Oh, right, disclaimer! I do not own or make any profit from Naruto or InuYasha or their respective characters. They are merely outlets for my over-creative mind. All credit goes to their respective creators.

Chapter 6

Jiggety Jig: He can breathe, but he can't truly see his healer...yet.

The first thing Itachi realized when he woke up was that he could breathe. Granted, there was a weight on his chest that prevented him from fully testing his apparently-healed lungs, but there was a distinct absence of choking in his chest. His arms sluggishly moved, trying to dislodge whatever had him pinned. Obviously it wasn't some other shinobi because he could sense his chakra. It was slowly rebuilding but it was entirely accessible. His hands weren't bound and the prodigy could tell he was in the open air-even if his eyes were still closed.

The first thing Kagome realized when she woke up was that she was extremely sore. Her legs ached from running, her palms from diving, her back from the killer-frisbees, flying-knives and giant fireballs. She was also still very tired. The young priestess had used a lot of her spiritual gifts to heal the young man before she, too, collapsed. She felt the steady, uninhibited rise-and-fall of the chest beneath her and heard the sound of his clear breathing. She also heard a small groan and began to realize her patient was waking up. Strong, calloused hands clamped around her upper arms in a vice-like-grip.

Itachi sat up, dragging whoever was on his chest with him. He still hadn't opened his eyes, preferring to let them slowly adjust to the bright sunshine. The S-class missing-nin stifled a groan as he straightened and finally opened his eyes. His vision may have been near-blind, but he could still see many things up close. Thus Itachi highly doubted the small woman in front of him with smooth hands and an open-book visage could be any sort of enemy. Blue eyes greeted him from a tanned-but-young face and black hair surrounded her small, pert nose and naturally-full lips.

Kagome was half-dragged into the young man's lap and sat still throughout his entire inspection, silently doing one of her own. She smiled just a bit as her eyes connected with his onyx one, analyzing the lines beneath them and crows' feet at the edges. His hands were rough but not in a cruel way. She had a feeling that was just how they had become through years of hard work. The black cloak intrigued her, the red clouds a pattern she had never seen before. Their eyes connected again and she smiled.

"I'm Kagome. Do you live here? I didn't mean to disturb anyone. I was trying to use the Bone-Eater's well like always and ended up here somehow. Where is this anyway?"

Itachi just blinked as the woman-Kagome apparently-talked a mile-a-minute. She seemed to ramble slightly, veering off on wide, circular rabbit trails about people he didn't know before coming back to her original point. He wondered just how he was going to get her to shut-up without being overly rude. What she said next, though, startled him.

"How is your breathing? It was horrible when you collapsed earlier. It sounded like you were gargling in your lungs!" She shook her head, amazed at him. "I can't believe you were still alive! That was a bad...whatever it was and took practically all of my energy to get rid of. Did you go play in the rain a lot and never warm up afterwards as a child? That's horrible for your health, you know."

The young man covered Kagome's mouth with his hand, watching her through narrowed, hazy eyes. "You healed my lungs?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't look so offended." Her words were slightly muffled by his hand as the priestess issued an inelegant snort. "Of course I healed them. You sounded like you were about to die so I did what I could." She fidgeted slightly. "I haven't had the chance to heal your eyes, yet, though. I'm sorry. I ran out of energy before I could get to them. I'm better now. If you want I could-"

"Why?" Itachi snapped. He cursed when the young woman seemed to wilt in his hold. He hadn't meant to sound so rough but this curiosity was nagging at him and these thoughts wouldn't leave him alone. Why was she doing this? He didn't know her and it was fairly obvious she wasn't some sort of shinobi trying to capture him. So why? To him, the young man who had grown up in the world of never doing something that gained you nothing, it made no sense to heal someone you didn't know just because they might be dieing.

Kagome looked at him with sad, blue eyes. It was almost as if she could see into his soul. It was far from pure but just as far from tainted. The man before her had seen life's tragedies and lived through them, just as she had. Something, though, told her he had seen and done far more than her. His expression was so guarded she had to wonder if he would let anyone in his heart at all.

"Because it was the right thing to do," she insisted after a moment. "You were nearly to the point of not being able to breathe. And I can tell that you still can't see." There was silence as he removed his hand and just watched her.

Her voice came quiet, timid in the still afternoon air. "I could heal them for you, if you want."

Itachi's eyes never left her face as he debated on letting her near his prized weapon. Although it is a weapon that is starting to loose it's honed edge. He took a deep breath and realized that his lungs were still clear. Whatever she had done was lasting. At that moment, he heard a sound he knew would come eventually-the sound of shinobi arriving to investigate the disturbances earlier in the afternoon.

Now the young heir had to make an entirely different decision. Take the girl-healer with him or leave her here to distract the leaf-nin while he made his escape? If he took her with him, he would need to use chakra to transport them out of the village walls before he ran back to his cave. If he left her as a distraction, he could just run and only use a bare minimum of chakra to keep his balance in the trees. After a brief second, he decided to keep her. If she was really willing to heal his eyes she could become very useful.

Kagome squeaked when the young man whose lap she currently occupied abruptly brought his arms up around her with a gruff "Hold on" and began to make some very strange hand signs. The priestess-used to situations where she wasn't really in control and didn't know what was going on-simply did as told and grasped ahold of his cloak as they suddenly disappeared in a poof of smoke. They reappeared on the outside of the big wall she had briefly seen before being attacked by fireballs, frisbees and knives. Thick, old growth and trees surrounded them.

Itachi lowered the priestess to her own feet before taking a knee in front of her. "Get on," was his next command.

She eyed him and was suddenly struck by how much she missed her friends. It hasn't even been a full day and I miss them already. With a sniffle, she climbed aboard, burying her face in the man's back as he stood and began to fly through the trees.

"What's your name?" she asked after a while, tired of the silence between them.

"Itachi." His red eyes glanced over his shoulder before continuing to look ahead, making sure no traps were set for them.

***Swing Shift***

Hehehe...I know, I left a bit of a cliffy again but these two are just being so stubborn! So more of these two will be in the future. Sorry about missing a week. College hit, work did too and I had sooo much to do that first week! Homework, work, hanging with friends...you get the picture. ;)