The Virtuous and the Villainous
somebrokenhearts
Part I
:SAKURA:
"So you're the Uchiha? I have to say, I'm quite disappointed. I was picturing someone more, oh, I don't know…difficult? I hear you're the last one too. A pity really. From what I hear, you're supposed to be the genius of the clan, the prodigy. So why have you gone down so easily fighting me; a nobody? I have no prominent name. I have nothing to me except for my strength. My will to fight. And what do you have? A history. Milestones. ANBU Captain at thirteen, correct? Where was I at thirteen again? I think I was…normal. Normal for a short, lanky, pink-haired girl living in a stupor, I suppose. Normal for a girl constantly left behind—in the shadows. But I learned in the shadows. I watched. I waited. I've gained eons of knowledge in those shadows. But what I'm saying is that I'm still confused. How can normal beat infamous?"
The Girl, clad in a jacket of dark red leather and tight black pants, looked at the collapsed, crumpled man before her with an almost sad expression masked on her face.
"You weren't even a challenge for me," she pouted, "You have but few actual strengths. Is your only reliable weapon intimidation? How pathetic. You try to fight the mental battle, with me of all people. I've been underestimated again haven't I? I can't really say I've fought better, though, but you've been a strange disappointment. Even Pein and Tobi managed to break a few bones. You only managed to scratch my arm. Oh my, I'm not even happy to defeat the last Uchiha."
The Girl glared down with fake, childish sadness written on her face, causing The Man to gawk at her in surprise,
"Why do you have to deny me my happiness too?"
The Man finally opened his mouth that was caked in his own blood. He cringed at the pain.
"There is one who is stronger," he managed to croaked out.
A light sparked in The Girl's dead eyes.
"Who?"
The Man hesitated, mentally debating on whether to tell this strange girl.
"My little brother. Uchiha Sasuke."
The girl lifted a thin eyebrow. She didn't believe it.
"I thought you were the last one?"
"I spared him. He wanted to be the one to kill me, to 'avenge his family' or something like that. I always thought he would be…" he trailed off.
The Girl scratched her arm, disinterested at The Man's sudden wistfulness.
"Then wouldn't he be weaker?"
She picked at the blood under her nails.
"Weak?" The Man rasped, "Would you call the assassin of Orochimaru weak?"
The Girl's emerald eyes lit up again, she sensed a challenge.
"Orochimaru? A sannin? Interesting, but not entirely remarkable."
"You have high standards."
The girl scoffed, but a question popped into her mind,
"If he's so strong, why wasn't he able to track you down?"
The Man smirked, a tired, beaten smirk.
"Why do you think I was beaten so easily by you? I was out of breath from running."
The Girl didn't take the stab to her pride in offense. It was a last minute attempt by a dying man to save his injured pride.
"Well maybe I'll meet him soon, then. I'll take my disappointment out on him," The Girl replied in a flat voice, void of emotion.
She took a syringe out of her breast pocket, and made a move to plunge it into The Man's skin.
"Wait," The Man rasped again.
The Girl tapped her heal, impatiently waiting for The Man to finish speaking.
"What happened to the girl? The one…who was short, lanky, and lived in stupor?"
A flicker of emotion appeared on The Girl's face, and disappeared.
"Well I suppose she did what girl's do every day. Grew up."
She re-grasped the needle and took a final plunge into The Man's flesh.
The man died instantly, the pain from his wounds gone forever. And as the light faded from his world, he couldn't help but stare at the beautiful, mysterious girl above him.
She was stronger than his little brother; he knew that. And while she might have been a cold-hearted killer, she wasn't a sadist.
Maybe that was what made her so different from the others. The Man closed his glazed eyes. His last view of his earthly life was The Girl's long, pink hair blowing in the wind.
Pink, he thought, the color of my retribution.
--
The Girl glanced at the dead man with a green light glowing around her hands.
"I really hate leaving a clean trail."
The green faded from her fingertips.
"Good. Now you're all gone."
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SASUKE
"No. That's impossible."
A raven-haired man glared at the man kneeling before him, a hint of fury in his onyx eyes.
(For he only showed emotion through a 'hint')
The kneeling man shivered in fear. Although his lord always held a careful air of apathy and unconcern, there was a new edge of malice to his voice this time.
As the kneeling man spoke again, but this time, his voice wavered with fear of his lord, and for his own life, "I'm sorry, Lord Uchiha, but…he really is dead."
The candle-lit room flickered with the unsteady flames, sending shadows dancing along the cracked walls. The air was dry, musty, and was as silent as a morgue.
A morgue. What a brilliant analogy to describe the sparse underground chamber in which the Lord Uchiha resided in. There was nothing but a small, white bed situated in the farthest corner of the room, a small wooden dresser, a matching desk, and a large, stiff-backed chair. Comfort was not allowed any home here.
Outside of the Uchiha's bedroom chamber, there was but a small, narrow, candlelit corridor, with the servant's rooms splayed out beside it. The corridor led to the largest room in the whole complex: a masterpiece of a training ground.
The training ground was outdoors, above ground. Three acres of completely fenced in area. There was a small lake, a forest, and a flat dirt-covered field.
No one was allowed inside except for the Lord Uchiha and his servants. It was his private training grounds.
The Lord spoke again, this time his voice was firm,
"Who killed him?"
The servant boy didn't answer.
The Uchiha sighed in exasperation (if 'exasperated' sounded like 'bored', the difference was hard to decipher), he wouldn't, didn't, tolerate defiance.
"One more time, and you're…"
"ITWASAGIRL!"
The kneeling man blurted out, and then, realizing his mistake, began to back away. His lord would never believe that his lifelong goal crushed by a girl.
"I'll leave now Lord Uchiha. I'm sorry to have irritated you."
The man got up from his position quickly, and made a beeline to the door, keeping his head strictly bowed. His lord was not one you wanted to annoy—if you valued your life that was.
"Wait."
The sound of his lord's voice made the servant skid to a stop.
Don't kill me. Please, oh please don't kill me!
The man spoke hesitantly,
"Yes? Lord Uchiha?"
"Tell me everything you know about this girl. Physical appearance, strengths, weaknesses, village affiliations, weapon usage, element specialty, everything."
The man smiled sadly, his demise already clear in the center of his conscience. Kunai to the heart, right?
Goodbye onii-san. I've failed you yet again. I could not bring down the Uchiha like I promised I would for you. If only I'd had more time….just a little more time….
"I'm sorry, Lord Uchiha. Our scouts were only able to transmit that she was a girl before the lines were cut off. I'll give the girl credit, she took out two of our best in a matter of seconds," he could afford a little confidence now, his future had been decided already anyhow, "But there was something else I think you should know. The dead Itachi was gripping a small wad of pink hair."
"Pink?" The Lord Uchiha's mind turned at the mention of pink. Pink. Somewhere deep in his suppressed memories, he saw pink.
A light went off in the well-oiled machine that was the Uchiha, but the thought was just simply too impossible to wrap his mind around. A pink-haired GIRL had killed off his only reason to live, to work, to get stronger? Impossible.
"I hate that you would lie to me," he said to the servant, "I have no need for disloyalty."
The servant smiled again. It was over. He'd known since the mention of 'girl'.
Shoom!
A kunai was dislodged from the Uchiha's hand with lightning speed. The servant's heart was pierced before he could even blink. Lord Uchiha took a moment to admire his handiwork. Center of the heart; precise accuracy.
Pink? He thought, That's strange…
Wait.
He stared at the limp body of his now-deceased servant, and sighed.
This is why he hated unnecessary bloodshed. And after all those years of denying
anger…
fury…
emotions.
The blood would take several months to fade off his walls.
He ran a hand through his raven locks, and began to collect his weapons.
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.-.Naruto.-.
"Nani?! Hokage-sama you must be joking!"
A blue-eyed man with spikey blonde hair openly gawked at the woman standing before him. He was always careful to use a little tact in situations such as this, carefully avoiding his twelve-year-old self. But sometimes his old self would just spring out of thin air, without warning.
The woman before him sent a bone-chilling stare towards the man before her.
"This is not a joking matter."
The blonde man immediately sobered.
He was a changed man now, so different from his childhood self. Gone were the snarky comments, the disrespect, the blurting. In it's place stood a quiet, reserved man who kept it all bottled inside (steel walls, lock and key).
"Forgive me, Hokage-sama. Please continue."
The woman stared at the man before her, quietly contemplating. She remembered the old, boisterous blonde boy. But before her stood a refined gentleman. She wasn't sure which she preferred.
Oh the sands of time.
"As I was saying, the last member of the Akatsuki, Itachi, was killed three days ago. The method of killing was the same as with the others: lethal injection. Of course, Itachi is not one to willingly accept a syringe filled with deathly poison, but, like all the others, his body was left in pristine condition. No external injuries, no internal injuries."
"Hokage-sama, that is impossible. How can all of the Akatsuki members fall in a matter of three months? And how can they all not have a scratch?" the blonde man pondered, "They are dead, right?"
The woman sighed. His naïve nature was still the same, after all of those years of change.
"Yes, they are absolutely, one hundred percent d-e-a-d. I checked the bodies myself."
"Do we have any idea of who the killer might be?"
"None."
"Gender? Although I'm betting it's a male."
The woman raised an eyebrow,
"Why?"
"Well no offense, Hokage-sama, but I don't think any kuinochi, missing-nin or not, has the strength to defeat all of the Akatsuki. And in three months!"
"I think you're right. I've checked the bingo books, and no missing-nin, male or female, meet the qualifications."
The blonde man suddenly looked somber.
"I know of one."
"Really?"
"The last Uchiha."
The woman looked at the blonde man like he was stupid.
"Itachi is dead."
The blonde man shook his head,
"No, not Itachi. There is another. Sasuke Uchiha."
The woman immediately froze. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the edges of the seat.
"No. That's impossible! You're lying."
"I'm not lying, Hokage-sama."
Shock was splayed across the woman's face. Her amber eyes were clouded with confusion.
"It doesn't explain the bodies," she said in what she hoped was a voice of reason.
"It could be possible. Maybe it's some new jutsu? He may have learned it from Orochimaru."
The woman shook her head, still not believing any of the blonde man's suggestions.
"You are being utterly impossible. And to think you are head of the ANBU…"
The blonde haired man groaned,
"An ANBU scout returned this morning. He sighted the Uchiha, or else I wouldn't have brought it up Hokage-sama."
SLAM!
"STOP IT! WHY ARE YOU LYING?! The conclusions you are coming up with are utterly absurd!"
The woman was shaking with fury now, her hands tingling where she slammed them down. She was standing up now, glaring down at the blonde man.
"Hokage-sama just hear me out—"
"HE'S DEAD! He has been for ten years! And now, a decade later, you want me to believe he's alive? I know you've been trying to clear his name, but this, insisting that he's alive, won't do it. It won't do it!"
The blonde man smiled sadly,
"Hokage-sama, Kakashi has already assigned me a follow-up mission."
When the woman didn't speak, he continued,
"I'm to track down and follow the Uchiha in hopes of finding the assassin."
"So even Kakashi believes this my gosh—"
"Yes, Hokage-sama. He actually believes in my honesty," a hint of dejection colored his words, "I leave in ten minutes. Goodbye Hokage-sama."
"Wait."
All traces of anger suddenly vanished from the woman.
"Be careful. Don't do anything to kill the assassin," a slight hesitation, "or the Uchiha—"
"So you do believe—"
"No. I don't. But what I'm saying is that they might not necessarily be a threat to Konoha. So don't do anything rash."
"I know Hokage-sama," the blonde man smiled, "I'm not oblivious like I used to be. I understand the depth of this mission."
Poof!
And he was gone in a puff of smoke.
The woman sighed and rubbed her temples. An encounter with the spiky-haired blonde always made her feel exhausted, changed man or not.