Disclaimer: All Naruto Characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto
Rating: M (ItaSaku)
In the Silence
Chapter 9- Falling in Trust
It wasn't true. His words were the product of years of lies and deceit- anger and hate. And yet as she sat there in the following silence, her fingers gripped tightly around the arm of her chair, she heard their truth.
Itachi truly looked at her for the first time since he had begun his story. As she had watched him while he spoke he was looking back dark eyes meeting jade, and yet he didn't seem to see her. Instead he was lost somewhere in his past.
A past, she could hardly comprehend.
She swallowed, breathing slowly. "So your saying that Konoha…the Hokage…" she couldn't finish.
"Ordered me to kill my clan."
"How…"
"It is simple. The Uchiha clan posed too great a threat to the safety of the village. A threat that had to be eliminated."
She blinked, and stood, unable to sit any longer and she began to pace. "This is… I cant believe… you were… how…but that means… oh!" She twirled and faced him suddenly eyes wide with realization. "But then, then that means your innocent. You were only following orders."
He looked at her, slight shock present on his normally calm features. "I am hardly innocent Sakura. I killed my clan. I have killed others as well to survive. I joined an enemy organization. Did you learn nothing from Hatake?"
She bristled at his insult, but recalled one of Kakashi's rules. Those in the ninja world that break the rules are scum. But those who abandon or betray their comrades, are worse than scum. "I did." She growled "But your loyalty is obviously…"
"Still to Konoha, yes. And it always will be. But as you said to Kisame not so long ago, I am no saint, and Konoha is no heaven full of angels. What I did, I did because it was required of me. And this is my price. I am willing to pay that."
Somehow it didn't surprise her that he had overheard their conversation.
She was getting upset, and she could barely understand why. Less than an hour ago, this man had still been an enemy. A very dangerous enemy. And yet his words changed all that. He was innocent. Loyal to the people of Konoha. And nobody knew. No one knew what he had saved them from. Not even Sasuke.
Sasuke…
"Does Sas…"
"No. My brother does not know. It is not the reason he stopped searching for me."
"Then why?"
"You should know better than I Sakura. You and Naruto and Kakashi were the family I took from him. The family I could never have given him. He went back for you, because he finally realized what would happen if he lost a second time. And because of that, my job as his guardian is finished."
"Guardian!" Her anger boiled over, this time directed at him. "In what way did you ever act as a guardian? You tormented him. Pushed him to hate you, to loathe you. His own brother. How did you ever protect him?"
"I stopped the village from killing him."
She almost choked on her breath. "What?!"
"As long as I was close, just barely out of sight but still playing the dangerous shadow, they wouldn't touch him. I disobeyed the most important order I was ever given by allowing my brother to live. Had I completely disappeared they would have killed him. Quietly no doubt. His body would have been discovered along with the rest of my clan that morning. But he was not, because the Hokage knew I was watching. Sasuke's life was my warning. The council could never allow their involvement to be known."
"But what about later, what about when he could take care of himself?! He was safe."
Itachi's dark eyes glimmered dangerously. "You mean the way he was kept safe from Orochimaru? Safe from the curse mark that consumed him? Do not forget that I saw what it did to him. I heard about the trouble it was giving him and knew that once again the village would be reminded of their sordid past. They would try to "fix" things again. So I went to Sasuke. I reminded the whole world of my presence."
"But I thought you were trying to take Naruto."
He smirked now, openly. "Don't you think that if I had really wanted to take Naruto, he would have been gone long ago?"
Oh, did his arrogance annoy her, and yet he had a point. She had always wondered about that. He and Kisame had been alone with Naruto and Sasuke for over ten minutes. More than enough time for the S-class nin to subdue one hyperactive genin. Even Naruto. And yet they left without him.
"I have never once tried to take Naruto to the Akatsuki."
Sakura's eyes widened in shock as his words, once again, rang true. "I went to the village to remind the council of my condition. My only condition. And Sasuke was left alone."
She stopped pacing. "This changes everything."
"This actually changes very little. What will change everything, is your reaction."
"What are you talking about?"
"You asked my why I brought you here, and now I think I will explain."
Sakura watched him, bewildered that he would skip so seamlessly back to her initial question despite the revelation of a moment before. She resumed her seat and listened once again.
"When I became a member of Akatsuki, I did not simply cut all my ties to the village. Even then I remained a double agent."
Her eyes widened.
"I was connected by only one person, who surprisingly believed what I told him. Over the years I worked to pass him vital information about the Akatsuki, and in turn he gave me information about Sasuke and his team. It seemed that even when he wasn't in the village he was in contact with it. Specifically with Hatake Kakashi, your former Sensei. The two of them sent detailed if sporadic letters, his usually accompanied by one of his most recent books."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Itachi chuckled slightly at her reaction. "Not at all. Jiraiya was one of the most well connected ninja I have ever met. He knew everyone, and was almost universally liked despite some of his less lovable attributes. The third Hokage was his Sensei, the fourth his student, the fifth, his teammate. He made friends in the highest, and lowest of places. He was already watching over Naruto when he ran into me. So keeping tabs on Sasuke was hardly a difficult task. When Sasuke left he knew every step the village did to retrieve him. And all the while I gave him information about this organization."
"So, why tell me all this? Why now, after years of playing the villain.?"
"Because you were willing to listen."
She was confused, what was that supposed to mean?
"Out of all the information Jiraiya gave me about your team, one of the most common things he noted about you was not only your intelligence and high performance in training, but your willingness to both listen and learn. I knew when you followed Tsunade as her apprentice that you would not long remain the young innocent girl that followed my brother so loyally."
Sakura grumbled at that, not wanting to be reminded of that part of her life.
"Then you appeared again when the need arose to save the Kazekage. And my prediction was right. You fought and killed Sasori without so much as a backward glance to see if there would be anyone other than Chiyo to do the job if you failed. Failing was no longer part of your vocabulary."
"I would have died without Chiyo."
"Perhaps. But you were the one that landed the finishing blow." He watched her and she wanted to fidget uncomfortably in her chair, but suppressed the desire.
"It is at least five years later. Tell me, Sakura, what are your duties in Konoha now?" She knew he already knew or he wouldn't have asked. He was trying to make a point, and she wanted to know what it was so she answered.
"I am one of the head medical nin in the hospital. However frequently I act as an ambassador for the Hokage since she cannot leave the village very often herself. I… oh." Sakura looked at him with widened eyes, and he nodded slightly, knowing she had figured it out. "Ambassador. That's what you wanted all along. Now that Jiraiya is dead, your connection to the village has ended. You need a contact. Someone who can get your information to the person who needs it most. The Hokage."
"Very good Sakura."
"But before… before when I asked you told me it was my medical ninjutsu."
"I never said that. I only said that the information about your intelligence was correct. You were only half right. Your skills in medical ninjutsu prove that not only are you a trusted member of the village, but competent and self sustaining."
"Why should I believe you?" It was the question that had been floating around in her head since she had walked into his room.
"Because, you cannot afford to loose the opportunity to receive such information if I am telling the truth. Now, someone is coming. I suggest that you throw something at me and leave loudly unless you want the person to know of our conversation or perhaps, come to a different assumption of why you are in my room with the door closed."
She blushed furiously, instantly pissed that he would say such a thing, a part of her still marveling that he had heard whoever had only now begun to walk up the staires. Using that shocked outrage, she stood and moved to the door. Before her hand hit the door knob, he spoke.
"If you believe me, we can continue this conversation at another time. I am leaving for a mission tomorrow and do not know when I will return so it will have to be after. If you do not believe me, I suggest you take the opportunity to run." She could feel his stare boring into her back as the intended threat and insult reached her. Without so much as acknowledging his statement she threw the door open letting it hit the wall with a bang, and stepped out into the hall. Kisame stood at his door and looked at her in shock. Turning back towards Itachi she growled letting her irritation with him fuel her performance and threw a kunai at his face, using just enough chakra that Kisame would feel it.
Itachi caught the weapon perfectly, an inch from his face.
"Bastard!" she snarled, meaning it. Ugh, she hated when he was that good, and proceed to turn and stomp down the hall towards her room, confused by his story, irritated by his words, and one weapon short.
That evening Deidara and Tobi came back. The first was tired but pulled himself into the kitchen and grudgingly shared the duties of vegetable chopper with the Uchiha. Tobi, seemingly slightly less than bouncy, deftly collected the table ware and set it for five. A half hour later and they were all sitting around the big dining room table with a wonderful assortment of food. Deidara tucked into his as if he hadn't seen proper food in a year and Tobi was finished before Sakura could blink.
"So what got you in such a huff earlier?" It took her a moment to realize that the question was directed to her. She looked up and Kisame's grey eyes were twinkeing back. Damn. Itachi was ignoring them all, slowly making his way through the food on his plate.
"He did." She growled, pointing a chopstick at the Uchiha.
Who continued to ignore her.
"He wont tell me why im here."
Kisame laughed, throwing his head back. "Did you actually expect him too?"
She shrugged. The thing was, he had. And what she knew now was far more noteworthy than any reason she might have come up with on her own. Who would have known that the terrifying Akatsuki Uchiha was actually a loyal servant of Konoha?
"I guess not, but that doesn't mean I like it." Itachi looked up then and caught her eyes. He understood her double meaning, and was looking forward to seeing which choice she made.
After dinner she left the dishes to the others, went out to the training ground, and proceeded to take apart one of the trees bit by bit with her tanto. She got a malicious pleasure out of letting the sharp edges of her blades bite down into the hard wood as she practiced. It was a waste of energy, but that's exactly what she wanted. After this she would be forced to come to terms with what Itachi had told her. But for now she just wanted to break something.
When her blades didn't do enough damage she put them away in favor of her hands, wanting to feel the wood crumble beneath her fingers. Moments later the tree was down, its trunk splintered and cracked straight through, and she set to work making it into sawdust.
How could the village order something like that? How could he have followed it? Part of her still saw him as the villain. He killed his family, his friends, his clan. And without so much as a backward glance he left. But another part of her wanted to see him as innocent. As the martyr of his clan, forced to do a terrible deed in order to save his village.
So which one was the right one?
It couldn't be both, and yet she knew this answer would never come in black or white.
She hit the tree harder, irritated that she hadn't been able to take her mind off of this new development. She stood and panted, whipping the sweat from her brow as she surveyed the area before her. She had indeed created sawdust. The tree was in bits and pieces, and she realized that it had actually helped. She was tired and used that fatigue to carry her back to the house. Inside was quiet and she was able to avoid all the others as she made her way to her room and collapsed on her bed, asleep before she could even finish taking off her gloves.
The early morning found her stiff and slightly uncomfortable in her bed, but well rested and ready to face the day. It wasn't hard. True to his word Itachi was gone, Kisame along with him on another mission. Deidara and Tobi were still sleeping, so Sakura curled up in the library glad to be alone for a bit.
Once again, she had decided to stay.
She could leave now and there would be no one there to stop her.
Naruto might have left, and even Sasuke. But she couldn't. She couldn't just turn her back on someone who was asking for her help, even if he never said it like that. Grumbling to herself about high morals and ideals she tucked herself into the couch further and put all other thoughts from her head, trying to focus solely on the scroll in her hands.
It didn't work. She needed to do something. Standing, Sakura stretched and began to browse the shelves once again, looking through many of the old scrolls that were stacked neatly in piles. She had already searched through the shelves on the first floor before she ascended to the second picking through shelves and scrolls that obviously hadn't been touched in years. She found herself on the far right looking at a high shelf that she had yet to inspect. Pulling down one of the scrolls that looked to be in relatively good condition she was surprised to find a box behind it. The box was long and just barely out of her reach in the high deep shelves so she pulled over a chair and retrieved it, easing it gently from its place behind the many scrolls on the shelf. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, obviously having gone untouched for some years. Tucking it under her arm she returned to the couch and set it on the table in front of her. Slowly she opened the lid. Inside was yet another scroll, only this one was far older than any that she had yet come across. Gently she pulled it out, taking care not to tear the aged paper as she unrolled it. Once it was open on the table she gawked at it
Wait a minuet, this is a, this is a jutsu…
Before her she read a sequence of seals, hundreds of them, that were so complex she wondered if something like this was even possible to accomplish.
What is this?
Sakura continued to read further before her eyes opened in bewilderment and shock, and she sat back for a moment.
"But that's impossible." This jutsu couldn't be real. There was no way you could do something like that. She shook her head and stood, stepping away as if the scroll was dangerous. Glancing once more at the title she tried to believe what her eyes were seeing.
Bloodline Mirror.
This was a copy jutsu.
One that claimed to copy kekkei-genkai.
But how?
She sat and began to read once again, suddenly lost among the signs and requirements of the jutsu. It could only be activated when utilized against a person who already had a kekkei- genkai. It seemed dojutsus were easiest, but if need be, others could be copied as well. The hundreds of seals were a precaution. They were preformed only once at the users discretion, and later a small easier sequence could be used in battle to activate it.
But the precaution was a catch in and of itself. If not performed perfectly the first time, the jutsu became obsolete forever to the person who had tried.
But if they managed it…
Once she had finished reading the whole thing, she began again, her mind automatically committing many of the combined sequences to memory, and she realized with out having really decided, she was going to try. If she failed, she lost no more than what she might have had, but if she succeeded…
Finishing for a third time she sat back. This required intensive studying and no distractions. Thankfully Deidara and Tobi were still asleep and no one else was due back for several days. She stood and closed the door before sitting once again and spending the day glued to the jutsu.
Night had fallen some time ago, and Sakura was suddenly reminded of all those late evenings she had pulled while learning the intensive medical ninjutsus that Tsunade had put to her. Jutsus that were far beyond her capabilities- or so she had thought- until she performed them the next day for her mentor.
She had laid the scroll in front of her on the floor, completely spread, and studied the hand signs. They weren't terribly difficult if she really thought about it. But they were long. Far longer than any sequence she had done before. So she memorized in sections, treating it like a speech that could be learned one bit at a time. Now, at less than an hour before midnight, she had it.
Sitting on her knees she took a deep breath and steadied herself. And before she could think too much, she began.
Sakura's hands moved fluidly, flowing from one sign into the next until her fingers were just a whirl of motion. She didn't need the scroll still open but she followed the symbols anyway, reading as she signed. About halfway through one of her fingers cramped slightly and she quickly soothed it with chakra before she improperly completed a sign. Ten minuets and three quarters of the way later and she was swetting and the strain of maintaining her stability wore at her, but she refused to give up.
And finally, it was done. Suddenly her eyes ran off the edge of the scroll and her hands stopped, holding the last seal when there was nothing left to move to. She was finished. She sank back on the floor and lay on her back, sprawled out and exhausted. She hadn't realized how much of her chakra control finishing that jutsu had required until she was left feeling slightly depleated. And nothing had happened. Not that she had expected it, the scroll had indeed said that it was only activated against someone with a kekkei- genkai, but she wished that there was some indication of wether or not she had been successful.
Slowly she sat up again and gently rolled the scroll back into itself before replacing it in the box. For a moment she considered taking it to her room, but decided against it. She put it back on the shelf where she had found it, deciding that if no one had come across it before her, it was likely to remain that way for some time. Now all she had to do was activate it- or at least try. But timing, and the person on which she tried it was just as important as its validity, if it worked. There were two Akatsuki that had a bloodline trait. Deidara and Itachi. Neither of them were ideal for a trial run. For one Deidara's required special clay infused with chakra, which she did not have, and Itachi, well that was just too dangerous. Perhaps- she decided- she would wait and try it with Sasuke or Kakashi.
Normally she was giddy with excitement at learning a new jutsu, but this one had left her exhausted, and she slowly made her way up the satires and into her room, collapsing into bed for the second time in a row that week. Really- she needed to get a better nights sleep than this- but lost the thought as she slipped away into dreams.
A bang on her door the next day woke her and she was on her feet in an instant, kunai in hand and facing a rather sheepish Deidara as he walked into the room.
She recognized the blonde hair and lowered her guard slightly. It was midafternoon if she was any judge of the way the light was spilling through the window from outside. She had slept most of the day away. Perhaps there really had been something to that jutsu.
"What is it?"
"Kisame and Itachi are back, but Kisame is hurt."
She understood was he was asking but had to remind herself to play along with the enemy game.
"So?"
"So could you do something yeah?"
"Maybe."
"Please?" And that was it. The fact that Deidara was willing to almost beg in order that she look at Kisame made her immediately relent and she followed him out into the hall and down to the living room. How could she have evey pictured these people as less than human?
Kisame sat on one of the armchairs bleeding all over it from a wound in his back just over his shoulder. She stopped when he looked at her. He was smiling- laughing even.
"Its worse than it looks. Don't worry."
She scoffed and walked towards him. "Worse than it looks my ass. Shut up and turn around so I can see what you've done to yourself." He grumbled about tattletale nin while looking at a now smiling Deidara before turning. The muscle over his shoulder blade was cut and she knew that he couldn't use his arm properly. "Nice remodeling Kisame. Planning to become left handed for the rest of your life?"
"Just shut up and do something. If you can that is." She could feel him smirk and poked his shoulder, making him wince slightly. Payback was a bitch. Slowly she pulled apart the torn bits of his cloak and laid her hands over his shoulder, pressing warm green chakra into the wound. She could feel the blood stop flowing and watched with a trained eye as the vessels began to knit themselves before the justsu moved on to the muscles. Within minutes the skin was healing quickly. He wouldn't even have a scar.
"Well that's done. Youd better not get hurt again because im not healing you anymore."
"The same way you weren't going to make dinner right?" He smirked again.
"You know, its not smart to antagonize the doctor. Just because I put you back together doesn't mean I wont take you apart." Her threat was lost in the smile that played on her lips.
"Ill remember that." He stood, hefting his bulk off the chair and twisted his arm up and over his head, testing the range and movement. When he was satisfied that it still worked he turned towards her. "Thanks." She nodded. "I think Mr. Perfect over there got hit too, not that hed say anything. You might want to risk asking if you feel like getting an answer from him." Kisame smiled again before leaving, Deidara not far behind. She turned and saw Itachi for the first time. He was by a window in the corner, his cloak keeping him in the shadows so well she hadn't even seen him when she came in. He looked at her, his dark eyes bright red from his place by the window. Just then she recalled the jutsu she had performed the day before and had to surpress the urge to go through the quick activating sequence to see if it actually worked.
This was not the man to try that on.
"I am fine. Kisame was mistaken, I was not wounded."
"Which is of course why there is blood on your cloak."
"How would you know its mine?"
"Its on the inside of your collar."
He continued to watch her before shrugging slightly and taking a seat by the window. She walked towards him. She could see a small scratch, hardly noteworthy on the edge of his collarbone but reached out a hand anyway and healed it. She almost thought he would refuse but he turned and looked out the window. It was his reaction to turning that made her stop. His jaw clenched, and he immediately stilled.
"You are hurt." She stated.
He looked up crimson eyes meeting jade. "Not in this mission."
"Then why are you in pain?"
He was silent for a moment. "It is merely a simple headache."
A headache. Right.
"Did you drink too much or something?" She was teasing but the look he gave her could have and should have rendered her a pile of ashes.
"I do not drink."
"So then what is it?"
"Nothing you can fix."
She was intrigued. There was very little besides death that she could not fix. "Itachi, you trusted me with one truth already. Note that I am still here. Perhaps it is your clue that you can trust me with another."
He gazed at her, and sighed, almost too slightly for her to catch. "My headache stems from my eyes." And proceeded to trust her once again.
Chapter 10- Better Left In the Silence
A/N: Heyla all! My apologies for taking so long to update. I didnt have that much time to write because a friend was over, but i did try. Anyway heres chapter 9! Hope you like it.
In response to several questions here goes nothing... I do not know how long this is going to be, but i have lots of good ideas and its not going to stop any time soon,
Lemon, however, is coming soon, so if youd rather not deal with that, i suggest finding another story. ^^ Please review! I love hearing from you all! Thanks for reading!
