Hey everyone so sorry for the wait I had vacation... yea I know I should have told you guys sooner but it came out of no where beleive me... well anyway here it is:
REVIEWERS YOU ALL ARE GODLY!!
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burningdarkness-- haha its k... but I was going to explain the whole eyes thing in this one just for you but it sounded so random that I had to take it out but I promise I will elaborate further later onn with that ... oh and thanks for the confidence booster IT SERIOUSLY HELPED haha well here ya go...
Yami416-- haha your welcome and now I should be begging for forgiveness because this took so long, like I read you comment and I began working right away on this chapter but I stopped halfway through and then I couldnt get back on the same rythm I had before when I was writing it. SO SO SORRY!!
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Toxic Cupcakes-- I love your name too by the way but I know what you mean with the whole updating faster I'm so sorry well thank you sooo much for the booster here ya go...
Escaping Dawn
Chapter 9:
The sound of dead body weight hitting the ground next to her filled her ears. The impact shot a layer of dust onto her skin, coating it. She didn't dare open her eyes; afraid of what the world outside of them might show her. Though she knew very well of what she might have seen.
Behind her eyelids, she was safe…. Out of sight… out of mind…, but that was only what she was trying to convince herself. Everything slowed she thought; even though she didn't see it… she could feel it.
The sounds of her breathing was deafening, but entirely too slow for the situation… no in true time, she was gasping for air, because her breaths were too shallow from the pain that swelled in her chest, why it was there was a mystery to her…. She was not physically hurt… she knew that much… so then what was it?
She could hear the steady steps coming… for her. They echoed in her mind… taunting her, but something odd happened… she felt a strange sense of calm. She was at peace with this fate of that she will die along with Itachi... it was… serene.
She felt her emotions drain leaving her an impassive shell of her former self. The only thing that consumed her mind now was a want… she needed to injure this man, cause him pain for the pain he had just caused her.
She knew subconsciously that she would die during this… and that's exactly why she still felt at peace. How could she survive when invincible Itachi fell prey to him? She opened her eyes, but was blinded by thousands of crows flying in every direction.
She ignored them… they were not her focus. On shaky limbs she stood and faced the cloaked man. He flashed a toothy grin, but she hardly reacted to it at all. Instead she slid numerous senbon into both hands, each glinting in the setting sun.
She raised her hand aiming at all his vitals that were open to her. But before she could throw, she found herself looking Itachi in the face.
Her eyes widened in shock, as all her locked emotions came flooding back into her. "How?!" she blurted out as she staggered a bit.
She tried to move to see behind him where his body had been just lying, but found her actions restricted from his grip on both of her wrists.
He ignored the question and assessed her eyes with stone cold features. They bore into her face and she couldn't help but stare back trying to see if he was real or not. Was she already dead? Had she not been able to hurt this intruder before she had died? What a waste of a life… After a moment he let go of her and turned toward the man who had assaulted him.
It was then she saw that there was no body lying on the ground, and his back was perfectly normal, no wound was to be found. It was a clone.
She let her arms swing down uselessly at her sides. She felt stiff, and somewhat empty, but most of all relief spread through her… so he had not died? She looked up when she heard the other man's voice.
"You're such a hard man to kill Itachi… ya know that?" the man said completely amused. Sakura couldn't help but silently agree to this. The large man was hidden by the shadows the forest made in the low light of the evening, though his silhouette was able to be seen. He was monstrous.
"Aren't we all…? Kisame." Itachi responded lacking the added amusement the other had.
Kisame stepped forward into the last remaining light streaming through the woods. His sharp teeth sparkled in it as he smiled at his old partner.
"No…" he laughed, but it sounded more like a rough snort. "Just you."
"Madara sent you didn't he?" Itachi asked, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.
"Quick and to the point." Kisame snorted. "That's what I like about you Uchiha… to bad we have to kill you." He added cocking his head to the side.
"What makes you think you can?" Itachi probed.
Kisame grunted. "I'm not here to kill… yet unfortunately… I'm here to send you a message."
"I'm listening."
"Oh cooperative today aren't we? Well he told me to tell you that he has Sasuke under his wing now" Kisame said adding a sadistic smirk. "…and he also told me to tell you something about how after all your planning you still couldn't change the future." He added shaking his head in puzzlement. He stopped and took a step forward. "… so who's the babe?" he asked nodding his head at Sakura.
Her head was filled with questions… 'Why would Itachi care about Sasuke? How was Madara still alive? And what was Itachi planning that could change the future besides his own defeat?' She snapped back to the present when she realized that the shark-man was asking about her.
"You served your purpose… now leave" Itachi said ignoring Kisame's question completely.
She noticed his tone was deeper than usual. It felt so ominous and unnerving. She couldn't see his face, for his back was facing her but when he turned and walked away from the man, she glimpsed his eyes before he closed them.
They were darker, and the sharingan spun, much like the night in the hotel. He was mad… and it frightened her to no end. He was hardly emotional… and all of a sudden he was at such a degree it scared her… froze her… she couldn't move even as Kisame approached her and examined her like puzzle piece, trying to figure out where she fit in to the full puzzle of Itachi.
No… Itachi wasn't a puzzle that could be eventually solved, no matter how hard it was… he was a puzzle maker, able to make thousands of puzzles, confusing others to no end. She just happened to fit into one of them… she thought… she hoped…
He finished his exam and was about to leave but he turned back to her and brought his mouth to her ears, "Tell Itachi this and this exactly…" he whispered threateningly. "…He is a ghost upon this earth, dead but alive… but if he were to get in the way of our plans, we will expose him and he will become flesh and blood once more." He withdrew leaving a stunned Sakura and left in a blink of an eye.
After a minute or so she collapsed to her knees, unable to take in everything that just happened at once.
She sat there vacant long after the sun dove below the horizon. The words that Kisame had said repeated through her mind.
Itachi came back halfway through the night. She still sat there on her knees, staring at the ground before her.
He approached, but kept a minor distance. He waited until she looked up at him. She knew this but she wasn't sure if she wanted to yet. Here she was working so hard to see emotions from him, but the only emotion that he seemed he could show was anger.
He was calm and composed at the time, but she saw his eyes, she heard him in the woods causing destruction by his katons. No… she wasn't ready to face him… to face the truth about him.
Still he stood before her. Waiting.
She closed her eyes as her vision became blurry from gathering tears, but quickly opened them in shock. He was kneeling on one knee, facing her as he held her hand in his own. She stared at her hand embraced in his and watched as he moved his thumb over her hand in a comforting motion. His movement seemed a bit uncertain, but as she looked at his face it showed no doubt.
She sniffed, though no tears came forth. She felt a sensation consume her as he continued to hold her hand. A type of warmth she thought, but still she didn't know what it was truly, but she knew that at the end of it she felt content. It was wrong she shouldn't be feeling this with him… but it felt so right. They were alike in their situations, weren't they? ...yet so different...
She looked back to his face. He felt her stare and looked up as well.
Her eyes blurred with tears again as she saw his ebony eyes, but that wasn't it at all… they seemed so much more faded than before… so much more like a ghost she had once thought he was. She did see flashes of emotion behind those dark eyes, but they always receded back to their faded state.
She gripped his hand, and he stopped moving his thumb.
She forced herself to look at his eyes, though she wanted so desperately to look away.
"They know you're alive..." she began quietly. "They'll find you… they'll find me." She looked down holding back the tears. "I don't want to lose you…"
Silence consumed them. She couldn't say that it was awkward or comfortable. It was just there, a needed pause to think about everything.
"I thought I had lost you back there… I felt like I died…I knew that if this man had killed you, I stood no chance, yet I stood and prepared to fight… prepared to die…." She looked up at his face and met his unwavering eyes. "…at your side."
He continued to look her in the eyes, but that only forced her to look away.
'What am I doing?' she asked herself. 'I'm just wasting my breath… I thought he had cared when he took my hand… but I can see I was wrong.'
She was pulled out of her thoughts when her chin was being slowly brought up to meet his eyes.
He studied her for a moment, looking hard into her eyes, and then withdrew his hand from her chin. He closed his own eyes and let his head hang a bit.
She scanned his features. With his eyes closed she was able to see a handsome man behind his reputation.
He opened his eyes again and looked intently at their hands. "I'm not what you're looking for…" he said quietly, but he was able to maintain that smoothness he possessed. He slid his hand from beneath hers and stood, facing his back towards her, he looked out into the night.
"Maybe you're right… Today I saw a part of you that I hadn't thought existed… or I completely ignored…. But either way, I saw it today… the part of you that most likely earned you your reputation." He stood motionless, at this she knew she had his attention.
She stood up and faced his back with a sudden strength she felt, talking as if he was still looking at her, "But if I'm not mistaken… I now have a reputation close to your own… maybe not as big, but the same nonetheless… so tell me… what am I looking for?" she probed.
He was a statue as he continued to stare out into the forest before him; nothing caught his attention even as a buck ran through the clearing not more than ten feet away.
He shifted his gaze towards the starry, night sky, "You asked what I think you are looking for… the truth is you're not looking for anything… you didn't expect anything to find… yet you stumbled upon something that you thought you might want, forgetting the danger of the situation and who you are dealing with completely. That's what I believe."
She looked down. He had been right but wrong, so very wrong. "I've never forgotten who you are; it had just been replaced by what I found you to be… and the danger… Here in front of you… I see and feel no danger."
He eyes snapped down to hers, but before she could read them he was behind her in a heart beat… no… much, much faster. He held a kunai to her throat, leaving no room for movement.
Her eyes instinctively shut tight. She knew that if she reacted badly to this it would only prove the point he was making. But she couldn't help the shivers that ran down her spine, and her hitched breaths. She had to gain control of herself… now. She breathed deeply through her nostrils and swallowed feeling as if all the emotions went down her throat away from her mind. The movement caused the kunai to slightly cut into her throat, but she didn't care. It was only too small versus to what was really at stake.
She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head, watching her every move and analyzing.
"Go ahead… do it… free me from this pitiful life." She opened her eyes and looked ahead of here where only moments before he had stood. "I didn't want to admit it, but its happening to me again. I'm falling for the wrong guy all over again. First Sasuke now you."
She felt the pressure from the kunai on her throat slightly weaken at the mention of Sasuke's name. "What is it that attracts me to you Uchihas? There were so many others that I could have settled for… but that's just it isn't it, I would have to force myself to settle for them, but I couldn't love them. I couldn't just tolerate them, and live the easy life… no… I had to challenge myself and… and… die" she swallowed and looked to the ground as she felt more weight of the kunai being released from her throat. "But after all this time, after all that searching for Sasuke, I had finally given up and focused on my own life rather than fight for something that was long gone even before he had left. But like everything else I ever encountered, my life took a turn for the worse, and then I found myself running from everything I believed, finding it all to be a lie. That's when you showed up and somehow renewed me. I had no where to go, no one to run to and you saved me, whether you intended too or not it doesn't matter to me. You are a hero in my eyes no matter what you may have committed or done in the past. You were something I never could have anticipated or dreamed. And that's what I'm looking for, my entire life I had been looking for you… I thought I saw it in your brother but I was fooled because he was just related to you and just picked up some of the traits you possessed, because you are the real thing."
By now the weight of the kunai was completely gone from her throat as she collapsed to her knees, lost in her story, viewing images of her past, images of her crimes… Her eyes were far away.
She subconsciously laid herself down onto the dusty ground below. She was all alone now, she could feel it… he had left her.
….
….
…
…
…
She awoke to the sun beating on her eyelids, bidding them to open and wake up for the new day. But she ignored their request and turned over to face the darkness. She didn't want to open her eyes and see how terrible her life was about to get.
She kept her eyes closed though she was obviously awake now; she hated how once she woke she could never fall back asleep. She felt warm for sleeping outside, but that was probably some survival technique her body had, besides the dust that coated her provided her a nice blanket.
Flashbacks filled her head once she began thinking again. She shut her eyes tighter trying to squeeze them from behind her eyes, but she couldn't stop them.
She tried to make sense of the flashes as she gave up on blocking them out. How could such a terrible night turn so perfect and then terrible again? She didn't want to think about it anymore and then realized the only way for them to stop was to open her eyes and face her new challenges of the day.
When she opened them she found her eyesight blurry from the tears the coated them. She didn't even know they were there until now. As soon as she realized what they had been for, her stomach felt as if lead had inhibited it, and pressed her down into her comforter.
'Hold on a sec… comforter?'
She blinked her eyes and cleared her vision as she sat up. She was in a bed with cotton sheets. She thought the dust was the blanket but now she saw otherwise. Looking down at her arms she found them clean, but she could still feel the dust in her hair and clothes. But as she looked at what she was wearing it was a light robe, keeping her filthy clothes from soiling her bed. She looked around the room and found that the hearth was the source of warmth as well not her own body.
She briefly moved her legs testing them to see if there were no chains bound to them. They were free. She emerged from the bed and walked around the room inspecting everything. There was an old bookcase filled with many books she had already read. There was dresser that was empty on the other side next to the door leading out.
She approached the door cautiously, expecting at any second for someone, Itachi or not to explode through it and tie her up. She finally reached it, a hand on the door knob, and no one had come yet. She listened very intently; no one was waiting for her to leave either.
She opened it hesitantly and slipped out as soon as the opening was wide enough. She headed down a long hallway filled with doors to the opening at the end that led to small kitchen. To the right was a type of family made obvious from the close chairs surrounding a hearth. There was a reinforced door to right of it all that led out no doubt.
She approached it, dying to see where she was. She opened the door and found herself looking out into a huge clearing among immense trees. Scattered about were many Cherry blossom trees, not yet in full bloom, but still the sight was breathtaking. A stream was in the depth of the hills that took place there. The house was on the largest hill, but there were a few more around it. One completely bare, but all the others were adorned with the trees.
A gust of wind blew into her face, as she closed her eyes and breathed in the fragrance that came with it. It was sweet from all the flowers among the trees.
She felt a presence at her side and instantly opened her eyes searching for it.
Itachi stood to the side of her, looking out into the rolling hills as well.
He spoke in a low murmur, "This is my favorite place… I come here to escape everything." After that a paused for a moment and then walked forward down the slope making his way to the stream below.
He didn't say it, but she knew what he meant, 'You can use it to escape too…'
So sorry again that this took too long but I need suggestions I know where this isgoin but I dont know quite how to get there yet hmmm? is that confusing? yea oh well sorry anyway!!
