"Kari..."

Kari was walking away, getting farther and farther from her brother, her back became a dot that disappeared into the darkness.

"Kari! Come back!"

No response. Itachi screamed her name again. "KARI!"

Itachi awoke with a start. It was a few hours before sunrise. The seven-year-old was exhausted, this being his third night in a row of the same nightmare. It always woke him up and left him unable to sleep again.

The boy punched his pillow. All tears that he had had dried up a year ago and now there was nothing but emptiness and rage. She's never coming back, she's never coming back, she's never...coming back. All his thoughts were centered around this idea. The fact that loomed over everything he did. Kari was not to be a part of his life anymore.

Itachi turned to see the little boy beside him sleeping soundly. As usual, he is uninterestedly sleeping through it all. He has no phantoms to haunt his sleep, no memory of a sister to miss.

"Now that he has a little brother, maybe he won't miss Kari so much." Itachi had overheard his mother saying that to his father one night after Sasuke was born. It had enraged the boy beyond reason. Fat chance of that! he hissed.

Itachi had turned and placed his hand over his heart. He felt the steady pulsing of it and knew that somewhere else, Kari's was beating in percise unison.

"I will never stop missing you, caring about you, thinking about you, Uchiha Kari. You cannot escape from me that easily, sister. They want me to forget, but I swear it will never happen. I will always be protecting you. I swear on my own life that I will never stop loving you and I swear to make the ones that separated us pay...with their own lives."

This dreadful oath taken, Itachi headed towards a field. Training needed to be done. With that promise boiling in his veins, he turned down a horrible path of darkness and became one of the most feared shinobi in history.

present time

Itachi opened his eyes. Kari was still standing over him, waiting for him to respond. Her attack was enormous...her strength is trebled what it was when I saw her last.

He had sworn to protect his sister. He had broken his own promise. He had torn out his own heart, coveting greater power and lusting for the revenge against the clan he hated.

He had threatened to kill her. Kari's cold words echoed like a broken record. You will never be able to kill me, Uchiha Itachi. Indeed, he wondered if he really could. She was the most powerful shinboi living. He could feel power and energy flowing from every pore in her body.

Kari stepped backward and an ugly torrent began. "It is your fault Sasuke is trapped in this darkness of Orochimaru's, Itachi. I can't forgive you for it. I pormised to save him, to protect him. You should have been there Itachi. You should have helped him, trained him, protected him. You did nothing for him. You've sentenced him to death out of anger for something that he had nothing to do with."

A thought occured to Itachi. And I promised to protect you too, Kari, but I can't keep promises very well it seems...

"Why, Itachi! Why are you going to make me kill you? Unless you're gone, Sasuke will be haunted forever by you. You're a phantom in his dreams, you're killing him a little bit every day. The memories of you before your murderous rampage hurt him more than any pain you inflicted upon him with your eyes."

Phantoms in his dreams, haunting memories...just like you, Kari. You haunted my dreams, you tortured me with your memories. But I didn't blame you, sister...

"All he ever wanted was his brother and his brother's approval. Why couldn't you have been that for him? Why couldn't you have forgotten about yourself for just one moment to realize what a wonderful child he really is. Instead you've poisoned him in the worst way and I have to protect him because you won't!"

And I wanted my sister, I needed my sister. But you couldn't be there. I could have been there for Sasuke. But the pain was too horrible, someone else needed to suffer it. I wanted another Uchiha to go through that pain. I had the perfect opportunity when Sasuke was born.

Kari's eyes watered and she was screaming now. "I needed my brother to protect my little brother when I couldn't be there to directly intervene. But you broke him to pieces and as much as I tried to heal those wounds, the scars of them stung worse. Sasuke is almost completely gone!"

Itachi suddely rose to face Kari. She was silent now, her raven hair blowing all about her face, her obsidian eyes shone with the anger and hurt he had caused.

Her hands rose and formed a seal Itachi had never seen before. Her swan. A pair of brilliantly colored swan's wings seemed to sprout from her back, her hair was blowing upward as she molded chakra and photons into the most powerful energy source in the universe. As Kari raised her eyes, he could see a crimson red Sharingan shining in place of the angry ebony. Itachi braced himself for an attack. It was over now, he was no match for this. His sister had exceeded him in every possible way. She took a few steps towards him.

For several moments nothing happened. Then a pair of cool hands were laid gently on either side of his head.

Then he heard her scream. It was a terrible, unearthly, ghostly scream of the most horrid pain. His eyes popped open and he saw his sister, her face inches from his, eyes clenched shut, every muscle moving spasmodically, as she let out another scream.

Itachi suddenly felt the strangest sensation in the world.

Every bad memory he had of the clan, every ounce of anger he had felt, every horrible thing he had done and been proud of...it was all replaced by the most pleasant memories of him and Kari. The memory of killing his best friend, of punching Sasuke in the stomach, that too was fading away and instead showed Sasuke smiling and laughing while he watched his brother training in all the ninja arts. Then he felt a burning sensation between his head and Kari's hands. The pain grew worse and just when he thought he could not take it anymore Kari released him and stumbled backwards. Her breathing was heavy and irregular and her hands were blackened.

What had she done?

Itachi stood there too stunned to do anything. Kari raised her eyes and looked at him. "The Mangekyou stems from pure hate...try...try to use it...now..."

The boy raised his eyebrows a little bit and enacted his Sharingan...or tried to.

It failed.

He stared at Kari. "What did you do...?"

Kari smiled weakly and held out her hands. The burn marks on them had taken the shape of the Mangekyou. Her face was contorted with pain and all at once Itachi understood.

Kari had stolen away all of his pain and hate. He could no longer use such a power. The girl closed her eyes and let her mind wander back...

Two special powers of an Auralen are these, the book had read, that they are able to absorb pain, both physical and psychological, from others and that they are able to heal mental stresses with a comibnation of their special chakra and love for that person. Auralens are much more powerful as healers than as fighters though the extent of that power is untested since no Auralen has ever taken the medic-nin road. These mysterious powers of an Auralen mostly stem from legend and have not been proved as true. The power is completely unexplainable but some believe that photons actually perform surgery on the brain while others side with the idea that love can manifest itself as a more concrete object of healing. No one really knows...

Itachi was staring at his sister. "Kari...where is that pain now?"

Kari looked at her hands. "With me, Itachi...sealed away in my own soul."

"Does it hurt?"

The girl looked him in the eye and nodded slowly. "It hurts quite a bit."

Itachi's eyes, for the first time in eleven years, filled with tears. He came up to his sister and hugged her as tightly as possible.

"I'm so sorry, Kari..."

Kari pulled away and looked at him. Her eyes were shining with tears of both sorrow and joy. A small smile played across her lips.

"I killed an Uchiha...I guess I'm just as bad as you are now..."

Itachi looked at her and understood immediately what she had meant when she demanded why he was forcing her to kill him. There were many Itachi's. She was simply killing one. But that death had come at a terrible cost to the girl standing in front of him.

"Sasuke can heal now, Itachi. I want you to help me get him back..."

The boy picked up his sister, smiling, and said "You're pretty good if you killed an Uchiha."

"Well...I haven't killed her yet."

Itachi stopped cold. His eyes filled with fear and sudden realization. "No...that's not possible...Kari! Tell me your lying..."

She shook her head. "The only way to heal Sasuke is to have you back to how you are supposed to be. You must save him now. You alone have that power. My life was necessary for it."

Itachi was crying now. "How long...Kari?"

"It's a matter of minutes. That technique requires complete inhibition from the flow of the chakra. That's why it hurt so much. It also destroys most of my tissues because the photons are able to run madly about my body without the percise control they need to prevent them from becoming lethal. There was no other way."

Kari coughed up some blood and Itachi set her down gently. "I'll stay with you."

"No. Go now. Sasuke needs you. If Orochimaru takes him over...it will be too late."

"But Kari -"

Kari shook her head. "Please go. If you don't make it, my sacrifice was in vain."

Itachi stared at her. After all this time...she was still the little girl he had loved dearly. Another tear coursed down his cheek.

"Tell Sasuke I love him." Kari looked at her brother with all the loving adoration she had had as a child.

"Good-bye Kari..."

Kari smiled and closed her eyes. Her chest heaved one last time before the breathing stopped.

Itachi rose and slowly walked away, his mind numb with sadness but determined to fulfill Kari's dying wish.

It had indeed proved to be a showdown that would kill an Uchiha.