A corpse. A rotting corpse. The rotting corpse of her mother.
The body hung tightly in a stiff manner from a tattered rope, the neck was shrouded in the thick braided cord causing it to swell and appear bruised. It had been three days since the women had taken it upon herself to end her life, and in those three days a vile stench of death and alcohol had lathered itself across the cramped room. The women's eyes were bulging out of her sockets to the point where you could see the optic nerve, her shrivelled up lips were pale and blue, strands of saliva coated the inner corners of her mouth. Overall the sight was volatile.
However that wasn't the most disturbing part. Below the deteriorating corpse laid a small child, her dainty hands were wrapped tightly around her small frame in hopes of warming up her numb skin. Her eyes pierced the corpse with little to no emotion present in them, it was almost frightening how composed she was.
A loud banging noise could be heard from behind the worn out door. Akira presumed it was one of her mother's clients, her mother was notorious for 'befriending' a lot of men.
"Open up!" Bellowed the stranger, Akira continued to block out the noise and instead continued to examine her mother.
Albeit it wasn't long before the door gave out and was reduced to a pile of shattered wood. Then in came a large figure shrouded in a black cloak. His nose wrinkled in disgust as the pungent odor entered his flared nostrils.
"What the fuck." Despite his initial response his face didn't portray any emotion leaving Akira to wonder if he was even surprised. The man stared briefly at Akira before returning his gaze to the corpse.
"Tch. I didn't think she'd succumb to this." He roughly kicked a half empty glass bottle of alcohol to the side, he peeled his eyes off of the women and focused on the child.
"Oi brat, get up." And so she did. Her frail legs wobbled at the sudden movement but Aira eventually managed to get a steady grip. Her cheeks were severely contoured and sunken, from first glance it was obvious to anyone she was severely malnourished.
"Remind me of your name." His gaze was harsh and his tone was even harsher.
"A-Akira." She managed to spit out the word without too much trouble.
"Tch. From now on you'll live with me, understood?" With a gentle nod Akira made her way closer to the estranged man.
"Who are you?" Whether it was out of curiosity or just for the sake of getting rid of the tense silence, Akira didn't know why she felt brave enough to question him so boisterously.
The man looked slightly taken back by her sudden question but he managed to brush it off rather quickly.
"I'm Genkaku Sato."
"You with the brooding face. Introduce yourself." The masked man requested as he pointed directly towards Akira. The rest of her teammates had already introduced themselves albeit Akira didn't pay any attention to them. She was too busy being plagued by unwanted memories and having her back glared at by a certain ravenette.
And so for the second time that day Akira began announcing herself to a pile of strangers.
"My name is Akira Sato. I enjoy reading, I dislike the smell of alcohol as well as many other things. I have no hobbies." It seemed everyone was engaged in her little explanation, more so then the first time.
"Good! The four of you are very distinctive and interesting! We'll have a mission tomorrow." Despite his enthusiastic tone his facial expression screamed boredom, even though 80% of it was covered up.
"Yes sir! What kind of mission?" Beamed the obnoxiously loud blonde who Akira came to know as Naruto.
"It's a task that the four of us will do together." Explained Kakashi.
At the sound of this Naruto's excitement grew even larger, a bright smile shrouded his innocent face , Akira couldn't help but be enlightened by his eagerness.
After Kakashi sadistically announced there would be a survival training task tomorrow everyone departed ways. Akira was the first to leave she couldn't stand being in the company of soo many people. It was tedious to say the least.
"Oi." Akira came to a sudden halt at the sound of a voice.
It wasn't long before the face of one of her new teammates was stood directly in front of her. It was Sasuke Uchiha.
"Yes?" Akira inquired with slight unease. As she met his onyx eyes she could practically feel his anger radiating of them in huge waves.
"How do you know him?" The way he questioned her was as though she was under investigation for a crime she had no knowledge of.
"I'm not sure what you're on about, so if you'd excu-" She was cut off rather unexpectedly.
"Itachi. How the hell do you know Itachi?" His patience was dwindling whilst his anger continued to intensify.
"I don't know who you're talking about." Was it a lie? She herself couldn't tell.
"You looked straight at me and said his name, you clearly have some connection with him." In a sudden haste Sasuke tightly wrapped his fingers around Akira's slender wrist and gripped it with an otherworldly force.
"...It's true. I probably do have some connection with him, but I myself have no recollection of him. I wish I knew but I-I just do-don't." Akira looked down in a mix of shame and guilt. She never expected to be so useless, she didn't understand the reasoning for Sasuke's curiosity of Itachi, but the way he spoke made it even harder to refuse him.
"What do you mean?" His tone was less harsh but his hand was still latched onto her arm.
"I'm not even sure myself." Akira lifted her head up in a gentle manner and stared directly into Sasuke's onyx orbs, she looked as if she was pleading for answers, just like him.
"Hm. Whatever your link to him is I'll find out." With a final glare the Uchiha left leaving Akira to wander off in her own thoughts.
"Itachi Uchiha. Why do I feel so strongly about you?" She could feel another migraine coming, it seemed every time she was close to remembering something important something else was blocking her way.
In a final attempt to ease the pain in her head Akira closed her eyes rather tightly and forced her mind to collect any information it could gather.
Red. Red eyes. Gentle red eyes.