CHAPTER 3

They reached a mountain with a narrowed dark cave passage, the walls were wet and there was a faint sound of dripping water. With each step fear seemed to be taking over her to the point that her whole body was shaking. She didn't know what was in store for her but whatever it was she was sure it wouldn't be good.

The passage opened up into a large space with giant stalactites and the bat roosts where four men were waiting, they were standing in pairs and were dressed in the same robes as Deidara. The first pair closer to the entrance consisted in a man with orange hair and purple eyes with a series of circles. Next to him was a tall woman with purple short hair and amber eyes. The other pair consisted in one scary looking man with no eyebrows and a cross shaped scar on his right cheek and red markings covering his jaw. But it was the fourth member that caught her attention due to the intensity of the stare he was giving her. Compared to the rest of the group, he was the one that looked most normal but also the most deadly. He had black long hair pulled back on a low ponytail with bangs around his face. His eyes were dark with long tear-troughs under them that seem to bore into her.

"Deirdra, what's the meaning of this?" the dark haired guy asked. His eyes look to fire up when he eyed the bruise on her lips.

"This? This is my prize for today. Don't you try and take it from me again, Itachi." Deidara answered while running his hand up and down her arm, she flinched.

Itachi chucked. "It's not my fault if girls become infatuated with me. I never take anything from you, they come to me."

"Well, you won't get her. This one is special, she doesn't even know who she is."

"Excuse me?" Itachi asked.

"I found her with a pair of old retired ninja. She had some skills but she doesn't know what village she belongs to. I'm not sure she's even a ninja."

"Is that so?" Itachi walked towards them. "Let her with me, I'll gather the intel."

"Let her with you? Are you crazy? No way in hell, back off!" Deidara pushed Itachi back as he had closed the distance between them but he barely managed to move him a couple of inches.

"Deidara." The orange hair man started. "Civilians are allowed here but she could be a ninja trying to infiltrate and gather information. You should know better. Let Itachi work on her."

Deidara gritted her teeth. That man seemed to be the leader since it was the only person he hadn't back talked to. He glared at Itachi but then let go of her.

Itachi placed a hand on her shoulder and in an instant she found herself standing in the center of a completely different room, alone with him. She looked around confused. The room was smaller, the ceilings lower with a small opening that let the light in. A lone chair on one of the corners was the only furniture there. "How did you…?" she began to ask as he moved two steps back and she felt a shiver running through her spine. What did the other man mean with 'work on her'? Her whole body was frozen but her head seemed to twitch in trepidation.

"What do you want from me?" she asked looking away.

"Look at me" he commanded. She turned her head with difficulty and look straight into his onyx eyes, they widened when they made contact with hers. "What's your name?" he asked in a soft voice. Somehow, the feeling of dread had suddenly left her body.

"I can't recall. An old man found me by the river two days ago. I haven't been able to recover my memories back so far." She answered looking down.

Itachi closed the distance and touched her chin, pushing it up with a finger so she could look at him again. When she did, she found him giving her a crooked smile. It was sexy yet alarming and the sight of it made her heart hammer inside her chest, her breathing becoming erratic. She gulped, an action that he didn't miss as his eyes lowered to follow the movement before his mouth covered hers. Startled by the suddenness of the kiss she gasped, an opportunity he took to invade her mouth with his tongue and when it made contact with hers, her eyes drifted closed.

He was claiming her in a passionate kiss while his arms snaked from under hers onto her back and brought her body close to his. Her body responded with total submission- mouth open, body limp, hands running along his shoulders to fist his hair. All her senses were heightened and it was driving her crazy. His scent, his warm body against hers, the sound of longing in the back of his throat. She couldn't remember her first kiss but, as first kisses go, this was something else.

And then her body tensed. She'd just met the man, what the hell was she doing? She tried pulling away but her body didn't respond for the longest two seconds before her mind seemed to regain control of her body. She opened her eyes but couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Itachi was in the same spot he was moments ago and her arms, which were raised a second ago were down, her head was supposed to be titled due to their height difference but it seemed like she never moved from her position since the second she arrived to this room. The only thing that had changed was her uneven breathing.

"What- what was that?" she asked alarmed. Had she just been dreaming? Was that some kind of magic trick? He returned the question with another smile, it was unnerving.

"It took you long enough to break out of my genjutsu…" she stood there looking at him, hoping to get a bit more of an explanation for that while he seemed to consider his next step. "... or are you just pretending? Did you honestly want to make me believe that you didn't notice my jutsu? Did you really want us to believe you're a simple civilian?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know what a jutsu is!" she ended up yelling frustrated. Itachi chuckled. The slight movement of one of his arms caught her attention but before she could lower her eyes Itachi was charging at her. As her eyes widened and her brain screamed at her to move, her body was faster and was already dodging Itachi's first kunai swing by jumping back. However, by the time her feet touched the ground, Itachi was already on her again, his weapon aimed at her chest. A surge of power concentrated in her hand and a electrical discharge appeared there in the form of a spear, blocking his attack. She swung the makeshift sword at him, thinking that he would easily dodge it but it managed to slice his body diagonally. Nonetheless, his body dissolved into many black crowds.

"Impressive." Itachi voiced, now from the other side of the room. "You can't seem to hide your shinobi skills."

"Hide? I don't even know how I did that!" she said while watching the sword disappeared from her hand.

"I'm going to look into your mind now." He told her.

"Look into my mind? What are you talking about?" she glared at him but gasped at the sight of his eyes. They had turned red with some kind of pattern in them. Before she could say another word, she felt a pressure in her mind that moved around with no control. It hurt, it hurt a lot. It felt like a knife was rummaging inside the insides of her brain. Grabbing the hairs around her temples she dropped onto her knees, she felt exhausted, her breathing uneven, like she had run for hours but his action took only mere seconds.

Surprisingly, Itachi also seemed in pain because he was pressing the palm of his hand into one of his eyes.

"What… did you do... to me?" she asked him in between gasps.

"I used a technique to enter your subconscious and read your mind but it seems everything had been damaged and thus, making your memories disappear. There's no even knowledge left of what the shinobi world means which explains how you're unaware of what a genjutsu is." Itachi answer after catching his breath.

"It's all… gone?" She would worry about the jutsu stuff later.

"It seems so. You were really saying the truth, you don't remember who you are or what you are. There's nothing from your past in your mind." He replied and when he looked at her his face was relaxed, it had softened and there was a hint of… was that hope? "Nevertheless, your body along with your chakra still remembers which makes you a valuable shinobi.

She started sobbing silently while Itachi, unmoving, watched her. She wouldn't know if she had friends or family that cared for her or loved her, and if she did, she might never be able to find them because she wouldn't even know where to start looking. Has she even known what love was? She could've spent her life alone until this point. She would never know. But she cried, because there was a throbbing pain in her heart.

After a few moments a handkerchief appeared in her line of vision. "There's no need to cry. You still have your fighting skills, you're very powerful." Itachi told her.

"And what good does that do to me? I've been kidnapped by a group of mercenaries, who want to use me and dispose of me afterwards, with the threat of killing the only two people I can remember meeting in my whole life if I try to run away. So what if I'm strong? You will use my strength to your own benefit!" She said angrily.

"That's not what we're about."

"So what then?"

"Money. We work for money. We do the dirty jobs that governments aren't able to do by themselves to keep peace." Itachi replied. "There's nowhere for you to go at the moment, might as well stick with us." He added.

"Do I even have a choice?"

The silence and the way Itachi set his lips to a firm line was the only answer she got.