Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto at all.

Summary: Hinata is in the face of death and Itachi is the one delivering the special package to her, but with an added bonus for him, even if he doesn't realize it.

"The Eyes of a Killer"

"The eyes are the windows to the soul." –unknown

It was definitely a grey day to have a mission. The sky was overcast and dark as Hinata raced through the woods, running from a ninja on her tail. Suddenly, she lost her footing on a damp branch. The ninja bore down on her with a kunai in hand, red eyes glaring like the devil was present in them. Hinata stared up into his face, her eyes softening as white met red.

"You're younger than I expected, Itachi. I thought you might be older looking. How old are you?" Itachi's hand paused for a moment, as if thinking of something unknown.

"Why does it matter to you? You are going to be killed in a moment anyway so what does it matter how old I am? Shouldn't you be begging for your life?" His eyes were full of emptiness and yet there was a flash of something else. Was that regret? No. Curiosity? No. Well what was it?

"Eyes hold so much and you hold pain beyond anything in yours. What's wrong?" Hinata's soft voice startled the Sharingan master.

"Why is it that you wish to make your death all the more painful by knowing what my feelings are?"

"I do not. I just want to help you with some of your internal hurt."

"But why?"

"I care about your suffering. No one should have to suffer alone and yet you do. It is painful, is it not?"

Itachi relaxed his stance slightly after he tied her to a tree as to not have her escaping. "I will kill you and nothing will change that, but if you must know, I feel regret about things I have done. I am a shinobi and that will never change. It doesn't bother me at all that I kill people everyday. I just think that someone needs to realize that I am a human and not just a killing machine to be used as a mercenary."

"Itachi, you can't help that. You were raised as a shinobi and a strong one at that. Shinobis cannot feel anything. It would be against the code of conduct. But sometimes you need to remember that you are allowed to feel. You don't have to talk to anyone, but you can write it down how you are feeling and that won't make anything happen." Her voice was soft and gentle and it irritated him.

Itachi's eyes flashed a brilliant red for a moment and the commas in them began to swirl as he responded to her statement, "I am a shinobi. I do not feel. I am heartless. I refuse to have any emotions."

With that, he cut her bonds and she stood unmoving. Even in the face of her own death, she was calmly standing there with emotions of sweetness and warmth in her eyes so different from his own eyes which were hollow and empty. He released a kunai and she didn't even move to dodge it. It hit her heart dead on.

She smiled gently and her eyes filled with pity as she said, "Itachi, you are only twenty, please…don't…become…empty…and……hollow……like…others." Then with a final shuddering gasp. She fell forward to the forest floor, eyes falling dark, expressive even in death.

Itachi stared at her unmoving form for a moment in shock, "She didn't need to know my age, she knew already, but she cared enough to ask me and not just judge me."

Then for the first time in a long time, he cried, hard and silently.

As if to mock him a beam of sunlight shot out of the clouds and landed on Hinata's still form and he thought he could hear her soft, sweet voice for just a moment saying, "Goodbye, Itachi. I hope you will hurt less now."

He then turned away from her, wiping his eyes. Then he murmured, "Sunshine…arigato."

Owari

Author's Note: For all of you who don't know, Hinata's name means 'sunshine' and I think that it fit the story a lot and even though Itachi didn't know Hinata's name and just think that she is a victim to kill, the sunshine would be what he would call her. It's sad really. I got the whole idea from listening to the song, "Your Eyes" from the musical Rent. It kinda made me cry a little when I wrote this.