XxOOxX
A week had passed. One miserably long, miserably lonely, miserably boring, miserably contemplative week had dragged its feet, red Xs slowly filling the days on the calendar. Kaiyou had not been cleared for practicing jutsus by the old hag yet. She was in a lousy mood: her father was feared that he didn't know how to do deal with a teenage female with raging hormones. It never occurred to Minato that it wasn't PMS that had his daughter taking the heads off of her training dummies with senbon, shuriken, and kunai. She was also using the more brutal methods of just kicking the dummies head in.
Kaiyou felt like her heart was being clawed by the kyuubi, being torn into shreds for a fox kit to eat, not even worthy of fulfilling the great demon's dietary needs. Her friends did not know what was going on: Kiba and Akamaru backed away howling; Neji stayed clear—he trusted his eyes enough to avoid a violent female; Shino dropped by but was chased off. It was only when Hinata had finally found a free moment in her busy schedule to come by, that anything began to be even remotely solved.
Being a tough female Kaiyou did not simply break into tears and cry her eyes and her heart out to her only close female friend. No, the once diehard tomboy began to punch a wooden pole, similar to the one Lee had been training on, as tears streamed from her eyes, glistening in the air, and falling to the dirt like drops of rain.
Hinata, healer-hearted as she was, could not bear to see her friend so distressed. As a stifled sob tore through her friend she placed her hands around the smaller girl's wrists. Kaiyou's eyes looked up into almost-white pupils. Breathing deeply Kaiyou stilled the majority of her sobs, and lowered herself swiftly onto the dirt.
She whispered into the dirt. "I tried eating ramen. But it wouldn't wash it away. Nothing works! I can't! I just…I can't forget it. I'm…I killed him. As a monster. He said…I'm not worthy of his love."
Hinata's eyes glinted darkly, an odd phenomenon in such pale eyes. Whoever had said that had been an absolute moron. Stifling her anger she drew the story out of the girl.
"Who said that?"
Kaiyou shook her head, her resolve returning to her. "It doesn't matter. Ita—He's right. I'm a killer. I killed that guy, because he killed my friend."
"We all kill," was Hinata's quiet response.
XxOOxX
Sasuke was annoyed as hell. And it was their entire fault. Itachi just had to mope around the house, secluding himself into his room when he wasn't on duty. He argued with his mother and acted like some sort of burr had been put down his pants. Something was going on with Itachi, and Sasuke wanted it over. He wanted his obnoxiously perfect (if Pocky-obsessed) brother back! In fact he'd been so busy preoccupying himself away from where his brother could find him and use him as a target to unleash his surliness and anger upon, that Sasuke hadn't been seen anywhere apart from Shino's house in the past week.
Shino wasn't sure he was thrilled. His best friend was camping out at his place to avoid his brother. Sure they were friends, but this must stop. Sasuke couldn't avoid his brother forever could he?
And so both Shino and Sasuke were in agreement that this had to stop! The annoyance must end. It was only when, after two days of plotting that Shino absentmindedly mentioned that Kaiyou's temper had also been on edge, that he even pondered a connection. Sure he'd joked about the two having some sort of relationship, but as far as he knew it was as contacts. Sasuke, however, knew more.
He found himself looking at his friend, an expression of interest flickering across his face. Shino noticed the look, and began to wonder what was going through the devious boy's mind. "Do you know when Kaiyou…?"
Shino shook his head—he hadn't thought much of her temper at the time. It was normal for her to be antsy and angry when she was barred from jutsu practice (technically she probably shouldn't have been punching the post either, but only so much compliance could be gotten out of the girl). "Hyuuga-san would know, perhaps," he ventured.
Sasuke nodded. "Yes, let's ask her. At least find out what's up…"
Shino shot a speculative glance at his friend, from behind his trademark shades. "You think Itachi and Kaiyou fought?"
Sasuke shrugged eloquently, as he grabbed a jacket from beside him. "I was teasing him about Kaiyou hugging Gaara, and he seemed interested. That night he comes home angry at the world. I half thought he was going to drink himself into oblivion…"
XxOOxX
Hinata had been spending the last day, since discovering why Kaiyou was so upset talking with her. She had not been able to get Kaiyou to confess the name to her; for a bigmouth she was being surprisingly tight-lipped on that. The girl with bluish hair knew that her feeling heartbroken over a boy was only compounding another issue: her first kill.
Hinata had convinced Kaiyou to talk to her father about it. That hadn't particularly gone well, according to Hinata's standards. For a great ninja Minato Namikaze was a doting father, with no common sense. Since his daughter had little common sense, it seemed to work well enough. Hinata's father was harsh and demanding, though not heartless (though he wasn't sure that Hinata was cut out to be the clan leader, which didn't really bother her that much), but Minato had a completely different approach to dealing with his daughter.
The Fourth Hokage's dealing method was a large amount of ramen, and assuring her that killing didn't make her a horrible person. He told her in no uncertain terms that Kaiyou's mother, Kushina, had been a great ninja—who, yes, killed people, and he had loved her. Killing was sometimes necessary to save lives.
He also told her that he would kill any number of people to keep his little girl (and his village) safe and happy. After that conversation, Kaiyou was relieved a little bit. She was able to stop demolishing half of the training stumps in the area.
But she was still not happy. A melancholy attitude was less natural for Kaiyou than her anger had been. Minato had responded to the situation, after his oh-so-sensitive pep talk by offering to teach her a new jutsu as soon as her arm had healed. This had cheered her, but her arm wasn't cleared yet, and the excitement wore off after realizing that she would have to wait to learn.
Wandering home after a visit with Kaiyou she found herself face-to-face-to-face with Shino and Sasuke, who were just leaving the Hyuuga Complex.
"Hello," she greeted them quietly.
"Ah, Hyuuga-san we were just seeking you. We have some questions you might be able to help us with."
Hinata hesitated for a moment, unsure of what she could offer these two. They were all friends of Kaiyou, but really they'd had sporadic contact in the years that Kaiyou had been gone. She was often busy with her team, and only really spoke to them on occasion.
"About Kaiyou," Sasuke grunted.
Hinata made a swift decision, and indicated for them to follow her back into the Hyuuga complex, bowing politely to any of her family members as she passed. The two boys of Team 7 followed along behind her, as she led them to a study that was set up for informal visits. She had a feeling that they would need the privacy afforded by the study, which was certainly more private than the main room off of the foyer.
Seating herself neatly on a low cushion, she indicated for her guests to do so as well. "Please, ask," she said politely. It would hardly do for the conversation to be overheard by anyone, and be commented upon for the lack of propriety. In her home and elsewhere Hinata was expected to be polite by her father (or more particularly, the clan elders).
Sasuke and Shino shared a glance full of silent communications. Finally Sasuke spoke, "We wondered if you knew why Kaiyou is so angry…?"
XxOOxX
Itachi tugged the mask from his face and set it gently on the table beside his bed, before roughly flinging himself onto the Western style bed, burying his face in his pillow.
Contrary to Sasuke's belief, which yes Itachi was quite aware of, he was not angry at the world. Well not mostly. Sure it was the world that made him fall in love with Unavailable Girl Number One, but it was he who had impulsively broken his vow. It was he who had touched his mouth to hers, tasting of the sweetness that he could not allow himself.
In his head he had some messed up ideas. He somehow believed himself unworthy of her. Yeah, the Hokage would probably agree. Namikaze-sama would probably also never admit that any male was good enough for his precious daughter. Or any female either, if it came to that.
What Itachi felt was messed up was that his determination of staying away from the girl, the tiny, young, girl, was wavering. He woke up every morning with dreams of her, vividly real with how soft her lips had been against his, haunting his mind. He was going crazy! Kaiyou was driving him crazy.
He could avoid her all day long, but not all night. Nor could he allow himself to short-change himself on sleep: the lack of sleep could cause him to be less attentive in his duties, and without a valid reason pertaining to fulfilling those duties it was foolish and naïve. For surely when an ANBU agent decided that it was safe enough to go to work ill-rested, surely then was when an attack would come.
No, Itachi was a man who had been on assassination missions. He was a man who had been revealed to bear the beginnings of chilling inclinations in the therapy he had gone through so many years ago. In truth, occasionally even now he had to report into the psychiatric offices for a check-up.
Itachi had begun to hate his father. His father who had pushed him so hard into being excellent, who had wanted him to be the perfect Uchiha. It had only been the beginnings: but he felt guilty that his father had died, while he harbored the occasional thought of murder. All he wanted was to be allowed to relax on occasion, enjoy a pack of Pocky and roughhouse with his little brother. But even Sasuke had wanted something: training, to be just as good as Itachi.
All he wanted was to be ordinary. Yet he was a shinobi—a killer—and indubitably in love with the one girl he wouldn't even try for. Any other girl would come to him (Itachi had no delusions, he really had an annoying fan club) but this one he would push away, not because she was annoying (well, he reflected, Kaiyou could be annoying, but that was beside the point) but because he wouldn't sully her. The young Jinchuuriki was surrounded by enough blood already.
A fist slammed into his pillow. "Dammit," he growled.
His violation of his vow had made everything worse. Taking it out on his family wasn't going to do any good whatsoever. Maybe if he asked for advice for a friend from his mother…no, the woman was far too astute for that. If he mentioned that the next thing she'd be gushing about would be grandbabies!
XxOOxX
To her credit, Hinata was not going completely gossipy, or yelling like Ino or Sakura would have done. There was, however, an odd glint in her eyes. She was clearly torn between anger, and excitement over whom her best friend was all torn up inside over.
Itachi.
The three had pieced it together. Sasuke said something about Gaara to Itachi. The two must have argued—an argument involving the words "killer" and "don't deserve."
The fact that Itachi was upset did not let him off of the hook completely in Hinata's eyes. They would have to make sure that he fixed the problem that he started. Determination filled her eyes.
"Sasuke-san, would you tell me precisely why your onii-san would find it distasteful to have a relationship with Namikaze-san?"
Sasuke scowled, leaning back against the wall. Shino answered for him. "I think it highly unlikely it has anything to do with her having killed a man. Uchiha-san, is after all, an ANBU."
She nodded. "Ensure he is here at two tomorrow." And then she rose, a fierce glint in her eyes. Both of the boys had the feeling that they should obey. Kaiyou had once mentioned that pulling Hinata out of her own shell had its drawbacks sometimes. Once the girl had learned to stand up against some of her and Kiba's wilder schemes, she had managed to ruin too much fun. When the girl put her mind to it, she was downright fierce.
Had her father seen this behavior out of her more often, he would have no doubts about her being fit to lead the united clan.
Wandering away from the house moments later, it occurred to them that they had not inquired why Itachi was to be at her house. All they had learned was that they should be present as well.
Now they just had to figure out how to get him there.
Perhaps Sasuke should inform his brother that Hyuuga-sama wished to converse with him? But what if—no, Itachi would be at home. His mood lately, he hadn't been going out on his days off, and on Wednesdays he never had guard duty around the village, though he did occasionally take missions that would have him outside of the village in midweek.
XxOOxX
Kaiyou was in a better mood than she had been in for a week and a half. Her arm had been cleared for light chakra usage! Okay, so she wouldn't be doing the rasengan for another few days, but she was allowed to do chakra exercises using her hands, and C-rank jutsus. So basically kawarimi and henge, but hey, at least it was something! She was that much closer to being able to take her mind off of Itachi and put it to use learning that new jutsu her father had promised.
He had been uniquely quiet about what jutsu he would be teaching her. That always meant it was a good one. And now she was on her way to Hinata's—she'd been invited over for the afternoon and lunch.
Between her arm almost being healed completely and dinner at a friend's house (so, okay it wasn't ramen, but it was always nice to visit with Hinata) she was grinning a little bit as she went to Hinata's house.
Kaiyou was quickly welcomed into the house. As always the lunch served to Hinata and her friend was quite good: onigiri with baked salmon and sweet plums. It probably was lacking in the vegetable department, but that didn't bother Kaiyou at all. After a rather subdued lunch (though good, it always felt odd to the girl from such a lively home to sit at a formal dining table) the two retreated to a study. A few healing jutsu scrolls sat on the low desk, and a collection of dark violet cushions lined one wall. Kaiyou plopped herself down, in a negligently graceful manner. Hinata shook her head and took a seat primly.
The two had not been speaking together very long, continuing to catch up on the past three years with minimal contact, when a knock sounded on the light screen door. Hinata rose, and slipped out of the door, closing it behind her. Kaiyou just leaned back against the cushion, her smile faltering for a moment. Everything made her think of Itachi—at least everything in these past three years.
Then the door slid open again and Hinata's voice was softly ringing: "Yes, Uchiha-san. Please go in. I'll leave you to speak."
Itachi came up short as Hinata shut the door to the small study behind him. His eyes scanned the room, and with perhaps a tinge of stoniness on his face he asked, rather rudely: "What are you doing here? Where is Hyuuga-sama?"
Kaiyou snorted angrily. "This is Hinata's study. She just left."
The man stood awkwardly in front of the door. After a moment, he looked at the girl with fiery and golden hair. "I believe that your friend wishes us to speak."
Kaiyou pushed herself to her feet, eyes narrowing angrily. Anger was an easier emotion to deal with than hurt. "Well we already talked didn't we? Or rather YOU kiss ME then act disgusted!"
Itachi's already pale face blanched so that it almost appeared white rather than the pale olive that was his skin tone. "Disgusted," he yelped!
But Kaiyou wasn't listening. She never was the best at listening. "I want to know where you get off saying that I'm disgusting and not worthy of being loved because I killed one man! C'mon haven't you killed a lot! I know what ANBU do, or have you forgotten who I am?"
Itachi broke in bitterly. "How could I forget who you are? The HOKAGE'S DAUGHTER! The one girl who I'm not allowed to love!"
Kaiyou didn't respond, and Itachi suddenly returned to his stoic self, no doubt wishing his words back into his mouth. "What," Kaiyou whispered after a minute's silence. The silence dragged on. "Then you don't think I'm disgusting because I killed that man? Then I'm not without hope?"
A strange feeling, perhaps like a bird fluttering in her chest instead of her heart, stole over Kaiyou. Yet Itachi still didn't respond, so she spoke again. "Am I always going to be the one to speak then? Do you love me too?"
Kaiyou had somehow come to stand close to him, looking into his black eyes. A flash of irritation stole through her: never say a Namikaze was patient. If he wouldn't answer, then she'd find out the hard way!
Kaiyou reached up and slapped him. His head turned on his neck an inch before he caught himself. He blinked. "What was that for?" he growled out.
"For not answering," she snarled back. "You don't even have the decency to answer when I ask you straight out!"
Itachi wished he weren't in this situation. He didn't know how to answer. Every fangirl who asked if he loved them, if they were beautiful, he had a glib answer for them, to get them to leave him alone. Not this time. He loved Kaiyou. But he didn't feel like he should. The words spilled out of him. "I—yes—but, I shouldn't, I—"
The words didn't get any farther out of his mouth. A soft pair of pink lips touched his for just a moment. Two moments passed and his hand was reaching out, touching a strand of her hair that fell over her tanned skin in his dreams—
He yanked himself back. "Your father will kill me," he said quietly, eyes burning as he looked at the fiery, petite young woman before him.
"I'll make him get used to it slowly. Or else he'll chain me into my room. He thinks he can keep me from growing up forever." Kaiyou smiled softly for a moment, then let her glare return. She hit him again as a thought occurred to her.
"What sort of idiot are you!? Why the hell would you let my Dad keep us apart! Did you WANT me to be MISERABLE?! And saying that killing made a person undeserving of love! GRR!"
Hinata, standing re-entered the room a moment later, to discover that Itachi was trying to calm her down, to apologize. Clearly the two loved each other—but no relationship between them would ever be tame. In fact they were a great deal like good friends in their behavior. For now.
Perhaps things would look up for Konoha. Kaiyou was back, and happy. It had been lonely while she was gone.
XxOOxX
And...that is where my muse dried up. I love ItachixFemNaru but...Kaiyou didn't agree with me!