Meilin: I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Duo: Unfortunately…..

Meilin: This is gonna be great…. And as a hint as to this ending, I have produced the following quote…. (((If you don't wanna 'spoil' the ending, skip to ON WITH THE FIC)))

--------------------SPOILER START-----------------------

"The only way to show how evil a character truly is, is to kill a character the reader cares about." – J. K. Rowling

Sasuke: I'm not gonna like this, am I?

Meilin: Maaaaaaaaaaaybe. I haven't set it in stone yet. However, this will be a three-part fic. 'A Shinobi's Fate' is part one. 'The Shinigami's Folly' will be part two, and I don't have a title for part three yet! This will be the final paragraph for part one:

She sobbed. Sasuke was like a drug to her. She could've lived not knowing, but now that she'd felt his soft touch, how could she live without it? There was no choice. She was going to get him back.

-----------------------SPOILER END----------------------

Meilin: ON WITH THE FIC!

NOTE: I've read up to part 2 of the Chuunin exam. I'm gonna write on what I've gathered from many sites. Mild to Major spoilers. I'm gonna work on the assumption that all our favorite Genin…. Failed. Inserting a character, who will be central to the plot. Several favorite characters will disappear halfway through part one. I will do my best to make Meilin a believable NON MARY-SUE character. God I hate Mary-Sues... And pay attention, once in a while I'll drop hints about what's going to happen. Cookies to anyone who can guess! That is all.

I've changed their ages. Character ages now:

Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, Gaara, ect: 16

Meilin, Lee, Neji, ect: 17

Itachi: 21

Kurenai, Kakashi: 28

For those who don't know honorifics, how a character is addressed means a lot. –kun is a term of friendly familiarity for boys. –chan is the same as that for girls. –san is a term of respect Like Mr. or Mrs. –sama and -dono are terms of utmost respect, like lord. -sempai is a term used by a lowerclassmen towards upperclassmen in school or work settings. No honorific means the person referred to is very close to the speaker, and this usually includes family, lovers, and close friends. I'm probably gonna end up forgetting these halfway through.

Oniichan means 'Older Brother.' Oneechan means 'Older Sister.'

(((AN))))

action (In Notes)

"Talking. Duh."

'Thinking'

And remember, I usually won't reveal the bigger plot until chapter 2 or 3. I like to take the Tolkein route and make sure you understand the characters first.

Meilin: SASUKE! THE DISCLAIMER!

Sasuke: Meilin doesn't own Naruto, or any other games or anime, even if she wishes she did. She doesn't own the songs used for the lyric no jutsu. She DOES own the Lyric no Jutsu, so NO TAKING IT WITHOUT PERMISSION.

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Kakashi's Team Seven left the Chuunin exam regretfully. Walking down the street, Sasuke refused to look back at his teammates, and even Naruto refused to look up form the ground. Sakura looked troubled. "It's okay, right Sasuke? I mean… We can reapply, we've only been on so many missions…."

"Shut up." Sasuke interrupted. "It wasn't our lack of experience that failed us."

Sakura looked down. "We couldn't do anything about those Otonin, Sasuke. We just couldn't sto-"

"Save it."

Sasuke turned suddenly, taking a detour to his house and leaving his teammates far behind. He pushed past crowds and made it to the long road leading up to the Uchiha manor. The Uchiha's had long been a prominent family, and all their members and branches had lived along the same street, until….. Sasuke stopped suddenly, finishing the thought in his head. 'Until Itachi killed them.' The thought made his blood run cold. He shook his head vigorously. Too soon. Too soon to think of it. He started running, anxious to take a cold shower and go to sleep, to just blot out reality, if only for a moment. He slowed down as he approached his house, the main Uchiha Complex. He caught site of a shadow nearby, and stopped. He reached towards his Kunai pouch slowly….

Suddenly, a girl jumped up from the ground at the site of Sasuke, hugging him. "Uchiha-kun!" she yelled, "It's been so long!"

Sasuke pulled away. "Wha...?" He took a good look at her. The girl was familiar, her long hair was tied up in buns, but it still nearly reached the ground. She wore long embroidered yellow robes with a yin-yang on the front. "Ah! Kimura-chan? After all this time?"

Meilin smiled. "It's good to be back... Uchiha-kun."

"When DID you get back? I haven't seen you anywhere..."

"About an hour ago. I went to see you, But Iruka-San said you were attempting to pass the Chuunin exam." Sasuke looked down. Meilin sighed. "That bad, huh?"

"It wasn't that the tests were all that difficult... It was..." he put his hand over his shoulder, where Orochimaru's mark was visible. "It was just that I wasn't feeling well was all..." he finished lamely.

Meilin's eyes narrowed. Ninja didn't miss obvious gestures like that. She darted behind Sasuke and forced him to show her the mark. She looked right in his eye. "You always were a bad liar. Tell me the truth!" she said in a voice demanding obedience.

Sasuke sighed. "The ninja from hide-in-sound snuck a guy named Orochimaru into the exam. He's really, unbelievably strong... and he knew Itachi."

Meilin gasped. "Oro... Orochimaru! But he's... He's an S-level security threat in four lands! And he..." She bit her lip. "What was he doing in the Chuunin Exam? How did you survive?"

"He left... I can't remember real well, but Naruto was acting really strange, he was overflowing with chakra... And he couldn't even scratch that snakey freak..."

Meilin swallowed nervously. Infinite repetitions of 'Do I tell him?' echoed in her head. "Um... Uchiha-kun..."

"Sasuke."

"Huh?"

"My name is Sasuke. I'm more than just my clan. I'm me."

Meilin smiled knowingly. "Okay... Sasuke-kun."

For the first time in a long time, Sasuke smiled. "Do you have a place to stay?" he asked. She shook her head. "Stay here. This manor has been empty far too long."

Meilin beamed. "Of course."

She thought back. 'It's the least I can do... Spend time with him.' Her eyes closed of their own accord. Images of this same house floating through her mind. Pictures of death, and pain... The form of a small boy, crying...

"Kimura-chan?" Sasuke said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Have you heard news..."

Meilin cut him off. "No." she walked past him, clenching her fist. 'I can't tell him. If he knew about Akasuki before he was capable of putting up a fight...'

Sasuke sighed. "I think Old Man Hokage is hiding it from me..."

"Itachi's reasoning?"

"Yea..."

Meilin winced. 'Itachi... Why did you cause this pain? It could have been so different.'

Sasuke glanced at her. "Something wrong?" he asked as they entered the living room and sat down.

"No... Nothing." she lied.

-------Flashback Mode-------

"Itachi-kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" The young Meilin called. Sasuke opened the door. "Oniichan's busy, Kimura-Senpai. He can't come to the door."

"I know, Uchiha-kun! I came to help!"

Sasuke went wide-eyed. "Then you know what he's doing?"

"Of course I do! Now c'mon, let me in!" Sasuke moved aside, and Meilin dashed up to Itachi's room and knocked on the door. "It's me, Itachi-kun."

Itachi opened the door and smiled. "Meilin-chan. I'm glad you came." he said softly, "Did you bring your research notes?"

Meilin nodded. "All of them, just like you asked!" she said happily.

"Good. I've got the set all hooked up. Are you ready to test your Lyric no Jutsu?"

"Yu-huh!"

"Good, good. This could be the jutsu that'll help you become a Kage."

Meilin grinned and grabbed the headset. She stood near the center of the room. "What should I sing, Itachi-kun?"

"Something simple, but it has to have lots of imagery."

Meilin thought for a moment, and smiled. "You think you own whatever land you land on." she sang in perfect tune, as the floor beneath them turned slowly to dirt." The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim. But I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name..." slowly at first, then with growing speed, stones and trees emerged from the earth beneath them.

Meilin's eyes sparkled, but she kept singing, slowly allowing more chakra to seep into the song. "You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you. But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew, you never knew... Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned? can you sing with all the voices of a mountain? Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

Itachi motioned for her to stop. She did so, and immediately the room came back into focus, and Meilin fell backwards into a chair. Itachi sighed. "A kid your age shouldn't push themselves so hard."

Meilin shrugged. "You're one to talk Mr. By-the-time-I-was-your-age-I-was-a-member-of-the-Anbu."

"Touché. But i'm not you."

"I could be stronger."

"So could Sasuke, but the fact remains, you push yourself to hard."

"Whatever." she said, sighing. "What did you think?"

"Of the jutsu? You did well, but it'll take real stamina to make it practical for confrontations."

"Then i'll work harder! I'm gonna master 1,000 jutsus... I'm gonna be the best!"

Itachi laughed. "You've got confidence. That's good, because a moron like you needs it."

Things went this way for several more years. Meilin, only a year older than Sasuke, was always happy to spend time with the ninja genius Itachi, learning from him, and in turn teaching Sasuke when Itachi had a mission. Meilin's guardians began to talk to the Uchiha about a match. But then, that horrible day...

She'd blocked as much of that day out as she could. She'd come, as always, to research the jutsu's she and Itachi were perfecting. She had, as always, yelled for Itachi at the door, expecting Sasuke to answer. When he didn't, she was puzzled, and knocked on the door. It swung open with ease.

Meilin was confused. The Uchiha's were never careless enough to leave a door unlocked. Puzzled and concerned, she walked through the halls, and into the living room. What she saw in that room nearly made her puke. The smell alone threatened to add her to the body count. Bodies of every size and gender lay shrewn about the room, some clearly killed by jutsu's that only she and Itachi knew about. Blood stained the floor, pooling beneath corpses that only vaguely resembled humans. Meilin glanced around. Where was Sasuke? Surely not him too...

She saw him then. Laying face down in a corner of the room, not far from his parents. There was little blood near him that she could see, and her eyes widened with shock. she dashed forwards through the madness, slipping and sliding in blood, running towards Sasuke. 'Just one...' she thought, 'Let just one of my friends live...'

After what seemed an eternity, she reached Sasuke's limp form. Grabbing his shoulders, turning him over and leaning him on the wall, she finally began to cry. "Sasuke! Sasuke! Please wake up! Please!" she called, shaking him. "Please…. I don't want to be alone again… Sasuke…." She sobbed.

Sasuke moaned, opening his eyes slowly. "Kimura…. Senpai?"

Meilin's eyes watered again and she hugged him. "You're all right! I was so scared…."

Sasuke looked at her as she pulled away. "Worried? Why…" he began, just as he remembered what happened. He looked to the left, to his parents, and tears filled his eyes. Meilin knew just how Sasuke felt. She leaned his head on her shoulder and told his it was okay to cry.

Afterwards, she led Sasuke silently from the room. She knew why Sasuke had lived, why it happened just before she arrived. Itachi had wanted avengers to kill him, and she told Sasuke so.

Sasuke grimaced. "Then I will kill him. I will, and no one else." We didn't know it then, but that day, Sasuke began to change. But we digress….

Once both children had calmed down enough, Meilin and Sasuke went to Itachi's room, to find clues to where he went, why he did this. As Meilin looked around the room, everything seemed to be just as she'd left it the day before. Everything... Except... "Itachi's copy of my research notes!" she gasped, "They're not here!"

Sasuke looked up. "You're sure?"

Meilin nodded. "Every page. Sasuke, relay what happened here to Lord Hokage. This one mess we cannot clean on our own."

Sasuke nodded, albeit grudgingly, and dashed to tell the Hokage. Meilin's eyes watered. "Itachi... Why?"

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The Hokage sent his Black Ops teams to investigate the slaughter of the Uchiha Clan. Sasuke and Meilin had already decided not to let them hunt Itachi, they would do that themselves. Meilin returned to her mothers' village, Kirigakure, to investigate different areas.

--------------End Flashback Mode--------------

"Nothing at all." she lied sadly.

Sasuke glared at her. "Who's a bad liar?"

"Both of us?"

"Yeah..."

Meilin looked down. "It's just that... If only i'd been a bit... I don't know... If i'd been a better shinobi... I could've stopped it... Helped you more... Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke sighed. "Thinking like that won't help us any. But if we become strong now, maybe we can stop the next disaster... Okay Meilin?"

Meilin sniffed and looked at him. "Yeah..." She relaized that Sasuke had used her name, and turned red. "S-Sasuke-kun..."

Sasuke laughed. "Sasuke. Just Sasuke."

"But Sasuke-kun..."

"Sasuke!"

"S-Sasuke." She blushed.

He grinned. "Good." He put and arm over her shoulders.

Meilin leaned on him and started to sing softly. "Kanashii hodo hikari dashita... Shiroi yami kirisaku tsubasa ni nare..."

Sasuke smiled. "It's pretty, Meilin."

"Yeah. Kinda wish I could remember where I learned it though."

"You can't?"

"Not a bit."

"Weird..."

Meilin yawned. Sasuke smiled. "Time for bed. We'll se the others in the morning."

Meilin smiled. 'More that you know...' she thought as she went to her room.

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Meilin: YEAH! How'd I do?

Sasuke: ...

Meilin: REVIEW PLEASE!