"Where am I?" Aya heard her voice echo off of unseen walls. Everything was very bright...

"With us," said a silver voice.

Aya turned to see Uchiha Kari walking over to her niece, accompanied by a man that could only be her uncle, Uchiha Itachi. "It's almost time, Aya," he whispered.

"Am I going to die?"

The twins nodded sadly.

"Do I get a chance to say good-bye?"

Kari smiled. "Yes, you have a few minutes."

"Ok...thank you..."

"Tell everyone we love them, Aya," said Itachi.

"I will..." Aya felt herself being lifted up as the light faded into darkness. Then all was black and she slowly began to pick up the sounds of the battle, the fire...and someone crying...

Hiromi stared in horror. There was Aya, the deadly weapon meant for him draining the life out of her. The boy quickly turned her over and gently pulled the shuriken away.

"No...Aya...you can't die!" Hiromi's eyes were desperate. "Hokage-sama! Could you not...?"

Tsunade was already there, trying her best to save the dying kunoichi. But the wound was deep, cutting into vital organs, and Aya had already lost a great deal of blood. "I don't think she is going to make it, Hiromi..."

"She has to! She can't...I won't let her..."

Aya's eyes fluttered for a moment and then opened, immediately letting her see a sobbing Hiromi and a sorrowful Tsunade.

"I'm not going to make it...am I?" she gasped.

"Aya!"

Hiromi drew the girl closer to him. He embraced her and began to cry. "You're going to be fine. If we can just get you to a hospital..."

"There's no time. I'm going to die here."

"Don't say that..."

The two looked at each other, the sapphire eyes burning into the ebony. "I guess," whispered Aya, "I ended up just like Kari after all...dying for someone I love. Making a judgement based on my emotions..." A fit of coughing silenced her for a few minutes. The battle continued to rage, but to the Hokage, Aya, and Hiromi, nothing existed except for this moment. The last few minutes before Aya would leave them forever.

Hiromi continued to look at his dying cousin. "Aya...Kari would be proud. So would my father. They would all...be very proud of you."

"I know." Aya was quiet for a spell before saying, "Who am I, Hiromi? I still feel like I'm living someone else's life. I always thought I would be able to find my own...and I don't think I did, even now. And I'm about to die."

Hiromi shook his head furiously. "You are not living someone else's life! You are Uchiha Aya, the shinobi world's cleverest kunoichi, rivaling the powers of her famous aunt, and with a heart so big it is enviable. The stuff that heroes are made of."

"A hero, huh?"

"One of the best."

An explosion shook the earth. Hiromi hugged Aya closer to him.

"Tell my parents...that I love them. And make sure Tsunade helps Naruto. And...Itachi and Kari say they love us...," Aya smiled.

Instantly, Hiromi remembered what his father had told him about Kari's death. How he had sat there, his darling sister in his arms, feeling his heart crack as the only thing he had had left to love in the world faded away. And it was all because of him. Hiromi felt cursed. He was just beginning to know his long lost cousin and now she was going to leave him and she wasn't coming back.

Aya's arms began to relax and her head grew weaker. The blood had stopped flowing, but it was far too late for a recovery. There was no hope for survival in the young Uchiha.

Hiromi watched as her breathing grew slower and finally subsided completely. He bent his head to her chest to hear one final pulse before the beating of that wonderful heart was stopped forever.

Tsunade, as she watched the scene, instantly remembered the night Dan had died. It was much like this. The wound that would not stop bleeding, the grief-stricken face, the loss.

It was any shinobi's worst nightmare.

Hiromi caressed the porcelain face, tears falling silently down his own visage, dripping to meet the eyelashes of the dead Aya.

"I'm sorry, Hiromi." The voice was the Hokage's.

The boy looked up to see a the tear-stained face of the Fifth. Her eyes were tired and red. "We all loved her a great deal. The Uchiha clan has something special there with both her and your aunt. True heroes."

"Tsunade-sama?"

The Hokage turned to see the concerned faces of Sakura and Sasuke. The Snow had finally been beaten back. The Sand were now scouring the area for any stray shinobi. The couple had gone to report back to their Hokage.

"What's...," Sakura stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the form of her daughter lying motionless in the arms of a stranger. "...wrong?" she finished. She began to walk over and quickened her pace. Not Aya, she pleaded. Please not Aya...

Standing in front of Hiromi, she could see very clearly that it was indeed Aya. The boy's tears had yet to stop, and they made tracks on the dirt-covered face of the lifeless kunoichi. Falling to her knees, Sakura beheld her daughter, her beautiful child, dead...

Sasuke had been unable to move at his first sight of Aya. In a state of shock he continued to stare at the sight he wished he could wake up from. My daughter, the pride of our clan, the greatest kunoichi of them all...is gone...it can't be...it's not possible...

Tsunade turned, sadly walking away, leaving a broken family to themselves.

After a spell of denial, Sasuke finally lifted his eyes to behold the face of the boy who held Aya in his arms. That face...everything but the eyes...could it be?

Sakura had made the connection far quicker than her husband had.

"Itachi's son..." she whispered to no one in particular.

The boy looked up and met her gaze. "Uchiha Hiromi. Son of the Auralen, Uchiha Itachi and the Snow kunoichi Todaka Lei. Aya is my cousin. I was the one she was sent to kill...and she kept me alive. Twice."

Sakura put together the details fairly quickly and looked up to see how Sasuke was holding up. His hands were clenched, his eyes tearful as they hadn't been since Kari had died.

Hiromi met the eyes of his uncle. "I know what you are thinking. That it is my fault she is dead. I want you to know that I'm thinking the same thing."

Sasuke hastily brushed away the tears, trying to be strong in this unbearable situation. He looked up again and froze. For an instant he beheld three figures. All of them with the unmistakable Uchiha eyes and two were quickly recognizable as the famous twins. The other resembled the older female except for a slight difference in facial structure and eyes that were a bit wider, courtesy of Sakura. Then, they were gone. But it was a catalyst powerful enough to begin the healing Sasuke desperately needed.

"She's in good company," said Sasuke. Hiromi looked at his uncle. He had been expecting a torrent of abuse and curses for killing his precious daughter. But Sasuke looked at his nephew and smiled. "You should come back with us to where you belong, Hiromi. Aya would have wanted that..."

"After all of this...?"

"You tried to help us. Tsuande-sama will pardon you. I will see to that."

"But-."

Sasuke shook his head. "We're family, Hiromi. I'm only sorry that we are just now discovering this."

later at the funeral

Aya's funeral had been one of little fanfare, but mass attendance. All wanted to see the burial of the beautiful Uchiha prodigy, the pride of Konoha, and the girl who had with her life saved both her cousin and, unwittingly, her village.

The death of Uchiha Aya caused a series of events that would end the war without further battle between the Snow and the Hidden Leaf. Hiromi, enraged at the loss of his cousin in the battle, brought her corpse to the feet of his feudal lord, angrily showing him the cost of war. Moved by his love for Hiromi, in spite of his so-called "betrayal", and for the story of Aya, he had sent word to Tsunade that the Snow were willing to end aggressions with the Leaf. The Hokage had quickly acquieseced and a treaty was signed. Konoha would be peaceful again for the next two hundred years.

Sabaku no Gaara, the Sand's Kazekage, was one of the honored guests at Aya's funeral proceedings. He was asked to make a speech about Aya, though he had never met her, by her father. Gaara is said to have made this eulogy.

"We are here today to see the effects of war, of peace, of hate, of love, of cowardice, of bravery, of the search, and of the finding all personified in this kunoichi. She embodied the ideals of a true shinobi, one who pressed for answers and learned how to make the most of what she discovered. One who realized that hard work was the key to unlocking her most hidden potentials. One who learned that feelings are not always an unneccessary part of a ninja's life.

"Some have claimed that the fate of an Uchiha is pre-destined to be full of pain, death, and impossible choices. But those who have not encountered such things in their life do not really know what it is to live. It should be considered a privelege, not a curse, to endure these trials that one might better appreciate the positive parts of living.

"Aya learned at the end of her journey that somtimes the end of one's life does not always mean that you yourself are swept into obscurity. Let us not mock this beautfiul creature's gift to us by scorning peace or friendship when it is offered. And let us never forget Aya, lest we forget what she gave to all of us in the shinobi world.

"Aya is a true hero and, like her aunt, she gained such an identity after she sacrificed everything she had, including her life. And whenver we feel that we have nothing left to live for or that conflict is the only answer to our disagreements, let us do nothing but utter the name of Uchiha Aya and let it be enough to settle our unquiet spirits and help mend our broken hearts."

It was the most talking Gaara would ever do in his entire life. He claimed it was the only thing he felt important enough in his life to talk about for so long.