Author's note: Whew! It has been quite the run, but as the saying goes: "All good things must come to an end." Yes this is the last chapter of Shattered Fate. To all my faithful followers, to my fans and to everyone who ever gave me a review. I say this: Thank you. A thousand times thank you. And before you read this I give this warning: This was never a fairytale.

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Naruto. I simply play in their world.

Reviews! Yes its the last chapter, but I still want input! Love it? Hate it? I want to know!

"Like love in its infinite yearning,

Like life in its rise and fall;

Majestic as dying, as free as birds flying,

This haunting and wordless call."

Gwendolyn Niles

Shattered Fate

Chapter 30

Finale

Mangekyo sharingan, Sakura thought through the roaring of blood in her head, one of the fearsome ocular jutsu that the Uchiha can use.

She was having a hard time remembering exactly what that particular jutsu could do, as she had never seen its actual physical use. From what she had gleamed from the reports she had read before coming to the village, that jutsu had the ability to create an alternate dimension within ones own mind where time had no meaning, where one could die over and over again in a matter of minutes.

One would either be driven insane from the pain...or slip into a coma, with less than a ten percent possibility of ever awakening again.

It was, she recalled, one of the reasons why the Uchiha were feared and respected among the many shinobi clans.

Through her blood-stained eyes she could see the effect that Itachi was having on Konan. Sakura, despite her many years in dealing out death, shivered at the look of absolute terror on Konan's face. Her mouth was open, as though her were screaming, but she was utterly silent in her agony. Her body remained upright but motionless on the ground, the paper wings she once flew upon scattered like so much confetti.

Itachi, who stood across from her, had not moved either. It was, she recalled, one of the weaknesses of using Mangekyo. The caster had to keep complete eye contact with his victim, or the jutsu would be undone.

Which leaves the ninja open for attack from his opponent...

Sakura struggled to get to her feet knowing that Yahiko, despite the blow she had landed on him, was not done in just yet.

The binding jutsu was still livid on her pale skin...and still in effect. Sakura bit down hard on her lip, tasting blood even as she forced her body to move.

The wind shifted at that moment, bringing with it the scent of rain and Sakura knew that the storm that had been hovering over the village all day was about to break, and soon.

A flash of movement against the night-darkened sky caught the edge of her vision and abruptly Konan disappeared from sight.

"So that is the infamous Mangekyo," Yahiko's voice echoed through the air, even as a peal of thunder split the air, "an impressive jutsu. Even Konan could not withstand its effects, but no matter. She has served her purpose."

What is he talking about? What purpose?

Sakura could make no sense of his words...until Itachi suddenly dropped to one knee and she saw, to her horror, tears of blood coming out of his eyes.

"Itachi!" she cried out, the pain of her body momentarily forgotten as she ran to his side.

"Mangekyo, a frightening jutsu," Yahiko spoke in a calm, almost bored voice as lighting flashed through the sky, illuminating his body for a matter of seconds. "Yet it claims a high price from the caster. Sakura, my beautiful killer, were you aware that your lover is slowly going blind?"

Sakura stared at where Yahiko had had been and then to Itachi, who even now, remained silent thought crimson tears still dripped from his now normal sharingan eyes.

"You're lying."

But it was not Yahiko she spoke these words, but to Itachi, her eyes begging with him to refute Yahiko's words.

His silence was his reply to her soundless pleading and she knew, with a keening agony, that it was truth and no lie.

Yahiko's cruel laughter intertwined with the thunder above their heads, and again the wind brought the scent of wind, only much closer.

"Not this time, I'm afraid. There was a rumor that spoke of powerful Uchiha's who, after mastering their fearsome ocular jutsu inexplicably went blind afterward. Naturally such rumors reached my ear...and now the proof stands, or should I say, kneels before me."

Sakura's head snapped back up and suddenly his words from earlier made horrifying sense.

"You...you knew Konan would follow you," she accused him even as she got to her feet, standing in front of Itachi, just as he had done for her. "You used her, knowing she would deliberately come after me and in doing so, would make certain that Itachi engaged her in combat."

Lightning danced in the air and for a brief second, she saw his smile.

It chilled her to the core. It was cold and calculating and his eyes seemed to say to her what of it? She is my pawn, to be used by me and die for me should I desire it.

It did not matter, she saw, that Konan was one of the founding members of the Kuro Akatsuki, that she had devoted nearly her entire life to him.

It pissed her off, that calculating smile. As though he were a Kami, to play with lives with for his own, personal amusement. Now those eyes turned toward Itachi, and she knew at that moment, Yahiko would not suffer him to live a minute longer.

Her blade that had lain fallen at her feet was now in her hands, pointed at the throat of the leader of the Akatsuki.

"Sakura...don't..."

Sakura turned to look at Itachi, one eye still dripping crimson blood, a thin streak of red down his sharp cheekbone.

She gave him a pained, but ironic smile.

"This...this is what I was born to do, to deal out death to others. At least this...I can atone for all the pain and suffering I have caused under his evil."

Itachi, who was still recovering from the effects of the Mangekyo, looked at her with widening eyes.

Her eyes, so soft a luminous shade of emerald, seemed to swim before his eyes. Her gaze was full of such tender longing...and the sweet, despair of the final good-bye.

Itachi struggled to get to his feet, hampered by the knowledge that it would take several minutes for his strength to return, and by then...

By then she could be dead.

He knew, from the way her body shook and the blood pooling on her skin, it was taking everything she had just to stand on her feet and fight the binding jutsu.

"So, my Crimson Assassin, you dare bare you fangs at me, your master?"

"This has been...long coming, between you and I."

Yahiko stared at the beautiful woman before him. Her hair, so like her name-sake in color, was free from its confines and danced around her body, rippling like petals on the wind. Her skin, pure as snowfall, seemed to glow beneath the smears of blood and the red glare of his jutsu carved into her skin.

The black of her clothing only accented her sharp beauty, like the way a sheath covered an exquisite blade, only enhancing the deadly beauty within.

Such was Sakura.

Yahiko sighed as she brought her red blade up to guard position. "If you will not bend to my will," he murmured softly, yet it carried to her ears, "I have but no choice to break you. Such a waste."

"You will try," she told him, "and you will fail."

There was no heat in her words, no anger. Her body should have been quivering in suffering torment, like a bowstring pulled back for too long, ready to snap.

Yet she stood before him, calm and implacable. She had, in fact, gone beyond the point of pain. Beyond fear, beyond emotion.

She was now, for all purposes, a shinigami. A death god.

And it was Yahiko's life that she would claim.

Once more she was greeted with that cold, hard smile. "That's my death goddess. If you thirst for my life, then try your blade against me. In the end, you will despair."

She knew he was trying to goad her, to leave Itachi and come after him, so that he might have an opening window to strike down the Uchiha heir before he could regain his strength.

"Your mind games will not work on me," she told him, her voice like obsidian ice. Hard, remorseless. "I will not leave the Uchiha's side. You will kill him only when you throw my cold, dead corpse out of the way."

Yahiko's hard smile slipped at that and his eyes, once the same jade as her own, now turned amber. "So be it."

Yahiko raised arms and Sakura knew that he was readying his killing jutsu.

His aim was to kill them both, together, in one blow.

Sakura was already moving, even as his arms straightened, palms out. As though he would ward off her attack with only his hands.

"Almighty Push."

Sakura already had one arm under Itachi and was already leaping in the air, when the ground exploded beneath them, around them, as though a bomb had suddenly gone off. The explosion sent a series of shock waves that leveled the buildings around her within a two mile radius.

Flying rocks, steel and glass shattered around her and Sakura felt the shards nick her skin where it lay unprotected.

Blood flowed freely from her body, but Sakura rode the shock waves, using the debris to cover the fact that she had managed to dodge his attack, but just barely.

It is good that like the Mangekyo, he cannot use it repeatedly.

Sakura went to catch a breath, only to cough and retch as the dust cloud still filtered through the dark night. Between the waning night and the dust, it made for good cover.

"Sakura. What was that?"

It was Itachi's voice in the darkness, she had lost her grip on him when one of the heavier pieces of debris had hit her shoulder, jarring him loose. It seemed that he had landed not too far from her, if his voice was any indication.

"Almighty push," she told him in a dead voice, "it is Yahiko's main killing jutsu. The power behind it can reduce a small village to ash in a manner of seconds. It leaves nothing behind but a crater where life used to be."

"How quickly can he use the jutsu?"

"In five, perhaps ten minutes, he will gather strength for another try. Your village is large, much larger than what he normally attacks. It will take a second attack, at its center, to completely destroy the land."

Sakura got to her feet, ignoring her weakened limbs, the steady flow of blood from her numerous cuts. Even now her palms grew slick from the wetness.

But she could sense him. That amount of chakra could not be hidden effectively. It was as though he had lit a candle in field of darkness.

"Gather your strength, Uchiha. I can hold him but not for long. If we are to end this fight, it must be done quickly, or everything and everyone you love, will be dead by sunrise."

She did not wait for his reply, for she was already seeking out the candle that was Yahiko's chakra.

Already she could see the sun was on the horizon. False dawn was not far off, even with the dark clouds still flashing their destructive lightning and the rain on the wind.

There! Sakura shook the blood from her eyes and tightened her grip on her blade. She knew that Yahiko would not expect a frontal assault from her. After all she was a trained assassin, and assassins always stalked their prey from the shadows.

To come up from behind, unawares.

So a frontal it is then. It should buy some time. I can sense a chakra similar to Itachi's and another...darker one closing fast. He mentioned something about that...

If she was lucky, she could keep him occupied until Itachi recovered. If she was very lucky, she could kill Yahiko before...

Time.

She was nearly upon Yahiko's distinctive chakra. But the leader of the Akatsuki was not stupid and he had not made it this far and this long by acting foolishly.

He turned, seconds before Sakura reached him. Even through the dark, he seemed to know where she was coming from.

His palm was already turning out to her, to deflect her but Sakura twisted her body mid-leap and used the momentum to bury her sword to the hilt in his shoulder.

Shock was written on his face as the lightening illuminated the sky, the sword passing through skin and bone as easily as it would through running water.

A death's head grin was upon her face as she connected with him, her hands already drenched in his blood.

"First blood to me." she rasped out.

"Bitch!" he snarled and backhanded her, sending her falling to the scattered debris, even as he yanked her poisoned blade from his body.

Sakura's body hit the broken concrete with a sickening crack.

Heh, she thought as blood spilled from her lips, you cannot use your jutsu with a torn and bloody shoulder.

Of course, she was in no better shape. The fall had shattered her left arm and at least three ribs were broken. Her teeth had cut the insides of her mouth, hence the blood on her lips.

Lightning forked the air and Sakura turned her head up to see a black silhouette slam into Yahiko seconds after he yanked the blade out of his body.

CRASH!

Yahiko and the unseen person slammed into one of the few remaining building standing.

Pushing herself on her stomach, Sakura retched up blood and looked up to see Itachi with his hand around Yahiko's throat.

There was a look of terrifying madness in his eyes.

No...don't...she tried to scream to him, but only a garbled sound came out of her throat. He has a hidden blade!

She saw Yahiko's face, and saw his lips turn up in that knowing smile, and pushed his good palm into Itachi's belly, the metal of the hidden blade flashing once in the lightning.

Itachi's body exploded into a swarm of crows.

"Guh...genjutsssssu..."

Her vision was beginning to dim and still she felt no pain.

"Impressive." Yahiko's voice cut through the night like a knife. "Your genjutsu is most impressive, Uchiha. But I grow weary of swatting annoying bugs out of the air. You are trying to stall me, but it will not work."

He looked down where Sakura was trying to get back on her feet. A sneer lifted his lips. "Your pathetic attempt to shield your lover's allies from me is in vain. Let me tell you a secret, Nagato is here as well and even now is taking care of your 'allies'."
Sakura narrowed her jade eyes at him. "D...does Naaagatoo," again blood spilled from her lips, "know y-y-you killed...K-K-Konan."

Yahiko waved her off. "It does not matter. I own his loyalty. He will had over his life to me and with a smile on his face." His cruel smile moved over her face, "just like you. Red is a very good color on you, Sakura."

"Dude did you just hear what your 'so called' friend just said."

Abruptly the night was lit up like a small sun exploding as a ring of fire erupted around them. Sakura saw, with thinly veiled astonishment, a face she recognized and two more she did not.

Nagato, his blood-red hair distinctive against his pale skin, was holding a still unconscious Konan in his arms.

Standing on one side of him, was a young who made Sakura stare at him hard to make sure he was not Itachi. His hair, the same blue-black sheen of Itachi's, was shorter and fell over his eyes in a way that Itachi's never did. His eyes were the red of the sharingan as Itachi's though, marking him as one of the Uchiha. He was dressed in pure black, both of his hands and arms bandaged under the loose sleeves.

He's shorter than Itachi...and leaner in the...hips...

Kinsmen then? Perhaps a close relation?

On the other side of Nagato, was also a striking young man. He had the blondest hair she had not seen beyond the norther borders of Snow and Ice, with piercing blue eyes and the strangest scars on his face.

Three parallel lines that marked each cheek.

His chakra was also immense, to the point that Sakura could not gauge his depth of power...and not only that but his chakra was...older, more feral than any human could ever be.

Blonde hair...scars...and old, ancient chakra.

Her eyes widened and the pieces suddenly came together. This young man, who eyes had the same shape as Nagato's, was...

"Naruto Uzumaki, I would imagine." Yahiko spoke and turned to the young man who resembled Itachi in so many ways. "Sasuke Uchiha. The other prodigal son."

Once more Nagato's eyes bore no trace of humanity. "Nagato, why are these two men still alive? Did you I not give you explicit instructions?"

His voice was soft, but both young men tensed at his voice. The one called Sasuke was already gripping his katana, while the called Naruto...his eyes were strange. Yellow with black crosses for pupils.

"So you did," Nagato replied and Sakura blinked to hear traces of anger in his voice, something she had never heard from him before. He had always deferred to Yahiko.

"Until I found out that you used Konan as a stalking horse for the Uchiha!" There was rage in those eyes. "She was loyal to you! Yet you would throw her life away as though it were garbage!"

"It is."

Nagato stared at Yahiko, as though unable to comprehend his words. "Yahiko..." but his voice trailed off.

Yahiko stared at Nagato and made a noise of disgust. "Do not tell me Nagato, that you of all people, have tender feelings of love? Did we not cast off those useless emotions when we vowed to make over the world in my image?"

"To the rest of the world, but not to each other." Nagato replied, once more anger in his voice. "Did you forget that?"

"You are my pawns, to live and to die as I decree." Yahiko narrowed his eyes at Nagato, "there can only be one Kami in this world and it is me."

Nagato looked at Yahiko and a shudder went through him and he turned is back on him and looked at Naruto.

"It would seem, Cousin, you were right."

Sakura's eyes widened at that. For all her years, she never knew that Nagato had living relatives.

"Nagato," Yahiko's soft words carried across to them, "to betray me is to die. Be careful of words you speak."

Nagato looked at Yahiko and then looked at Konan, as still as death in his arms, and his face hardened. "It was you who betrayed me first, Yahiko. I am no longer you pawn and I am taking Konan away, you will never hurt her again."

He looked to both the young men. "You have kept your bargain, I will not try and stop you any longer."

Sakura, who had been keeping up with conversation, wondered at the bargain Nagato spoke of. But right now her eyes were glued on Yahiko, and she saw that his eyes now glowed amber.

And then she remembered a fact that she should never have forgotten.

Yahiko could draw chakra straight from the members of the Akatsuki, for they were blood-bonded to him.

"I think not."

She did not hesitate, she did not stop. Sakura pushed her body past the point of recovery and with her mangled body, she used her the last remnants of her chakra and shot straight into the air where Yahiko stood on one building, Nagato and the two men stood on the crumbling remains of another, just as Nagato gave a cry of excruciating pain and Konan began seizing in his arms.

Yahiko had managed to push both palms together, even with his torn and bloody shoulder.

"Almighty Push"

Sakura screamed as she took the full blast of the jutsu, using her body as shield.

"NO!"

Yahiko screamed but Sakura did not know that at that moment, Itachi had plunged his black blade through the back of Yahiko, straight through his heart.

Instead, once more her body began falling from the sky.

Like and angel with her wings ripped off.

Her vision dimmed and she had lost most of the sensation to her body, but something caught her before she completed her fall.

"...eyes...open..."

"...is she?"

"...brother..."

Her eyes fluttered open, but there was a roaring in her ears, and all was whiteness around her eyes, flushed in crimson.

"SAKURA!"

The haze lifted from eyes, and for a moment, she had clarity of sight and hearing.

Her eyes met the bloody gaze of Itachi Uchiha.

His hair had come loose from its normal confines and one eye was closed, blood still smeared down his cheek as his other, pure blackness, looked down at her.

A slender cut marred one cheekbone and his clothing was in shreds.

He had never looked so beautiful to her eyes than he did right at that moment.

"...achi...It...achi."

His grip was crushing her, yet she felt no pain. Her legs were on the shattered ground, pools of blood gathering beneath them...yet she felt no pain.

"Sakura...why? I was there...so why?"

There was an sharp, piercing sound to his normally husky voice that she could not place.

"...tect..." she whispered. Her voice was nearly gone. "Pro...tect. Co...uld...not...die..."

But her voice was almost spent and she managed to turn her head and saw that Sasuke, whom she had realized was Itachi's brother from Yahiko's comment, and Naruto were surrounding her.

Blood leaked from her eyes like tears and she managed to lift her torn lips in a semblance of smile.

"Safe."

In a nearly broken way, she turned her head back to look at Itachi.

Here eyes widened as she saw tears leaking out his eyes.

"Sakura," he told her harshly, "no. I won't allow it!"

It nearly made her laugh, it was so like him to think he could order her not to die.

Sakura twitched her shoulder and her fingers moved, but that was all.

Itachi saw the gesture and picked up the ruins of her arm and her fingers curled against his.

"Don...don't...blame" she coughed and a blood bubbled from her lips.

"Don't speak!"

Itachi looked at Sasuke and Naruto. "Find a medic, now!" His voice was harsh, his black eyes drowning darkness.

Naruto, with a hard swallow, disappeared from sight.

Sasuke, with a frown in his handsome face, did not leave his brother's side.

"I...Itachi," her breath was no more than a whispered sigh, but Itachi immediately looked down at her. She smiled her broken smile. "No...n-no regrets...happy...I...you..."

"Sakura," his voice was broken agony and he gathered her close to his body, her head resting on his shoulder, "don't. Please..."

"K...kiss..."

But she did not have to finish, for Itachi had already turned her so that his mouth settled over hers. Blood and breath mingled, tenderness and violence, love and longing exchanged. Seconds passed and then Itachi lifted his head. For a brief flash, he saw the banked heat of jade fires in her eyes.

"Love...I...l-lov..."

But the fires were gone. Dead green eyes stared up at him, the breath gone from her lungs.

Taken by their last kiss.

The other part of his sundered soul...now gone beyond his reach.

"I love you. In this life and the next, I will always love you."

Itachi laid two fingers against her forehead, before moving them to close her eyes.

"Good-bye, my beautiful Blossom."

Just then the sky split wide and torrents of rain fell from the heavens.

It is fitting, Itachi thought as he cradled her body in his arms, that the heavens should cry for one such as her.

The End