The edge of my mouth twisted up ever-so-slightly as Itachi's most recent victim let out a scream of pain. This never got old.
The three of us were standing in the midst of a field littered with the dead and dying. These people had made a grave error and chosen to fight with the two of us in head to head combat, believing they actually stood a chance. Poor fools.
The man let out another howl, this time falling to his knees. The sight of this wretched soul crying out was getting old, and my eyes left the doomed ninja, traveling up to the man standing mere feet from me, the cause of all this suffering.
Itachi Uchiha stood perfectly still, eyes red and trained on the victim. He looked at the man with indifference, no emotion apparent on his perfectly stoic face. At least, not to anyone with eyes less trained than my own.
Every now and again, a muscle would twitch on Itachi's face, or his eyes would flash a brighter red for a brief second. Both these things, as well as the amount of time Itachi took when torturing his victims, reminded me just how sadistic my partner could be.
When Pein first warned me that my new partner would be a little different than most, I had of course asked what he meant by that. Sir leader's answer? A short warning to stay on his good side. What a prick.
Still, when I met the weasel a few weeks later, I took his words to heart, and kept to myself, speaking only to the teen when it became absolutely necessary. Which wasn't often, let me tell you. The kid hated asking for help, making comments, offering assistance on most matters, and talking in general. If it weren't for the fact that he'd occasionally comment about something on a mission, I'd forget he could speak.
Time went on, and Pein's warning slowly drifted from my mind. Until we got our first real mission. When I say real mission, I'm referring to assassination, as opposed to spying or retrieval, both of which are boring as hell.
We were able to kill our target, but not without drawing attention to ourselves. A battle was soon taking place, Itachi and I outnumbered fifty to one. Not good odds, but I've dealt with worse.
As the fighting drew closer to the end, two people made a desperate attempt to kill Itachi, charging him at the same time rushing across the roof we were standing on, feet clattering nosily against the tiles. I remember watching as he sidestepped them both and plucked a weapon from the female's hand, slashing her across the neck and letting her body fall before kicking her, watching as she rolled off the building and crashed to the ground forty feet below them. The other guy made he mistake of following the doomed woman's path with his eyes instead of focusing on the fight. This got him trapped in the Tsukuyomi.
Itachi showed no reaction as the attacker screamed bloody murder, engulfed by the pain of being killed from within his own head. The Uchiha finally showed mercy (if you can call it that) and let him die, limp body dropping onto the roof with a thud. Then, to my surprise, he leapt off the building and landed feet from the woman he'd killed earlier.
At least, I thought she'd been killed. Turns out she was laying there the whole time, bleeding out as she listened to the sound of her comrade's dying cries of agony. Itachi grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to look into his eyes, dragging her into the dark depths of his mental torture chamber.
She shrieked loud enough to wake the dead, going on and on about burning up. I was beginning to feel nauseous, and just wanted Itachi to finish up. Only he wasn't done yet.
He released the genjutsu and took a moment to look around, knowing the broken female in his hand wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He finally seemed to locate what he'd been looking for, and shoved the woman away from him. She stumbled back on her one unbroken leg, tripping over a lamp stand and sending both to the ground with a crash. It was as Itachi was forming his hand signs that I noticed the candle oil seeping into her clothing.
Itachi finished and sent a few fireballs at her, more than enough to ignite the flammable liquid.
The woman howled as her body was consumed by flames, and I turned to leave. To my shock, Itachi did not follow suit. He merely stood rooted to the spot, watching the woman burn to death with no more emotion on his face than if he was observing a bug crossing the road. My partner remained as still as a statue until the woman was good and dead. He then looked to me and ordered me to search the area for any other survivors.
I agreed and walked off, heading to the other side of the castle, where I promptly stopped and vomited everything I'd consumed in the last twenty-four hours.
But, that was then, and this was now. I'd gradually built up a tolerance to Itachi's sadistic ways, and now found them somewhat entertaining. They made missions more exciting, to say the least.
The sound of silence brought me back to reality, informing me that my young partner had finally finished off the last man. Sure enough, Itachi was already walking off, knowing that I'd follow behind him.
To say the least, Itachi's techniques and personality impressed me. To tell the truth, the Uchiha scared the living hell out of me. I was glad that I'd listened to the advice Pein gave me. There was little doubt in my mind that if I hadn't, I would have met the fate of countless other victims of the Uchiha long ago.