Gimble

Chapter 6

"I could be studying," I stated off the bat, ducking under a shrub as another set of shuriken were tossed my way. Shisui was near me, so close that I could practically feel his chest pressed up against my back.

I didn't get the chance to see where Itachi had disappeared off to, but I suppose it was just as well since this shrub could barely hide two let alone three.

"Where's your sense of adventure, Tsu-chan," Shisui whispered with a raising grin that I snarled at.

"If we survive this, you won't make it to your next adventure," I muttered, finally catching sight of Itachi who rested perched on a high tree branch with his Sharingan activated.

The two Iwa ninja looked to be befuddled and irritated as they scoured the forest clearing. "Where the fuck did they go?"

The other ninja let out a growl that echoed in their crow masks. "Come out, kids. If you surrender, we won't hurt you."

Shisui scoffed, "Does he think we're idiots?"

"I think you're an idiot," I muttered as I noticed with slight apprehension that I left my weapons bag back in my apartment next to the fallen stack of books.

"Don't be cruel. Those could be your last words to me," Shisui retorted.

"Good. I meant them," I replied, taking a slight motion forward to look through the opening of trees.

"If Itachi was here, we could make a plan to take them on," Shisui stated, his voice suddenly lowering into a serious baritone. I was slightly surprised that he knew how to be serious at all, considering he was a giant idiot who shoved me out a window only twenty minutes ago.

"You are so annoying, I wish everyone was dead," I mumbled under my breath, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Okay, so I'm sensing some left over tension between us," Shisui said and I narrowed my eyes. "Let's put it behind us and work together for now."

Slowly, I nodded and tightened the bandages over my eye so they wouldn't fall off in an inopportune moment. "You distract, I'll attack."

"Wait, that's your plan?"

"You have flashy Ninjutsu, on that level, we play to your strengths. I have brute power—and quite frankly, your punches suck," I explained in a whisper.

"I suppose. Itachi will probably try out a Genjutsu the moment he has the chance, if he hasn't already," Shisui commented and I frowned.

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Itachi is what you call a-"

"I just remembered. I don't care."

Shisui pulled out a kunai, brushing his arm against my spine as he did. I did my best to control the Chakra that was coursing through my veins, which was a harder feat when I tried to do it actively.

"I swear to god, I'm gonna fuck these kids," the crow ninja's curse did not fall on deaf ears and his partner immediately shushed him.

"Okay, I know we're going for that whole 'intimidating' vibe, but I think you gotta bring it down a notch," the other crow ninja replied. Shisui and I visibly ignored the banter as we continued our own.

"We need to have a serious talk about manners later," he commented, and I found myself very much bemused.

"Carve it on your tombstone," I retorted. "When I attack, you need to leave and get help." I turned to him just in time to see a moment of hesitation cloud his expression.

"I'm not leaving you two."

"I'm not thrilled at being left to die either."

"You're not making me feel better."

"Why should you feel better?" I asked in a monotone. "I'm the one with the death sentence. You have your teleporting. Get out of here the moment I attack."

Shisui stared at me, long and hard, his brows furrowed but I didn't give him a chance to argue as I shoved him out of the bush. He stood up slow and awkward, his legs straightening as he let out an awkward whistle while the two ninja stared him down.

"Okay, I know what you're thinking," Shisui raised his hands up in the air, his smile absent of all nervousness. Instead it just appeared to be awkward.

"Let's kill him," the crow ninja stated, his eyes narrowed and the other ninja sprung forward. I briefly wondered if I would be the reason for his death before the crow's katana went straight through the kid's body as if it were made of smoke. "The fuck is that?"

Shisui only continued to grin before the illusion of him flickered away completely in a barrage of black crows. I was vaguely impressed by Itachi's swift action of Genjutsu and Shisui's act of disappearing.

Those two are strong. "Where the fuck he go?" one of the crow ninja hissed, but before he could get far, my fist broke into his spine causing him to shove forward until his hands hit the ground. My neck cracked as I straightened my body to the ground, spinning my leg so I could make contact with the second ninja. However, he wasn't nearly as unprepared and surprised as the first and his hands immediately gripped my calf.

"You are way out of your league, little girl," the man said and I felt my eye narrow at his comment. I never got a further idiotic retort from him as his hands let go of my calf. He looked around, his eyes scanning the area and looking right through me. "Where the fuck did that chick go?"

I'm right here.

"Yano...I think I'm about to crap out my own spine," the other ninja said, straightening up and glancing right through me as if I were there.

Genjutsu? Itachi...how did you...?

I decided not to waste the chance he had given me and I pushed out Chakra into my arms much differently than I had before. This time it was sharp, pointed and formed a blade of Chakra at my finger tips. It was a Jutsu I hadn't performed as Izana. It was a medical Jutsu that belonged strictly to Misaki. How fitting that it warps my mind into bloodlust when I used it.

"It won't last much longer," Itachi's voice hissed all around me. "Run."

I am Izana Tsukasa. I don't run.

I punctured my hand into the kidney of the second ninja, very close to where I had kicked him before. He shot down to his knees, his mask falling from his face as his eyes found me. No Genjutsu could hide me now and his hand coiled around my neck.

"I'm gonna fuck this kid," he hissed and the first ninja sighed.

"This kind of talk is why no one likes going on missions with you, Machi," the ninja, Yano, said as he grabbed me by my hair, pulling it back and me along with it. "You are a scary looking kid. There's death in your eyes...sorry..." he chuckled. "Eye."

Being held up in the air by my hair was not how I was hoping to spend my afternoon. I had been planning on far more appealing a Friday, like maybe buying more barbeque or burning Umino-sensei in his chair for the vast amount of homework he bestowed on me.

Before he could undoubtedly kill me, Itachi's leg kicked into his back, knocking me down underneath him. I struggled to get away, but his hands wrapped around my neck, his fingers digging into the soft skin of my throat and suctioning off my air. I cursed the weakness of my arms as I slammed my palms against his wrists, trying to get him to release my throat.

How odd that your strength became diminished without air.

His mask was lose and it fell off his face and landed right next to me. His face was cold but it wasn't even half as scary as the woman's whose skin I wore right now was the day she tore my tongue from my throat.

As if his features could scare me. I would not die again.

No...never again.

I ripped my fingers into his eye, gouging it with my nails and the last bit of my Chakra.

"You fucking bitch," his hands went slack from my throat, the blood coating my face as the back of his hand struck my cheek. I could hear only vaguely Itachi fighting off the other ninja. He was calling my name, but all I could focus on was the air running into my lungs and fueling the coughing from my lips.

I could taste blood against my tongue and hear the ninja's pained cries before it all went silent. I caught the glimpse of the Konoha police force, funneling in through the trees and surrounding us.

"Tsu-chan, you okay," I felt Shisui help me up, my face covered in blood. Everything was blurry and my one good eye was shielded by the red goo.

"It's not mine," I whispered, running the back of my hand over my eye, finally catching sight of a black haired Uchiha man that I vaguely recognized as Sasuke's father...Itachi's father. The two ninja we had faught off were in custody, and the one without his eye stared me down, clutching his hand over the bloody face.

"You are terrifying, Tsukasa," Shisui muttered with a small smile. "Did you do that to that guy?"

"He made a joke about my eye," I replied simply and Shisui slightly laughed.

"I make jokes about your eye, does that mean I'm special?" he grinned, but flinched when I raised my hand. "Okay! No more jokes! You have no sense of humor, Tsu-chan," he said and I found myself slightly surprised by the innocence of his statement.

"I suppose I don't," I said, watching Itachi as he walked up to us. Shisui was sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head.

"We made a pretty good team if I do say so myself," Shisui stated and I found myself in agreement.

"Why didn't you run?" Itachi asked and I ran my fingers over the red markings on my neck.

"I don't run if I can fight."

"Don't you want to live?" he asked instead.

"Cowards don't live long," I replied, watching as Itachi's dad walked our way, his eyes stared me down so intently that my words ran mute.

"You're Izana Tsukasa then?" he asked and I only nodded. "Hmm. Good work you three. Who know what would have happened if they got away."

"What did they want anyway?" Shisui asked.

"Who knows, but I have an idea," the man tapped his finger against his head, referring to his eyes. It made me remember something as Misaki. How many enemy ninja would it take to steal and study a fabled Konoha Kekkei Genkai?

Obviously more than two.

葉 ︎葉

"Kidnapping is not a good enough excuse for not completing your homework, Tsukasa," Umino-sensei stated and I felt a rush of annoyance for his remark.

Damn you, Uchiha Shisui.

"Get it to me by noon today, or I will have to fail you," he stated, going back to the papers on his desk.

If I slam his head at a 35 degree angle with enough force I could snap his neck. "Yes sensei."

I hate you so much.

By the time I made it back to my apartment, I saw Shisui sitting on my bed with his face buried in my notes. Itachi on the other hand was at my desk, his pencil scrapping out my report on the defense measures Konoha took during the war.

I didn't say anything and just took my book from the stack, lifting up my unfinished paper on Chakra control and sat down on the ground. "You're not even gonna ask?" Shisui said, and I rolled my eye.

"I have to get this completed by noon or I'm kicked out of the academy. Get to the books, idiot," I retorted.

"You're the idiot," he muttered, but raised his hands when I snapped my head to stare at him. "I'm kidding!"

My eye narrowed, "By noon."

I ignored his mumbling, but my heart felt slightly warm by Shisui's stupidity and Itachi's quiet kindness.

How useless this feeling was.

Author's Note

gimble – v. – To make holes, as though with a hand-drill

It's been forever. I'm supa sorry!