You guys wanna hear the truth of why I stopped writing? Its every writer's nightmare. Lost data. Sometimes, there's just no recovering from it. You had written something that you liked, and then, zppshh, its all gone. For me, the utter frustration and sadness at losing drafts just put me off writing. Anyway. I had some time and fished around in my memory for some plot. I wrote this down, and I'll let you guys be the judge?

Disclaimer:… seriously?

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Witty Facades By: iCream

Chapter 4: Truth?

Ayame smiled. Then waited. The kunai, moving rather slowly due to the lack of power behind the throw, soared in a beautiful parabola that looked absolutely ridiculous coming from the hand of a ninja. Both Itachi and Ayame watched the kunai dip in the air and fall with a dull tink in the ground, pointing face down.

Itachi's blank face shifted, changing into a more alert and steady disposition.

Ayame, waiting for the Itachi's attention to shift, turned tail and began running for her life. Forget all dignity, but distance was of the essence. Tossing a fleeting look behind her back, all she caught sight of was Itachi's face. It was predatory.

The exploding tag, dropped into the forest floor while she had been running, usually just needed a good hand signal to activate. In her situation, however, that was not the case. Not having the time to input her chakra into the tag, Ayame counted on getting some sort of projectile to cut the cord that would automatically force an explosion. The tag, wriggling feebly from beneath the kunai suddenly stilled.

Boom.

It wasn't as impressive as Ayame had hoped, but then again, those tags were just a little bit old. All it did was lift her off her feet and throw her roughly five feet. Scrambling back onto her feet and disregarding the flimsy woodchips flying everywhere, she launched herself deeper into the forest, counting on masking her chakra and the forest's natural shelter to guard her a little more from Itachi. Her plan was simple enough. Stall long enough for Kakashi and Gai to come to her rescue. Strong as Kisame was, Ayame didn't think that he would be able to take on both Konoha nins.

However, if she thought that the blast would have done more that disorient Itachi for even a second, she was sadly mistaken. Itachi was already on the move, flashing up in the trees long before the tag had detonated. The resulting debris and smoke had been her saving grace, and he lost sight of her chakra-less state.

For a moment, just a single moment, Ayame felt an emotion she never thought she'd feel again. Thrill. Sure, it was a pretty scary thrill, but it made her feel more alive than she had in years. Her senses worked overtime, sharpening into almost painful clarity. Time slowed a little, or maybe she was just moving faster. She didn't know anymore, and she didn't care. All that mattered was getting away, anything was better than facing such a dangerous factor from her past. It made her remember. He made her dig up old feelings and old emotions really best forgotten.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a flitting shadow. She narrowed her eyes. Surely not an old trick from their chuunin days? Nonetheless, she pivoted on the spot, ducked, and pivoted again, just barely dodging three kunai thrown in strategic succession. Her body remembered the moves even though her mind didn't.

She almost smiled, but that was when a cry tore through her lips. Skidding to a stop in blind pain, she fell against a tree stump as she slid to the forest floor. Ayame couldn't help a yelp as her scrabbling fingers sought the fourth kunai thrown deeply into her arm. The same arm a previous injury had scarred.

The pain was excruciating, her old wound adding phantom flashes of pain. Mental and physical pain bombarded her, forcing Ayame to squeeze shut her eyes and wish, wish that that it would just all end. Breathe deeply, her mind commanded, inhale and exhale, force the mind to be blank.

A thud sounded right in front of her, shattering the fragile control she had over controlling the pain. She openly winced, her pained eyes showing every ounce of hurt. Cracking open a teary eye, she registered the blurry form of Itachi towering over her.

"I really wonder." He mused aloud, his intelligent eyes locked with hers. "I really wonder what it must feel like to be so powerless." His glance was laced with condescension and scorn.

"Shut. Up." There wasn't much to say to Itachi's derision.

"When did you become such a pathetic pacifist?" he crouched down to her eye level, studying her. Dipping his fingers into the puddle of blood on the ground, he continued. "When did the sight of blood disgust you so?"

Shuddering at the deep baritone of his voice that held such a dripping amount of dark power, Ayame never felt so vulnerable. The flaring pain in her arm never ceased, and she used every bit of her willpower not to crack and break down into a complete mess.

"Violence is disgusting." And it was, to her. Why were humans born with that innate tendency? To destroy instead of minding their own business? What kind of satisfaction came from cold-hearted infliction of pain? "Fighting. Killing. Slaughtering. Are those the only things in this world that you thrive on?"

"Of course not." He hardly seemed affected by her enraged hiss. "There's plenty more. Women, drink, wealth. Worldly luxuries that are so easy to wrestle away from others."

Ayame just growled furiously.

"Tell me. The truth." The command was fierce and slightly vehement and Ayame was taken aback. Itachi's composure was slightly wavering, his fixed eyes looking harried.

"I.." She trailed off for a second. "It's none of your business! Leave me the hell alone!" But her mind was a whirl of thoughts. She felt confused and disoriented, unsure of herself now. The truth?

He advanced on her menacingly, his Sharingon swirling as the tadpole shaped commas chased each other in the pools of deep red. A finger touched her forehead, pushing her head back to bare her throat. A shimmery kunai was held there, held frighteningly close to her jugular. His unforgiving eyes said that he would really do it.

Ayame closed her eyes, a strange calmness washing over her. Itachi could do whatever the hell he liked. She was no closer to the truth than he was.

A sudden crashing noise had her eyes flying open. From the edges of the glade, Kisame barged in, his eyes frustrated as Gai and Kakashi pursued relentlessly. She registered wearily that Kakashi's sharingon was spinning rapidly, dilating accordingly whenever Kisame stuck back. Ugh. Those eyes. She would never be free of them.

"We've got to retreat, Itachi." Kisame's voice was controlled and firm, despite his hurried movements. "Leader called and I can't-" He winced as a single kunai skid across his ribs, "These pests are annoying." Snarling, he managed to fire off another water jutsu that momentarily gave him some space.

Itachi nodded quickly, and began to rise. Ayame's heart fluttered hopefully. Yes, it's ended. She could go home, cuddle up with a cup of tea, maybe read a book… His eyes flashed up to her face and her heart leapt into her throat. She hated that feeling, the way her hope and strength would so easily flee with a single cold look from Itachi. She hated how he made her so weak. He dropped the kunai, letting it slid from his grasp and land in her lap and nodded to her meaningfully.

"You're useless when you're weak." A second later he was gone, gone. The glade went nearly silent, save for the shallow breathing of the konoha nin. Left her there, weakened, with a bloody kunai. She nearly laughed. What did he expect her to do? Start training? Kill herself? Well she would do neither. Gripping her arm, she attempted to stand.

Kakashi was at her side in an instant, firmly taking hold of her and pulling her to her feet. Gai hovered anxiously, unable to help. "Ayame. Its okay. Ill bring you home." His head snapped up to face Gai. "Tell the Hokage. Jiaiyia needs to know they're on the move" The seriousness in his voice was a stark contrast to the indifferent and rather carefree Kakashi that she was more used to. She leaned against him heavily, and closed her eyes, allowing herself just the once to feel protected. Let someone else be the ninja, the big man and let her be the civilian that she so dearly wanted to be. Even as she wished, she could feel the awakened chakra under her skin, burning through her with a familiar tingly feeling, singing in her veins, focusing on her wound, and begging to be used.

Not for the first time, she denied the urge.

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LALALALALALALAA. I can't heeear you! I KNOW I'm rusty and this is a lame chapter and its really short, but…. Nvm. Blathering excuses, sigh, look at what ive become! D:

F&R