A/N: Alright People~ THIS IS THE last CHAPTER! Thanks for all of you that read this story, OC's and their stories don't get much love, so i'm really thankful to anyone that read this! Love you all! Enjoy!
(i do not own anyone or thing but Rei)
Chapter Seven:
Rei sat hovering like an apparition on the roof; Itachi was perched just beside her. She tilted her small mirror just right in the setting sun, it flashed once. Clear?
Looking to the trees where she knew Kisame sat waiting, watching the guards pacing the wall, she waited for a reply.
Two small flickers came back. Not yet. She couldn't help but sigh impatiently, her legs were getting stiff, she'd need to be able to move quickly to slit Iku's throat before anyone even noticed her, she couldn't do that with cramped legs.
"Patience." Itachi breathed, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Rei was saved from making a biting comment when she caught the single glint flash from the tree line; her legs were off before her tongue. It was a bit of a frightening feeling having Itachi following just behind her, though of course she couldn't hear him, only sensing his very close presence at her heels.
With a fleeting thought, she remembered how having him near on any mission was usually a comfort beyond all things. The last mission skipped into her thoughts; truly it had scarred her in more ways than one.
She felt the loose tiles on the roof beneath her feet, and it made her a bit unsteady as she dropped down silently into the rather tiny courtyard, slinking behind the single tree, which thankfully was large enough to hide two people behind, other wise someone was going to end up in the branches. Rei really didn't like hiding in trees, it was too hard to get a completely silent start that way, at least for her, Itachi would surely fair better.
Her hair slipped over her shoulder in a long strand as she glanced around the tree, the shoji screen was cracked open, she could just see inside. The pale yellow shoji screen was glowing with candle light from inside, and something about the moving, dancing light made her edgy.
One…he's in clear view…there's one more…two, three at the table just there. Her eyes raked over the full length of the sliding door, seeing two more frames of other men, sitting in the room. One of which was a very well built looking guy, almost Kisame's size. She slid back into place, pressing her back to the bark. "He's the one in the middle?" She asked without looking at him standing next to her.
The Akatsuki cloak furrowed as he leaned over her just enough to check, she allowed her eyes to trail the bottom hem, straining to not meet his eyes when he came back across her. "Yes."
That's it, then. One dry word with nothing behind it, no hint that maybe he was worried, and no hint that she was either.
Her usual sigh remained absent now; the small exhale that always came to her just before she took someone's life didn't make an appearance. "Ready. Whenever you are Itachi…" She said in a soft tone.
The small noise of him drawing out a blade sent a subtle chill through her veins. "Go." He breathed.
Her feet flew across the ground as she darted smoothly from behind the tree and veered perfectly for the small opening in the door. Frankly, she would have preferred a less direct method; there was so much room for mistake in the forward strike. Being swift, and quiet, maintaining an element of surprise, all the while making sure that the first blow would be the last. If not, if it wasn't, in all likelihood, the attack would end in disaster.
It was just wide enough for her to slip through on an angle. At the instant she crossed the threshold, she drew her kunai, and seconds later the gleaming metal was covered in a thick red coat. Her mad dash over the tatami mats and the one man that was in the way brought her straight at Iku, she slashed his throat, possibly before his eyes even registered her.
As she predicted to Itachi, the guards were on her before she was on her target, not even half a second later the shinobi she'd had to move over was on his feet drawing a katana from his back. Ex-Anbu…Her inner thoughts hissed angrily. She immediately recognized the stance as one she'd learned from Itachi, and as one that was difficult to counter at close range.
While bringing up her kunai she prepared herself to be cut, or even run right through with the long blade, just as their target's body hit the floor, his shinobi was swinging his weapon at her.
"Move." Itachi's voice called out calmly. Somehow he was already in the room, she hadn't heard him come in, maybe he'd followed right after her. If he had, there was no way she would have noticed. She had been to focused, to intent on her goal, in those first seconds.
Her body moved in reaction to his velvet voice, as she tucked in on herself and rolled out of the way, and back up on to her knees, then rising to her feet, well away from the strike. It gave Itachi the perfect aim as well, now that she was out of the way.
There was a harsh cry from outside, and Rei let her attentions slip to it for only a moment. Loud pounding steps caught her again, there was a rather large looking man coming for her, he seemed more samurai than ninja as he charged her.
His initial strike disarming her as she tripping when dodging back to avoid the slash from his short sword, her kunai clattered to the floor, sliding under the table just as it was flipped over.
"Why me…" She cursed as she ducked below another strike, taking a side swipe at the man's legs, but he was very well built, meaning, her little body wasn't going to move him. But at the very least, she took up her tanto blade that was hidden in her knee-high boot.
Her eyes lit with dark flames as she bounced up, one of her feet digging into the man's stomach, one hand grabbing his shoulder, helping her to climb him. "Die!" She mouthed before digging the dagger into his shoulder and dragging it down across the base of his neck. Pushing herself away before the blood could really flow from him, she was only speckled across her lower face.
She imagined that she must have looked extremely wild, jumping on him the way she had. Rei brushed it off like dirt on her clothes. They only thing about the kill that bothered her, was that she'd gotten blood on her face. She'd feel it for weeks.
Itachi had already dropped the other two, and was coolly wiping blood from his katana as she walked past him, intent on the door.
His hand caught her shoulder. "Rei, are you wounded?" He spun her lightly, with almost no effort.
"No, sir." Rei thought about the many things 'wounded' could pertain to, and just what answer he was looking for. Deciding he meant physically.
"I see." He said, as he looked up to her blood spattered face. "Come here," He directed, sheathing his sword behind his back, flipping the white cloth, stained red on one side to the clean opposite side.
He cupped her face guiding it up and she closed her eyes, feeling foolish, like she was a child, as he wiped her face clean. The soft cloth glided along her pale skin, washing it of any crimson dots.
"Itachi…stop," She whined a bit in embarrassment. Rei wasn't a little girl, she was seventeen, where did he get off treating her like a kid? When he let go she was already out the door, only fleetingly noting that it was broken in with the weight of a dead body.
Kisame was rewrapping his Samehada when she walked out the front gate which somehow ended up open, with one huge door completely broken off the hinges.
"Have fun, Kisame-sama?" She asked darkly as she skidded by.
"Ha! What took you two so long!?" He laughed out, his beady eyes glinting in the night.
"We had more than you," Rei pointed out. Glancing at the sky, and back to the building for a split second.
"Yes, but there were two of you," Kisame grunted from his seat on the ground by the wall.
Rei stretched, in the open gateway, before doing a back flip up onto the wall, her legs brought together, her palms catching the stone as they guided her body down into a sitting position, one leg dangling as the other knee was held to her chest. "Kisame-sama is like three men. Itachi-sama and I aren't even half your size on our own," Rei didn't know why she always got that pout-y, childlike tone around Kisame, but when she did, it made her feel a little better, especially after a mission like this, with so much blood. That room, and been completely painted in red.
"Ahaha!" He seemed to get a real kick out of that last comment.
"We're leaving." Itachi's voice was suddenly behind them. He'd waltzed up in that ever silent manner of his, and now seemed to be glowering at their small light-hearted conversation.
Rei looked over her shoulder, seeing the building just beginning to smolder and burn.
Letting her legs fall to either side of the brick wall, at Itachi's 'get moving, now' look, she planted her palms between her thighs, lifting her body into the air, and pointing her legs together. Rei flipped off with a little spin, landing at Kisame's side, as Itachi followed, with an odd expression hiding just in his irises.
He noted painfully that her eyes were instantly darker after she killed the samurai man that attacked her. Her skin was cold to the touch, he tried to write that off as the night air, but something wouldn't let him.
There was a chill in the air, and it seemed for once he was grateful of the bulky cloak about him. Rei had shielded herself from the cold breeze by standing behind Kisame, which seemed to be working well for her. He was padding along just behind them, most likely the only one in the group still alert.
Kisame seemed to be moving sluggishly, Itachi thought of pushing a faster pace, but decided not to rush them. They were only a little way from the nearest village inn now, it wouldn't take much longer. He could take his own advice and be patient.
The stars shown in splotches on the sky, clouds were covering more than half of them, and the sliver of a moon in the sky was fading in and out of sight with each passing dark mass. He let his eyes wonder up for a moment, enjoying the silver glow it cast down on the small road.
There was a rustle in the line of trees just along side the path, just behind their team. His eyes left the sky. All his senses piqued, attuned to every tiny sound and movement.
Rei heard the noise, almost before Itachi. She strained, listening to their pursuer's footsteps. There was only one. But somehow they'd missed him thus far, assuming he'd followed from safe house and on that small thought, Rei lost the shinobi again.
"Itachi." She whispered in warning, as she slowed and came beside him.
Instinctively she clung to him, something was calling "danger" in her mind, and he sent out a silent and calm "safe" in her thoughts which drew her to him.
He glanced down into her slightly fearful eyes, enjoying the emotion he found there, savoring it. It wouldn't last.
Gently he gripped her enclosed fist, and pulled it from the side of his sleeve, before he pushed her forward just slightly. The next moment there was a kunai stuck in the ground, when it should have met with her flesh, Rei gasped quietly.
I didn't even sense…
Before she could continue that inner thought their little party crasher was entering center stage. The little light-footed pest pranced right in front of Itachi with a dagger between his fingers. Rei squinted in the darkness, hoping to make out the face of the attacker, seeing only a dark fabric, which told of the mask he wore.
Kisame had turned around and was watching with amusement, as the little man tried to take on Itachi. He leaned fully on Samehada, intent on a show, and not a fight.
The lithe Uchiha was easily dodging each strike and slash aimed for vital areas of the body. Seeming to finally grow tired of the foolish dance, he struck out with his own attack.
A bit of shock played against the shinobi, as he rose to his feet, again sailing at Itachi with a flurry of punches and kicks, apparently when he fell he let go of his weapon, or maybe Itachi knocked it from his hands. Rei hadn't seen.
Her dark eyes watched each move, tracking each kick, counting how many times it connected. It was hard enough for the fighter to follow each movement of his opponent, let alone the on looker.
Suddenly Itachi took advantage of his upper hand, catching the wrist of his opposer and drawing behind his back as he spun him. The cry of pain that escaped the man's throat was that of a woman.
A woman? Rei stood stock still, watching quite intently now. She supposed in her thoughts that it did explain a few things, like the smallness of the body, and the mask.
Itachi pulled away the mask. As Rei watched, a beautiful woman appeared before her in the night.
Most noticeably the woman had wavy long brunette hair that stretched just further than her shoulder. She had full rosy lips, and high cheek bones that brought out her eyes, though the color wasn't easily distinguished in the darkness.
The woman spun on him, in the same instant she drew something from the pouch at her back, it was too thin to be kunai, or shuriken, Rei guessed at a senbon.
"Why do you attack us?" Itachi inquired.
The kunoichi stopped, though Rei couldn't see why. She heard that older woman's voice come into the darkness again. "You took my brother from me back there." The Ishida girl could just imagine those full lips moving to form the words.
I do love you…His voice echoed to her from her memories as she watched him eyeing the woman like something he wanted, something he wanted badly. Something he craved.
"You wish to join him?" He asked beautifully in that dark voice of his.
His hand rose from Rei's view, but she guessed he was cupping her face, maybe running his thumb over her bottom lip, the way he had so very many times with her.
There was silence for an extremely long moment; all the while Rei's eyes never left Itachi's, his never leaving the woman's face. "N-no…" She eventually stuttered out.
Rei watched his eyes flash menacingly as he grinned like the devil. The woman fell from his fingers, and Rei saw now he'd indeed had his hand holding her face, but he had a kunai in his other hand, the one she'd never paid attention to.
There was a soft thud as the body hit the ground.
"You won't kill her?" Kisame called out from behind her.
Itachi stepped around the woman, as she lay trapped in his Tsukuyomi no doubt. Rei watched him with darkening eyes as he walked straight past her, meeting up with his partner. "There's no need."
Rei felt like he'd just walked away from her; in the same manner he had the woman laying cold on the ground in front of her only feet away.
In truth, she did doubt he loved her, even though he said he loved her, and did all the things he could to prove it, she held doubt in her mind. And until that morning, she hadn't seen true proof that he didn't care for her, and then again, just now, it came out. It flowed in the way he glanced the woman and her curves, the way he'd passed her like she weren't there. She even felt it in the very way he'd held her face to wipe it, like it was a chore for him to have her around, like she embarrassed him somehow.
"Rei." He called her name, but it seemed empty. Before, there would have been a warm undertone, hidden for only her to hear, it was gone now.
She turned away taking a steadying deep breath. She stayed behind Itachi and glowered at his back with nearly black eyes. You're killing yourself this way… she told herself, but didn't listen just then.
They paid for a room with two bed rooms, like usual. The woman behind the counter handed back the small amount of change and Itachi tucked it away as Kisame started up the stairs to the right.
"Have a nice stay!" She called after the three of them.
Rei wasted no time once she was inside, her backpack was already falling off her shoulder, she was already digging out her night wear. The sliding door to the first room closed behind her as she kneeled on the futon, changing her shirt and pulling off her skirt in favor of shorts. She left them scrunched up as she shoveled the items back in her bag and leaned it against the wall.
Barefooted, she padded out and to the bathroom not acknowledging either male in the living area. Rei closed and locked the door as she faced the mirror. Sliding the hair tie from her wrist she brought back her hair into a long flowing tail. Stopping she realized how long it had been since she had worn the night shirt she was in now. It was a white-gray long-sleeved thing with baby blue pin stripes buttoned nearly to the neck, save for the last two.
There was a wash cloth hanging with a few towels on the wall behind her, she swiped it, using it to wash her face with warm water. Finally the feeling of blood on her face was truly gone, what Itachi had done only cleaned the surface, there was so much more underneath. She could still feel it.
After rinsing her face of soapy bubbles she washed her hands and up her wrists before running a bit of cool water through her hair on her fingers. She sighed heavily before relieving herself. Thankful for the large tub with room enough to sit on the edge, she ran warm water, plugging the drain, as she dipped one set of toes, and then the next.
The water washed over her sore feet, and filled the tub about a quarter of the way before she turned the water off.
She wound her fingers down the side of her right leg, noticing the small indention where one of the buckles had dug in a bit. Cupping her hand, she dripped the warm liquid over it, relishing the feeling.
With her dry hand she reached up and tugged the tie from her hair letting it fall loose around her.
Running her fingers through the length of it a few times she pulled out stray tangles and knots. Closing her eyes she rested her head against the wall, dropping the little red tie on the steps into the bath.
"Breath…" She soothed herself a few times, trying to stop her heart from beating a million miles an hour. Her body was tense and her mind wouldn't focus, the only thing she knew for sure was that she was tired and her heart wouldn't let up.
Slouching against the wall she continued the slow breathing until she was lost on the world.
She woke up when Itachi shifted her into his arms. Her eyes fluttered open, but remained half-lidded. Something about him just then made him look amazing as she met his sin-dark eyes.
"Forgive me, I didn't mean to wake you." His velvet voice sounded low and soft, but Rei wasn't sure if that was just because she was sleepy yet or not.
Wanting to respond she tried to clear her dry throat quietly, but found she couldn't and therefore opted not to speak. Instead she just shook her head to the side a bit, and closed her eyes. The only thing she felt was the heaviness of her limbs, the tiredness of her body, as he carried her to the bedroom. Really, she could have cared less that he'd woken her, as long as she could lie back down soon.
He knelt, cradling her in his arm and on his knee as he pulled back the sheets of the futon, before gently tucking her in, underneath the wickedly soft bedding. The beautiful warmth that took her body was amazing, as was the surprisingly soft feel of the bed.
He sat, watching her, and after a while when she still felt his presence at her side she flicked her eyes open looking hard to see him in the dark room and haze of sleep just beyond that darkness. She saw then, he was topless, having loose fitting sweats on, and only those. His usual pony tail was draped over his shoulder, falling in a gentle caress against his skin.
How can I not love you? How did it jus…t disappear…how did I let it? Rei probed her own thoughts with biting questions.
Somehow, she'd realized subconsciously that, it wasn't that she didn't believe he didn't love her, but that she no longer loved him, not the way she had. Rei shut her eyes for the last time that night .Her absolute need to be at his side…was gone.
I'm sorry…
Rei looked numbly at the bag on her bed. There was only one set of clothes in it, and she didn't know what else to take with her now. Was there really anything she needed?
She didn't care if there was anymore; she grabbed the thick strap on the bag and gripped it tightly.
She was leaving. She had to leave. Being here was killing her.
The doorknob turned under her palm, and just as she was brushing through the threshold she reached out and took a worn, old, book from the table and laid it in the bag before the door could shut on her wrist.
Her eyes looked dull, and listless, she hadn't seen her own eyes in such away since…since she lost her mother.
Though she couldn't remember how the pain felt, she remembered that she had been in pain. Rei thought that maybe she was in pain now, somewhere deep down, even if she couldn't feel it.
The hall was cold, her skin felt it, but not her mind, her mind was already frozen over, an apathetic waste land for dying thoughts.
Rei stopped outside Itachi's door and leaned heavy on the frame. He'd left it open tonight, which made it easier for her. She didn't have to worry about waking him. She knew she wouldn't be able to leave, if he asked her to stay, or if he told her to.
Her dark eyes peered into the room, seeing his sleeping form under the covers rise and fall. She'd made sure to wait for him to fall asleep.
She whispered, "I'm leaving,"
Whatever it was that brought her here, she didn't regret it. Rei was happy she'd met Itachi, happy she had a good life with him, and if this was where that life had to end, she was alright with that, too.
She was seventeen now, there was still a great deal of time for her to start over, make a new life for herself. Rei just needed to find the courage to do it, to leave her life, to go find something better, fate willing.
Rei closed her eyes tight, thanking god for it all. Biting her lip she pushed off the doorframe, turned and walked down the dark hall, her hair swaying back and forth behind her as she went. The candles had died, the walls were tinted a dark maroon color, where she could see them, and only blackness lay in front of her.
Rei walked out the door, carrying only a small pack holding a book sitting atop one set of clothes and told herself…
I'm leaving.
"I know." Rei could imagine him saying in reply.
Ever Numb End:
A/N: Alright thanks again for reading! Make sure to check out Ever Tense the sequel to Ever Numb^.~
AngelFire Rei~