Chapter 2: Naruto/Itachi
"What happened? Who did you face?" Suigetsu demanded with urgency when Sasuke emerged from a fight with Orochimaru's snake under his control.
"Che, I was used by an Uchiha brat…" Manda, the snake, gasped. Sasuke shot him a nasty glare as death crept up on the snake.
The water ninja glanced at the giant snake, letting out a sigh that was almost a laugh. "You should treat Orochimaru's animals better. Geez, you even used genjutsu on him…"
"I barely made it," Sasuke said in a voice that might've been menacing if he wasn't so tired. "I had absolutely no time."
"There you are!" Karin cried, arriving on the scene with Jugo less than a step behind her. "Your chakra disappeared completely and I thought you might've flown here."
"Yeah, it was a cool way to escape," Suigetsu agreed, "but just what the hell happened?"
"Just before escaping, we both took a huge hit from the explosion. He was definitely Akatsuki, but he was stronger than I expected," their leader explained, still half-crouched on the ground. He didn't seem to have the energy to even stand upright.
"We?" Karin repeated. "Maya's hurt?" She looked around but saw no sign of the demon child. "Where is she?"
He shook his head. "I was talking about Manda. I don't know where she went, but as long as she's not with us, she'll be better off." An attempt to stand failed, and his state of weakness seemed to make them forget about Maya for the moment.
"At this rate, there's no time to rest, Sasuke," the water ninja commented, noticing his extreme fatigue. Karin looked surprised at this—after all, he was the one who defeat Orochimaru, so surely a little skirmish like this shouldn't tire him out so much—but she was cut off from speaking by the Uchiha's collapse.
"Yeah, I can definitely smell Sasuke on her," a gruff voice cut into Maya's subconscious.
"Was she with him until now?" a female voice asked.
"Will someone just get her off?" the voice closest to her grumbled. It was the jinchuuriki whose scent she had been drawn to. She gripped tighter, eliciting a surprised gasp from the boy and a giggle from the same girl as before.
"Looks like she's really attached to you."
"Shut up, Sakura!"
"What was that?" A blunt force hit the boy, causing Maya to be jerked to the side, and she lost her grip. Air rushed around her and she only realized then that they had been running.
"See what you did!" the boy cried, but before he could reach her, stronger, safer arms caught her from underneath. The cloth had fallen off during the fall, leaving her cold, but it was now pulled tight around her again.
"We should get her some clothes." The person holding her was a man with a faint tinge of Sasuke's scent, which she found strange. Maya wanted to see, so she finally opened her eyes. She looked up into the masked face of a silver-haired man, but she could tell that under the mask he was giving her a soft and reassuring smile. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she replied.
He looked away. "Do you girls have any spare clothes small enough for her?"
"There's a town nearby," a soft-voiced girl offered. "We could quickly get her something…"
"There's no time for that!" the jinchuuriki boy interrupted agitatedly. "Sasuke could get so far we can't track him anymore by then!"
Sasuke? Maya tried to sit up, but her position didn't allow for it. If they're looking for Sasuke, maybe I should stay with them…
The man holding her noticed her interest. "Do you know him?"
"Who?" Maya asked innocently, reacting automatically.
"Sasuke Uchiha."
"No…" she muttered, shifting her gaze, but realizing her mistake, she hastily added, "I've heard of him, though. He was in the same town as me about a week ago."
"Where was that?" the blue-eyed boy demanded, dropping back to their speed instantly.
Maya shifted away from him, sniffing. "As if I'd tell you."
The gruff voice from the very beginning suddenly let out a laugh. "This is why you never get girls, Naruto!"
Naruto! Maya involuntarily let out a gasp. "You're the host of the nine-tails!" she exclaimed.
He eyed her uncertainly. "Yeah, what of it?"
"I-I just…" She looked around at the ninajs. Most of them were looking forward, but a few of them watched her curiously. Shyness suddenly took over her personality. She hid her face in the older man's chest.
"Come on, Naruto," the pink-haired girl said. "Don't scare her like that."
He huffed. "It's her fault for saying weird things."
The two went on talking, and then the one with the dog joined in their conversation—he was the one with the gruff voice. He kind of sounded like a dog, so it made sense. They were talking about Sasuke again, but she couldn't listen very well because the man holding her started talking.
"My name is Kakashi Hatake."
"…Maya," she replied reluctantly.
"I know you're lying about Sasuke."
She stiffened.
"It's fine," he assured her. "I won't tell them. By the way you're reacting, my guess is that you have a strong bond with him."
Maya sighed unhappily. "Not really."
Kakashi seemed to smile again under his mask. "But he means something to you."
She pouted. "Are you saying it's too one-sided?"
He chuckled. "Will you tell us where he is?"
"I don't know," Maya said honestly. "We were separated during a fight with one of Akatsuki. I think I sent myself one way and he escaped another way, on his own."
"Are there other people travelling with him?"
She eyed him suspiciously. Did he already know about Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo, and he was just testing her, or was he uncertain himself? The way he was watching her reaction made her think the latter, so she shrugged. "I only ever met Sasuke."
"Hm."
"Hey! His scent split up!" the dog ninja suddenly announced.
"What?"
While they argued to decide on their course of action, Maya could already feel Naruto's determination to look for Sasuke. She changed into the squirrel creature she'd always used and crawling into Naruto's pouch that held his ninja stars. Kakashi was the only one who noticed in the confusion but didn't have the time to say anything as Naruto split into several kage bushin and went off to search for which scent was the real one.
It wasn't long before the two of them found someone—but it wasn't Sasuke.
From the way Naruto shivered, she assumed it was someone he knew, and from the scent of his strength, she felt that he so closely resembled Sasuke, it was almost hard to tell them apart. This one had a strange mix that she couldn't understand, but she didn't try to and slid out from Naruto's pouch. Somehow, she knew that this was the man Sasuke was searching for. If she clung to him, surely she'd find Sasuke.
Ignoring Naruto and the man's conversation, she snuck along the sidelines and found a clear shot to grab onto his cloak, when suddenly he wasn't there anymore.
"I was more of a brother to him than you ever were!" Naruto shouted, his words echoing loudly. Just as she neared Itachi, he moved again, closer to the blonde boy. She froze for a moment, shocked by Naruto's bold proclamation, then saw Itachi move from the corner of her eye and bolted forward to where he was now. She didn't let him escape this time, clinging tightly to the bottom of his cloak. Just as she did, the man erupted into a flurry of black birds. Maya held on to one for her life, shrieking as it took off.
It looked as if Naruto had no idea that the squirrel on the bird's back was her, so he dismissed it as a strange phenomenon and went back to his group. Maya felt a pang of guilt for leaving them—they all seemed like good people, especially Naruto, but it was still Sasuke's scent that called her the most. She said sorry even if no one could hear her then.
The breeze through her fur was almost relaxing and the scent of the man's strength was so close to her nose that she felt a familiar drowsiness, but it wasn't nearly as strong as Sasuke's. Somehow, his was a bittersweet dark chocolate, while this was just milk chocolate. They floated along for a while, passing many miles of land before slowing to a stopping point in front of a traditional-looking building.
Maya considered hopping off and transforming, but if she did, it would leave her naked, so she let the bird carry her inside before she jumped off and scurried in a direction that smelled fairly stale. Along the hallways, it was oddly empty, as if the place wasn't lived in. Eventually, after snooping around, she found a closet full of clothes that had a certain pattern on them.
"Uchiha…" she said quietly in realization. It was the same symbol that Sasuke had on his clothes. Her suspicions that the man the birds belonged to was related to Sasuke were strengthened. The clothes were boy's clothes, but she didn't care. After transforming into her human form and getting dressed, she poked her head out of the room and looked both ways. It was still empty.
Bare feet slapped on the ground, making her cringe at their loudness, so she started to tip toe down the hall she was currently located in. The smell of burnt sugar called her forward—it wasn't a smell of strength, but rather candles. She followed it, thinking that if there were burning candles, surely there would be someone there to keep an eye on them.
Before she had a chance to even sense the attack, someone had pinned her to the ground from behind.
"Who are you?" the person demanded. The tone of voice was only vague familiar, but it was easy to recognize it as the other Uchiha that Naruto had run into. "How did you get in here?"
His weight on her body pushed the air from her lungs, making it difficult to speak, but Maya managed to say, "Like this," and then closed her eyes. In an instant, she was back in her squirrel form. She was about to crawl out for the man to see her innocent eyes and cute smile, except a hand was already grabbing her by the scruff. Squeaking, Maya tried to squirm out of his grasp as he lifted her to eye level.
"Who are you?" he repeated in a calm yet dangerous voice.
"Maya," she answered softly, stopping her movement. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before the man looked away. However, Maya didn't even need that long to identify him as Sasuke's brother. The thought of being so close to such a person made her giddy, her senses suddenly not able to get enough of his scent that was so similar to that one special scent.
"Did you really think I would spare a squirrel?" he asked, looking back at her pitiful position.
Panic made her belly churn as the fingers that had previously grabbed her scruff wrapped around her neck. In one quick movement, she could be dead, and his second of hesitation was all she needed to transform back into a human and stare at him with huge honey-colored eyes that begged not to be hurt. "No," she breathed. And she truly believed that. The menace he exuded was terrifying, yet, underneath was a softness that she hoped to appeal to.
A blush spread across the Uchiha man's cheeks as he backed away in sudden shock. A naked female child had suddenly appeared before him.
Maya didn't notice his blush since he pulled himself together within seconds. She moved closer to him in earnest without realizing her current unclothed state. "I was separated from your brother not that long ago," the demon child explained with animated eyes. "I thought if I followed you, I'd meet him again. You two have the same blood running through your veins, so surely you'll meet soon?" Her eyes flickered across his face, searching for a sign that she was right.
Instead, a smirk twitched at the corners of his lips. "You've completely skewed our relationship in that fantasy mind of yours," he told her, picking the clothes she'd snuck in with off the ground and dropping them in front of her. "Put those on and come with me."
He left before she could even say a word, thinking that if she couldn't even find him in this house, then she was useless and would be killed when he wasn't too tired to lift his hand. To his immense surprise, she located him in the deepest sanction of the house in less than two minutes, somehow able to handle the overwhelming, oppressive power of all past Uchihas whose presence still lingered in the room.
"Most people fall to their knees upon stepping foot in here," he said without any inflections in his voice. He waited to see her reaction.
It was a simple shrug. "I think it smells kind of like incense in here. Like what they have at funerals." After her eyes had finished wandering around the room, they landed on his face. They met each other's gaze, hers a fearless one accompanied with an innocent smile while he remained serious throughout. "What's your name? I think it's Ita-something."
"Itachi," the elder Uchiha brother answered.
She nodded. "Itachi Uchiha," Maya said, tasting the name on her tongue. It felt stranger than Sasuke's, but she supposed it was because she'd heard his first. Or maybe there was no one who could ever feel quite the same as Sasuke.
"What?"
"No, I was just trying it out."
Itachi watched her approach a scroll on the wall. The way her honey brown eyes flicked from one line to the next told him that she wasn't just skimming, but reading with incredible speed. He'd only ever seen someone with a dojutsu absorb information that fast. As soon as she finished, Maya turned to smile at him.
"I like these proverbs," she said, pointing to the scroll.
He almost laughed, but kept himself in check. "Those aren't proverbs; they're mantras that a great man once used to say to keep himself motivated to become stronger."
"The Uchihas are all about strength, huh?"
"What do you know about the Uchihas?" Itachi asked suspiciously. The tone of her voice had a hint of confidence that he couldn't understand. "Do you really know my brother that well?"
Maya's face turned bright red. "No! Of course I can't claim to be close to him! I just… know him," she explained hurriedly, her volume lowering as she spoke. By the end, she was practically mumbling. It was an impossible thing to convey without revealing her true nature, and for some reason, she didn't want to tell this man just yet. The aura around Itachi was so confusing that she didn't know what to believe about him.
"In that case, how about I teach you something?"
"About Sasuke?"
"About power," he elucidated. A strange feeling tugged at him similar to annoyance. Why was she so attached to his brother? At this stage in his life, Sasuke didn't seem like the type to take care of a young girl like her. But the way her eyes lit up calmed him instantly. It gave him the composure necessary to put her under the hypnotism of his mangekyou sharingan.
Maya's innocent eyes scanned the new world in wonder.
"Rather, this will be about endurance. Without the ability to endure, how can one become stronger?"
She blinked. Itachi's voice came from every direction in the dark, dusty, inverted world she had appeared in, yet he was nowhere to be seen. A quick whiff of milk chocolate came from behind her, allowing Maya to evade being stabbed by a long blade from the direction of her blind spot. The elder Uchiha was standing where she had been mere seconds ago, but he soon disappeared from there as well.
This time, before she could react, the blade slipped between two of her ribs and exited from the other end. It had punctured a lung, making her gasp of pain even more agonizing. Itachi was expressionlessly holding the sword in place. A hint of a smile made the corners of his lips lift slightly, something Maya took to be a challenge, and she quickly changed her expression into one more serious.
Even as she readied herself for more attacks, the discomfort of the sword being twisted and pulled out was something she hadn't expected. Maya gritted her teeth and jumped far away from him, one hand putting pressure on the wound.
"Itachi!" she yelled at the air where he disappeared from once again, furious that he was using such cowardly tactics like not showing himself and fighting face-to-face. Though, he had said it was about endurance. Was it the ability to handle pain that he was testing? The next attack came from the side, slicing her clean in half, but in this world, she was still very much alive.
A scream escaped her mouth—there was no way a child like her could've held that back. Recognizing her efforts to keep a straight face, Itachi felt that there was still something that he should watch out for with this girl. He remained hidden until her screams died down, but by that time, Maya wasn't even there at all. As a sharingan user, he could see the shape of her body lying on the ground in two pieces, except there was no actual person there.
How could someone in his world disappear? He should be able to find her without even looking! Itachi whipped around as a light breeze ruffled his hair. Maya was no longer a little girl with two cute little buns on top of her head and big, innocent honey brown eyes. These black eyes were narrowed dangerously.
"What are y—?"
There was no time to finish the sentence when suddenly, the room in the Uchiha house came into focus and he was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Itachi quickly got to his feet, eyeing the young girl reading the scrolls on the walls once again.
"I like this one, too," she said in that childish voice of hers, tilting her head back to grin at Itachi.
A shiver ran down his spine. Once Kisame returned from searching around the Uchiha hideout, Itachi instructed him to take care of Maya, wanting to get rid of the creepy little demon immediately. He didn't know how true it was to think of her as a demon.
"What?" The shark ninja looked at the two of them incredulously. "How'd you even find her in the first place?"
"She followed me here."
"You let yourself get followed?" Kisame shook his head in disbelief. "That was stupid of you."
The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. "She's not as weak as she looks," he said warningly, a double meaning to his words that Kisame didn't catch. He seemed annoyed at the task, but grudgingly and very roughly grabbed onto Maya's wrist, dragging her to his side which made her squeak at his tight grip.
"Fine, what do you want me to do with her?" he growled.
Itachi shrugged. "Feed her, get her a bed, that sort of thing."
"Shouldn't you be the one to do this?" Kisame grumbled to himself, but his partner heard, so he continued. "Better yet, why don't I just slice her skinny little neck and be done with it?" Itachi sent him a look that made him shut up. Still, he was standing there, waiting for the order to kill her so that he could have a little fun.
"On second thought, just keep a look out for Sasuke and the others," he said unexpectedly. Surprised but relieved that he wouldn't have to deal with her, Kisame tossed the girl back to Itachi. She stumbled into him, catching herself on his robes which clearly didn't please the Uchiha at all. "Remember to only let Sasuke through."
Shark teeth showing through a huge grin, Kisame nodded. "Of course."
Maya fidgeted under his gaze until he finally left, and then she turned to smile meekly at Itachi. "What's for dinner?"
"Whatever you can find." He turned around, walking away with his Akatsuki cloak lightly billowing behind him by the speed of his walk. She almost had to jog to keep up.
"I thought you told Shark-san off because you were going to take care of me!" Maya protested.
"I have no time for someone like you."
She ran ahead of him and stood as a barrier with her arms crossed. "If you're not going to be nice, I'm going to do something mean to you!" the demon child warned, eyebrows furrowed in an attempt to look dangerous.
Itachi nearly snorted at the idea of this puny girl hurting him in anyway, but then he remembered what he'd seen before his mangekyou sharingan had been dispelled, even though it was a vague memory, and thought better of it. "This is a traditional place, as you can see," he stated. "If there's any food here, it's not going to be cup ramen."
She chewed on her lip, thinking. "Can't you cook?"
"Do I look like I can?" The way her eyes examined him made Itachi uncomfortable, so he helpfully added, "I can't."
"What about Shark-san?"
He couldn't help a short chuckle that escaped his lips. "Right."
Maya smiled at the sound of his laugh. "I can make onigiri," she announced cheerfully. "Would you eat it?" No longer amused, he started to walk past Maya without answering. She chased after him once she realized that she'd been ignored. "Hey, wait! What if I put salted salmon in it? Would you eat it then? Or do you like it plain? I don't know if there would be pickled ume or something…"
"That's enough," Itachi stated harshly, stopping in front of a sliding paper door. He looked down at Maya. "Make enough for yourself. No more."
Seeing her dejected face, Itachi almost felt guilty, but he just entered the room by himself and closed the door loudly behind him to let her know she wasn't wanted. He'd told Kisame off because of the way he'd grabbed Maya. Despite his cold exterior, he still remembered what it was like to have a younger sibling. He never would've let Kisame touch his brother like that.
But that didn't matter anymore, because now Sasuke was older and filled with hatred, and he was only coming in order to kill his older brother.
On the other side of the door, Maya let out a long sigh. She'd seen into Itachi when he had initiated that genjutsu—seen the loneliness, the strength, but most importantly the truth. In that state, he was more open than she could ever hope for a person to be, and she'd seen everything inside of him. The energy she'd felt had invigorated her and allowed her true form to be revealed, but only for that short moment. Back in the real world, she was a tiny eight-year-old girl.
She hoped that Sasuke would come soon so that she could explain everything to him, since it didn't seem like Itachi had any intention of doing so.
Leaving Itachi to his business, Maya searched for the kitchen in order make herself some onigiri. It was actually Karin who taught her not that long ago, before she went to sleep the first night they met. They'd all been hungry, yet Sasuke was the only one who didn't eat her food. He'd made the same face as Itachi had when she started talking about making food.
The kitchen was just as Itachi had said. There was a huge variety of ingredients but nothing remotely like junk food was stored anywhere. It made her wonder how the two of them had survived on their own being men and all. And with Itachi's condition… Newfound determination surged in Maya. She would make so much onigiri that she couldn't possibly eat it all by herself, and the other two would be forced to help her finish them! Yes, it was a perfect plan!
"All right!" she shouted, pulling out everything she needed and throwing them on the counter. The noise of her actions made every animal near the house bolt in surprise, making her laugh as she washed the giant bowl of rice. "I'll make the best onigiri ever! So good, they won't be able to resist!"
"Shut up, you stupid girl!" Kisame screamed from outside. His head appeared in the kitchen window, causing Maya to shriek and jump back in surprise. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"M-Making dinner." She watched him with shocked eyes for a moment before she carefully went back to washing the rice. Maya tried to ignore his stare, but found it difficult when he was right there in front of her. "If you're not going to help, why don't you leave?"
"Ha ha ha!" The shark ninja vanished for a moment, only to burst through the side door and glare at the girl. "You dare speak to me that way? Well, it's not like you'll be useful anyway, so Itachi won't mind if I kill you, right? I deserve a little entertainment while we wait." His rows of sharp teeth glinted, distracting from his movement to reach for the sword behind his back. It took Maya too long to react—he was already bringing it down by the time she moved, hitting the sink and nearly breaking it.
"My rice!" she gasped, her attention immediately redirected to the sword that was swinging towards her again. Maya rolled away from the attack, hiding under the table, when Itachi's footsteps could be heard down the hallway. Both of them froze.
"What's going on in here?" Itachi demanded furiously, entering the room with a dark aura that made Maya dizzy. "You're destroying a sacred Uchiha hideout. Get out, now," he snapped at Kisame.
"But—"
"Get out!" Itachi roared.
The Seven Swordsman Kisame dipped his head and went back to his post outside like a dog with his tail between his legs. Shaking, Maya crawled out from under the table and looked up at Itachi worriedly.
"I'm sorry that I provoked him…"
He didn't seem to notice her, sighing as he surveyed the damage.
"I can fix that," she told him, eyes hopeful. Itachi finally looked at her, his expression unreadable. Maya went on, "I mean, I can fix it, if you have dinner with me?"
"What happened?"
She shrugged guiltily. "I got excited, so I think he was annoyed with me… Shark-san doesn't like kids, does he?"
"Then maybe you should revert to your true form," Itachi said evenly. Maya stiffened at the look in his eyes—he wasn't supposed to remember seeing her like that. They'd been in a powerful genjutsu, one controlled by him, so maybe that had nullified her abilities, but still… There's never been a human who's seen her as anything but a child.
"What are you talking about?" Maya feigned her confusion so perfectly that she could see hesitation pass across Itachi's eyes.
He glanced away, back at the crushed sink.
"It's still working," she told him, "just dented."
"And how did you plan on fixing it?"
Maya sensed the challenge to his words. Indeed, how could a child fix that without knowing any ninjutsu? Her age put her at a disadvantage, since in the ninja world, academy students were a little older than her. She smiled sheepishly and knocked herself lightly on the head. "You're right, how could I? I'm sorry, I just wanted to make food that would make you happy…"
"Cabbage and onigiri with seaweed."
"What?"
He met her eyes for real this time, and allowed a small smile. "If you want to make a food that will make me happy, that's it."
Elation rose in Maya's chest. "Yes, of course! I'll go to town right now and get some cabbage!"
Itachi didn't even try to stop her. It was a good thing that she was so easy to tease like that. He exited the kitchen and headed towards the room where he would await Sasuke. Not that long ago, he'd felt them nearing. He headed down, hoping that by the time Maya came back, he would be finished and she could reunite with his brother. Someone like that would surely be an asset to Sasuke on his future path, whether it was on the dark or light side.
He entered the room, letting out a long sigh in anticipation of the upcoming battle. It was hard to pretend all the time. Itachi crossed over to the chair and, with one last sigh, he closed his eyes and waited.
AN: Last chapter was three chapters squished together while this was two, but the pace is probably still a little too fast, right? It gets better, I promise! So please read on and leave your thoughts. :) I'll see if I can fix these chapters better later.
