I'm here, I'm here...for some reason. Thankfully, I don't have work today, so this 4:30 AM bedtime is...decent. Not good, but whatever.

Review response time!

1. Wondering Knight: Eh, you're probably right. Like I said in last chapter's AN, I bit off more than I could chew because I wanted to make sure that certain characters weren't in a position to die. Still, that's coming to an end pretty soon. Then, on to bigger and better things...I suppose.

2. Tsukoblue: Was it? I dropped so many hints early on that I worried it wouldn't be surprising to anyone when I finally used her name, but it's been almost 30 chapters since then, so I guess it worked out.

3. OneLunchMan: Jiraiya honestly deserves better, but as Biggie Smalls once wrote it, "Somebody's Got To Die." That, and I feel that his character serves much better as a torch-giver for Naruto to take up the search for peace from. After all, if Jiraiya is still alive to chase after his dream, what use is there in having Naruto fulfill it?

Hiashi always struck me as the man who was envious of his brother for having the courage and strength to accept his destiny. So in his final moments, when he asks for Hizashi to join him, it's more like he's trying to draw upon that same courage; if he'd bandaged himself up and gotten some emergency medical treatment, he probably could have survived.

It's the job of the young to take up where the old left off, and make things better. It's the job of the old to entrust the future to the young, and hope for a brighter future.

4. Guest: Except Kakashi isn't responsible for Jiraiya's death, and Naruto already knew about Kakashi's feelings regarding Tsunade's regency. After all, it was Jiraiya who threw the first punch, and Hiashi was the one who offered the motion of no confidence. Unless you're trying to say that Kakashi is passively responsible due to preventing Hiashi from being stopped? That's valid.

5. tastybigsexy: Glad you liked it! We're approaching an end to this facet of the arc, as the hunt for Naruto will continue for another chapter or two, so I was trying to pack everything up nicely for the civil war's final chapter.

6. Drake Vallion: They aren't the only deaths, there's some more to come. Three in this chapter, as a matter of fact. However, I think you've overestimated Naruto's ability to rise; he's certainly hit rock bottom, but he's brought his shovel and he is ready to dig.

7. RedCide47: Yeah, it's not always fun to pit characters who otherwise love and defend one another, against each other. However, certain personal things like that are expected to be put aside in war-time...blood for the blood god, as the saying goes.

8. SaKreD4LIFE: Oh, yeah, life's gonna fuckin' suck. And thanks for that; I definitely feel like I've tried very hard to make Orochimaru out to be more of a person than what he was in canon, which seemed to be, "my desire to learn all Ninjutsu in the world made me start experimenting with sealing techniques on live humans while I cultivated a sadistic side to my personality."

That's not a humanized antagonist. That's a strawman.

9. Noahendless: Seek or not, ye shall find, and as the blackened blood boils over between thin gaps in the marble tomb...then shall you get your answer from it, the Watcher in the Dark, the Blind Ape of Truth, who is faceless and yet known to all. The dead will lead to the living, and the living to the dead, for only after you expend your fire will the world continue turn.

The Crawling Chaos will consume you lest I, your potion-seller, give up to you my strongest potions.

Also, to that anon who reported me for "writing child molestation:" Normally, I'd ask where that happened in this fic (or any other) but I know that's something I've never done, so I'm leaving this message to let you know that I deleted your review and I'm laughing at you without going behind your back. I mean, fuck, if you're gonna criticize me for something...make sure it's something I've actually done. Otherwise, you just make an ass of yourself.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.


"It's time." Kakashi said, the Chidori in his hands. "You or me, Tsunade. We're ending this war."

Tsunade bit back tears as she wheeled around, her face contorted in pain.

"Why...why did it have to be him?"

"Because time goes on. Nobody can know what happens in the future, but the duty of a ninja is to fight to ensure that their loved ones can have a future that's good to them. Up until our last breaths, even before our loyalty to our villages, that is the job of all shinobi."

Jiraiya continued writing, though his motions were slow and weak. His life was fading.

"Even now," Kakashi spoke again, "he wants to make sure one last message is passed on. He's still dreaming of a future for at least one other person. So...tell me. Do you feel the same? Can you fight to protect the future you dream of?"

Tsunade hung her head.

"No."

She'd lost everything. The trust of her people, in the village of Konoha. Her brother, Nawaki. Her lover, Dan. Her firstborn son, Minato. Her second son, "Sai." Her grandson, Naruto. And now, she was losing Jiraiya as well.

"I can't bring them back." Kakashi sighed. "But I can take you to them."

She had nothing left.

"Do it, Kakashi, if you believe in that future so much." She gave a short laugh. "You, Jiraiya, Orochimaru...even Naruto. All you men, you keep your eyes pointed forward as you think of the future. What about all those people who struggle with the past, who can hardly live in the present? My heart died with my little brother. My life ended with Dan's. I know that all Jiraiya ever wanted was to help me, to get me to move forward, but...I'm chained down by the past. I can't reach the future he dreamed of."

Jiraiya looked up, slightly miffed at already having been written off, but his organs were shutting down individually. The lungs were the last ones left that Hiashi had touched, and they would be followed by the heart, and then the brain.

He kept writing, but his eyes never left Tsunade.

"Alright then." Kakashi bowed his head for a moment before coming back up. "You know, I just realized it, but now I'll have used this technique against all three of the Sannin, and I'll live to tell about it. Am I a distant cousin of Hanzo?"

His joke fell flat, but it was true nonetheless. Just as very few ninja had truly been on par with Sanshouo no Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure prior to his death some time after the end of the Third Great War, the list of ninja who'd faced all three Sannin was incredibly small.

"Close your eyes. Go to sleep." Kakashi said. "Make your way to the world of dreams."

Kakashi ran forward, a thousand birds screaming in his right ear as he prepared to commit regicide. Unbidden, he thought back to Team Seven's first C-ranked mission: the fiasco that was Nami no Kuni. He remembered it...differently, though. Gato had arrived before he'd even summoned his hounds, let alone given them time to latch on to Zabuza and immobilize him. He'd never charged Zabuza with the Chidori.

So what he was remembering...hadn't happened. Even so, Kakashi knew what came next: Haku, breaking away from Naruto just before the blond could kill him, chose to die defending his master. Then Gato had arrived, after tragedy could have been avoided. Understanding the gift he'd been given, of the past-that-was-not, the master of a thousand arts knew how to prevent what would happen next.

Thanks to his Sharingan, as a black-robed blur moved to stand between Kakashi and his target, he had the necessary reaction time.

At the last second, Kakashi jumped. Performing an acrobatic roll in midair, he left Shizune standing in front of Tsunade with her arms wide open; the younger medic had intended to be a sacrifice, dying to protect the woman she'd devoted her life to. As Kakashi exited the roll, his arm striking out to pierce through Tsunade's heart, he couldn't help feeling disappointed for Shizune.

So it was, that as Jiraiya died, he was given the knowledge that at least one student hadn't gone before him. He had put his pen down, flicking the notebook to Kakashi's feet, and craned his head to look up to the sky. It was the same sky he had been born under, the same sky he had killed under. Some things could not, would not, ever change.

"You will find the promised child. The child born on a battlefield, the killer of shade whose light of truth will conquer across all times and places, lest the world crumble. In the image of his father, he will end your quest, and in the darkness he will find peace...lest he falter. Should you fail, the world will be plunged into everlasting night, the sight of which shall be lost to him. The maelstrom will survive, no matter what cost it must incur, be it the warmth of family or the future of the world."

Those were the words given to Jiraiya by the Elder One, the toad who had been old before the gods had died. He had taken a sip from the God-Emperor's life-water as it ran across the desert sands, and had gained some of the dead god's power of foresight. Merely a youngling, the Kyuubi hadn't seen fit to kill him for his presence...and ever after, his gift had been used to aid mankind.

Jiraiya wanted to go back to Kaminari no Kuni. He wanted to go back to his parents, and the grave-marker that he'd made them. Their bodies weren't there, they'd been gone after the jutsu he'd sworn off forever...but, he supposed, it was just as nice for his life to end beside Tsunade's body. For Jiraiya, there was no grief, there was no misery; there was only the hope that Naruto, without anyone left who felt the need to guide him, would find his way to the era of peace that Jiraiya had dreamed of for so many years.

As the almighty, larger-than-life Arashi Jiraiya lost the light in his eyes, Kakashi took up the notebook which he'd so carefully written in during his life's final moments. Seeing that the first word was a name, Naruto, he closed the pages and pocketed the book.

Shizune screamed in horror as her mentor crumpled to the ground, a smile on Tsunade's pale face despite the gaping electrical wound in her back. She twisted as she fell, landing atop her long-time teammate. Their corpses embraced, and it was the warmest that they'd been to one another in far too long.

Konoha's civil war was, at long last...over.


"You can't keep dodging forever, Obito." Itachi said. "I still have plenty of chakra."

Each time Tobi tried to avoid a swing from the Totsuka no Ken, Izumi was there, in the Kamui's dimension. Each sting from her blade brought fresh poison to his blood, which the spores from Zetsu weren't entirely adept at picking up.

Tobi's back was fresh against the wall, and without his second eye, he had nothing to match Itachi's invincible Susano'o. When did he have the time to train this extensively? Tobi had watched over him for his entire life, even before the massacre and Itachi's flight from Konoha. More precisely, Izumi had always been the one watching over him.

That was the problem, then. He'd underestimated, from the very beginning, her desire for revenge against the man who killed her. He'd expected her to mold into his will, in that liminal space between the worlds of the living and the dead. He'd expected her to rage, to hurt, to expel her anguished violence toward the one who was responsible.

Yet, still, she loved Itachi. She had always loved Itachi, and only ever Itachi...just like Rin's eyes were on Kakashi, never Obito. He had given her the gift of the Mangekyou, with the Kamui's dimension-travelling ability in her right eye and the Amaterasu in her left. Her Susano'o in its armored form, while not quite in the order of Itachi's magnitude, was still a force to be reckoned with.

There was nowhere to run or hide, and Tobi was both outmatched and overpowered. Silently, he cursed his younger self's generosity; had it not been for Kakashi, taking his Sharingan, he'd be on even footing with his enemies.

He tried to call forth his White Zetsu clones, but the Amaterasu's holy fire burned them to cinders long before they could become useful.

"Did you think that could work?" Itachi mocked him. "I knew it was you who incited the Uchiha to rebellion. My entire life, from my graduation until now, has been devoted to killing you. First, it was to stop you from destroying our clan..."

"You did a better job of that than I ever could have." Tobi smirked from behind his mask, feeling the last of the poison inside of him run its course.

"After I left this village, it was to keep you in check. But now?" Itachi's eyes widened from the madness associated with their clan, and Tobi was immediately on guard.

"Now, it's for fun." Tobi wheeled around, a kunai cutting through the speaker behind him, but Itachi's clone erupted into a flock of crows.

"Amuse me, Obito, black sheep of the Uchiha! Entertain me!" He called out, motioning for Izumi to stay back.

The great gunbai of an elder age was unsealed into Itachi's hand, the battle-fan's edge serrated and made of chakra-conductive metal. Itachi's Goukyaku came to life, and with one swing, a ball of flame too large to dodge was barreling down on Tobi. He barreled through it, rolling to put out the flames on his clothing, and the sight before him was enough to fill him with dread.

Itachi ran forward, and between his robe, his armor, and the gunbai, he gave an uncanny sort of double-vision with the image of Madara behind him. Before he could react, the bladed fan cut deeply into his chest, and Tobi felt nine of his ribs break. Before he could get away, Itachi had completed the swing and grabbed Tobi with his off hand.

A sick grin made its way to Itachi's face as that same hand deftly came up, a chakra-bladed hand cutting through the bottom of his enemy's mouth before wrapping around the teeth and chin. One foot keeping Tobi steady, Itachi pulled. First the rogue Uchiha's jaw was dislocated, and then it broke, but Itachi put more force into his motion. When blood sprayed, as his muscles were torn apart, Tobi fell back; his jaw was still in Itachi's hand. Without mercy, the bones were lit aflame, and Itachi's blood-stained face didn't lose its unnatural smile.

"I am the heir to the gods we worshipped, one and all." The Kinslayer intoned. "Bleed, for your life is the sacrament to my glory as their avatar...and rejoice, as you find salvation."

The Totsuka came down as Itachi's Susano'o swung, and Tobi had neither the presence of mind or the capability to avoid it.

"My lord..." Tobi gasped out, the ethereal sword's unbreakable Genjutsu taking hold. "...did I serve you well, Madara-sama?"

He sank to his knees, mind breaking as it failed to escape the illusion. Allowing himself to be taken into that world, Uchiha Obito passed away.

"Be at peace, brother." Itachi said, coming down from his battle-high. "Izumi...I need to go to Tsunade. Will you take me there?"

"Of course, dear." Her mask fell, for the final time, as she kissed Itachi's bloody face.

"I...I can't see." Itachi admitted as his lover took hold of his arm.

"And what if she's dead?"

"Then I can force my hand. The stone says that unity with the Senju will produce the Rinnegan, but no Uchiha that I know of managed to do so."

So, unless the ancient stone of the Uchiha was lying, the secret was to mix a Senju's chakra in the Sharingan. Walking with uncertainty, Itachi wasn't sure whether or not he wanted the power it would give him, but his blood sang at the chance to fulfill the true Uchiha destiny.


"She's dead, Itachi. I don't see how-"

"Did she release her seal?" He asked.

"No, but I hardly see..." Kakashi began, but trailed off when he saw that Itachi was about to interrupt him again.

Itachi pressed two fingers to Tsunade's forehead, Izumi having directed his hand to the diamond that denoted her Byakugou no Fuin. As Itachi triggered the seal, he felt foreign chakra crawl up his arm. Shifting it, he drained the entire seal, and directed all of Tsunade's chakra to his eyes.

The pain started as nothing but a pinprick sensation, but slowly spread until his eyes felt like they were being set on fire and doused with acid. A low groan escaped his mouth, surprising those who'd known him for the years he'd been in Konoha; Itachi wasn't the type of ninja to show that something was painful. That meant, whatever he was doing, it would have been enough to floor most others.

"Itachi-kun, are you okay?"

"I'm fine...agh!" He forced more chakra to his eyes, though they were hidden from public sight by the blue and green chakras they emitted.

This was, physically, the most painful thing he'd ever been through in his life. Blood dripped down from his sightless eyes, and then the pain began to go away. Itachi's eyelids came down, and when he opened them again, his sight was restored. The chakra faded from them, and Itachi offered mental thanks to the deceased Hokage for her contribution to his wellbeing.

Nine tomoe spun evenly across three rings in each of Itachi's newly-awakened Rinnegan, a flat lilac replacing the iridescent red of the Sharingan.

"That'll be fun to explain to Pein-sama." Izumi giggled.

Her mood was light, as ever, despite the situation she'd found herself in. Even after so much death, she had the only reason she needed to be happy: Itachi was with her, and he was safe. With him by her side, and with her by his, there was nothing that couldn't be done. Now, finally, she didn't have to pretend to follow anyone's orders again. She was free, and her life was her own.

How ironic, to love the one who'd killed her. Sasuke might have been the Spirit of Fire, the protector of the Uchiha destiny, but Itachi was the soul of the clan, and she was the one in whom his conscience laid.

Itachi's sight was better than it had been since before he'd first activated the Mangekyou, almost two decades ago, as he'd accompanied Uchiha Shisui and another team on their mission in Kiri during the Third Great War. He'd only been four years old at the time, but his eyes were strong, and his jutsu were stronger. Shisui's death had changed Itachi's outlook on the life and purpose of a ninja. The eye which he'd been entrusted with had served him well, the Kotoamatsukami allowing him to infiltrate the Akatsuki and plot the slow takedown of its genuine criminal members.

Hidan was gone. Obito was gone. Orochimaru would be gone when Pein finally made a move, and struck him down with a righteous hand of god. Kakuzu and Zetsu would be the hardest to kill, of those agents remaining, but that measuring stick was a relative one; the members of the Akatsuki, despite its inherent weaknesses and its members' inability to truly cooperate, was an organization built upon the raw power of ten S-ranked criminals who were more than legendary.

Pein and Konan were its founders, and while Konan had been a rebel of Ame...Pein had single-handedly killed Sanshouo no Hanzo, widely considered by many to be the strongest ninja of his generation. Kakuzu, if he was to be believed, had assassinated the Shodaime Hokage and been imprisoned for his treasonous act before breaking out and killing most of Taki's upper management. Kisame had been a member of Kirigakure's Seven Swordsmen. Sasori had murdered the Sandaime Kazekage and countless others. Deidara was an arsonist, and had blown half of a mountain up over Iwa prior to going rogue.

The Tsuchikage had stopped it from doing any damage, but to hear the blond bomber tell his story, it was the principle of the thing.

Zetsu...Itachi had absolutely no idea what Zetsu's deal was. Only that he was a cannibalistic half-plant who seemed to be in the Akatsuki for little more than shits and giggles. However, thanks to Obito's use of them in their battle, Itachi was aware that Zetsu could clone itself.

That would make it a long, drawn-out battle. The kind Itachi hated most.

With the Rinnegan, however, Itachi felt that his chakra reserves had taken a massive spike upward in their capacity. Now, he had the chakra levels that would be necessary to compete in fights against the rest of the Akatsuki, and the world.

If Pein was to be the god of rain, then Itachi would be the god of the sky.