(Kakashi's POV)

We started to run towards the battle sight as fast as we could.

"I've got the scent! They've already gotten to Sasuke!" Kiba announced.

"Those bastards!" Naruto growled.

We approached the forest to see that it's burning from the black flames.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"It's one of Itachi's techniques!" Naruto said.

"Yamato!" I shouted.

"On it, senpai!" He shouted back making hand signs.

He made the ground separate the trees making a path for us.

"Go on without me!" He yelled.

"All right, everyone else follow me!" I said activating my Mangekyou Sharingan.

We ran to the battle field to see it destroyed.

"There's still a trace of their scent but....." Kiba said.

"We're too late...." I sighed.

"Naruto..." Sai started.

"Mariah's scent is here too." Kiba said.

I looked up to see where he was. I walked over to him and saw blood on the ground, a lot of it.

"Who's blood is that?" I asked.

"It's Mariah's,"

(Sasuke's POV)

I awoke in a dark place seeing that there were bandages over my chest. I looked over to my right and saw Mariah all bandaged and unconscious.

"I gave you some first aid along with Mariah's help." I heard a voice say.

I looked to my left seeing a figure in the shadows.

"You won," He said.

Images of Itachi's dead body flashed through my mind.

"It was very close, though...you're still badly wounded. You shouldn't be so reckless with your life."

Then he stepped out of the shadows, it was the man who had Mariah when I fought Deidara.

"We've met once before...as enemies. Don't worry about what happened with Deidara. I'm no longer your foe. I brought you here to tell you something important. Not interested, I see.....maybe you'll pay attention if I say it like this......It's about Uchiha Itachi."

I looked over at him.

"There we go.....you know so much about your brother, and at the same time, you know nothing." He started to take off his mask. "All right, why don't I start by introducing myself? Like you, I'm a living breathing Uchiha, and the man who know the truth about Uchiha Itachi."

I felt my Sharingan activate my eye then started to bleed. Then I saw black flames go on his shoulder. He dropped the mask and screamed in pain staggering back into the shadows. My eye started to hurt so I placed my hand over it.

"What..the hell..was that??" I panted.

"The Amaterasu that Itachi implanted into you,"

"What?" I thought.

He got his mask and put it back on.

"That Itachi....even in death, he never ceases to amaze me. Even planning for a situation like this."

"What.....what are you saying?" I asked.

"He equipped you with his own jutsu as a last ditch effort to kill me, or perhaps his intention was simply to keep me away from you. I assume that he set things up so the sight of my Sharingan would automatically trigger Amaterasu to activate.  It's what you'd call a fail safe...although he only fought as far as the fail part."

"I have no idea what you're getting at." I said.

"Look, Itachi did something to you just before he died, right?"

I remembered when he jabbed my forehead just before he died.

"Somehow at the last second, he transferred all his eye techniques into you."

"That makes no sense...what are you trying to say? Why would Itachi want to-"

"You still don't know? It was.........to protect you."

"Pr...protect  me?! Is that supposed to be funny?!"

"NO!" I heard Mariah say.

We looked over at her seeing her sitting up with her eyes widened.

"No! Don't you dare tell him!" She yelled but then winced.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd wake up. How was your nightmare?"

"Shut up you bastard!"

"Language Mariah language."

"Shut the fuck up and leave Sasuke alone! You can't tell him!"

He appeared behind her with a kunai to her neck.

"Now as I said before, you knew so much about your brother yet you knew nothing at all. Mariah here knows more about Itachi than you do."

"You keep screwing with me, and I will kill you! Now let Mariah go!"

"I see talking with you is going to be difficult. I guess I understand. Some weirdo take you in and starts saying all these shocking things."

"YES YOU ARE A WEIRDO! SINCE DAY FUCKING ONE!!" Mariah shouted.

He pressed the kunai harder against her neck making a small cut but deep enough for it to bleed.

"Easy Mariah, you're badly hurt remember."

"I don't care! Leave Sasuke alone!"

"How did Mariah get hurt?" I thought.

He covered her mouth with his hand and held her down with his arm around her waste as she struggled to shake his hand off her mouth.

"I assure you, I speak the truth. You asked Itachi yourself about the person who helped him that night. It was me, Uchiha Madara."

"What!" I thought shocked.

"I know everything there is to know about Itachi. Of course, he died without realizing just how much."

"ENOUGH! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! GO AWAY AND NEVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN!" I shouted clutching the blanket.

"No, I think you need- you have to question me. It's your mission...you duty. You need to know about him...this man who risked everything to protect the shinobi world..the leaf village..and most of all, his little brother. You need to know about Uchiha Itachi's life!"

"NO! HE CAN'T KNOW ABOUT THAT MADARA!" Mariah shouted as she got her mouth free.

Ignoring her Madara continued.

"Well? Do you understand why Itachi transferred Amaterasu into your eyes? The last thing Itachi wanted was for you and me to cross paths. And if you listen to what I have to say, everything will make sense."

Mariah started struggle from his grip causing her neck to bleed a bit even more making her wince.

  "The only leaf villagers who know everything about Itachi were the 3rd Hokage, his councilors Homura and Koharu and Danzou and of course Mariah. With the third's passing, only three of the four old relics remain. I doubt they'll ever speak a word of their sickening knowledge to anyone. The truth about you brother has been hidden within a vast, infinite darkness...that was undoubtedly, how he wanted it."

I bent over into the cover.

"WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT!" I thought.

"But I know the truth as well, and like I said before, he died without realizing the extent of what I'd learned. But he was no fool....he clearly didn't trust me. He accounted for the remote possibility of me finding out and trued to shut me up permanently with Amaterasu. Apparently me revealing my Sharingan to you to gain your trust was within the range of his plan."

"NO SASUKE! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! DON'T EVEN TRUST HIM!"

"What are you getting at?" I questioned. "What's this guy...trying to say? Protect me....? Protect me????? The....truth?"

"Think back, recall everything you know about Itachi slowly carefully. Remember your loving older brother."

Itachi flashed into my mind.

"He..he tried to kill me..He tried to steal my eyes.."

I started to cough....I wasn't breathing. He quickly dropped Mariah and grabbed my face.

"Get a hold of yourself...breathe...nice and slow." He said.

I smacked his hand away.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" I shouted.

Then everything went black.

(Mariah's POV)

"SASUKE!" I cried as he started to fall unconscious.

Madara walked up to me then punched me in the stomach hard. Blood spewed from my mouth.

"Now before he gets up you're going to your room." He said lifting me up.

When he reached my room he threw me onto my bed and slammed the door shut, locked it, then placed a chakra seal on it. I punched the door but I was repelled back and flew into the wall. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor for a long time. I felt my tears streaming down my face, my broken face.

"Itachi......I'm so sorry...." I whispered bringing my knees to my chest.

Soon I felt myself disappearing and I appeared in the living room still in the same position as I was before in my room.  Even though I didn't know how I got there I didn't care and stayed in the same position.  I heard footsteps and saw Sasuke and his team following Madara probably to their new rooms. They looked around the base and noticed all of the blood.

"Whose blood is this?" Suigetsu asked.

"Someone's," Madara replied.

I didn't notice until now that I was still crying, my eyeliner, mascara, and cover up were running down my face; I probably looked horrible. I didn't really care, I felt empty. I buried my head in my knees making sure not to see anyone or anyone to see me. But who would? Everyone is dead except for Kisame, Zetsu, and Madara. A few hours later they emerged from their rooms probably to look around.

  Madara came into my room and yanked me off of my feet.

"Mariah," He said.

I flinched as he started to walk out and I followed him awaiting my punishment. We went into a familiar room which was the room he always brings me to for a beating. I braced myself for impact. I then felt a sting to my jaw and flew back into the wall. He kicked my side into the other wall.

I slid down it and got an even more harsh beating. I couldn't do anything about it but take it. There's no one to save me now so what's the point. Itachi is dead and he usually hears my screams of agony then stops Madara but now he can go full force on me. When the beating was done I had two broken ribs, bruises, deeps cuts from kunai, sore body, broken wrist, and I believe internal bleeding.

Madara stepped out of the room leaving me there to bleed and in pain. My shadow appeared in front of me.

"L-living r-room," I chocked.

She nodded and wrapped around me then we appeared in the living room on the floor in the corner. She turned back into my shadow while I was laying limp on the floor unable to move without pain coursing through my body. I couldn't move my arm to heal myself. After an hour I was able to move my arm and started to heal myself. I only healed my cuts and attempted to heal my wounds but I saw Kisame coming into the living room. He had my cloak in his hands and tossed it to me.

"Put it on to hide your damage. We have a meeting." He said tossing the cloak to me.

He came over and carefully helped me up to my feet and helped put on my cloak.

"Thanks," I said weakly.

He helped me walk to the meeting room where I was just beaten and saw all the blood all over the floor and walls. I leaned against the wall in pain and watched the door as everyone else was entering noticing the blood. Sasuke sat in a chair, Madara sat on the table and everyone else was standing around the table. They all glanced on me but I put on my poker face showing no pain so they looked away.

"So you want to destroy Konaha, but do you have an actual plan?" Madara asked.

"We eliminate the top tier, that's all I've come up with." Sasuke replied.

"When you strike at the top, they shield themselves with the bottom. It's not that easy, you taka kids are still too inexperience for this." Kisame said.

"Don't overlook us, Kisame-senpai. We still haven't finished out little game." Suigetsu said.

"Enough, Suigetsu." Juugo warned.

Suigetsu ran at Kisame with his sword and swung but Madara blocked it.

"Sasuke, will you rein in you subordinates, please?" Madara sighed.

Suigetsu looked pissed off.

"Suigetsu are you insane?! This isn't the time-" Karin scolded.

"I'm after his sword, the samehada! That's the only reason I went with Sasuke!" Suigetsu yelled.

"Well Sasuke?" Juugo asked.

"Right...Suigetsu, do what you want. You can't beat him yet, anyways." Sasuke said.

"Whatever, Sasuke. You'll apologize when I'm treating you to shark fin soup later." Suigetsu said.

I snickered at his little remark about Kisame but then winced in pain.

"At any rate, Akatsuki is currently lacking in numbers and capability," Madara said.

"Uh huh....you're not so hot, either." Suigetsu replied.

I let out a chuckle as I put my hand over my wounds healing them.

"We share the same goals. From now on, Taka and Akatsuki move as one."

"What's in it for us?" Sasuke asked.

"The bijuu." Madara said.

"Bijuu?" Sasuke questioned.

Madara explained what the Bijuu was.

"You could call them the ultimate chakra weapons...not a bad trade, right?" Madara finished.

"That's pretty generous of you." Sasuke said.

"However," Madara looked at me. "Betray the Akatsuki, and I'll see to it you all die."

I flinched at his words.

"Heh," Sasuke smirked.

"There are nine Bijuu in our world..We've gathered seven so far..just two to go." Kisame said.

"Akatsuki and Taka will split up to hunt the remaining two. That's our present goal." Madara said still eyeing me.

"So you haven't got the Kyuubi yet..."

"Akatsuki will take care of Naruto. Taka will get the other target."

Then Madara disappeared along with Kisame. Team Taka looked over at me but I didn't dare move because of the pain but I had to eventually. I carefully started to walk out of the room and back to mine but my legs gave out from under me.

"Shit," I cursed.

"Mariah-chan, are you okay?" Suigetsu asked coming to my side.

"Yeah," I said.

I put my good hand on his shoulder and lifted myself up but only to fall again.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I whispered.

Karin came over and took off my cloak. They gasped at the sight that they saw.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Suigetsu shouted in concern.

"None of your business." I said getting back up successfully.

I limped out of the room and went into Itachi's room. He never let anyone go in his room and there was a reason for that which only I knew. He had pictures of him and Sasuke in his room and all his stuff from the Leaf. Only I was allowed in his room. I sat on his bed curled in a ball crying and in pain while clutching his necklace in my hand.