Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Naruto.
Chapter 3.
Glint of light
The sticky substance of fawn-coloured and syrup-like glue clogged to the downside of one of several posters laying in a heap in the Naruto's grip as added new strokes with a brush.
He'd swore to do anything to receive Sakura back, anything. But the duty he'd got by Tsunade wasn't accurately what he'd hoped for, not even close to.
It was rather the opposite. He was obligated to do the thrilling job of pasting umpteen wanted posters of Sakura at every street corner.
Merely furnished with a bucket of glue, an old brush and, of course, mountains of posters.
As if becoming sticky and getting abnormal loads of shit attached to the clothes weren't the worst part of the job, it could never get worse enough, the dryer period appeared to be replaced by rain…
Not the welcomed, refreshing drizzle rain… But the "pouring down" sort of rain which made everyone beg for the sizzling sun to came back…
Even the best eyesight wasn't trustworthy for the sticky boy, owing to the fact that today, thick, almost impenetrable layers of fog consumed the streets of Konoha.
Papers got soaked of wetness and stuck together and to Naruto's fingers. If one poster was successfully removed after a difficult attempt, two new posters would certainly fasten where the first one let go. In other words, this truly was one of the lousy jobs.
"Damn…" Naruto cursed as a huge pile of posters got anywhere but where they were meant to be..
How much longer would I last before everything, my life, went out to never be illuminated again? I would never know before the end met me face to face to become the last I ever saw.
In a way, I didn't fear the fact of death sneaking around the next corner, it actually felt reliving to finally leave this place.
The water-filled vessel was still standing next to me in the nothingness, no one had approached me since when it got there. Maybe they had forgot me?
Anyway, why should any cold member of Akatsuki care? I wasn't important, nothing was special to me in their eyes. Most truly, I was only another enforced burden they soon pushed into a dusty corner to be forgotten.
I'd managed to force some sips of water, drunk the way animals do, into my worn-out body, but it was far from enough to make any sense.
After standing too long open and exposed to the muggy air, causing my already poor drinking water to get smelly and taste more awful than I could bear, I always ended up vomiting.
Why did they serve me water to get food poisoning of if they didn't desire to kill me? I'd got enough, things wouldn't just end, there ought to be hope some where…
Too long I'd been caught here, too long I'd suffered the wrath of Akatsuki, it was time to do something to make events progress in any way. There wasn't time for wondering and shivering anymore, now it should turn on action. I needed tools, something to free me.
In search of anything to help me, my eyes fell on the diffuse outlines of the vessel, I remembered it to be made of metal as the carving memory of my throat being forced to touch the sharp edge. My mind seemed clearer again without having the disturbing shock to paralyse me. The vessel turned out to be my key to make an escaping plan see the light of day.
Calculating the distance between my hands and the metal, I quickly found my legs closer than my arms, so I had to move them first to minimize strain of my pained body.
I stretched my tied up legs as carefully as I coped with in the direction of the vessel edge, but unfortunately I underestimated the results my broken leg caused, even the smallest move of it made the place where it was fractured send an icy shock wave of suffering through every muscle.
I struggled to bit my bottom lip hard to avoid a pained whimper from escaping my mouth. What if they'd heard me? My plan couldn't be allowed to be ruined by such glimpses.
Heaving a sigh of relief, I successfully managed to block out the suffer and place my feet at each side of the sharp edge with the tie touching it. The first part was fulfilled, now came the next difficult one, I had to pull the legs back and forth until the edge cut the rope loose.
This could be my first and last chance, my body grew weaker and weaker as the time passed by. It was now or never. With new gained vitality, I began the hard task while constant looking after my injured leg only using the right leg as much as possible, even though both legs were bound tight up together.
It was almost impossible to inevitable, the left leg moved with my right one, so did the fracture, each move was pure torture and there was no methods to pass it by. Maybe this would count as a test in surviving and willingness?
I continued the drawing while digesting the hinders of myself. Observing the progress, I saw the rope splinter and get a deep crack, it shouldn't take long before I was done.
Just a little more. I heard the sound of the rope tear, a sound I'd wished to hear ever since I got here. My being froze, footsteps, light footsteps from outside.
No, why now? My arms weren't free yet, they would find me, and most truly kill me. I threw my legs frantically away, where should I go? I pulled my back against the hard material of the wall, sensing the steps draw nearer. Where to flee? Forcing my shoulder to add support, I pressed it firm to make it touch the wall, my right leg positioned to lift my bodyweight. The sound of keys tinkle, the enemy was close.
I hurriedly raised up to stand, my body balanced with the support of the wall. I limped strained in a haphazard direction, not caring the least where I would end up, as long as it wasn't toward the entrance.
The door was unlocked and wide open, it made a creaking noise. Limping appeared to take me away in too slow speed, I quickly shifted to walk on it as much as it allowed me to. It made me faster, but it also caused a lot of pain to the damage. A frightened scream menaced to get out, I'd really done it, messed up it all.
My awkward moves got more aggressive, my breath turned to heavy pants and hyperventilation. I asphyxiated another squeak, finding my backing shoulder number than ever before.
Please… Don't find me… Just then, out of nowhere, I felt something or someone touching the shoulder which not rested against the wall, stopping me immediately. A stunned whimper broke free, I feared for my now poor life, hanging in a thin thread.
I heard the sound of someone clearing the throat from right behind me. Terrified, I turned my shivering and stiff head to see Sharingan and the blurry shapes of an Akatsuki cloak.
"And where did you intend to go?" The voice sounded stiff and spurious, but also exerted the way it would sound when you find talking a burden and a way of communication that only shall be used in serve situations. It held the same calmness and had a soft clearness, it was indescribable, frightening as well as interesting, almost attracting.
But how did he come here and how did he do it so precisely? I hadn't even heard the sounds of his steps when he got inside. And the most important question – what would he do to me now? The panic raged furiously in me, he surely wouldn't do anything pleasant.
Struggling to buckle myself loose, the hand touching my shoulder was removed, just to let him appear in front of me in a blurry motion.
"I underestimated your smartness. However, how far do you really think it would lead you in that condition?" His low and icy voice toyed with the echo, bouncing through every wall, to then consume the whole room.
The hand replaced itself at my shoulder to push me with minimal force, feeling my legs fail I lost my balance and fell to the adamant floor, as an illustration of my weakness. I saw his shape lean slightly ahead of me.
"You've reached your limit, kunoichi." He stared me directly in the eyes for a long time, never allowing me to turn away.
"Now your life depends on Akatsuki, another night here and there will only be the remainders of your corpse left." The way he said those words made me freeze into solid ice, he was so calm, too calm, when talking about death.
Were all murderers so unaffected? Had several murders made him immune and used to the action? It was horrible if that was the actual truth.
"I don't want you to say anything more!" My little outburst felt good and relieving, it cut straight through his formidable control.
I caught a glimpse of him smiling barely entertained, he seemingly enjoyed the way I struggled in a fight of survival and keeping my courage I never could win alone.
He moved away from my front to reappear behind me. I sensed him bend down, doubtful of what he may would do. He grabbed my arms in a jerking move.
Fearing he would harm them even more, he did the most unexpected thing of all, he cut over the ropes binding my wrists together.
I couldn't see what he used as a tool, probably a kunai. But I hadn't seen it like I usually would, this time I was the victim of my own unwanted bluntness, the result of a worn out and chakra-emptied body. He could easily kill me, if he wanted to…
"Ties aren't necessary anymore, your hands are just as unusable with as they are without." He released my hands and allowed me to pull them in front of me, the shoulder-muscles protesting against the neglected move, I could scarcely move my fingers.
Wanting badly to examine my hands, but it was too dark for watching the size of the wounds and cuts. My wrists ached where the rope had been, it'd most likely gnawed itself into my flesh making it swollen and numb.
"And you'll kill me now, am I right?" My voice shaking and thick as I turned away to cast an empty stare into the darkness. It wasn't worth it anymore, my best chances of escaping, even the less exigent ways, were impossible to go through with.
"What makes you think that way?" Itachi questioned while looking down at me. He didn't move, just stood there noticing my response.
Raising my head to meet his expression, I couldn't see any murderous purposes in the red eyes, just coldness and wonder.
"Why did you free me then?" I hated him for being so mysterious and unpredictable. A person like him was known for not hesitating a second before slaughtering. What did he have in mind if he didn't wanted the obvious, to kill me? He gave no reply letting thousands of questions lie unanswered in the air.
The atmosphere grew tense of our silence, the door to the outside-world gaping dazzling in a tempting way. It was the freedom I desperately fought to get. The way out of hell. However, as long as I had Itachi to block my path, there was no hope, he would never allow me to leave.
"You really want your hands bound behind your back?" The sarcasm dripped of every word he said, even though they weren't expressed to be so by the cold words.
"It won't take me long time to replace the rope, you know." I couldn't decide whether the phrase was serious or just to make me bewildered and afraid.
"Of course I don't want to be tied up!" I hissed frustrated, my mind wasn't in mood or in fit to handle such distorted humour.
Raising myself up in a clumsy move from the abhorred wetness of the floor to be standing up with the weigh of my left foot lifted a lot over the ground by exhausted and nearly cracked up muscles.
"Then you better stay quiet." Itachi just stared, the emotions hid, so was the mouth behind the collar of the cloak, but the seriousness clear as crystal.
He'd evidently got tiered of my constant flow of questions, but even though that seemed to be the reason, I could never be certain when it came to him.
This place, this cell, it wasn't bearable anymore, my body's damages were to serve for healing naturally in a strained environment like this.
"I don't tolerate this prison anymore…" The truth had to come, letting him know, it even showed my weakness, but life in this dark cell was to tough to handle over longer time when having to live with injuries screaming for treatment.
Tiredness made a stronger appearance as the time I stood upright passed by in a too slow motion. I really had to rest, to sleep, coming back stronger and more rested than ever before later.
Now wasn't the right time for confrontation, it would only strain my body unnecessarily and only delay the time that I instead could use to heal my injuries.
I suggested Itachi's shape to turn away, looking in the direction of the wide open door. Maybe he would leave me alone?
No, I can't be here anymore!If he leaved, I would die. My life was actually laying within the hold of Akatsuki, or him. The fact of knowing my fate, to know how long I'd left before I suffered to death, felt in way satisfying, but mostly frightening.
"D-don't leave me alone here…" The whimpering stutter wouldn't charm anyone in this room, but maybe if I got some luck after only misfortune, I could reverse the obvious fate. The part of me wanting to let fate devastate was conquered by the willing of living.
"First you want me to leave, then you want me to stay, make your decision, kunoichi." He watched me over his shoulder, like he would go at any time.
Living, would be choosing to spend more time with him, dieing meant to finally get what I wanted, that he left me for good and never came back. I turned my glance to the ground, he wanted me to decide.
"Death is a choice only taken by suicidal people and cowards…" No matter what, this way of dieing wasn't dignified. I wasn't the one to die, when I still had the choice of living. I met his gaze with a certain look, not caring what risks it could cause me. He'd given me the choice himself, then he should stand for it.
"I don't want to spend another minute in this cell!" I yelled loud marking my statement.
"I see…" Itachi modified his position to face me again, the shape of the dark cloak following his light turn, approaching me calmly with steps full of purpose to take hold of my right hand's wrist.
"Then you come with me." I felt the warmness of skin against skin, an impression I'd almost forgot how felt like, comfortingly good.
He led me closer the exit, he strolling ever so calm, totally different from my struggling in keeping the speed of my limping feet to his pace. Each jump influencing incriminating at the still worn out musculature.
"Can you at least show some respect to those who are inhibited form keeping your speed?" Panting heavily to him, as I felt the pressure of my body too high. The distance to the way out looked much longer than it probably was, confusing me completely.
For the first time in days, I could see the colours of his attire vaguely, the black cloak with red and white-outlined clouds and just barely the end of his raven-black ponytail swaying gently in the faint light hitting it. The whole situation seemed so distant, so unreal, an Akatsuki saving the pitiful, short stumps of my life.
The rectangular opening to the poor hope I longed for was finally unlocked for me. It only required a couple of steps to get out to a place that I hoped was entirely better this, maybe life would turn out in a more endurable way till I was saved or released, if they ever would…
I reached the doorsill inches from the exit, the light streaming staggering into my hypersensitive eyes, causing them to pinch shut. Itachi walking over the border between me and the outside world, to the stronger light, was the last my sight captured. In the dark, I took the last, decisive limp that required to leave the cell behind me.
Immediately I felt his hands grabbing my waist, raising me from the safe ground. "What are you doing?" I barked disconcert, my eyes remained closed until I realised he wouldn't just release me.
"Let me go!" The eyes wide open and overwhelmed by light I hadn't seen for a days, it totally dazzled me, the pupils shrinking into the size of dust. Light that brightened my existent.
Attempting to wrench loose from the powerful grasp, I could plainly see him continue to move me. I quickly understood where he wanted to place me, over his shoulder.
"I don't want to be carried around like a whining three-year old child!" Could it turn out more embarrassed? Maybe it could, but this was worse enough. I refused to let him treat me this way, even tough it was a sort of "improvement" compared to my earlier situation.
"Maybe you are a whining three-year old girl?" Itachi grumbled tranquilly, placing a thought-provoker in my panicked mind. I stopped in my struggle to get some air and to assemble myself, his words were clever, I'd tried to make him let go by using the same way of thinking each time, to use force to reach my goals, but it continued to give no breakthroughs.
Then there had to be two ways, one – trying another strategy or, two – realizing there was no methods I could use that would make him let go.
"I can finely walk myself." I tried to calm down my fieriness, blood fluttering through my veins to my head which was dangling against Itachi's back, drowning in the dark fabric of his cloak. The way I felt when having him so intimidating close was desperately blocked out to keep my concentration on the subject in force.
He just stared at me in a void, but importune manner, telling me nothing of what he as a matter of fact thought. Continuing the silence, he easily lifted me of his shoulder to put me back on my original standing place.
"As you wish." The low murmur was clear, yet barely audible, the gaze still catching me before calmly facing away to wander further.
Standing unbalanced at the rough floor, I got my body leaning against the white painted wall to gain some desperately needed support, limping as fast as I could, shrills of aching numbness spreading each time my foot hit the ground after a jump, after Itachi who was walking calmly several meters before me.
He didn't show any signs of being in a hurry, he was rather calm-looking, but he neither did show that he wasn't. It didn't take long time before finding it harder than expected to transport my body to the next unknown destination, it would hardly obey. I even didn't knew how long the distance was. What if it appeared to be longer than I could comprehend?
Itachi slackened his pace to look back on me, the gaze piercing with a small tint of anger. I interpreted it to be a frustrated reaction of my slow and awkward attempt to follow him by jumping on one leg.
Swallowing hard when feeling the powerful stare making me nervous and scared stiff of what he possibly could do if getting too impatient.
The actions of an unstable Uchiha were impossible to foresee, I didn't even knew where I had him, one moment he acted almost kind, at least caring a little, others he was close drowning me in a vessel filled with water…
"Do I have to carry you?" The soft, yet hard voice leaving his lips, broke my focus on the gaze to discover that I'd stopped in my steps. I closed my eyelids in a slow move to escape the intense, red eyes for a brief second, words waiting ready to leave at the tip of my tongue.
"You already know that I don't want that, so why asking?" Behaving almost rude after finally getting most of what I wanted compared with the dramatic difference he'd made in my current existence, from nearly dieing of starving in a cell to something closer freedom and defiantly more comfortable when again knowing what time of day it was.
I quickly sped up to a speed I found myself capable of, continuing my limping before he would actually realise his words and my tiredness grew too overwhelming for being bore by my increasingly weaker body.
If I didn't got any chances of recovering under fairly suitable circumstances soon, I most truly lost my life very soon.
Every limb ached as I fought hard to take the next step, moving me one step closer Itachi. I knew overdoing my body wasn't good at all, but when the closest and only help was him, the solution was easy to take, doing it on my own for dangling helplessly over a murderer's shoulder.
I didn't dare watching what my clothes looked like, out of the way they felt to wear, they were dirty, wet and smelly.
The sight of it wouldn't be worthy to see. Maybe they were worse than feared? Investigating my wounded hands as I walked, they had deep cuts which still hadn't healed after this long time.
Normally, I would be able to heal them in minutes, but because of an unknown reason, or more exactly a reason I didn't understand, it was impossible to send charka through the chakra-channels of my hands.
I suspected Kisame's Shamehada to play a part of it, the wounds were like deep craters with raw, infected edges, which never stopped aching, a pain feeling like being constant burned without having the ability to draw them back in a reflex move.
Forcing my muscles to make another jump forward, in the direction of certain captivity, with my not heaved leg, though my body's most supreme yearning was to leave Itachi in the corridor to get the chance to gallop in full speed back to Konoha and the blond, annoying boy I never thought I would miss the way I was now.
I was about to take the next jump when I felt legs shake hard, making me stop again and gasp for air, worse than hyperventilation, a frantic pant which was supposed to fill my lungs with fresh air, but they didn't.
Instead it felt like every breath gave no help in feeling better, lungs were almost locked or gone. They wouldn't work properly as they would as usual.
The shaking caused me to loose control over my legs and slow but sure collapse to my knees before sinking my neck and falling burn-out and tiered to the cold brick floor, my cheek in the end making connection with it.
My green eyes staring feared at Itachi who still was waiting for me to follow him, but I couldn't, there wasn't energy left and neither did I really want use my very last one to approach him willingly, it created a picture in my mind of myself as weak and obedient to an abuser's requests.
His eyes were merely watching me, never resorting to any drastic actions. His shape standing like a statue in stone, hardly doing anything but staring at me with a vivid but insignificant gaze.
"What are you staring at?" I wondered what thoughts he'd in mind when watching me in this limp position, my refusing to get on my legs again like I would do if the urge to fight further hadn't been so weak.
Fine, now there was no ways out of here which not included him… My thoughts were sarcastic as I found my body too exhausted to do anything. Itachi walked some calm steps back to me, the eyes still concentrated on me.
I really wanted him to get as far away from him as possible, he'd acted so unpredictable and harsh every time we were confronting each other. I couldn't get last time out of my mind, when I almost drowned in a metal vessel. What he did to me was unforgivable, but still, I'd a strange feeling, some sort of curiosity that drove me through it..
He was barely meters away, glaring holes in my chest. He merely stood there, the expression masterly hidden and investigating Sharingan reading me like a book.
It made me feel like being naked and every thought, every secret exposed to him, even though I couldn't know certainly at all what he got to know or could read in my facial expression. I wanted to jerk myself away from that gaze, afraid of letting him know too much.
"If you're so bent on expecting me to follow you, you must think twice!" I hissed angry through my teeth in an attempt to divert him from digging deeper in my mind. It didn't appeared to bother him as I intended to, instead he pieced the eyes even more into me.
It happened too fast for my eves to catch. Suddenly, he was inches and not meters away from me. The dominating eyes bored in and locked with my bewildered ones.
He probably searched for information or plans that could appear to be threats to Aktsuki, I searched as well, but for another motive, I wanted a reason of why. Why he'd such stares bored into me.
Maybe he used the energy a normal person would use on emotions and talking at the eyes, to watch every step, foresee the next move and read people?
The short distance sent ice-cold shrills of awkwardness through my body, no matter how strong my yearn of escaping was, I was caught in the corner, there wasn't any space for room or running away.
He was so close that I saw the unusually deep bags under his eyes clearer, they were more outstanding when they were close. I wondered why and how he'd got them.
Sasuke didn't have any trails of bags like that. Not even the same shadow Itachi's threw against the skin. Probably he hadn't slept a lot or well in several years.
Studying him closely to memory his distinctive stamps, I realised how contrasting everything with him was. The red eyes against the pale skin, the raven black hair.
He truly was a dismal person. So cold and calculating, what had made him turn out this way? I didn't knew much of his past other than what everyone knew; he mastered the Sharingan earlier than any Uchiha and was the youngest member in ANBU's history.
Strands of black hair which not were tied up hung scarcely in front of the red eyes, framing his face in a complete way, casual even though it could've been arranged.
It made me twitch. Not out of disgust or hatred, but because of a realization, I wanted more of his features and that scared me, made me try to erase it, push it away to some hidden and forgotten space of my mind to never be showed again.
The mouth which only expressed the same hard line like the rest of him. Would those lips ever be more than white papers? Had they ever showed anything?
Maybe I one day would be one of the very few to experience those lips smiling, at least doing other things than scaring people or saying one of the seldom words that most truly would be your last before everything flashed before your eyes…
Naruto heaved a relived sigh as he placed, more like dropped, the bucket of glue at the ground after finishing hanging the last poster at a wall.
The fingers were still spread out to prevent them from sticking together. He tiredly sat down at a kerbstone without caring for the sand and the mud which attached to the clothes. Maybe someone would give them some tips or clues now, when all those posters were to be seen everywhere.
He could feel the nagging sorrow return to his mind as he watched at a wall at the other side of the street, through the white fog he could see one of the posters were hanging there.
An old picture in black and white of Sakura, waking a memory he almost had forgot. Sakura never seemed to be pleased with any photos of herself, she meant they made her forehead look bigger and more prominent than it was, but Naruto himself found nothing wrong about them, they were rather beautiful.
He didn't understand how she could possibly see herself in that kind of way, just because people like Ino and her friends used to tease her for having a huge forehead when she was younger.
Beside the picture there was two more pictures of poor quality of Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi, the captors.
No one had succeed in taking new pictures of the two Akatsuki members, the one which showed Itachi was from an earlier date when he still was a law-abiding member of ANBU.
You could at least see that it was him, but the same couldn't be said of the other picture of Kisame, it was blurry and merely showed a dark shadow of the outlines of him while he was escaping the Country of Mist once in the past.
The Akatsuki were all anonymous when they didn't have to reveal identities or fight, therefore it was difficult to prove or get shots of them. They always wore conical straw hats, making it even harder.
It was offered a huge amount of money in reward to find Sakura and get Itachi caught for all the crimes, mostly the cold blooded murders of the entire Uchiha clan. Naruto didn't care for the reward, getting her back was enough.
He rose up, there wasn't any minute to waste, they all counted and they all were valuable. Every minute passing by meant one more minute for Sakura to spend with Akatsuki. It could in worst case turn on life and death.
He knew the easiest way, the most secure way to free her, but that would mean death to himself and victory to Akatsuki. They would finally get the Kyuubi, but Sakura would be free again.
Tsunade would never allow him to sacrifice himself to the organisation on a silver plate, he knew that, but if it turned out to be the only way, he would do it, no matter what they would say. He couldn't live without both her and Sasuke.
He leaved behind several streets as he almost ran back to the Hokage tower ready for a new duty. Seeing it draw closer, he hoped he they would get clues in time, before it ended the bad way.
The rain wasn't a problem anymore, it still rained dogs and cats, but it washed away glue and dirt, cleaning his fingers, and Sakura was everything that filled his mind.
My stomach growled hungrily as I continued my stare at Itachi. I didn't know how long I just stood there trying to break the code of his emotion, which right now seemed to be in short supply.
He hadn't showed any of them since I came, maybe some amusement and evilness, but that was all and it wasn't like it told me anything of him as person.
Soon, I would collapse of tiredness, I could already notice my eyesight getting fuzzy, a distorted picture of Itachi starting to form itself, my mind starting to ache and the time stopping to go by.
No! I couldn't faint!
I fought against the urge to leave consciousness, getting a badly needed break from him and Akatsuki. But I couldn't allow it, I was alone with him in a corridor, others could come out of nowhere. What would they do?
I managed to limp one step backwards, away from Itachi. It took all of my last energy and made me start loosing balance. I could see an arm reaching in my direction, a hand with black wide fabric and pale skin, also purple paint on the nails.
"Don't!" A weak whimper made it's way through my lips as I jerked away from the hand which approached me silently. I was weak, too weak, weaker than I'd ever experienced in my whole life.
Using the strength I didn't have in an attempt to take another step away, I fell to the ground to land with my back on the hard brick-floor. I winced in pain, gritted my teeth firm and did some attempts to crawl away, but was quickly stopped by myself because of stinging ache in my muscles.
"Don't!"
He didn't say anything as the hand, fingers standing out stiffly, ready to grip or strangle me, got to mere inches from my body…
A/N: I know how cruel I'm now.. Adding another cliff-hanger. Anyway, it's just to wonder what happens next. Until you'll get the answer, just read and review. (Reviews helps me a lot when trying to get the inspiration for next chapter, kind of delights me to see that you like my fanfic) Update comes soon!
Gaupe
