35 reviews? For a single chapter? The support is staggering. THANK YOU THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Although yes, not all of them are positive, I still appreciate those guys who tell me my story was bad and would never read it again. It kinda hurts, but okay, I cannot make everyone happy.

I'm really sorry it took me four months to update this story. Writing is hard. On the positive note, I maintained my 99 grade in Gen Math and I won a contest in Poetry! You guys won't understand it though since it's written in Filipino. Without further ado, here's the chapter.

WARNINGS: OOCness, bad fight scenes, butchering of mythology

Thanks to Lady KG for beta reading. I appreciate your help.

Now, after so much solitude,

death doesn't frighten me,

not yours, not mine either.

And those words, the last time,

have no power over me. I know

intense love always leads to mourning.

-Metamorphosis, Louise Glück

Itachi looked at the empty box of Pocky with such longing in his eyes. Oh, such a thing to mourn! The heavenly goodness of chocolate-covered biscuit sticks was gone! All gone! Of course, it went to his stomach and his digestive system would process the Pocky. Distributing the sweet's nonexistent nutrients to his cells, which may or may not cause an early onset of Diabetes that would be the most likely cause of natural death (now that his autoimmune disease eating away his lungs was gone). The pleasure found while eating Pocky was surely precious but ephemeral. There is bliss to be found in a box of Pocky, bliss comparable to the high-strung ecstasy of star-crossed lovers.

He sighed, there was no use in mourning things that will surely be gone. All things that exist are temporary and meet the same fate of deterioration in the end.

The late spring night breeze blew through the former Akatsuki member's hair. Itachi closed his eyes and let the city noise and the vastness of it sink into his being.

Existence is unbearable. Man has to live in constant burden of having to depend on their own pliable wills and the unsureness of the human reason in order to get through their puny lives. The enormous responsibility of having to make a choice to determine the course of one's fleeting life puts man in great agony and in great anxiety.

Dangling his legs over one of the skyscrapers growing like mushrooms in New York, the long-haired Uchiha wondered if people realized their insignificance in a greater existence that is the universe. There are a million of stars in the sky and even more bodies of heavenly light scattered all throughout the cosmos; stars, galaxies, planets, nebulae, comets, meteors. Earth itself is just a big chunk of rock rotating dumbly in a universe of blindly swirling atoms.

"Itachi-chan! Itachi-chan!" A particular cawing noise caught his attention and Itachi broke out of his reverie. A black blur of feathers was cannonballing towards him, which slowed down as it moved nearer to the ex-criminal. A single black crow hovered in front of Itachi. "Some wannabe sons-of-bitches are robbing a bank by the Third Avenue."

"Don't be crude, Kurogane. It's disrespectful to their mothers", Itachi reprimanded lightly. "Good wombs hath born bad sons." He muttered under his breath.

"Ya should go now or else they'll be gone", the bird said.

Itachi nodded in understanding. "Tell the others to go back, you should rest for the night."

The bird would've huffed if it was human, but all Kurogane could do was glare at his summoner. "Why don't you do it yourself?" The crow suggested.

"Please", the clan-killer commanded.

"Alright, alright, 'Tachi-chan. I'll go tell the others to get back", Kurogane said, sending a mental message to the other corvids to go back to the Summoning Realm.

Meanwhile, the kin-slayer took a deep breath and stood up. Looking down, his new, clear-as-day eyes spotted not a single strand of hair from any man or woman. He raised his arm to don his black crow mask, put a foot the edge of the building, turned around, and arched his back, letting his body free fall. He could feel the pull of gravity greedily taking hold and his own body accelerating towards the ground. He changed his position so that he would be "standing" vertically in the air.

'NOW!' He thought.

His hands formed a single seal and his body dispersed into a murder of crows. Anybody in the vicinity would've wondered what crows were doing at this time of the night. More puzzling would be the fact how jungle crows ended up in a metropolis like New York.

"Hurry up!" Yelled one of the robbers to his fellow. His gaze turned disappointed as he watched as his accomplice hauled a heavy sack. "What did I say? Don't bring in the heavy stuff like those damn gold bars or the cops will catch us! We're just here for the cash!"

There were four of them in total. The first who stood as the leader was a black-haired Caucasian man with a five o' clock shadow an abstract tattoo running on his forearm. The second one, who was pulling the sack of gold bars was a portly middle-aged man. The third man was a Black with his hair in short dread locks and the last was a woman with dirty blonde hair and dishwater blue eyes. All of them were wearing NYPD uniforms. They were outside a big-name bank and were heading towards their getaway vehicle parked in one of the alleys.

"It's these damn gold bars that have a real value", argued the Black man.

The leader frowned for a moment and considered the situation. "Alright, bring those in."

The portly man was struggling with carrying the sack, so the two other males helped him haul the loot. "Hurry up, the police may have been alerted by the bank tellers or the guy with the freaky mask will come." The woman said with a hint if impatience and nervousness in her voice.

"I prefer if you would not call my mask freaky", a deep, baritone voice suddenly joined in.

The lone woman yelped and a shuriken whizzed pass her face, embedding itself on the wall and leaving a shallow cat on her cheek. Another flying star flew towards her, this time on the other side of her face but it did not injure her. She blinked, and suddenly it became clear that she was trapped, a spider-web piano wires surrounded her and she could not escape. She stepped back and the wires clinked ominously and reformed until the wires seized her body and tied her down, her hands bound. She struggled by wiggling her body, but the wires dug deeper into her body.

"H-help!"

"Rhea!" The Black man, ran towards her, but a murder of crows blocked his path. Eventually, the crows converged together and became a viscous-like black mass until the crows' feathers coalesced to form the shape of a man. A man in a black jacket and blue pants appeared, his face was covered with a mask that resembled the same birds.

"What the fuck?", the man yelled in disbelief. He crouched and tried to throw a punch to the masked figure which the latter easily dodged. Itachi grabbed the man's thrusted arm and twisted it with enough force to break the bones of the ulna, an audible crack was heard and the Black man cried out in pain. "You fuckin' bastard" growled the man. His single, functional hand grabbed a gun from its holster and pointed it to the vigilante. Eerie, red eyes glowed behind the black mask and the man started to shake uncontrollably, eyes wide open. The commas in his enemy's red eyes spinned in a hypnotic fashion and the bank robber could not help but stare at the red eyes. "Sleep", a rather monotonous command came out of Itachi's mouth.

"Shit!" The Caucasian man slipped out. "We need to get out of here!"

"I'm afraid I'll not let you go easily", Itachi said as he stood on top of the robbers' getaway vehicle.

"Fuck off!", yelled the leader as he grabbed his own gun and started shooting at the Uchiha. High-speed vector projectiles fell useless to the power of the Sharingan. Needless to say, Itachi dodged all the bullets coming his way by deftly avoiding them. He launched himself to the ground, crouched low, and kicked the White man's trousered legs which threw the robber out of balance. While his body was nearing the ground, Itachi took advantage of the man's speed as he was about to hit the ground to kick him in the solar plexus. The man flew to the wall, which created a small, near-unnoticeable crater on the wall, created solely by the velocity of the man sailing through the air courtesy of Itachi's kick.

The leader was unconscious once he finally hit the ground. Three down, one to go. The masked man turned his red gaze to the remaining member of the small group. The portly, middle-aged man raised his hands in a universal "I surrender" language. "P-p-please don't hurt me", the sole, conscious one of the robbers pleaded.

The masked Itachi walked closer to the man, his long, evening shadow almost like the seams of a Grim Reaper's cloak that wrapped the night and the void at its edges. "Fine, then." His red eyes spun once again and the portly man fell unconscious as he gazed onto the vigilante's mesmerizing eyes.

Itachi walked out of the scene with four unconscious bank robbers all tied up with piano wires. The NYPD would recognize the "gift" as another present from the Crow.

As the blinking blue-and red lights lit up the crime scene, some nameless field agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was among the cops, and gathering as much information as he could regarding the vigilante.

With a Meisagakure no Jutsu, veiling his body and countenance, Itachi leaped through New York's roofs and buildings with relative ease. Trees were much easier to an average shinobi, but these skyscrapers and concrete structures were not much of a challenge to a shinobi prodigy like Itachi. He had heard of parkour, and he may or may not have been practicing his skills as a shinobi in the guise of free running.

He reached his apartment in no time, he landed gracefully on the rooftop of the building and walked nonchalantly towards his unit.

The seals he placed around his small room dropped at his presence and Itachi opened the door to his apartment and turned on the lights. Only a TV was added in his bare necessities. It has been a month since Clio's birthday and nothing much has changed except for the fact that Itachi could now braid his hair by copying video tutorials. The reason why he always wore his hair in a ponytail was because of the practicality of the hairstyle. Although, his hair creased in the area where the hair tie was holding his hair so he tried to style his hair and although some see it as effeminate or even gay, it's not like Itachi cares.

He hung up his black jacket, and grabbed the remote. He turned on his small television and the sound of the news anchor's voice blared in the apartment.

"Multibillionaire weapons manufacturer and Stark Industries CEO, Tony Stark continues to be missing. He was last seen testing his new Jericho missile in Afghanistan and is suspected to be kidnapped by one of the insurgents in the area…"

A small frown crossed Itachi's face. Like all living in America, he was familiar with the name Tony Stark. While he did not outright hate the man, he held a certain dislike to the weapons manufacturer and America in general. In his opinion, Stark has a naïve perspective about peace. His "peace" is basically being the biggest bully in the playground; having the bigger guns and scaring the living hell out of the enemies of America. Yes, this world is not perfect like his own, but people like Stark are the reason why insurgents keep crawling out of the rubble no matter how many missiles you launch at them. Peace through fear is not peace at all. Maybe the Uchiha was a little more idealistic than necessary and his idealistic tendencies may be one of the reasons Danzo was able to manipulate him into killing his ow clan. Itachi did not agree to Stark's beliefs, not to mention that Stark was egocentric and Itachi tried to tolerate the existence of such people.

He listened with one ear open as the news continued reporting on the case of the missing Tony Stark. Deciding that he heard enough, Itachi turned the TV off and proceeded to the bathroom to take a nice, warm half-bath before sleeping.

Itachi's nights were delightfully dreamless.

Yes, a stray thought would surface on the waters of his mind sometimes. Mostly lingering feelings, old memories, and recurring nightmares of his kinsmen's blood on his hands or Shisui's rapidly falling figure towards the rushing currents of the Naka River or him killing Sasuke, but thankfully, most nights were blissfully blank.

This was not one of those nights. As he succumbed to the deeper throes of slumber, he grew aware of his surroundings and slowly relaxed. Endless whorls of grey mist surrounded him like smoke clinging to a polluted city. A grand bridge with no beginning or no end floated above him, going from and going to nowhere and everywhere at once. His eyes could make out a distant Torii gate colored traditional red. Around him, the horizon spread in all direction towards infinity. His feet were above still grey water, so still, one could mistake his or her self standing on pure silver and not liquid water.

"Good to see you alive, Uchiha Itachi", a female voice interrupted his observation.

The kinslayer turned towards the source of the voice, and out of the opaque grey mist, a woman appeared. Almost immediately, the mist cleared and heavenly light emanating from the woman bathed the surroundings with her otherworldly presence.

"Amaterasu-omikami", Itachi said in recognition. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

The goddess's mouth raised to a small smile. "Rise, Uchiha Itachi", the goddess commanded. Itachi stood up, but still kept his head bowed.

Amaterasu frowned and said, "Don't keep your head bowed like that. As our champion, you have the right to look at our faces."

He lifted his head and looked on her face. The woman, rather, the goddess was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful females Itachi encountered on his relatively short life. Her features could only be described by the word "perfect", from the slight upturn of her delicate nose to the light gold undertone of her ivory skin. Long, charcoal black hair cascaded down from her shoulders, down her back and pooled on her feet. Her eyes were two miniature suns, blazing gold in color. She wore a traditional kimono colored red and white with gold linings that hugged her slender and tall frame perfectly. A magatama necklace hung from her neck.

It was not Itachi's first time to encounter the sun goddess, but he kept his head bowed as a sign of respect and formality. The long-haired Uchiha recognized the place of his dreamscape. The bridge that floated above them is Ame-no uki-Hashi or the Floating Bridge of Heaven, leading to the home of the kami, Takama-ga-Hara or the Plain of High Heaven.

"You might be wondering why I am the one talking to you in your dreams and not my brother who you usually meet", the goddess said.

"Please tell me you're not skiving off your duties. It must be daytime in Japan", Itachi said dryly.

"Heh, was that a joke, Itachi?", asked the goddess.

"If you take it as one", answered the Uchiha.

"Damn it. I lost the bet", muttered Amaterasu.

Itachi tilted his head and asked curiously, "Is it against your brothers again? What were you betting on?"

"Yes, the other gods are too afraid to bet against the three of us and it's about whether or not you will make a joke having been in another dimension for a year", replied Amaterasu.

"Ah", Itachi enunciated. Apparently, at this point of his life, he is the subject of bets between deities. What a cruel irony. It was almost like saying Fate was toying with him.

Hopefully, the gods aren't too messy with their challenges as they used to be. He'd heard about the one time the storm god, Susano'o-no-Mikoto challenged Amaterasu, the story was long and basically a glorified sibling rivalry, but Itachi remembered Amaterasu still being disappointed at her brother for hurling a flayed pony at the sun goddess's loom that she hid in a cave for a very long time.

"You may be wondering why I pulled your consciousness in here", Amaterasu began. Itachi nodded. She continued, "We know that you have been waiting for a sign or an omen for more than a year, but we were curious what would you do without our guidance."

"You have been doing good, or at least better than what you have done in your home dimension. Who would've expected? Ichizokugoroshi no Itachi baking cakes and cookies for poor orphans in New York City and object of fantasy for coffee-obsessed teenage girls", the goddess snickered.

"Hn", Itachi grunted. He knew that being blatantly disrespectful to a goddess would most likely end up in smiting, but from what Itachi knew, the Shinto gods were not fond of smiting, especially their champions.

"Anyways, as you may or may not have expected that rowdy no-good raggabrash that calls himself as my brother is off picking fights again. His wife is very exasperated.", Amaterasu explained the absence of Susano'o.

Usually, Itachi would find himself meeting the storm god. The tempestuous god of the storms and the seas even gave Itachi his sword, the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, to equip his Susano'o (the Mangekyō Sharingan Technique) with.

"Back to why you are here. You're supposed to go to the Pure Land but we pitied you. Me and my brothers, we're undeniably biased when it comes to you. With me giving you my mirror, Susano'o giving you his sword and the technique named after Tsukuyomi being your most-often used one, we felt like you deserved another chance at life", she began.

"But why?", Itachi asked. He wanted to rest in peace after his very tiresome life as a shinobi. He wanted to see his parents again and ask them for forgiveness, even after all this time.

"We know you wanted to rest, for life to cease because even though you only lived for merely 21 years, your burden was very heavy, but most of all, we cannot let our Champion die, with both the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and Yata-no-Kagami tied to your soul, we cannot let some worthy investment like you to perish, so we decided to put you in one of the Dimensions where we have influence in", explained the goddess.

Itachi was silent, the gods saw him as an investment that's why they decided to give him their heavenly weapons.

"Things are just beginning to stir, Itachi", the goddess continued. "We need to maintain our foothold over the mortal realm and we need you, our Champion. Will you be willing to serve us with all your strength and all your might?"

Itachi dropped down to one knee and lowered his head, "Yes, Amaterasu-omikami."

"Stand, Uchiha Itachi", the sun deity ordered.

Itachi stood. "We restored your vision and your health as a reward of your unwavering kindness and these may help protect the peace you've always yearned.", Amaterasu said.

"There is more to this rendezvous than just useless chatter isn't it?", Itachi queried.

"Yes", the goddess answered. "Before I forget…", from the sleeves of her kimono, she pulled out a familiar-looking jian or a double-edged sword. "We found the Kusanagi tied to your soul. Perhaps, it was because you sealed Orochimaru and along with him, is this sword. You will keep this."

Itachi received the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi without much complaint from Amaterasu's offering hands,

"It is almost daytime", said the goddess. Itachi felt like they have only been talking for minutes but he knew that time moved differently between his dreamscape and the real world.

"Thank you, Amaterasu-omikami", Itachi said with a bow.

The sun deity smiled. "Best of luck, Uchiha Itachi."

So, what do you guys think? I know gods and divinity don't really coincide with Naruto canon with Kaguya and the Sage of the Six Paths being godlike beings and all, but hey, it's not like my crossover story was the only that used gods as a plot device. As a note, I stopped reading Naruto somewhere when "chakra originated from this rabbit chick eating the forbidden fruit", since 13-year old me thought that the main character was a Jesus allegory, but I was stupid, really stupid.

Can this story reach 200 faves by the 5th chapter? I'm curious so please fave, follow and most of all, REVIEW!

Can you recommend your fave poems and poets? I'm running out of epigraphs to put in my chapters. BTW, I have a tumblr, it's mostly art and literature stuff with occasional bits of original poetry, just PM me if you want the URL.

REVIEW, type something in that box below. ;-)