Hi, all! Quiddity here, back from the dead! :D
Okay, first of all, I truly apologize for disappearing for like... a year... and leaving everyone who reads this hanging. It's completely unacceptable.
If you want to know what had happened, drama in my life occurred, I moved, changed schools, got piled up in work and studying and tried to adjust to my new life. Once I did get everything settled down, I realized belatedly that I had lost my motivation to write more of LiY (which is probably something I shouldn't admit). Despite this, I wrote a few more chapters through the months but was deeply dissatisfied with the majority of them for the quality and plot and considered discontinuing this story. However, I thought that it would be unfair to anyone who wanted to read this until the end and find what happens to our poor heroine and also to myself since this was the first fanfiction that I was truly motivated to write and publish for others' enjoyment.
In any case, please enjoy chapter seven of Lost in You.
More details of this story's future at the end of the chapter!
DISCLAIMER: Naruto does not belong to me. Only my OC, Haruno Yuri, is of my creation.
Chapter Seven: Two Months Later
Passing through darkness into my own world,
Will I be more than when I left, be more than when I left?
Never letting go of the lessons I've learned, this will make a change:
A change within me .
"more than it seems" by kutless.
The first thing I thought when my eyes flickered opened was Eight weeks have passed since I've joined this godforsaken organization.
I slowly sat up, my joints, bones, and skin all screaming out in pain. I cringed as I threw aside my comforter, revealing bloody cuts, black bruises, and scarlet burns covering my body. Sighing, I put my hand out on the parts that looked particularly nasty and emitted a green aura, healing the worst of the injuries.
For two months, I had spent the majority of my days in the interior of the Akatsuki headquarters, which were underground (so if I had made a break for it before, I would most likely be dead right now). I adamantly refused to go on assassination missions and instead went on small missions that the leader assigned, such as retrieving a certain scroll from someone or assisting fellow teammates as a medical nin.
And of course, I was nowhere near to getting my own personal mission completed.
"Look who's awake, un."
I glanced up and gave my insufferable roommate a glower. Deidara, the young boy who had dragged me to Pein's office the first day I had been here, was standing in the doorway of the bathroom with a towel around his shoulders.
"No need to be so hostile," he snorted, flopping down onto his twin-sized bed on the other side of the room. "Uchiha really got you this time, didn't he, un?"
I brushed aside a lock of dirty pink hair as I focused on my abdominal area now. "I already know; you don't have to rub it in my face. How long was I out this time?"
"Only for a few hours. Not bad, considering the first time you trained with him you were out cold for a good four days, un." Deidara was sitting cross-legged, fiddling with explosive clay to create more bombs for his next mission.
"Let me reiterate what I said before: you don't have to remind me."
I got to my feet, only to feel jabs of pain all over my body. I winced before hobbling over to the bathroom. Grabbing a towel and a spare change of clothes, I slammed the bathroom door shut, making Deidara yell at me for slamming it once again.
As soon as the rectangular tub was filled with murky green water, I eased myself into it, hissing as nasty scratches and welts screamed out in rejection. I grit my teeth against the pain, clenching my eyelids shut against the agony.
After a good twenty minutes, the pain eased away and I relaxed into the dirtied water, holding up my left hand. I gazed at the ring on my left hand that I had neglected to remove before my bath. Like all the other Akatsuki members, I had been issued the customary porcelain ring with a kanji character etched into the middle of the red circle.
"Kuchin, the Void..." I murmured to myself, reading the single kanji letter. "Aether. The one element that doesn't fit with the others: lightning, earth, water, fire, wind... How lonely."
I let my left hand sink back into the water and leaned my head back against the edge of the tub. It was cruelly ironic how only about a year ago, I was closer to a diamond ring on this hand than a stupid Akatsuki ring.
A year ago. Has it really been that long since I had seen any of my loved ones? I closed my eyes and I could see my little sister laughing unabashedly at some silly joke I made. I could see the beloved Hokage shaking his head in disapproval of some antic I pulled, but chuckling softly to himself. I could see my lover and feel his warm arms around my body –
I was suddenly jerked out of my reverie as I heard a loud crashing sound, followed by a large creaking noise and more crashing.
Fast as lightning, I was out of the tub, dressed in my clothes and the towel wrapped over my head in a turban. I opened the door of the bathroom slowly, only to reveal hell.
Everything on my side of the room was completely destroyed, smothered down by boulders. Boulders. It wasn't even as if they were a few rocks that I could kick away with some chakra! There were boulders sitting ever-so innocently on my bed and my vanity.
"Deidara, you destroyed everything!" I cried in exasperation, trying to salvage what I could. I pulled out my photo album, emerald green nail polish, and weaponry from beneath the rubble, shoving aside some loose rocks. "You could have killed as all!"
Deidara was still on his bed, looking as if he was a child getting scolded by his mother. He kept his eyes down, only mumbling, "It was an accident, un."
"Nevertheless, I can't even brush my hair now because of you!" I pointed to the smoky mess that used to be my side of the room. "What am I going to sleep on now?"
"What the hell happened here?" a voice interrupted.
I whirled around, my eyes widening as I spotted the leader of the Akatsuki standing in our doorway with a brow raised. His swirly eyes turned from me to Deidara expectantly.
We both fell silent. Pein typically had that frightening effect on us.
"I'll assume Deidara caused this mess," he said in that eerie voice of his. "Deidara, you will receive appropriate punishment. And Haruno..."
I flinched as he addressed me.
"... don't be so distressed with your room since I have assigned another mission for you. In addition, you are to reside with Uchiha Itachi until further notice."
I numbly nodded, only wishing for him to get out of what used to be my room. He only gave both of us a final look before disappearing. I exhaled in relief before gasping again.
"What?" Deidara asked somberly.
"I have to room with Uchiha?"
x x x
A few moments later, I was closer to suicide than I thought I'd ever be. All those missions that got me tortured or mortally wounded? Yeah, I would take on another hundred of those if it meant that I could avoid this situation. I could kill myself. I really could. Anything is more merciful than living with the man that I was assigned to capture – wait, I take that back. Anything is more merciful than having to ask the man I have to capture to live with him. I was completely at his mercy.
I took in a deep breath before knocking on the wooden door. It opened only half a second after, startling me.
"What are you doing here, Haruno?"
I dared to look up, mentally kicking Deidara for making me be in this unbelievably ridiculous situation. Red Sharingan eyes looked down at me with a stoic expression. I shuffled my feet sheepishly before handing him a note from Pein.
As soon as he was distracted with the contents of the paper, I quickly stepped into the room, dragging my pack of what belongings I had left behind me. I sat at a desk he had in the corner of his room, giving a thorough look at his quarters.
It was ridiculously clean and organized. It was a spacious room with a relatively large bed at the opposite end with dark purple sheets. A single dark purple couch sat on another wall. One metal bookshelf was sitting on the same wall with a few shelves filled with boring analytical books and notes. I noticed a metal photograph frame sitting face-down at one of the higher shelves, but before I could even ponder about what kind of photo there was in there, Uchiha tore my attention away.
"You're to stay with me?" he asked flatly. Itachi looked slightly bemused as he added, "I assume it has something to do with the crash I heard."
I scowled, but nodded. "Yup. That's right. Deidara kind of blew up my room." I slyly added, "I mean, if you don't want me to, I can just ask Leader-sama to give me money to stay in a hotel or something..."
Uchiha only stared at me for a second before sighing. "It can't be helped, can it? Leader-sama says in his letter that you have to meet him at dawn."
I sighed too, only I was sighing in defeat.
A few hours later, I was getting ready for bed as Uchiha left to be debriefed on our mission for tomorrow. I had my hair plaited in a single French braid, wearing a black tee-shirt stolen from Uchiha and leggings that I had salvaged from the rubble of what had been my closet.
Tiptoeing out of the bathroom, I peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. No Uchiha in sight.
I sighed in relief and dove into his bed, letting my aching joints and bruises relax in the soft mattress. I rubbed my head against the purple satin pillow, curling in a ball on my side before drifting off to sleep.
x x x
My eyes fluttered open as I stretched in bed, inhaling deeply as I usually do in the morning, only to stop mid-breath. Odd, it wasn't the usual scent of exotic flowers that I used for my shampoo. I sat up silently, seeing the sun break across the horizon in a round window to my right.
The red sun which was so akin to a crimson fan finally brought me to my senses: I was sleeping in Uchiha Itachi's bed.
Despite myself, I took another whiff of his pillow. It smelled more masculine than mine did, obviously, with a smell akin to what reminded me of waterfalls. I blushed as I quickly got up, wondering what the hell was wrong with me.
I tiptoed to the bathroom when I spotted the Uchiha prodigy on his couch, his left arm over his eyes and his Akatsuki cloak used as a blanket. A pang of guilt hit me for stealing his bed before I reminded myself sternly, this is the man who killed his family and nearly me several times during training practices.
After I freshened up and grabbed my pack, I quickly made my way to Pein's office. When I reached the doors, I knocked twice before entering.
Pein was sitting at his desk with his partner, Konan, a blue-haired kunoichi who wore a paper flower in her hair.
"Haruno Yuri," he said in what was supposed to be a greeting.
I stiffly nodded. "Leader-sama."
"Your mission is to infiltrate Konohagakure and find the container for the nine-tailed-fox, the Kyuubi." Pen stared at me without much emotion. "As a former kunoichi of Konoha, you should know who that is."
My mouth went dry. Konohagakure? "And when I find him?"
"Nothing. Do not do anything until I give further instructions. Your mission is to examine the jinchuuriki and report back to me."
I nodded. "And when should we head out?"
"Two days from now."
As always, thanks for reading! :)
Notes about the continuation of LiY:
LiY will be continued, but will be on unofficial hiatus. I have written the next three or so chapters but I'm going to edit them or perhaps even completely rewrite them as I am going to go over my plot again (for the hundredth time) and probably revise it dramatically. While Lost in You is on hiatus, I will most likely be writing another story which may or may not be Naruto based. I've begun writing two other stories (one is Naruto-based and the other not) and I'm trying to see which story would be better to publish and which I'll be most likely to keep writing without losing my patience, ha ha.
So, until then, all you lovely people! :]
- Quiddity
