Ok everyone, this is a test run, the first chapter of a new style for me. enjoy!

Disclaimer: i don't own anything to do with Naruto.


'I feel cold.' he realized as he lay trying to sleep. A mind numbing, emotionally scarring, coldness. One that seeped into everything he was, body, mind and my soul. It shouldn't really be surprising, the only warmth he ever felt was from his younger sibling, Sasuke. Although surely that had been put down. There was nothing but coldness from him now. he was comfortable in his ice palace. With no use for anything but cold pride. Uchiha pride, though that doesn't mean much anymore. Not since that cold still morning he woke with a mission that needed completing. That day he extinguished any and all warmth that had crawled and nestled inside of him. In order to do what he had to do, it could not survive. And so, here he was now, as cold as ever and not expecting at all for it to ever change. But change it would.

After his mission was completed and the whole of his clan, with the exception of his young brother, was eliminated, he found another home, in the Akatsuki. With a myriad of people, who all had their own pasts and sets of problems, but who worked toward the common goal of gathering the tailed beasts. Then they recruited the blonde, known as Deidara. He used clay to sculpt artistic bombs. It started off with the proper amount of hate. Itachi knocked Deidara's ego for a spin and he surely despised him for it, training his eye to ward off the sharingan. He saw something in him, of his once beloved little brother, the way he loathed Itachi for winning, the way he trained to beat him. Perhaps that was the beginning. That small glimmer of something lost, something so small it was unnoticed until it was too late.

'I don't know exactly when I noticed myself getting fond of the younger man. I don't even remember starting to like him. I treated him with the same disdain that I treated everyone else with, but he had crawled under my skin like a splinter.' With that final thought, Itachi let himself drift to sleep. Too much thinking was good for nothing but realizing things you would rather not realize. 'Perhaps all this will be gone when I wake again in the morning.' Perhaps.

The next day came, the light waking him as it shone over the horizon. They left no trace of their camp as they departed. Silence hanging between them, Kisame not being much for conversation. They were going to a rendezvous with Tobi and his blonde teammate Itachi recently could not shake from his thoughts. Itachi sighed internally, what a wonderful day this would be. Between the stillness of the morning and his silent companion, his mind wandered. It found itself delightfully wedged between wanting to wonder about the blonde man, and wanting to firmly push him out of all thoughts, although the wondering began to win and Itachi was sucked into an internal reflection. Ihewondered how he had wormed his way so far into his thoughts. Perhaps it was that small seed of warmth that had taken root. His determination to win was intriguing. Itachi wondered,

'Why did it matter so much that he win against me? Did he not win other battles? His technique was fascinating to say in the least, not to mention lethal and effective.' Itachi would never ask him of these things however, as to retain his air of aloofness. He, the stoic Uchiha Itachi, reduced to asking useless questions? Unthinkable; never.

'The way he despised and hated me intrigued me also. Of course I had won, there had been no option of another outcome. It was the only reason I had challenged him in the first place.' His hate for it, it baffled and left Itachi questioning, where did it stem from? Why was it there? What did he hope to accomplish with it?

'Well,' Itachi mused, 'that was a simple enough answer, it was the same thing I had told Sasuke to do, hate me. With enough hate, he would be able to best me in combat.' That intrigued him as well, what did it feel like to not win a battle? he didn't know, it had never even been an option before. It didn't bear thinking about. Before he could think on it too much, Kisame had come to a stop, and with a gruff "We're here" they were still again and waited. And for the first time in his life, Itachi was impatient. 'Lord, what is this boy doing to me? The Great Uchiha Itachi, reduced to impatience? Unthinkable.'


Ok so please leave us a review tell us what you thought! thank you to lynn willow for the help. this would never ever have come to being without you. you are an amazing beta. :)