The Ring

Chapter 6

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Last time: Itachi questions about Shiki's past, Shiki tells Sasuke he's whipped.

Mikoto smiled from the doorway as she watched the beginning of Shiki and Sasuke's fight. Shiki continued to taunt her son and he continued to throw furniture at her only to fail as she ducked nimbly away.

The woman chuckled and was about to turn around to go back upstairs when she saw the look in Itachi's eyes. He was staring intently at Shiki and without even seeing the front of his face, Mikoto knew that he was studying the way she moved and little things like quirks and facial expressions.

"Like father, like son." She muttered before she walked further into the room and leaned up to whisper in his ear. "Stop you're gonna make her think something's wrong with her." Itachi glanced back and frowned down at his mother.

"Sorry," Mikoto chuckled and combed her son's hair back with her fingers as they continued to watch Sasuke try to physically hurt Shiki.

"Why are you saying sorry to me? You dork." She flicked him on the forehead ,Itachi sighed as he stood up. He waved goodbye to the members of the group that were paying attention and walked out with his mother. She lead the way to the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee. She sat down gracefully and gestured for Itachi to do the same, he settled down and looked at his mother questioningly.

"Is the information I told you going to effect the way you see those kids?" Mikoto said bluntly locking onyx eyes together as she stared into Itachi's. He looked to the side and sipped the black liquid.

"No." He sighed, setting the cup down and looking his mother square in the eye. Mikoto smiled and patted her eldest sons' hand.

"Good," She replied, leaning back and closing her eyes, "I don't want you to judge them over something they can't control." Itachi gave a small grin at his mother and kissed her cheek as she stood up.

"I'll see you later, I have to go to work." Mikoto patted her sons' cheek and smiled as he walked out. Chuckling, she shook her head.

"Like father, like son."

The Ring

"So I took their names and ran it through the ANBU database then managed to pull up their files." Shiki yawned widely and blinked owlishly at the computer screen. After the teens had met the Akatsuki, Shikamaru had noted everyone's names and stored them in his memory.

"So what do they all do?" Temari asked, not lifting her head from her boyfriends' lap. Shikamaru sent a small affectionate smile down at his girlfriend and moved the data onto the larger screen.

"Kisame is just really strong apparently, Deidara specializes in anything explosive, Sasori works with poison, Zetsu's a spy, Hidan is a weapon specialist, Kakazu is a medical dude," Shiki rose an eyebrow at his choice of words but let it slide and allowed him continue. "Konan does documents and forgeries, Pein is the strategist of the group, Tobi does a little of everything and Itachi is a martial arts expert."

"Wow, take a breath." Temari joked just before she yawned while Shiki rubbed her eyes and sighed in exhaustion. She stood up and stretched leisurely, she moaned as her back vertebrae popped and out of habit, kissed Gaara.

"So a group of specialist are out to get us." Kankuro said, dumbing it down for himself. Shikamaru nodded and flexed out his fingers.

"Yeah, so we need to be more careful with our invitations and keys, not to mention our identities." Everyone nodded and Shiki rubbed her eyes. "Now that everyone understands let's go to school." Kankuro grimaced from his place on the floor and glared up at Shiki.

"Let's ditch today." He whined.

"It's troublesome but we have a World War Two test today." Kankuro groaned and Shiki tossed a backpack onto his head.

"Damn you woman!" Shiki grinned and ran out of the house with Kankuro on her heels.

The Ring

"I should kill you." Kankuro grumbled as he peered over the first floor windowsill. Shiki shushed him impatiently and nodded at Shikamaru. The brunette dialed the school number and asked for Might Gai. The teacher in the classroom yelled something and ran out the door. Ino immediately placed herself by the door and gestured over to window.

Kiba grinned wolfishly and opened the window for the five outside. They scrambled in and as soon as they were all seated, Gai-sensei walked in.

"Aw, my youthful students!" He yelled, happily, giving everyone a thumbs up, "I just had the most youthful conversation with a man who wishes to sell my jumpsuits!" Shiki's eye twitched and sent a questioning look at Shikamaru. The genius shrugged and simply laid his head down on the desk before he fell asleep. Shiki chuckled and leaned her chair on its back two legs as she listened to Gai-sensei go on about the lateral area of squares.

After about ten minutes and half the class falling asleep they were interrupted by a voice.

"Excuse me?" The class looked up and watched as the secretary, Shizune, walked in. "I'm here for Gaara Sabaku, he's been assigned ISS(1) for failing two of his classes." Gaara rolled his eyes and walked over to Shiki.

"Will you be alright?" He murmured into her ear, she grinned at him and nodded.

"Yeah, now go you juvenile delinquent." Gaara smirked at her and headed out of the room.

"Now let us youthfully talk about lateral area!" The class groaned and Shiki frowned as she picked up a piece of paper and began to chew paper for spit wads. She caught Kiba's eye and they both grinned at each other as they began to polka dot Guy's jumpsuit with white paper every time he turned around.

The Ring

Gaara followed the principal's assistant and glared at the poor woman's back. This stupid woman taking him from Shiki's side. What if she had a relapse in the middle of class? Of course someone from their gang would help her he was sure, but still? What if no one noticed the warning signs?

The slight purple tint her eyes acquired or the way her body twitched at the lightest sound? Dammit none of them would notice like he would because none of them noticed her like he did. He made sure to always watch her, to always kiss her slightest twitch or darkening of her eyes.

Gaara ran a hand through his red hair and growled softly in his throat. Damn he knew he loved her but she didn't love him back in the same way. She thought of him as a brother, a protector, the worlds' protector from her darker side.

Sometimes they both slipped up and someone ended up dead. Then while she locked herself in her room in guilt, he made sure the police blamed the Ring for it, that way they were still blamed in a way for it. He didn't blame her at all, no one did, after all it was his job to stop this so in his mind it was his fault.

"Mr. Sabaku, we're here." Jerked from his depressive thoughts, Gaara glanced at Shizune as he passed her and nodded at the day's ISS teacher, Ebisu. "You'll be here for 5 days." Gaara's head snapped around to stare at the retreating woman's back. Damn, he'd have to take extra steps now that he'd be gone from Shiki for more than eight hours. Gaara growled once again and decided to take his anger out on Ebisu by staring at him for those eight hours.

The Ring

Shiki yawned as she walked out of the building at lunch with her backpack now full of books and homework. She spotted Gaara leaning against his car and rushed over to stand by him. He heard her approaching and quickly ran over to kiss her quickly.

"Don't worry," She whispered, as he drew her in for a hug, "I haven't had any of the symptoms." Gaara held her out at an arms length and kissed her quickly.

"Doesn't matter, I'm gonna be away from you five days and on top of that you have your 'job' after school." He replied, smirking at the word job causing her to smile. Still grinning, she relaxed a bit more when he ran a hand through her hair and after letting him do it a few more times moved away from him with a sigh.

"It's okay really." She insisted giving him a little push, "Now go before you get into even more trouble." Gaara growled deep in his throat and Shiki leaned up to press her lips against his. He sighed and deepened it briefly before he took off for the window he'd slipped out of. Shiki watched him go and smiled softly at the worry he'd shown.

She giggled as she thought of how his fan girls would act if she sold pictures of that look and threw her bags into the car before she walked back into the school.

Three days later: Thursday

"CHOCOLATE!" The cashier behind the student store counter cringed and began to gather every piece of chocolate he could see. By the time she got there he had an enormous pile and was busy throwing it into a bag. He flinched when he met a pair of dark blue eyes and picked up his pace. Finally he got all of it in and when the red haired demon left he was shaking and hyperventilating.

Shiki smiled as she walked away from the store and hurried over to her group of friends.

"Must you really scare all of the cashiers." Sakura groaned when she saw the bag of chocolate, as president of the student council she had to convince (blackmail) other students into taking the position when Shiki managed to scare one into a break down.. "Yes." Kiba kissed his girlfriend before she could leap onto Shiki and the two began a tongue war.

"K-Kiba, S-Sakura." Hinata muttered, her face turning scarlet as she hid her face into Sasuke's shoulder. The Uchiha smiled at how cute his fiancé was and pressed his face into her hair. Shiki snickered at the lovey dovey boy and then winced when her stomach contracted painfully.

"Bathroom." She wheezed, jumping up and running through the hallways. When she got there she pushed into a stall and heaved up all of the chocolate she'd just eaten.

"Gross, man." Shiki turned to glare at Temari who had followed her but the glare lost its effect when she had to turn and throw up again. Temari walked over and held her sisters' hair back as she barfed. Shiki whimpered when she was done and leaned her head back against Temari's shoulder.

"I think you should lay off the chocolate."

"Way to state the obvious." Shiki snapped irritably, Temari glanced down at her and sighed.

"You should skip the rest of the day, go walk around or go to Zabuza's dojo." Shiki stopped glaring and sighed before she nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, sorry I snapped." Temari ruffled the younger girls' hair and grinned at her guilty face..

"No worries just go feel better."

The Ring

"Go feel better she says, go take a walk she says, go to Zabuza's she says." Shiki mocked the blonde girls' words. "But she didn't know there is nothing to do!" Shiki glared at the door to Zabuza's dojo and stuck her tongue out at the closed sign before walking down the street. Silently cursing her stomach ache, Shiki failed to notice when two guys started to approach her.

"Hey, girlie." Shiki looked up and realized she'd walked into one of the worse parts of town. "Looking for some fun?" A guy with brown haired sneered and even though Shiki was fully clothed she felt a little more naked as the guy looked over her body.

"No." She said as firmly as she could adding a glare as an extra measure.

"Come on," The second guy leered at her, "Girlie like you needs some fun." Shiki crossed her arms and glared at the boys.

"I don't need you to have fun." They stepped closer and Shiki felt a familiar feeling creep into her stomach. Not now!

"Bitch, that was an order not a suggestion." The first guy spat, leaning forward and grabbing the front of her shirt. "Now get on your knees."

"No." His fist came up and slammed into Shiki's cheek, she winced at the pain but still glared at him. The man failed to realize when her blue eyes started to darken and turn purple.

Dammit, go back down, go away! Please go away!

You need this, Shiki.

No please not again.

Here I come.

No I don't want to do it.

Shiki, you can't fight this, it's part of you.

No it's not, please just go away.

To late.

The Ring

"Hey, Itachi isn't that Shiki?" Itachi glanced at Tobi and turned to look across the street. Sure enough, Shiki was walking down the sidewalk at a slow pace, not even noticing the people around her.

"Yeah it is." He stared at the girl, with a raised eyebrow. Why isn't she in school?

"Let's go say hi." Tobi cheered, bouncing in his seat spastically. Itachi frowned at his cousin and shook his head.

"No, now sit down." Tobi complied reluctantly and Itachi turned back to the street. Shiki hadn't stopped walking and Itachi could see two men tailing her. Cursing at the girls' stupidity in this part of town, he made an excuse to Tobi and rushed out of the restaurant. He ran down the street and turned down a side street.

Up ahead he could hear some fighting and he picked up his pace. When he turned into the entrance of the alley way he froze and stared at Shiki. She was splattered with blood but the two men at her feet were still moving.

"Shiki!" She didn't stop as she raised her foot and smashed it into one of the guys' stomach. Itachi rushed forward and pulled him away from the girl.

"Imagine how surprised we were when Gaara kissed her full on the mouth."

Itachi froze as the memory surfaced and hurried to stand up. Shiki had turned to the other man and Itachi grabbed her arm and stopped her from advancing. She turned to him and onyx eyes met violet before Itachi smashed his lips onto hers. It was a clumsy kiss but it still did the desired effect.

"I-Itachi?" He grinned in relief down at Shiki, who looked around her in confusion. "How did you know how to calm me down?" She asked, Itachi took off his coat and wrapped it around her.

"My mother." Shiki glanced up at him and Itachi could see she had started to cry.

"I-I tried to stop, but I couldn't." She sobbed out before she buried her face into his chest. Itachi sighed and took her shoulders.

"It's alright, now lets go, my apartments just up the road."

Revised March 15, 2012