Chapter 12

The sun was already setting when Sasuke returned to the forests of Lightning Country. Aoda had been true to his word; he reverse-summoned Sasuke back to the location of the shinobi's battle with the rouge-nin. Traces of the skirmish was still there: the broken trees, upturned earth, and now-dried splashes of blood.

But none of the corpses could be found. Sasuke did a quick sweep of the area. There were no human tracks leading away from the site of the battle either. Odd. Did the two surviving rogue-nin, both of them injured and one heavily bleeding, escape with the bodies of their comrades? It seemed unlikely.

There was also the possibility of hunter-nin, but Sasuke could find no trace of residual chakra to prove that other shinobi had been here. He shook his head; it didn't matter anyway. They were not the reason he came here for.

He activated his Sharingan and began looking for snake tracks.

He started his search from the area he remembered the Hebi no Kougo had appeared. There, between two trees bent near in half. Sasuke smirked in satisfaction. He followed the tracks away from the clearing, deeper into the trees. The sky overhead was quickly swallowed by the canopy, and the forest floor covered in semi-darkness. The setting sun cast long shadows, making it more difficult to see, but with the Sharingan activated it did not bother Sasuke at all.

The ground underneath his feet was thick with fallen pine needles and rotting leaves; it made his footsteps near silent. Half an hour into tracking Sasuke was frowning. The tracks should still be easy to see; why is it becoming more difficult? Almost as if the tracks faded the further in Sasuke followed them, until finally he stopped.

The snake tracks were just….gone. He glared at the forest floor. No sign of a large animal passing through either. A giant serpent couldn't just vanish into thin air, could it?

From further away came the sound of rushing water. A river?

Sasuke made his way to it.

The trees eventually gave way to hardy shrubs, then finally to a grassy, downward slope that abruptly cut off into a twenty foot drop. What he heard was not a river, but a waterfall.

There, on the opposite bank of the river below, was the Hebi no Kougo basking in the late afternoon sun. Her black scales burned orange and red in the light. Her eyes were still covered by cloth.

Movement by the water's edge diverted his eyes away from the giant serpent.

A head of dark hair was rising from the river. Alarm shot through Sasuke, making him tense. Didn't this person realize they were in danger?

But the person did not seem to be in a hurry; they were swimming to the bank, right by the snake. More of the person rose from the water, and Sasuke realized that it was a woman.

Her back was to him, so Sasuke could not see her face, but from this distance he could see she had long dark hair that fell to her waist and pale skin. She was also completely naked.

Sasuke leaped into the air, intent on landing on the grassy bank below. He gasped when he felt the sensation of being plunged into ice cold water before bright yellow light filled his vision, then he knew nothing more.

- line break - line break -

Hari struck out her hand and cast a wandless Levitation Charm when she felt something pass through her ward, and in midair no less. She looked up. Both her eyebrows rose into her hairline.

"You sure know how to make an entrance, Broody," she chuckled to herself. Sasuke was unconscious, and won't wake up until tomorrow: effects of the ward that Hari had erected around the perimeter of the cave she had decided would be their hideout. The cave entrance was conveniently found behind the waterfall, which already made it difficult to find, but Hari knew that it was not enough to make it secure. She had Muggle Repelling wards and barriers that kept out anything more dangerous than a deer out, but she knew no barriers or wards against shinobi, who had the advantage of using chakra. So instead she decided to keep out all people by interweaving a Sleep spell with a layer of the wards.

Judging by the soft snores coming from her erstwhile shinobi, it worked like a charm.

Hari crooked her finger, and Sasuke floated beside her, unaware of what was happening.

Ren, sensing her approach, lifted her head and tasted the air with her tongue. "Oh, that is Uchiha Sasuke! Where did you find him, mama?"

"He very conveniently dropped from the sky," Hari answered with a grin. She snapped her fingers, and she was completely dry and clothed in a bathrobe of emerald silk brocaded in silver. "He will be staying in the cave for the night."

"Why?"

"I have to start banishing his phantoms, my dear," Hari explained. They walked to the cave together; there was a hidden path behind the rocks that Hari had magically expanded to let her and Ren pass through with little difficulty.

Inside the cave, the fire crackled in the pit in the center of Hari's makeshift house for the duration of her "research". Death was nowhere in sight. It made sense that Death left; his presence was a danger to mortals. Hari being Mistress of Death meant she was immune, and Ren being bonded to her magic meant the basilisk was immune as well. Hari gestured with a flick of her fingers. Sasuke's body floated onto the small mound of cushions in one side of the cave. Ren settled herself in her nest not too far from him.

"How are you going to banish the phantoms mama?"

"I have an idea that I want to try," Hari responded, fixing herself a pot of tea. She transfigured small rocks into a pot, a cup and saucer, and a small teaspoon. "Death said the phantoms are unresolved regrets of the dead. So all I have to do is to remove that regret, right?" Hari poured tea leaves into the teapot and conjured water, then allowed the pot to hover over the flames in the middle of the room. She walked to where Sasuke slept, watching his brows begin to furrow as his nightmares began to creep into his mind. Swirls of dark, thick vapor began to manifest over him, a sign that the phantoms were appearing again.

Hari waited until the first phantom fully emerged. Then her hand snatched at the air, Seeker-fast and just as accurate. A low moan filled the air as her fingers tightened onto a phantom. It felt like touching a cold, slimy eel. Hari frowned in distaste.

"Legilimens."

Using the phantom as a medium, Hari entered Uchiha Sasuke's mindscape in a whirl of gray smoke and darkness.

- line break - line break –

Hari blinked her eyes several times. She was in the middle of a street. The lamps on either side were lit; shops were boarded up for the night. It was quiet. Many of the stores displayed a symbol painted on their walls: a red and white fan standing upright. Hari realized this was the same insignia stitched on the back of Sasuke's shirt. A family sigil?

Bodies littered the ground: men and women in civilian clothes, a few of the corpses wearing the standard uniform that Hari identified as something shinobi wore. On the corner to her left, an old man sat motionless against a lamp post, a gaping hole in his chest the only tell-tale sign of how he had died. Beside him was probably his wife, sprawled on the dirt with her face down. Her dark bun of hair was askew. Across from them was a little girl, mouth open in a silent death scream, still clutching her doll. Her eyes were open wide.

Hari crouched beside the girl and closed her eyes. She could feel the weight of so many deaths lingering in the air, making her head throb. Wherever this was, she would need to visit it and make sure no souls lingered needlessly. Left unchecked those wandering spirits would eventually become ghosts, or in the worst case scenario, fuel a curse that would not be easy to remove.

"Please, help my son."

Hari turned around, the Elder Wand flying into her hand with a sharp snick. There was a woman standing where there was previously nobody. Hari narrowed her eyes. "Your son?"

"Help my son," the woman pleaded again. She was crying. Tears dripped onto her simple purple dress. She wore her black hair long, a curtain of dark silk behind her. The large bleeding wound on her stomach told Hari what she needed to know: this was the phantom. The dead woman raised a hand as if to touch Hari, but the decided not to. She lowered her hand. "Please," she said.

"Your son is Uchiha Sasuke?"

The woman nodded. "I was not able to say a lot of things to him, before I passed away. It has made him a bitter person." She cried into her hands.

"You were murdered in cold blood." Hari's tone was not a question.

But the woman shook her head. "I…we accepted death. It was our choice, our duty."

Hari frowned. "And this duty outweighed your children's need for their parents?"

"Itachi would have been killed if he was not able to complete his mission."

"And what about Sasuke?"

The dead mother knelt on the ground. "I…there was no…we knew Itachi would never hurt Sasuke…my baby…!" She cried harder, hands now clenching dirt. Dark vapor began to rise from her skin.

Hari sighed. "What help do you want me to give Sasuke?"

"M-my name is Uchiha Mikoto." She hiccupped through her tears.

"Stand up, Uchiha Mikoto."

Mikoto stood, wiping her hands on her dress, then wiping away the tears on her face. She bowed to Hari, head low.

"Do you know who I am?"

Mikoto swallowed, and dared not lift her head. "You…are a shinigami?" She could feel the touch of Death on this woman.

Hari smiled thinly. "Close enough." She walked up to Mikoto until she was close enough to touch her. "Raise your head, Uchiha Mikoto."

Mikoto looked at Hari's face. She was surprised to see the look of understanding in her forest green eyes, and the unexpected warmth there.

"Tell me. What help do you want me to offer your son?"

"Please. Let me talk to him. I have…there are things I need to tell him."

"Very well." Hari nodded, then looked around. "We will have to find him first."

Hari led the way. They walked down the street, peering through the dark shadows and narrow alleys, inside empty houses with floors wet with blood, walls splattered with the evidence of Itachi's methodical massacre of his entire clan. Mikoto called for her son's name, but nobody answered.

There was only Hari, Mikoto, and the bodies of the restless dead.

"Shinigami-sama that is our house! Right there." Mikoto pointed.

Hari turned. It was easily the biggest house in the area, surrounded by a wooden fence painted by the Uchiha clan sigil. The tall wooden gates were open.

They entered the house. It was quiet. The floorboards creaked under the weight of Hari's feet.

"Sasuke?" Mikoto called into the gloom.

Hari's ears picked up the sound of muted sobs. "There is someone upstairs."

"Sasuke's room," Mikoto realized. She ran up the stairs, hair flying. Hari followed sedately behind, outwardly pulsing her magic to detect if there was another presence in the house. There were none.

Hari climbed the stairs, in time to see Mikoto go down the hall and open the door at the end.

"Sasuke! Oh, my baby!"

Hari went into the room that was presumably Sasuke's. Mikoto was kneeling by the foot of the bed, and she was hugging a small boy of six or seven in her arms, sobbing.

Hari tilted her head, watching the wide eyes of a young Uchiha Sasuke take in the sight of his mother, who appeared to be alive. Mikoto was half laughing, half crying now. She must have been wandering this pale mirror of the Uchiha compound ever since her death, her regret chaining her to Sasuke's haunted memories. Sasuke meanwhile, avoided this memory like a plague, and so mother and child never had the chance to meet, even in dreams. Until now.

"O-Okaa…san?"

"Yes, Sasuke. My son. My baby! Yes, I'm here." Mikoto pressed kisses onto her son's forehead, his cheeks, smoothing down his hair that refused to be tamed. Hari quietly stood by the door, knowing they needed at least some semblance of privacy. She secretly smiled at the sight of Sasuke's shocked face. Broody was damn adorable as a kid.

Young Sasuke's face was an interesting study; it was frozen in a look of shock, but as Mikoto repeated calling Sasuke's name, and touched his face, Sasuke's eyes began to water, his face reddening, until he was crying as loudly as his mother. He hugged her as fiercely as she held him, face burrowing into her neck.

"You're here! You're not dead! You're here!" he kept repeating.

Mikoto murmured comforting words into his ear, but Sasuke did not hear them. Instead he focused his senses into taking in his mother's presence: her warmth, the smell of her light perfume, the gentle touch of her fingers. Sasuke cried, and cried, and cried. "I'm so sorry, Kaa-san. I'm sorry!"

"Hush, baby, what's wrong? Why are you sorry?"

"I couldn't…I couldn't protect you! I let Itachi-nii san kill you! I couldn't stop him!"

"Oh darling, that is not your fault," Mikoto crooned, pressing her forehead against Sasuke's. She looked into her son's eyes. "It was not your fault," she said again. "You were just a child, Sasuke. And so was Itachi. You already know the truth, don't you? Itachi was as much a victim as any of us."

"But I couldn't—I didn't—"

"Sasuke, neither your father nor I blame you for our deaths," she cut in softly. She knelt before Sasuke, placing her hands on his tiny shoulders. "We knew what would happen if we did not let Itachi do what was necessary. We only regret that we could not make you understand why it was needed, back then." She smiled. "I watched you grow up, Sasuke. You have become a wonderful young man. You made mistakes, but you have done your best to make amends." She kissed him on the forehead. "But please, please do not close your heart to others. Kindness and compassion is something you have in spades, sweetheart. Share it."

Sasuke looked away. He was older now, the same age as when Hari met him. "Kindness is a weakness."

Mikoto smiled, taking in the sight of her youngest as a man, proud of what he has achieved. "Sasuke, if kindness was a weakness then Naruto would not have become the man he is today—and neither would you." She turned Sasuke's face to her again. "Do not be afraid to feel. You are an Uchiha: your feelings are your source of strength. We care deeply, and love unconditionally. That is why we are fierce and unmatched in battle: because we have something to fight for."

"But I have nothing," Sasuke admitted, closing his eyes. "I have nothing left."

"Nonsense. You have your friends, and you have your memories of our time together. Someday, you will have something more, and then you will realize that what I tell you now is the truth." Mikoto wrapped her arms around her son one last time. "Remember that I love you with all my heart, darling. And I will always be watching over you." She stood up, eyes watering again. "Goodbye, Sasuke."

"No, please. Don't go!" Sasuke looked at her, hand outstretched.

Mikoto smiled. She vanished in motes of pale yellow light, leaving behind the lingering scent of her perfume.

Sasuke stood up, wiping away his tears. His eyes met bright emerald.

"Who are you?"#

A/N: Feel free to leave behind a review on your way out! This story updates every Wednesday.