第1章: 愛しき人

Uchiha Obito glanced down at the necklace in his hand. It had belonged to his relative, Uchiha Itachi. He had a pretty good idea of when Itachi had began wearing the necklace, and who had given it to him. He and Itachi had never seen eye-to-eye, but... he still held a modicum of respect for the now deceased younger Uchiha, if only for the courage he had had in enduring endless pain for the sake of one person. Now... he couldn't help but feel that he should return this necklace to the one whom Itachi had received it from.

愛しき人

A young woman stood in the doorway of her shop and looked up at the gloomy gray clouds above and breathed out a melancholy sigh. "No customers today either, I guess..." Not that she minded. She wasn't really in the mood to be waiting on tables anyway. She stepped outside and began to take down the sign that showed her store was open when a young boy called out to her.

"Amai-neechan!" The young woman turned around to see a boy of about eleven wearing an old ANBU mask from the days when this place had been a ninja village walking toward her. "Are you closing up already?"

"Might as well. Doesn't seem like anybody's going to come today." She answered, "You're the only one I've even seen today, Kina-chan."

The boy pouted at the way she addressed him, "I'm not a little kid anymore!"

Amai laughed softly, "Sorry, it's a force of habit, after all these years." She reached into her doorway and retrieved a container of sweets from a counter, "Here, take these home to share with Reishi-kun."

Kina nodded as he accepted the box and then frowned up at the young woman, "What's the matter with you, Amai-neechan? You haven't been smiling lately."

Amai looked at him sadly, wondering if any of the other villagers had noticed her listless nature recently, or if it was only because she was somewhat close with Kina and his older brother. "I'm just a little lonely right now, but don't worry, I'll be all right. You should run on home now, before you get into trouble again."

Kina made a cross face, but hurried off like she said. Amai sighed and walked back into her store, leaning the sign against the wall and closing the door before locking it. She began to make her way to the kitchen, thinking maybe there was something there that would at least be appealing to her when she suddenly sensed something behind her. Now, Amai was not a kunoichi, and never really had been, but she was at least capable of sensing people's presence to a certain degree, and there was no missing the sudden surge of chakra that had appeared right in the main room of her teahouse. She quickly turned around, her right hand gripping the hilt of the tanto that she kept hidden inside of the knot of her obi and her left hand gripping the scabbard inside the knot so that she could draw it out. Right in front of her was a swirling vortex, and from within that vortex appeared a masked man that she sort of recognized. She sighed and released her grip on her tanto while straightening her posture. It wasn't that she trusted this man—far from it—but she also knew that she stood no chance against him.

"Tobi-san? What are you doing here?" Amai asked, questioning exactly which of his personas she was in for today.

"You don't seemed too surprised to see me." Tobi remarked nonchalantly while crossing his arms. So he was acting like himself and not playing the clown then.

"While I was never informed of your abilities, it's kind of hard not to notice when a swirling vortex of chakra appears right behind you." She pointed out bluntly. "So, what brings you here? Since you're not acting like an idiot, I'm guessing it's not particularly related to the Akatsuki."

"Oh? What makes you say that?" Tobi asked with slight interest.

"While I had heard that Deidara-san was killed in a battle with Sasuke-kun, it doesn't change the fact that you're acting completely different from the last time I saw you." Amai said, "You maintain that persona when you need the world to think of you as 'Tobi', albeit, I don't know what your real name is."

Tobi nodded, "I can see why Itachi liked you. You're pretty sharp for a civilian. There's no need to be alarmed, however. I only came here to give you this." He held out the necklace that Itachi had been wearing for the last several years, causing Amai's eyes to widen, "You're the one who gave this to him, am I right?"

"...Yes..." Amai admitted slowly as she reached forward and accepted the necklace, "The metal in this necklace has medicinal properties, to help regulate one's chakra flow. I gave it to him... shortly after we first met." She looked up at Tobi slowly, "So... does this mean... that he's really...?"

Tobi nodded grimly, "He died after using his Susano'o to free Sasuke from Orochimaru's curse mark. That necklace would mean nothing to Sasuke. That was why I decided to return it to you." He stepped back so that Amai wouldn't be within range of his Kamui, "For your own sake, don't involve yourself with the Akatsuki anymore. It's better if you pretend that you never knew of our existence."

"Wait!" Amai called, causing Tobi to pause. She bit her lip, but then spoke what was on her mind, "Has he been buried yet?"

"That was next on my to-do list." Tobi admitted.

"Then please, bury him in the Mausoleum, next to the grave of my sister, Adzuki." Amai said. "You don't need to put a proper tombstone. Just something so I know where it is."

Tobi nodded after a moment and then disappeared within the vortex of his jutsu.

Amai stood there for a few moments, staring at the necklace before covering her mouth to stifle a cry and sinking to her knees, clinging to the necklace and recalling the day that she had given it to Itachi.

愛しき人

"Itachi-san!" Fifteen-year-old Amai called out when she noticed the man who had been staying in her village for the past week heading toward the village entrance. Itachi turned slightly to acknowledge her, and Amai ran up to him. "Are you about to leave?" She asked.

"Yeah." Itachi told her bluntly, "Reishi-kun just finished preparing the medicine that I came here for, so I have no reason to stay here any longer. Eventually, I'll have to come back to get more though."

Amai nodded. Most of Itachi's features were obscured by his cloak and jingisa, so she had no idea who he really was. She turned and reached into the knot of her obi. "Um... it's not much, but... I wanted to give you this... as a thank you for helping me the other day." She was referring to when he had protected her from Sendo Jiryuu, a man to whom she owed a large sum of money.

"You don't need to thank me for that." Itachi replied. Although he seemed nonchalant, Amai would later recognize that he was only being careful to maintain his emotionless facade. At that time, however, the ignorant young woman looked up at him firmly.

"Yes I do!" She insisted before her gaze fell, her expression a bit troubled. "...Nobody in this village has ever bothered to watch out for me. Reishi-kun is in no position to do so, and nobody else even cares. The fact that you stood up for me means a lot to me." Her grip on the small box she was holding tightened, "I've never experienced such kindness before..." If she could've seen his face, Amai might've taken notice of Itachi's surprise. As it was, she remained unaware, but smiled as she held the box out to him, "A-Anyway... you seem like the kind of person who has no use for anything impractical, so I decided to give you this." As he opened the box, she hurriedly explained the purpose of what it contained, "I don't know what kind of illness you have, but... that necklace is made of a special metal that can help regulate the chakra flow of the wearer."

"You really shouldn't have spent any money on me, considering your situation." Itachi told her.

Amai blushed slightly and then looked down, "I didn't... that necklace... it belonged to my father, but... he stopped wearing it... quite some time before he died." It wasn't until a few months later that Itachi would learn the reason for that.

"I can't accept something that is so important to you..." Itachi told her, but Amai shook her head.

"No, it's fine. I have no attachment to that necklace, but if can help you, even a little, that will make me happy." She smiled up at him again and Itachi slowly nodded.

"Then I will accept it."

愛しき人

Amai clung to the necklace as she sobbed quietly. She hadn't had an attachment to the piece at the time, but now, she most certainly did. When she asked Itachi about it later on, Itachi had assured her that he had known that she wasn't merely giving him a cast-off she didn't want, but had sincerely considered what she could give him that would benefit him the most. She also later learned that her husband was surprisingly superstitious and considered the necklace as something of a good luck charm against the bad luck he believed himself to attract.

第2章: 家族

Uchiha Aiko silently walked into her home, closing the door behind her. She sat down on the step and took off her sandals, setting them aside properly before she headed into the dining room, pushing her sunglasses onto her forehead and undoing the bun that her hair was in as she went. She knelt down at the dining table and retrieved her mother's Konoha headband from within a pouch on her hip. She gazed at the headband sadly, thinking of her mother, who had just died after being poisoned while trying to protect Aiko from bandits. Her eyes throbbed and a flash of red in the distorted reflection on the headband bitterly reminded the sixteen-year-old girl that it had been her fault. If only she hadn't been so stupid.

Overwhelmed by regret, Aiko laid her head in her arms on the table and began sobbing quietly. This didn't last long, however, as she sensed a surge of chakra behind her. In one quick movement, the teenager pushed her sunglasses over her eyes and moved into a crouching position as she turned around, whipping out a kunai from the holster on her right leg and holding it in front of her defensively. Out of the swirling vortex appeared a man that she had never seen, yet somehow, she still knew who he was.

"What do you want with me... Uchiha Obito?" She asked tensely.

By his posture, the man seemed slightly taken aback, but then he removed his mask and looked at the young woman with slight suspicion, "How did you know who I was?"

"Logic and deductive reasoning." Aiko said with a shrug. "Okaasan told me yesterday that there was no way that Uchiha Madara was still alive and when I thought about it, I realized that she was right. Then I thought about the story that Itachi-niichan had told me about the day that he awakened his Sharingan. He told me that he had faced a man wearing a mask that revealed only his right eye, which was a Sharingan. Thinking back on it, I knew that you had to be a member of the Uchiha. A transplanted Sharingan remains constantly active and places strain on the recipient's chakra unless the receipient is Uchiha himself or the eye is kept covered. Therefore, nobody with a transplanted Sharingan would wear a mask that reveals only the transplanted eye, which meant that you had to be an Uchiha yourself. Thinking on that, the list of candidates wasn't exactly long. Everyone else in our clan was killed, but while you were believed to have died in action during the Third War, your body was never actually found, which left the possibility that you had somehow survived. Furthermore, before your supposed death, you had given your left eye to Hatake Kakashi, which would explain your reason for wearing a mask that only revealed your right eye. On the day of the aforementioned incident, you retreated when you sensed Kakashi-san's approach, indicating a desire to avoid coming into contact with him. This indicated that you had known him personally in the past. You therefore retreated either because you were concerned that Kakashi-san would recognize your chakra or simply because you held a personal grudge against him. Finally, the jutsu that you use to transport yourself seems to be related to the abilities of the Mangekyō Sharingan wielded by Kakashi-san. At least based on what Itachi-niichan told me about it."

Obito slowly applauded as Aiko finished her explanation, "As expected of the daughter of Uchiha Megumi. I suspect that your talent for analysis has surpassed even that of your teacher."

Aiko sighed wearily, "You still haven't answered my question though. Why are you here?" Obito pulled out a jar and held it out to Aiko, who grimaced when she saw that it contained two Sharingan. "What the...?"

"These are Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan." Obito explained, "He just had me replace his eyes with those of Itachi, in order to obtain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. I have no need for them, but you're the only other survivor of the clan. If you ever awaken the Mangekyō, have somebody that you can trust replace your current eyes with these. You and Sasuke are second cousins, so the relationship is not ideal, but it's preferable to going blind."

Aiko blinked, but then sighed and reluctantly accepted the jar. "Why bother with bringing me these? I'm pretty sure you don't actually care about the Uchiha at this point."

"I don't." Obito admitted, "But at the same time, if things don't go as planned and Sasuke and I die in the upcoming war, you will be the only one left to carry on our clan's bloodline."

"If you don't care about the Uchiha, then why does that matter?" Aiko asked bluntly.

"The Sharingan cannot be allowed to vanish from this world, but it can only be passed on through somebody who possesses the blood of our clan." Obito told her.

"Fair enough..." Aiko said, "Thank you... Obito-niichan."

Now it was Obito's turn to look confused. "Niichan...?"

"You're my second cousin too, you know." Aiko pointed out, "You, me, Sasuke-niichan... we're all the great-grandchildren of Uchiha Madara. Like it or not, we're family."

"You don't like what I'm trying to do, so why would you treat me as family?" Obito asked her in confusion.

"Because I'm tired of hatred..." She admitted, "I know this is an extreme contrast to what you and Sasuke-niichan feel, and neither of you can help that, but... Hatred only gives birth to more pain and sadness. It's something that should not exist... especially between family."

"You hold the Will of Fire." Obito said flatly, as if trying to disguise his contempt for the concept.

"I do." Aiko said, "That is something I cannot help, just as you and Sasuke-niichan cannot help but be consumed by the Curse of Hatred. If the Will of Fire did not exist, then neither would I." She shook her head, "You don't need to consider me to be a threat though. I won't try to get in your way. I am not a shinobi, and I know better than to try and pretend that I am. I have to prioritize my survival above all else. That's the only way to keep my promise to my mother and to preserve our clan."

Obito nodded, seeing that he and Aiko understood one another to a point. He stepped back, placing his mask back upon his face and disappearing within the vortex of his Kamui.

Aiko sighed and looked at the jar in her hand, putting her kunai away and pushing her sunglasses back up. Obito hadn't known it, but she had just awakened her Mangekyō Sharingan that very day. The six-petaled flowers in her eyes served as proof of that. She probably could've caught him in her Tsukuyomi if she had tried, but she didn't feel she was capable of achieving much with it yet, especially not against him, and she would gain nothing by ticking him off. She sighed and carefully sealed the jar into a scroll. She currently didn't have somebody that she could trust to perform the transplant, but it hardly mattered. As long as she didn't attempt to use her new visual prowess, her eyesight wouldn't deteriorate.

She sighed as she put the scroll away, her eyes aching as her Mangekyō Sharingan receded and she walked over to a full-length mirror.

"I will survive." She vowed, not just to herself, but to all those that she called her family, "And I will pass on the Will of Fire... and the blood of the Uchiha..."

So this is just a little short story about what happened after Itachi's death. It was written partially to explain how Aiko came to obtain the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, but I also wanted to add a little bit with Amai to it. :) Because Aiko is already aware that Sasuke is the current incarnation of Indra, she, unlike Itachi, realizes that it is impossible for Obito to be Uchiha Madara, but since she is a prodigy in behavioral analysis, she figures out Obito's true identity entirely on her own. Obito isn't particularly happy about Aiko's strong belief in the Will of Fire, but he also isn't surprised since, as she said, her very existence is a product of it and she was Itachi's student. He probably would've blamed it on her being half-Shimura... if not for the fact that Danzo's own philosophies tended to mirror the Curse of Hatred instead.

Also, since I said in The Second Survivor that the Blessing of Love is the direct opposite of the Curse of Hatred, but it seems as though that is what the Will of Fire is, I should probably elaborate a little. The Curse of Hatred essentially has two parts.

1. The Curse of Hatred is a belief passed down through the Uchiha that peace can only be obtained through immense power and sheer force. The Will of Fire, which advocates that the path to peace is through love and forgiveness, is its polar opposite, causing the two to clash.

2. In a more literal sense, the Curse of Hatred is something of a curse inadvertently placed upon the Uchiha by Indra, which causes the vast majority of its members to be consumed by hatred at some point in their lives. The Blessing of Love is a counterforce inherited by certain descendants of Ashura that seeks to free the Uchiha from this curse. The Blessing of Love gets its power from two sources: one is Ashura's bond of brotherhood with Indra, which is why Amai tells her and Itachi's children that the bond between siblings is something that can even transcend time. The second is the Vow of Restoration, in which Ashura promised Indra's wife, Haruka, that someday, he would bring Indra back to her. The Vow of Restoration tends to be repeated between each incarnation of Ashura and Haruka until it finally comes to fruition in the members of Team 7. In some sense, the incompletion of the Vow of Restoration may be the reason that Madara was eventually consumed once more by the Curse of Hatred, since he had already married a member of the Uchiha by the time he and Hashirama reconciled and founded Konoha, and therefore, was unavailable to marry his childhood lover among the Haruno.