EDIT: Now that finals are FINALLY over, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere at my grandparents in New Hampshire and I have a break from the raucous, I was able to go back and fix up this chapter. I edited some spelling and grammar errors, including awkward sentences and missing words. I apologize for such poor quality writing, as I had four essays due prior to when this was published—I think I just exhausted myself. Merry Christmas, and if I have my way, I may pop out Chapter 15 before Christmas! (Pun intended ;P )

Chapter 14: Metamorphosis

The passage of two months saw a strange inactivity on Akatsuki's part and a seeming peace within Konoha. Killer Bee was found alive and with explanations from the Uchiha, the hot-tempered Kumogakare leader was put at ease to have his brother back alive. And Sasuke could relate.

Itachi stayed with Sasuke in hiding—Tsunade placed special ANBU soldiers to protect the apartment and ensure Danzo did not employ his root members to spy on them. Itachi would go out disguised in a jutsu as Sakura, and they always planned it to make sure Sakura was seen going into the house first before leaving. The brothers trained away from the village, or sometimes even snuck into the famed Forest of Death for intense sessions. Looking back, the place wasn't nearly as scary as it had been during the Chunin exams, but then again, he didn't have a creepy snake sanin trying to near kill him either, nor several other competitive ninjas trying to catch him off guard. Though, truth be told, Itachi could be scary when angered and taunted, as Sasuke found out. But they never hurt each other more than a few broken bones—although both faced the wrath of Sakura when they returned in such a state, as she was their personal medic.

Being, well, dead, had taken a toll on the famed ex-akatsuki. His movement slowed from his muscles having been arrested for so long, though he still was quite agile for most shinobi. His eyes were restored as well. Turns out, there was one more secret of the Uchiha's that the two had managed to unlock—Death was the completeness of darkness, but rebirth brought back the light. Sasuke was comforted to know that his brother would have no temptation to take his eyes, though he himself was starting to feel the effects of the mangekyo's draw towards darkness.

But having his brother, the real Itachi from his childhood, brought back to life and by his side made it so Sasuke would rather give up his own life than lose Itachi again. He was beginning to feel what it might have been like if he had grown up never experiencing the massacre, Orochimaru or killing his own brother. It was as if bit by bit he was being put back together.

Sakura was progressing well in her pregnancy. On their journey back to Konohagakure after reviving Itachi, the three stopped back at the fortune teller's hut. She informed Sakura that she could now name the child whatever she wished. Sasuke was coming back into the village's good graces and the child would be respected and have a normal childhood regardless of his name. However, not all of the predictions were picture perfect either…they still had many issues to deal with, specifically Madara.

Upon arriving back in Konoha, Sasuke found Naruto had left a dent Sasuke's apartment wall from where juugo had punched him. One look from the younger Uchiha had both of their tails between their legs. Naruto had explained that Juugo had seen through his impersonation, and wanted to test the Sasuke look-a-like to see if it truly was his ex-leader. One dent and a sore blonde proved Juugo's theory correct.

Soon afterwards Naruto was called away by gamabunta to train and prepare for akatsuki. Sasuke was sent on one mission with his former Sensei as it was one which called for sharingan abilities. The elders, however hesitant to reuse the ex-missing nin couldn't deny that having a fully developed sharingan on their side –one which did not render the user near-immobile—was to their extreme advantage. Tsunade vied for him against the elders and mainly Danzo, explaining that it was a way they could test his loyalty and gain a highly skilled shinobi on their side

Sakura began staying at Sasuke's more often to the point of living there. It had happened gradually, but since Itachi would use her image to go out, it simply worked out for the better. When Sasuke had left on his mission, she had gotten to know Itachi better, finding herself so intrigued at how truly kind and peaceful the man was; he was so unlike who she had imagined him to be. Sasuke had told her what Madara had said about the massacre—that among his family and friends, Itachi had even taken the life of a supposed lover. Feeling brave during one of their deeper conversations, Sakura ventured to ask him about this.

"It's okay…I suppose I probably shouldn't have asked." She mumbled as she sat sideways on the couch, tea in her hand. They had been having a rather deep conversation about her relationship with Sasuke, and she began to wonder, as Itachi never mentioned a relationship himself, if he had one in the past. When she questioned him on what Sasuke had told her, Itachi grew silent and looked away. She bit her lip at his reaction then added, "Nevermind. It was out of line. I apologize."

"No!" he started quickly, then repeated softly "No…it's alright." He let out a sigh, letting his head fall on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. "It's only difficult to say because…the relationship wasn't a very…acceptable one. And then of course having to kill him…"

Sakura's mouth fell open slightly. So Itachi played the other team? Well, looking at him she suddenly could see it a mile away. The man had a beautiful, effeminate facial structure. He was peaceful and not like most of the male shinobi she knew. Itachi let out a quick chuckle as he saw her expression. "Not just that. But he was my kin. Disgusting, I know."

Now she was at a loss for words, "I…no, I er. Well I suppose you love who you love…" she wanted to smack herself in the face. Now she made him think of bad memories and embarrass himself. She felt awful.

He chuckled at her once again, "It's alright. It's in the past." He looked at her with eyes of sadness, though he had a slight smile on his face. She could tell this was only to mask the pain.

She glanced down at her cup, then over at the coffee table. There was a photo of younger Sasuke and his family posing for a picture. She suddenly felt like she was beginning to understand where exactly Sasuke came from. This seemingly peaceful family was falling apart at the seams from the very beginning. Their tragedy was writ before their lives even existed.

One hand wandered to her stomach as a motherly action of protection. She wanted to keep her child from it all. If Itachi and Sasuke could start anew, could it mean a new era for the Uchihas? A clean, respectable family like many of Konoha's other clans? Or would history simply repeat itself?

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Itachi hid as Sakura answered, only to find Sai standing by himself at the door. "Konoha's under attack. Kakashi's team spotted Akatsuki heading towards the village. They're holding them off, but Hokage-sama wanted me to give this to you." He informed, handing her a scroll.

She scrambled to open it, and read the paper quickly,

"Send I. Sasuke's got M. They're past the NW gate."

She looked up at the ink user with her face in panic. "Thank you." she nodded then shut the door, without saying goodbye. All she could think of was the danger her lover was currently in.

"Itachi!" she called, and he appeared out of the bedroom, "we've got trouble."

The movements seemed like a blur. Naruto was summoned back to Konohagakure, yet much of the land had been destroyed. Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune and Hinata were all down for the count, and Sakura had all she could do to heal the rest of her fellow shinobi while not straining herself too much. Looking to the northwest, she saw a large ball of fire rage towards the sky. She couldn't help it. She could no longer heal her comrades, and at this point, anyone who was badly injured would most likely die due to the destruction of the village hospital. She couldn't heal everyone, and she knew the other medics could cover for her in her absence. She needed to find Sasuke and Itachi. Even though it was foolish, something inside her told her that she needed to go to them.

Running over the rubble and debris from the battles that were taking place, Sakura ran northwest in the direction of their battle. Various shinobi wondered at her actions and yelled after her, but she ignored them. A sense of urgency washed over her and she looked back to see Naurto still fighting the orange haired Akatsuki member. Her two most precious people were fighting for their lives against possibly the strongest foes they'd ever met while her ex sensei was presumed dead…and she felt absolutely useless amongst it all.

Running through the trees she watched as the three fought intensely against Madara. Itachi was bleeding from his arm, but the masked man seemed to have taken quite a beating as well. Madara stood in the middle of the two, and all three had exhaustion written on their faces. Yet they didn't go into this battle without a plan.

The sky was clouded over with grey skies. They couldn't use Sasuke's finishing Kirin jutsu to take him down…Madara was expecting that. Cool rain began to patter on the hot ground, causing a mist to arise and make the ground look as if it were smoking. Realizing he could once more use nature to his advantage, Sasuke cast a katon jutsu radially, close to the surface of the earth. The ground was heated then quickly cooled by the rain, letting off more steam, and in turn, more fog.

Sasuke used this fog to his advantage. It would only merely delay the famed Uchiha leader, but it would provide enough distraction to put their plan into effect. Sakura had once used her position as the Hokage's apprentice to her advantage to read up on the Uchiha clan—it seemed that the village knew more about the clan's secrets than had been written in the clan's secret meeting room. From the torn pages, Itachi came up with a theory that Madara himself took the information from the clan's book of secrets and offered the few pages to Konoha as a gesture of peace before rebelling. Itachi added that Madara probably did not want his fellow clansmen to find out about the powerful jutsu, for fear they might try to usurp his position.

And it would be alright to give the information to konoha, since Madara would never be able to use the jutsu himself. Unlike like most of the clan's hidden jutsus and ocular powers, this jutsu required cooperation between two Uchiha clansmen or kin wielding the mangekyo sharingan.

In synchronized movements, the two brothers knelt on the ground, forming hand signs faster than the naked eye could perceive. Palms flat on the ground, a line of chakra was run from Sasuke's hands, through the earth, and across the way over to Itachi's palms. Standing up quickly, the two held one hand outwards, parallel and flat towards the ground. The chakra line ran from that hand to the ground and remained connected to each brother. The two ran in a circle around Madara, returning to their original positions. Forming a few more handsigns, Sasuke could see Madara lunging at him, but he had to finish the jutsu. Kneeling back down on the ground, he placed his hands flat on the ground, knowing that he was in Madara's line of attack. As they finished the jutsu, the earth opened up in a black hole of hell, as cries of spirits and otherworldly creatures reached out from the underworld to grasp at the portal which had been created. The circle which the two ran around in had created a barrier, keeping Madara and the spirits from escaping. Sasuke and Itachi stared down the akatsuki leader with blood red mangekyou eyes, and black shadows began to engulf Madara—things which looked like arms and fangs pulled him into the black underground abyss. Once in, the two formed three more hand signs, palms flat on the ground, and the hole closed up.

However, as Sasuke had been in Madara's line of attack, he bore the brunt of a last attempt to stab his chest with his own sword, fallen and knocked out of his grasp during the battle. Sasuke only had barely managed to finish the jutsu before falling over on his side, clutching at his wound.

Sakura watched in horror as she ran towards him out of the forest, intent on healing him as soon as possible.

"What…are you doing?" he asked weakly, as his eyes spun down from the red mangekyo down to the onyx color she knew and loved. Her form began to blur as his eyes weakly fell closed . She moved his blood soaked hand that was holding his chest to see that Madara had stabbed close to the heart. It would take a lot of time and chakra to heal his wound, both things she had very little of.

Itachi, though wounded, was able to run over to his little brother as the fog subsided and help. "We need to get him to the hospital."

She sighed, "the hospital's been destroyed. There's no time, I'll have to heal him now." Itachi pulled off his dull grey cloak and held it over her and Sasuke to keep the rain from impeding the healing process. She began, moving her glowing green hands over his chest and concentrating her chakra on assessing the wound. She gasped as she realized just how badly wounded he was. Focusing harder, she began to heal the wounds as fast and carefully as she could. Sweat and tears began to run down her cheeks as she felt his pulse begin to drop dramatically. Working harder, she began to feel the rest of her chakra draining from her as she worked, but still his pulse dropped…

And dropped.

And dropped.

She was close to finishing the wound, heartbeat racing, breath coming in shallow pants as she took every ounce of energy to feeding his life back. With the last tissue finally closing within his heart, she felt his pulse finally begin to increase. With one sigh of relief, she watched as his eyes fluttered open and he sat up, gripping his chest, feeling only a slight soreness. She collapsed into him, crying in relief, while he only looked at her with a lost face. With a hand from Itachi, he stood up, hoisting her up to her feet in his arms. She could finally breathe. And she was…so…so…tired…

Arriving back in Konoha, Sasuke carried the pregnant woman unconscious in his arms over the cement and concrete rubble of destroyed buildings. There were simmers of fires beginning to die down and a large crowd up ahead to greet Konoha's hero. Sasuke held her bridal style in contentment, thankful she was only exhausted and not wounded. He had seen her in the bushes watching their fight, but he didn't want to alert Madara to her presence, or else she would be put in danger. He would have rather had a stab to the chest than see his most precious person put in danger against someone like Madara. Looking down at her, it was if his gaze awaked her. She woke up with a start, her hand immediately flying over her stomach. "Ohhh…" she winced, coming to her senses, "Sasuke?" she whined weakly

"Hm?"

"Owhhhhhh!" she howled, "I think…I think I'm going into labor!" she squeaked.

"Shit!" he looked around the mass of people crowded around Naruto after his victory against Pein. On the outskirts of the crowd was Shizune, the only medic he knew of that may be able to help Sakura.

As he approached the group from far away, her water broke, a sign of her pregnancy very soon coming to an end.

"Shizune! Help!" she called out.

The words, yelled from far away as he carried her over the rubble, caused many heads to turn from the crowd and to the approaching couple. Shizune lead them into a shack made with Yamato's quick thinking. It was a primitive birth at best, as many of the tools needed for a modern birthing experience were unavailable, thanks to Pein's destruction of the village. With the help of Ino, a few other mothers and Sasuke (who mainly held her hand for moral support), Sakura began to give birth.

Sasuke had never been so terrified in his life. Never before had he imagined that he would be in this position, watching his fiancée give birth to his child. The concept of the little human coming out from inside the womb of his wife-to-be had him wanting to pass out. Not even Orochimaru's regurgitation methods freaked him out that bad. Her screams of pain did nothing to help either.

After what seemed like forever, The baby came out with one last push and a horrifying scream. Sakura let her head fall back in exhaustion and actually began to fall asleep. The woman had pushed herself to the max, healing everyone, saving Sasuke from the brink of death, and then giving birth. She was definitely a much stronger woman than the whiny girl he remembered from his days as a 13 year old genin. Stroking her hair admirably, he then shifted his attention to the rest of the birthing crew as he noticed that everyone was awfully quiet

…especially the baby.

edit: Read authors note at the beginning