"Hello"- Black Zetsu Speaking

'Hello'- Thoughts

Chapter Two

It was over.

Kisame stared in the direction where Itachi's Susanoo had been standing just minutes previous, his heart heavy in his chest.

He knew, even before Zetsu appeared that Itachi's plan had finally come to fruition. The plant only confirmed his belief.

"Its over," The white half announced. "Uchiha Itachi is dead."

Something in him shattered at the news but he made sure it didn't show. He listened as Zetsu confirmed that Sasuke had lived and was just unconscious due to chakra exhaustion, and one thought entered his mind.

How the hell was he supposed to tell their daughter that her mother was dead?

Their daughter, for all that she wasn't biologically theirs, had Itachi's immense capacity of caring way too much, and there was no one in the world that she loved and idolized more than her mother.

Itachi was her world and her savior, even if he had always believed otherwise. His death would destroy her.

His grip tightened on Samehada and he turned to Zetsu. "Take us to them."

The plant glanced at him but ultimately did as bid.

When they arrived, he felt the shattered shards within him turn to ash.

Even in death, Itachi was beautiful.

His hair was in disarray, the long ponytail partially unraveled as it splayed out on the ground beneath him, coal black eyes faded to dark grey in death's embrace. His skin was flawless, under the blood and dirt, his cloak long gone revealing his anbu tattoo from his days in Konoha. Worse, he was smiling. That same peaceful smile he wore when they were alone.

It hurt.

Sheathing Samehada, he kneeled and pulled the limp form into his arms, fighting back a flinch at the cold of his partner's flash. The younger nin had always run a bit cooler than him, a side effect of his tiny reserves, yet he'd never been this cold. There was always just enough warmth in him to make holding him comfortable.

That warmth was gone.

Jugo gathered Sasuke's unconscious form and Team Taka turned to leave only for Zetsu to stop them.

"Wait!" He called. "Our Leaders would like to speak to you.It's important."

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" The red-headed girl asked and Kisame scowled.

"It isn't. Even if it is, you have to come with us anyways."

"Why's that?" Suigetsu asked, and he gifted the boy with a bitter smile. " Because otherwise, Sasuke will never be able to get Itachi's eyes and will eventually go blind."

They stared at him, as if assessing his honesty, then nodded.

"We'll follow you."

He nodded and turned, leading them away from the battlefield.

All the while he, for the first time ever, dreaded seeing his daughter again.

As his luck would have it, they ran into Team Kirin at the gates of Amegakure...and Amara spotted her mother immediately.

She froze.

"Kaa-san?" She whispered, her voice so uncharacteristically small, and he flinched.

Ayame, spotting the dead shinobi, tried to held her back, but she shrugged her off. "Kaa-san!" She screamed running towards them. "Kaa-san!"

Team Taka and Zetsu froze, as did the guards at the gate, watching as the ash-haired genin raced over to them, her amber gaze frantic.

Itachi didn't stir and she shook her head violently, grabbing one of his cold hands.

"Kaa-san," She whimpered brokenly. "Wake up, y-you have to wake up, so I can tell you about my mission. K-Kaa-sama, p-please!"

He swallowed thickly, taking the hand holding his husband's into his own.

"Amara-hime, he's not asleep." He rasped, heart pounding viciously. "He's gone."

She froze, staring up at him. He'd never lied to her, never sugar-coated anything he'd ever told her, and neither had Itachi, despite his wishes that she remain a child. She had known he was sick and that eventually he would be leaving them, she just hadn't known how soon.

Neither had he.

And it was so damn painful.

After a moment, she looked away, her gaze landing on Suigetsu and the nin unconscious in his arms. Hatred stronger than he'd ever seen in her, blazed in her eyes and she turned away, her grip tightening on her mother's too-cold hand.

"Are you going to see Pein-sama?"

"Hai," He pulled his husband's form closer before gathering the child in his arms.

"Kisame-sama, how do you know Amara-san?" One of the guards asked and he ignored them heading into the village.

Team Taka followed him, observing the child beside him warily. They'd all see the hate she carried for Sasuke and seeing who's child she was, they even knew why.

After all, anyone would hate the person who killed their parent.

The girl remains with them as they enter Akatsuki headquarters, her gold eyes cold and dark in her grief.

Konan met them just before they reached pain, her lips curling downward at the lifeless form in Kisame's arms.

"What happened?"

The shark pulled the slim form closer to himself, and the little girl beside him tightened her grip on him. "Can you call a meeting? I-" His jaw tensed. "I have alot to tell you."

Sasuke shifted in Jugo's arms, onyx eyes fluttering open. "Wh-where?" He rasped and Kisame sneered at him.

"Akatsuki's base, gaki. We have a lot to talk about."

The teen stared at him, then down at Itachi's cold corpse. No emotion passed through his eyes.

"He's dead."

Amara glared at him. "Astute observation, baka. Would you-" Kisame stilled her with a look and she huffed, looking away, but not before he saw the rage and hate in her eyes.

"C'mon, hime. Lets go clean 'Tachi up." She nodded, lying her head on his shoulder. As they walked away from the gathering, everyone heard her ask a soft question.

One that lit the curiosity in each of them. "Do you think, Kaa-san will be angry with us for telling them?"

Kisame chuckled, a low broken sound. "He'll be fucking furious."

"Good."

*/*

"Are you really going to let him take Kaa-san's eyes?"

Kisame sighed at his daughter's question, as the finished brushing his late husband's hair, the loose ash-colored lock shining like spilled ink against the stark white of his cooled flesh.

An hour had passed since their arrival on the base and they'd yet to be disturbed, the other Akatsuki dealing with the young Uchiha brat while he and Amara cleaned Itachi's body for the pyre to be set later that night. Surprisingly, despite having been dead for hours, rigor had yet to set in on the pale raven, his limbs heavy but pliable.

He looked like he was sleeping.

Only the lack of breath leaving his lungs and the eerie silence of his heartbeat told them that he wasn't.

Their daughter had helped the process, sobbing quietly to herself all the while, and rejecting his comfort when he offered it. He'd borne it with a stoicism similar to the man on the bed, only the dimming of his gaze giving away his pain.

He'd cry when he was alone. For now, Amara needed him to remain strong.

Her hand trembled as she spoke, and there was something dark in her gaze when she looked up at him.

Something bloodthirsty and hurting.

"Your Kaa-san wanted me to," he began, looking down at Itachi's peaceful face. He tried to imagine that brat with his husband's eyes and snarled. "But I can't. He doesn't deserve them."

The genin nodded and leaned down, kissing her mother's cheek before they pulled the sheet over him, covering his face from the world. Once they were done, she turned to him and...shattered.

The darkness in her feature ceded, overwhelmed by her pain and she began to cry in ernest, loud gasping sobs.

"WH-why would he do this to us?" She whimpered and he hugged her tight, his throat burning with the want to join her in her sobs. He couldn't, not yet.

"He was dying, hime. You know that. Did you really think he wanted us to watch him waste away?"

She sniffled, shaking her head. "It hurts, tou-san."

"I know, Kid." He rasped, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "I know."

Lost in their grief, neither father nor daughter noticed the shadows around them flicker. Nor did they notice the single sharingan eye that appeared for a moment then vanished.

*/*

They knew the moment they entered to find Konan and Pein waiting with solemn faces that the meeting would be a bad one.

Eyeing their leaders uneasily, the Akatsuki filed into the meeting chamber one by one, stiffening as they noticed one glaring absence.

Itachi.

The most responsible of their group, their youngest never missed a single meeting and yet, he wasn't present.

More telling, Kisame's normally jovial features were blank like his ash-haired counterpart's. In Itachi's place stood a young kunoichi, one they vaguely recognized as part of Genin Team Kirin. The girl's expression was just as emotionless as Kisame's but red rimmed her eyes, exposing her sadness to the world.

What the hell was going on?

Once they were all present, Pein spoke, deep voice low and sad.

"As of today, Uchiha Itachi was killed in battle by Uchiha Sasuke."

They sucked in a breath, staring at him blankly. Itachi had been killed?

By his younger brother?

Kisame flinched, imperceptibly, as Hidan snorted.

"Is this a joke? The Uchiha is nothing to fucking laugh at and you're telling us he let himself be killed by some pussy ass genin?!"

The unknown girl glared at him. "He was already dying." She snapped and everthing froze. Pein frowned at the girl.

"Amara-san, Kisame has yet to explain your presence here. Please explain and tell me what exactly you are talking about."

A wry smirk crossed the genin's lips. "Pein-sama, I've lived in these headquarters off and on since I was a month old. Kaa-san found me on his first mission after Juzo-ji-san died and adopted me considering his targets were my biological parents." She looked up at Kisame who nodded encouragingly.

"Tou-san found out on the second day of their partnership and helped kaa-san care for me. Since most of our missions were outside of the village, Kaa-san was able to keep me a secret. They we found out that Kaa-san was sick when I was three. It was terminal and he allowed Sasuke to kill him so that tou-san and I wouldn't have to continue watching his illness kill him."

Hidan, despite her words snickered. "The Uchiha let you call him Kaa-san?"

Amara glared at him, baring her teeth in a parody of her father's bloodthirsty grin.

Before she could say anything, Pein cut her off.

"If his disease was terminal, why hide it? Konan is a skilled healer, she could've helped him find a way to survive it."

Kisame snorted bitterly. "Itachi-san would've rejected it. He's been planning his death since the night of the Uchiha Massacre."

His daughter shot him a sharp look. "Tou-san-"

He shook his head. "They need to know, hime."

She nodded and he continued to speak. "Is the younger Uchiha brat awake yet?"

Konan nodded. "He and his team are with Tobi."

"He'll need to be here for this."

She nodded and sent a look at Deidara who grumbled but left the room, returning moment later with a scowling Sasuke and his team. The teens watched them all uneasily, sending glances in Amara's direction.

"Why are we here?" Sasuke asked and Kisame glared at him.

"You're here because Itachi wanted you to be." He snarled. "Left up to me, you would've died with the rest of your pathetic clan or in Tanzaku Gai."

The boy's sharingan flared to life, rage painting his features. "You have no right to speak of my clan considering you were sleeping with their killer." He snapped and Kisame smirked.

"Married their killer too." He sneered, and the Akatsuki gaped, as he pulled a chain from beneath his shirt to reveal two rings. One was small and slender, obviously Itachi's considering how much small it was compared to it counterpart's. It was a simple silver band, a garnet resting in the center. The other ring was a thick titanium band, little vines of silver snaked through it.

Sasuke's rage grew stronger. "Then I hope you enjoyed his death." He replied and the shark chuckled darkly.

"You should probably stop talking. It's only his mercy that's kept you alive. He's gone now and I don't have a single reason not to kill you."

"Enough!" Pein snapped. "Kisame, what is going on?"

Taking a deep breath, the blue-skinned man began to explain. "As you all know, eight years or so ago, Itachi slaughtered his clan."

"We know this." Deidara interuppted and his friend nodded.

"Yeah, but what you don't know is that it was a mission given to him by the Elder Council of Konoha."

Pein's eyes widened, as did everyone else's.

"What?"

A grim smile crossed the shark's lips and he pulled his daughter close.

"The Uchiha clan had been under suspicion following the Kyuubi's attack and they resented it, so the clan head and the elders began to plan a coup."

Konan frowned. "Konoha is one of the strongest villages in the nation. A coup from one of their oldest surviving clans would lead to a civil war. Worse it would lead to another Great War."

Kisame nodded. "Exactly. Fugaku, Itachi's father sent him into the village as a spy, but Itachi rebelled and told the Hokage of he coup so he could protect a brat by the name of Uchiha Sasuke from the horrors living through a great war. They were working on a way to subdue the coup but when Itachi's cousin killed himself, they sped up their plans and the Elder ordered Itachi to kill his clan or die with them, including that baby brother he tried to protect."

Sasuke glared at him, but the doubt in his gaze was telling. "You're lying."

The shark snorted. "Am I...Tobi?"

Deidara turned to the masked man, who straightened from his normally childish pose, a low chuckle leaving him.

"No." He replied, eying Amara slightly, the girl bared her teeth at him. "Itachi was a pacifist at heart and I think the only person he ever truly hated was me."

"Why is that?" Pein asked, while most of the other Akatsuki were reeling from Tobi's sudden personality change. This was not the idiot that they spent all day pushing around.

"Because I helped him kill his clan. I was the reason he had to do so in the first place. After all, who do you think set the Kyuubi upon Konoha?"

TBC...