a/n

Thanks so much to my wonderful reviewers, and special thanks to Lovelight, who left an anonymous review which was very, very sweet:)

I love you all- thanks for reading!

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Gray

"The battlefield is scattered with bones,

The ground is cold and frozen;

The ghosts of soldiers wander and groan,

Lost, incorporeal, and forsaken."

~The First Book of Akash, Verse XIV

"So you see," Tsunade muttered, her fingers clutching classified documents, "if Karin's hypothesis is correct, then…" Tsunade trailed off, realizing that Naruto was no longer listening to her, and had, at some point, wandered over to the window.

"Brat! I'm talking to you!" Tsunade wailed. It was getting dark, and damn it, she was tired, and old, and she just wanted to get through this crap so she could go to sleep.

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry Tsunade-baachan, but something feels…weird."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Weird? Like what?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm not sure." He unceremoniously plopped himself down on the floor and began meditating.

Tsunade was about to yell at the idiot, but Sasuke stilled her by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Tsunade, trust your Hokage," he murmured.

"That's Tsunade-sama to you, troll," she replied gruffly, but left Naruto to his meditations all the same. She knew the Uzumaki's sensory abilities were what kept Konoha safe, and if he thought something was out of sorts, then it was worth investigating.

In a moment, a tangible swirl of energy gathered around Naruto, and the rings under his eyes grew orange. Before long, his eyes snapped open. "Tadashi is in trouble," he shouted, rising from the floor in one fluid motion. "I'm going to go find him!" And with that, Naruto was gone in a tell-tale flash of light.

"Damn it! What does he mean Tadashi is in trouble! How can he go haring off like that without explaining himself!" Tsunade grumbled. Sasuke spared her a glance, and Tsunade sighed. "Sorry," she muttered, "I'm just grumpy. I'm too old for this shit."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "It's all right, Tsunade-sama. Why don't you go home and rest. Naruto and I will go over these documents later; we've already covered the bulk of it."

Tsunade offered him a wry grin. "That is sweet of you, Uchiha, but I think I'll wait to see what Naruto drags back." She shook her head and stretched her arms behind her chair. "Just in case..."

As if prophetically spoken, Naruto returned in a yellow flash, a prone child in his arms. Tsunade rose and abruptly came to Naruto's side.

"Baachan—what's wrong with him?" Naruto called. "I thought it was a simple genjutsu, but when I tried to break it, it wouldn't work."

"Put him flat on the floor Naruto—let me have a look," Tsunade barked as she gathered chakra in her hands. As she worked, her eyebrows narrowed until they practically met in the center of her head. "Shit. Is this even possible...?" Tsunade breathed.

"I sensed that he had just been sparing with Yuki-chan," Naruto offered, anxiously peering over Tsunade's shoulder. "When I found him, there were scattered weapons and displaced earth everywhere—"

"The latter being a jutsu Yuki learned from Sakura," Tsunade replied darkly. "Sasuke—why the fuck does your daughter have the capability to cast tsukuyomi?"

"What? But that's… Oh shit," Sasuke cursed as he knelt down by the unconscious boy. With frantic movements, Sasuke removed his shades and made a few hand-signs—Tadashi woke up screaming. Tsunade gathered him up in her arms, and as the boy sobbed into her bosom, she eyed Sasuke askance.

"I'm assuming you were able to break it because you share blood with the caster," Tsunade muttered, "and because you have a quasi-sharingan now yourself."

Sasuke broke out into a cold sweat. "I—I'm incredibly stupid."

"Sasuke, what the fuck did you do?" Naruto wailed, his concerned glance traveling between Tadashi who was weeping in Tsunade's arms, and the tomoes whirling in Sasuke's lavender irises.

"I—I gave the mangekyo sharingan to a ten year old girl with anger management problems," Sasuke blurted out. "Oh gods," he moaned, holding his head in his hands. "This is all my fault!"

"Bastard, how the fuck did you give your daughter the mangekyo? How is that possible?" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke, still kneeling, shook his head and muttered, "There's a jutsu—it's how I inherited the mangekyo in the first place, from Itachi. I gave it to my daughter."

"Are you deficient or something! How could you—" Naruto began, but Tsunade shot him a look.

"Listen, we can discuss this later," Tsunade burst in, taking control of the situation. "Right now, Naruto, get this child to his parents and explain what happened—minus the mangekyo part. Just say it was a nasty genjutsu. The last thing we need are Neji and Tenten to get hysterical over this. Sasuke—go find your daughter and talk some sense into her!"

Sasuke rose on shaky legs. "Forgive me. I wasn't even certain that the jutsu worked. I didn't even tell her—this is my fault. I take full responsibility," he whispered. And with that, Sasuke jumped out of the open window and into the night.

Tsunade sighed and stroked Tadashi's back, sending green healing chakra into his body while she did so. "Naruto, I'm going to bed," Tsunade said wearily. "Tadashi-kun? Get ahold of yourself and go with your Hokage now."

Tadashi sniffled, extracted himself from Tsunade's motherly embrace, and bowed wobbly to his elders. Naruto caught the boy just before he fell mid-bow.

"What a mess," Naruto muttered. "Come on, Tadashi-kun, let's go home."

Tsunade snorted and looked out of the window through which Sasuke had just exited. What a mess, indeed.

It was well past midnight when Yuki returned from the library. She had no idea why her right eye was on the fritz (she had been forced to read everything solely with her left eye) but that wasn't what was bothering her. She sighed.

"Well, at least getting through the wards was a piece of cake. Even with just my left eye, it took me less than a minute to crack," she muttered aloud to no one in particular. "Those fucking seals had dad's handwork written all over them. I can't believe..." she trailed off, tired and heartbroken. I can't believe he didn't tell me...

She had combed through the history scrolls in disbelief—everything Tadashi had said had been true. She had once thought that the Uchiha were honorable—now she knew the truth. My father is a deranged homicidal maniac. How can I even be on the same team as Cho when my father murdered her grandfather? How can I even be trusted in this village?

That's it, Yuki swore to herself. The Uchiha were freaks, murdering each other, plotting against Konoha. After all, the worst villain Konoha had ever faced was Madara, yet another Uchiha from a long line of psychopathic shinobi. It was all so clear now.

Yuki had found a scroll detailing the mangekyo sharingan, wherein the seeker had to murder his closest friend in order to obtain ridiculous power. Sure, Yuki had learned in school what the mangekyo was and how Madara used it in the last war; but they sure as shit hadn't covered how the mangekyo had been acquired.

Madara and his brother murdered their respective best friends, then Madara had taken his own brother's eyes right out of his head. And my father—he killed Itachi and that's how he got his mangekyo! He's—I'm—we're no better than Madara! Yuki shook her head. She was heading home, packing her bag, and getting the fuck out of Konoha tonight. She only hoped Akemi-baachan wouldn't be sore when Yuki knocked on her door in the middle of the night.

Finally, Yuki approached her house, and with extreme stealth, she slipped through the open window and into her dark bedroom—

Which, as soon as she entered it, was not dark any longer; someone had switched on the light. She blinked in the harsh light, covering up her sensitive right eye with her palm, and looked up into her father's face.

Oh, shit.

"Yuki," Sasuke intoned, "we found Tadashi collapsed, unconscious in the forest. Explain." Sasuke wanted to sound angry, but instead, his voice rasped with weariness.

Yuki shook her head while still covering her right eye. Blinking her good eye a few times, she replied in a quiet yet menacing tone, "Tadashi challenged me to a spar. He said some pretty nasty things—about the Uchiha. And he was about to give me heart failure via his gentle fist style when my right eye put him under some genjutsu by itself..." Yuki speared her father with a cycloptic glance and all but hissed, "Afterwards I went to the library—I broke all your seals in the restrictive section."

"What!" Sasuke shouted, his mind reeling. Oh gods, oh gods, what have I done? Sasuke had no idea that Yuki's mangekyo sharingan would awaken so quickly; but now that Yuki was so armed, breaking his seals in the library would have been a piece of cake. The room began to spin, and Sasuke had to sit on Yuki's bed before he collapsed. He closed his eyes against the vertigo, but it did not help.

Sasuke took a deep breath to steady himself, but when he opened his eyes, it was as if he was free falling; he could feel his stomach lift as if suspended by a momentary lapse in gravity.

"I can't believe you dad!" Yuki shouted. "I can't believe you never told me!"

"I—I'm sorry," Sasuke whispered, but before he could continue, Yuki broke in.

"What the hell is wrong with you, dad? Why—"

It was at that moment that Sakura opened the door, causing Yuki to break off abruptly. Bleary eyed, Sakura asked, "What's with all the ruckus? Geez, I have to get up for work in a few hours..." She looked between Sasuke's horror-stricken face and Yuki's belligerent one and immediately became concerned. "Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke replied, slowly, "Yuki was sparring with Tadashi. Apparently it was less than friendly, and she ended up putting Tadashi in a comatose state with genjutsu."

"WHAT!" Sakura cried, now wide awake. "Yuki, explain yourself!"

But Sasuke held out his hands and shook his head. "Sakura. Please, don't be so harsh with Yuki-chan. This is partially—no, mostly my fault."

"Sasuke? What the hell did you do?"

Yuki silently glared at her father; she wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but she was certain that her father was going to try to explain the things she had read about in the library. Secretly, she wanted him to make it all better—to tell her it wasn't true…

Sasuke stood up from Yuki's bed haltingly, like an old man with aching bones. He thought about skirting around the truth, but decided against it. He had already caused enough damage by withholding information, and in any event, if Yuki didn't already know what he was about to reveal, she would soon figure it out on her own if she had, indeed, been digging through the restricted section.

"I sort of accidentally—ah—gave Yuki..." Here Sasuke paused and took a deep breath before blurting out, "The mangekyo sharingan."

"WHAT!" both Yuki and Sakura hollered in stereo.

In the next room over, Takeo began crying; Sakura formed a shadow clone and sent it to deal with the infant, while she gave Sasuke that look—the look that she reserved for when he really messed up; a look so belligerent and terrifying, he could have identified it even without sight.

Sakura began, "How the fuck—"

But her voice was drowned out by Yuki, who was close to hyperventilating. "Oh my fuck. Oh my FUCK! My right eye! That's why my right eye..." Yuki looked frantically at her father with her one good eye as she pieced bits of information together. "I placed Tadashi under tsukuyomi? But—I didn't kill anyone—did I? Did I...? Oh fuck—"

Sasuke broke in hastily, "No, you didn't kill anyone. And Tadashi is fine; your tsukuyomi is still developing and it was easy to break. It's my fault, Yuki. I gave you Itachi's mangekyo while you were sleeping..."

Yuki looked up at him in horror. "You mean—you gave me Itachi's eyes?"

Sasuke almost smiled. "No. Not exactly..."

"But didn't you kill Itachi and take his eyes, isn't that how you got your mangekyo? So how could I..." Yuki gave Sasuke a terrified look, and he felt his heart contract.

Sasuke tried his best to put Yuki at ease and said, "No. The mangekyo I received from Itachi was a gift. Although I did kill Itachi, I didn't take his eyes until later. I received the mangekyo because Itachi put it in my head himself, before he died."

Sasuke sighed; there was no point in circumventing the truth any longer. The fact that he had murdered Itachi had been tactfully left out of the academy's history books, but Sasuke knew that Yuki was cognizant of that fact already, having learned about it at the Nekobaa's house.

"Sasuke. You gave. Our ten year old child. The fucking mangekyo sharingan?" Sakura snapped. "That was beyond irresponsible!"

Sasuke really should have planned this all out better. But after the meeting in the Hokage's office, and seeing what had happened to poor Tadashi, Sasuke had been at his wit's end. He had searched all over Konoha for Yuki, and when he hadn't found her, he resigned himself to waiting in her bedroom, hoping she would return so he could explain everything to her. But now Sakura was freaking out, Takeo was screaming in the other room, Saki was no doubt awake—

And Yuki was looking up at him with pure hatred. He was surprised her sharingan wasn't activated at the moment, but he was sure that even without the doujutsu, she could have bored a hole through his head with her malice alone.

Sasuke looked back to Sakura and whispered, "Yes, yes I did. I really fucked up." Again... Sasuke thought wearily. At that moment, he wished that he could crawl into a deep, dark hole, never to emerge again.

Sakura stood in the doorway, mutely gaping at Sasuke's stupidity, while Yuki spoke for her: "Yes, you really did fuck up, otousan. And how does this fuck up rank with the rest of your fuck ups? Like the time you almost stabbed mom in the back with chidori? Or how about the millions of times you almost killed Hokage-sama? Or let's not forget—when you killed Cho's grandfather. You make me sick. You don't deserve Ryuu's eyes in your fucking head. You don't deserve anything!"

"Yuki!" Sakura cried, her anger at Sasuke rapidly becoming replaced with fear.

"Tell me it's not true, otousan. Tell me it's not. Because I just read your report in the library, the one Shikamaru took down after you were put into prison when you finally returned to Konoha."

"Yuki...I..." Sasuke choked on the end of his sentence. What could he say? It was all true.

"From now on, my name is Haruno Yuki, and I don't have a father. I. Hate. You." And with that, Yuki leapt out of the open window and into the night.

"Yuki! Get back here!" Sakura shouted, rushing over to the window.

Sasuke shook his head. "Don't, Sakura. Just—let her be."

"Sasuke...?" Sakura looked at Sasuke and felt her anger dissipate completely; he seemed so utterly dejected that it made Sakura sigh. She tried to put her hands on his shoulders, but he shook her off.

"Sakura. I..." I'm so sorry. I'm such a fuck up. You've always deserved better than me...

Sakura bit her lower lip. "I know—I'm sure you were just trying to—"

Sasuke turned away from her abruptly. "I need to be alone."

Sakura nodded. "I...understand. Come back soon," she replied in a hoarse whisper.

"Hn."

He brushed her face with the palm of his hand before leaving through the open window.

And Sakura was left alone to regard the night filtering in through the window, the white curtains fluttering gently in the breeze.

Yuki wound her way through the business district, climbed in through Akemi's open window, and found herself in the living room, face to face with an oversized feline.

"Tobais?"

"Child. It's approximately two in the morning," the nin cat stated gravely.

Yuki bit her lower lip. "It's an emergency. We need to leave. Now."

Yuki wasn't sure if cats could sigh, but if they could, she swore that was what Tobias just did.

"I will wake Akemi," the cat murmured before padding off to the bedroom.

As Tobias left, Yuki looked around the shadowed living room. She regarded the dark forms of the sofa; the picture frames glinting with the moonlight which obscured the faces in the photographs. She had had so many happy memories in this living room—and so many memories in this village. Was she really leaving? And for how long?

Yuki sighed, and remembered the promise she had made to Ryuu-kun—to watch over his family for him after he died. Yuki began to pace, until finally she made her way back to the open windows to gaze longingly at the stars. I promise, Ryuu-kun, I'll watch over everyone for you. I won't let you down! I just have to leave. For a little while? As her dark eyes searched the heavens, a shooting star streaked the sky with silver. Yuki smiled, thinking perhaps Ryuu had heard her inner musings.

Yuki heard soft footsteps behind her and turned around, blinking rapidly as Akemi turned on a light.

"Yuki-san, are you sure you want to leave right now?" Akemi asked, her eyes still cloudy with sleep.

Yuki nodded vehemently. "I'll explain on the way. But we need to leave—now." Before I do any other acts of violence with these fucking eyes. Yuki mentally cursed her father for 'gifting' her with the mangekyo sharingan, without even asking her. She closed her eyes, balling her hands into fists, before she was able to calm her rage.

Akemi, noting Yuki's inner turmoil, nodded. "You're making the right decision, child. Before we leave, we need to take care of that hiraishin seal, yes?"

"But how...?"

Akemi chuckled. "Just leave that to me." Akemi pulled a velvet bag out of her pocket and withdrew a silver necklace studded with lapis and obsidian, the stones forming stylized eyes on a dozen flat beads of silver. Wordlessly, Akemi beckoned Yuki over, then clasped the necklace on her neck. It felt heavy and cold against her skin. Akemi spread her palms wide, and blue chakra seeped from her hands onto the necklace—Yuki gasped as the metal sunk down into her flesh. It made sizzling sounds, but Yuki did not feel any pain.

"What in the world...?" Yuki breathed, her panicked eyes searching Akemi's.

Akemi smiled and placed a reassuring hand on Yuki's back. "Don't worry my dear; this is part of a jutsu we Hill People developed to avoid detection. I happen to be a master craftswoman of stealth devices, and I've made this necklace to prevent your hiraishin tattoo from activating—among other things..."

"Okay, baachan," Yuki replied weakly. There were so many things she wanted to ask her grandmother, but right now, she just wanted to concentrate on leaving the village.

Akemi patted her granddaughter on the back before putting similar jewelry on the nin cat and on herself; Yuki watched in fascination as Akemi fused the metal necklaces to flesh and fur.

"But baachan," Yuki asked as Akemi worked, "you don't have hiraishin tattoos—why do you need those things?"

Akemi chuckled as she applied blue chakra to Tobias's neck. "The devices have other jutsu worked into them: not only do they repel enemy seals, but they also enhance our own concealing genjutsu."

Akemi got a misty look in her eye as she continued, "One of the reasons I came to Konoha in the first place was to gather enough precious metals to make my devices. It's hard to do any metal smithing while living nomadically in the mountains—that's why moving to Konoha was perfect for me."

Yuki blinked several times in succession; she was truly amazed that her tiny grandmother could have created such amazing ninja tools. Akemi, finally done her fusing jutsu, hefted a large bag on her back and nodded to Tobias, who swelled to the size of a miniature pony.

"Sorry Yuki-chan, but we can't risk summoning Tama right now; I'm afraid the jutsu would alert the Hokage to our presence," she murmured as she sat on Tobias' back. "Even if I've scrambled the signal on your hiraishin tattoo, the Hokage would feel the fluctuation in chakra from calling a summons."

"That's all right, baachan. I'll walk," Yuki answered with a shrug. "But would you like me to carry that bag for you?"

Akemi shook her head. "This is all of my craftwork; I want to deliver them myself to Aya. They're protection amulets, just like the ones we're wearing, but they're even better than the last batch I sent her. You can carry the bag of provisions instead, Yuki." Akemi motioned with her head to a small bag of foodstuffs, which Yuki shouldered.

The old woman sighed. "We should get going now. It's only a few hours until dawn..."

Yuki broke into a cold sweat at her words. To say she was leaving the village was one thing; to actually leave was another. However, Yuki knew, in her heart, that she was doing the right thing. If Madara was coming for her; if her father could not be trusted; then it was the perfect time to leave Konoha.

Yuki noticed her necklace glowing with an eerie blue light as the Akemi wove a few hand-signs. The old woman opened the front door, and then they were moving silently like shadows through the empty streets. Akemi clung to Tobias' back, a sad smile on her wrinkled face. Yuki sighed and tried concentrate, but she couldn't help but see images in her mind's eye as she passed her familiar haunts.

They passed by the ice cream shop, and Yuki could see the smiling faces of her sister and mother, vying with each other to get the most chocolate sprinkles in their shared ice cream sundae; the shuttered ramen store brought tears to her eyes, and she swore that she could see Ryuu and his father, scarfing down bowl after bowl of ramen to see who could eat more.

There's so many memories in this village, Yuki thought with a pang. At last, they passed the business district and veered passed the training grounds; Yuki spared a look for her favorite training ground, where she often trained with her otousan on lazy summer afternoons—

No, Yuki thought, biting her lip. She pushed her memories aside—her father was dead to her. He was a lier and a murderer; the events of the past evening just confirmed that her father was not a man to be trusted. She would not allow herself even the memory of happiness with Sasuke.

Yuki looked ahead, and was glad to see that they were near the gates; she looked forward to leaving all these confusing and saddening memories far, far behind her. However, as they drew closer, a lone figure rose from the stone bench and stood beneath the arch of the gate.

Yuki hissed with surprise—had someone found out about her departure? But she hadn't told a soul she was leaving! The figure strode out from the shadows and into the low, orange light of the streetlamp.

"Saki," Yuki snarled, surprised and displeased at seeing her younger sister.

Saki's small frame was trembling, and her hands were balled into fists. "Yuki," Saki replied, her voice quavering with emotion.

For a moment, the two sisters regarded each other in silence. Yuki's eyes narrowed—how could Saki have spotted her? In a moment, Yuki cursed her own foolishness; if there had been a concealing genjutsu in place, then Yuki had probably just broken it by speaking. In fact, it seemed that Saki had not yet spotted Akemi, even though Akemi and Tobias were standing right next to Yuki.

Finally, Saki grunted. "Yuki, listen. I heard everything at home, with mom and dad."

Yuki shifted the weight of her pack, trying to think of the best way out of this situation. "So what?" Yuki snapped, annoyed that Saki was delaying her departure.

Saki blinked rapidly at that, which made Yuki suspect that she was holding back tears. Saki had always been weaker, subject to emotional outbursts;Yuki had thought that such emotional displays were taboo to shinobi, and had steeled herself towards stoicism. But if she were honest with herself, then Yuki would have had to admit that Saki was plainly displaying the emotions that Yuki herself was now fighting in her own heart.

Saki wiped her face with the back of her hand and exhaled sharply. "I don't know about what you read in the library, Yuki. I can hardly bring myself to believe what you said. But—I know our dad. Sure, he might be a maladroit, laconic, sarcastic, annoying authoritarian figure..." Here Saki trailed off, because her voice was too choked with emotion to continue. She swiped at her eyes again, cleared her throat, and pressed on, "But he's our dad. He's never done anything to hurt us, he's always—"

"He's a lier, Saki. And he poisoned me with that jutsu." Yuki didn't bother to elaborate; after all, if Saki had been eaves-dropping on her conversation with their parents, she would know that Yuki was talking about the mangekyo.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Saki wailed. "Dad showers you with attention all the time! He's always sparing with you, and he gave you a summoning contract! And then he gives you a supped up version of the sharingan, and you're mad as hell! What the fuck? Why are you so fucking unhappy?"

Yuki shook her head; obviously, Saki had no idea what the mangekyo really was. Saki continued, "I followed dad. He left the house after you left; I've never seen him so sad. You know where he went? He went to uncle Itachi's memorial stone, muttering to himself and calling himself the world's biggest fuck-up. Kami, Yuki, I couldn't get too close, but I think he was weeping—otousan was crying! Dammit Yuki, he's sorry! I'm sure he only meant—"

"That's enough, Saki," Yuki growled. Saki didn't understand a damn thing about what she was going through, and her speech was only pissing Yuki off. "Get. Out. Of. My. Way. I'm leaving, and I'm leaving now."

Saki's eyes grew wide with surprise. "You can't. You can't fucking leave!"

Yuki's heart sank at Saki's piteous plee, but she forced her voice to be steady. "I'm sorry, but I need to."

"I'll scream," Saki hissed. "Don't you—"

But Yuki moved quickly; before Saki could shout, Yuki was face to face with her sister. "Saki. I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry." Yuki heaved a huge sigh; then, she concentrated her chakra, and eyes began to whirl—

"No child, don't use that jutsu!" Akemi yelled.

To Saki's eyes, it seemed as though her grandmother's form, seated upon an oversized cat, materialized out of thin air. "Baachan?" Saki called softly. "What are you doing here?" But when Saki's gaze traveled to the cat Akemi was sitting on, Saki paled. "Oh Kami! It's a summons! You're in league with—I don't know, but you— you're not supposed to!" Saki sputtered. "What the HELL is going on!"

Yuki shook her head. If she couldn't place her sister under genjutsu, what the fuck was she supposed to do with her?

Because Kami, Saki was as loud as a screaming banshee, and they were trying to avoid detection, not welcome it with open arms.

Sasuke sat in front of Itachi's memorial, by the entrance to the old Uchiha compound. Of course, Itachi's body was not beneath it, as per the rules of the village to prevent any idiot who wanted to raise the dead via edo tensei. Sasuke sighed; he had wanted to bury Itachi's eyes under the memorial once they were removed from his head during the transplant, but Naruto forbade it. Instead, the tiny bottle of ashes—all that remained of Itachi's incinerated eyes—were scattered to the winds at a secret location by an ANBU agent. Such were the times they lived in: the paranoia that armies of zombie invaders might level Konoha prevented any ninja from having a decent burial.

Sasuke gazed up at the memorial statue, two larger than life birds facing each other, a dove carved out of alabaster and a crow made out of black stone. Black and white. That was the way of the ninja world: any shades of gray were undefinable, unacceptable, thrown to the winds like Itachi's secret ashes. The Uchiha clan had been such an abomination; therefore, they had been annihilated.

Itachi had been a "hero" for destroying his clan, but outwardly, had taken on all the labels of villainy to protect his beloved village—to protect his younger brother. Black and white, swirling together in some epic game of spin art, the colors spiraling against each other but never mixing, retaining the purity of darkness and light. Darkness inside of light and light inside of darkness.

And then, there was Sasuke—Sasuke whose eyes had bled from light to darkness twice, and had come most recently from darkness to light to purpled sight. It seemed that Sasuke had always lived in the gray, the fuzzy edges of where truth and falsehood merged, a fog so dense that any hopes of definition were impossible.

Who was he, really? Was he just fooling himself when he played the good guy—when he pretended to be a loving father and a loyal husband? Underneath it all, was he just a gray soul, the kind that should have been eradicated long ago? For who could trust a moral sense that could not tell the difference between night and day, white and black, without someone pointing it out for him?

And here, in front of the last vestiges of Itachi, Sasuke wept. His life was a lie and his soul was gray; in one foolish moment, he had foisted a life of suffering—the entirety of the Uchiha's burden—upon his eldest daughter. His daughter, whom he cherished more than the breath in his lungs or the stars shimmering in the moonless sky; his daughter, who hated him, and rightfully so.

Traitor. Deceiver. Murderer.

How did he ever let Sakura and Naruto fool him into thinking that he could have been something besides darkness? Any painter knows that if even a small speck of black paint mixes in with white, no amount of turpentine can wash the white clean; it is forever condemned to be gray, no matter how much white paint is added back in. And it is only a matter of time before that suspended gray blooms, spreading further into darkness. White is a weak color, and darkness is the logical conclusion to life; to the day; the ultimate dissolution.

"I'm sorry, Itachi. I should have never..." Sasuke sighed and looked up at the monolithic sculpture of the crow, its stone eyes glinting with starlight as if the bird had some sentient soul.

"Itachi. You should have never left me..." The ambiguous statement hung in the air; a passing cloud obscured a patch of stars, and the glow in the crow's eye vanished, leaving it dead once more.

a/n yes, I'm aware that currently in the manga Sasuke doesn't have tsukuyomi; but I have faith that eventually, he'll figure it out (maybe after he and Itachi own Kabuto together, mwhahaha). In any event, Yuki can cast tsukuyomi, albeit a weak one at this point.

Please review;) What did you like? What did you not like?