A/N This story is a sequel to KRenee's The Arriving. It is a collaboration between her and I, but I've done most of the writing thus far. A link will be posted on my main page. Enjoy! Characters and concepts belong to their respected owners. This plot and OCs belong to KRenee and I.

Her eyes snapped wide open, and she pulled herself into a seated position, glancing towards the land beyond the nearby cliff. Itachi had sudden gotten much closer.

Standing up, Juritsu jogged out to the cliff, closing her eyes and hastily reaching out, working to pinpoint his location before she could lose track of him again. It surprisingly wasn't that far at all; had he been travelling through the night? And yet, even though he felt as clear as day, there was still something off, something muddled about what she was sensing. It was almost as if some kind of screen was placed in front of her view.

Her eyes narrowed with realization. Something, or someone, was interfering with her abilities.

"Can you sense him?"

She glanced over her shoulder. Somehow, it wasn't surprising that he was up and about. He'd always been a relatively light sleeper, just like her…

Shaking her head slightly to clear her thoughts, she moved her gaze to the landscape around them. "He's a lot closer. But I can't seem to use my technique."

She could feel the slight impatience. "Wha… why not?" The irritation in his voice was clear. But rather than feeding off of that and losing her temper, Juritsu decided to remain calm.

"There's something interfering with my ability to make the jump. Or maybe it's someone, I'm not sure," she was careful to keep her tone neutral as she explained her hypothesis, "All I can tell is that I'm not sure I'd be able to use the technique successfully."

Sasuke didn't respond; she supposed her comeback was valid enough for him not to ask any more questions. Still, for someone to use such a tactic against her… how would anyone know about Instant Transmission? The last time it'd been used was during the Chuunin Exams; she'd used it to move out of the way of Orochimaru's summoned snake in the Forest of Death. Surely there wasn't anyone alive now that had seen it then or before.

Luckily, not everything had been cloaked and messed with. Itachi's location was still in her head, and she knew where to go. She turned back to Sasuke, who gave her a slightly puzzled look as she walked up and grabbed his arm, tugging him into a run towards the cliff.

"What are you…?!"

"Hold on, and don't let go."

She leaped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and ignoring his surprised shout. She knew he was partially expecting them to begin hurdling toward the ground, but she also knew he'd quickly learn otherwise. A grin spread on her lips as she took off into the sky.

How she missed this feeling! She flew forward, the wind rushing by them with a howl, which she paid no heed as she soared towards the forest floor, and Itachi's presence. Sasuke, whom had been initially clinging to her for dear life, had relaxed somewhat, and was in total awe at the whole experience. It was a strange look coming from the boy who single-handedly destroyed the Shinobi Nations. But then again, it wasn't everyday that a human could fly.

She landed not twenty feet from Itachi, who was leaning up against a tree and looking worse for wear. His eyes were wide, most likely with surprise at their sudden appearance.

"Itachi!" Juritsu hurried over to his side, knowing that Sasuke was right behind her.

After a moment, Itachi seemed to realize that he wasn't hallucinating. He let out a long and heavy sigh, sagging to the ground. "Thank god you're alive…" he tiredly spoke up, "How did you find me? I barely have the energy to even walk."

"Your ki signature," she explained as she looked him over, "I found it."

"What happened?" Sasuke asked suddenly, "You're covered in blood."

She'd noticed that too; however, as she was looking him over, there was no wound on him whatsoever, let alone one that would stain his clothing to the condition they were currently in.

Itachi had a strange glint in his eye, almost a haunted expression. "I don't remember," he quietly replied, "I was fighting with Phobetor, and then you two fell off the cliff. Everything went black after that… but when I came to, there was no one around, and everything was covered in blood."

Juritsu's eyebrows furrowed. Her mind was racing. What did all that mean? Itachi had described the kind of situation that would usually have fatal results. But why was he here, completely unharmed? What on earth happened after she and Sasuke fell? More importantly, where did Phobetor and Epiales go?

Abruptly, she was wrenched from her thoughts when Itachi slumped forward, his weight falling into her arms limply. Her stomach plummeted as she hastily leaned him back against the tree and quickly checked for a pulse. To her surprise, and relief, he was still alive.

"Is he…?" she heard Sasuke from behind her. He did a poor job masking the concern in his voice, and it instilled a little hope that perhaps the caring boy she once knew really was still in there somewhere, after all.

"He's alive," she breathed, taking a moment to calm her racing heart. She stood up, slinging Itachi's arm over her shoulder and carefully stood up, supporting Itachi's weight at her side. At this point, she paused, falling into thought.

Sasuke seemed to notice this minute change. "What is it?" he asked.

"Where do we go from here?" she glanced over at him, "I don't know if it'd be safe if we went back to Konoha, since that's where we were first ambushed. But I feel like we're kind of exposed here."

A look of comprehension passed over his features. It seemed the thought hadn't crossed his mind either. But it was still an issue regardless. They were targets; with one person in their team incapacitated, it was especially vital that they needed to go into hiding. The only problem was she didn't know where to go.

"We could go to Sound Village," Sasuke suggested, and she glanced at him – you're going to suggest that?!

Of all the places they could've gone, Sound Village was the last place she wanted to set foot in. She didn't want to see those sights again, experience those sensations, didn't want to relive those memories. A part of her didn't want the chance to make new memories either, afraid of making the same mistake over again. Because it was growing ever clearer to her; Sasuke was someone she couldn't walk away from again.

Even after everything he'd done, she couldn't hold on to her hatred for him. Instead, a voice in the back of her head constantly reminded her of the things they used to have; even if there wasn't a name for it. Sure, the majority of it had been physical, but at least she'd known the direction her feelings had been turning toward. Even if the Uchiha didn't feel the same way, as painful as that was, she still couldn't deny the emotions that pulled her towards him.

But, she scathingly reminded herself, even if she wanted to start over, perhaps go back to what they were before everything went to hell, she wasn't about to make that obvious. He destroyed her home (because she doubted he considered Konoha his home), murdered all of her friends, and went ahead and repeated the process across the rest of the Shinobi Nations as well. The kind of person Sasuke had turned into – led almost blindly by hatred and rage and an insatiable thirst for vengeance without reason… she refused to love.

"You would think of that place," she scowled, earning a murderous glare from the younger of the two Uchiha.

"I'm not talking about the actual village," he shot back, "I'm talking about where I used to go. As soon as the preliminary training was over, I got as far away from the main village as I could."

You mean where you brought me after ambushing me in the forest, you…

"Do you have a better idea?"

She didn't.

…

The first day that Itachi ever laid eyes on Sasuke, he was tiny. Little pudgy hands reaching and grabbing and pulling, big, black eyes forever wide with curiosity. For a while, he was afraid to touch the little angel, for his hands were soaked with blood and he didn't want to be the one to rip out Sasuke's wings.

"Nniinghn!" Sasuke cries out as Itachi turns his back, "Niinii!" He wants to come along; don't go, niisan! I'll miss you! Itachi knows Sasuke will miss him, and he knows that he'll miss Sasuke.

The part that breaks his heart is the way Sasuke almost forgets him during those three years that he spends on that stupidly long mission. Every day, Itachi thinks of Sasuke, wonders how he's doing, how much he's grown. And then three years wanders by and he didn't noticed. By the time he gets home, his father had begun to worry that he'd died, his mother had become ragged with fear for her son, and Sasuke didn't recognize him. The little boy had come running, tripping over himself to get to the door before mother and father did.

Itachi, hair wet with blood, eyes burning with the Sharingan, clothes stained red and torn and dirty and his hands calloused and shadows beneath his eyes and pain and hurt darkening his already coal-colored orbs. Sasuke sees him and his eyes get wider than saucers, and the words he says makes Itachi's eyes widen even further with a mixture of horror and hurt.

"M-mama! There's a hurt boy!"

Father gets there in time to see Itachi's knees give out. He hasn't slept in days, Sasuke doesn't remember him, food is a thing of the past, Sasuke doesn't remember him, his legs have been burning for hours, Sasuke doesn't remember him, he feels sick from the stench of blood and there's a trail of the red stuff following him as father drags him to the bathroom, and Sasuke doesn't remember him.

What kind of world is this, where an older brother is born for the purpose of being hated by his younger brother? Itachi's seen Sasuke's report card; the kid is top of his class, perfect scores, just like Itachi. But he isn't excelling as fast as Itachi, therefore not filling the too-big shoes that Itachi's left for him. Sasuke's hurt, father doesn't seem to care. Itachi soothes him, says the things that he knows a brother should say, ignores the agony coursing through his veins as he struggles with that burden, the decision of a lifetime.

When he sees Sasuke again, truly, the boy is frightened of him. The sight makes Itachi's stomach plummet, but he follows through. Some part of him almost manages to persuade him to kill Sasuke, keep the boy from suffering, but that white-gold glow that always surrounded him is too perfect to break. The light shining is blinding, throws off the course of the shuriken, and then keeps Itachi from following through.

Couldn't do it.

Sasuke grows up in obscurity. Itachi knows this because the next time he sees Sasuke, his eyes are blackened with hatred and anger and that glow around him has faded to nearly nothing, tinted red with the blood of those he had killed without a thought. Itachi beats him senseless, reduces him to a pile of mush, walks away, ignoring the horrible nausea in his stomach.

The lens switches and Itachi's got a bird's eye view of Sasuke, walking away from Konoha. Dodging away from Juritsu, knocking Sakura out, running, leaving home. The glow isn't even noticeable. Sasuke, training under Orochimaru, learning the trade of that perverted snake – or at least, portions of the trade – and finding a new kind of menace in his heart that should never have been there.

Sasuke kills Orochimaru. Formulates his team, hunts down Itachi, succeeds in his goal. That should be the end, right? This is the end of the dream, now we wake up and…

No.

In that little cavern, Madara is telling Sasuke everything, twisting his words in just the right way to ignite a new flame of anger within Sasuke's heart. The halo is gone. His back is stained with blood and his wings have been ripped out, each individual feather torn to shreds and discarded. Sasuke isn't Sasuke anymore; he's a killing machine without a purpose.

Using Juritsu's trust to get into Konoha, finding trust in the residents, and then the betrayal. Kakashi is the first to go, and the others fall just as quickly. He wipes out Konoha, and then, in his rage, tears down the rest of the Shinobi World, from east to west, north to south.

Everything is on fire, everything burning, the familiar stench of blood filling his nostrils and the screams dear god the screams are making him sick and Sasuke is walking away, turning his back, striding into the blackest hole that Itachi's ever seen, he's walking down and carving out his place amongst the inhabitants of Hell and he doesn't see the mistakes he's making he doesn't seem to understand what he's doing why…

He's walking away, and Itachi's legs find the ground, his hand reaching out, "Sasuke!" His voice is barely audible in the thickness of this darkness, so he calls louder, "Sasuke!"

There's a pause as Sasuke stops, painstakingly slowly turning to look over his shoulder at his precious, hated older brother. Itachi wants to ask him why, wants to say something that might reconcile this terrible ache in his chest, but he stops. He stops because he sees the anguish, and the pain, and the loneliness, and the sheer desire for the agony to just stop, Itachi's little brother is perfectly ready to die and it's…

There's a rush of wind strong enough to make Itachi lift his arms to shield his eyes. Black feathers float around him as he lowers his guard, staring at the huge wings that have sprouted from Sasuke's back. His eyes find Sasuke's once again, and his baby brother's lips part, and his tired, empty voice speaks to Itachi, disappointed, miserable, broken.

"It's your fault."

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! The alarm going off in hishead was what roused Itachi, his eyes flying open as he sucked in a startled breath. The dream was gone; the memory of what he saw ephemeral. All he could remember was those black feathers and Sasuke's anguished gaze. DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

At that point, his body forced him to sit up, completely disregarding the terrible soreness in his muscles. DANGER! LOCATE SASUKE AND JURITSU! THERE'S DANGER! INCOMING DANGER! THEY'RE IN DANGER!

"Juritsu." The demi-Saiyan glanced up at the sound of her name, finding Sasuke at the doorway, an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"He's awake."

She blinked at first, not quite processing the words before she very quickly realized that Sasuke was saying Itachi was awake, and she sprang up and followed Sasuke into the bedroom. It had been 24 hours since the older brother had collapsed. In some way, she hadn't expected him to ever wake up. She'd begun to wonder if the man had fallen into an inexplicable coma.

Itachi looked horrified, in his calm, subtle way. Abruptly, his Sharingan appeared, almost startling the two younger shinobi and she watched as he glanced around, eyes darting to and fro as if searching for something.

"Hey," Juritsu spoke up, feeling slightly tentative, "How are you feeling...?"

Itachi's intense focus hadn't wavered as he replied. "Someone's coming."

Juritsu paused at that, furrowed her eyebrows as she reached out. Nothing.

"Um... are you sure about th..." All at once, it was like a crushing force had slammed down onto her shoulders. It'd been a very long time since she'd felt a power on this kind of scale. And while she wanted to know exactly how Itachi was able to sense that before she did, now wasn't the time to be asking those kinds of questions. Because from what she could tell, that same, immense power source was headed right for them.

"Looks like we've got a problem," Juritsu stated, making the urgency clear. Sasuke gave her a slightly questioning glance only for a second before his eyes widened, skin paling. Seemed he'd just picked up on it too.

"What the hell is that?" he asked, glancing over at Juritsu, almost expecting an answer.

"Something we don't want to mess with... Itachi, what the hell are you doing?!"

Itachi was dragging himself out of bed. "We have to fight..." he replied, slightly breathless from the effort of standing up alone.

Juritsu had half a mind to smack some sense into him. Just what had possessed him to think he'd stand any chance in that condition?

"Itachi, no. You're in no shape to fight," she sternly shot back.

"I have to, you don't understand."

"Itachi, I already said-..."

"Itachi, just shut up and sit down," Sasuke cut in unexpectedly with a snap. It was clear the situation was stressful enough to remove any patience the young Uchiha had, but, at least in this case, it was warranted. "You wouldn't last two seconds, and you know it."

Good Sasuke, talk some sense into him. Meanwhile, they had to think of something, only there wasn't any time to think of anything...

The crushing weight seemed to dissipate, filtering into the air and leaving a tense kind of pressure, though not as heavy as it was originally. They had managed to get from what had seemed like halfway across the world to their front door within a matter of seconds. Whoever they were, they hadn't given the trio any time to prepare or escape, and judging from the deadly energies that were filling the air, this person had come for blood.

The voice of a woman called out, "ITACHI!" She barked, "COME OUT!"

Juritsu instinctively glanced over at Sasuke. It'd been the kind of habit she'd gotten into back in the days of Team Seven. They'd always had a connection - they'd been best friends after all - and always seemed to be thinking the same thing about the same situation at the exact same time. Intriguingly, she found that Sasuke had met her gaze. How humorous; old habits die hard after all, huh?

They simultaneously glanced at Itachi, who looked just as bemused as they felt.

"Who...?" Sasuke slowly asked. Itachi seemed to think for a long moment.

"I don't know." he replied apologetically. Juritsu shook her head - this wasn't the point, nor was it all that important. She looked towards the waterfall.

"What do you want with him?" she shouted in response. Continuing the conversation would buy some time, let them figure things out.

The woman laughed sarcastically, though the anger showed in her voice, "Are you kidding me!? HE KILLED MY BROTHERS! He slaughtered Phobetor and Epiales!" Once again, the weight of her immense strength was bearing down upon them - a warning, obviously.

"I'M GOING TO TEAR HIS HEAD FROM HIS BODY, AS HE DID TO EPIALES!" She shrieked from the other side of the wall, "BUT ONLY AFTER I RIP OFF HIS ARMS THE WAY HE DID TO PHOBETOR!"

Juritsu found herself staring at Itachi, completely dumbfounded. "...What?"

The older Uchiha had a horrified expression on his face. "But... how? I don't even remember..." he mumbled, apparently in shock.

"Hey, we need to think of a plan," Sasuke spoke up. Juritsu looked over at him, slightly surprised by the way he, out of nowhere, took charge. "Maybe we can ambush her, catch her off guard..."

Itachi began protesting, something about power and strong enough and some other things that didn't really matter to her. Juritsu tuned the both of them out, tuned everything out, except for the power source standing outside. This newcomer... she was strong. That wasn't hard to figure out. But, if that was her full power...

Yes, this sister of Epiales and Phobetor, this strange superhuman, seemed to be the strongest of the three siblings. She was extremely strong.

But Juritsu was stronger.

"Sasuke," she spoke up, confident, resolved. The Uchiha brother immediately silenced, seeming to recognize her tone of voice, and she continued. "Watch your brother. I'll take care of this."

The younger Uchiha's expression changed to a shocked kind of worry. It was something she hadn't seen on his face in years, and it made her heart flutter. More and more the hope in him grew. But now wasn't the time for hope. She had a fight to win.

He opened his mouth, obviously to protest. But then, an instant of realization crossed over his features – remembering what she'd shown him just a few nights previous. She found herself giving him a grin, confident and reassuring. I can do this, Sasuke. Trust me.

His expression softened - another rare look that subtly took her breath away - but he soon returned a trademark smirk, and, for just a moment, things were just like they used to be. Things were like she needed them to be.

"I understand," he replied, completely sincere. Itachi was frantically looking back and forth between them, not quite aware of the silent communication between them.

In a way, it'd even surprised her; to still be able to do that after everything that'd happened between them. They might have turned into bitter enemies, she heartbroken, he vengeance-fueled, but at the very core of them, they knew each other fundamentally; their ticks, their aspirations, their likes, their dislikes, their buttons, their pick-me-ups. That kind of connection was, she realized, the thing she'd been craving, yearning for, since the day she'd lost it.

And perhaps, one day, she'd get that back. But nothing would change, nothing would move forward, and nothing could be done about it until the problem at hand was dealt with. Answers could be found later.

After a long pause in which she'd regarded Sasuke's expression, Juritsu nodded in response, and just as Itachi was pleading for her to "Wait!" she summoned her energy and took off, bursting through the waterfall as fast as she could, heading straight towards the woman with fists raised, eyes narrowed in a calculating glare. "You won't touch him," her voice was barely above a low growl, but the demi-Saiyan knew the strange young woman had heard every word.

Phantasos bared her teeth, energy making the air thick - nothing Juritsu wasn't used to in a battle. Her hands glowed with a faint red light, and she snarled, "You won't stop me."

...

His mind was tracking Juritsu's every movement, every blip in her energy levels that indicated a minor injury, every brief rise in power level that told him she was forming a blast. Phantasos was a foe to be reckoned with, but logically he knew that Juritsu would be able to handle herself. She wasn't the type to jump into something she didn't think she could handle. If she'd needed help, she'd have called upon Sasuke for it. She wasn't reckless. She was smart, calculating, and probably one of the most skilled fighters he'd met to date.

Despite this deep-set knowledge, he couldn't get his chakra to settle. He wasn't anywhere near fully replenished; he'd need another two days and several filling meals to be back at full strength. The movement of his energy - what little of it there was - caused his chakras points to numb, and tingle, and burn and it hurt. His eyes were trying to activate his Mangekyou, but he didn't have the chakra for it. He result was a terrible ache behind his eyes, a blinding headache that split through his skull.

Itachi groaned, trembling and heaving gasps as he tried to get himself under control. This hadn't happened before; even when he'd been about ready to leap off that cliff to Juritsu and Sasuke's rescue (though he didn't have a clue what he would've done, it wasn't like he could fly), he hadn't felt like this.

Sasuke was staring at him, alarmed. His Mangekyou Sharingan flared up again, splitting his vision into a dozen pieces and blinding him entirely. His hands reached up and pressed against his eyes, his teeth ground together as he forcibly silenced his voice. Had he been anyone else, he might've shrieked in pain. But it wasn't like he hadn't had worse.

"Oi..." Sasuke's voice sounded confused, slightly concerned. If Itachi had been able to see, he likely would've seen Sasuke crouched in front of him, scrutinizing him for abnormalities. "What is it?"

He opened his mouth, and a burning flare of chakra rushed up his throat like a miserable attempt at a Katon jutsu. He coughed around the choking heat, barely managing to whisper out what he needed to explain, "Ch-chakra... c-can't contr... control..." he heaved, doubling over as his chest throbbed with that same painful warmth.

"Why..." There was a pause, a shifting in Sasuke's chakra as he activating his own Sharingan. There was a sharp intake of breath. "What the... Itachi... your chakra..."

His hands twitching uncontrollably as he lowered them away from his face, slowly opening his eyes. Everything was blindingly bright, and the light caused his eyes to burn and water, "It hurts..." he ground out past his clenched teeth, wishing his eyes would adjust to the light - the forced attempts at activating his Sharingan was probably damaging his eyes.

"I... don't know what to do..." Sasuke glanced around helplessly, as if searching for something to use. He looked back at Itachi just as an explosion rocked the cave. A sharp pain ricocheted through his chest, and a strangled noise forced its way out of his burning throat. He doubled over, feelings every chakra point throughout his body as if they'd been lit on fire.

He felt Sasuke's hand grip his shoulder. "Hey, hang in there!" He could hear the franticness in his younger brother's voice, fear of not knowing what was ailing his older brother, and panic at not knowing what to do. Juritsu's energy signature was moving farther away, and his chakras hiccupped again, his knees wanting to extend him into a standing position and force him to chase after her. Was it going to be like this every time there was a battle he couldn't participate in?

Dear God, he was already beginning to miss Hell.

His nails were digging into his forearms as he tried to use some kind of pain, some kind of sensation to ground himself in the present, to pull him away from the horrible discomfort of his out-of-control chakras. He shuddered, suddenly feeling lightheaded - was he hyperventilating? Was he ventilating at all?

Juritsu moved farther away - too far. Way too far. His mind blanked out for a long few moments, and for a second he thought he'd fainted. Then he felt a horrible, jarring sensation in his knees and he heard Sasuke calling his name. He blinked, and he was standing, swaying, his knees ready to buckle, a good three feet away from where he'd been just a moment ago. His lips were moving, but he had no idea what he was saying.

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! He blinked, trying to clear the ringing in his ears. Sasuke's hand was gripping his arm, black eyes wide and confused and he looked like he was putting a strange amount of effort to force Itachi away from the entrance to the cave. DANGER! DANGER! Even in this odd state of mind that he seemed to be slipping in and out of, he just didn't have enough strength in him. So when he felt Phantasos' presence disappear, and Juritsu suddenly start heading their way, his knees gave out entirely and he collapsed to the ground. Sasuke caught his shoulders and went down with him, supporting as much weight as he needed to. Itachi attempted to hold himself up, but he could tell that Sasuke was doing most of the work.

Everything was fuzzy and dusty and his mind was reeling and he could hardly see anything, his ears were still ringing and his chakra points were still aching and he was tired.

Every muscle in his body relaxed simultaneously, as he no longer even had the strength to remain conscious.

...

"Itachi?!"

His older brother had become a literal dead weight, and for a moment, Sasuke wasn't sure if the man was even breathing. After a long pause, he was relieved to see Itachi's chest right and fall. The raven-haired Uchiha would've sagged if he hadn't been holding up his brother.

Thank god...

There was a quiet rustle of air, and Sasuke looked up in time to see Juritsu enter the cave. She looked somewhat worse for wear, with bruises and wounds littering her exposed skin. Her clothing was torn up here and there, and she looked exhausted. It was a look he rarely, if ever, saw from her.

And as he pondered it for a moment, he realized he never really saw her in a state of tiredness for as long as he knew her, aside from a very few points in time. Those had been upon her return after going off on long journeys with her father and brother - she never elaborated on where she was going and when she'd be back, but now that he thought about it, it likely had something to do with her alien powers.

But aside from those moments, Juritsu never expressed exhaustion. Neither, he realized, did she really express pain; it'd taken some really gruesome injuries for her to falter, and even then, she handled it better than any shinobi he'd ever experience in his entire life. Somehow, it'd taken him this long to realize that, all those missions and battles, during the Chuunin Exams, and even against him years after he defected, she'd been holding back.

She really could've helped him grow stronger. If only he'd trusted her and given her the benefit of the doubt. Sure, she'd hidden such an astronomical secret, but, at least at the time, they were friends. He couldn't even imagine how much more powerful he would've been under her tutelage.

"She's...?" he began, unable to read her expression, which seemed neutral.

"Not something we'll have to worry about ever again," her voice was slightly breathless, but she didn't seem to let her fatigue slow her down as she strode up and crouched in front of him, looking over Itachi. "What happened?"

He recalled the events of the past several moments, trying to make sense of just what it was Itachi was going through. "I'm not even sure. You went away, and his chakra suddenly began fluctuating. Itachi himself said he couldn't control it."

The brunette's brows furrowed as he began a brief physical examination. "Couldn't control it...?" she muttered, likely thinking aloud to herself as she checked the unconscious man over.

"I checked him with my Sharingan," he decided to continue. At some point in his head, he decided being civil and acting like a team mate again was more important than dying like he so deserved. "There were random focal points of chakra in his chest and eyes, and occasional flares down his limbs. But it was still weak. I've never seen anything like it before..." And he really hadn't. And he'd seen some abnormal chakra patterns before, including Juritsu's and Naruto's. But even their chakra behaved normally.

"It was almost like his body was trying to force himself into a battle-ready mode... or something."

Juritsu had been listening intently, having finished up her exam minutes before. "That's... strange..." she slowly responded, glancing up at Sasuke before averting her gaze to Itachi and carefully hefting the unconscious man up and over her shoulder, motioning for Sasuke to follow her into the back of the cave, where she eased Itachi's motionless form onto the bed. Sasuke, inwardly, felt utterly useless in the whole thing, but, he realized, Juritsu did have beyond-superhuman strength and speed, so it shouldn't have been shocking. It was just... hard to see this current Juritsu and compare her to the past Juritsu and make the connection that, no, she hadn't been training immensely, but she'd always been like this.

"After Phantasos' chakra disappeared was when Itachi collapsed," he concluded his debriefing, "I still have no idea what happened."

Juritsu was looking him over again, and Sasuke couldn't help but study her facial features; brown eyes narrowed in concentration, her wild fringe falling in front of her face even as she irritably brushed it aside. "I've never seen this before either," she remarked, and it took Sasuke a brief moment to realize she was including him in the conversation, "I don't remember reading about this in the literature either. But I've checked him over several times, and aside from his low chakra levels, everything's perfectly fine."

Sasuke wrenched his gaze away from the brunette, his gaze sweeping over his older brother for a moment before he spoke up again, almost wondering if he was about to make a fool of himself for stating what he thought was the obvious. "So, at this point, we can only really just sit here and wait?"

Juritsu didn't seem to share the same sentiments over his statement, her gaze a thoughtful one and she nodded in agreement. "Wait for his energy levels to replenish. Once he's awake and coherent, we'll be able to figure out what to do next."

A/N: And one year later, we finally update.

Truth be told, this sixth chapter had been in-progress pretty much since around the time we published Chapter Five. We only just got around to finishing it now. Hopefully this will lead to us getting back into the swing of things and hopping back on the Fated bandwagon - for those of you following me, I'm sure you've noticed the roll we've been on writing Judgment Night, which is actually well on its way toward the climatic final battle!

Thank you for being patient with us, and we'll try and get another chapter out sooner rather than later! In the meantime, read and enjoy. We also love and appreciate reviews :)