Forgotten

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto (Shippuden). This is a story inspired by the original made up for entertainment purposes only. - Krystal

Chapter 69: A Breather

Yuki's sudden appearance at the headquarters made a few people jump. Usually, she would only come if she was asked to come or if something unexpected had happened. However, neither was the case. Without a word, she headed to the Sensing Water Sphere created by Ao and connected herself to it. Nobody said anything as everyone, by now, knew she wasn't one to act without reason.

"It's definitely his." She mumbled. "He's heading towards Naruto and Bee."

"Who are you talking about?" Tsunade walked up to her and asked.

"Itachi." She simply replied as her eyes filled up with tears unknowingly. "I'm heading over there."

"Hold on. You need to calm yourself first." Tsunade told her. "Just remember that he isn't who you think he is. He's a reincarnation, he..."

Before she could finish, Yuki had already disappeared and reappeared where Naruto was. He was surprised by her presence, but did not dare ask any questions as he noticed her expression. Instead, he simply remained silent and quickly gave sign for Bee for do the same. She was thankful that he noticed how she was feeling and allowed her to stay quiet as she was unsure what to tell him. She took a deep breath and finally said to him:

"Itachi is just ahead."

She could hear him gulp down his saliva in anxiety. Naruto heard about the truth about Itachi. However, he was still uncertain whether he should believe it or not. On the other hand, he knew that Yuki believed in Itachi. He knew that Yuki saw Itachi as a friend, a brother even. He wasn't nervous about fighting Itachi, he feared Yuki's reaction when she would see him. He knew how much Itachi meant to her.

Finally, they came face to face. He wasn't alone. He was accompanied by someone Naruto recognized as Nagato. They weren't in control of their own actions. Nagato was apologetic about his actions and tried to warn them before every move that he made. Bee took care of him for most of the part. He struggled however. Yuki had her sharingan activated and was able to keep up with Itachi without much trouble while Naruto was in awe of how agile and how skilled Uchiha Itachi actually was. Every time they had faced each other, Itachi remained still and only used genjutsu against them. He didn't bother to fight. It wasn't that he thought they were too weak to even bother, it was because he was unwilling to fight. He was never out there to harm them. He was there to protect them. The only way to fight without hurting them was through genjutsu.

"You are that girl who sacrificed her life for another during the attack against Konohagakure." Nagato told Yuki as they were now facing off.

"I heard about you after the incident. I owe you my life." Yuki replied as she tried to take down his summoning animals.

"You don't owe me anything. I should have never taken your life in the first place."

"I never thought I would have to fight you again." She told him as she stopped herself from being pulled towards him by his gravitational jutsu.

Meanwhile, Bee was occupied by Itachi who seemed to be unfazed by any of his attacks. Yuki glanced over and was only thankful that he wasn't using the Susano against them. Itachi then moved over to where Yuki and Nagato were fighting. Naruto also made it to the scene. As Itachi's mangekyo activated itself, Naruto started sensing something rumbling inside his body. Suddenly a crow emerged from his body and stared into the reincarnated Itachi's eyes. Itachi's movement changed at that moment. He began burning down the summoning animals with his Amaterasu. He then did the same to Nagato who then fell onto the ground. As Naruto was still confused about what had happened and why there was a crow living inside of him, Yuki quickly went and fought alongside Itachi to get rid of the remaining enemies.

"It's been a while since we were a team." Itachi told her.

"You never cease to surprise me." Yuki said. "Who would have thought that the reincarnation jutsu had such a weakness point."

"It wasn't meant for this purpose though." Itachi said as he sighed. "I suppose Sasuke hasn't returned the village yet?"

"How did you know?"

"If he did, it would have been the first thing you would have told me or you would have brought him immediately here to see me."

Yuki smiled. She didn't know she was that predictable. Perhaps he was one of the only people who always really knew what she was thinking about all the time. The fight against Nagato didn't allow them to talk anymore than that. He pushed away the eternal flames from his body and began moving around again. He somehow managed to latch himself onto Bee and began extracting the chakra from his enemy to make it his own. By doing so, he was able to freely move around once again. He then summoned even more animals to fight by his side and quickly headed towards Naruto. He got a hold of Naruto who seemingly was struggling to break free. Yuki assumed that his soul was being extracted from him. She tried to quickly make her way there to help him, but was met with those weird summoning monsters. Bee made his way close enough to be within range. However, Nagato also got a hold of him and was just about to fire a gun-like weapon to his head. Itachi appeared right at the moment with his Susano and managed to save them both. Nagato seemed surprised that he got past all the eyes that were connected by the Rinnegan. However, he then noticed that Yuki had something to do with it. Itachi and Yuki did not have to exchange words to be able to come up with a perfect strategy. She blinded all the eyes in the surrounding using her speed while Itachi waited for the perfect opportunity to come in and grab Naruto and Bee away from Nagato.

"You are both such lifesavers." Naruto said as he was thankful to have kept his soul.

Before they could celebrate, they heard Nagato's voice:

"Planetary Devastation."

A black mass was thrown into the sky and began pulling everything in the surrounding towards it, including themselves. Yuki unleashed her mangekyo sharingan and looked directly at it.

"Kamui." She murmured.

The mass slowly was sucked into a different dimension as the gravitational force ceased itself where they were. Nagato was seemingly distracted by the sudden disappearance of his jutsu. In that moment, Itachi used the Totsuka Sword to seal Nagato. All the movements stopped as silence and peace, once again, reigned upon the forest they had just fought in.

"Any last words, Nagato?" Itachi asked him.

"Just to Naruto..." Nagato began. "I'll finally be able to go to where our master is. I'll watch your story unfold with him. We'll be cheering you on."

He paused for a second and continued, looking at Yuki now: "You... You have very special eyes and soul."

With that, he was sealed forever. Yuki wasn't too sure what he meant by that. Sure, she had the mangekyo sharingan, but it wasn't that special. Nagato had seen it before. Itachi had a much more powerful version of it. It wasn't something to be labelled as special. Despite her confusion, she was just glad it finally came to an end without anybody getting hurt. She undid her sharingan and the natural color of her eyes returned.

"I didn't realize to what extent you have been able to use them." Itachi told her.

"I can't say I'm an expert with them just yet. They also consume a lot of chakra. I've also been struggling with that."

"What now?" Naruto asked.

"Well, you still need to make it to the different battlefields. Last time I checked, some are still waiting for your arrival." Yuki said.

"And I'm going to stop this reincarnation jutsu." Itachi then said.

"How?" Yuki asked him. "I'll come with you."

"No. You are needed elsewhere. You know that. I can't tell you how long it would take to stop it, but for now, you need to be elsewhere."

"Let me at least put a seal on you so I can come and help you if you ever..."

"Why would you want to appear in front of the dead?" Itachi asked jokingly. "I wouldn't want you to follow me to the afterlife."

"I..."

Yuki bit her lip. He chuckled and lifted his arm towards her.

"Go ahead." He said. "It doesn't hurt to have someone to come to your aid once in a while."

Yuki placed her seal on his sleeve. Without another word, he headed off. She wasn't expecting a goodbye from him. He was always like that. He left the village without a proper farewell. He left this world without saying much either. Now, he was putting an end to it all without another word yet again. Yuki remembered how she used to perceive ANBUs. He was exactly what she had always envisioned them being like at that moment. He, once again, would quietly bring peace to the world without the knowledge of everyone. He liked it that way. She watched his back as he disappeared into the forest wishing him good luck, wishing the world good luck and thanking him for his service.

Naruto then stepped up next to her and awkwardly told her:

"I know this isn't the best timing... but, you know Omoi, right?"

"Did something happen to him?" She asked quickly, snapping out of it just as quickly as she started daydreaming.

"Not exactly, but yes..." Naruto said. "One of my clones was with him, but he accidentally killed it. He is on his own right now in a danger zone. Something about... what was it again... eh... AH! The Thundercloud Unit!"

Without further delay, Yuki teleported herself to where Omoi was. The Thundercloud Unit meant a lot to him as he was once part of them. They were a group of elite children from Kumogakure. Despite their young age, their skills allowed them to join the war, but only as part of the supply unit. They weren't to engage in any fight if possible. Something must have happened to them for Omoi to have rushed over to help them. The Thundercloud Unit meant a lot to Yuki as well. During her stay in Kumogakure, she helped trained some of the current members of the Unit. Although she wasn't involved daily with them, she still cared dearly about them. Furthermore, they were children. They should have never been brought onto the battlefield. Their innocence was taken away from them because of the current state of the world. She couldn't allow anything bad to happen to them.

As she appeared, she found herself surrounded by a pink fog. Not too far away was Omoi fighting off some white Zetsus who were seemingly stronger than the ones they had encountered before. She rushed over joined in the fight while holding her breath as she wasn't sure what the pink fog was all about. As she began running out of air, she quickly jumped up high enough to be above the smokescreen. As she took in some fresh air, she quickly headed back down to lend Omoi a hand in fighting those white Zetsus. While they were fighting, Yuki tried to locate where the Thundercloud Unit was. They shouldn't be too far if Omoi made his way here. However, it was hard to sense their chakra among the thousands of Zetsus that were present at the scene. They had to move elsewhere. As they fought their way through, they got close to a water source. Yuki pointed it out to Omoi and the two of them dove into the water quickly. Once in, Yuki used one of her water jutsu to create a bubble around them, allowing them to finally breath properly.

"They are still alive. I know it." Omoi then told her.

"I have no doubts about that either." She replied. "That's why I headed here right away. Time is ticking though. That pink fog is heavily poisoned."

"It's from the red soil." He told her. "Its gas is highly toxic. If inhaled, you wouldn't be able to live past 30 minutes."

"The kids are probably hiding somewhere the gas cannot leak in. Let me enter the sage mode to find them." She said as she sat down in the bubble and began collecting Nature energy.

"You better do it quickly, they are swimming towards us." Omoi said, talking about the White, or now, Pink Zetsus.

Although he was rushing her, he knew he had to give her enough time. Even though he didn't say it explicitly, he was impressed at her skills as a shinobi now. He always knew how strong she was, but he never thought it was possible for her to reach this level in the short amount of time that they were away from each other.

"Found them." Yuki said as she stood up, ready to take action.

They both took one more breath of air and busted out of the bubble, both using a lightning jutsu to kill every single Zetsus that had followed them into the water. They then rushed onto the land and headed in the direction of the Thundercloud Unit. As they got closer, the kids had just gone out of their hiding spot, knowing they wouldn't last much longer in there. They had also entered the fight against the White Zetsus. One of them then fell onto the ground and Yuki quickly rushed over to protect him from the White Zetsus. She grabbed him and pushed him away from danger as she fought against the enemies. The Thundercloud Unit reunited with Omoi and together, they touched tip and created a large scale lightning jutsu that eradicated most of the Zetsus present. As the ground got burnt in the process, the gas stopped spreading into the air as well. With a wind jutsu, Yuki blew the remainder of the gas away from them. They could now breathe freely. Together, they got rid of the rest of the enemies without a problem.

"Yuki-san!" One of them called out as they finally killed the last one. "I haven't seen you in forever."

Yuki smiled and walked over to him.

"You've grown a lot, Yukai." She said. "I'm glad to see that you are well."

"It's all thanks to the both of you." He replied as Omoi made his way over.

"Let's head out to complete the mission you were entrusted with first before I can accept your thank you." Omoi told him, pointing at the supplies that the Thundercloud Unit was carrying.

The kids agreed as they were about to set out again. Omoi was going to accompany them when he noticed that Yuki had now turned their back to them. She believed her job was done and was going to head back to the headquarters to give them an update on the current situation on the battlefield, including Itachi's sudden appearance and lending hand to the Allied Shinobi. She wanted everyone to know, now, what that man had done for them. It was enough with all the secrecy. He deserved the acknowledgement of everyone. Just as she was about to bid them farewell, Omoi grabbed onto her wrist and asked her to stay for a little while longer. He immediately let go, however, remembering that she now had someone in her heart and it would be disrespectful towards that person for him to not know his boundaries.

"I feel like I owe you an apology." Omoi then said. "I... Honestly, despite us fighting together as a team yesterday, I still felt like you didn't care about any of us all that much."

"I don't blame you." Yuki replied as she looked at him in the eyes.

"Still. I wanted to say sorry and thank you for coming here to help."

"It's my duty to..."

"No. You could have gone elsewhere to help, but you chose this location in particular." Omoi interrupted her. "I know this isn't the right time to discuss these things, but I really wanted you to realize that you care a lot more than you believe yourself to care. If that made any sense..."

He thought again about what he said and was uncertain that his point came across right. He sighed. Perhaps he was overthinking again, but he felt like that didn't come out the way it should have. Yuki chuckled at the sight of a confused Omoi.

"I've got to give it you. You actually can confuse your own thoughts since you have so many. I got your point though. Don't worry."

"Good. Don't say it's simply your duty again. You are a lot more compassionate than you think you are." He said as he rushed after the Thundercloud Unit with a slight blush on his cheeks.

He waved goodbye all the way as Yuki, with a smile on her face, disappeared in a whirlwind of snow. He always knew how to put a smile on her face. Had she stayed in Kumogakure that year, things might have turned out differently between the two of them. It perhaps would have been the ending he wished for. She was grateful that he felt happy for her. With those thoughts in mind, she appeared in the headquarters and walked towards the Kages' table to give them the update, not forgetting to give both Itachi and Omoi credit for what they had done for the war so far.

End of Chapter 69

Thank you again for reading this story!

Let me know what you are looking forward next in this story!

xox

Krystal