Itachi meditated again.

He suspected that he was merely killing time now, with Kisame out chasing the Eight Tails with the masked man. Tobi. Ha.

Doubtless his usual partner would return with the Jinchuriki and then he could enact his plan. He would try to get Kisame to join him, or at least convince the man to take the money he had earned and go free.

Kisame couldn't really hide that well, but overall he would survive the world he was in. If he was defeated in battle, he wouldn't actually mind.

He was something of a blank in that regard, someone who could never have truly fitted in with peacetime. A creature of war, possibly the best at what he did.

Itachi awaited his return so he could reason with the one man he called a friend.

Zetsu rose from the ground, a wide smile across the white, expressive side of his face. His darker side remained as unreadable as ever.

"Zetsu. What brings you here?"

"The sealing of the Eight Tails is to commence now. You are required."

It seemed that Kisame would likely have returned then. He began to run to the sealing chamber. It wasn't out of excitement, but the quicker they could seal the beast the better.

He leapt onto one of the outstretched fingers to join the remainder of the Akatsuki.

There was the figure of a man at the base of the statue, a muscled man with several scabbards on his back. No swords were present. He looked like he'd been beaten to hell. There were gouges in his skin from where Samehada must have bitten deep.

He looked around. Many of the fingers were of course now empty. He remembered a past time when all ten could have been filled. He recalled Orochimaru being a member.

The snake's death had been extremely satisfying.

He looked to where Sasori would have stood, to where Deidara had as well. His eyes passed over Konan and Pein, the latter of whom was in meditation, preparing to commune with the horrifying statue that filled the chamber.

There was Zetsu, at least one of him. The black half there was only ever one of, but he'd seen multiple white before.

Then the empty fingers of the Zombie Brothers. He didn't miss them that much at all, both had been horrible people that the world was better off without.

Then Tobi leapt up to his left and waved at him. He turned away. That man was going to be the death of him.

He looked at the finger to his right. Any moment now Kisame was going to appear there.

Pein's voice rang out.

"We are ready to begin the sealing. Prepare yourselves."

What of Kisame? He looked to his left where Tobi was preparing himself in an exaggerated fashion, by stretching and throwing a few shadow punches.

Was Kisame injured badly enough by the fight to be unable to participate? Sure he wasn't dead? He needed to ask but now was not the time.

The dragons emerged and Itachi began fighting to control the process of the sealing.

He grit his teeth and got to work as the dragons descended on the man.

They sat in one of the hospital counselling rooms. Naruto recalled it was the one their first session had been held in.

Shizune brought out the paper that Naruto had finished the report on and held it out to him.

"This report was for you to read Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded.

"It is, however I want you to read it to me. I believe this is the final step in your accepting it fully. You shouldn't hold it inside, even if it is written down. I want you to say it yourself, to us."

He nodded. It would hurt, remembering it once again, but if the Hokage ordered, he would follow.

He looked at the words on the page. He didn't remember the time after the seal broke exactly, but he remembered being carried and writing as if he needed to expunge the words from his body.

He could read what he had written. He took a deep breath as he summoned some energy. The sleep from the previous night had definitely not been enough, no matter how peaceful it had been.

"Report Update 864.

'The scalpel descended into my innards yet again, a fountain of blood coming with it. Fresh pains blossomed like flowers in a meadow, a few more amongst so many others.

There was pain like the sun rising anew, a fresh beam of light striking the dark lands. The pain spread through my entire being as the scalpel twisted and turned. I would have admired their persistence to their craft, and their dedication to keeping me alive through it all.

Yet they can only do so much before making a mistake.

They must have nicked something, or pushed my clone's body too far, as the pain began to fade along with my vision. Everything faded.

Sounded faded, touch faded. Smell faded. I could not smell my own blood, or hear the sound of their laughter and questions.

The world became feelingless, without stimulus or presence. I was floating in a void that felt like it was dimensionless and endless.

There was...colour without colour. Form without form. The land beyond is a place that the mind cannot encompass easily. It was, and probably still is, beyond description.

Then there were surging and winding non-colours that were distinct from the other more constant colour that pervaded this place. I could not look away but I could look everywhere. I had eyes that could see everything.

Yet I felt like I had my body, my full body. My eyes were my own, my flesh unmarked by anything. I had never felt so whole and yet never felt so not.

The colours were converging, spinning into one another, merging and splitting and fading and becoming brighter. They did things I could not conceive of and do not thing I could remember.

Yet there was soon a figure. A figure that floated in the nothing yet walked on it. A figure in the colours yet not of them.

He could remember this. The description he had written was exactly how he remembered it. He shivered a little and paused. He felt the expectant gaze on him from everyone in the room.

I saw the shape first.

Wide, vast, yet smaller than myself. At once huge and minuscule and insignificant.

Robes billowed in wind I knew could not exist in this non-place. Arms extended wide, no longer than a man's and yet seeming to stretch all around me. It encased me without looking like it did, surrounded from one spot before me.

The outline of a head that seemed part of it's shoulders, or perhaps shrouded in some great hood began to appear. Spikes of hair like a beard were present.

It seemed like an eternity that took seconds. It glowed and yet seemed not to be there. It was so utterly inhuman yet so utterly familiar.

Then slits appeared like nostrils, and a mouth began to open. There was no depth to it, only a raw read line with dark lips and sharp teeth.

Then the eyes were opened.

Thin, slitted. They looked at my form and seemed to light a burning red from within.

It all seemed so familiar, like I knew it was going to happen. It looked like a mirror of myself and yet it looked so opposite.

So polar, so contradictory in such a contradictory space.

It now looked grey, or a non-colour that was like grey. Again it is hard to conceive of such a thing.

He could remember all of this, he had held up during it. He could see the figure in his mind, or half see it. How could he recall something he could not write fully. How did you explain the way the laws of the earth seemed to twist and change and shape in such a place? How did you forget it?

I felt cold, colder than I had ever felt in what I have to consider the real world.

This chill went through me, became me. It was impossible to feel cold though. I had no body to speak of, none that I could feel. Yet it chilled my fingers, stopping my hands. It chilled my legs, I could not move.

It froze the air in my lungs when there were no lungs or no air in this place.

It drifted closer, the chill somehow growing in magnitude as I went further and further into its proximity. Yet there was no proximity in this place.

A single word escaped me, from a mouth that was not there and frozen shut, with words that were not words yet formed a word, and a sound carried by nothing and everything that pervaded all of the world.

Shinigami.

I could not prevent it, and still there was a cloying sense of knowing how this would go.

I was a clone, how could a clone be here? Could a clone die without dispelling? How long did it last? Was this the last dregs of consciousness before the body and mind disintegrated? Was the clone cold and dead on the slab with a soul free? Did it matter?

I was holding on tightly to sensation, even as nonsensation destroyed my memory of what felt real.

It was so close, so close. It was everywhere, its eyes were everything. Its fanged maw threatened to swallow reality itself.

Then it raised an arm. It was slow. It took centuries that spanned a millisecond. A hand, clawed, aged, grey yet not there emerged.

I could not understand what was happening yet felt like an actor in a play, knowing and playing my part to the full.

He could remember this too. The manuscript trembled in his hands. He didn't know how far he was in. He had to keep going.

A hand touched his arm softly and he looked up into the face of Hinata. He could see a tear rolling down her cheek as she nodded gently. Her actions told him what to do better than words.

He had to keep going. He had to. This was worse than any physical torture, more painful than any wound. He would take the hard yards.

The reassuring pressure on his arm reminded him that this was just a memory.

It whispered again with sounds and motions that went beyond words, sounds beyond sounds and yet more primal, more basic and more telling.

It whispered my name and the chill felt like fire and ice pounding through veins I did not have. I felt dizzy yet could feel everything.

The mouth grew wider and I could not help but stare with my eyes, everything felt so strong and so unreal and so real. It is beyond mortal words and human description.

The maw still opened, and it was fading from red. The figure was so big it had become the area. The mouth faded still and grew. It was like falling.

Then I saw down the depthless mouth and the sight within broke me like a storm snaps a twig.

The nothingness within went beyond a lack of colour.

It was nothingness.

It stared up and me and beckoned to me without words and movement but with such irresistibility.

I screamed and screamed.

I would not submit to it yet I was being pulled deeper in.

I could not stand the nothingness. There was nothing there. The abyss stared up at me and drew me onwards into nothingness. The dark abyssal void of nothingness.

The sound of mad voices began to sound, the sound of a billion billion screaming souls, the sound of every living thing screaming in terror.

This was beyond fear. Beyond mortal terror. It was the abyss from which there is an end. I could feel it, the cloying feel of darkness ripping all I was apart.

Then it ended and I was whole again. I was in a forest where I had been seconds before, yet felt I had not seen for millennia.

I was...I was alive.

Yet I had the memories of what seemed like death.

I could not cope with the suddenness of the transition, the rush of memory and paradox. My hands slammed through the hand signs before thought could grace my mind.

The seal in my side burnt with the fire of the sun.

The pain was intense and my body thrashed as it tried to cope. Hands grabbed me, fighting my movement.

Then there was a brief time of darkness.

I opened my eyes to see a familiar face, wracked with confusion and concern.

I asked it to smile and it did.

With relief, my mission ended and the darkness of sleep and exhaustion claimed me.

He slumped into his chair, energy having left his body. Hinata was sat in the chair next to his, tears rolling freely down her face. When she saw his gaze she nodded before turning away to wipe away the tears.

Shizune was shaking gently, tears on her face as well.

The table Tsunade was gripping splintered and broke, dust falling from her fingers.

"This concludes my report Hokage-sama. I truly am a Ghost."

All of the Akatsuki except Pein sagged to their knees as the sealing finished and another eye opened on the grotesque statue.

Itachi could feel his body ache with exhaustion. The less of them there were, the longer and more draining it was.

Kisame was still not present.

Pein's voice rang out, deep and menacing through the chamber.

"One beast remains before peace. We are close to our goal."

"What happened to Kisame?"

Everyone looked at him. He felt himself tremble a little.

Zetsu twisted round, part movement, and part shifting of body parts.

"He was fighting the Eight Tails. So fast, so strong, so powerful. It overcame him at the last he did so well! He nearly beat it. Then Tobi was able to finish the job on the Junchuuriki he was so weak by then, so pitiful. It was just in time as well nasty Raikage was close."

"What killed him?"

Tobi bounded over, arms flailing, Itachi heard Pein call for something but he ignored the man. He wanted answers.

"Nasty fish man was on the wrong end of a tentacle blow. It crushed him and the blood went splattering everywhere. It was horrible and nasty. Tobi nearly fainted!"

Itachi held his tongue.

"His remains?"

"We disposed of them; we haven't eaten sushi for so long. Tasted leathery."

Itachi fought to control himself not to vomit at the idea. Something felt very, very wrong with this situation.

He turned on his heel and marched from the room. There was someone running after him. He felt an arm gently touch his shoulder.

"Itachi-kun, it is ok to be upset by his death. Even as we are I recognise you saw him as a friend."

It was Konan. It was unexpected to see her away from Pein. It was also fortuitous.

"I am angry. He was a fine partner and someone I got along with in this place. His death leaves a void that cannot be easily replaced."

"Do not worry, when we capture the final beast, there will be no more need for fighting and death. There will be peace at long last. You have to believe in it Itachi."

"Peace?"

He looked her in the eyes and she nodded.

"Peace. Itachi you have been defined by war for so long. When was the last time you knew true peace? When have you not been haunted by death?"

He chuckled at the irony and saw her expression waver slightly. He was tired, so very tired of this waiting game.

"Konan, I am sorry."

Her eyes glistened in the half light as they looked into his. They widened as his eyes changed and twisted into kaleidoscope shapes of deep red and black that spun.

She tried to turn away but it was far too late. Itachi's hand slammed over her mouth to silence the scream that would have alerted people.

Tsukotoyumi burrowed deep into her psyche, past layers of defence and towards her deepest fears. It brought them forwards, showed them crushing her desires and wants. It burrowed deep and ripped outwards like a barbed hook.

Under the guise of the angel, she was just a frightened, orphaned girl looking for a saviour. He could see her memories but could not allow himself to be distracted by them.

He'd never directly killed anyone through a genjutsu, but he knew he would have to do his best. No marks, no trace. Nothing physical.

He eyes fluttered as the stresses her mind felt began to take physical effect on her body. Her breathing hitched for a second as the rhythms in her heart suffered an arrhythmic burst.

She slackened and Itachi laid her gently down as her legs buckled. Her pulse was faint and erratic, and Itachi could feel it ebbing away.

It was sad that her humanity had brought her to her death. Itachi had always found that good about Konan, despite what little he had seen. She had a humanity to her the other members did not have. Pein was something strange, the Rinnengan eyes making him seem inhuman. The zombie brothers, Sasori, Orochimaru, Zetsu, to a degree Kisame. None of them were really shining examples of looking or being human at all.

He used an earth jutsu to merge her body with the walls, making it one with the earth. Zetsu would have a harder time finding it there, and Pein would not easily be able to revive her even now even if he could find her.

He turned and kept walking away towards his meditation chamber.

It would look like a heart attack. It had been the most peaceful way of doing it. Now he would force Pein's hand.

Him, Pein and the Masked man.

They would have their showdown. He had to win.

For Sasuke. For vengeance. So nobody won.