Huntress of the Hidden Leaf
The Meeting
Author's Note: it's been a while since I published anything related to the Naruto world, so this is what I'm kind of starting. The timeline is out of order and I will publish them as individual stories instead of chapters. It is set in an alternate universe with the premise of "what would happen if Brianna fell into Konoha"? This isn't an Itachi/OC pairing at this point. That is the endgame here, but it might change, who knows? Enjoy!
Of all the ridiculous things Brianna could think of anyone doing Uchiha Sasuke officially exceeded her expectations.
Sakura made a good tattle-tale if ever there was one. She came to Brianna in jittery tears telling her all about the Kakashi being attacked by Sasuke's brother and Sasuke vowing to go after him. All she found herself able to do at that moment was gape at the rosette girl wondering if she made the whole thing up. Surely she had! Sasuke couldn't have been that stupid.
"I'm not lying, Bri! He's gone after Uchiha Itachi!" Sakura said on a near shriek that had cracked the eardrums of Brianna's sensitive ears.
A myriad of expletives pushed their way past her lips and crept out into the open. Haruno blushed a particularly interesting shade of red. She grabbed the girl'a arm and tugged her down the hallway and then out of the hospital.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked, alarmed.
"Where do you think?" Brianna snarled, "I'm going after three bloody idiots and you're coming with me!"
"Why? I can't fight Uchiha Itachi!"
"It will be educational."
It was in that moment Brianna sincerely appreciated the patience her teachers showed her at the Hunters Academy. The days she wined about not being ready for something. Maf trying to force her to use her head. All those hours spent reluctantly learning the runic languages - something that Sakura was more than willing to do and Sasuke and Naruto were not - molded her into the person she was this day.
When I find him I will kick his Uchiha ass to kingdom come, she thought darkly.
When they stepped outside of the village Brianna stopped them and searched for traces of the fire element Sasuke was most familiar with. She found him and cursed. The idiot was already several miles away. She focused closely on that village. There was another fire element there whose entire presence was stronger than Sasuke's. She felt numb at the thought. The brat wanted to fight that? He thought he could win against that?
"Damn it, Uchiha," she muttered and glanced over at Sakura who stood behind her watching the elf with big green eyes.
Brianna sighed and took her brush and ink out of her tool pouch. She rolled her long sleeves up the length of her arm, knelt to the grass, and began drawing the brush in small deliberate strokes across her pale skin. Slowly that same skin took on a darker peach color, her radiant hair dimmed, the pointed ears rounded, and her cheekbones changed their structure. Sakura gasped.
"I don't think I've ever watched you change before," the girl breathed.
Brianna shrugged, and turned her attention to Sasuke's fire. She thought of the village, considered its location, and brought the map she knew of the Fire Country to mind. It was easy to pinpoint the place. It wasn't that far away. A breath passed between her lips and Brianna quieted her mind. For that moment she would be serene.
Then she connected to the fifth element and distorted the atmosphere around them. Sakura squeaked, but thankfully didn't try to move. It would have broken Brianna's concentration and deposited the two of them into some random location. She maintained her serenity and followed Sasuke's fire.
The world around them changed and they appeared a few yards outside of the village off the main road. Sakura laughed nervously and started to shake. Brianna raised a thin brow.
"Don't you ninja have something similar?" She asked.
"Y-yeah, but not like this," Sakura replied in a small voice.
Brianna sighed and waved her hand in the general direction of the village, "Pull yourself together, Haruno, we need to track the boys."
They dashed quickly into the village. Both were silent. Brianna concentrated on Sasuke and Sakura was likely just trying to keep up. Suddenly, without much warning, she saw him dash from an inn, run a few blocks, and charge into another one.
"Son of a bitch!" She cursed.
Sometimes she wondered if everything she and Kakashi tried to hammer into their team's thick skulls ever made it into their puny little brains. Uchiha Itachi might have done deplorable things, he might have murdered most of Sasuke's family, but this didn't justify allowing the thirst for revenge to overrule the boy's sound mind. Brianna and Sakura rushed after him and felt the change in the air. The larger fire presence was there, just a few flights of stairs away, and he was doing something sinister.
Did he find Naruto? She wondered.
She forced herself and Sakura to slow their approach and creep up the stairs. Brianna searched for Naruto's wind and discovered it paralyzed. She frowned. What could paralyze wind like that?
A water element was there as well, she noted, but she couldn't divine who it would be. Sakura sniffed. Brianna glanced over her shoulder to find the girl shaking. She sighed.
"Both Naruto and Sasuke are up there. I'm going to need you to get them out of the way, Sakura. Knock Sasuke out if you must. Remember what I told you," she said.
Sakura looked at her, eyes wide with fear, but nodded anyway. She still shook like a chihuahua, but there was a set determination in her eyes that hadn't been there before. It was probably the best Brianna could do in this situation.
They approached the top of the stairs and observed Sasuke's back. He stood as rigid as a board.
"It has been a while, Sasuke."
The voice was deep, deeper than any Brianna had heard before in this world, and extremely cold. She stopped her approach and watched the boy'a back as it quaked.
I've seen the moron angry, but this… she thought.
"Uchiha Itachi," Sasuke growled.
Brianna rolled her eyes. The smart thing to have done in this situation was to have just attacked the bastard. But no, Sasuke had to stand there proclaiming his brother's name allowing himself to get worked into a frenzy. It wasn't ninja or hunter behavior.
"I will kill you!" Sasuke yelled and began to draw lightening to his hand, "I have lived for this day."
Oh Son of a fucking bitch, she thought.
She moved the air around herself again and appeared directly in front of Sasuke. He started, gaping at her, and the lightening sputtered and dissipated. She sighed.
"Is your concentration that easily broken, Uchiha?" She asked and shoved him down the stairs.
He fell into Sakura with a yelp, but the girl was ready. She plunged a syringe with a tranquilizer into his neck before he could move. His eyes fluttered closed and his body slumped against her.
Brianna turned to Itachi and cracked her knuckles, "Now, as for Uchiha the Elder, I don't appreciate you or your oceanic friend trying to hurt one of my charges."
The fish man snorted, "I thought Hatake was their leader."
"He is," she replied simply, "I'm just the philosopher of the group."
She stepped forward. Itachi's eyes bled red with the light of his sharingan. That was the only indication he gave to show he had tensed. Brianna smiled, but didn't make a move to draw a weapon. She didn't need to.
"If you so much as blink at Naruto, I'll make sure your death will last days. You will beg for me to slide my knife across your neck," she said softly.
He quirked an eyebrow, "Will I?"
Brianna noticed him squint and then watched his irises trail to the arm where she'd carefully drawn the concealment runes. They studied it for a long moment before the man lifted his crimson eyes to meet her teal.
"You are hiding something," he stated.
"You can't see through them, then? I'd wondered if that was only unique to Sasuke. Guess I have my answer," she said and smirked.
Attack me, you son of a bitch, she thought.
She barely noticed Jiraiya'a presence as he appeared behind Naruto. Itachi's eye's were deadly, calculating, trying to break through defenses that weren't based on Chakra. If she broke her concentration now then he likely would figure out more than she wanted him to.
Brianna began to approach and said, "Master Jiraiya, get Naruto out of here."
Uchiha Itachi didn't break his eyes from hers, but she noted the way his partner turned to look at the sanin.
"You won't win this fight. You should give up," Itachi said.
"Are you certain in your assessment? You don't know anything about me, you know I'm hiding something that your sharingan can't break through, and I've managed to pull your idiot brother out of the line of fire. You should think about this and walk away. Tell your organization that Doctor Brianna Davis protects the Nine Tails' vessel and start planning," she said calmly.
His eyes narrowed, but he didn't respond.
"Hey! You pink haired bitch!"
Both she and the Uchiha averted their attention behind them. It came to a surprise to Brianna to find that they had slowly approached each other in this stand off.
Damn, I didn't even notice! Some Huntress I am, She grumbled.
Sakura was there. She'd drawn the elven tunes around Naruto and Jiraiya and then somehow, in a stroke of brilliance that made Brianna's pride soar, splashed the tune of neutrality onto the shark-man's sword. To her satisfaction Brianna noticed the girl was no longer shaking. In fact she was smiling.
There's that feral kunoichi I knew existed, she thought.
"Didn't expect that did ya?" Sakura taunted.
"What the hell did you do?" The fishman seemed incredibly angry.
Sakura cackled, "When I was watching you I noticed that your sword was sucking away everyone else's chakra. To combat that I drew two tunes of shielding from jutsu and then used my own chakra to force the ink to remain in a pattern long enough to make it to your sword. You're crutch is toast!"
"Observe Sakura, Naruto, this is what I mean when I tell you to get creative," Brianna deadpanned.
The fishman lunged at them, but Sakura and Jiraiya grabbed Naruto and vanished. The man launched his sword at where they had been and jumped after them. Brianna dived away just as Itachi's kunai flew toward her. She touched the wood of the hall and the boards sprung to life and attacked him. Eyes wide Itachi jumped out of their way, executed a series of hand signals and broke the boards into tiny splinters. Brianna was already after him, thin short sword at the ready, and slashed for his neck.
The sound to two metal blades rang in the air. Below them customers of the inn screamed and cried. Some scrambled out of their rooms while others hunkered down somewhere. Her awareness of her surroundings was heightened to the point of surpassing her perceived humanity if she didn't remain cautious.
His leg case up to kick in her knee. Brianna pivoted out of the way and rounded a kick to his side. Itachi avoided it, moving so quickly that she barely saw him with the eyes she gave herself. Brianna dashed to him and grabbed the dust from the air and willed it to throw itself into the Uchiha's eyes. He grunted, but didn't stumble. Instead he stepped lightly out of her attack range and blinked away the irritant.
Okay, he's better than I thought he would be, she thought.
For the most part her use if the elements had been subtle. She saw his eyes narrow, calculating, trying to decipher her movements.
He knows I'm not using chakra. He's looking for seals, anything I could be using to my advantage against him. He knows I'm fast, but one doesn't necessarily need chakra to be fast. Rock Lee proved that. He's trying to figure out what I'm doing, she thought.
They studied each other. His skill went far beyond Orochimaru's. Brianna had been able to help Kakashi deal with him with much more ease. Itachi was as the legends say, a genius at the martial arts.
"Do you instruct my brother and his team?" He asked.
Brianna didn't relax her stance, "I advise them."
"Why haven't you taken my brother directly under your instruction?"
"That's none of your business, Uchiha," she said.
He smirked. Brianna frowned. Was that man actually amused about something?
"I am his older brother. I want Sasuke to be ready."
"For What?" She snapped, too appalled by the talk to care that he was distracting her.
This was information, hard information about the bastard's motives, and he was giving it to her freely. Itachi stepped toward her and Brianna tensed again.
"For him to kill me," he breathed.
He struck. Brianna blocked his blow, but was still thrown off balance and thudded against the hard wood floor. Uchiha Itachi was on top of her, his crimson eyes whirling. The genjutsu hit her before she could blink and Brianna was plunged into a world Uchiha Itachi created just for her.
He stood there, surrounded by a pack of crows. Brianna turned, detached from the moment, and watched as a younger version of himself cut down children. Uchiha children. She turned to him, enraged, and met his eyes.
"Are you trying to disturb me with this, Uchiha?" She asked.
"Do you see why my brother must kill me. If he wishes to become stronger, to avenge them, he must kill me," Itachi explained.
He lifted one hand, fingers curling to make another sign, but Brianna wasn't going to have that. She turned and held out her hand towards the image in front of her and wiped away the scene. She heard his gasp, his attempt to pull out of her mind, but she wasn't going to let him. Killing children? He didn't know his enemy, he didn't know how far she was forced to go because of the touch of evil.
She showed him. Showed him the children she found in Poland to mutated and mutilated in mind and body to have a shred of humanity left. She showed him the days and the nights she spent working with them, feeling their scratches, and teeth, and cries of animalistic rage. She showed him the order to exterminate them after all attempts to revitalize them were exhausted. She showed him the anguish she felt, displayed, and yelled. Then she showed him the night when she gently slit their throats and buried them in the ground.
She allowed the image to dissolve and turned to see the man watching her. His expression was carefully blank, completely unaffected, and it made her angry. Brianna threw herself at him and pulled both of them into the depths of his mind. She saw him knelt before Danzou, the cretin who had tried to have her executed the days she came, and heard the words as he uttered them.
"The Uchiha have gone too far. A seed of rebellion has been planted their midst. If we allow them to remain it will grow to consume us all. Your mission, Weasel, is to exterminate every single one of them," he said.
The scene dissolved and Brianna found herself on the ground with Itachi still on top of her, kunai at her throat, hand shaking ever so slightly. She gaped up at him, eyes wide, unable to accept what she saw. It had to be a trick, a memory he planted in his mind to discomfort her in the moment she turned on him.
He staggered off of her, red eyes glaring at her, and leaned against the wall. Brianna returned his glare and struggled to her feet.
"You're a despicable human being, Uchiha!" She snapped.
He stared at her a moment longer and then said in a voice that could have cut iron, "And you are not human."
Her hand shot to her ears and felt their pointed tips.
"Well damn, you weren't supposed to know that," she said then launch a ball of angry flames at him.
Itachi dodged and ran down to the end of the hallway. Brianna pursued him to the end and through the hole of black flames he created, but when her skin felt the afternoon sun she stopped and looked around. He was gone.
Brianna searched out the other one with the water element and discovered it was far away. She frowned and sought for the elements used by Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura and Jiraiya. All of them were safe not too far away from where the initial confrontation happened. She ran to them her mind reeling from the fight and the things she'd seen and revealed. Uchiha Itachi's vision had prompted her to reveal more of herself than she had to anyone else including Kakashi. Kakashi has been a rock, a good steady friend, in the face of her transition from earth to whatever Triune forsaken world she'd landed in.
With Aries still at large doing Triune know what, she thought.
When she arrived at the inn Sakura found for them the innkeeper directed her to the back of the building on the first floor. Brianna found the inn quaint, possibly expensive, and stylish. Sakura probably thought it would be a good place to hide. Brianna privately agreed. Who would have the time to deal with a nice place while avoiding the enemy? Said enemy likely didn't look in there with that thought in mind. It made sense, in a way, and allowed for them to find a way to regroup.
She knocked on the door the innkeeper indicated and was immediately greeted by an exuberant Naruto.
"Bri-chan! Did you kill that bastard? Was he actually after me? Teme's pissed at you, by the way!" He states rapidly in a near squeal.
Brianna winced and tapped Naruto on the head, "Stop yelling in my ear, kid! Where is Sasuke, anyway?"
Naruto led her into the back room where Sasuke sat hunched over on his bed glaring at the wall. Sakura sat a few feet away twiddling her thumbs expression caught between shame and anger. Both were directed at Sasuke.
Oh good grief! Brianna thought.
"So, do you want to explain your actions, boy?" She asked in a choice that could freeze carbon.
A kunai wizzed toward her. Brianna caught the handle between two fingers. So that was how it was going to be, was it? She threw the kunai over his head and it's too sank into the wall in front of him.
"Uchiha, can you best me in a fight? Think about the question before answering."
Sasuke sat in dumb silence. Brianna could feel the sulk seeping off of him in waves. That same sulk was mixed with anger at her for daring to interfere and it irritated her. The amount of hubris in this boy's heart was astounding!
"No, I can't beat you," he responded.
"Can you beat Kakashi?"
"No."
"So, with that knowledge in mind, what made you think you could beat someone who put Kakashi in a coma and almost forced me to throw away my guise as a human? Your brother almost bested me and would have if I wasn't, well, me," she said severely.
Sasuke turned to look at her. He was still angry, but there was a gleam of concern in his expression. It softened his face and made him seem an ounce more human than he had moments before.
"Itachi almost beat you?" He asked quietly.
She nodded, "Holding back as much as I had been he would have beat me. He wasn't expecting me to not be human and actually be able to throw off his genjutsu and enter his mind. Your brother isn't just a strong fighter, Sasuke, he's a genius. It takes more than rash behavior to beat that. What did you think was going to happen when you caught up with him? Did you think you'd win?"
Her tone was almost mocking. It his her own fear and anger underneath. Sasuke looked as if he wanted to argue, to yell at her, to channel his hatred at her. Then he backed down and lowered his gaze. Brianna looked at him a moment longer before glancing at Jiraiya who stood in the shadows watching the exchange in silence. He nodded indicating that he felt everything was handled appropriately.
"You went into Uchiha Itachi's mind?"
Brianna looked at Sakura and frowned. Yes she had done that, but she wasn't prepared to share what she saw in that moment. There was too much to consider, too much to think on, and too much research before she could quiet her mind on it.
"Yes. It was unsettling?" She said shortly.
"What did Itachi show you?" Sasuke asked.
Brianna fixed him with a sad gaze, "He showed me the massacre. I showed him what I did in the name of sanity. He didn't react at all. He has no compassion for anything. Something that I'm going to make certain doesn't happen to you."
He looked down once more, shamed. Jiraiya stepped forward and cleared his throat.
"In light of this I suppose the mission Naruto and I are on now applied to you. We're looking for an old friend of mine, Senju Tsunade. She's a medic-nin, in fact she revolutionized the art of healing, and now it seems we'll need her to help Hatake as well. Would you like to join us?" He asked.
Brianna looked at Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto. All three of them looked at her, eyes wide with hope. Sasuke was a bit more subdued than the others, but the want to go was still there. He likely needed it more than most. She sighed.
"Apparently! Why not?"
Naruto let out a huge, loud, excited, "Yes!"