1SM: Hiya, well, I'm actually writing this for a purpose..I'm writing this because a friend of mine, and myself, were talking about dreams, and how we wanted out lives, so this is how I wanted it to be, although, I think I am making Itachi slightly, OOC but he might not be. Although, I think I should've done this with Chrono from Chrono Crusade, but oh well, I'm just fantasizing and here's the result, I hope you enjoy it, and please review, flames are welcome, okies? Well, enjoy the fic...

A Glowing Ember...

The way the story went was just like a fairy tale. A strange and unusual fairy tale. Her fairy tale. The one she dreamed of every night, but woke up in the morning to find out that it never happened. It went the same. It was always the same. There was never anyone to save her, there was never anyone to make her laugh. No one who wanted to protect her. No matter what...

People told her she was just wasting her time waiting around for someone to show up and save her. So one day, she finally did, that is, until something strange happened...

Chapter One: Accepting Death

"I hate shopping..." Shinn sighed as she dragged her shopping bags into the house. She had been to five different stores for food, and clothes. She was exhausted. There was no way she was going to do something like that again in her entire life.

She dumped the bags on the table and decided to put up her stuff later. Shopping for it was enough as it was.

She walked around her small home, searching for her best friend. She knew there was no way he could have left the house with the way she locked it up. It was time for him to eat, but he wasn't anywhere.

"Stupid cat..." she murmured, getting on her knees to look under the couch. Sure enough, he was there, curled up in a ball and hugging the vent. It was adorable, but if she couldn't get any rest, neither would he. "Chrono!" she screamed reaching her hand under the couch to pick him up.

She grabbed the cat and gently took him from under the couch. "Chrono, next time, don't scare me so bad, okay?" she looked down at him, relieved he hadn't been hurt.

Chrono looked at her and gave a light purr when she held him close and stroked his head gently. He was a strange cat really. He had red eyes. A 'glowing ember' she called them, and to top things off, he was purple. Who'd ever seen a purple cat? She just said he was shining with royalty and took him in, no questions asked. She loved him from that day on. He became her best friend. She was thirteen when that happened. Her parents were angered by her keeping a cat and being closer to it than to regular people. She took Chrono everywhere back then. Even so, she was allergic to him, and always had a rash somewhere, but she loved him even if he was bad for her.

Although, exactly a year later, on the same day, her parents died. There wasn't an explanation for it. She just woke up, planning on having her anniversary of the day she met Chrono and found out that her parents were dead. She didn't even know how it happened. That was five years ago, and every year since then, something bad happened. On the third year after she met Chrono, her house burned and all her memories burned with them. She went into a coma for two months and had no idea what had happened. She was taken to an orphanage, but refused to go without Chrono. No matter what they did she wouldn't leave him.

When she was adopted, Chrono came, too. she didn't have a house for long, though. On their anniversary, her foster parents died. It continued like that until she turned eighteen. She moved out of the orphanage and took Chrono with her. She now lived in a small apartment in a village called Konoha. This was her first year there, but the day of truth was upon them, and the only bad so far that had happened was shopping, did that count?

"Chrono, let's go for a walk, alright? I think you're getting fat." she giggled walking out of the door and closed it behind Chrono.

She was still tired from earlier, but she and Chrono always went for their afternoon walk. It was tradition...

"Hm, you're never any fun Chrono, how come you don't talk?" she asked, jokingly. "I mean, c'mon, I could call you ugly and you wouldn't respond. Of course, you're still a pretty cool cat," she laughed, "I crack myself up..." she looked down at Chrono to see him staring at her looking confused. "You're so lucky you're cute, bud..." she murmured as they walked into the forest, following a path that led to the park. "Stupid complicated people can't just build a normal park, no! They have to make you walk a path! There's a park outside the village, how much sense does that make?" she complained.

She walked into the park and looked around. She didn't exactly know anyone in the village, so she was just wasting her time. "C'mon Chrono!" she called running into the park and over to the swings, laughing.

Someone nearby watched her as she teased the cat. It was funny, but he didn't laugh, just stared coldly at her. He'd seen her many times before, but he'd never said anything. She was just a girl who lived in the village. She wasn't even a ninja...his eyes narrowed and he walked away. 'Not worth my time..' he thought to himself, until he heard her voice, calling him over?

"Hey!" she got of the swings when she thought he hadn't heard her correctly and ran over to him, Chrono following close behind. "Hey, mister, could you do me a favor?" she asked him.

He looked at her. If she had any common sense, she would've noticed that he was glaring at her, but unfortunately she didn't.

"I know this is kind of weird to ask, but can you push me on the swings? I know how already, but I wanna go really high and I need a boost...will you please?" she looked at him. Her face already showed disappointment because she knew her question was out of the blue, weird, but she still asked him in hope that he'd say yes.

The man said nothing but walked over to the swings.

She looked at him confused for a moment. Her expression soon turned into a huge smile and she ran over and sat in the swing, Chrono jumped on her lap and she turned her head and looked at the man.

He just stared down at her and waited for her to get ready so he could get this over with. He really didn't know why he was going to push her in the first place. She acted just like a child. She looked to be around eighteen, though...

"Are you gonna start or what?" she asked getting tired of waiting for him.

He stared at her. Why did she have so much energy and seem so free? Konoha wasn't a place were you found energetic teens happy for another day. It was a place were you found depressed people with bad pasts who wanted to prove themselves by killing someone. At least, that's how his brother was...he didn't really make it his business to know. He's an S-ranked criminal, what'd you expect? Why should he care?

"Um, sir, if it was too much trouble, you don't have to-" she was cut off as she felt a hard push to her back at she was up in the air. Then again and again until she went high enough to see above the trees. "Thank you mister!" she screamed. "What's your name anyway?" she asked as she came down.

He looked at her and said simply: "Itachi." she smiled.

"Thanks, Itachi..." he stood there, somehow shocked. He felt content, standing there and watching her. Why? He's an S-ranked criminal for crying out loud! Why did he still have feelings?

After a while of standing there and watching her swing, he noticed her move and jump off. As if by instinct, he ran and caught her. Chrono still sitting in her lap. His claws dug into her jeans. He was scared.

Itachi looked down at her. She was laughing.

"Are you crazy?" he asked thinking she'd lost her mind.

"You know, I've never done that before!" She laughed even harder and tears started coming out. He couldn't tell if she was crying cause she was happy-laughing or sad-sentimental-laughing. Well, who cares, right? He didn't until she started crying for real. Damn women and their mood swings...

"What is it, now?" he asked almost glaring at her.

"Today's the day I met Chrono.." she murmured, still crying in his arms.

He looked down at her. "Chrono?" he still thought she'd lost her mind. The cat gave a small meow and crawled over to her, and snuggled against her chest as she held him. 'Is it that cat?' he thought.

"Then why are you crying?" shouldn't she be happy?

"You're going to die..." she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. Before he could respond a kunai was thrown at the both of them from some nearby trees. He caught them and threw back with twice as much force. He picked her up and jumped away, Chrono seated on her lap.

Itachi placed her down on the tree and looked around, his eyes turning blood red. Shinn stared in awe. His eyes were red...red... 'glowing ember'? No, they weren't ember, they were flames, burning flames of red...

"What is your name?" he asked, his head turning to her. She just stared at his eyes before registering that he had just asked her a question.

"Um..i-it's Shinn and Chrono..." she stuttered.

He just looked away. He was scanning for the enemy. When he spotted them, he used a paralysis jutsu on them and looked back at her. He gave her one last look and jumped gracefully out of the tree and kicked the man in the head, knocking them out. He took another look and the enemy and realized it was really just Kisame...when did his eyes get so bad he didn't even recognize his own team mate? He did a healing jutsu on him and Kisame's eyes snapped open.

"Itachi! What the hell was that?" Kisame yelled. Itachi merely looked at him and said nothing. "Oh I see how it is! You've got a little wench now, huh? You haven't been to the hide out for days! We need you! You're in Akatsuki now, dammit, we don't play the rules by your book, so get your ass down there and make the report!" usually Kisame never spoke to Itachi in this manner, but he brushed him aside and looked up in the tree where he'd left the girl. He saw her struggling to get down. 'Obviously she doesn't know how to climb trees...' he thought, amused by how she looked trying to get down.

He could tell she was scared she'd fall, but he wanted her to do it on her own, but his plan backfired as she fell down the tree. Itachi stood below her and waited for her to fall into his arms. When she did they both fell backwards down on the ground. In his arms he held her and in her arms she held Chrono.

"You know, I've never done that either.." She mumbled to him.

He just sighed. "Get off me.." he murmured, although he was the one holding her closer.

"Um...I can't...you're holding me. It kind of feels comfy..can we stay like this a while longer?" she asked him. Almost as soon as she asked he let her go and pushed her off him, standing up. "Aw, c'mon, please?" she looked up at him. His eyes had gone back to black. Void of any emotion whatsoever.

She stared at him. "How do you do that?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused.

He stared blankly at her. "Do what?"

"That." She said simply, pointing at his face, more specifically his eyes.

"The sharingan?" he asked her.

"Is that what it's called when your eyes get red?" he was really getting tired of answering her questions.

"Yes." he said coldly to her.

"Can I learn how?" she smiled.

"No..you can't," he responded just looking away.

"Why not?" she asked looking at him, pouting.

"Because it can't be taught, and even if there was another way, I wouldn't give you sharingan." he said.

"I don't get it, you're not making any sense..." she murmured.

"I am making sense, you're just to stupid to understand..." he walked over to Kisame and mumbled some orders that he had to strain his ears to hear.

Shinn stared at them. Were they leaving?

"Come Kisame." Itachi as he started walking into the forest.

"Are you alright? Hey, girl! Wake up! What's wrong with you? Fine, if you don't wanna wake up then I'll just leave you here in the middle of the forest and let the animals eat you..."

Shinn looked around. 'what was that voice just now? It sounded just like the one in my dream...no...it couldn't be...' she shook her head and dismissed the thought, running after Itachi.

"What do you want child?" he glared at her.

"Child?" she pouted. "I'm as old as you are!"

"Oh really? And how do you know this?"

"Um...well...you look like you're eighteen, too...so I just thought..."

"Never jump to conclusions, child..." Itachi sighed.

"How old are you?" Shinn looked up at him to see that he was staring at her. After a while, he answered.

"I am twenty one..." he sighed and walked ahead.

"Wow! Older by three years? Hm...that makes me feel old..." she huffed.

"Why are you following us, child?" he asked turning around. She bumped into him.

"Ouch! You know, I have a name!" she yelled.

"I don't care, go home."

"I don't want to. I'm gonna die anyway, today's the anniversary." she said, not sounding the least bit scared when she said she was going to die.

"Don't you care about your own life?" he asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"Nope, it's gonna happen anyway, so why fight it?" she sighed.

He looked at her. "You give up to easily...why do you except death this way?"

"Well, everyone I've ever tried to be close to in life dies today."

"We'll see about that. Let's go Kisame." he said, walking into the forest again.

"What about the wench?" Kisame glared at Shinn. She stuck her tongue out at him and Chrono hissed. "And her cat..." he added looking down at the purple cat.

"They come with..." Itachi responded after much thought.

Shinn's face lightened up. "I'm going with you?"

"Unless you'd rather stay here?"

"No, that's fine, it's just that you could die if I come along."

"I highly doubt that." he said. "What is your name again, child?"

"It's Shinn, Shinn-" " -Uchiha"

"Shinn, who?" Kisame asked, not quite sure why she stopped speaking. "Girl?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's Shinn Tsuyosa (strength in Japanese) and this is Chrono Tsuyosa." she smiled.

"Tsuyosa?" Itachi asked.

"Yep."

"If I recall correctly, it means strength, does it not?"

"Yes sir..." she murmured.

"For someone with the name strength, you do not seem physically strong at all...but I do suppose that you have a strong spirit..."

"Really? You think so?" she asked, getting cheery again. He did not reply. "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, where are we going?" Itachi only smirked and lead the way.

TBC