A/n First off, a huge thanks to my two betas, Uchiha.s and Twinkletoast. Yep, I was feeling really insecure about life and had this chappy looked over twice. Seriously, these two writers are amazing—each had something different and essential to add. Like two different, delicious spices in a stew… *starts to get hungry* Lol:) Thanks for being there for me wonderful ladies; your edits and your encouragement mean the world to me:)

Thanks also to all my wonderful reviewers. I think I treasure my reviews to SoA more than any other fic. Thanks for sticking with me friends.

I have a lot going on in my life, but I hope to maintain an update-every-two-weeks schedule. I love this story, and I love sharing it with you:) I encourage all my readers who have been quiet to drop me a line; please, let me know how you like this chapter.

One of the things I like about this fic is that it has taught me a wealth of information about writing. Please, share your thoughts with me so I can continue to improve. Thanks!

And now, without further ado…

Chapter Thirty-Two: Aether

Song of the Aether,

Where the sea shapes the horizon gray;

And all the thoughts of yesteryear

Poisons the movement of the day.

~The First Book of Akash, Verse IXX

Yuki bit her lip. The village was alive with hundreds of tribe members, scurrying to get ready for the big ritual, and Yuki felt completely unprepared and out of place from her seat of honor. This was definitely beyond the pale of her experience.

In an effort to quell her anxious thoughts, she studied the people flowing around her. Some bore a remarkable resemblance to the Uchiha, with long dark hair, high cheek bones, and dark velvet eyes. Others differed greatly in appearance. There was everything from blonde-hair-and-blue-eyes, to giant men with white hair and prominent bones, to women with green mossy hair—and where these women should have had feet, Yuki was pretty sure they had hooves.

Aya had explained that the village housed not just Uchiha refugees, but also disparate ninja who had defected from their native villages in order to escape war, violence, or persecution. It was quite the motley crew, in Yuki's opinion.

Just as some women with flaming orange hair and strange fiery tattoos were stoking the bonfire, Akemi-baachan led some wizened-looking old folks over to Yuki's chair of honor. Yuki rose and bowed low. She assumed that these were the famous elders she had heard so much about from Aya.

The first elder, a woman with ankle length white hair, speared her with a heavy glare; Yuki gulped.

"Young woman, are you sure you are prepared to undergo the trials of the mind?"

Yuki had not the faintest idea what 'trials of the mind' really meant, so instead she meekly replied, "I am ready to undergo the training so that I can defend my people."

The old woman's wrinkles twitched, but then the woman bowed her head toward Yuki in approval. Next to her, an old man with a deeply lined face displayed a gap-toothed smile.

"You'll do just fine, sweetheart," he warbled, "I saw it with my own eyes! If anyone can kick the Slaughterer's ass—"

"Language!" the old woman barked as she rapped him on the head with her cane.

"Mother!" the old man whined, "It's true! I saw it in a vision—this girl is the key to kicking some serious...butt!" At that last, more tasteful word, the old woman lowered her cane, but continued to glower at her compatriot.

Akemi laughed. "Yuki-chan, these are my friends. We call them the Mother and the Father, though they are not related—they are the elders of the tribe."

Yuki bowed again politely. "It is very nice to meet you."

The Mother's face turned sour, and she brandished her cane at Yuki. "Don't screw up now, girl!" she snapped.

Yuki paled. "Yes'm!" she cried as she saluted the old woman.

The Father's brow creased in consternation. "Mother, didn't I tell you? In my vision, the girl did just fine. Why do you have to browbeat her?"

The crotchety elder whapped the Father on the head with her cane, retorting, "I'll show you browbeating! That's what you get for bossing the Mother around!"

The old man sighed. "Forgive me, Mother," he sighed; though when the Mother turned away, he winked at Yuki. She had a hard time holding in her laughter.

Suddenly, a group of men with strange, ray-like markings on their foreheads started beating drums. The elders melted back into the crowd, and rest of the villagers formed a large circle around Yuki. She felt anxious until Aya strode forward and stood beside her.

Yuki admired Aya's ceremonial outfit: white linen draped in such a way over that it made her look like an angel. All kinds of strange mountain flowers studded her curly hair, and in the center of her forehead a purple crystal was fused into her flesh, much like the jewelry Akemi had given Yuki when they had first started their journey.

But Yuki had no more time for idle contemplation, for Aya handed her a gourd full of gooey liquid. Yuki blinked, slowly. This liquid did not smell or look edible. At all. She looked back up at Aya, who insinuated with the nod of her head that Yuki should drink up. She took a deep breath and proceeded to chug. The villagers nodded approvingly, but Yuki's stomach gurgled in protest. Feeling nauseated, Yuki shakily handed the empty gourd back to Aya, who gave her a compassionate glance before holding out the bowl to her attendant. Yuki clenched her teeth as the attendant filled the bowl once more, thinking it was destined once again for Yuki's poor stomach. Much to her relief, Aya drank the second portion.

Aya clapped, and two heavy-set ninja stepped forward. They wove a few hand-signs, and walls sprung out of the earth, encasing Aya and Yuki in a dark room. In a moment, Aya formed a katon, and fire sprang up in her hands; she focused the flame over an oil lamp, which cast the small, cave-like enclosure into low relief. Aya smiled reassuringly at her pupil, and wordlessly motioned for Yuki to lay down on a thin blanket on the ground. Yuki gulped and did so. As she had been instructed earlier, she looked into Aya's eyes.

Even though she had been prepared about the details of the ceremony beforehand, Yuki still caught herself gasping when Aya's irises whorled to reveal the mangekyo sharingan. And then—

Yuki fell into the darkness.

Damn it all!

One day had already passed. That meant that there were only two fucking days until his rendezvous with Uchiha Madara.

And Sasuke still had absolutely no plan whatsoever.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Worst of all, Sakura was not talking to him and had made him sleep on the floor last night. This would all have been a lot easier if he had had someone to talk to—besides Madara's ghost, who popped in to verbally assault him when he was alone. Sasuke was sure that whatever hellhole Madara was lurking in now, he was laughing his sadistic head off.

In the other room, Takeo cried. Sasuke crept over to his crib. "Hey. Up from your nap?"

Takeo only wailed in response. Sasuke sighed heavily. Takeo had been inconsolable since Sasuke's return, and only Sasuke knew that it was because of Madara. Biting his lip, Sasuke activated his ocular jutsu and took a long, good look at the boy's chakra system.

Just as Madara had said, there was a black cloud hanging over Takeo's energy system. Thankfully, it hadn't gotten worse over the past twenty-four hours—but then again, it hadn't gotten any better, either.

Sasuke rocked Takeo to and fro and continued worrying his lip until it bled. Sasuke cursed himself; his child was in danger, and he couldn't help him at all. In a fit of despair, Sasuke flicked the mobile hanging over the baby's crib, making it spin.

He blinked at it.

I can't do anything obvious or Madara might catch me—but maybe, just maybe, I can leave a clue…

Sasuke bounced Takeo on his hip. "Come on, Takeo-chan," he whispered, "it's art project time."

Sasuke broke out all the tempera paint and paper mache supplies he could find. An hour later, both he and Takeo were covered head-to-toe in paint, and in the middle of the table stood the ugliest mobile ever made in the history of the Hidden Leaf. On each tile, Sasuke had drawn the letters of the alphabet; except that the letters "K", "A", "R", "I", and "N" were the only letters drawn in red, while the rest were painted green.

Takeo, who had calmed down, began crying again. A menacing voice spoke over the child's wail:

"I didn't know you were an artist, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke's head whipped up at that. "Madara? Can I enjoy my last days with my family in peace, without your gods-forsaken ghost breaking and entering into my living room?"

Madara merely shrugged.

"I'll have you know," Sasuke snapped, "that art helps me deal with stress. Now go away."

Madara's ghost waved cheerfully before disappearing in a swirl.

Sasuke heaved a sigh of relief as Madara left. Thank the gods that Madara had not noticed the hidden message in the mobile; right now, it was his only hope.

Sasuke picked Takeo up from the floor and rocked the hysterical baby, but he could not get Takeo to stop crying. Sasuke bit back a curse. Was it not enough that Madara was making his life a living hell? He had to stalk Sasuke, too? All last night, just as Sasuke was drifting off to sleep on the hard floor, Madara's ghost had popped in and asked him if he had made up his mind yet. Sasuke supposed that sleep deprivation was one of the asshole's tactics. Well, it wasn't going to work, because now, Sasuke had a mobile!

Sasuke looked at his creation in pride for a moment, and then, his face fell.

Gods damn it. He's a ghost who commands a powerful army of zombies, and all I have to fight the fucker is a mobile. Fuck.

Sasuke hung the hideous mobile over Takeo's crib and tried, desperately, to think of another plan.

"Where...where am I?" Yuki asked. They were high up on a mountain, overlooking the undulating hills. The light was bright, though Yuki couldn't see the sun. She turned around to see Aya standing behind her. "Oh. You're here..."

Aya smiled brightly. "Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?"

"Um..."

"Right. Let's start at the beginning!" Aya chimed. Yuki winced; Aya, as she had proven earlier, was terrible at starting from the beginning. Aya noticed Yuki's expression and smiled sheepishly.

"Anyway," Aya explained, "we're approximately half a dimension out of normal reality." Aya paused, noticing her pupil's confusion. "Um...in other words, our bodies are still in ordinary reality, but our consciousness is removed. We're in the space you commonly enter when you dream."

Yuki nodded, following Aya now. "So Aya-sensei, are we dreaming?"

"In a sense, we are. But instead of sleeping, we're 'dreaming' consciously. Any more questions before we go on?"

"Why do you have the mangekyo sharingan—did you murder your best friend?" Yuki blurted out.

Aya blanched. "Heavens no! I would never...oh, but I see, you must be thinking of your father's mangekyo—"

"Actually, it's my mangekyo, now."

Aya shook her head. "Yes, Akemi told me about that. First, let me explain: the branch family has a method of awakening the sharingan without committing murder, but the mangekyo we have is mostly a defensive variation, whereas the one the main family developed is mostly used for offense. When an Uchiha undergoes the kind of special training that we're doing right now, they can acquire the defensive mangekyo."

Yuki nodded thoughtfully. "How does that work?"

"Patience, grasshopper!" Aya laughed. "You'll find out in time. Right now, I need to ask your spirits if we need to remove your current mangekyo. May I?"

"Um...sure...I guess..." Yuki blinked anxiously as Aya strode forward and placed a hand on her forehead. Everything went dark for a moment. But just as suddenly as the darkness descended, it disappeared, and Yuki found herself standing on the bright mountainside once more. Aya was frowning down at her.

"Seems like you're meant to have it," Aya said at last, her eyes clouded in confusion.

"Couldn't you just—take it out of my eyes now?" Yuki pleaded.

Aya shook her head no. "For whatever reason, your guardian spirits want you to have it, at least for now. Trust me on this one. You can ask them yourself, later."

Yuki's eyes widened at that. "I have spirits that watch over me—and I can talk to them?"

Aya sighed. "Really, what do they teach you in the Hidden Leaf? All right, grasshopper, it's time for your first lesson. Right now, we're at the doorway to the higher worlds, but we can't proceed on our journey until you clear yourself of burdens from your current life."

"My current life?"

"Yes, as opposed to one of your past lives."

"Past lives?"

Aya blinked up at her pupil. "Yes. Past lives. But right now we're going to focus on set-backs in your current life."

Yuki closed her eyes. Guardian spirits and past lives were not subjects that they had covered at the ninja academy. Perhaps that was the kind of thing one picked up at temple? But Yuki's family— and practically every ninja she knew— were not particularly religious. The only times she went to the temple was for births, weddings, funerals, and the occasional New Year's visit to the shrines. After a pregnant pause, Yuki opened her eyes again. "All right. Current life set-backs. What do I do?"

Aya smiled encouragingly. "Listen carefully. When the lesson starts, I'm going to leave. That's just to respect your privacy. If you need help at any point, you can call me and I'll come right back."

"Okay. But...what's going to happen?"

"Don't know. It's different for everyone. Don't worry, I'll be here to help you whenever you need me. Ready?"

Yuki took a deep breath. "Er...ready as I'll ever be?"

Aya's laughter echoed on the mountainside. "You'll be just fine. I believe in you!" And with that, Aya's form dematerialized, and the light shifted.

Yuki found herself in a field lowly illuminated by moonlight, though the moon was not in sight. Overhead, stars shone more vibrantly than any star seen from earth, and in front of her—

"Otousan..." Yuki whispered, her body going cold.

Sasuke appeared as Yuki had known him when she was younger. His eyes were covered in a flowing white scarf, the silk one stitched with ravens. He gestured for her to come closer, which she did, albeit with faltering footsteps.

Sasuke pointed towards the sky. "Yuki-san, what do you see?"

Yuki looked up and whispered, "I see a field of stars, otousan, shining like tiny beads of silver."

"Yuki-san, do you remember what I told you about starlight?" Sasuke asked gently.

In a shaky voice, she replied, as if by rote, "The light of the stars reaches us long after the star is gone; the stars I see tonight have all died thousands of years ago. Why are you asking me this, otousan? Are you really here, otousan?" she asked in a small voice.

Sasuke merely smiled and replied, "When I die, I'll become a star in the sky, and even though I'll be gone, my light will always reach you..."

As he spoke, Sasuke's body sank into the earth. As if transfixed, Yuki lit a stick of incense, and the smoke rose upwards through the moonlight in thick, silver drifts. But instead of dissipating, the smoke curled and gathered in the silver light before shooting up into the air, and a single star was born in the night sky. Yuki looked up at the phenomenon in horror. "Otousan!" she cried, "Otousan, don't leave me!"

She felt herself floating, as if the sky were made of water and she was bobbing up towards the surface, punctuated with stars instead of fish; the air was cool on her face, and as she approached the firmament, the stars grew in brilliance and size.

"Otousan!" she screamed into the star-studded abyss, "Why? Why did you do those horrible things, back before I was born? How—how could you?"

Without warning, the world dissolved around her. She was left in darkness which was so crushing, she could not even cry out. It seemed as though she was floating through the dark void forever before finally, she felt the air compress—

There was the sound like glass shattering, and an explosion of light which blinded Yuki as she fell through the sky. When her vision finally cleared, she saw snakes of light with giant wings, streaking across the sky like meteors. The serpents converged in a circle, biting each other's tails until they were a giant, writhing mass of scales and feathers.

Their wings faded into the air and formed the sky, while their bodies dissolved into water. From the water rose volcanoes, spewing fire. The fire hit the water with a hiss, and steam blanketed the earth; when the steam cleared, it revealed newly formed land.

All around the nascent planet, a pair of hands and a pair of eyes materialized. One eye became the sun, and the other became the moon, while the hands shaped the surface of the stratosphere. All this Yuki observed as if she had the consciousness and the vantage point of a far-away star.

Yuki slowly floated down to the surface of this new planet, and there she saw all manner of strange creatures, fish with legs and giant birds with leathery wings. Time blurred: animals and plants were born and died and disintegrated before being reborn again, until finally, humans emerged. From their appearances, she recognized their clans: Hyuga, Inuzaka, Yamanaka, even a few whom she suspected were Haruno. My ancestors, Yuki thought with trepidation. She searched for those with Uchiha characteristics but found none.

With that thought, her surroundings blurred once more. She felt herself rushing through space until she landed with a thud in a dark laboratory. There was a man in a white coat, filling a syringe with red liquid and injecting it into a shinobi strapped to the table. From the subject's white, pupiless eyes, Yuki could tell that he was from the Hyuga clan.

The man bore the needle without fear; it seemed like he welcomed the injection, whatever it was. There were other Hyuga in the room, at least a hundred subjects or more, all strapped to tables with cruel restraints. The experimenter executed a number of extremely complicated hand-signs, and Yuki thought that, even with her sharingan, she could not hope to copy the jutsu.

There was a flash of chakra, and the sound of groans filled the air. When the light cleared, the man who had been strapped to the table blinked his eyes, which had gone from white to jet black—and then to three black commas swirling on a field of red. Yuki paled as she realized that she was witnessing the creation of the Uchiha. My ancestors were Hyuga science experiments? I can't believe Tadashi was right...

She had no time for indignation or fear; the scene shifted again. She was on an endless green plain, and saw the Uchiha warriors striking down their opponents with the grace of predatory cats. Their leader was a tall man with long, black hair, and when Yuki saw his eyes, she saw a swirling mangekyo sharingan. The sight of him made her shiver. That that must be Madara...

The fighting continued, and the Uchiha killed many who fought against them. But there was one tribe who stood on equal ground with the Uchiha, and when those two fought, an equal number of both the Uchiha and the fair-haired tribe remained dead on the battleground. Blood saturated the earth; it seeped into the creeks and rivers until it seemed that they, too, ran red. Finally, there was a truce between the two clans, and out of the blood, a village was born: Konoha.

Time pressed on quickly. Yuki hovered above the Uchiha district and looked down, gasping as she spied her father as a small child. For the first time, she saw her uncle Itachi. Yuki could tell from the way Sasuke and Itachi spoke to each other that they loved each other; it reminded Yuki of herself and her own sister, a little. She smiled at that.

But time sped forward again, and Yuki saw dark clouds gathering over the village, and cracks forming in the wall of the Uchiha compound. Madara flitted through the shadows, scurrying along the cracks like a spider come to spin its web; from the shadows came the Kyubi shining with red light, snapping up Senju ninja in its jaws. The Uchiha were nowhere to be found, except for Itachi, Sasuke, and the other children of the district, gaping up at the monster in horror and foreboding.

Time pressed on and blurred around the edges of Yuki's sight. When her vision resolved, she watched her father, as a young boy, come home on that fateful night to find Uchiha blood running like rivers over the cold cobblestone streets; the moon's reflection was rutilant in the warm pools. As Sasuke ran after Itachi through those drenched streets, his feet slipping in blood, his eyes whirled cadmium and crimson. Above his head, silver smoke curled before vaulting up into the heavens, forming new constellations. When dawn came, Sasuke was left alone, unconscious on the cold stones.

Time continued to pass, and Yuki saw Sasuke's life flash by like stills from a movie, sometimes flickering like a projection, sometimes appearing more vivid than real life. It was like dreaming, but the plot line came out of the aether—as if the thin air was singing and the sound became images. She saw Sasuke leave the village to go on a journey through darkness. He was like a black hole, trying, in his misery, to suck everything in to himself, into oblivion, until...

She briefly saw the faces of her mother and of the Hokage, but then the vision faded, and she was back in the moonlit field with her father. Sasuke was smiling sadly, and from under his blindfold, bloody tears ran down his cheeks.

"Otousan...?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't expect you to ever forgive me, when I can't even forgive myself. I just hope that you can understand."

Yuki sighed. "Otousan, I understand—and I'll try to forgive you..."

It began raining, though there were no clouds. It washed away the blood from Sasuke's face, which now shone like wet silver in the moonlight. Yuki whispered, "I'm sorry, otousan. Saki was right; you've always been a good father." Yuki blinked up at her father through her tears. "I love you, otousan—please, don't turn into a star just yet!" she cried.

He laughed, ruefully. It seemed as if the rain was falling harder, even though the sky was still clear. Yuki could see the stars falling as if they, too, were raining down, and all around her the stars were streaking the sky silver and gray and black, and everything dissolved around her into moonlight and starlight and—

Yuki blinked. Just as suddenly as the vision began, it stopped, and she was back on the mountain with Aya.

"Looks like you learned your first lesson. How'd it go?" Aya asked, trying to mask the excitement in her voice.

"Um...good..." Yuki mumbled, still reeling from the experience. She scratched the back of her head and looked up at her sensei expectantly.

"Well done, Yuki-chan. Off we go to the next dimension. Hold on!"

Before Yuki could protest, Aya took Yuki's hand, and the world lurched around them in shades of brilliant green and blue.

Sasuke woke with a start. It was mid afternoon and Takeo was just stirring from his nap. Damn—more time wasted. He only had two more days left, and he still didn't have a plan. This was no time to fall asleep!

With a sense of urgency, Sasuke opened his bleary eyes, and for an instant, he recalled something from his dream: stars had swirled on the edges of his sight, and Yuki had called after him, before he had disappeared in the starry heavens...

What a strange dream. In light of Madara's newest threats against Takeo, Sasuke had almost forgotten about Yuki; his dream, however, proved that he was just as distraught as ever about her disappearance. Just as a full moon robs the light from the stars, the threat of Madara had temporarily banished his grief over Yuki to a dusty corner of his subconscious.

Takeo began crying and Sasuke hastily rocked the child, though Takeo only sobbed harder. Sasuke sighed. It was because he had given up on searching for Yuki that Sakura had been giving him the silent treatment. When she looked at him, cold hatred stared back at him from the depths of her green eyes.

Sasuke didn't blame her. He had withdrawn into himself completely after his meeting with Madara, for he bore a burden that Sakura— no, that no one—could help him bear. He was alone. Either he offered his own flesh to Madara, or Madara would eat the flesh of his only son. Sakura couldn't help him, and Sasuke was glad that his current behavior repulsed her to the point of hatred—because if Sakura hated him, it would be easier for her to use the death seal on him.

Sasuke was grateful that the seal was branded into his skin just above his heart. Sakura could kill him instantly. He must work, as hard as he could, to make her hate him over these next few days. If Madara got ahold of his body, then Sasuke would have to die. His spirit would finally find its final torment; Itachi would open the black gates to hell, and colorful devils would gouge out Sasuke's eyes for all eternity. It was what he deserved.

Takeo continued to wail, and Sasuke could offer him no comfort. Either way, Sasuke was bound to betray this small life. If he warned the Hokage of Madara's plan, his precious son—the only part of Sasuke that was unsullied by his mistakes—would become Madara's plaything. Could Sasuke condemn his son to that? But if Sasuke instead offered himself to Madara to save Takeo, then Sasuke's body would be used to wage war on Konoha, and who knew how many more would die?

"What would you have done, Itachi?" Sasuke whispered, his breath moving the fine hairs on Takeo's head.

"Talking to yourself, Sasuke-kun? That's a sure sign of insanity," Madara offered blithely as he materialized from thin air.

Startled, Sasuke jumped up, holding Takeo protectively in his arms. He glared at Madara and snarled. In a deft leap, Sasuke jumped out of the second story window and hit the ground running, heading towards Naruto's house. His child wailed pitifully in the wind from the shelter of Sasuke's arms.

Madara just chuckled from Takeo's bedroom window before he disappeared back into the aether, from whence he came.

a/n I worked so unbelievably hard on this chapter; please review my friends and tell me what you think! ;D