt for this and the rest of you (especially KHB123 and certain others who made my day with their reviews). :D I'm so proud of this it isn't funny, but it's not the first time nor the last.

Chapter Twenty-One

The Fulfilled and the Finale

Konoha was under attack by Danzo and his Root Black Ops.

The Sharingan blared to life with righteous fury from his own eyes as well as Izumi and Sasuke. He couldn't...how could this happen?! Why would the bastard commit such a heinous act? Shisui could hardly believe this, even though it didn't surprise him. Committed by someone of our own...a man once a comrade of the Third Hokage...

He remembered how optimistic he once was, back when the seeds of doubt were planted regarding the well-being of the Uchiha during the reign of the Second Hokage, and Danzo had been one of the Elders to keep them at bay over the fear of another Madara Uchiha emerging. "What the devil...why would they attack their own village like this?!" Minato shouted furiously, the vein sticking out in his forehead. "This is an outrageous offense, when we have just experienced a great loss -" Anko, the reanimated Hokage, and your wife. "- and I demand who has started this chaos in our village be sniffed out at once! And that includes Danzo; I would rather have him in front of me before his head is removed from his shoulders."

None of them had ever seen him this livid, so Shisui admitted it was unsettling, to say the least. But not as much as the wish for Danzo's blood. The man really had changed in a short period of time. The fire in his eyes enhanced just as chaos outside was beginning to take place.

Small fires were bursting and spreading slowly.

People screamed and ran from the streets.

Elite Jounin and Chuunin - not the fresh young ones who would have been promoted had the snake not slithered in their midst - were going out against the masked ANBU who weren't administered by their Hokage, for many of them seemed to put two and two together as they realized they were no friend or comrade in arms. But the younger generation who were baffled, they were hesitant until they were forced at the last minute to see that Shinobi within their own village were set on destroying it, just days after someone of higher rank had attempted to do so.

"What are you all still standing here for?!" the Yondaime shouted. "Get out there at once, and you two -" He raised his octave on the two ANBU who appeared on either side of him, and they visibly cowered. "- notify all your units to get this under control! And Shisui, get the police force out there to help!"

Izumi looked intimidated in the eyes, but her face betrayed nothing. Then she looked down at Sasuke when he gazed up at her. Shisui knew what his cousin was thinking: this meant he and his peers would get to fight and risk their lives no matter the elders trying to protect them. Shinobi were meant to put themselves on the frontlines, protect the youthful civilians along with their seniors and parents - and Shinobi included those who were Sasuke's age. And Naruto.

The boy's father looked no better when he appeared to be thinking the same thing. But all of them were out of the office to join their comrades in the hysteria. This was far worse now than Orochimaru at the point.

He was needed for this mess, and he knew just what he had to do, if you only had to ask him a hundred times. His visual jutsu could take on an entire clan, a single opponent without trying too hard, and he could do so for these Root ninja, but those in a vicinity at a time. That would spare his fellow Shinobi the trouble. But one fact agitated him the most.

Itachi was nowhere to be seen.

Danzo must have captured him. This is bad...this is not good...

"Izumi!" he shouted to her. Her long chocolate hair whipped about as her fierce eyes met his. "Get the boys and find Itachi while we take care of this!"

~o~

Their village was being attacked by their own people - should she say, disbanded on Hokage's orders for dark and disturbing reasons? And on orders of a man who was relieved a long time ago - but nobody seemed to be harmed, at least not civilians. A few Shinobi had been slain so far, but the counts could not be taken at a time like this.

If she ever saw Danzo herself, he was going to pay, war veteran or not.

Her husband was missing, which meant he was either captive or dead, and she didn't want to dwell on the macabre latter. She should stay and help her men, but Shisui yelled at her to get their team and go out to find Itachi. Izumi just about snapped with joy, but it couldn't be too high. Itachi was one of the most powerful Shinobi ever, but Danzo was still above him...no, you know him better than that. He never lets anyone, much less a higher-up - and a former one here - trample and kill him.

Lord Hokage was still up in his tower, but he was guarded well - or would he eventually come down and join the fighting? She took off with the boys on their captain's orders, but then another voice shouted after them that HE was coming. "Sasuke!" she said. "You weren't asked to come along."

"And that's my brother out there," he retorted, "so I don't need orders to save him. I helped you against these guys, or did you forget that?" He insisted on being stubborn at a time like this, did he? Izumi halted, the boys with her, and looked down on him while he lifted his chin back at her.

"This isn't a good time to argue about coming. And no, I did not forget, so I have no doubts about your improvement. Except your brother is likely a hostage since killing him would be too easy for Danzo. But as for you, I doubt he will hesitate."

He glared up at her. This was not a good time. "You're not Shisui or the Hokage -" he started, and she snapped.

Izumi was on him by an inch away, bearing her face down to his. "Sasuke," she said through her teeth, "you're a little fool to think you can come along to save Itachi when you have no chance against these Root Black Ops. They are highly trained, and by a war veteran from the last two great wars. You got away from them last time without much effort because I backed you up, and then Shisui was there with us. Your luck could run out this time now that your brother - my husband - is held by Danzo and who knows how many more of them at his disposal." She narrowed her eyes down at him, giving him the final message that rendered him incapable of a comeback.

"You want to stay here, live and help the others - or to tag along and die before your time? This isn't a good time to act like a little brat trying to prove something of himself. At least Naruto learned to own that and fix it." Ah ha!

Begrudgingly, Sasuke stepped back and just watched as his sister-in-law and her team left him, jumping from rooftop to rooftop separately before rejoining outside the village boundaries, after seeing no trace of Itachi or his chakra patterns - which meant he could still be outside in the forest somewhere.

It was so strange to find no Root hunting them down on the way, when she found they were getting closer to Itachi. It was more unnerving rather than relieving.

They found her husband, alone and surrounded by masked and cloaked Root - but there was also another, and his chakra presence felt so...dark and oppressing. This had to be Danzo; it had to. Her fury arose back to the surface, but she stayed in the trees with the boys, and they listened in on the conversation until they would strike.

~o~

"And the crow one day must be trapped by a larger bird of prey."

The one who spoke stepped out from behind his line of six ANBU, cane in hand, and still bandaged after all these years. You'd half-expect that he would eventually pass into the next world after being sent into house arrest and exile - but now he came back at what he felt was an opportune time. "Danzo," Itachi said, spitting in a figurative manner. "Why are you in my way - and why have you chosen to come out now when Lord Third removed you?" He chose to stand upright on both feet; this man was no longer his superior as far as he was concerned.

The man with his right eye covered up regarded him with that familiar cool cynicism. "Orochimaru. It amazes me that he has finally been brought down after all this time, which Hiruzen failed to do in the beginning. However, I would have expected that Minato would have finished the job...only the job was left to Orochimaru's former pupil, one of our elite who performed one of his forbidden jutsu that took her life with his. But it is to my knowledge that Orochimaru didn't die right away; one of your Uchiha clan members - your wife, nonetheless - cut his head from his shoulders. Admirable, but far too brutal for a woman like her." Why am I not surprised you kept in touch from the shadows? You're as much a clever snake as Orochimaru was.

"Very sexist for you to state," Itachi said coldly, turning his bloodline on. His bleeding irises didn't faze the war hawk in the slightest. "My wife has done what Sarutobi couldn't, it's true - and you underestimate her as you are doing to me right now."

He knew she and her team, sans Shisui, arrived since the first moment. Danzo had to be aware like him, but he didn't acknowledge. Yet. "Yes, you are right. After all, Itachi, you have always been an excellent judge of character." Except at first, I didn't believe in her abilities until she defeated me twice. "Only she is the least of my concerns. I have come to a realization about your Fourth Hokage after recent events..." Now there was a slight curl of the lips that made him do the same.

He was here because he saw Minato weakened after his wife reanimated and used against him in the Forest of Death. He thought he could come and overthrow the Yondaime, and what else? "You're not going to get anywhere near Lord Hokage if I have anything to say about it. I have other methods that were acquired which you won't stand a chance against," Itachi stated, allowing the tomoe in his eyes to become the pinwheel, which the former right hand of the Sandaime narrowed his eye to, and his Root took a step back in unison.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan - it is nothing that frightens me anymore. And you do not possess Shisui's visual prowess, so there is my reason for no fear. But it is far higher than the one that I acquired recently."

Itachi felt himself stiffen, clenching his fists on either side of his body. "What are you saying?" he demanded, just as the man raised his hand that wasn't on the cane and snapped his fingers. Two ANBU appeared from behind the rank, carrying a lifeless body that was dumped carelessly before his eyes, which widened and burned with unadulterated vengeance. The form lay on its back, one arm spread out in a horizontal line, the other across the abdomen, and the legs splayed a couple feet apart. Standing several meters in a distance, Itachi Uchiha could no longer contain the righteous hatred he harbored for the other predator not on Orochimaru's level, but enough to be called a vile monster.

Mother...

To look upon Mikoto's corpse, first at the blood behind her head - she must have been stabbed in the back there, the spinal cord simply severed where it connected with the brain - and then the little red river trickling down the right side of her closed left eye...he could take a horrific guess at what had happened to her after she was killed. It took all his efforts to not release the flood that was swelling within. If Sasuke saw this...

"What have you done to my mother, you savage?" he growled through his teeth, looking up at Danzo who calmly blinked once.

"Added her left eye, as you can see, to my collection."

He snarled, his temperament no longer controlled, and he went right for his sword behind his back. Now this was going to be settled once and for all. "You want mine next, is that it? For what psychotic purpose?" he raged, still cool and icy, but the fire escaped in his words. "You will have to come and try me then."

Itachi replaced himself with a crow clone just as the senbons were fired in his direction, intent to pierce his vital chakra points. They were going to kill him, but he expected nothing less. His clone was shot in the shoulders, the thighs, jugular and even the heart, before dispersing into the flock of black birds that cawed as they flew about in every direction. He appeared behind three of the Root on Danzo's right, slicing them all from behind the necks in a single swipe, before they knew what was happening. The commotion sparked the startled attention of the remaining lackeys, and they all turned on him at the same time Danzo raised his hand to silence.

"I would rather not maim him just yet. I'll be taking it from here in taking your eyes by my hand, Itachi." But before he could make a move, a voice broke the air, getting all attention. A figure leaped from out of nowhere, followed by three more.

"I would keep away from my husband if I were you, if you don't want your blood on any of my blades right now." Izumi, by the gods!

~o~

Her mother-in-law...murdered...her eye taken...what kind of sick psycho was he?! She wasn't sure if he was the same as Orochimaru, or worse, because less was an understatement. And what made her come out was her decision to give the signal to the boys to jump and shine, because her man was going to have his eyes taken out. So far he dodged senbons aimed for his chakra points and then killed three...but now he was being approached personally by Danzo, and Izumi snapped, jumping out and followed by the guys. "I would keep away from my husband if I were you, if you don't want your blood on any of my blades right now," she called out.

The former second-in-command of the Sandaime Hokage looked up at her with disinterest, but his single revealed eye twinkled faintly. "Ah, yes, Uchiha bride...Izumi, is it? Brave but foolish to come and cross me. I'm very much aware of your skills, but I am afraid they're not up to standards -" He was cut off when she withdrew two kunai and threw them down to the ground before him and his five Root, with the paper bombs going off and sending them all backwards.

"Try me one more time, Danzo," she said savagely. "I could tolerate those words from my clan, certain fellow Shinobi in my Academy days, but you are the last one to try. I dare you to say something else before your time is up."

Danzo narrowed that eye, clearly impressed but displeased with her feistiness. Then one of his Root-nin shouted up at her, "You're quite the vixen to attack Lord Danzo directly like this!" She growled with impatience, tempted to repeat her actions, but she had better things to do.

"You silly idiot, I don't make threats - I make promises. Boys," she said in a hushed voice, "handle the Root while Itachi and I deal with Danzo personally."

"Got it," they said in unison.

Casting a glance over to Itachi, he gave her a secret smile before rushing to join her, at the same time her boys threw themselves out at Danzo's Root at their leader's command - NOW!

Izumi jumped into the air, her left leg raised and ready to strike him where he stood. She wanted to see what this war hawk had, and she was going to give him what he deserved! He dodged her attack, and her foot connected with the earth and wracked it with a powerful impact that left a dent. The rumble caused her mother-in-law's corpse to fly into the air, limp like a fish on dry land, and landed into her son's arms. Danzo took her eye for himself - but WHY? If this has to do with him knowing the Uchiha myth and legends about the Sharingan, how is he going to...?

Kakashi had the Sharingan in only one eye, and he managed it very well when he wasn't an Uchiha. But a man like Danzo to take Mikoto's eye when she hadn't been a kunoichi since having her sons - he was going to pay for it. But what about Aunt Kazue? Did he kill her, too?

It made her wonder how many more Sharingan he took.

Danzo was gone when the smoke cleared, but he was behind her just as Itachi was coming in to help her. His sword was shining in the sunlight just as Danzo's cane was coming down to strike Izumi to the abdomen, and when it did, she coughed and spit a little blood because of the power in the blow - such strength for an old man! - and it sent her onto her back, rolling onto her side to face Mikoto's lifeless face. Itachi had laid her down so he could jump in to aid his wife.

Izumi croaked in her throat as her thoughts became hazed. She grimaced, forcing herself to sit upright. Wiping the blood from her chin, she looked upon Mikoto's peaceful face, at the trail of blood down the corner where her eyeless socket was. Vengeance had never been so burning. And they said for those who followed the path of revenge, it ended in tragedy. But on her watch, the killer of her husband's mother was going to get his. Like she promised, Danzo's head would roll across the grass just like Orochimaru's.

She looked up as Itachi's sword split Danzo's cane in half, and then it switched to hand-to-hand between them. Around them, her boys were having it all with the Root, and the odds were one casualty against seven. Sorrow washed over her at the loss of one of her own, but it was pushed aside when she looked up and saw Itachi and Danzo still at each other's throats. It seemed her husband was handling himself, and it was then that one masked Root came in her direction, kunai unsheathed. You fool. She pulled out her katana and swiped the dagger out of his hand, before running it across his chest, killing him right away. She whirled her body around and kicked him away, his feline mask falling off his face, but his identity was of no concern to her.

She had to get her seals on Danzo somehow, but how to do it was a big question. "Phoenix Whirlwind!" she shouted, getting Danzo's attention and the last of his Root along with her boys who were still alive, and her body spiraled with the wind that formed with the dust particles that collected with her chakra gathered as she plummeted forth, then threw out her leg for the kick, striking the old man in his side and sending him away from Itachi. He slid across the ground, sending debris and dust into the air. In the mess, the bandages covering the right side of his face came loose and fell to the earth...and now she could gasp in utter horror, and Itachi's was more strangled than hers.

The Sharingan glared back at them both in the man's right socket, surrounded by lines of hardship and age. It defined him as foreign placed within familiar territory. Is that Mikoto's eye? She didn't have it in herself to ask, but he seemed to know what she was thinking when he stood up and presented himself back to her and Itachi.

"This eye was the new addition, from the obvious source." His own eye flickered to where Mikoto's body still lay, without a blink of sympathy or remorse. "But she was not the only one..."

He was shrugging off the sleeve of his cloak, exposing his arm, and the sight was as great a transgression as the Reanimation Technique. The pastel white skin, which looked more like wood than real human flesh, was placed with ten Sharingan eyes ablaze, five going from the elbow to the back of the hand, and the same beneath only the final directly in the palm. All from Uchiha who either died or were still alive and robbed of their powers. Not only that, but the particles of that arm consisted of...

"Abominable," Itachi seethed. "You kept stolen Sharingan actively using the First Hokage's DNA."

Danzo wasn't denying it, as he was flaunting openly since it was just the three of them, while his Root and her boys were watching with interest and shock, the latter belonging to her team. "With help obtained with Orochimaru," the war hawk answered. "This arm is not my own, for I lost my original many years ago in battle. This belonged to a test subject of the snake, enhanced by Hashirama Senju's wood cells. For years I have spent conserving my chakra, keeping these eyes and the DNA preserves in check - for a time even like now." Which means that his appearance as a crippled old codger has been nothing but a camouflage.

And if he had all those eyes, that meant he had access to even the most forbidden of jutsu in the Uchiha; she could think of one with two sides of the same coin. One changed destiny, the other decided it - both in exchange for the light in your eye that happened faster than overuse of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Izumi figured it all out in a split second: which means that if he uses Izanagi or Izanami in a minute per eye, that eye will go blind. But there is so many of them in that arm. It doesn't belong to him just as those eyes aren't his... She looked at Itachi when he whispered to her. "We might be at a disadvantage. He is going to use the forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha. I could use it against him, but I will lose my eyesight faster than the Mangekyo. But by the looks of him, it doesn't appear he has much of a chance. He hasn't mastered the Shodaime's chakra."

In short: Danzo's use of the Uchiha power was temporary, and if he turned himself into a physical illusion against his opponent, any injury inflicted would be nullified. And if he was "killed", he could appear elsewhere and take his opponent off-guard. And if he did that to her or Itachi, he would steal their eyes like he did to Mikoto today.

Could one of them also have been his father Fugaku's eyes? The thought was too grisly to think about, if her late father-in-law's remains were desecrated.

In a flash, she found herself on her knees, and a painful tug of her hair in another's grasp made her look up in dismay. He acted so fast she didn't even see it, and neither did her husband who was enraged and disbelieved that their opponent got her in a blink. "Release my wife," he ordered heatedly.

"Release her or the other, Itachi? You will have to choose one of them now, it seems," Danzo replied, and with a gesture of his fingers, Itachi looked over his shoulder, Izumi following while in her position on the ground, entrapped but far from helpless. There was one thing she could do, since a substitution could only be performed before attack or captivity.

A Root in an unidentifiable white mask with blue lines on the cheeks and forehead appeared, this time with a familiar face who was alive and well, but spiteful at once more being captive by someone else, this time being highly skilled assassins trained by a veteran of war. Aunt Kazue! The elder woman was unharmed, by the look of it, but sporting a black mark on her left cheekbone, beneath the eye. "Try anything else and she will die," the Root holding her told Itachi without a beat.

"Oh, don't you dare worry about me, Itachi!" Kazue shouted despite the kunai being pointed at her throat, threatening to cut it open and spill her blood. "I say get your wife and yourself out of here, and take that monster down!"

Danzo scoffed. "Obdurate woman, I remember you very well. Your husband was one of the voices of protest when Hiruzen Sarutobi sent the lot of your arrogant clan outside this village - and why am I not surprised to find you with that torch? It was never every day an Uchiha female would bite back. In the old days, a woman would bite her tongue and do as she was told," he said, his sneers distracting even himself from what Izumi was doing, very slowly to not cause any attention to be brought on herself. She grasped a kunai from her pouch and reached up with it at the same time her free hand came to grasp Danzo's wrist which held her mane to the length of her ears.

Both of his eyes - one bloody red and the other dark as his soul - widened at the same time both of her husband's, and her great aunt's. Her surviving teammates and remaining Root gazed with disbelief at the action she performed to free herself from the man who took the eyes of many from her clan, including her mother-in-law.

Her chocolate brown locks flew to the ground in every direction, flying with the wind that began to pick up.

The breeze that ran through her now-short hair made her shiver, and it was then that she felt the wave that came over her being, undergoing a major transformation.

I feel like a new woman.

At the same time, a vicious darkness swept over her just as her body whirled around in its current position, and she threw out her leg to kick him where it hurt, and she did not mean his abdomen. It made her think about what Suzume did to her that day, so she could imagine the pain and damage to his pride he must be feeling, and damn, did it feel good. And to see the look on his face, those bulging eyes with surprise and horror that a small woman had freed herself by simply chopping off her long hair!

The second blow to that same place was with her First of Fury, and then that same hand to reach for his face and snatch what did NOT belong to him. Familiar with the anatomy of the oculars, she took out Mikoto's eye from Danzo's socket, but he held back his screams of agony by biting on his own tongue, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. "Catch, Itachi!" she shouted, throwing it behind her without turning.

She watched as Danzo staggered back, holding onto that socket where "his" eye was taken, using his hand that didn't have all the Uchiha eyes, and this was her opportunity to slap him with her special seal while she finished her job. He was at her mercy, and his Root could stay by to watch with horror as their leader was ravaged by her, and her husband came to her side just as she was getting the third out, which was the second from his arm. Her victim's screams filled her blood with a pump that made her heart pick up its pace.

"If any of you come any closer, you'll get far worse than this," Izumi threatened, looking up at the Root with her eyes blaring murderously - and then she looked ahead to see her aunt being released, because that Root thought he could make his move because she was not his superior...but then Kazue did the bold and fatal move of standing up and going right into the masked man's blade which had been drawn. She was struck right in the right side, below her rib cage.

Izumi heard herself scream so loud that her eardrums might have been pierced. She still held onto her kunai when she charged him, and before long, blood splattered in all directions, a few drops hitting her forehead and left cheek. His corpse fell just as her aunt, but she caught the woman who raised her after her mother's death in her arms, falling to her knees. "OBA-SAN!"

Of all the horrors of this week, this can't be...

The blood that poured from the wound - there was so much. Too much that not even a medic could heal. "My God, why would you do that?!" Izumi cried, holding onto the woman as she shallowly rasped for air and coughed up blood. This woman who saved her life...

"Need you ask, Izu-chan?" Kazue asked, managing a smile. "My precious girl, my niece's daughter, and the only family I had left. I did it for you and your husband. Your life isn't going to end like this as long as I am alive." Her lips trembled then, making Izumi fight back her own tears. "And if you have any little ones, please tell them about me." Why would I not? But she desperately nodded. "I love you, Izumi."

"And I, you, oba-san," she croaked, bowing her head, touching her forehead against the other's as the last breath left her great-aunt. She let her Shinobi shell drop, showing a vulnerable girl who lost a family member, and cried for her husband and the others to see and hear.

Some moments passed before she felt Itachi's presence as he knelt beside her, putting his hand on her back. He said nothing but gently rubbed her in small circles, doing his best but so little to calm her. Around them, the last of the Root were shot down from the hidden help that arrived - and among them were Shisui and the Hokage, as well as Kakashi and his students.

~o~

His wife was far more brutal against Danzo than he'd seen her that it troubled Itachi to no extent. He worried for her that he fell to his knees beside her as Kazue died in her arms. Died protecting her grandniece. He had just finished taking all the eyes from the wounded, groaning Danzo who was unable to access his other jutsu even without the Sharingan, when he heard his wife's wail of grief and saw her cut the throat of the Root who stabbed her aunt near the lung, puncturing it by an inch.

He heard every word Kazue told her. She did this for her niece and her nephew-in-law. She gave her life when she wasn't a Shinobi.

"You are...going to hell, Itachi," Danzo rasped, looking up at him with his remaining eye. "Your eyes..." Itachi didn't let him get his chance to reach for his face before his sword lashed out in a sliver of speed, severing that arm which once had all the stolen clansmen's oculars, whoever they were besides his mother.

"Are not yours, as my mother's and the others' never belonged to you," Itachi stated, pointing his sword to the war veteran's neck as the man continued to struggle now that he was missing his wood-enhanced limb. The face of the First Hokage resided in the upper arm near the shoulder. "Besides assassinating Lord Hokage and besides having the power of the Uchiha - the very clan you despise out of fear due to the actions of our ancestor and the policies of the late Nidaime - you intended to destroy as much of the village you claimed to love, would resort to any filthy means necessary, because it goes without saying: to recreate a new age, the old must be destroyed." There was no denial, which made him smile slightly.

Izumi lost control of her emotions, which made him kneel beside her as the rest of Danzo's accompanied Root were shot down. Her team lost one member, which Shisui saw when he was one of those to arrive. His expression was trained into stoic, but his eyes betrayed the sorrow over the loss. Then they lit up when they rested on the immobile but otherwise living Danzo, and the rage was festering as much. Finally at the bodies of Mikoto and Kazue, and his lower lip curled.

Besides his cousin's reaction, everyone else had their own. Minato and his son were extremely sympathetic at the sight, but Naruto had obvious hatred present at knowing both women were murdered. Yet he could utter no outbursts.

Sakura's eyes glazed over with tears, and she took Sasuke's hand into hers, but she didn't seem to be conscious other than of her own broken heart. As for his otouto...

"Mother," he managed, breaking from the pinkette's hold and running over to Mikoto's side, falling to his knees just as two of their own ANBU were coming to pick her up. They stood back as the youngest Uchiha bowed his head, resting it over her heart, no longer beating. How I will tell him what happened to our mother will bring forth the third tomoe of his Sharingan, I am sure of it. I wish there was another way than this. All of us have had enough with Orochimaru, and now this - it's unforgivable.

Sasuke threw his head back and screamed his grief, uncaring. Itachi let his wife go and rushed over to his brother, taking him by the arms and pulling him to his feet. Izumi, still with her tears staining her cheeks, joined them, hugging from the outside.

Kakashi oversaw the removal of Danzo, the subdue of the war hawk who came out after all these years - and had been their former superior in the Black Ops - sharing a brief, disturbed glance towards Itachi, saying nothing at all. Words were not needed.

The Chuunin Exams had been a nightmare for all of them, but Danzo's return and attack on the village to get what he wanted after the fiasco was just as hellish. Whereas two Shinobi had been lost, so had two women in his life and those of his family and clan's.

The village didn't suffer a lot of damage, but those parts that had been were being restored and would be completed in a few months before the next Chuunin Exams would take place. And the last of the Root foundation had been rounded up, arrested and interrogated for information under Ibiki Morino with the aid of Inoichi Yamanaka, both having a field day. Even Yondaime-sama was hell-bent on having this resolved before he lost his temper. These events had changed him forever, which made Itachi wonder if the man would eventually step down from his seat in a few years or sooner. And there was question as to who would be the Fifth Hokage if he made that decision. His son would now begin his new training with Jiraiya, who might very well take him out of the village sooner or later.

His mother and Kazue were given a double service, and Mikoto had always wanted to be buried beside her husband when the time came. His wife's great-aunt, on the other hand, would be placed beside hers, which was in another spot away from Fugaku and Mikoto. White roses and lilies surrounded the photographs of his mother and Izumi's great-aunt that day, under a sky of gray, foreshadowing a downpour. Every time we lose someone, there is always rain. The same went for the lost member of Shisui and Izumi's teammate the day before.

When he stood before the entire clan and gave his speech about how remarkable and powerful these women were - even his mother, before she married and had her sons - he found himself looking at how his wife had changed when they battled against Danzo. He would never forget the moment when he held her hostage by her hair - and she hacked it off before their eyes. Now it was at the same length of her ears. He never realized that he would actually be roused by the sight of this new Izumi Uchiha.

In her eyes was a new depth that appeared no different than himself. There was a storm that constantly brewed and whirled with the violence and vengeance brought on by one man who defiled members of their own clan, brought on by personal grudges due to the ghosts of the past. And she saw with her own two eyes as the woman who had nurtured and protected her after the death of her mother put herself in line of a blade that was aimed for her great-niece.

When he looked at Sasuke, there was hatred brimming in his eyes along with his grief, for everything Danzo had done. Itachi was worried his brother would end up going destructive after this, and that meant he and Izumi had to do everything they could now, but if not them, someone else would - like Naruto and Sakura, his best friends and teammates whom he protected in the Forest of Death. He never got to say goodbye to their mother, but he would NOT close himself off to the only family he had left.

Shisui looked on with grim determination, knowing that they were all going to keep moving forward as they knew how. In fact, he was the one to decide that the reclaimed Uchiha eyes - counting Mikoto's - had to be destroyed once and for all, never mind that they could be used for anyone else alive today. It was for the best so to prevent another Danzo emerging.

When the services were over, he returned to the compound with his wife and brother. Sasuke said nothing except that he was going right to his room. He wanted to be alone, and that left Itachi alone with Izumi. The wife he loved all along but never said the words directly to her. He never knew how to, though that they both knew it. He fought alongside her against Orochimaru and Danzo. He went right up to her just as she put down Hazuki the cat who mewled and rubbed against her mistress after missing her all day.

"She misses them - just like us," Izumi said as the feline left her side, and then went to Itachi, doing the same to him against the ankles. The animal's soft fur tickled his skin; she purred, flicking out her tail as the final resort. He walked over to his wife and stepped behind her. He didn't know what to say before these three important words, because after all their time together, why should he? But he did settle on placing a kiss on her neck, revealed by the low collar of her dark blouse. She leaned into him, moaning a little.

"Izumi...I love you."

She turned her face all the way around while keeping her body in place. Surprise lit up in her eyes, before softening. "Took you a long time to say those words," she said with a slight smile, "and at a time like this."

And this time being on the day they buried his mother and her great-aunt, two women who loved and cared for them both until their deaths. It should have been the wrong time, after the hell they endured together, but it made him realize that out of everything he did in his life, there never would be a wrong time. She was the universe to him, as Sasuke and Shisui were. She turned around in his embrace, facing him full-front, seeming to be thinking as he was. Great minds think alike. "I love you, too, Itachi," she breathed against his mouth when she came to lay it chastely against his, stirring up what their bodies seemed to remember having not made contact since the nightmarish Chuunin Exams.

Sasuke should know to knock if he needs anything. Only he doubted that his brother would want to see either of them for the rest of the day - until his stomach betrayed him, that was. With that, Itachi picked her up, her legs wrapping around his, and they made way in the direction of their bedroom, drowning in tender kisses which became heated, soft touches rousing the flames that dried away any tears shed that day, and breaths became so ragged that words could not be spoken.

Outside the window, the charcoal sky began to clear way for pristine blue and golden sun rays.

~o~

Five months later

It was only two months after the tragedies that she felt the stirring in the middle of her body as well as noticed the telltale signs, such as her breasts swelling a little, and her period was late. There was no mistaking it, and she had spoken to the physician who confirmed it all, but when she returned home to break the news to her husband who was just coming home to also give her the news of his resignation from ANBU - at long last! - but his eyes immediately assessed the chakra presence before she could even say a word.

His face displayed all the delight his eyes could betray, and all he did was kiss her and hold her close. However, when they almost made love as celebration, Itachi acted first and said it could be risky to do so. He would rather die rather than endanger the safety of their unborn child, he said. The corners of Izumi's eyes burned at the protection he gave them both.

Today she had finished the first trimester when came day one of the second Chuunin Exams that year. Sasuke was just slipping on his sandals and was ready to leave when she caught him, probably being more excited than she intended. Maybe that was just hormones, but she didn't care. Sasuke looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Is it the baby making you so happy?"

"Well, yes, but I'm excited for you!" she answered happily. "Good luck and do your best!"

Itachi's laugh entered the fray. "I don't think otouto needs all that, darling," he told her jokingly, kissing her cheek. "But I'll say that I look forward to seeing you in the final match, Sasuke." This made his younger brother's face light up, almost like when he'd been a little boy happy to see his big brother come home. The same look when we told him he was going to be an uncle at only thirteen. Oh, God, I remember Shisui cracking it all up...

Except she wished Aunt Kazue and Mikoto were here so to see the baby and share that joy. But at least she knew they were watching over from somewhere better. When the news got out to the rest of the clan, there was a celebration and a baby shower scheduled to be two months before the due date.

"Now, how are we doing here?" her loving, devoted husband asked her when he placed his hand over her little tummy, probing around the small, firm bump in the middle. She laughed and squirmed into him playfully. He was tickling her.

"We're both fine." And happily content.

He held her then, his wife he loved very much, a woman he chose extremely well and who was a breakthrough in their clan not only being half-blooded, but contributed in saving all of them and the village. Now, while their lives as Shinobi would always be one moment peaceful and then blood-soaked the next, they looked forward to every moment of their lives, surrounded by friends and comrades - and each other's arms - as well as the upcoming Uchiha heir conceived out of love rather than expectation.

To bring forth the deaths of Mikoto and Kazue broke my heart, though it was also necessary. Plus, in bringing up the novel "Chosen for the Marriage Bed" which has been awhile, something similar to Kazue's sacrifice happened in the finale in terms of the main heroine's serving woman giving her life to save her, dying in her arms. :'(

I rewatched "The Two Uchiha" (the story and walkthrough itself, not the fights played) when I saw a much better version of Danzo taking Shisui's eye as well as the aftermath with him falling to his death in the river, before Itachi's eyes, and while the actual episode itself made me cry, this version was much better because we saw a real fight between him and Danzo, before Itachi came to his rescue.

There isn't going to be a sequel, so please do not ask me for one. I have very good reasons for sequels or none. When someone asks for one, you kind of feel obligated when you have no inspiration, and the best course of action is to NEVER do garbage that strays from the best original. Just like when it comes to making a movie or an actual novel. At the end of the day, the writer/creator has the final say.

This story was a dream and different from my usual. If I didn't say it enough, thank you all so much for enjoying this. :'D

If anyone is interested in any future fics, I recently started "The Shogun's Otome", a tale set in feudal times and based off a novel retelling the Arthurian legend.