Author: Uchiha Yumi
Title: Disguise
Genre: General, Angst
Summary: What does it happen when, stalking a man, you understand he is the one hunting you down? ItaTen
Rating: PG13
Parings: Itachi x Tenten
Main Characters: Uchiha Itachi, Tenten
Special thanks: A special thank to Lilya-chan and FunnyNeko, for reading and correcting all of my nasty stuff.
Notes: English is not my native tongue, so please, tell me about my mistakes!
Here I am!
As if "Uncovered" and my four or three one-shots weren't enough yet, I decided to send my new work.
Yes, it actually is one of the rare Itachi and Tenten stories on the net. I wrote it for a wonderful challenge given me by Kawaii Eyez. She was so kind she even decided to edit it for me, since English is not my native tongue.
Please, let me know what you think about it.
Genre may change, since I'm actually finishing chapter two.
I hope I can update soon. You know, I have a lot of other works to think about, right now…
DEDICATED TO MY WONDERFUL KAI!
DISGUISE
PROLOGUE: The mission.
Seven o'clock pm.
The dim light of the setting sun cast his last beams on the dark forest, blending with the shapeless shadows of the leaves and bushes. It was the picture perfect moment of the day. The moment in which the blue of the sky melts with the bright red and delicate pink streaked across the nightly clouds and the sun, flaring as a beautiful ball of fire beyond the line of horizon surrenders to the pale, silver moon, allowing her to reign over the stars until the new challenge of the dawn.
Tenten sighed, finally averting her gaze from the heavens and focusing again on her intricate way through the woods. With a scowl, she resumed her inspection along those ungodly places.
She felt somewhat nervous. And worse was that she probably didn't even know why.
The 20-year-old had now become quite the kunoichi – this was perfect as she had never been the emotional type of woman. Feelings and professionalism were two distinct things and mixing them together would only cause you to lose in both areas.
It wasn't even her first assignment as an ANBU member and neither her first task checking the surroundings of their camp.
So, why was she feeling uncomfortable? It was just a simple mission; perfectly identical to any other mission she previously carried on. Except for a couple of small, insignificant details.
It actually was her first time not being assigned to Hyuuga-taichou's team.
Not that she was uneasy with the others, given that she knew them since she graduated at the Academy. But, truth to be told, the bond with Hyuuga Neji, after so many years in group with him, surely was stronger than with anyone else.
The second detail concerned the kind of mission. Usually ANBU's duties are related to spying services or secret retrievals – as the big one organized to take back that Uchiha-Sasuke-asshole, now probably lost in the depth of some hideous hideout. Not that she particularly missed him, after all he had done.
Anyway, this operation was her first ever as an assassin. She wasn't a novice, since she was a kunoichi, but every other time she happened to take someone's life off, it had all been by pure chance.
Kill or die.
And she usually chose the first one, obviously.
This time was different though. She had been sent to kill a man.
A man she didn't know, except for his famous – or, rather infamous – name.
A man she had never seen, except in the few photographs hanging in Tsunade-sama's office.
However, the crimes this man was charged of, were known all over Konoha – and probably outside, too.
Before leaving the Village, she had had a quick look to the fifty-pages-report concerning that man.
S-ranked criminal, as many others. Obviously a murderer and somehow, a mentally-twisted man. His self-control and confidence were after ten years, something very near to a legend. And nonetheless, for this plain and probably futile motivation, he was still considered the greatest ninja Konoha had ever had and little kids still wanted to follow his example.
'Idiots'
Anyway, in her own opinion, except for the fact he had killed an entire clan – by the way, his own clan – this man, Uchiha Itachi had really nothing special.
The only thing that, perhaps, startled her was the slowness of Godaime's measures.
Ten years before, he had killed the whole Uchiha clan – except for his brother – and all that the ANBU were ordered to do, was to keep him as far as possible from the village if he ever wanted to come back.
It was true that after having lost half of the policemen and some good shinobis in a sole, dreadful night, Sarutobi-Sandaime had probably had better problems to care about, but letting that man simply go, had really been stupid. On the other hand, the same had happened with Orochimaru.
Three years after that, Uchiha Itachi showed up again – like a nasty, plaguing illness – with that Kyuubi-stuff and the wonderful idea of kidnapping Naruto. And what did the Godaime do when she accepted her position? Nothing. Ok, they were just out of a war and their pride had been utterly destroyed – as half of the buildings in the village.
But it hade been not very smart of her, since that man had already turned out to be more dangerous than they ever believed and he had a knack for performing tricks on members of their village.
However, the following years had passed quite smoothly, except for a couple of attempts by Akatsuki's members to try and take possession of the Kyuubi or to ruin the Village's projects – both amply repelled with a huge amount of Shinobi's blood.
Then, there had been that stupid internal war between Akatsuki and Orochimaru's followers.
Fair enough, if they would have killed among each others. Less preoccupations for the villagers.
The point was that after those events, the Akatsuki had been dispelled and all the members began to work on their own – and for their own purposes, which it meant a bigger risk to get attacked.
But, if Tsunade-sama had not taken some proper measures for heavier situations, why did she choose the most skilled ANBU to kill him now?
Who knows? Maybe there were some delicate, diplomatic balances she wasn't aware of.
Whatever the reasons could have been, the fact was that they had been actually chasing him for three days. And since they were brave but not stupid, they used to scan the area where they were supposed to sleep, just to make sure that their "beloved hounded" was near enough to continue the chasing until they would find a safer place to fight, and far enough not to attack them in the middle of the night.
The sun had finally set, making the forest sink in complete darkness.
Tenten had nothing to refer to, except for the sound of her own steps cracking on rotten wood and foliage. It had been an hour since she left their camp, so she had to have scanned at least six or seven kilometres of unknown trees and wild bushes.
'Enough' she thought, throwing a last, lazy gaze to her surroundings.
Nothing strange to notice.
With a last sigh, she turned, ready to jump on a branch and have her way back to join the others for a never-so-deserved rest. But as she reached a nearby bough, something unusual hit her mind.
In fact, even if it blended with the background noises of chirping birds and blowing wind, her excellent sense of hearing, immediately caught something else.
As if something was cracking and…well, flaring.
Just a few seconds later, a strange smell of burning wood confirmed her brilliant intuition.
'Maybe some kids decided to camp here' she pondered 'If so, I'd better find them before he does'
She waited some long moments, her breath as low and silent as possible, not to attract the attention of someone really unwanted. However, from that position, her sight was quite limited.
'Ok, let's try to get to another tree'
But, as soon as she turned her gaze to look for a more appropriate site of observation, her eyes caught a glimpse of two bloody, black-stained irises.
Or, rather, two bloody, black-stained irises caught a glimpse of the horrified expression painted on Tenten's face as she realized that someone was actually sitting on her same branch, a wicked smile on his ashen face – and she didn't even notice.
She automatically drew back, but her shoulders just hit against the hard trunk of the tree.
The man – for she was pretty sure that figure had to be a man – tilted his head to the side and leaned a bit forward, frowning.
"Has no one ever told you it's impolite to spy?" a male, toneless voice whispered into her ear.
Tenten's eyes widened and a gasp was stolen from her lips as a solitaire moonbeam enlightened his scratched forehead protector…
Konoha's leaf was in the middle, a deep slash cutting the symbol in two…