(Book the Second) In the Eye of the Snake ~Crimson Light in the Uchiha

Prelude---The River

Once again, this story is copy righted :)

Well, i'm back! I hope you enjoyed the first book! For you new readers, please read "Crimson Light in the Uchiha" first before this book please :) no seriously, please do.

This will be a short book with short chapters. It just tells a little about the gap between the Uchiha massacre and the start of the Naruto series.

Your Writer Friend,

Emerden101🐍

IMPORTANT: I tend to like writing on and on without fixing mistakes in past chapters unless it's a big one. Let me tell you. There is a ridiculous amount of verb tense errors. I am terribly sorry. I don't have the time or commitment to fix 35 chapters of them either, so bear with me. I think I start using past tense 100% in about the tenth chapter or so, maybe sooner...?

Enjoy!

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Rin's POV

Where.....am I? I sit up and I look at my hands. "Amazing...." I breathe, "am I alive even?"

My mind flicked through what I could remember.

A strange sensation of darkness and peace.

But before that-

Images.

Voices.

Emotion.

Memories that strike me hard.

I'm not alive.

I am dead.

Itachi broke my neck didn't he? Then where was I? Why hadn't my consciousness faded? I look around. I'm in a small rowboat in a long red river. Dark cliff faces loom over me and I hug my knees. It's so cold here....

"So you're awake?"

"huh?" I look up and for the first time I notice a hooded person rowing the boat with a long paddle. The person is standing and has his back facing me.

"You are nearly at the pure world, Uchiha Rin."

"The pure....world?"

The person does not look at me. "there are two main worlds in this ultimate universe. The Impure world where all living things dwell in and the Pure world where all the spirits and souls of the dead go to for eternity. Do you see the gate up ahead?" The boat rower points and I see a giant red gate standing in the horizon. "Beyond that is the Pure World. This river flows from the Impure World to the Pure World. It will take us there."

I look at my hands again, "So...I really am dead?"

"..........yes."

"But what about my brothers?" I protest, "I can't leave them! Itachi and Sasuke...they must be in so much pain right now...." I hug myself and I glare at the boatman, "I lost to fate! I let myself die! I can't just LEAVE. I have to go back and fix my mistakes. When I see my family smile again, I will come back to the dead. But for now, please turn the boat around."

"You are breaking the law of the worlds....I will not let you go back."

I put one foot over the edge of the boat and I let my sandals skin over the blood-red water. "then I will swim back. It can't be much of a trip. I will make it."

"You fool," snarls the boatman, "this river won't let you go back. The only way to ever call back the dead is the Edo Tensei technique, and that shinobi Jutsu is forbidden."

I stare at the boatman for a moment and I say softly, "For my family....I will always be willing to do anything to save them. They are experiencing a pain worse than death. I will go back for them, I will always keep my promise to protect them." I let my feet slip and I fall into the water. The current carries me in the opposite direction of where I want to go but I paddle furiously. I'm the worst swimmer...but I don't care, I need to get back.

Why does this river feel so.....alive? I can hear a heartbeat, and I know it isn't mine because my heart has already stopped beating a long time ago. I look back and I stare in horror at what is behind me.

What the hell?

The boat man stands above the blood red water and the edges of his cloak are connected with the river. "Fool," he hisses with a humorless chuckle, "I am the river that will take you to the Pure World. The boatman and this flow of blood red water are interconnected. I have never let any soul escape back to the living before delivering them to the Pure World first." The boat man raised a hand and water swirled upwards. "I will drag you by force, even if it means hurting you."

The river suddenly starts pulling me downward and I start to scream. Water enters my mouth and I spit. I struggle and I reach for the boat. The second I touch the wood however, it dissolves into a giant wave of red water that washes over me.

I can hear the dark chuckling of the boatman and he laughs, "Pitiful soul in the darkness, drown in the eternal world of death where you belong!"

My head sinks under and I lift my arm in a final plea for help. I close my eyes and water fills my lungs.

Am I really going to be stuck here forever?

Suddenly there is an explosion like fire and the water around me is being blasted in all directions. The boatman snarls and spits, "You, what are you doing here?!"

Something grasps my arm and I'm pulled upwards. My head breaks the surface and ao gasp for breath. My forehead where the seal is burns and I look up.

Something glowing and illuminating this gloomy place hovers above the churning water, a delicate glowing golden-white hand holding onto my right arm, saving me from sinking into the river.

I look up in amazement and a single word escapes from me.

"Ama."