Looking at him all I could see was problems.
For some time I would see him everywhere and I couldn't get used to it. I don't think I ever will. Itachi. He's back and he's a hero. He was to be worshiped and appreciated. He was to be given what he wanted when he wanted. I hadn't agreed on any of this.
I had been out one night. Celebrating peace, celebrating life and celebrating death.
I had been there alone just as I wanted. I liked being alone now. Everything had changed and so had naturally I had too. I wasn't bubbly and talkative anymore. I had been forced to grow up and give up on my childish ways. I had lost my father and then I had lost myself.
He had been sitting next to me ordering hot sake.
I hadn't talked to him. I appreciated everything he had done. It didn't change the fact that he had done them. Murdering his family, all those people since he left town, to his own brother he had still done those things. He might have noble goals but what he did to obtain what he wanted hadn't been noble.
He had a darkness over him and it seemed like I was the only one to see it. I was the only one to ever voice it out loud.
Feasibly it was just me and I didn't rule out the fact that I had lost my mind all over again.
I had voiced her concern to Shikamaru and Chouji. They had scolded me when I expected them to support me and listen to what I had to say. Of course he's dark; think of all that he had done for all of them. How would I have felt if it had been me in that position?
It didn't change anything. He had willingly done it. I hadn't asked for anything that happened during and after the war. I would give anything to have my old life back. I wouldn't have changed it for the world. He had. Why was he the hero when he went to it willingly? I had no more respect for him than the normal commoner on the street. I still feared him as I did before the war.
Had I met Itachi on the street I would have turned around and run.
I wouldn't have greeted him with a thank you and gone on with my day. I would have done everything to avoid those dark eyes that were meeting my bright blue ones right now. Those dark, sullen eyes that looked at everything and nothing at the same time, I hated them.
He gave me a short smile before turning over again. He was crutched over the bar disk head resting over his drink. He had come here to hide from praises and being generally adored. He was nothing special. What he had done he would gladly do again. He was nothing special he had just done what everyone else would have done for their home town.
I looked down at my own drink. I wasn't celebrating anymore. I was wallowing in death. Pain suffered and blood spilt, some of it mine.
It hadn't been fair but it was life. Life wasn't fair. It was pain.
Music was playing in the badly lit bar. There was some chatter in the background. I didn't know who or what, one of them or just commoners. It didn't change the noise. They sounded the same when they talked, laughed, cried but never the same when they died.
Itachi was twirling a bill around his fingers, front, back, front, back rip the bill out then repeated the motion. I hoped he would pay and leave already. I didn't feel comfortable sitting so close to him.
I swung my left leg over my right thigh. I pulled my skirt down some. The fact that nobody was looking wasn't a good enough reason to show off your underwear.
It had been long, it had been long enough time. I hadn't been able to move on. Shikamaru had married Temari, Choji a commoner and I had a pending proposal from Sai. I knew I should just marry him and get over it. I had lost the most important person in my life. There was no rushing my mourning.
Things would never be the way I imagined them growing up, like I had wanted and wished for. I was used to always getting my way. It was simply the way it was supposed to be. Now nothing of what I had dreamed about become true.
"Don't let the darkness eat you up."
Who was he to talk about darkness to me? My mouth opened while my mind worked quickly to come up with a response. I couldn't think of any it was all an empty void. I then started pondering if I had ever heard him speak before. The fact that I was surprised how feminine almost his voice had sounded I would go for a no, not that I could remember. I had always imagined him with a deep and mellow voice. One that told of the life he had lived, the horrors he had seen and created.
"I don't think of you as a good person, and I'd rather not you talked to me."
"Oh, sorry. I forgot you're the princess around here."
He sipped his drink before he shrugged and finished it in one go. As the burning liquid traveled down his throat I humped and started pulling my hair. It had grown long. It reached well past the edge to the chair I was sitting on. I had been meaning to have it cut if for a long time. It doesn't matter to my profession anymore. I had been deemed mentally unfit to do missions and was left to run the flower shop my father had left me, which I had closed. It was a joke, mentally unfit.
Itachi looked at me over his shoulder. I was an interesting character I knew that. Men were always telling me.
He had seen me around town but never seen much of me. It was almost as I disappeared once he came too close and that was the case. We never attended the same social events even with his brother as our link. It was almost as if I was a magical myth to him. A myth about the blond miss who detested him, the only one in our town.
He lifted his hand signaling the bartender to fill up his cup. Itachi handed her the bill he had been fiddling with earlier. He thanked her and they exchanged some words. The bartender moved over to me with the same bottle and filled it before she bit her lip.
"Eh… It's from the man over there. He's sorry he called you a princess. The King is gone so you're Queen now even if you're… looking more like a cheap pauper. At least he bought you a drink, right?"
She tried to give me a smile before she moved on to start cleaning some already clean glasses. It didn't matter that he bought me a drink.
I looked down on the glass. I contemplated drinking it but didn't want to give him the satisfaction. I didn't want to be in debt to him. This wasn't an offer this was a power battle. I couldn't stand him and I didn't want him to have anything on me. I simply wouldn't drink it. I could order my own drinks. I didn't have an unlimited spending account as Itachi had been handed but I could still afford a drink or two.
"Do you think your father would be proud if he saw your and the life you're leading? Because mine was when I stabbed my sword directly into his heart."
I tipped the glass he had bought me. I didn't care that most of it spilled on my lap. The alcoholic drink started dripping on my left knee. I could feel the stain on my sheer pantyhose growing. The smell entered my nose and I didn't flinch. I was drenched and reeking of alcohol and I couldn't be bothered.
I didn't know why he was addressing me in such a matter. I had heard Sakura mess about how much of a gentleman he was, hoping it would rub off on Sasuke. If this was the definition of a perfect gentleman I would continue to stay clear of Sakura and Sasuke.
Itachi looked back down in his sake glass and grinned. He was getting to me. He knew that. He would make me break with his words.
Itachi knew I was the apple of everyons eyes, with hair like an angel and a smile that could melt everyone. Itachi knew I was a devil in disguise. I was a total bitch with a face like a sour fruit.
To him I looked good, I was tempting but if you ever sat your teeth in me I would make you cringe, I was sour. I had become bitter.
I was the only one who still hated him.
The bartender threw her the towel over at me. The one she had been rubbing glasses with. I nodded a thank you and laid it on my lap. The towel read Corona, such a dull beer.
Itachi knew I was once everybody's friend. I was a social butterfly always had been even growing up. They always said I had low self-esteem due to my cheerful and flirty behavior. Then why was it that I always used to look like the cat who got the cream? Just like him.
Now I just looked sad and he was mad, mad when he had no reason to. Mad because I didn't worship him, mad that I was uncomfortable sitting three stools down from him, mad because I was kicking in the bar disk slow in the same rhythm as the music playing. Mad because my hair was so long that it would get in the way when I was out on missions. Mad that I didn't adore him.