Naruto: Ashes to Gold

Author's Notes/Scribbles:

For a lot of reasons, I decided to come back to the world of fanfiction. Part of the reason involves killing a lot of the time I would normally spend on games such as StarCraft II and other new releases like Dead Space II, and/or old Classics such as the Command & Conquer series.

One of my real life friends had a laugh when she found out I still wrote and asked me to remove my declaration of love for her. :D

Hilarious. Anyways, this story will be categorized as an Alternate Universe. I will continue to use the idea of a female Naruto with major character tweaks and some rather major changes. For those of you who had kept up to track with Naruto: Mangekyo Sharingan and Naruto: Naiko, I'd like to thank you for visiting and reading the story. Unfortunately, they are both works of fiction that I lost control over what I wanted to do with them and now I find them almost impossible to salvage, much like the USG Ishimura. Yes, my failures are somewhat consistent with Necromorphs trying to tear my unarmed ass apart.

So, yes, I will be mothballing them and leaving them where they are.

Storyline Differences? - I will be using the same general story of the manga but I will vary events and what happens, and how it happens. I'm also pushing back the events of the Kyuubi back six years, so that makes the protagonist the same as as Itachi. O_O

So I also wanted to explore something new as well. I hope I'll be able to finish this story at least.

Chapter 1: Same Shit, Different Day

Uzumaki Narine was special.

She wasn't a genius, merely cursed with a great burden so that her entire village could survive the attack of the Kyuubi no Youko, the nine-tailed beast that could create tsunamis and earthquakes with a mere swing of its tail.

Quite contrary to the thought, Namikaze Minato could not defeat the great beast, so he used the forbidden sealing method of the Shiki Fuuin, which consumed his own life in the ceremony, to seal away the monster in an infant, his only born daughter. He could not bear to ask any other parent to do what he and Kushina would do and only hoped that his daughter would forgive him. So even as Kushina spoke the last words to his proudest achievement and only family member, he found the strength to finish the sealing process, using his sheer will to force the Kyuubi into its jail cell, sealing some of his chakra into the workings of the Eight Trigrams seal in case the seal weakened. As his soul was taken by the Shinigami along with the Kyuubi's Yin Chakra, he smiled as one regret surfaced in his mind.

'Daddy loves you,' were the last words he could never say.

Itachi grunted as he felt his partner slam him into the ground back first. He turned his head to dodge a fist meant for his nose, grabbing the shirt of his assailant and pulled her in before landing a kidney shot and reversing their positions, pinning her down with an arm as he raised a fist. The lady simply punched his elbow joint, causing his whole body to buckle under him and fall on top of her where she proceeded to lock both her arms around his neck and pulled his head next to hers and locking her legs around his waist.

At the moment she tried to roll so she could get on top, he braced an arm in the direction they were rolling and used his other arm to pull out a kunai only to find her leg had blocked access to it, giving her the time she needed to reverse her momentum and rolling on top of him, a kunai in her hand at his throat.

"I win," she grinned, "do you concede?"

He nodded, letting himself go limp for a moment as he enjoyed a moment's peace. His partner rolled off him and sprawled face first into the ground, letting out a deep sigh. Uzumaki Narine, probably would have been the closest thing to a childhood friend he had were it not for Shisui, lifted her head up and gave him a glance before crawling up to her feet, observing the destruction of the training grounds they had been using, ranging from scorched earth from Katon jutssu to thrown kunai and shuriken to craters from impacts and blasts.

"What's up with you today?" Narine asked out of the blue, "for the past two weeks, you've always been a split second late in all your reactions. You getting burned already?"

Itachi simply scoffed, "Maybe,"

"You've been off on so many missions recently. You're almost tying with Kakashi-senpai with missions undertaken in a week," the blonde stood up and stood over the Uchiha, hands on her hips.

"My father has already requested that I be given leave for a week," Itachi stood up as well, his expression slightly darkening at the next phrase, "clan matters apparently,"

Narine tilted her head to the side, "Well, even you're human," she smirked, standing straight again, pouting at the height difference, "and you grew taller again,"

"Didn't I used to have to look up at you?" Itachi's eyebrow rode up, a skeptical look appearing.

Narine put a hand on her chin, "Now it's the other way around. No fair, I stopped growing at five-six!"

"Tall women aren't considered sexy, aren't they?" Itachi asked as he walked off to pick up a few kunai on the ground, noting the nicks that needed to be grinded out later.

"Pffft," Narine scoffed as she also began helping Itachi to clean up the area, using a small Doton jutsu to fix the crater in the ground.

Thirteen years ago, the Kyuubi no Youko had appeared out of nowhere near Konoha and had destroyed a large portion of Konohagakure no Sato. Untold thousands of civilians and shinobi had died in the village's defense before the Yondaime Hokage had shown up and vanished with the Kyuubi in a flash of light. The official story went along the lines that the Yondaime had given his life to use an ultimate jutsu to completely destroy the Kyuubi. That was the history taught to the youth.

So, that was what happened.

However, the truth was different. Even the Sandaime Hokage didn't know exactly what had happened. He only knew that the Yondaime had used to Shiki Fuuin to seal the Kyuubi into his newborn daughter, saving the village from certain destruction. His young successor had actually appeared in his office and left a quick message before leaving to fight the Kyuubi.

After redirecting a Tailed Beast Blast from the Kyuubi at a nearby mountain, he had teleported the Kyuubi to a distant location where he performed the sealing ritual.

He had simply asked that his daughter be treated as a hero but instead she became reviled because the hatred blinded many to the fact that she was merely a container instead of the beast itself. So great was the anguish and pain that the Kyuubi left behind that riots broke out demanding the death of the vessel. So much to the point where the shinobi were unable to enforce the penalty of death. So, he did the only thing he could do. He faked the public execution of the infant under the name "Naruto", using the still warm corpse of another infant who had died in the Kyuubi attack, and hid the child away as Uzumaki Narine. With the affair being done so quickly and haphazardly, the population of Konoha was pacified and reconstruction began as the Sandaime Hokage resumed his office, the burden of being unable to fulfill the dying wish of the dead Hokage.

So, he sought to redeem himself.

He placed Narine in an orphanage and noticed the how she seemed to flourish even in a negative environment, growing up to be strong, independent and quick of temper, much like her mother. At six years old, he enrolled her in the academy and noticed that she retained Minato's quick intellect and dedication. Narine seemed to have retained all the good traits of her parents, some of the Academy teachers even going so far as to call her a genius. She graduated the academy together with another flourishing youth, Uchiha Itachi.

The difference between the two seemed to like sun and moon. Narine grew through pure work and dedication while Itachi grew from latent potential. One was outgoing, often loud and prone to burst, while one was always withdrawn, calm like the wide ocean blue. There was one incident where Itachi and Narine got into a fight over a pack of Pocky, Itachi having thought Narine stole it. The result was a rather bloody and out-of-control brawl that resulted in three destroyed stalls, one very scared daimyo's wife's cat, and a very angry ramen chef. The victor was, amazingly enough, the blonde. That was also the day Itachi understood that speed was the Sharingan's worse enemy. His Sharingan had fully matured but even then he couldn't keep up with the faster blonde who seemed to defy his ability to predict her every move. He still didn't understand how but he knew right then that the Sharingan might have given him foresight into what was coming but that did not mean he would have the necessary counter.

After that, Itachi grew by leaps and bounds, becoming a chunnin at ten and attaining the rank of ANBU captain by the time he was thirteen.

Narine didn't grow as fast as Itachi did but that did not change that her skill level remained the same as Itachi's. She became a chunnin at eleven, becoming a master of aikido taijutsu specializing with an emphasis on kenjutsu. She was a master of stealth and evasion, shirking her training to sometimes spend the entire day pranking the ANBU or unsuspecting Jounin. There was that one time she had rigged the Hokage's office to explode with a mess of different colored paint while the Jounin in the village were having a meeting. It didn't help that the ANBU patrols found themselves wearing chicken costumes all of a sudden either with the exception of Itachi's squad since he had found the "trap".

Narine had spent the whole day dodging angry Jounin and avoiding contact but was caught by a Chunnin named Umino Iruka, who saw through the simple disguise she had used to pretend she was part of a wooden fence. She had let it down after a pair of Chunnin pursuing her had passed and Iruka had apprehended her.

He brought her before the Hokage and Narine simply chuckled as she rubbed her neck sheepishly, wilting slightly under the pointed glares and coughs.

"While I don't know how you managed to install such a contraption without my or the guards' knowing, I do praise you for being successful" the Sandaime coughed, a slight grin on his face as he lit his pipe, "you do know you interrupted a rather important meeting, do you?"

"It was just about Genin teams anyways," Narine sighed as she crossed her arms, "all you need is thirty minutes to say who gets who and you guys were in here for a few hours,"

"Some other things came up, Narine," Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, "as for your punishment, I am removing you from gate duty and giving you to Umino Iruka who will be supervising your tenure as an assistant Academy Instructor,"

"EHHH?" Narine took a step back as if the Hokage's declaration had physically struck her "there's no way I'm going back to that place. I'd rather do D-rank missions for a month,"

"One of Iruka's assistants was recently found guilty of trying to steal the Forbidden Scroll. I'm sure you remember Mizuki," the Sandaime sighed as he leaned back into his chair, perusing one of the few papers that had not been hit with paint, "and I know you enjoy gate duty too much because it gives you time to study or come up with new pranks,"

"Auuuu," Narine sighed, her head downtrodden, "understood, Hokage-sama,"

Sarutobi smiled softly, "Good, then you just need to clean up my office and restore the ANBU's uniforms, and you'll just need to report to the Academy with Iruka at his room, alright,"

"I think... I hate her," Hatake Kakashi flipped a page in his recent acquisition of Icha Icha Paradise.

Narine simply deadpanned, "Don't make me spoil the ending for you,"

Kakashi's eye widened slightly, "You wouldn't!"

The blonde cupped her hands around her mouth and prepared to yell. Kakashi clasped his hands over his ears and closed his eyes to prevent reading her lips. He suddenly felt someone snatched the book out of his hands and immediately opened his eyes to find the errant Chunnin grinning as she leapt out the window.

"I defeated Hatake Kakashi!" she laughed triumphantly.

Copy Ninja Kakashi instantly summoned his ninken and revealed his Sharingan, "Come back here, you little runt! That's my precious!"

The whole room felt sweatdrops forming on their heads.

The next morning, Narine showed up at the Academy in the morning before class started. It wasn't hard to navigate the building, remembering the hallways and stairways she used to pass through when she had been an academy student. She arrived at Iruka's classroom and slid the door open, stepping into an old but familiar setting. The classroom was arranged the way an amphitheater would usually be. Each row of desks stood at a consistently higher elevation the farther back the seat was in the room while the front of the classroom was shaped in a somewhat elliptical concave manner that allowed for the subtle but ample change in overall volume, allowing the teacher to be heard with more clarity during a lecture, not that some of the kids listened anyways. As she walked to the front of the desk, she could feel several eyes on her, wondering what she was there for while the others either only took a glance or ignored her entirely.

The first thing the kids noticed about her was her hair, a rich mass of gold strands with a shade of orange hidden in them tied up into a high ponytail with the end just at the nape of her neck. She wasn't wearing a standard Chunnin flak vest either. Instead she wore a dark orange shirt and a pair of green shorts with a long hemmed grey cotton jacket over them. The jacket had a hood as well as the Konohagakure symbol etched onto the back in orange thread. At almost fourteen years old, Narine couldn't be called a girl. She carried herself with humility but her sapphire blue eyes had a very mischievous look to them. Her brow was slightly furrowed with that glint in her eyes, always searching and always clear. Another feature that marked her as unique were the three whisker marks on each of her cheeks which most people had assumed they were birthmarks.

Unbeknown to most of the village population, she was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko like her mother before her thought she herself was not aware of this. She had only known when she was twelve years old, having been told by the old man Hokage himself.

The reason?

She was entitled to know that the Yondaime Hokage had sealed the Kyuubi no Youko into her navel to save the village from an attack and in order to give the village peace of mind, it was declared that the Yondaime had slain the beast to the youth while the public had witnessed the execution of the Jinchuuriki afterwards, which they thought would send the beast to hell itself where it would never return to wreck havoc on the village again. It was the perfect lie. She had never really given it a second thought afterward but as she walked to her posts as an overwatch or just stood at the top of the Hokage monument, she couldn't help but feel the the sense of accomplishment that she was helping to protect the peace the village knew. It was fine if she would be the prison of a Bijuu so that the people could enjoy their lives.

As she mused about her current position in life, she couldn't help but notice a familiar face in the crowd: Uchiha Sasuke. The eight year old was so similar to Itachi that she swore it was the same face of the boy she had beat up six years ago. She waved a hello at him, giggling slightly when he blushed and looked away. A couple of the girls had given her disbelieving looks and glares as if trying to tell her to stay away from Sasuke but she ignored it as Iruka arrived with a few of the truants in tow.

"Narine-san, so good of you to join us," Iruka took a deep breath as he sent the truants to their seats, "I'll deal with you later,"

"Hi, Umino-san," Narine grinned cheekily as she bowed, "I'm here to service you,"

Iruka blushed slightly before rapping the blonde's head, "Don't say weird stuff like that. Please introduce yourself to them. Class, today we have a new assistant instructor,"

She coughed to clear her throat as she wrote her name on the board before turning back to the class and speaking, "My name is Uzumaki Narine, pleased to meet you all,"

"Good morning, Narine-sensei," the classroom echoed with the vooice of the students.

'I could get used to this,' Narine grinned, 'sensei has a nice ring to it,'

"Alright! Turn your history books to page 381! Today we will be reviewing the founding of Konoha and then we will have hands-on taijutsu practice," Iruka said as he pulled a textbook out of a drawer in the desk, "Konoha was founded by the unification of the Senju and their many allies..."

Narine found her attention wonder off as she took a seat on one of the open windowsills, waiting for Iruka to finish as she stared off into blank space.

Her thoughts drifted back to the first time she had met Hatake Kakashi.

He was very interesting.

Always lazy. Always perverted. Always late. Each Jounin had a random quirk or two about them that seemed to give Konoha a wide variey of flavor whether it be good or bad. She had stumbled across Kakashi one day as he was taking a nap on a bench in a park. He was snoring lightly with his infamous Icha Icha Paradise book covering his face. Narine had snuck over beside him and stolen the book, a smart grin on her face all the while. She had read through the book and was slightly mortified at the contents. It was a highly stylized but cliche plot involving smut at all the right parts and some very funny ecchi scenes.

'No wonder Kakashi giggles occasionally whenever I see him reading this,' Narine thought as she flipped a page, 'is this... sex? I didn't think it would be anything like this,'

Ayano-chan! Ayano-chan! I can't hold back anymore. I want to...

Her body froze as her eyes drifted over the lines, her mind painting a picture of what was happening. She couldn't believe how vivid a picture the words seem to paint. It was as if a man himself had been in the mind of the woman herself or he just had one of the best imaginations ever.

Inside me! All in inside me! I need you so badly...

She blushed and felt her breath hitch slightly as she flipped the page.

"Enjoying yourself?" Kakashi asked, now sitting up on the bench behind her.

She jumped straight up, scared right back into reality as she wheeled around to look at Kakashi only to trip over herself and fall on her back.

"You all right?" Kakashi asked as he stared at her before noticing his book held tightly to her chest with both hands, "what are you doing with my book?"

Narine simply grinned and took off running.

That was how she got started in stealing Kakashi's Icha Icha Paradise book and whenever she could from that day onwards. As Iruka drawled on about the lesson, Narine couldn't help but doze off slowly. With the sun shining down on her and being nestled comfortably on the sill, she felt at peace and eventually nodded off. It wasn't until she noticed a distinct shift in the atmosphere from the students lining up to practice taijutsu.

As Narine watched the students spar against each other with Iruka correcting their forms, she thought about taijutsu. At its most basic form, taijutsu could be stripped down to stances, forms, and theory. Stances involved positioning of the body, usually emphasizing guarding the main torso which housed all the internal organs from harm. Forms encompassed the different kata and versions of a stance, which placed its emphasis on the flow and purity of form, which ranged from fluid like water to solid like rock and quick like lightning. Theory behind taijutsu differed between different schools or style, ranging from topics such as beliefs to method of engagement.

As Narine began helping the students lacking in their forms, she began reviewing the concepts for Aikido Taijutsu. Aikido was developed during the First Shinobi war and became a popular art found amongst the honor guards and city defense forces all over the continent. She had learned it herself from scrolls and perfected its use against her opponents when she had taken her Chunnin Exam, having defeated a competitor three times her size. Although it emphasized the necessity of deflection of blows and counters involving hyperextensions of joints and throws to disarm or disable opponents. It was mainly a defensive taijutsu style that involved baiting and patience but Narine had developed it for use in offensive situations. It was a relatively simple addition of a set of footwork that allowed her the necessary mobility and extra speed needed to close the distance to effectively use grabs.

She bounced away from a student's haymaker and punished his mistake by grabbing his arm, pulling him in and flipping him head over heels, making sure he landed on his bum rather than the base of his skull, which could instantly kill or cause severe injury to the spinal column. After explaining why charging in like that was a mistake, she walked him through the Academy's form again before moving on to the next student.

The simple idea was to bounce on her toes, jumping an inch of the ground. It was extremely useful because it allowed her to move up to three times faster than a normal start to sprint when she landed after a slight hop. Her natural speed and agility also helped because she lacked the power that Maito Gai had although she was able to spar with him partly because even with her proficiency in Aikido, reducing the damage done to her arms and legs from blocking Gai's hits had eventually worn her out into defeat when she was barely able to walk after blocking another one of the Azure Beast's kicks with her legs. Gai's Gouken Taijutsu wasn't the only taijutsu that he knew. He had mastery of nine other Taijutsu styles, which spoke volumes to his experience in matters.

The next student to test his Taijutsu was Sasuke. His form was as flawless as it could be for an eight year old. It was more than obvious he had practiced quite a bit and it showed when he was demonstrating his skills in front of Narine. This wasn't the first time she had seen Sasuke because she had used to hang around Itachi more often before he had joined the ANBU. She had even babysat him a few times and given him some pointers as to how to improve his own skills. It wasn't until Narine lazily spun away from another punch that Sasuke desperately swiped out with his other hand to land a hit or a graze. However, his hand didn't catch on exactly what he thought it would. Instead it had caught onto the ribbon Narine used to tie her hair and pulled it out, resulting in a cascade of gold as Narine stood back to attention, the long golden strands reaching the small of her back.

Narine wasn't a bit surprised as she lifted a few strands, sighing as she turned back to Sasuke, "I don't know whether to count that as a fluke or as an improvement to your skills,"

"Sorry," Sasuke looked away, his hand fidgeting with the ribbon, noticing the blue and white stripe pattern on it.

Narine smiled and walked over, pulling the ribbon out of his hand and ruffling his hair affectionately, "Great form and execution. Keep practicing, okay?"

Sasuke blushed slightly and nodded before stepping back, growling at some teasing from his classmates.

After class had finished, Narine and Iruka ushered the kids out the front door to their waiting parents, making sure that everyone was safely returning.

"Thanks for coming by today," Iruka grinned as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "taking care of the whole class myself was pretty hard,"

The blonde smiled back, "Hehe, no problem,"

As they turned back to begin locking up and sweeping the campus for any remaining students, Iruka coughed and asked, "Want to grab a bite to eat?"

"I was going to head to Ichiraku Ramen later," Narine chuckled as she walked back into the main Academy building, "but I'll take you up on that offer,"

Sasuke was still busy training. Technically, it wasn't training but it was a lot of self-drilling because Sasuke wasn't really learning anything new. He was just practicing what he knew over and over again.

"Sasuke," she called, stopping the young Uchiha as he was about to throw a shuriken, "don't overexert yourself, okay?"

"I won't, aneki," Sasuke replied, catching his breath as he hurled the shuriken with a well practiced motion right into the bullseye.

Narine chuckled softly before turning to leave, "I'll be back to check on you later, alright? Don't do anything stupid or your brother might get mad at me,"

"Okay!" Sasuke yelled as he ran too retrieve the thrown weapons.

Narine walked away, Iruka falling into step beside her as they headed out of the Academy and into the streets of Konoha.

At Ichiraku Ramen, Narine enjoyed the company of the Ichiraku Teuchi's daughter, Ayame, while having her ramen. It wasn't unusual to find Uzumaki Narine at the stand for her meals considering that she had a love for the noodles and the broth itself.

"Ayame-chan, you can't do that!" Narine whined as she reached for the steaming bowl of ramen held in the hands of the ramen waitrees.

"Narine, you can't just inhale it," Ayame scolded, her brows furrowed in a somewhat comedic expression of mock anger, "enjoy it. You're supposed to savor it or it won't taste as good,"

"But it's so good," the blonde sighed as she relented.

She did an instant 180 degree turn and nearly sucked up all the contents in a few minutes, earning her a few words of scolding.

"Neh, Narine-san," Iruka spoke up as he finished his ramen, "What did you do yesterday that got you sent to work at the Academy?"

"I pulled a messy prank on the Jounin and ANBU who were off-duty," the blonde replied as she drank down the last of the broth, "oh, man, that's as good as always,"

"Glad to know you like it, Narine!" Teuchi yelled from the kitchen.

Turning to face Iruka, Narine leaned on the counter and pointed at Iruka, "I usually volunteer for gate duty so I have the time to plan out these sort of things. You should have seen the look on this ANBU operative's face when he was trying to catch me. His cloak got turned into a giant chicken costume,"

Iruka remembered a few people in weird costumes running around that day and also had found many if not all the Jounin covered in a rainbow of colored paint as he was looking for some truants from the Academy. Advanced knowledge of stealth and traps were prized in the world of shinobi because of the necessity of surprise. Yet, he had also heard rumors and whispers that she wasn't just any normal Chunnin. One of those rumors included turning down an offer to join ANBU and even defeating the team to keep her right to remain a Chunnin of Konoha. Usual length of service for the ANBU usually included the mandatory three year service before they could be discharged from the Special Operations Group but a six year service landed a shinobi a straight path to Jounin, something Narine had also passed up a few months ago. Although Iruka didn't know like most of the Jounin, Narine was on par with Uchiha Itachi but Narine had chosen to enjoy a slow career path while Itachi had soared through the ranks. An extremely promising shinobi, Narine was also highly skilled in Taijutsu and mid-range combat, tending to get up in her opponent's face rather than to fight at arm's distance.

"Ne, how do you know Sasuke?" Iruka asked, interested in getting a few answers.

"Sasuke?" Narine blinked, an eyebrow rising, giving her that perplexed wondering look, "he's Itachi's younger brother. How can I not know him?"

Iruka scratched his chin in thought, "Well, you seem really familiar with him. I didn't expect that,"

"Little guy adores his older brother," Narine learned back in her seat and smirked, "gets jealous whenever I spar with the weasel,"

"..."

"Itachi's a friend. Always been a rival of his," Narine let her head fall back, 'damn pacifist too. Always liked to end everything violent as soon as possible,'

Narine sat up straight and blinked a few times before jumping off the stool, "Well, I'm going to go check on Sasuke. Little guy always works his ass off, so hopefully he won't be too tired to go home later,"

After saying good-bye and paying for her meal, she left the stand to go search for Sasuke at the Academy. He was still there, drilling as hard as he could, sweat dripping off his forehead and his small body as he continued to push himself even more.

"It's already eight-thirty, Sasuke," Narine spoke as she walked over to Sasuke, using the sleeve of her jacket to wipe off some of the sweat on his face, "won't your family be worried about you?"

Sasuke pulled away from the offending sleeve with a small scowl on his face, "I told mom I'd be late to home today. I want to train so I can become as strong as aniki,"

Narine giggled softly, "You know strong men aren't the ones with the greatest power, right?"

Sasuke stared at Narine.

"Having the greatest ninjutsu or just being all-powerful doesn't mean that you're the strongest," Narine ruffled Sasuke's hair, "you have to know how to use it properly. With great power comes great responsibility,"

"Aneue..."

"Now let's get you home before your mom starts fretting too much, okay?" Narine smiled and watched as Sasuke collected his things before they left.

It was quiet in the Uchiha district. Narine was a bit put off. Sasuke was showing signs of unease as he searched around the empty streets. Narine could smell something heavy in the air. It wasn't please either. It had a heavy feel to it and the closer they got to the heart of the district, the more distinct the smell came. A waft of air brought the stench of dried blood to her nose and she could almost taste the coppery fluid in her mouth. Sasuke had broken out into a complete run at this point and ran to his home, yelling for his mom and dad.

"Sasuke, wait!" Narine followed after Sasuke, trying to make sure he wasn't going to get hurt while feeling the pit of her stomach fall slowly but surely.

She heard him scream and sped up after him, arriving in time to see Itachi slice open the throats of his own parents, sending blood flying everywhere onto the floor, the ceiling, the walls, himself, Sasuke and Narine. The scene was forever etched into Sasuke's mind as reality caught up to him. His heartbroken scream filled the air as he fled past Narine, trying to convince himself that what he had seen wasn't real and that he would wake up from it. She couldn't understand what had just happened.

"What have you done, Itachi?" Narine asked, shifting into ready stance to fight or run.

There was no answer, only Itachi walking forward as she inched away. Deciding to take to the offensive, she attempted to land a straight punch into Itachi's neck but was surprised when the body in front of her disintegrated into a flock of flutter ravens, startling her. She focused her chakra into the ram seal and dispelled it, noticing the Uchiha behind her. However, a straight front kick from Itachi sent her flying out the doors of the complex rolling across the ground as she recovered onto her feet.

'Double-layered genjutsu?' Narine coughed as she held her bruised ribs, 'I didn't even see him make any seals for this kind of technique. Hell, even Shisui couldn't do this without some indication,'

"Aneki!" Sasuke screamed as she stood up to face Itachi, "are you all right?"

Narine simply nodded and hobbled over to Sasuke, wrapping her other arm around him protectively.

"What happened? Aniki... he... this is all just a dream, isn't it?" Sasuke trembled, "I'll wake up from this eventually right?"

Narine was about to try and comfort him when his voice cut through the air, "This is your reality, Sasuke. This is what you must endure,"

"Why?" Sasuke yelled, tears rolling out of his eyes, "my aniki wouldn't do something like this! He's nothing like this!"

"That's where you're wrong," Itachi scoffed, a small sadistic grin appearing on his face, "you honestly think I'm that caring older brother of yours? You honestly believe I was going to protect you forever? Wake up, Sasuke. Your reality is nothing more than the lies you've surrounded yourself with. That's why the Uchiha clan was weak. They bound themselves with ideals of honor and worth. They lost the true meaning of their mission in life. They limited themselves..."

Sasuke buried his face in Narine's jacket, not wanting to hear what Itachi was saying.

"You think hiding in your aneue's embrace will save you? Sasuke, I have set myself free from everything. I have attained the Mangekyou Sharingan and I have seen the truth. No longer am I bound by the rules or boundaries of our clan. That was all this was. A test. You're so pathetic. You think hiding will save your wretched life? It will only come back to haunt you. Live, Sasuke. Live like you are now, full of hatred, anger, and despair. Know that as long as I live, you shall never know the meaning of happiness and that everything you work so hard to achieve is out of your reach," Itachi locked eyes with Narine and she felt her breath hitch as the familiar three tomoe merged with the iris to form a three-pin shuriken that began to spin, "I will show you that you cannot hide, Sasuke. I will show you your naked wretched self and see to it that you are forever alone,"

In that single moment, Narine saw everything. She felt as if she had lived another life, Itachi's life... In that one single moment of Tsukuyomi, she felt his entire life being impressed onto her own and when it all ended, the only thing she could feel was complete guilt and horror. She couldn't stop the tears that began to roll down her cheeks as she slumped over, the emotional trauma of Itachi's entire life all squeezed into one moment where she experienced it all.

"Aneue! Aneue!" Sasuke screamed but even as he screamed into her face, his tear-ridden face wrenched in the most abject and gut-wrenching despair as he tried to cling to what remained of his last lifeline.

"See, Sasuke? You can't hide. I will always expose your hidden fears and make you see how worthless you are," Itachi continued as he observed his younger brother.

"Aargh!" Sasuke screamed as he charged at his brother, drawing a kunai intent on killing him.

Itachi blinked once only as Sasuke swung blindly, not looking at him at all, drawing a single straight line straight across his forehead protector, tearing it off his head. With that, the pieces were set in motion and Itachi grabbed Sasuke's arm and put him into a submission hold, his face hovering right above Sasuke's own.

"Look at me, Sasuke," Itachi commanded, noticing how his brother's eyes had taken on a most hateful glare, one accentuated by the active Sharingan, immature as it was "good, you have anger. Maybe when you allow those feelings to bloom, you will stand a chance against me with righteous anger but for now, you're too weak, not even worth killing. If you are strong, learn from this. Live like the wretched creature you are, feeding off your despair, your anger, and your hatred. Always remember my face at every waking moment and come find me when you are ready,"

"Why?" Sasuke asked pitifully.

"To test myself," Itachi grinned softly, making Sasuke whimper as he attempted to look away, "look at me!"

Sasuke obeyed out of complete fear and his eyes widened as the Mangekyou Sharingan manifested itself, forcing him to relive how each and every Uchiha had died, his own parents as well. There was only a long painful shriek as Sasuke collapsed, foaming at the mouth, tears still rolling out of his eyes. Narine coughed softly as she tried to move but could only listlessly loll her head as she attempted to get up.

"Forgive me, Sasuke," Itachi turned to leave, a single tear rolling out of the corner of one of his eyes.

Narine simply watched, unable to think of anything but the guilt in her mind...

Author's notes: Hmmm... I see them flying turtles...