Disclaimer: I suppose since these are required, I must say, "I do not own anything of this fic but the idea!"
i — red
I couldn't fathom what demonic sorcery could possibly be taking place during this woesome midnight hour. That was the only legitimate explanation I could come up with. Honestly, I mean, come on, this all had to be some sort of a deceptive illusion or something, right? Or maybe some clever, twisted genjutsu that was cast upon me by one of the more spiteful preteens when I had my back turned earlier. Yes, that had to be it! After all, the moon wouldn't appear quite so reddish in the ominously darkened sky, and the crickets and nocturnal owls (which were always so incredibly and irritatingly loud at nightfall) wouldn't be so eerily silent and lenient so as to allow humans like me some proper shuteye.
But what disturbed me most of all was Uchiha Itachi, who stood perfectly still at a mere several feet before me. His lean physique and back, so straight and well-postured as normalcy dictated for those of his prestigious clan, was to me, and I couldn't see his face. And for a reason I couldn't precisely articulate in my hazed mind, I was glad that I couldn't. I had caught him in his tracks, just at the outskirts of the village, when he looked as though he were about to depart from Konoha. It didn't seem like he was going off on a top-secret mission, either. (He tended to get a lot of those assigned to him from the Hokage, I knew.)
The second I saw him speeding out from the direction of the Uchiha district with a dangerous red glint in his eyes, I immediately knew things were not okay. My feet had sprung to life on their own at that point, and I chased after him as stealthily as I could. He probably picked up fast on the fact that I was tailing him. I may run pretty quick for a girl my age (hey, the task of having to escape from youkai all the time had its benefits, too), but in no way am I quiet enough. At least, that's what I was told in this era; darn ninja and their sensitive hearing.
And now, here we are, standing on the cold cement pavement, wordless and without sound—and what is that red liquid staining the tips of his fingers? It bothers me…
"I—Itachi," I croak out. All right, I hadn't intended to sound so feeble, but you know what? I'm scared. My intuition is telling me that everything tonight is horribly, horribly wrong. My body is trembling and I don't even know why. The only thing I know right now is that Uchiha Itachi, my first friend since I had ended up in this bizarre, ninja-dominated time, was acting totally unlike himself. Sure, he's always been the mysterious and quiet type, albeit powerful and respectably skilled in combat, but he's never acted in such… a questionable way. Right now with the way things were heading, and my innate senses repeatedly screaming "DANGER" at me, I wasn't so sure if chasing after Itachi was the wisest decision I made this evening.
His red-stained fingers twitch, ever so slightly and in a manner that makes it all too easy to miss the insignificant movement. I'm ashamed of myself for thinking, in just the scarcest of seconds, that he is going to reach for the katana strapped to his back and, with the liquid-esque grace that is rightfully his, slice me clean across the chest or skewer me through with it. (I get this unsettling feeling that he's done plenty of that tonight…)
But no. Instead, my first friend from this curious era turns and offers his hand to me. His palm is facing up, and now that I study it more closely, I can see that I was right about my suspicions earlier. Itachi's fingers, which are painted red, are painted with the blood of his kin. My eyes widen and my own hands shoot up to cover my mouth, stifling my sudden cry. The shaking in my bones is getting worse now, and I swear I feel a tad too dizzy. My heart is thumping dynamically in my chest, ringing in my cold ears. My vision is hampered by a flimsy veil of red.
"Will you come with me, Kagome?" he asks. "I need you by my side."
And in my overwhelming despair and shock, all I can process is: How can a teenage boy sound so calm after what he just did?