Akasuki fell to the ground, with a kunai pressed to her throat. She closed her blood red eyes, and let the chakra dissipate from them, letting them return to their customary slate grey. Sighing in defeat, she relinquished her grip on her katana, and raised her hands to show her attacker that she had given up. He chuckled, deactivating his sharingan, then offered her a hand to get back up, which she accepted gratefully.
"You're getting better kiddo," he commented, ruffling her hair affectionately.
"I know, but you're still much better than me Shisui," Akasuki complained, batting his hand away.
"Why couldn't Itachi-kun come and train this morning?"
"Well ..." Shisui stalled, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse, "He has a cold?"
"Don't lie to me Shisui, I want to know the truth." Akasuki glowered at Shisui, immediately noticing the fact that he was trying to cover something up.
"He's spending today with Katsumi-san," he conceded, avoiding the younger girls gaze.
"Oh ..." She murmured, instantly turning away from Shisui so that he couldn't read her emotions, then picked her katana up from the floor and slid it back into its scabbard. "See you at the same time tomorrow for training?"
"I suppose so," he answered, shifting his weight from foot to foot, "You could come and see him if you wanted to. Mikoto did ask me to invite you for dinner."
"I'm not sure that it's that good an idea to be honest. Katsumi-san wouldn't be pleased if I turned up, and I don't want to ruin things for Itachi-kun. Please tell him that I said congratulations on his engagement to her though." Akasuki responded, her voice completely drained of emotion.
"Cheer up kiddo," Shisui said, stepping over to Akasuki, and wiping the tears off of her face, and hugging her in a brotherly way.
She smiled weakly, "I just don't really know what to do. Even if I told Itachi-kun how I feel about him, I don't see how it can do any good, as his father is determined for him to marry Katsumi."
"You could always make her mysteriously disappear." Shisui jokingly suggested, nudging Akasuki in the side.
"Don't tempt me," Akasuki replied, laughing a little, "but even if she was gone, I don't think Fugaku would let Itachi marry someone who isn't an Uchiha, especially someone like me who he seems to despise."
"Well in my eyes, and I would hope Itachi's too, you are miles better than Katsumi-san will ever be. She may be a ninja, but she's only a genin, and you can stand your ground against me or Itachi, which is quite an accomplishment. She has been brought up to be a housewife at the end of the day, and has been sheltered her whole life, so much so that she barely realised that the fourth ninja war happened. On the other hand, you and Itachi have loads of common ground. Even if you can't cook to save your life, I'd prefer it if he married you, even if the both of you had to come over morning, noon and night just to get something edible to eat."
Akasuki almost instantly turned a shade of bright red, before responding. "I never said that I wanted to marry him! Shouldn't you get going now though, if you're planning on going home for a shower before dinner? I've got to pick Sasuke up in a little while too."
"I suppose so, I'll see you tomorrow kiddo. Keep your chin up." Shisui flashed her a smile, before using his signature body flicker jutsu to get back to the Uchiha compound.
Akasuki sighed to herself, then made her way back into Konoha.
Itachi sighed inwardly, trying to pay attention to the meaningless conversation Mikoto, and his fiancée, Katsumi, were having. He would have preferred to be out training with Shisui and Akasuki, like they did almost every day, but his father had insisted that he spent time with Katsumi to get to know her. Fortunately, Mikoto had invited Shisui and Akasuki over for dinner, but although he was certain that Shisui would come, he wasn't convinced that Akasuki would.
Glancing at the clock, he noticed that it was a while after midday, which meant that Shisui and Akasuki would have finished training, and it was about an hour before Sasuke needed to be picked up from the academy. Perfect, he thought, an opportunity to get out of this house, and perhaps away from Katsumi for a little while. It wasn't that Itachi particularly disliked his fiancée, it was just that, unlike him, she was a rather stereotypical Uchiha, so she placed the clan above anything else. This meant that, although they were both in the same clan, their fundamental values were miles apart.
"Itachi?" Katsumi asked, her ebony eyes locking with Itachi's obsidian ones for a millisecond, before he broke the contact.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I was wondering what was happening with Sasuke today when he finishes at the academy."
Mikoto smiled, "Don't worry about him Itachi. Last week I asked Akasuki to pick him up, and she said that she would. I expect that they'll be here by four, as long as Sasuke doesn't want to stay and practice a little more."
Itachi heard a knock at the door, and silently stood up and padded over to the door to answer it. When he opened the door, Shisui smiled at him, stepping inside and slipping his shoes off. "So, what's for dinner?" Shisui asked, grinning.
"Sukiyaki I think," Itachi replied, "Katsumi and kaa-san are in the living room." They both strolled back through the house to the living room, with Itachi leading the way, even though Shisui knew his way around just as well as Itachi did.
"Hello Mikoto-san, Katsumi-san," Shisui greeted, bowing slightly, before sitting down next to Mikoto, with Itachi sitting down between him and Katsumi a second later.
"Hello Shisui," Mikoto replied, "Isn't Akasuki-chan coming over?"
"I don't think so, she's still picking Sasuke up though, so I expect that she'll pop in for a minute." Shisui said.
They all sat in a rather awkward silence for a little while, before Katsumi decided to try and start up a conversation. "So, Itachi-kun, how has training been going?" She asked nervously, twirling her long, straight, onyx hair around her fingers.
"Quite well," he replied politely, "Hokage-sama said that if I keep progressing at the rate I am now, there may be a position in ANBU for me in a month or so. How are you doing in your team?"
"Pretty well, we do a little bit of training every day, but we only get to go on D rank missions. Sensei says that we need to improve on our teamwork before he'll let us go on C rank missions, or enter us for the chuunin exams, but I think that my teammates are holding me back. I finished at the top of my class, and have activated my sharingan, and one of my teammates finished dead last, and the other is a branch family Hyuuga who can't use byakugan." Katsumi complained.
"Your teammates are the ones that you need to be able to work well with, and trust with your life. When you go on more difficult missions, your teamwork may be the difference between life and death for all of you, and decide if you succeed or fail a mission." Itachi reprimanded her, wondering how his father had ever come to the conclusion that he should marry her.
Fearing an argument, Mikoto swiftly tried to change the subject, "So, how did training go today Shisui?"
"Pretty well," Shisui answered, "We worked on some fire jutsu and speed. I think Akasuki is getting faster than me though with that little ability of hers. Sometimes I do wonder whether or not I'd be better off having sharingan or her eyes."
"What can her eyes do?" Katsumi asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously; Shisui had been known to lie and wind people up from time to time.
"Enhances her vision about seven times, speeds up her reaction times considerably, and that allows her to move at some rather unbelievable speeds." Itachi answered in a textbook like fashion. "Although her eyes cannot predict her opponents next move like the sharingan can, she has got rather skilled at predicting roughly what her opponent will do next, for example whether they are going to attack using weapons, use a jutsu, or taijutsu."
"It also turns her eyes blood red," Shisui added, "But without any commas in her eyes like you get with sharingan."
"She is quite a talented girl," Mikoto commented, "It's a shame that she decided to be a samurai though, instead of a ninja, but I suppose that it means that we won't have to fight her if the talks between the clan elders and the village elders fall through."
Akasuki entered her apartment, quietly shutting the door behind her, then placing her katana and wakizashi on the stand. She rifled through the kitchen cupboards, eventually finding a packet of instant ramen. When it had cooked, she sat down at the table, and greedily ate it, as she was ravenously hungry after training, and hadn't had anything to eat since about 7:30. Afterwards, Akasuki dumped the bowl in the sink, and had a quick shower. Once she had got dressed again, she plaited her damp hair in a simple plait that came over her left shoulder. Wandering over to the book self, she pulled out a scroll on wind jutsu, then sat down on the sofa for a while, reading it to pass the time until she had to go and pick Sasuke up.
At ten to three, Akasuki placed the scroll back on the shelf, before picking up her katana and wakizashi and securing them to her waist. Afterwards, she left her apartment, and made her way over to the academy. On the dot at three o'clock, she arrived at the entrance to the academy, as the bell rang, signalling the end of the day. She leant against the wall, waiting for a couple of minutes until Sasuke came out.
"So, how was your day?" Akasuki asked, smiling as they started to stroll back to the Uchiha compound.
"It was great!" Sasuke exclaimed, "We got to try and use a clone jutsu today, and I nearly managed to make one that looked just like me."
"That's really good if you only just got taught it, at your age it's rare for people to be able to mould their chakra well." Akasuki commented, ruffling Sasuke's hair affectionately.
For a while, Sasuke told her all about academy life, and complained about how all the girls fawned over him, before he asked, "What did you do today Akasuki?"
"I trained with Shisui before lunch, then spent some time reading up on wind jutsu." Akasuki replied as they entered the Uchiha compound.
"What about Itachi nii-san?" Sasuke questioned, frowning a little, as he was sure that they always trained together, unless his brother was sick or on a mission.
"Shisui said that he was spending the day with Katsumi-san," she answered, hiding the hurt tone in her voice, "I'm sure that he'll be at home when you get back."
"I don't like Katsumi-san," Sasuke complained, "She doesn't let me play with nii-san if she's about, and it's not as if they train or anything like you and nii-san do, they just sit and talk for ages."
Akasuki laughed, "Have you told Itachi-kun this?"
"Of course," he replied proudly, "And he said that he only spends time with her when tou-san tells him to, but he'd rather spend time with you."
"Is that exactly what he said?" Akasuki asked, blushing lightly and raising an eyebrow at the young Uchiha.
"Pretty much," Sasuke answered, "But he used loads more words to say it, and said something about if he got given the choice about something, but I didn't really understand that bit." A few seconds later, they reached Sasuke's house, and they both stepped inside, slipping their shoes off and leaving them in the porch. "Kaa-san, I'm home!" Sasuke called, heading towards the living room to try and find his mother and brother, with Akasuki following him.
When they reached the living room, Mikoto greeted them, and told them both to sit down, which they did. Katsumi glared at Akasuki, who completely ignored her.
"Ne, Itachi-kun, are you going to come training tomorrow?" Akasuki asked. "We really missed you today. Shisui thinks that I'm getting faster than him, but we couldn't really tell, and could have done with your help."
"I'm sorry Akane-chan, we can train a little bit later if you like, tou-san said that he would be home late, so it will be quite some time until dinner, if you'd like to stay." Itachi offered.
"I'm sure that Akasuki-san has things that she needs to do," Katsumi interrupted with a sickly sweet smile, before reaching out and holding Itachi's hand.
Akasuki's eyes narowed at her, "Actually, I'd love to train with you for a bit Itachi-kun, but I can't really stay for tea, Jiraiya is meant to be coming back tomorrow, and the apartment is a bit messy right now."
"Why don't you two spar for a bit now?" Shisui suggested, "I would join in bit I'm wiped out from guard duty and training with kiddo."
"That sounds like a good idea, what do you think Itachi-kun?" Akasuki asked, preparing to stand up again.
"I agree, we haven't sparred properly in a while, and it'll be interesting to see how good you are now." Itachi answered, detaching his hand from Katsumi's before standing up. Everyone but Mikoto and Sasuke stood up too, with Katsumi shooting a dirty look at Akasuki, which Itachi noticed.
"Katsumi-san, would you like to stay and help me prepare dinner?" Mikoto asked kindly, "I'm not sure that Itachi and Akasuki sparring will be particularly spectator friendly. Last weekend, Sasuke went to watch them spar, and they ended up in the dense forest."
"I'd love to," Katsumi replied after a moments consideration. "It'd be a good idea to learn how to cook all of Itachi-kun's favourite meals."
Akasuki scowled before almost storming out of the house, with Itachi and Shisui following her. They all sat down on the step to put their shoes on, though it was a little bit of a tight fit for the three teens, unlike when they had been younger. Akasuki's hand brushed against Itachi's as she reached for her shoes, and she blushed at the contact, though Itachi didn't seem to notice, or at least, didn't react to it.
"Well, if looks could kill, I think you and Katsumi would have killed each other a couple of times during that brief encounter." Shisui commented as they stepped out of their house, and made their way over to the training grounds.
Itachi sighed, "What am I going to do with you Akane-chan? You know that I'm engaged to her, but you two seem incapable of getting on, and if you're not careful, Katsumi may say something to tou-san, and you know that he isn't very keen on you."
"You could always tell him that you won't marry Katsumi you know," Shisui suggested, lowering his voice so that none of the other clan members could hear.
"I'd risk Sasuke's happiness for my own by doing that. If I married the girl that I like instead of Katsumi, tou-san would almost undoubtedly arrange a marriage for Sasuke." Itachi replied.
Shisui grinned, nudging Itachi in the ribs. "Girl that you like, hmm? So who would that happen to be?"
Itachi scowled at Shisui and pushed him away. "It doesn't matter."
"You can tell us," Akasuki joined in, smiling mischievously as she latched on to Itachi's arm to stop him from pushing her away.
"Even if I did tell you, it'd do nothing but cause problems," he answered, trying in vain to detach Akasuki from his arm. "And if you're not careful," he added, "People may get the wrong impression about us." By this time, a couple of Uchiha had congregated on the street, talking in hushed whispers and glancing at the trio from time to time.
Akasuki blushed, releasing her hold in Itachi's arm, "Sorry Itachi-kun, I didn't realise."
"It's fine Akane-chan, I just don't want tou-san to have any more reasons to dislike you." Itachi murmured, as they stepped onto the training grounds.
"Right you two, are you ready to start?" Shisui asked, unceremoniously lowering himself to the floor, and lying on his back. "Remember to wake me up when you finish."
They nodded in reply, and turned to face one another a couple of metres apart. As Itachi activated his sharingan, Akasuki also channelled chakra to her eyes, improving her eyesight considerably. For a couple of seconds, they stared at each other, neither willing to make the first move. In the end, Akasuki decided to break the stalemate by drawing a handful of kunai and throwing them at Itachi. As expected, he dodged them all, then countered using Goukakyuu no Jutsu. Cursing inwardly, Akasuki quickly formed several hand signs before releasing Gouka Mekkyaku no Jutsu, one of her ultimate fire jutsu. Unsurprisingly, it quickly overwhelmed Itachi's lower level jutsu, but he used kawarimi no jutsu to escape the flames large range, substituting himself with a nearby log, which was quickly turned to ash.
Akasuki scanned her surroundings for any sign of the Uchiha prodigy, her left hand resting against her katana, ready to push it to her waiting right hand when she needed it. Meanwhile, Itachi created two shadow clones, which he sent to the other sides of the woods which enclosed the training grounds, setting his plan in motion. When the clones had reached their positions, they threw countless kunai and shuriken at the red head, forcing her to retreat towards the place where the real Itachi was lying in wait. When she was about 5 metres away, there was a brief reprieve from the projectiles, so she channelled her chakra into her legs, and raced towards the clones. Milliseconds later, she had reached the first clone, and dispatched it by thrusting her katana through it, then threw some kunai to dispel the second one.
Akasuki scanned the surrounding area, looking for any signs of the real Itachi, but did not find any. However, she did notice the footprints of the clone, which seemed to lead back to the other side of the training ground. Smiling to herself, Akasuki made a shadow clone, and sent it back into the clearing. "Come on Itachi-kun," the clone called out, "I thought we were here to spar, not play hide and seek."
In reply, Itachi threw a handful of kunai, accompanied by several shuriken. Fortunately for Akasuki, her clone managed to see them in time, and dodged the vast majority of them, deflecting the last couple with a kunai. Itachi had used this time to close the gap between him and the clone, then drew out a kunai as the clone spun to face him.
Meanwhile, the real Akasuki raced to get behind the Uchiha, hoping that her clone would be able to buy her enough time to be able to attack from his blind spot. She kept a keen eye on Itachi and her clone as she moved through the trees, having to move around at quite some distance from them to minimise the risk of Itachi spotting her. He had unleashed a barrage of taijutsu attacks on her clone, and up to that point, it had managed to block, dodge or counter all of them. However, Akasuki knew that Itachi held the upper hand, and it was only a short matter of time until Itachi managed to land a hit and dispel her clone.
When she was about 10 meters behind Itachi, he reached out and grabbed her clone by the collar, before swiftly leaping over it, and then throwing it to the ground, dispelling it on impact. Akasuki put on an extra burst of speed as she drew her katana, desperate to reach him before he had the chance to turn around and counter. Itachi managed to turn around, holding his kunai to her throat as her katana pressed against his. But Akasuki hadn't taken into consideration that she needed to stop before she reached him, and crashed into him, causing them to fall to the floor, with their blades getting precariously close to each other's necks.
She laughed uncomfortably, wriggling a little on top of Itachi, whom she had rather ungracefully fallen on top of. "Shall we call it a draw?"
"Perhaps," Itachi answered, his sharingan eye's staring into her blood red ones, trying to formulate a strategy.
Akasuki went to move her katana away from Itachi, but felt his kunai press against her neck, and he silently dared her to give up. Scowling, Akasuki pinned Itachi's other hand down with her knee, and stabilised herself by placing her left hand next to his head.
"What did that achieve?" Itachi questioned, trying to push her into making a mistake. "I still have my kunai."
"It means that I could do this," Akasuki shot back, then desperately tried to formulate a plan before Itachi had the chance to come up with anything else to say.
Itachi opened his mouth, preparing to say something. At this moment, Akasuki had an idea. A crazy, suicidal idea, but an idea none the less. She gathered up every ounce of courage she could find, then leant down until her nose was touching Itachi's and their lips were millimetres apart. He raised an eyebrow at her, his eyes silently questioning what she had done. Akasuki took a deep breath, closing her eyes subconsciously at the same time.
Gently, she pressed her lips against his, uncertain of what she should do. Itachi stiffened, completely caught off guard. Akasuki increased the pressure, trying to get a reaction from him. Cautiously, he returned the kiss, and pulled his kunai away, discarding it on the floor next to him, before wrapping his arm around her waist.
Smirking, Akasuki pressed her katana against Itachi's neck, and pulled away from him a little.
"Checkmate," She declared, grinning triumphantly.
"That was not fair," Itachi complained, as Akasuki dropped her katana.
"All's fair in love and war."
"Oh?" Itachi questioned, raising an eyebrow, "Which one would this be then?"
"What one do you think?" She countered, blushing and trying to avoid answering directly.
Itachi used the arm that was still wrapped around her waist to pull her off of him, and onto her back. Straddling her waist, Itachi reversed the situation from before, this time pinning Akasuki's arms above her head, and holding them in place with one of his hands. Childishly, she stuck her tongue out at him.
He bent down towards her, his lips brushing against her ear. "What would you do if I told you that the girl I like is you?"
Akasuki's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and blood rushed to her face as she tried to process what he had just said. Itachi drew a kunai and pressed it to her throat, his eyes mischievously staring into hers.
"Checkmate," He whispered into her ear.
She frowned at him, trying to decide if it would be worth arguing with him this time. Itachi smiled, and after he had stood up, offered her a hand up, which she accepted. She sighed in defeat, "Was that love or war?"
"What one do you think?" Itachi repeated, deactivating his sharingan, and passing her Katana back to her.
"Well, I know which one I hope it is." Akasuki replied, blushing and replacing her katana in its scabbard.
Itachi turned to face her, and carefully placed his palm on her cheek. She leant forwards, resting her forehead on his chest, and listening to the steady beating of his heart. "I think that tou-san will be rather angry with me saying this for this," Itachi murmured. "But Akane-chan, it certainly isn't war."