Chapter 10: Epilogue and Alternate Ending

A/N: Soooo, a few people have asked about an epilogue. I had a small snippet of epilogue that wasn't really enough to post on its own. But I also thought about adding an alternate ending of sorts for the readers that really, really wanted Kiyo to live. I'm a little hesitant about posting it because I don't want to lessen the impact of her death, but I thought it might add a bit of catharsis to know that there is an alternate timeline out there somewhere where she lives.

Epilogue:

Itachi moved forward in darkness, the last of his light having been stolen by Susanoo. Sasuke stood before him in the ruins of their battleground, and Itachi raised his hand to gently poke Sasuke's forehead.

"Sorry Sasuke, this is the last time," he said, transferring the last remnants of his power into Sasuke's eye, the last bit of protection he could provide to his younger brother. And with that, he was finally free to meet his judgment. He wished he could tell Sasuke everything, that he could give Sasuke the same goodbye he'd given Kiyo-chan all those years ago.

"I will love you forever, in this life and the next. I do not know if two people as different as you and I could ever be destined for the same place. But if there is still mercy in this world for someone like me, I hope to find you there soon."

Itachi fell forward...

...into an embrace.

He blinked, the world around him dazzlingly bright in the wake of his blindness.

"Yo," said a voice he had not heard in many years.

Itachi straightened and could only stare at the playful grin of his closest friend.

"Shisui."

"We've been waiting for you," he said.

We?

And then he felt it, a tiny hand grasping his own. He looked down to see Kiyo-chan at his side, still wearing her blue ribbon and giving him a gentle smile, just as she had always done when he'd returned home after a long mission.

"Onii-chan," she said. "You found me."

"Yes," he said, giving her hand a small squeeze and kneeling to catch her in an embrace.

It seemed that there was still mercy in this world, even for someone like him.

Alternate Ending:

I woke in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.

I blinked slowly, staring up at the white ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights.

Hospital. Yes, I was in a hospital. I turned my head, but Itachi was no longer sitting at my side. I opened my mouth to call out for him, but I only managed a faint rasp. My throat was so dry. Had I been dreaming? There were faint remnants of foreign chakra in my body. It was the sterile chakra of a medical ninjutsu.

I reached up expecting to see a wrinkled old hand. But it…wasn't. It was smooth and tiny. A child's hand. Whose hand was that?

I was an old lady, not a child.

I was…

I was…

Red eyes.

A pinwheel.

"Tsukuyomi."

I was supposed to be dead

Why wasn't I dead?

And then I recalled Itachi's words, the ones he'd whispered to me before I fell asleep.

"I will love you forever, in this life and the next, little sister. I do not know if two people as different as you and I could ever be destined for the same place. But if there is still mercy in this world for someone like me, I hope to find you there soon. However, if there is any part of you that still wishes to live, then please wake so that I can see you again someday."

The hand-my hand-fell back to the bed sheet.

I was so tired.

Across the room, a door opened. I half expected it to be my brother, but it was only a blonde medic with a bored expression and a clipboard. She didn't even seem to notice me at first as she jotted down a few notes and checked the time. Then her eyes flicked up to meet mine.

She did a double-take.

Then she was gone, her voice carrying from the hallway as she shouted for a senior medic.

I closed my eyes.

There was chakra in my veins and voices in my room.

Strangers.

Or not quite.

I knew that chakra. I'd felt it once before at the Academy entrance ceremony.

But what was the Hokage doing here?

I opened my eyes and blinked against the harsh light.

An ANBU stood over me. His hands were bright with chakra.

I made a faint sound of surprise and tried to shy away, but I could only twitch. The ANBU carefully withdrew his chakra and stood back.

"Thank you, Bear," said the Hokage. He was holding his pipe, still smoking despite it being against several hospital regulations. "Please wait outside."

The ANBU vanished. I didn't even hear the door open or close.

I shuddered.

"Kiyo-chan," said the Hokage, his expression both grandfatherly and serious. "Do you know where you are?"

I looked around. I'd been in the hospital plenty of times, but I'd never been in this particular room. The window vibrated with security seals, and we were above the tree line, so at least on the fourth floor. The secure wing. It was a restricted place for high-risk patients.

"H-hospital," I croaked.

The Hokage nodded.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asked.

I swallowed thickly, my mouth very dry.

"My family…everyone…everyone is…" I trailed off. "Why am I alive?"

Why hadn't Itachi killed me?

Why hadn't the Hokage?

The Hokage sat back and drew in a deep puff from his pipe before exhaling a long sigh of smoke.

"I was hoping you could tell me," he admitted. "You were placed under a powerful genjutsu and have been in a coma for the past several weeks. Did he tell you why he did what he did?"

Oh.

The Hokage was still looking at me like a sad old man.

Harmless.

My hands clenched, and I looked down, shaking my head.

The Hokage sighed again.

"You're safe here," he said, his voice gentle. "What happened…was a terrible tragedy. The one responsible is no longer in a position to hurt you."

Clever phrasing, as it could have referred to either Itachi or Danzo. But Danzo wasn't the only threat. He might have been the one to give the order, but the Hokage had done nothing to stop it. And if word ever got out that the Hokage was even tangentially involved in the massacre of a Konoha clan, it would mean civil war. The complete destruction of the entire hidden village and possibly even the Land of Fire.

Weighed against all of that, what was the life of one sickly child?

If I'd been in a coma for several weeks already, it would be easy to make me vanish, and no one would ever know.

"Please tell me," he continued.

What did he know?

What did he think I knew?

I shook my head, silent and terrified.

The Hokage was silent for a long minute.

He stood and turned to the window.

"I've already spoken with your brother, and he has told me everything," he said. I focused on keeping my breathing even.

Which brother? Underneath the underneath.

Plausible deniability.

A true ninja could skirt the edge of truth and lies, and the Hokage was nothing if not a true ninja.

"According to Sasuke, Itachi chose to murder the clan as a test of his abilities," he continued. "When you fell to his genjutsu, he deemed you unworthy of killing, though he was not sure if you would survive the attack. It seems that your Uzumaki heritage was enough to save you, granting you enough life energy to survive what would have killed most others. Sasuke, likewise, was spared."

He took another long draw from his pipe.

"Is there anything you would like to add?" he asked, and his meaning suddenly became clear. Itachi had gone to the Hokage to beg for Sasuke's life. And if he'd left me alive intentionally, that meant…

…that meant that he must have begged for my life as well.

But Itachi hadn't been sure if I would live. I'd been in a coma for weeks, and few people knew that I had woken. As long as Sasuke remained alive, the Hokage could kill me without retribution. He might not have wanted to, but he would.

Unless I wasn't a threat.

"No," I said, the word ash in my mouth. "There isn't anything."

A/N 2: I hope this offers some reassurance without ruining the primary ending. I don't currently have any plans of continuing down this timeline because I don't know if anyone would be interested in it, but it serves as a glimpse to a happier place where things turned out a little bit different.