Chapter 1

I think that to be strong is to never feel pain. I can feel the pain now - intermittent at first, as light drifts in and out of sight. Then it comes and it stays, although I am not strong enough to open my eyes just yet. It remains with me as a constant companion, gradually making its presence known.

But this is not the kind of pain I am talking about.

This one is physical. It pulses in my abdomen and it sears throughout, but it is not and cannot be worse than the pain of remembering what happened to me. At first, it comes back to me in bits and pieces.

I see myself leaving Konoha as if through another's eyes. I dash through the treetops across the Land of Fire and find myself at the border with the Land of Sound, thinking I can singlehandedly find and bring Sasuke home.

Silly, silly me. It seems I barely managed to stay alive after killing a border patrol, not to mention accomplishing what I set out for. Sasuke's face is swimming before my eyes as I open them, so when they met the Sharingan my insides jump for joy (and pain).

"You're awake."

I blink. Once. Twice. The blur will not go away and Sasuke's voice is all wrong. I breathe in sharply – a failed attempt to gather enough energy to speak. It makes me scrunch up my face in pain and this is not how I want Sasuke to see me, so I try to recompose myself, to realign the muscles in my face and smile. It must be coming off as a pathetic attempt, because Sasuke says: "Don't strain yourself."

Again, it sounds wrong. I dismiss it as my imagination and allow myself to drift back into oblivion, comforted that I am safe, for the time being.

"Sasuke," she had said, smiling at him. Itachi took the wet cloth from her forehead, plunged it into icy water and put it back, hoping it would help bring down the fever. It had struck a couple of hours before he and Kisame reached the hideout. His little brother's name was the first intelligible thing she had said.

I open my eyes again. I force my muscles into a smile almost automatically, but he is not here and my heart sinks. Then I feel something rather heavy on my forehead and as I move my hand up to it, I realize it's a wet cloth, now warm. I remove it and stare at it, dumbfounded. I must have had a fever.

I sit up, my heart beating fast. How long have I been out? And, most importantly, where am I? I look around, taking in the unfamiliar room: small, cramped. A few candles are burning on a table next to the door, less than a foot from the bed I've been lying in, and that's about all there is to it. I'm beginning to see stars, so I lie back down, feeling a bit nauseous from the dizziness.

I hear steps outside, so I manage to run a hand twice through my hair before I put my head on the pillow. The pain in my side is becoming sharp and my breathing hitched because of it. I have little to no chakra left in my body, so I cannot deal with it now. It does feel like it has been patched up, though, as I can feel the bandages wound around my abdomen. I blush thinking about Sasuke raising the hem of my blouse to do that.

The door opens. I cannot help but gawk as a taller man than the Sasuke I knew enters, wrapped in a black cloak with red clouds. The Sharingan finds my eyes, but it looks wrong. This is not Sasuke. My heart falters for a moment, then starts picking up its rhythm until it's banging against my chest like a trapped bird.

I know this man. His name is Itachi Uchiha. He is in the Bingo Book I stole from Kakashi-sensei before I left. He is Sasuke's older brother, the man he hates and vowed to kill. He is the reason Sasuke left Konoha, left Naruto and me. That alone is enough for me to hate him.

He closes the door without taking his eyes off me, looking guarded. I laugh inside, trembling from both fear and revulsion. What does he have to fear from me? I am a mere chuunin, whereas he singlehandedly killed his entire clan. It makes me nauseous to be in the same room as him.

"Don't come anywhere near me," I say, my voice shaky and raw.

Itachi stops, his hand slipping from the door handle. I stare, dumbfounded. I did not expect him to oblige. I find myself at a loss for what to say next, so I just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

"Where am I?"

He leans against the wall, his face a mask I cannot see beyond. "One of the Akatsuki hideouts." His candor takes me aback. I press my lips together and bite the inside of my cheek, trying to think. The fever must have racked my brains, because I find it difficult to think straight. I shake my head.

"Please," I say, licking my lips, doing my best to keep my voice levelled. "Please, you have to let me go."

"Why is that?"

I stare back at him. The nonchalance in his tone ticks me off. Of course, Itachi cannot possibly know I am after his little brother, but this does nothing to appease me. The pain is getting worse and I'm feeling dizzier by the minute. It also feels like I'm breathing fire, so the fever has not succumbed yet. I don't want to pass out again, not with Itachi Uchiha around, but I don't think I have much of a choice in this matter. I don't know what to tell him, so I divert his question with one of my own.

"What do you want from me?"

He seems to consider my question for a moment and then he shakes his head. "You should rest. You're still unwell."

The anger inside me bubbles up and erupts without warning. I jump up, clenching my fists. "Answer me, you murderer! Shannarou!"

Itachi's Sharingan bores into my eyes, burning its way into my soul. For a moment, I glance through his mask and see a flicker of pain. Then the Sharingan's tomoe begin to spin hypnotically and I find myself back in Konoha.

My breath stops. The moon is high above me and the sky is full of stars and I can feel someone behind me. Sasuke's smell is bittersweet. A tear forms in the corner of my eye as he says my name and I feel the blow in the back of my head. I feel the pain as my world turns to ashes and the wind blows it away again like it never existed.