guardian of the storm | ✓

Fifty-One ~ An Old Acquaintance

~Chapter Fifty-One~

Heaven was gorgeous. The sky was a perfect mix of clouds and a gorgeous blue, the temperature high enough to warm up your bones with a cool breeze making sure you never got too hot. As Winter walked into the streets she found out that Heaven looked a lot like the Hidden Leaf village in the terms of how it was laid out. However, the houses varied from huts to sand domes to quaint cottages.

She grabbed the paper in her hand tightly, checking the address every now and then as she walked out, slowly making her way through the crowds. People here were full of joy, their lives having been lived out, and now they got to kick back and relax.

Finally, she found herself in a district full of similarly constructed houses, the people living there glancing at her with curiosity, their war hardened hearts having softened from their time in the afterlife. Gulping, Winter comes to a stop in front of a medium sized home, the address matching the one written on the paper. After double checking it a few times, Winter tucked it away and gently knocked on the sliding doors.

She holds her breath, both curious to see who Aiden had sent to and also scared that it was someone she'd dread seeing. After what seems like a few minutes, she takes a step back, getting ready to walk off. But then she hears soft footsteps and the doors slide open revealing a face she hadn't seen for many years.

Peaceful, onyx eyes blink in surprise before lighting up in recognition. With a kind smile on his face, Itachi Uchiha stepped aside, motioning for Winter to come inside. "Please, come inside." Numb from the shock she moves robotically, slipping off her shoes and looking around the house. It was decorated sparsely, but there were a few photographs in simple frames, mainly of himself and Sasuke when they were young.

Winter doesn't object as Itachi places a hand on her shoulder, steering her over to the couch. She sits down and stares at him, opening and closing her mouth a few times as she tries to decide what to say. When the only thing that comes out of her mouth is a strangled sound, Itachi moves towards the kitchen. "I'll make tea while you gather your thoughts."

Itachi comes back in a few minutes later, twin cups of tea in hand. He hands one to Winter gently, for that's just how Itachi is— a gentle, kind hearted man whose heart was too big which resulted in him taking a darker path than he should've.

She curled her hands around the warm cup, the rising steam hitting her in the face and bringing with it a pleasant aroma. She raised it closer to her face but didn't take a sip, still in slight shock that Itachi Uchiha was sitting across from her. She'd seen him briefly when she'd had dealings with the Akatsuki, but they'd never really interacted. So the last time she truly talked to Itachi was nearly nine years ago.

"It's nice to see you again, Yuki."

Winter flinched. It was an involuntary response, but it had been a long time since she heard her name spoken with such kindness. Her grip tightened on the cup and she bit the inside of her cheek nervously.

Why was she acting like this? It wasn't as if Itachi had been a huge emotional attachment for her, with the exception of her childhood, so to be hit so strongly with all these emotions, it made no sense. Yet, it did, in a way. Winter knew that she'd bottling up her feelings for a long time and that it was rather unhealthy for her to being doing that. Perhaps now that she'd been introduced to a new environment, far away from her old one, all those emotions were breaking free and starting to flood her senses.

She could've said so many things. How she was happy to see him again, how she was ecstatic that he'd found peace, but instead the first words out of her mouth didn't display any of those positive emotions.

"Your brother turned into quite the little asshole, you know."

Itachi choked slightly on the sip of tea he'd taken, the biggest sign of surprise Winter had ever seen the stoic man do. The corners of his lips twitched up, his dark eyes glimmering with amusement at her brash words. He set his tea down on the wooden table, folding his hands in his lap. "I suppose so. But he could've turned out a lost worse, trust me."

"If you say so." She says, her tone of voice making it clear that she doesn't. After a moment of silence, she sets her cup down as well, the tea untouched. "Itachi... was I crazy?" He looked at her with those calm eyes and she felt the words that had brewing inside of her since she'd woken up, start to overflow. "I just, I don't know what to think. All of this feels surreal and I'm seeing you and I saw Aiden and he wants me to go back, which of course I want to go back, because I was being stupid when I jumped in front of those spikes. I didn't think, I just... acted." She took a deep breath, trying to remain calm and collected.

"I don't regret saving your idiotic brother and Naruto, but I'm worried about Eien and the others. I feel like I'm being pulled in all these directions for some reason as if parts of me are drawn to different places here, while other parts are being tugged back to the real world. I just, I don't know what to think."

She twists her hands, her eyebrows pulling down and creating a creased forehead. "You're not crazy." He murmured, his melancholic voice washing over her. "But I do think you should go back. You left a lot unfinished, and you weren't supposed to die when you did. That's part of the reason why you're getting another chance. I think you should take it."

She picks the cup of tea back up, finally sipping the tea. It's cooled down enough that it doesn't scald her tongue and she lets the soothing liquid coat her senses. With just a few sentences, Itachi has calmed her. Her irrational thoughts are being swept away, leaving room for more rational notions to form.

"So what am I supposed to do then? What was the purpose of visiting you?"

He sighed almost inaudibly, and Winter briefly wondered if Itachi preferred not to talk, but then he was spouting his rare words of wisdom so she quickly started paying attention once more. "The Path of Redemption. In order to return to the living, you must be at peace with your past, and I'm afraid that you have quite a trouble one. Aiden started you off easy, had you visit me, but I'm afraid that you'll have to visit anyone that has had a major impact in your life."

Something flickered in his eyes, was that pity?

"I'm afraid with your past it's quite a long list." He stands up, disappearing for a brief moment before coming back with a slip of paper and a pen. His handwriting was as neatly as she expected and she took the paper from him once he finished. "You'll have to talk to each person, find a sort of internal peace, put aside any conflicts or ties— which can be both negative and positive— in order for this to work."

She looked down at the bottom of the cup, wisps of shredded tea leafs resting in the bottom that had escaped from the pot. "Thank you." She murmurs, tucking the address into her pocket. She stands up, mind reeling as she takes in the information.

As she made her way out the door, Itachi stopped her, his face serious. "I know that you may not enjoy talking to some of these people, but realize that your life was shaped the way it was so that you would become who you are in the shinobi world."

Her words feel hollow for some reason as she thinks of her past, of the blood that was shed, of the people she was unable to save. "And who did I become?" She whispered, so quietly she wasn't sure if she wanted Itachi to hear the question.

"The Stormbringer, Leader of the Storm Village, Savior of the War." He pauses, as if unsure how she'll take his next words. But he says them anyway, the words that were unspoken that had been ringing in her head. Words that she felt like were unjust, that she didn't deserve. Because there were braver shinobi that deserved to be revered more than her.

"You became a legend."

ah, thank you all so much for your help! i made a playlist on youtube of the songs you guys recommended and just cranked this out. i apologize if something doesn't make sense, if it doesen't let me know and i'll try to explain it better.

QotC: How are you? Anything you've done lately that was fun?