Crows x Souls

“This technique’s weakness and risk… is my existence.” — Itachi Uchiha. 

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“What’s happening to her, Amaterasu?” Itachi asked, seeing Yoruichi still knocked out even after pulling the blackened blades of Amaterasu out of her body.

“This is neither of both Tsukuyomi,” the flames started and were now risen to Itachi’s ankles, “I forced my way through at the last moment and pulled her in here instead of Tsukuyomi. The old crow also approved.”

Itachi nodded absentmindedly, not fully getting the gist of it, but getting enough to realize what happened. 

“So what now? I would prefer if we settle whatever grievances you have towards me before we move forward.” 

The flames calmed down at Itachi’s words and almost became docile, but it never lost its threatening intensity. 

“I’ve also realized that the only thing I know these black flames as, are special flames that can burn anything and can’t be put off.”

“What else is there to know about Amaterasu?” Its voice, even while low, resounded like a deathly whisper in Itachi’s ears. 

“Tsukuyomi at its peak means achieving a state where reality and illusion can perfectly overlap, but at its core it’s a perfect mirror to gaze back into your soul. That is why Tsukuyomi shines his light upon the world.” Itachi replied, watching as one of the blackened blades fell apart and joined the flames on the ground. 

“Why do you burn so fiercely, Amaterasu?” 

“Burn? Fiercely?” Itachi could feel the intense emotions in Amaterasu words as it uttered them. “Where do you see my fiercely burning flames?”

“Your ignorant neglect reduced this once blazing inferno to the dead wickers you see now. To temper a wisp of flame to a mighty blaze depends on what you fuel your flames with. What did you temper these flames with?”

A sinking pit formed in Itachi’s stomach as he stared at the desolate land with barely any blazing flame. He was the one supposed to fuel this endless expanse of flickering flames and he let them almost burn out. 

Nevertheless, he had already accepted himself to be at fault so all he could do and hope for was for Tsukuyomi to tell him how to fix this. 

“What happened to the burning flames you tempered as a child with your passion? What happened to the bright ambition you sheltered for your clan?”

“The harshness of reality killed my naïve dreams.” Itachi replied with the jarring truth of his life growing up. The young child’s passion was snuffed out in the smokes of war. 

Amaterasu’s voice bellowed in a haughty laugh that sounded both condescending and disbelieving. “Reality? Oh, how utterly ignorant you are, Itachi. Your touted genius intellect woefully fails you.”

The way the flames tried burning above his ankle level gave Itachi the image of the flames trying to stand up only to fall back down because no one offered it support. 

“What feeble shackles does Reality have on you that Tsukuyomi can’t sever? Was it for such a ridiculous reason that the ambition and zeal that fueled my undying flames was lost and forever abandoned?” The betrayal in Amaterasu’s voice was so great that it caused Itachi to flinch with every word they voice spoke. 

The perspective of souls, especially the incredibly rare ones like Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu, were very different from their wielders. 

While Itachi could argue that his choices were limited, forcing him to sacrifice his family for the village, and to be saddled throughout his whole life with grief, from Amaterasu’s perspective the problem began when Itachi lost his drive and ambition; the embers that stoked Amaterasu’s blazing inferno. 

Having resolved himself to take all the blame, Itachi spoke tentatively after Amaterasu quieted down. “I ask for just one chance. Heed my words this once and I promise you that I will bring back your black inferno.”

“And how do you intend to do so? These flickering flames are the representation of your will, drive, dreams, passion and your ultimate goal in life. Do you see how dead they are?” Amaterasu asked rhetorically. “I am the crystallization of your dreams and hopes, and yet I am simply nonexistent.”

“Then I’ll rouse up my passion. I’ll dream once more and I will achieve the goal I just set. Is that sufficient for you, Amaterasu?”

In that instant where Itachi stared at the flames in the ground and spoke of a goal, a tremble shot through the creeping flames covering this endless expanse and they flickered excitedly.

“What did you do, Itachi?” Now Amaterasu was genuinely curious at what Itachi did to bring such an instant tremor of change 

“I only set my ultimate life goal at the top of everything else.” He easily replied. 

“And what specific ‘ultimate’ goal is that?”

“The very same one I destroyed with my hands during my lifetime. The reason why every Uchiha fight.”

A place to belong. A family. He had set a family as his ultimate goal. 

Understanding that, Amaterasu’s laughter boomed further and the once grass length flames now stretched to his knees and swallowed the endless corpses littered around. This was golden. 

‘Yes! This passion. This resolution. This… revelation. Harness these well and I promise to be the greatest flame spirit ever wielded. Just like my undying flames, this is the undying promise between us, Itachi; stir up the passion of your soul and I’ll raise up the blackest inferno that’ll burn even the heavens to nothing.’

Amaterasu looked at Itachi, not how he looked but the structure of his soul and how it was starting to resonate with the barest hint of heat. It was very tiny to notice but it was still there. 

“Why are you so quick to strive for something again, Itachi? Was it just to maintain your connection with me or was it something else?” Amaterasu genuinely asked this time and Itachi’s words pleased it greatly. 

“It was easy. Knowing my lack of a goal to strive for is what made you like this, fully convinced me that even after living all these while I was still nothing more than a living husk. A life without a mission is vapid and vain.”

Slowly and gradually, the flames increased to the point that they were now as tall as Itachi and it was then that the black flames parted to reveal a human silhouette of black flames, like a raised shadow, with absolutely no features. 

“Hark ye my words, Itachi. I am Amaterasu, the Undying Flame that Consumes All. Be they heaven, be they the purgatory flames of hell, or the puppet strings of fate; they shall all be consumed in this Desolate World of Black Inferno.”

The flames rose up another level as Amaterasu finally revealed its name and ensign to Itachi. 

The black representation of Amaterasu started shrinking before solidifying into a pitch black katana that flew into Itachi’s hands. 

The sheath of the blade turned into flames that were sucked into the hilt as Itachi brandished the blade to appreciate it. 

“Consume All(Zenbu Shōhi), Amaterasu — The Undying Flame of a Desolate World.” 

(Kōryō to Shita Fumetsu no Jigoku no Sekai.)

At the exact instance of his utterance, a straight line was drawn from the sky to the ground that suddenly divided the world into two very familiar parts.

With the red moon and swirling red clouds in the sky, the only difference between the two conjoined worlds was that one part was fully covered with towering inferno while the other part was dominated by endless murder of crows, emitting wisps of smoke and falling feathers as they flew. 

Standing as the foci of both worlds, Itachi stretched his hand towards Tsukuyomi’s Illusory World and called forth the spirit. 

“Illuminate(Terase), Tsukuyomi — Illusory World of Darkness.”

The crows rushed towards him, joining together as they did to produce a normal looking blade until the illusion faded away to reveal the crystal clear sheen of the blade. 

Holding both parts of his Shikai, Itachi brought both of their hilts together and the moment they touched they rippled like water and swiftly fused into a single blade that was pitch black on one side and crystal clear on the other with a tao symbol on the hilt. 

And it was in this instance where both blades were brought together that Itachi finally unlocked his true Shikai. 

“Burn and Reveal, Truth-seeker — Embodiment of Light and Darkness” (Kogasu to Sarakeru, Honshin — Hikari to Yami.)

The first sensation Itachi got was a feeling of wholeness, one that was multiplied over after he gained his full Shikai, Truth-seeker. 

‘Stoke your passion into a tempestuous blaze, Itachi. It is the proof and fuel of your growth.’ He heard Amaterasu say, a special way of comforting people only unique to it– or rather her. 

‘Seek your truth. Seek your adversary’s truth. Make your own truth.’ Tsukuyomi advised. 

‘That reminds me.’ He said and flowed the spiritual form of Yoruichi towards him. ‘Luckily for us, Amaterasu’s intervention prevented any unforeseen accidents.’

Sheathing his sword on his hips, Itachi’s Sharingan came alive once more as he canceled what had been a grand illusion; at least for him. 

Instantly, the world of red faded away and they were back to the present without any time passing. 

With the backlash of her Shunkō and the mental load of the illusion, Yoruichi didn’t know when she was sent hurtling through the forest with a few atrophied muscles. 

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