Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
CHAPTER 38
Naruto blinked his eyes open, then immediately squeezed them shut in bliss as a languid grin spread over his face. The ocean waves were beating against the nearby beach in a hypnotic rhythm and Hime's warm body was nestled into his own as the barest hint of predawn light fell upon the tent they were snuggled in, completing his own perfect scenario of heaven.
Hinata shifted restlessly in his arms and he realized that she was the one who must have awoken him. Lifting up on an elbow he leaned over her naked form to see her sleeping face. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes darted back and forth beneath her closed lids, and soft whimpers escaped her lips. Fear that she was in pain had him immediately alert.
"Hime," he murmured in a raspy morning voice shifting himself to rub his eyes and see her face more clearly. She flinched at the sound of her name but didn't awaken. Naruto reached up to gently cup her cheek, not wanting to startle her but very much wanting her awake and free from whatever nightmare was tormenting her sleep.
"Hime," he repeated more firmly and her eyes finally fluttered open. Surprise colored his face as he saw her Tenseigan fading as she struggled to focus in the dimness.
"Naruto-kun," she whispered, rolling closer to him in search of his instant comfort, and her bare chest pressing into his own nearly derailed his mind. "I had the strangest dream. You were the sun and I was the moon and we were surrounded by the most spectacular constellations made of the brightest stars. But suddenly two of the greatest constellations, a hawk and a crow, appeared out of nowhere and collided. The blast was magnificent, and it seemed that they would destroy one another. But instead they shattered into millions of new stars, and became a completely new galaxy with a single red star at the center." Her voice trailed off as the dream faded from the forefront of her mind, soothed away by the distracting way Naruto was stroking her hair. "It was so terrifying and awesome, and it felt like it meant something. Like I knew those stars…"
Naruto was listening, technically, but he was barely processing Hinata's words as he was slowly working his hands through her silky tresses and down her body. Relief replaced the fear that had suddenly struck him, and the adrenaline was giving way to newly familiar tension that simmered in his gut. Hinata had mindlessly reached up to tangle her fingers into Naruto's messy morning hair as she recounted her dream. The feeling of her nails raking slowly across the skin of his scalp sent goosebumps tingling down his spine, and his eager fingers began to knead into her lower back with more aggressive intentions.
As Hinata scrunched her face, trying to contemplate the possible meanings behind such an unusual dream, Naruto continued to lean closer to her thoughtfully twisted lips. The mesmerizing way they curved to shape each syllable of her soft words was much more intriguing than the actual words themselves. She seemed to suddenly realize just how close he had gotten when her eyes blinked open to find him staring with intense concentration at her mouth, and she smiled slightly.
"Naruto-kun are you even listening to me?"
"Mm-hm," Naruto murmured as he gently brushed his lips across her own, finally seizing his prey. "You had a dream about us and those Uchiha bastard brothers or something like that."
Hinata pulled back from his face with a shocked expression, making him frown in frustration at the interruption of his growing intentions. "How did you figure that out? You weren't even paying attention to me!"
"That is where you are wrong," he husked into her neck, his eager mouth hunting for the next best place to taste her. "I was paying extremely close attention to you."
To drill his point home he swiftly rolled on top of her, pinning her hips into the soft bedding upon the sand and grinding his firm arousal into her thigh. Her mouth dropped open as her arms tightened around his neck, the hot breath of his words across her ear completely hindering her ability to think. "But right now all I want to think about is you and me, right here, alone."
Hinata whimpered as her body reacted to his rocking hips, her legs trapping him against her as her head rolled back in appreciation of his traveling lips. As his hands begin to purposefully knead the curves of her body she found that the need to discover the meaning behind the curious dream was drowned by the desire to rediscover the joy of Naruto's burning body against her own. As the ocean waves set the pace for their slow, savoring kisses and unhurried caresses, they reunited in a languorous round of sweet uninterrupted passion.
By the time the sun was fully up—much, much, later—Naruto was bustling around cleaning up the last of their campsite with a dreamy smile on his face that Hinata was certain would give them both away at first glance.
Sealing up the tent into her scroll Hinata was just about to suggest that perhaps she should go see her father by herself, when a massive crow came careening out of the sky to land upon a palm branch on the edge of the forest. Its cawing was panicky and insistent, and both shinobi were instantly activating their dōjutsu as they raced towards the winged creature.
"It's Itachi's?" Hinata said worriedly as she ran up behind Naruto, who was trying to get close to the bird despite its agitated flapping as it danced sideways on its perch.
"Ah, and something must be seriously wrong. I've never seen it this upset before." Naruto frowned, holding up his hands in what he hoped looked like a calming motion and tiptoed closer. The creature stretched out its ruffled neck, cawing with raspy urgency as it thrashed its head back and forth, finally locking eyes with Naruto. An implanted Sharingan whirled and suddenly Naruto was caught up in an encompassing Genjutsu, standing in the middle of a shattered stone floor of a building whose roof had been blown completely off. Charred chunks of debris littered the area and pieces of the boulders that had one served as sturdy walls were strewn across the floor. A thunderstorm was brewing, the air was crackling with ozone as black flames burned ceaselessly in the pouring rain. Facing off in the midst of the brimstone were the heaving forms of the Uchiha brothers, each smeared with blood and their clothing shredded and singed. The last image to fill his mind before the Genjutsu dispelled was the sight of Itachi struggling to stifle a cough as he forced himself to stand before his brother, and Sasuke bringing his hands together with a murderous look in his eye as he commanded the weather to obey his word.
"KIRIN!"
The flash of the enormous bolt of lightning was still burning the back of his eyes as Naruto was released from the Genjutsu, and realization made his stomach sink.
"It's happening," he whispered in horror, immediately clapping his hands together in a hand sign to aid in stretching his mind out to the farthest reaches of the land. Hinata saw what he was doing and braced his shoulders with her hands, balancing his chakra with her own and smoothing over his rough spots to enhance his accuracy, as she stared at the fear that creased his features.
"What's happening?" she asked, her voice soft but urgent.
"Sasuke is trying to kill Itachi, and I think he's going to succeed. I have to find them," Naruto grit out between clenched teeth, wishing the Teme had chosen a time to execute his fucking revenge when he wasn't halfway around the world in Uzushio. Hinata's eyes widened as her mind flashed back to her dream of the battling crow and hawk, redesigning the cosmos with their clash, and suddenly Naruto's panicked urgency made much more sense.
"You gave Itachi a hiraishin kunai?" Hinata stated, more talking out loud than asking, but she was surprised when Naruto shook his head.
"No, too risky. It could have given away our connection," he mumbled. His eyebrows twitched and sweat started to bead upon his forehead. Even Hinata, with her perfect chakra control was straining to keep up with his rapidly churning chakra as he burned through volumes of it that would have leveled a high-ranking Chunin by now.
A vulpine grin suddenly spread across his features and his chakra spiked and steadied as he locked onto the point that he had been searching for. "I have only ever marked two people with my hiraishin," he smirked as he created a single kage bunshin to leave behind. "My greatest love and my greatest rival. C'mon Hime, let's go save our idiotic teammate from killing the man who saved his life."
A flash of yellow lit the beach, leaving the shadow clone blinking in its wake. With a sigh of resignation the kage bunshin turned to complete the tasks for which he had been created, reaching out to allow the large crow to alight on his arm as he headed back down the narrow trail that led to the waterfall.
"C'mon then buddy," he sighed. "You can eat while I work. Just don't dig your freaking talons into my arm and dispel me before I finish. Boss would be super pissed."
Itachi gasped after yet another coughing fit that left his lungs burning and blood dripping from his chin. The thick black cloak slipped from his broad shoulder, now lean from the toll the illness had taken on his body. He was glad that he had finally been able to orchestrate this battle, this final step in his plan for redemption—his own and Sasuke's—before he ran out of time.
Now his brother was slumped against a shattered remnant of the Uchiha Hideout's wall, barely upright, and nearly as blind as himself from the massive amount of jutsu they had launched at one another over the course of this final fight. But Itachi had succeeded, the curse seal had finally been expunged from his little brother's system, forever freeing his mind of the poison from that Snake, and sealing Orochimaru's permanent demise. Now, all he had to do was set Sasuke straight, one last time, and hope that the fresh clarity, and intense exhaustion would force him to listen.
Dragging his feet over the cracked stone floor, warm to the touch after enduring one fire based jutsu after another, Itachi staggered like a dead man walking towards his Otōto, the smallest smile tugging at his split lips as he saw fear flash across Sasuke's features.
"You needn't fear me much longer, Otōto." Itachi reached out his hand, two fingers extended and trembling as he dredged up the last threads of his chakra, forcing his beaten body to cast his final Genjutsu, to reveal his ultimate truth. "You may still hate me, and I accept that. It is my justice. But I hope you will not fear me anymore."
Frozen in horror, Sasuke endured what he had never wanted to see again.
The Genjutsu memories were just as vivid as he remembered. The blood, the bodies, the agony. Everything he had wanted to forget but refused to let go of, using the gruesome images to fuel his lust for revenge. Terror and nausea roiled in his gut as he watched himself as a child, slowly panicking as he found one clan member after another dead, slaughtered where they stood. But instead of following the usual pattern to the eerily silent house where he knew blood pooled beneath his parents' lifeless forms, the memories shifted. Images he had never seen flashed before him.
His cousin Shisui extending his bloody eye out to Itachi's shaking hand, before falling over the cliff to where waters rushed below.
His brother in his ANBU gear, reporting to the Sandaime that the Uchiha were moving forward with their plan to destroy the village and take over the government. The Hokage was not filled with rage, but sadness, as he promised to plead with Fugaku one more time.
His father, body tensed with stern rage as he refused the Sandaime's entrance into the Uchiha District, telling Itachi that he did not want a negotiation, he wanted a revolution.
Itachi kneeling silently by his father's side during a meeting of the Uchiha Elders, finalizing plans to kidnap the kyūbi jinchuriki and use Fugaku's Mangekyo to unleash the beast upon Konoha.
Danzo storming into the Hokage's office as Itachi lurked outside the window, and demanding the complete annihilation of all Uchiha, and Hiruzen's oddly dazed face as he hypnotically murmured words that seemed not to be his own.
Itachi bowed in full supplication, begging the Hokage to allow him to spare the youngest children, the innocent, that they may hopefully grow to embrace the Will of Fire and restore the Clan to its former glory. And in exchange, volunteering to assume the role of executioner, taking the blame of the massacre off of Konoha's shoulders.
An unknown man, his face covered by an orange swirling mask that revealed only a single Sharingan eye, looming over the ignorant Uchiha district, side by side with Itachi, as they braced to break an entire Clan down to its last legs.
Itachi's shaking hands, as he lifted the sword to swiftly and painlessly end his parents' life, tears pouring from his face.
His absolute horror at realizing he had been betrayed by his mysterious Uchiha accomplice, as he scanned the lifeless compound and found every single man, woman, and child…murdered.
Itachi, sliding his arms into the black cloak with red clouds, is face set into a stoic expression of soullessness.
The Genjutsu faded, and the emotionless face of his older brother was replaced with the sickly countenance of a man aged far beyond his years, eyes glistening with tears that reflected a heartbreaking pain that Sasuke thought such a monster could never possess.
"I failed you..Sasuke," Itachi wheezed out, struggling to suck air into failing lungs. "I meant to protect you from the truth of our Clan, to give you a higher purpose, a place of honor in the Village, a mission of justice. But I only made you a creature of pure hatred, and left you alone in the world."
Itachi's hand was shaking badly, the effort of holding out his extended arm was even too much at this point. And Sasuke watched in morbid fascination as his brother gently tapped his forehead.
"I am sorry, Sasuke. I don't expect you to forgive me."
Unable to move, Sasuke felt like he was watching from far away as his brother's fingers trailed gently down his bloody face, his body finally giving out.
The Hideout erupted with a blinding yellow flash, and before Itachi's body could thump onto the stones, blazing golden arms reached out to catch him.
Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief, and his mouth worked to form words as his fuzzy brain attempted to process what he saw.
"N-Naruto?" he croaked out from his dry throat, hoarse from screaming and inhaling so much smoke. "Hinata…what…?"
His former teammates ignored his weak question as Hinata immediately began to pour green glowing chakra into Itachi's body, and Naruto began to spread a red bubbling chakra over him.
"He's nearly gone, his lungs are flooded and his heart rate is tachycardic and thready. We need to take him to a hospital immediately," Hinata sternly declared, her eyes swirling with an unfamiliar Byakugan that looked all wrong to Sasuke. Perhaps he was seeing things.
All bleary thoughts of this being a twisted nightmare vanished as Naruto looked up and pinned Sasuke with a crystalline sharp glare that pierced him deeper than his brother's Genjutsu. The Rinnegan that Karin had told him about was as fierce as she described, and Sasuke's legs gave out as he slumped to the ground.
"Listen to me and listen well, Teme," Naruto commanded in a tone that had no hint of the goofy prankster Sasuke had known. "I am done waiting for you to grow up and realize that the world does not function in absolutes. Not every traitor is evil. Not every shinobi who wears a headband of Konoha is a friend. Not every Uchiha was innocent, and not every victim deserved to die. Your perspective of the truth has been skewed from day one."
Sasuke grit his teeth, but under the looming dōjutsu of Naruto's intense gaze he was unable to muster the rage to retaliate.
"The truth is this: the Uchiha were doomed by their own greed for power, starting with Madara and leaking poison down the generations until it had spread through the upper ranks like a cancer. The elimination order, despicable as it was, had been given to prevent a devastating civil war that would have ruined Konoha and the Uchiha along with it. Itachi was young, traumatized, and pushed beyond any sane level of achievement by your father. So he did the only thing he knew how to do: kill. He was willing to make a deal with the devil and sacrifice his soul to go against Danzo. He gave up everything, for you. His family, his reputation, his future. All for his precious little brother. So that you might exist in a world where you were not brainwashed by hubris and enslaved by unreachable expectations. He wanted to give you what he never had: a chance to walk freely in the light of honor, with your name intact."
The words were spilling out of Naruto's mouth faster than Sasuke could comprehend. The inexplicable alignment of his story with Itachi's final Genjutsu left his mind reeling. The small voice in the back of his head that always screamed in denial, demanded revenge, refused to acknowledge anything other than his own hatred…was completely silent.
Hinata hissed at Naruto, they had delayed long enough, they had to leave this instant if there was going to be any hope of Itachi's survival.
Picking up his brother's limp body, Naruto fired a final challenge to his rival. "If you don't believe me, go to Uzushiogakure. Take Karin. Visit the waterfall. I dare you to face the truth from Kami's own lips and open your true eyes. Conquer yourself, and when you are victorious, come help me cleanse Konoha." With that immense challenge left hanging in the air, they disappeared in a yellow flash of light.
Sasuke sat in stupefied silence, his body aching, his eyes blurring in and out of focus, and his sense of self shattering from within. Rain began to fall, a pure clean mist that washed his wounds and doused the final remnants of the smoldering fires around him.
When the atmosphere before him began to whirl, Sasuke braced to hit the ground, thinking he was surely losing consciousness. But the ripples that widened quickly smoothed over, and a man with an orange mask and a long black cloak now stood before him.
"Oh dear, did I miss the show?" The man's raspy voice carried a tone of mocking amusement. "A pity, I had been looking forward to it for so long. I'll have to give Zetsu a piece of my mind for not notifying me sooner."
He turned to examine the destroyed remains of the Uchiha Hideout, his shoulders shaking as he chuckled. "Not bad brat, I wish I could have done it myself. Seeing as you are the only thing breathing around here, I assume you finally completed your silly little quest and killed your brother?"
Sasuke kept silent, this was obviously the man from Itachi's Genjutsu, and until he could come to any kind of solid conclusion of his brother's words, he thought it best to simply observe.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Baby Uchiha, but Itachi was just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure you've heard about Danzo and his little scheme by now?"
Hard eyes glaring up at his masked face was the only response the newcomer received. He seemed unbothered by the deadly look, and nodded easily. "Good, I hate repeating myself. I have bigger things to take up my time. For instance…"
The man crossed his arms, tilting his head to one side like a scolding parent glaring down upon a naughty child. "Because of your silly little blood feud my organization has suddenly found itself to be short a Mangekyo Sharingan. Itachi was a pious little shit, but he had a purpose. And now I think you will have to help me fulfill that role."
Sasuke tried to activate his eyes, but the weak pulse of chakra simply made him groan and blink through bloody tears as his overused Mangekyo burned with pain. The man laughed outright, immensely entertained by the impotent burst of anger.
"Well, well! This one has some spunk! Too bad you were not the older sibling, I would not have had to clean up after you like I did your sappy brother. The idiot didn't even have the balls to kill all the brats on that night at the compound. You're lucky he found you before I did, or else you wouldn't be sitting here, alive and glaring at me like a snake who lost his fangs."
As the man stalked purposefully towards him, Sasuke's scattered thoughts clicked as the vision of Itachi, shaking with rage over the murdered children, flashed through his mind. Before he could try and throw his bruised and beaten body away from the masked man with the sinister aura that made Orochimaru seem like a grumpy child, a piercing scream erupted from the forest.
The two men turned to see Karin racing out of the trees, stumbling over the minefield of debris as she tried to escape a green haired man with malevolent yellow eyes and deathly pale skin. Just as the creature braced to leap over a crumbled wall and snatch the fleeing woman, two arms reached up out of the ground and yanked him beneath its surface. In the same instant that the white thing's sharp toothed mouth gaped open in shock, the earth rumbled and his disembodied head burst into a tall and leafy tree.
The masked man lost his cool air of malevolent determination, clicking his teeth in irritation as he looked around for whoever had just turned his Zetsu spy into a flourishing tree. "Looks like we have company. I'm done wasting my time with bedtime stories, let's go."
He lunged for Sasuke, the atmosphere around him beginning to swirl once more as he grabbed for his foot before Sasuke could crawl away. Karin was screaming his name, and all Sasuke could think was that he cannot leave her, not now. She was the only thing that made sense anymore.
A chorus of war cries tore through the area, and two Naruto's, their eyes ringed with orange pigment and pupils slitted into horizontal lines, blasted out of the earth and latched onto Sasuke and Karin. Before the orange masked Akatsuki could lay a single finger on his target, they all disappeared in a series of yellow flashes.
Standing alone on the pock marked landscape of the epic battle, the man shouted curses at the heavens.
On the far side of Fire Country, in the middle of a gritty town, a sleezy but luxurious hotel housed one Spymaster Sannin. He was just jotting down the last lines of his latest erotica chapter before heading out for the evening. A sudden yellow flash startled him, making his hand streak a black smear of ink across the neatly written lines, and Jiraiya's nostrils flared with anger as he whipped around.
"This had better be important Gaki! You just made me ruin my master…piece…"
His jaw dropped open as two panting kage bunshin barely managed to drop a bloody mess that looked an awful lot like the Uchiha brat and a red head onto his pristine hotel bed.
"Sorry Ero-sennin," one said just before dispelling in a poof.
"We only had enough chakra to get them this far," the last one grunted before also disappearing.
Jiraiya's brush fell from his limp hand and rolled across the floor.
As soon as they had landed upon Uzushio's shore, dropped off by a sassy Naruto clone who dispelled before Sasuke could demand how they were supposed to get off this island, Karin's demeanor had completely changed. Her bravado disappeared as she traced her fingertips along the grooved stones that bore the arrays of her illustrious clan's history and also the more recent additions by Naruto's kage bunshin.
Her somber mood, lacking the usual verbal jabs and spicy innuendos, made Sasuke assess her with careful scrutiny. He knew what it was like to walk through the graveyard of what was once a thriving community of family, and despite the generations that separated Karin from her ancestor's genocide, he could see she still felt its loss. The grim set of her mouth and the tell-tale gleam in her eye as she adjusted her glasses to cover their moistness, all spoke of her emotional turmoil. And Sasuke made sure to walk closer by her side.
Coming to the edge of a thick forest, the caw of a crow made Sasuke jump and draw his sword on reflex. The bird was massive, and staring at them with an awareness that was unusually keen for an animal. As its head cocked side to side he saw its Sharingan and realized this was no ordinary creature, but one of his brother's Summons.
"Get back here!" Sasuke commanded as the crow suddenly took off into the jungle, and he pushed past Karin to hack his way through the thick palms and vines with his sword acting as a machete. Despite its large breadth the bird careened through the labyrinth of branches with dexterity, easily staying ahead of Sasuke and Karin as they tore after it.
Just when he thought he could make a final lunge and sever a wing, the pair burst out of the jungle, stumbling across the dirt to the edge of a pristine pool with a roaring waterfall.
Karin gasped as she scanned the carvings and painted symbols on the rocks, able to only recognize a few from her childhood. Memories of the tattoos hidden on her father's back and her mother's arms, carefully concealed from foreign eyes lest their heritage be given away, came flooding back with the sight of the faded symbols.
"This is the place," she whispered in awe, her chakra resonating with the pulse of the water as she tiptoed to its edge and dared to dip her feet into its coolness. Sasuke didn't respond, the aura was unmistakable, and he tried to ignore the way his hair stood up on the back of his neck when he thought he heard his name being whispered from the rushing falls.
Karin also heard the voice, but to her it was a welcome to a long lost child to her true home, and instinctively she unleashed her chains, not even making the usual hand seal, and plunged them into the cerulean waters. A ragged sigh escaped her lips, like a soul lost in the desert who had finally been given a drink. She did not revel in her bliss though, instead pinning Sasuke with stern eyes as he removed his shoes and prepared to approach the mysterious waterfall that seemed to know him by name.
"Be careful Sasuke-kun," she warned him, and her hollow voice made him shiver. "There is a Presence within the water that transcends my understanding. I can feel it, but I cannot describe it."
"I'll be fine Karin," Sasuke replied flatly, but before he entered into The Unknown he bent and pressed a quick kiss to her frowning lips. Her snapping red eyes followed him as he cautiously stepped out across the pool towards the waterfall, worry creasing her face.
Within a few steps a mist rose up that engulfed him, and he reflexively activated his Sharingan, but nothing changed. The fog only thickened into a whiteout of nothingness. So he walked on.
He walked for what felt like miles, his thoughts as meandering as his direction, sifting through the chaos of his recent days. Jiraiya had been nothing like his teammate Orochimaru, and Sasuke couldn't imagine how the two had ever coexisted together as a functional team. He had been struck by the man's kindness and joviality even in the face of their own suspiciousness, a complete contradiction of Konoha's stories which portrayed him as a man of power and bravery. The Sannin's personality bore a resemblance to Sasuke's own oxymoron of a teammate that was hard to miss, they definitely seemed to be cut from the same cloth. While Karin had screamed about the lecherous jokes Jiraiya kept dropping, Sasuke had been almost reluctant to leave the man's presence and generosity behind. Though he would never admit such a thing out loud.
Letting his useless dōjutsu fade, Sasuke sighed through his nose as he plodded on through the nothingness, contemplating how Jiraiya was yet another example of the way that 'answers' and 'truth' could take opposite stances, leaving those who sought both wandering through a no man's land of confusion in between. The irony of his current foggy predicament and his conflicting thoughts dawned upon him, and his steps slowed.
How could he find the place where the truth and the facts merged into a perfect combination that would satisfy his yearning for justice? His bloodline had not helped him see any clearer through the mist. His power had not been enough to truly eliminate Orochimaru without help. His hatred had ultimately been fruitless in his quest to kill That Man.
Anger began to build up within him as he scowled at the deceiving mist, hiding the truth in its swirling humidity, thwarting the realization of yet another goal. The Presence was as impossible to find as it was to ignore. Sasuke's temper erupted as he broke out into a full sprint, racing as fast as his burning muscles could push him, never slowing until his breath burned in his throat, and he gradually staggered to a stand still.
"Where are you!?" he screamed into the void, his fury making his eyes bleed red again. But the world remained a bland white emptiness.
"I am Everywhere."
He whipped around, sword drawn in a flash, but no one stood by his side.
"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded, pointing his Fukushū-sha in all directions as his gaze slid across the stunted range of his vision.
"I am Everyone," the echo responded, its voice rippling the liquid around his feet. The distant sound of crashing water caught Sasuke's ear and he leapt toward it before it could slip away. The fog yielded to his strike, revealing the roaring waterfall, enormous as a mountain and teeming with chakra. Images of people, some familiar and some not, faded in and out of the vertical wall of cascading water.
"I am the Cord that Binds, the connection that ties all of humanity together, The Originator and The End of the chains of existence."
Sasuke stepped back, fighting down a rising fear of the awesome entity that spoke such words. He looked closer at the people, and saw the strings that wove through each individual as their image flashed before him. The colors and textures varied: some were red, some were thick, some were fragile as spider silk. But each person was tied to another, each one was connected by degrees to everyone else.
The last two faces that appeared were his own and his brother's. The cord that joined them was frayed and digging into their wrists so deeply blood dripped down its length. Sasuke snarled as he reflexively dove forward and slashed at the tie with his sword. The blade sparked and skidded across the damaged cord. But try as he might, the line did not sever.
Sasuke screamed in frustration at the mirage of his brother, who merely stared back at him with those soulful eyes that Sasuke could not comprehend.
"Your actions are tainted with your earthly intentions. Only your heart's greatest desire shall be deemed worthy in this holy place. Speak mortal, tell me what you really seek."
"I seek the truth," Sasuke demanded, whirling around to turn his back on Itachi, he couldn't bear to see the sadness on his face. The waters shimmered with annoyance.
"You know the truth! What you seek is a blessing upon your primitive perception. A blessing I can surely give you, but should you be undeserving I will curse you in its stead. Choose wisely, oh self proclaimed Avenger. What is your truth?"
"My justice is my truth!" Sasuke raged as the wind picked up around him. "Justice for the innocent! Justice for my family! Justice for myself! Justice for my bro—" the last word choked out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying, and his eyes widened in shock at his own mind.
"Justice is a double edged sword. Delivering equal amounts of punishment with its strike and mercy in its refrain. A worthy judge is one who can see the difference, knowing when to kill and when to pardon."
Sasuke's mind reeled as he tried to find the words to condemn his brother in this heavenly court before this divine judge. To rationalize that Itachi was the embodiment of evil that Sasuke had built him up to be. That his intentions were selfish, not those of a martyr. His methods unforgivingly cruel and mocking, not swift and respectful. His motive founded upon pure maliciousness, not a hope for a better future.
But he could not.
Memories bombarded him as Sasuke faltered at the foot of the waterfall. The sight of his father's stone cold face, his harsh expectations, his utter lack of affection, his complete dismissal of anything less than absolute perfection, and the aching desire in Sasuke's young heart for any crumb of parental love from the man he held in such reverence. A love withheld, a love he had to earn, because his simple existence as Fugaku's second son was not deserving of such affection.
Itachi was the one who had held Sasuke when he was scared, made him feel safe, praised his efforts, showed him patience beyond compare. Itachi was the one whom he had come to adore. His most precious person.
"I failed you…I am sorry, Sasuke…I don't expect you to forgive me."
"You idiot," Sasuke whispered hoarsely, finally lifting his eyes to the mirage of his brother. "How could you fail to see how much I needed you? How could you fail to trust me to understand? How could you not see that you were more important to me than any of them? That I would have followed you to hell and back. How could you leave me?" His breaths hissed between his clenched teeth as he struggled to fight back the tears that he had never allowed himself to release. The grief that he had buried deep beneath the hatred was bubbling up and bursting beyond his strict control. The same hatred that his hero had told him to cling to, so of course he had obeyed. Because deep down, he had always trusted his brother.
Falling to his knees, Sasuke wept. The water rocked gently beneath him, like a mother soothing her child, as he finally mourned that which he had most fervently missed, his brother. The man in the black cloak with red clouds, with the cold eyes and punishing hand, had not been his Itachi. And he had hated that man. He had hated That Man for taking away not only his innocence, but his hero.
He had thought Itachi was forever lost to That Man, until the final moments of their battle. The small smile, the remorseful eyes, the gentle tap on his forehead. The sincerity that rang with each word he uttered. That was his Itachi. His Niisan.
"I see you, Itachi." Sasuke whispered brokenly to the memory of his brother's blood covered face. "I thought you were gone like all the rest, but you were there the whole time, protecting me as best you could, even from your place in the darkness."
He blinked away the tears that ran from his eyes, staring at his reflection in the enchanted waters, the face that was nearly identical to his brother's. If he were to be brutally honest, he himself was no longer that innocent child either. He had shaken off the label of helpless victim in favor of being an Avenger, no matter what it cost him. He had made mistakes in his life as well. He had tried to murder his best friend for power, abandoned his village to seek out her enemy, and had never been humble enough to admit he had done wrong. While Itachi had been forced to make a decision where there were only wrong answers to choose from, yet did not make excuses for his sins. He owned up to them, and accepted his consequences.
The perfect combination of truth and facts that Sasuke had been seeking was never going to be found in hatred. Because hatred was not perfect. Hatred was not justice.
But mercy...was. There was hope in mercy. There was potential in mercy. There was no limit to mercy.
Sasuke stood up, determination settling firmly upon his face as decision cemented in his mind, making him feel freer than he had ever been when he was bound by his own hatred. He faced the nearly identical features of he and his brother's misty images, tied together by a bond fraught with trials and held by love. Reaching once more for his father's sword he held it out, and watched with a small smile curving his mouth as his hand loosed and it dropped into the water. The Avenger flashed as it sank into the untold depths of the pool, and disappeared forever. Sasuke steadily met the shimmering gaze of his snarling visage, and the grim set of Itachi's desolate eyes, and finally uttered his truth.
"I forgive you…both."
The water exploded and the wind kicked up as the bodiless voice reverberated within his chest and through the atmosphere with a power he had not expected.
"Blessed are you, Child of My Heart, who has proven that he can not only defeat his demons, but forgive his greatest enemy."
Out of the sky the enormous crow dove down upon his head, its long black feathers eerily still despite the raging winds. Sasuke's mouth fell open as he saw the spinning Sharingan in its head swirl further into a Mangekyo of a pattern which he had never seen. And as he struggled to stay standing in the cosmic maelstrom around him, the bird dove straight into his gaping mouth.
Choking and writhing from the pain, Sasuke clutched at his neck, his whole body burning from the inside out as the creature thrashed down his gullet. His eyes stung as the pain focused upon the center of his forehead. Doubling over he heaved harshly, a splitting headache climaxing between his eyes.
"Open up your eyes, Uchiha Sasuke."
Forcing himself to breathe, Sasuke squinted at his reflection in the water under his feet, his distorted features and blazing Sharingan looking back at him. As he focused upon the ripples, he was overcome with awe at the perfect clarity, all the haziness in his damaged eyes were gone. He blinked, pushing more chakra into his eyes, feeling like he had only just cracked open the door to a whole realm of possibilities, when suddenly his forehead split open, and a third, vertical whirling red eye stared back at him.
His chakra surged and the third eye glowed with power, he raised his head in shock, but the expected mist was evaporating away, and he was instead greeted by the sight of fathomless realms that he felt were not of this world. Dimensions of the universe unseen by any mortal eye.
The unique elliptical pattern of his new orb danced as his divine gaze swept over the innumerable dimensions that spread before him. Places he could never dream of flashed before his enhanced eye. The realization hit him along with a powerful gust of wind, this was the Eternal Mangekyo.
The water beneath him surged once more, and the sword which he had wielded in hatred arose out of its depths, baptized and cleansed in Kami's waters. No more the Avenger, upon the blade a new name was embedded: Masayoshi. Justice. Sasuke smirked as he sheathed his blessed weapon, this was a destiny that he would gladly fulfill.
The roaring elements of nature slowly ebbed in power until Sasuke was standing once more upon the still surface of a simple pool with a pretty waterfall, and with its waning strength it seemed to take his with it. Just before Karin caught him with her chains and pulled his nearly unconscious body to shore, he heard Kami whisper in his heart.
"Together, the Three Scions shall redeem the Earth."
The next morning Sasuke stared in unhidden admiration at Karin as she picked her way through the ruins of Uzushio's main village, following the cleared paths that Naruto had left behind when he explored his heritage as well. Even from his vantage point atop a random pillar that had somehow survived the years, Sasuke could see the glow of her perfectly smooth skin.
While he had been breaking down his own mind at Kami's feet, Karin had been drinking from her fountain of youth. Her chains had absorbed the blessing of the holy waters, healing every last bite mark that had scarred her body, polished her chains until they flowed with a blinding brightness, and rejuvenated her heart with a perfect love that Karin had never known could exist in her traumatized soul. The change was so encompassing that she was like a new person, freshly emerged from a healing baptism in Kami's divine waters.
But she was definitely still uniquely Karin, as he had been reminded when she had sassed him for being hesitant to activate his new Eye. She had taunted him endlessly until he finally gave in and thrusted chakra into his forehead, leaving him nauseous with the overwhelming immensity of its power under his now inadequate chakra control. Karin had not been even remotely disturbed by the grotesque addition to his pristine features. And smirked as she had teased him for getting motion-sick from his own dōjutsu.
"Naruto never even had a dōjutsu before, and yet wields his Rinnegan better than you do your own Sharingan upgrade, U-chi-ha," Karin had mocked in a sultry tone against his ear, as she helped him sit up on the sandy beach. That had been all the motivation Sasuke needed to train mercilessly for the rest of the day.
Now he was near his limit, unable to even activate his own basic Sharingan, but beaming with heady pride at his gains. He had hopped through dimensions that had blown his imagination away, found that he could do an advanced style of the Kawarimi that superseded any chakra laws of mass or physics. He was able to weave Genjutsu of such complexity and depth that even a sensor of Karin's caliber had not been able to break them.
And it was only day one.
Bringing up his foot and propping an elbow on his knee, Sasuke admired his lover from afar as the setting sun lit her hair like red fire, her cheeks flushed with fascination and exertion as her chains moved debris larger than she'd ever been able to budge before, in order to explore every nook and cranny of Uzushio's ruins.
A few more days, then he would be ready.
Ready to go home.
OMAKE
Naruto fidgeted as Sakura's glowing hands hovered over his arm, poking and prodding at the fracture in his wrist. He had somehow found himself embroiled in another one of Lee's ambushing challenges and after giving up on outrunning the chakra-less wonder he had succumbed to the cries of his 'rival' and tried to beat the shit out of the green beast in a no holds barred taijutsu only battle.
With moderate success. He counted only one broken wrist and two cracked ribs a win. What the fuck does that guy eat?
"Stop squirming!" Sakura scolded, interrupting his thoughts by shooting him a stern glare. "Why didn't you just go to Hinata? She's the only one who could have the patience to heal all of your ridiculous injuries while you dance around like a fart in a skillet."
"It's not my fault she has Clan duties right now," Naruto grumbled, his fingers twitching with the effort to stay still. She, Hizashi, and Neji had been ceaselessly working on a plan for a one-time mass activation of the Seal removal in strict secret, not even consulting the Elders for fear of the info leaking back to Danzo and prompting him to spring into a surprise attack. But in the meantime it left him at Sakura's medical mercy.
A sharp zing shot up his arm as she assessed his nerves, making him jump several inches off of the paper covered exam table.
"Seriously Naruto! What is your problem?"
"It's so itchy!" he whined, vigorously rubbing his newly healed arm.
"What?" she asked incredulously, planting her fists on her hips and scowling at him.
Naruto was too busy kneading and flexing his hand to notice the dangerous twitch of Sakura's pink eyebrow. "Y'know, like when a wound heals and the bandage gets all itchy. That's what your chakra feels like. Hime's is like...cool, and soothing, and so relaxing when she heals me..." A dreamy look crossed his face as Sakura growled.
"Did you just compare my healing chakra to a dirty band aid?" she bit out between clenched teeth.
Snapping out of his daze and abruptly realizing that he was dangerously close to acquiring a whole new set of injuries, Naruto thought fast.
"Oh man! I think I just heard... Lee! Outside! I owe that guy a bowl of ramen, so... thankyouSakuragoodbye!" Rushing through the last bit Naruto wisely flashed away before he totally pissed her off.
Sighing angrily, Sakura slammed the door to the exam room shut behind her, stalking down the hallway in a cloud of annoyance that nearly made her run straight into Shizune.
"Sakura-chan! I was just looking for you," her master eagerly grabbed her by the hand, leading them back in the opposite direction. "We just had a new patient arrive who has been suffering from an undiagnosed lung disease that is most likely going to be lethal unless we figure out the cause. I have already healed his physical wounds and treated his symptoms, but the actual pathology behind the disease is eluding me. Of course you were the first person I thought to consult. Even Tsunade-sama can't compare to your expertise in medical research and pharmaceutical advancements."
Sakura trotted along beside her shishō, curiosity washing away her ire as she noted the direction of their progress to the highly secure area where shinobi who had been injured on confidential missions were often placed.
"I don't need to tell you, Sakura, but this is a particularly high profile patient. His name isn't even on record so run all exams under the assigned pseudonym. As far as the rest of Konoha knows, he doesn't exist."
They came upon two masked ANBU, the ones Sakura had only ever seen with the Hokage, standing guard on each side of the doorway of a large private patient room. She nodded respectfully to the Toad and Panther masked ANBU as Shizune knocked briskly and pulled her inside.
The room was lit with warm daylight from the broad window that overlooked Konoha, and Sakura noted with jealousy that the view was immensely better than the one from her little second story apartment. The man in question was sitting on the edge of his bed, long silky black hair trailing down his back as he faced the cityscape.
"Uchiha-san, I'd like to introduce Haruno Sakura, my apprentice and the leading pathologist in all of Konoha." Shizune was beaming as she slid a sly gaze sideways at her student, "Sakura, this is Uchiha Itachi."
Sakura stared at the man with a mixture of speechless horror, fascination, and—as the man turned to reveal his breathtaking profile—frank admiration. His calm demeanor as he nodded a greeting was nothing like she remembered Sasuke to be. His face was regal where Sasuke's was stern and his movements were gracefully fluid as he started to rise, only for Shizune to urge him to remain seated, saying he needed to save his energy for Naruto's visit later.
"Naruto knows about Uchiha-san?" Sakura asked in surprise. The loudmouth hardly seemed like the one to be sharing S-class secrets with.
"Ah, he and Hinata-san are the ones who saved my life," the man's deep voice was smooth as silk and so full of appreciation that Sakura did a double take. It completely lacked the harsh and rude way Sasuke had of talking. Is this really his brother?
Straightening up and trying not to reveal her trepidation at being in such a notorious shinobi's presence, Sakura walked around the bedside to face her new patient as Shizune excused herself to finish her other duties. Sakura knew Naruto and Hinata were excellent judges of character, and she would trust Shizune with her life. So if they were unafraid of the supposed monster that now looked up at her with gentle appraising eyes, then she would not run from his mesmerizing gaze.
"Remove your shirt please," she said in an almost steady voice, half expecting him to challenge her authority like most new shinobi she met. Between her youth and pink hair she had learned to adopt a strong handed approach to most ninja, or else they simply saw her as a cute little med-nin and not as the brilliant medical scientist that she was. But Itachi did not hesitate to obey her instructions. When he slipped off his shirt Sakura frowned.
So thin, she thought, taking in his defined ribs and sharp shoulders. The muscles that spoke of a lifetime of physical demand were there, but the toll of his illness was obvious. Allowing her mind to fall into the familiar pattern of analysis Sakura tried to ignore the flutter of her heart. Ogling attractive patients was sooo not professional.
She asked him several questions as her glowing hands roamed across his torso, assessing the fluid filling his lungs, the cellular damage to the alveoli, the anemia—most likely chronic, his mild malnutrition, and several more things that spoke of a strong man who seemed to be alive by sheer force of will. All the while a list of lab studies she wanted to run began to form in her head. Itachi answered each of her questions honestly and readily, offering up remedies he had tried himself and their various successes and failures. As her chakra switched from a diagnostic to a healing quality, he let out a deep sigh.
"Sorry," Sakura mumbled, her face falling in slight chagrin. "I know it's itchy and uncomfortable when I do this."
"Not at all," he murmured contentedly, the soft words landing on her arms in warm breaths that were already coming easier. "Your chakra feels wonderful, Haruno-san."
Pink flushed up into her face as she swallowed the butterflies that swarmed her stomach and made her mouth go dry. He was looking up at her with an expression of such pure gratitude and admiration, she seriously considered running a DNA analysis on him as well. There was no way those kind, warm eyes belonged to an Uchiha.
"Y-you can call me Sakura, if you'd like," she stuttered barely above a whisper.
"Only if you call me Itachi," he smiled.
Outside the door Shizune and the red headed Panther ANBU had their ears pressed up against the door, listening intently.
"Where's Hinata when you need her," Panther sighed, shifting her mask a bit to try and fit her ear to the door better.
"Seriously, I'd give anything for a Byakugan right now," Shizune grumbled.
Toad was rolling his eyes under his white mask. He crossed his arms and turned to scan the other end of the hallway. "Kushina you are as bad as Jiraiya. And Shizune, what would Kakashi say if I told him you were spying on his kohai?"
"I'd say shut up so I can hear better."
Minato spun around to find the white haired ANBU commander unashamedly pressing his ear to the same door, elbowing Kushina for a better spot. "Not you too!" he sighed in defeat.
The rapidly approaching chakra signatures of two very familiar people had Minato full on sweat dropping in indignation.
"Did we miss anything!?" Naruto demanded in a ridiculously loud stage whisper that had the three eavesdroppers angrily shushing him. But seeing his companion they quickly fell back from the door to make way for her.
"Byakugan!" Hinata hissed, her eyes immediately focusing on the wall that was supposedly for privacy.
"You guys!" Minato croaked in dismay, he had at least thought his future daughter-in-law would be above such base pastimes. But she ignored him completely, excitedly squealing, "Ohhhh she's blushing and he has no shirt on!"
Minato hung his head in frustrated defeat as the group of deadly shinobi tittered like school girls. Resignedly taking up his guard duty once more.
Somebody has to do their job around here.