"Naruto! If you don't get back here I'm going to ban you from Ichirakus!" I yelled down the street as I ran after the knuckle-head blond. I wasn't even sure If you could ban someone from eating at a restaurant, but I knew that it would get Naruto to stop. Just as I'd hoped Naruto stopped running and came rocketing back to me, my journal in his hands.

"Please! Kitty-Senpai, you can't do that! I'd die!" Naruto cried over dramatically while anime tears fell down his face.

"Give me back my journal, Naruto and I might just take it back." I said putting one hand on my hip and the other close to his face, palm up.

"Okay, Okay!" He hurriedly gave me the thick notebook and fell to his knees crying.

"Alright, Naruto. I take it back, you are officially un-banned from Ichirakus Roman." I said. As soon as I did Naruto jumped up and hopped around in circles yelling something about Roman.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you so much Kitty-Senpai!" He screamed and ran away, probably to go eat.

As I walked back to my house, I looked at the thick journal in my hands. I couldn't let anyone read it. If they did I would be dubbed a traitor to the village, I would be thrown in jail. I had written my every thought, idea, hope, dream, and observations in it, everyday for ten years. Sometimes it was just one sentence, sometimes a paragraph, or even a picture. It was my most prized possession. It wasn't anything special or exuberant, it was just a brown notebook that was falling apart. It wasn't what it looked like or how much it was worth that made it special, it was who had given it to me. My one and only love. He gave it to me on my eighth birthday, back when everything wasn't about the village and we could be kids.

I locked the door to my extremely small apartment, I didn't have much, but it was still my home. It only had one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. It was perfect for me, I was all alone and I liked to keep it that way. Of course I had friends that I loved and would protect with my life, but I could never love another man like I did him. It just wouldn't feel right. I sat in the my one good chair in my living room, it wasn't that comfortable but it would do.

Once I got situated so that I was kind of comfortable, which took a while, I opened my journal to the newest page. I only had two left, counting this one, which ment that I'd either have to stop writing or get a new one. I didn't want to do either, this one ment to much to me and I had gotten use to it. I started to write like I always did at this time.

October 28th

To my dearest love,

Nothing happend today, it was quite boring. If only you could be here with me now to see it all. The Hokage is getting suspicious, she suspects that I have ties with the Akatsuki and that I've been in contact with Sasuke. I've talked to Sasuke a couple of times but, I've never once talked to any of the Akatsuki, even if I desperatly want to talk to you. You would never allow that though. My birthday is tomarrow, but I only have one wish.

Your love,

Kitty Hinote

I closed the journal, and just sat there for a while. While I was writing I hadn't realised how dark it had gotten, the moon had completely risen casting a harsh glow on the room. I better go to bed then I suppose. I slid the curtains shut and put out the fire I had lit when I got home and walked into the bathroom to get ready, journal still in hand.

Once I was cleaned and in my pajamas I walked over to my desk. The chain around my neck jingled as I took it off, on it held a single key, to the third desk drawer on the left. That drawer held all of my other personal posesions that I held dear to me. My mothers engagement ring, my parents death certificates, a picture of Itachi, Sasuke and I when we were younger, when we were happy. I placed my journal down softly, checked that everything that needed to be there was there and closed my secret drawer. It took me a while to fall asleep though, I couldn't stop thinking about him.

As I walked down the path towards the familiar compound I had a bad feeling something was going to happen. Itachi had acted strange lately and I was going to face him. It wasn't unusual for me to come to the Uchiha compound this late, Itachi and I would sit on his roof and just talk for hours. His mother loved me, I'm not sure about his father though, I was never around him. Itachi never wanted me to get near him, and I didn't blame him. Unlike other visits I didn't have my ninja outfit on, I had the day off, which was unusual. I could see the gates up ahead, but something was wrong. It was too quiet, normally the compound was bustling with noise and movement. But there was none of that, the Uchiha compound was strangely dormant, something was wrong.

I put up my guard and slowly started to walk towards the slightly ajar gates. I didn't have any weapons on me so I would have to use my genjutsus. I felt a tiny tug on my sleeve and looked down at the little boy on my right, Sasuke. I had picked him up from the training grounds earlier.

"Is something the matter, Kitty-onee-san?" He asked me, completely oblivious to what was going on.

"No, of course no Sasuke," I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He was so cute and innocent, calling me his sister, I didn't want to scare him. Besides I could just be over reacting right? They could all just be sleeping.

I took a deep breath and pushed the gate open, it gave a loud squeaking sound, so much for being sneaky. Sasuke took off running in front of me, I yelled out to him to stop but he wouldn't. I didn't have any other choice, I chased after him, but once I turned the corner, I froze at the sight in front of me. Bodies, blood, so much blood. Everyone was dead, everyone was murdered. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen, he must have run toward his house to find his family. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew who had done it, but I just couldn't bring myself to accept it. Only one thought had crossed my mind this whole time, I had to find Itachi. I had to stop him, even if it was too late, I was going to try.

I woke up sweating and breathing deeply, it took me a few minutes to catch my breath. It was that dream again, or should I say memory. The memory that tortured my thoughts by day and poisoned my dreams by night. The dream of that day, of the day that Itachi killed his clan. I was only twelve when it happened, but yet I felt I could have done something to prevent it. If only I was a day earlier then I might have been able to talk Itachi out of it. Why did I wait so long? I shook my head, what's done is done. I can't change the past, even if I desperately want to.

I looked over at my window, the sun hadn't risen yet, but it was close. I might as well get up now, I thought, I have a lot to do today. I hope that if I just lay low for today that everyone will forget my birthday altogether, it wasn't something that I like to celebrate. I did my morning ruteine and went back to sit at my desk, I had to write a letter to the Hokage telling her that I was going out-of-town for today. Before I could sit down I saw a letter neatly placed on my nightstand. When had that gotten there? I know it wasn't there last night before I went to bed. So then someone would have had to come in my room in the middle of the night to place it there. It wouldn't be that hard, I didn't have a home security system or anything, just a couple kunais I had under my pillow. I must have slept to heavily to notice,

I cautiously reached toward the envelope, on it written in messy but legible script was my name. I flipped it and slid one finger under the fold and ripped the paper open. Inside was a small letter addressed to me,

Kitty,

Meet me at the Meadow Hidden by the Leaves tonight at sundown. Don't be late!

The letter wasn't signed and didn't have a return address on it anywhere. But yet I thought I recognized the hand writing, it was strangely familiar. The Meadow Hidden by the Leaves was a sacred place that I used to go with Itachi, it was beautiful there. It was the only place in Konoha that you could see all the stars perfectly on a clear night. I sighed, I guess I would have to go and find out, I didn't have anything to do anyway.

I tucked the mysterious letter into one of my pouches and made my way down the main street in the shadows. I had almost made it into town without anyone noticing me when a yellow-haired chunin jumped out at me.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KITTY-SENPAI!" He screamed at me and jumped in circles around me asking me a thousand questions every second. "Are you having a party? You really should! The whole town could be in on it, like a block party! Who should we invite? What kind of food do you want? I would pick Ramen! Do you know how many types of Ramen there are? I do, there's-"

"Naruto!" I cut him off a little to harshly, my eyes widened at the pouting boy before me. "I'm sorry, Naruto, my birthday isn't something that I like to celebrate. Besides I, uhh, have to go somewhere tonight." I said nervously hoping that he would just drop the subject and not ask where.

"Ohhh, Really? Where? With who? Are you going on a date? Do I know him? IS IT KAKA-SENSAI?!" He freaked out and I mentally face palmed myself.

"No! Naruto, calm down! I'm not going on a date, and it most certainly isn't with Kakashi." I said as calmly as I could even though on the inside I was annoyed with him. "Now if you'll excuse me," I said walking past him and into the crowd of people who had gathered around the square, toward the training grounds.

It was almost sundown, about an hour till, when I started to head back home. I had successfully managed to stay away from everyone today, well except Naruto. I spent my day where I always did when I needed to get away from people for a while. At the top of a large rock in the very back of the training grounds, not to many people went back there. It was the perfect place to relax.

When I got back home I took a quick shower and put on my ninja clothes. If someone was luring me there I wasn't going down without a fight. I made sure everything was secure and that I had everything I needed before heading out the door for the second time that day. It was a quiet and peaceful afternoon, everyone was inside probably cooking their supper or doing some other work. I took a deep breath of the fall air and let it fill my lungs, I loved this type of weather. It reminded me of when I was young, and would sit outside everyday in the fall and watch the leave change color and fall dead on the ground.

It took me fifteen minutes to reach the meadow, the sun was just slipping below the horizon when I arrived. Nobody was here that I could see and I couldn't sence anyones chakra. Maybe nobody's coming? It could all just be a joke, I bet Naruto planned a surprise party that's why he was asking me all of those questions. I laughed out loud, and cupped my hands around my mouth to shout,

"Alright guys, I know what your planning. You can come out now!" I yelled. I waited for a reply, but there was only silence. Wasn't someone going to jump out of the trees and yell "SURPRISE!" like normal people would?

"Guys?" I yelled again, I was starting to get uneasy. I had the same feeling in my stomach that I did on the night that I went to the Uchiha compound. Something, or someone, was about to happen, I could feel it.

That's when I sensed someone standing behind me, too close. I swung my body around and pulled my arm back ready to throw a punch at the persons face, but I stopped. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the man standing in front of me. He had long black hair pulled into a low pony-tail with his bangs framing his face. With deep red eyes, that I knew could be more dangerous than anything else I'd ever came in contact with before. They were sad and emotionless eyes, the eyes of a killer.

"I-I-Itachi?" I stuttered out through my frozen lips.

He didn't say anything, just stared at me. I should have know that Itachi had sent me that note, he was the only one that knew of this place. He was the only one that knew of my love for it. What did he want? Why was he here? I wanted to jump into his arms and have him hold me, but I knew that he wouldn't.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him after I had worked up enough courage. "What do you want?"

He reached into his cloak pocket to get something, it looked like he was going towards his weapons. I quickly out of reflex and fear pulled two kunais out of my own pouch and threw them at Itachi. He dodged effortlessly, like always. He looked up at me with his sad eyes, which were now black, as if telling me to wait. I knew that Itachi wouldn't hurt me, why was I being so paranoid? Or would he? He was so hard to read I had no idea what he was thinking or what his next move was going to be. That's why when I tried to track him down I was horrible at it.

What Itachi did next surprised me, he pulled a small black velvet box out and held it out to me, palm up, as if trying to say, "take it." I reached out my hand slowly and plucked the box out of his smooth hand. I debated opening it, could it be a trap? Was it going to burst into flames or explode? I'm going to take that chance, I decided. I opened the lid of the box halfway, just to be safe. Nothing was happening, so I opened it the rest of the way.

What I saw inside made my heart skip a beat and tears come to my eyes. Laying in black satin was a silver increaseded Uchiha symbol with diamond inlays on a silver chain.

"I remember this," I spoke softly, "this was your mothers, it was to be given to your future bride, right?" I asked.

He shook his head yes. What was he implying? That he wanted me to marry him? Itachi hadn't said a word this whole time, but that was ok I was used to it.

"Kitty," he spoke in his soft yet deep voice. "I love you."

I had waited five long years to hear those words uttered out of his mouth.

"I love you too, Itachi." I told him sincerely. "You still haven't answered me you know."

"I came here because I love you Kitty Hinote. I just wanted to see you one last time before Sasuke finds me and takes his revenge and to give you that." He motioned toward the necklace in my hand. "I want you to know that I will always love you and that no matter what happens I always will. We may have been too young back then, but I want you as my wife Kitty. I know it's too late but, at least you'll have my mothers necklace as a token." He took my cold hands in his warm ones.

"Why did you have to do that horrible thing Itachi? If you hadn't we wouldn't be here right now. We could be married, Sasuke could still be living in the village and wouldn't hate you. You aren't a killer Itachi, I know that, so why did you do it?" I asked him, looking straight into his eyes.

"So that you and Sasuke could have a better life," He replied.

"A better life?! Sasuke became a missing-nin and ran away with Orochimaru. I threw myself into my work and had no time for myself. I've been living in the past, hoping and praying that one day I'm going to wake up and find out that it was all just a dream. How is that a better life?" I yelled at him, my voice getting higher and higher with each sentence. "The whole town hates you! Your brother hates you! Everyone thinks that you murdered your family in cold blood!"

"I did it because the Hokage asked me to, my family was planning a coup d'état on the village. They were going to take it over. I didn't want you or Sasuke to live that life." he said calmly. I could tell by his eyes he was being honest, I believed him. "I know what you're going to say, but Sasuke can't know about any of this."

He was right, Sasuke was better off hating his brother than his whole family.

"Ok, I understand. Why'd you come back now?" I asked him.

"Because I know Sasuke is getting closer, growing stronger. This may be my last chance to see you, I had to."

"Itachi, I love you." I said as I finally jumped into his arms, something I had been dieing to do this whole time.

"I love you too, Kitty. Happy birthday," he said and kissed me passionately on the lips. I could feel his every emotion, his love, his hate, his longing. Five years felt like five seconds apart. If there was one thing I knew for sure it was that Itachi loved me and that I loved him. I would stay by his side untill the day he died, whenever that could be.

Itachi stayed with me for a whole week, at my apartment. If the Hokage knew that I was harboring a fugitive, a murderer, I would be thrown in jail for sure. We would sit and talk for hours on end, and I would fall asleep in his arms. I cried for days when he left, because I knew that I would never see him again. He was going to face Sasuke.

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and stroked my necklace that laid on my chest. That was where it belonged, and that was where it was going to stay