Within the dream, Itachi and I grew older and older until we were both grey and white haired, wrinkled to the bone and could do little more than simply sit and enjoy simple pleasures in life. Neither of us had ever married, which I had always found a little odd, for Itachi had always seemed the nurturing type who would do well with children of his own. It was Sasuke who continued the bloodline of the chief of the Uchiha, marrying his teammate Sakura and having their own children whom both Itachi and I had doted on all our lives.

It was they who looked after us now in our old age, and as I felt the final moments of this lifetime creep closer, I exhaled softly. "Yuki?" Itachi's voice was still mellow and resonant, striking every cord in my body with a melodic thrum even after all these years. We were sat in my garden next to one another in hand whittled chairs he had made for me decades ago as a gift, and I had treasured them all my life. My garden was full of flowers, allowing a full aurora of sensations even when my sight had begun to fade. "Is everything alright?"

"My time…is ended." A butterfly came fluttering towards me, landing upon a cluster of flowers that I had grown from seedlings and nurtured by hand. I could no longer see the vibrancy of its colourful wings, only a dull flash as it caught the sunlight as my swarming vision grew darker and darker. I felt it land upon my shoulder, perching there quietly. "I will be waiting for you…Tachi…"

"What do you mean Miyuki? We have many years left ahead of us, we are not so old yet." Itachi had chuckled as I closed my eyes, now completely blinded and unable to see. The old ache in my bones became a little stronger for a brief few moments, but as my senses began to wilt away one by one, the last to go was my hearing, allowing me to hear Itachi's final words to me as he continued to hold my hand as we sat side by side to one another. "Your roses have bloomed magnificently again this year, Yuki, you should be proud." When I did not answer, Itachi looked towards me, seeing my head slumped to one side and my chest no longer rising in breath. "Yuki? Miyuki!" Squeezing my hand to see if I would awaken, Itachi suddenly howled my name as if his grief had manifested into nightmare. "YUKI!"

I awoke with a start, ending my own genjutsu so that when I came to, I was standing directly before Itachi, my hands still touching his face as we held one another in our intimate embrace. I was young once more, no more than a few moments having passed for us inside my Kamui, yet a lifetime of heaviness struck me at once and I felt as if I had aged beyond any possible years I could ever live. Having carried my realised feelings and love of Itachi inside me in silence for all that time, I felt drained. Not only that, but maintaining such a realistic and powerful Tsykuyomi had taken its toll and already I could feel the light fading around me just a little more.

Drawing myself away from Itachi, I let go of him, releasing him entirely as I walked back a few steps in order to give him space. He awoke from the genjutsu only a mere second after me, blinking his ebony eyes before they settled upon me. "Miyuki." His shoulders loosened as a smile graced his lips, a smile that I had always admired and sought to see everyday of our lives together. "I did not live long after you, only a year."

"Hm." Nodding my head, I rubbed one of my arms a little nervously, not knowing what I should do or how I should act.

"I enjoyed our times together, and I am happy I was able to see Sasuke grow up in such a manner, to see him as he could have been, though it also makes me regret how he is now. The path of darkness he walks is a dangerous one. He may yet fall too far into the shadows."

"Hm." Arching an eyebrow at my short reply, Itachi studied me for a few moments.

"You do not share my concerns?" Now I felt even more uneasy as flickering images passed through the shadows of my mind, showing me the intertwining destinies and fates that were to come, and the aftermath that would shake the shinobi world to its core, but force it to arise stronger.

"Concern is not necessary. All will be as it should be." Now Itachi was frowning at me, his mind working and whirring in order to try and understand my meaning but I gave him nothing, looking at him with a masterful mask of blankness.

"Miyuki…can you see the future?"

"Hm." His eyes widened, surprised that his guess had been correct.

"So that is how you know everything. You have an All-Seeing-Eye. It is how you were able to anticipate my location, how you knew when we were going to be in danger, how you seem to know the answer to everything and pre-empt attacks when in battle…I should have realised sooner." As his mind wandered back to every inexplicable incident which before had seemed unnatural or impossible, Itachi now understood how I was able to do all I could. "Why did you never tell me?"

"I was forbidden."

"I see. Does it ever hurt you? How much chakra does it demand? Does this mean you know exactly how everything is to happen from now?"

"Hm." Gritting his teeth in slight irritation, Itachi requested that I diverge some of my knowledge to him that I might guide him towards the correct course of action, but I refused. "Do as you will, everything will succeed." I kept secret that I knew how and when he would die, for I suspected he already intended to die by Sasuke's hand, and I also did not tell him how I knew I would die, for that fate would most likely crush him and dissuade him altogether from his chosen direction. He could not waver now, and although there were many things I did not yet know, I could not allow any deviation, for Sasuke's future depended on the survival of the Shinobi world, and the survival of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. Those three were bound together in fate, and together I shall keep them. I simply need to watch and observe from afar. After all, this had never been my story at all.

It was Naruto's and Sasuke's.