Sadly this is the ending of Her Apocalypse. Read the end notes for more information. ;) Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck through reading and critiquing this!

"Stop Sasori" Itachi commanded coldly as the puppet master's finger's twitched. "There's something more to this than either or them have told us."

The puppet master halted. "Please… enlighten us."

Eyes boring into her, Itachi glared at them each. It made sense now, their protectiveness of the other, the easy friendship between such frozen kunoichi who were such opposites. As the silence hung, Itachi glanced between them.

"It would seem that these two are sisters."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura's eyes looked to the ground, her gaze darkening in confirmation. Yichi slowly got to her feet to stand beside Sakura. Their eyes were very similar in shape, and their faces were nearly exact overlays. But Sakura's skin was darker, and Yichi's eyes held no trace of green. Yet, in form, the only difference was the wings which shone on Yichi's back and the slightly shorter torso.

Critically, Itachi's gaze swept over them both. Yes… there was no doubt by their appearances that they could potentially be related. But how could they have been in separate villages? If Sakura was a Yakamichi by blood, then she would have been raised in the Mist village. And if Yichi were of the Haruno line, she would have been a part of the Leaf village's squads.

His eyes narrowed at Sakura. "How did you two come to be separated if you are sisters?" he asked quietly.

She bit her lip and then he watched as a scene unfolded in his mind….

***Flashback, Three year's prior***

Sakura slowly set down the two pictures, her green eyes sorrowful as she replaced them back in the files. One of them was of a young Naruto beside his father, the other of the Uchiha clan before the massacre. The resemblance between each of the members of her team and their family was striking… but it made her internally bleed.

"Shoshou… I've been wondering…" Sakura said softly. "Why is it that my family… I look nothing like my mother at all...and my father has no relatives that look as I do either…"

"Sakura, that is not for me to tell you." The Hokage said, shaking her head as she took a small drink of sake and rubbed her temples.

Sakura watched suspiciously, recognizing the signs of regret in her instructor's face. "Tsunade-sama, you know that my parents are dead. If it is not for the Hokage to tell me…. Where will I find out?" she questioned softly, her eyes never leaving her instructor's face.

Caving under the girl's gaze, the Gondame pulled out a red file. Opening it slowly, she placed it on the desk. "Sakura… you look nothing like your family because they are not you're biological family. That is why you have never developed the Haruno bloodline correctly and why you can only trigger it in rage. ANBU found you outside our gates, unconscious and bloodied so badly that chakra was leaking out of your back. You were about three at the time, but we could only estimate. Where you are from is a mystery, because no one knows anything about you besides what has happened here in Leaf," she replied gravely. "I have spoken with other leaders, and there is no trace of a clan with you're appearances or trace of a family. Sakura may not even be you're real name."

With a heavy drink of sake, the hokage shook her head. "But that should not change who you are. You have made an identity for yourself and that is why I have not told you. Sanara and Haruko loved you, and I believe they thought that it would make you feel like an outcast if you knew that you were not really from the Village hidden in the Leaves."

**Present time**

Itachi shook his head slightly, trying to clear the thought. But the pink haired kunoichi's eyes narrowed and then another flash back entered his mind.

**Flashback, two years prior**

A scroll lay open before her, and she trembled as she read on. The Gondaime had never granted her access to these, but yet, she had to know. The wounds that she had seen, the burn marks that had been so horrendous that they could only be caused by chakra, had been hauntingly familiar.

She had given Kakashi the same wounds not a week earlier. "This has to be some kind of connection!" she thought, running over the information quickly, worriedly. "No two jutsu replicate that similarly… especially kekkei genkai. No… it's just not possible. But the person who did this... its horrible."

Reading quickly over the information in her medical files, she felt her heart sink as she took a shuddering breath.

The Yakamichi clan, born of the Star village, is said to be descended of angel's. However, their halo is deceiving, for they are known for being one of the harshest clans in the Shinobi world. Their bloodline appears in three stages: Heavenly Blessing, Halo Bands, and the Angellic Essence. They are marked by their unusual appearances.

All children born into this clan are put out at the age of three to fend for themselves in the shinobi world after developing a chakra halo over their head. This halo is composed of a chakra that only the holder can touch without being burned, and is called the Heavenly Blessing Stage. If the clan member dies, their halo will regenerate them up to three times.

However, with this halo comes a curse seal which appears on the left shoulder. Controlled by the head of the clan, this mark can send extreme pain to the person it is shone on. But this mark is required to advance to stage two, the Heavenly bands. In this stage, the user grows chakra like bands which can be manipulated into varying forms. Their halo remains, however, above their head. These two new halos are found on the wrists and are controlled by will. The user also gains the two rage abilities. The effect of these rages is not clear. It is also rumored that they gain solid chakra wings for short periods of time.

Stage three, though known to exist, has not been obtained by any member of the clan known to date.

Anyone touched by the Yakamichi chakra will suffer severe burning from the chakra nature. These wounds cannot be healed by shinobi methods.

She stared at the page. Her own abilities were so similar to the stage two… yet she had no marks upon her back besides scars. Nor did she have a halo that appeared over her head. Despair filled her until she read further.

There is said to be four branches of the Yakamichi clan. The main branch currently resides in the Mist village. The other secondary clans can be found in the countries of Fire, Lightning, and Sound. However, there is only three known living members.

Tears trailed down her cheeks as she slowly rolled the scroll up and placed it back on the shelf. She had family, somewhere in the world her family existed.

**End Flashback**

Yichi spoke softly as Sakura turned away. "I did not realize the relationship at first. We both were very different in personality, and though she was similar in build, I couldn't see myself in her. But as I told her my story, I saw that flash in her. That small feel of the chakra which was nearly my own. But I still did not say anything; I wanted to be absolutely sure."

"By tracing my own bloodline along the members, as I could, I found that the branch in fire country was missing. The youngest of them never appeared where he or she should have. There was no mention of any traits that pointed to the Yakamichi clan. And so I dug deeper, into the Akatsuki files on her… and I found the mention of 'Sakura Florus', a technique so similar in form to the Yakamichi Dark Rage, but lacking the principle traits of my bloodline. She had no halo, nor mark on her shoulder." Yichi continued. "So I looked futher before realizing that it was not that she had no mark… it was just that the mark had been slashed to unrecognition. Its hidden in her scars so well."

Softly, Sakura picked up where Yichi had left off. "Yichi borrowed me from you're room while you were asleep to tell me about her theory. That's why you didn't wake up, Itachi. I wasn't planning to leave the base… we wanted to find out why I have no halo…"

Forming seals she gently, placed her palm out so that chakra glowed around it. A soft aura began to appear around her, glowing a subtle red. Her eyes blazed with the brilliance as chakra slowly formed down her back to reveal a set of large crystal wings. They were large, glittering with all different colors of the rainbow as black kanji's slowly appeared around her eyes and down her arms as the chakra bands appeared. "It was only hidden, dormant because my mind did not know how to find it unless I was enraged," she explained, turning to show off the solid chakra forms as they cocooned around her protectively. Her eyes were still cold. "The tampering of you're seal was not my fault."

Silence hung as Itachi felt his breath taken away by her beauty as the light struck her shimmering form. This was what his brother had been too blind to see, the power he himself had ignored though it had lingered just beyond his sight. So much like a snow storm: breathtaking, icy, and powerful.

As Sakura stared into the coal colored eyes, she watched the fury slowly dissolve into a flicker of cold approval mixed with something more. But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next. Itachi's form slowly flickered until it was behind her, his breath tickling her neck.

"I apologize for acting hastily, Sakura. It seems my anger was… misdirected."

She felt her throat tighten as shock numbed her body. He had…apologized… to her. She could smell him behind her, intimately close as his scent of summer storms flooded her senses. She could barely think. "Th-…thank you," she replied stumbling over her words.

The Uchiha turned to the other Yakamichi girl. Her lilac eyes betrayed that she was still wary of him, her bands flitted slightly in front of her like a shield as she stared at him. "I also, it seems, owe you an apology as well, Yichi."

"Accepted…" Yichi answered taking a deep breath. Her bands slowly faded back into her form as Sakura's did likewise. The air of the room was calmer now, no longer clogged with the chakra of battle. Yet her eyes narrowed as her mind sensed something more. Something wasn't quite right. Her eyes scanned over the room. Someone was missing. "Wait. What happened to Sasori's puppets? And where is he?"

Itachi's eyes narrowed. There was no way that the puppet master had been able to clean that wreck up in the short amount of time that they had been speaking. Nor would he have been able to leave without Itachi noticing. Then he sensed the spike in chakra.

A startled cry left Yichi's lips as she fell to the ground twitching as she gripped her neck. The seal glowed brightly, making her writhe as her body tensed against the pain. Shooting forward, Sakura tried to reach for her chakra when fire ran through her body, forcing her down to the ground as she let out a tortured sob.

Moving sharply, Itachi felt ice seep into his viens as smoke exploded in the same instant throughout the entire chapel. Holding his breath as he activated his sharigan, he silently swore. The smoke would not allow him to penetrate through it. He was blind.

A soft, malicious whisper met his ears. "It seems I've fooled the great Akatsuki prodigy once more…. Thank you for returning my angels to me. I'll be sure to return them after I finish playing with them Uchiha. You let you're guard down once more, and this time you won't have a body to bury!"

The smoke slowly cleared, to reveal both forms missing. A coldness settled over Itachi as he stared at the stone. Then in a burst of rage, he threw the kunai through the stainglass window, shattering into a million shard as he walked off to prepare. For time was limited against his rival. The same rival who he had killed before in battle…

Walking along the desolate halls of the Akatsuki base, he entered the dark room of Pein. "Torin has returned," he stated bluntly. "And he has taken both Yichi and Sakura."

The leader's eyes narrowed sharply as he let out a soft 'tch'. "You're feeling are clouding your judgment, Itachi. The Yakamichi are of no concern to us," Pein stated coldly. "Neither carry any secrets vital to the Akatsuki. There are more important matters at hand."

"It seems," he continued, despite the Uchiha's frozen eyes, "that the kyuubi is still alive."

*~*~*~*~*

Standing at the edge of the city, Itachi felt his eyes narrow. The kyuubi would be able to locate Sakura faster than he would. All he had to do now was locate him.

A/N: Part one is now finished… The next part that will be coming up soon is going to be up and titled soon, though as of yet, I'm not sure what it will be called. Any suggestions for name or characters will be appreciated.