Much love is being sent to Airyo-chan. Feel the love, Airyo! FEEL IT! Just kidding, xoxo. Anyway, I had a review from... Anon, was it? She was asking the relationship between Hinata and Neji. That will be explained in future chapters. I will not spoil the story for you! But no, she does not hate Neji. Thank you to all those who review! I always read each and every one.
Defeating the Snake
It had been months since he had joined Akatsuki, and they still haven't contacted him. While Itachi mentally knew that he was part of the Akatsuki, physically, he was doing nothing. He was only travelling the world, trying to waste time with touring all that he could see. After all, his life only had one purpose: to have Sasuke defeat him in battle, without going easy on him. Until then, Itachi could not die.
His birthday had passed, just yesterday, making him sixteen. Itachi had went to a restaurant, congratulating himself on managing to survive that long. All the odds were against him, it seemed. He had taken off his Akatsuki garment to try and forget. He immediately regretted trying to celebrate at all. The moment he entered the restaurant, he was surrounded by whores. He felt disgust rise in his throat.
He should probably explain. The Uchiha curse is to sink into negative emotions. It makes the Uchiha feel things to the extreme. Even Itachi, to some extent was not spared. You see, Uchiha men only fell in love once. Until then, they feel nothing for the fairer sex. They also feel that love to the extreme, which means that it might be very, very suffocating. So, yes, Itachi was a virgin. And proud to be one. That meant that emotions had never bested him, such meaningless emotions as love.
And anyway, having sex makes the man vulnerable. You needed to trust the person you were having sex with. Itachi had never trusted a person in his life. Which made quite a few people believe he had issues. But he didn't. Shinobi couldn't afford to trust. You never knew who was going to stab you in the back.
However, as he fingered his neck, finding the necklace gone, he corrected himself. He had trusted a person. To some extent. Which was very unusual. Very, very unusual. Itachi's thoughts wandered to the Hyuuga heiress, wondering how she was doing, and if she told anyone of the necklace he had given her. Not that she knew it was from him. Itachi thought himself stupid for giving her such an obvious clue, but he had never regretted it. She had something to remember him by... even if she couldn't remember him at all.
He exited the dreaded restaurant the moment he had finished his meal. He could not stand to be around any of those sluts any longer. As he stepped out onto the street, the first thing he did was find the nearest forest. There, he could relax, and maybe have a breath of fresh air. As he went there, he noticed a presence... a horrible, slimy presence. He was immediately on guard, not that he wasn't before.
He almost sighed. Did he have to deal with annoying people on his birthday, of all times?
"Kukukuku," Called out a high, creepy voice. "What have I found here?" A dark shadow stepped out of a dark shadow. His eyes managed to make out one of the Legendary Sannin that he hadn't had the 'pleasure' of meeting. He knew of Orochimaru; his face stained all of the bingo books. A traitor that took to experimenting on the innocent. Such people disgusted Itachi to no ends. He did that for amusement, how revolting.
"Orochimaru." He acknowledged. His face was clear of any emotion, his eyes staring blankly at Orochimaru's sickly yellow slitted ones. He moved away as Orochimaru tried appearing behind him, instead leaving a clone in his place.
"I've found you interesting... Itachi, would you have the pleasure of becoming my next vessel?" Itachi quickly caught on that he meant body. That meant that he was switching bodies depending on the blood line limits, and that concluded that he was after his sharingan. Typical.
Instead of wasting his breath on answering, he let his clone explode. Orochimaru, sadly, melted to the ground. "I'll take that as a no, then." Orochimaru said, his voice sounding quite girlish at the end. He then summoned a giant snake. Riding on it, he came at Itachi. Itachi sighed. While he could summon his ravens, it would be better if he just killed the snake instead.
He shot multiple giant fireballs at the snake, and before it dodged, he trapped it into a genjutsu with his sharingan. He really didn't want to activate it for something as troublesome as this, but he would have preferred to end this as quickly as he could.
The snake caught on fire, while the real snake jumped off. Orochimaru then tried using an earth jutsu on him, one that was really easy to dodge, Itachi reflected. All he had to do was use the substitution jutsu, to come behind Orochimaru.
Meanwhile, Itachi observed, Orochimaru had paled. Suddenly, he wasn't the predator any more, he was the prey. That must have come to a great shock to him, Itachi mused. Honestly, though, Itachi couldn't care less. Then, Orochimaru tried to capture him with snake hands. What an elementary move; all Itachi had to do is cut the snakes with a kunai.
Finally, Orochimaru tried to pull the big guns, summoning Manda. A giant snake was in front of Itachi, and Itachi finally realised that he'd have to summon an animal of his own, to be able to trap the snake in genjutsu and kill it.
Itachi swiftly made the signs to summon his giant raven, Yagaterasu. Underneath him was a giant onyx coloured raven, with glaring red eyes, and three legs. They communicated mentally, with no time lost. They flew towards the bickering Manda and Orochimaru.
Manda took one look at Yagaterasu, and immediately straightened, knowing that this wasn't prey. It took a few minutes for Manda to actually look at Itachi, something that Itachi was quite annoyed at. No matter, as Manda tried capturing the flying Yagaterasu, and didn't succeed. Yagaterasu spewed fire at Manda, while Manda tried capturing them with a bunshin clone, before the bunshin had met Itachi's eyes and disappeared.
Finally, however, Manda met his downfall. He had looked into Itachi's eyes, and frozen where he was. Before Itachi could hit him with a powerful jutsu, Manda had disappeared, not without casualties. His tail had burned off.
Apparently, Orochimaru had more tricks' up his sleeve. Itachi watched as he summoned three boxes, each with a number, one to three. His usually blank eyes widened with something akin to surprise, as the doors to the boxes opened. That was when he learned that hey actually weren't boxes; they were coffins. Out stepped the three supposedly dead Hokage's of Konoha: the first Hokage, the second Hokage, and the fourth Hokage.
Itachi figured out that the only way to stop these people is using genjutsu. Orochimaru's jutsu was really powerful... but he had drawn the short end of the stick. Momentarily, he had created three clones to deal with the Kages. Instead, he decided it was time to end this. He didn't want to use this, but...
Mangekyo, he said silently to himself. His sharingan formed into a shuriken type shape, as his eyes met Orochimaru's. Orochimaru had no idea how potent his sharingan could be. That's when he captured Orochimaru, sending him to the world of Tsukoyomi.
The world had turned black and red, Orochimaru tied at a post, as Itachi started the dreary torturing process. He had a sword in his hand, and he stabbed Orochimaru with it, Orochimaru stayed silent, to Itachi's surprise. However, he lost that record as he screamed by the 5th stab. "You will be stabbed for 72 hours." He said, estimating how long it'd take for Orochimaru to break down.
The only down side to this jutsu is that Itachi had to experience this right with him. Not on the receiving end, but still. He warily multiplied himself as he multiplied the stab wounds that the snake was taking at once.
Not wanting to be an actual part of this, he disappeared, letting the clones do the dirty work. Instead, he stared at the red sky of the world of the Tsukoyomi, trying his best to ignore the agonizing screams that were echoing through this imaginary world. Although Itachi knew how effective this jutsu was, he couldn't help but find it distasteful. While it didn't harm the physical body, it was literally fatal to the mind. It made most people crazy; Itachi was lucky that Sasuke could survive it, even if he wasn't the one being tortured.
He had only wanted Sasuke not only to strengthen his hatred for him, but to see all the disgusting things he had done, and hate him as much as he hated himself. Itachi felt that he showed all the signs of being a masochist.
Seventy two hours (in his mind) passed very slowly, in Itachi's opinion. That was when he released Orochimaru, knowing that he had pushed himself to the limit. Itachi's physical limit of this jutsu was around 150 hours, actually, but Itachi's mental limit was much shorter, a mere 75 hours. This jutsu was one of the most horrible jutsu's invented, especially since the wounds could heal themselves momentarily.
The moment that Orochimaru was in his body once more, he fled before Itachi could blink. Itachi contemplated chasing him, but since he saw no further threat, and hated violence, he might as well leave him to run, like the coward, like the snake he is.
Orochimaru's whole aura stank of snakes. It strange, and in no way pleasant. Itach would be very happy if he never met the man again.
That day, Itachi morbidly thought, is a sign of bad luck showing that his seventeenth year on this earth would be horrible. If he included his infancy, of course.
And he was right. The next morning, he was contacted by Akatsuki, via his ring. The ring was actually a way to transmit holograms, to get information across. He wouldn't have guessed by just seeing it. He saw one of Pein's bodies in the hologram, informing him that they already had six of the designated members, and that they would be able to start working now. He also said that his first mission was assigned, and to go to the cave to achieve orders, get a briefing, and be introduced to the other members. And he said that he had to get there within a week.
Itachi sighed. It was already the first day of his 'sweet sixteen', and he was already hating it with a burning passion. How fortunate.
It took him around six days to get to the designated cave, much to his displeasure. It was five days too long; he really had close to no patience towards non stop running. To top it off, it had been months since his cough had started, and it had still not ceased. Itachi tried to pay as little attention to that as possible.
When Itachi had finally arrived, the cave seemed to have a darker aura than usual, filled with powerful chakra. Those people must be near his level, Itachi was quite impressed, actually. He knew if it came to it, if he faced three or four of them, he might even lose. But, he must never underestimate his enemies, especially with chakra like that.
Itachi undid the genjutsu, biting his thumb to draw blood. The entrance 'officially' became visible, and he went in without a hitch. Suffocating blackness welcomed him as he stepped in. His feet lead him to the room that emitted the powerful chakras. He almost froze when he felt one that was slimy, cold, and disgusting, that of a snake's. So Orochimaru was part of the Akatsuki, was he? Well, that was certainly interesting. Itachi wondered if he should confront him, but then decided that that was an unneeded effort. Why should he waste his breath for such a slimy bastard?
He pushed the door open, letting himself in the room, ignoring the multiple eyes on him. He felt an especially burning gaze, filled with hatred, one that he guessed came from Orochimaru. As Itachi glanced at his face, he noted that it was twisted in an ugly sneer, unlike his insane smile on their previous meeting. His smile, that was, until they had actually started fighting.
"Uchiha, Itachi." Pein boomed from somewhere in the back of the room. There were only three others here, meaning that the remaining two had still not arrived. Itachi only personally knew Pein, Konan, who was Pein's right side, and Orochimaru. The only other person- well, Itachi couldn't actually call him a person- was half black, and half white. He actually had some kind of green plants growing within him- Itachi didn't even want to know.
The plant like thing decided to introduce itself. "We are Zetsu." It said, it's white hand sweeping around to show himself.
Then he sneered. "We have no need to introduce yourselves, White Zetsu." The plant said. It was weird- like it had a personality disorder. Finally, Pein decided to put Itachi out of his misery.
"Zetsu was a Venus Fly Trap. He is our main intelligence source." Pein explained, and Itachi now understood... somewhat. However, it was a good thing that he didn't show his confusion on his face. If he was weak here, Akatsuki would eat him alive. The weak could not prosper, not in Akatsuki. Then Pein sat down, Konan as well, and they started meditating. Orochimaru followed their example. Zetsu stayed quiet, same as everyone else. Itachi then noticed that all of them donned black and red cloaks, just like his. It was standard uniform for everyone, then.
Itachi then meditated himself, knowing that it was a way to rest without actually resting. They stayed like that for the rest of the day, meditating, with no one breaking the silence. No one breaking it, until they noticed a chakra entering the cave. It was a very... strange chakra. Old. Like something that Itachi would see from the first shinobi war. If Itachi didn't know better, he'd say that that would be impossible. The problem was, he knew better. He had seem the strangest things in his young life.
They were lying in wait, waiting for the chakra to enter their room. And enter their room, it did. It was male, with green eyes bearing no pupils, a very vivid green, that were not the most pleasant to look at. Itachi couldn't make out anything other than his eyes, however; he was covered from head to toe. Pein took it upon himself to announce the arrival to the rest of the group. "Kakuzu." Itachi, with his extensive knowledge, was manage to recognize a criminal from the oldest of Bingo Books, presumed to be dead. He must have been over a hundred years old; yet, he did not move, or act old. There must be some kind of jutsu keeping him alive, Itachi realised.
The person grunted, and Pein began speaking. "Now that all the members we are expecting have arrived, I am able to continue briefing. We will start out very simple. Before all the other members of Akatsuki are assembled, we must make a name for ourselves. The best way to do this is start to get political ties. That will be done through the missions I assign." Pein finished his speech, his eyes searching through the people that were assembled before him.
They made no effort to reply, but Pein had understood that they all understood. Then he started assigning the missions. "I will give you temporary pairs. Orochimaru, you will be with Itachi, while Zetsu, you will team up with Kakuzu." Itachi inwardly scowled. Why was his luck so rotten? Of course, he'd be the one assigned to team up with the one person that had attacked him before.
"Zetsu and Kakuzu, your first mission is to gather the intelligence for the Hidden Village in the Mist." He threw Kakuzu a scroll, and turned to Itachi. "Itachi and Orochimaru, you're mission is to kill the right handed man of the Raikage." Pein told them, and Itachi blinked in understanding. "You may leave. I expect these missions completed within the month; I will contact you when you will be given your next mission." He finished, and disappeared, a clear dismissal for all those in the room.
Itachi turned to Orochimaru, then started walking towards the exit of the room. He found no further need to lurk around; and he was certain that in this pair, that he was the 'leader', as he was given the scroll. Pein has somehow estimated that Itachi was stronger than Orochimaru; and Pein had estimated right.
Orochimaru made an annoyed noise as he followed him out the door. Itachi quickly opened the scroll, memorising what needed to be memorised. He started travelling towards the land of lightning, with Orochimaru following at his tail. "Why don't we just summon animals to get us there?" He asked, sounding very annoyed.
"We need to be discreet." Itachi had answered in five words. Obviously, Orochimaru might not care about being seen, but Itachi didn't believe in unnecessary fighting. He only did what he had to do.
Orochimaru seemed even more annoyed. Frankly, Itachi didn't care. Orochimaru was no threat to him; after all, he had defeated him. And Orochimaru had run away, like the coward he was. Well, he was a snake. And snakes were like that; slimy and always slipping through your fingers.
Personally, Itachi really hated snakes. They had no bark, only a deadly bite, which means they give you no warning before they bite. They were not the biggest creatures, so they were not very easy to spot; not only that, they camouflaged with their surroundings. To most, their poison was deadly. They were also cold blooded, not caring about much except themselves. They shed their skin, almost as fast as they could think one up.
That was why Itachi preferred ravens; they could fly given the fact that they were birds, never mind the fact that they weren't cold blooded. They had feathers, hiding their real skin; hiding their ugliness. They were black, standing out against the sky, giving people some sort of chance to get their bearings. However, their pecks were fast, sharp, and deadly. They faced things head on, and they worked in packs.
But they were better than snakes. After all, a raven can always swoop down and peck out the eyes of a snake.
Really, he had no reason to feel apprehensive about anything. After all, ravens defeated snakes by nature. And Itachi defeated Orochimaru.
I wrote this all in one day! Whoo for Aurora-chan! Anyway, please review! Which POV do you like better? I personally find Hinata's POV easier to write. This is taking so long. I just want to get on WITH THE MASSACRE! But there's so much to do before that... sigh... and then the story after that... sigh.
But I hope you now understand this Itachi and Hinata. And Akatsuki, better.
REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW
Aurora-chan!