An Itachi Fanfiction [EDITING]

To Rise Up

I came back with a gasp.

My body jerked upright before my mind had even caught up.

For several seconds, I could only breathe.

Air tore into my lungs.

My heart hammered painfully against my ribs.

Water.

Darkness.

Hagoromo.

Sasuke laughing beside me when we were children.

Sasuke sitting beside me beneath the stars.

Sasuke at the Final Valley.

Sasuke leaving.

Take my hand.

I looked down at my own.

They were trembling.

I was alive.

I was actually—

My head snapped up.

Something was wrong.

The battlefield was chaos. Chakra signatures overlapped one another for miles, so many that normally separating them would have taken concentration.

But now?

It was almost effortless.

Thousands of individual signatures unfolded around me like points of light.

And two were missing.

My blood ran cold.

Naruto.

Sasuke.

I couldn't feel either of them.

"No."

Katsuyu shifted against me.

"Lady Katsuyu."

My voice came out sharper than I'd intended.

I turned toward her.

"What happened to Naruto and Sasuke?"

There was a terrible pause.

"Naruto had the Nine-Tails extracted from him. His condition is critical."

My heart stopped.

"And Sasuke?"

"Sasuke was struck down by Madara."

For half a second, the world disappeared beneath me again.

Sasuke.

Not again.

Not after everything Hagoromo had just shown me.

Not after I'd finally decided—

"Who's with them?"

My voice sounded strangely calm.

"Orochimaru is travelling toward Sasuke's location. Karin is also nearby."

Good.

Karin could heal him.

Dad would know what to do.

Naruto—

"Lady Sakura is treating Naruto. However, her chakra is nearly exhausted."

Decision made.

I pushed myself to my feet.

"Then Sasuke is Karin's responsibility."

I looked toward the chakra signature I recognized as Sakura's.