Nerine
It was a brief kiss. It was nothing very passionate, but definitely confusing.
He let go of me and I breathed, "...Eh?"
"You are too easy to deceive," Itachi said. His voice wasn't coming from the body in front of me.
I gasped, hitting my head for being such an idiot, "Damn it... Genjutsu."
The body in front of me vanished, and there appeared Itachi, still metres in front of me, waiting for me to follow him. He said, "At least you figured that out, more or less without help."
"You know it's a stupid idea to try kissing me," I muttered, bottling up my anger towards him.
"It's not 'trying' if it really happened," Itachi replied calmly as we both walked through the forest, to the destination which I assumed was back to the hideout.
I had to muster up all of my willpower not to slap him there and then. "I want to stay with Sasuke."
"You're staying with the Akatsuki."
I ignored what he said and turned around, walking in the other direction. I don't care what Itachi has to say, he's not the Uchiha I want to follow... As pathetic as that sounded.
Itachi's footsteps paused and he watched me walk away. He called out, "You don't even know where you are. What makes you think you can find Sasuke?"
I sneered, "I'll find him. He'll be looking for me."
"If he were looking for you, you two would be together a long time ago."
I stopped. "We'll find each other, okay?"
"You don't know where to go. Give up." Itachi ordered.
I shook my head. "The reason I am with you now is to find Sasuke. I realise now that I can do it without your help."
"Do not make me turn to force," Itachi's voice sounded menacing. "You are going to stay with the Akatsuki to train with me. That isn't a question waiting for your answer."
I sighed, "I don't ca—!"
Something hit the back of my neck again; similar to the time I'd encountered Sasuke... I closed my eyes.
Why does this keep happening to me? Why do I continuously find myself off guard...? Have I lost track in the training to be a great ninja, by issues that shouldn't even deem to be important in one's life? Was I always this weak? Have I thought too much of others to think about the well-being of myself?
I'm frail... Maybe it would be best if I...
I had a vivid dream. It felt so real, as if I could reach out and actually feel the beings within it.
It was three years ago. Team 7 were together, just finishing our training. Naruto was trying to get a date out of Sakura. Sakura was trying to get a date out of Sasuke. Sasuke was brooding over his revenge and I... well I was busy maintaining a fit lifestyle for my brother and I. That and of course... watching Sasuke from a distance.
Yes, I could be called one of his 'fans'. I liked him, a lot. I admired his strength and his abilities. I also thought he was very handsome... It was a little depressing to know that I was basically like a majority of the teenage girls in Konoha, but perhaps without so much physical inclination towards him. I was just happy to be in his presence, and see him well and healthy.
Of course, I could only do it for so long. My feelings for him grew even more as Sakura clung onto him everyday. Ino would follow him around and other various girls would try to gain an intimate interaction with him, but failing. It was irritable to see so many girls around him, and I felt like I was never going to be noticed by him.
I eventually had to tell him. It was that evening after he'd finished training. Most of the teenage girls would've been at home due to curfews or homework at that time of the night, so it was pleasing to see him not crowded over. Sasuke was panting against a pine tree and I offered him food and a drink. He accepted it hesitantly and there, I confessed.
It was no huge speech about how I enjoyed seeing him work hard everyday, or how I liked how calm he was about most things, unlike Naruto. No, I just said, "I like you."
Maybe Sasuke had received too many confessions with long speeches, or maybe he didn't get any confessions at all. I crossed out the latter seeing as he was surrounded by so many fans.
The next few months, Sasuke and I only held short conversations, but it was more than what we had before I'd confessed. It was a good feeling to know that he at least acknowledged my feelings for him, and the fact that I didn't (really) mind him not wanting to be with me.
Team 7 were on another D-rank mission, cleaning up the streets of Konoha.
I wiped my forehead and sighed, "Finally done..."
I headed up to the meeting point where all of us were supposed to assemble after finishing our assigned streets. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi were all there. I was embarrassed; they were all waiting on me.
I blushed and murmured, "I'm sorry for the wait..."
Naruto groaned, "Geez, Nerine... even I did my areas quicker than that!"
Kakashi calmed Naruto down, saying, "Now, now, give her a break. I did assign her to do the restaurant streets, which are usually the most trash-filled parts of the village."
"Whatever," Naruto shrugged. "Now that we've all finished, I'm off to go eat ramen! Sakura, want to join—"
"In your dreams, knucklehead," Sakura rejected in a second. "Sasuke, do you want to go and eat something together?" Her attitude changed then; she was smiling and pulling a cute face. I admit; Sakura is quite a pretty girl. It made me feel kind of inferior, seeing as I was smaller than her. I don't just mean height, either.
Sasuke ignored her question, and began walking off.
"Eh?" Sakura blinked. "Oh, okay, next time then Sasuke!" She waved off, and then stomped away in humiliation.
"Nerine," A voice called me.
I turned around and spotted Shikamaru, lazily heading towards my direction. I smiled, "Hello, Shikamaru."
"Did you want to go together now?" He asked. "I just finished training with my team. I figured, since there's nothing else to do, I may as well meet you."
I saw Sasuke, in the corner of my eye, stop in his tracks. I nodded gratefully, "Yes! Luckily I've finished my mission just now, so I'm free for the rest of the day."
Sasuke walked back over to me. "Shikamaru."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and stared at the boy by my side. "Uchiha. What's up with you?"
The next sentence sounded a bit odd to me, because Sasuke didn't seem the type to want to know other peoples' businesses, but I think it was because he was trying to make his question seem like there were no intentions behind it. Sasuke asked him, "Where are you taking Nerine?"
Shikamaru sent him a weird look. "We're going together to the library because she asked me to help her with her concentration. Apparently she believes she's focused too much on looking after her brother and some other matter she won't tell me."
I blushed. The other matter was being too hung over Sasuke.
Sasuke glared at Shikamaru, then me. He stated in a confident voice, "Thanks for that," His voice sounded a tiny bit sarcastic. "You go back to doing what you do; I'll deal with her concentration."
"What?" My eyes widened. I didn't want concentration lessons from the person who keeps distracting me. That would be impossible.
"Sheesh, what a drag," Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head in annoyance as he grunted this. "Whatever."
Sasuke had taken me to the library and as he sat me down at a table in the far end corner, he dropped some books in front of me, all under random subjects. He placed his hands on the opposite side of the table, staring at me intently.
He finally spoke up. "Why didn't you ask me for help?"
I didn't want to seem rude. "Well... you're the one that's distracting me..."
"I thought it was Kakashi."
"You're the other matter..."
"How am I distracting you? The most I've ever done with you is that painfully awkward small talk."
I closed my eyes tightly. "I'm distracted by you because you're always in my head, my thoughts, my mind... And to make it worse I see you everyday surrounded by your fan girls," I opened my eyes, looking up at the striking Uchiha. "It is difficult to focus on training when all I keep thinking about is you, and how you don't care about me. It was driving me crazy so I asked Shikamaru to help me. He's the best one to turn to in attentiveness."
Sasuke was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "If I didn't care I wouldn't have hauled you to the library myself."
He was implying something that I wanted to hear, but I didn't want him to be troubled enough to say it. I shook my head. "Don't play with my feelings when you don't feel the same way."
"It's almost pitiful, seeing you like this," He commented.
I cringed, sinking lower into my chair and avoided all eye contact with him.
"...But that doesn't mean that I don't admire you either," He finished his sentence with this surprise.
Don't let him get to you; don't let him get to you. "You have no reason to admire me when you have to train yourself for your revenge. You don't have time for someone like me."
"If I think about it hard enough, I believe I do have the right to have a high regard for you. You hold a lot of responsibility; you try hard in being a better ninja, despite your issues on concentration – I mean you even asked someone else for help, and you sacrifice your own time to care for what's left of your family. Albeit, I don't necessarily like the idea of helping out a brother. Still, the other reasons change what you are amongst the other girls. They spend too much time fawning over me when they could be trying to be like you," He explained. That lengthy explanation kind of caught me off hand, and gave me a tiny ray of hope.
"...What do you want from me?" I murmured.
Sasuke smirked. Oh, that smirk. "I'll be truthful and say that I am focusing on achieving my goal. It's just difficult for me as well... to concentrate when your confession keeps replaying in my mind."
"...So?"
"Why so simple? Why so straightforward? You didn't react as much as most girls do. You hardly even went red in the face. You react so differently compared to what the screaming girls normally do."
It almost felt like he was pointing out all my flaws.
Sasuke moved over to the seat next to me, and leaned his elbow on the table, resting his cheek in his palm. His expression changed then. He no longer wore the cocky smirk that he normally gave to Naruto during our training sessions. This time, his eyes were blank, and so was his expression. He stared past me and almost whispered, "Give me a taste of what it feels like to have good feelings... before I completely drown myself into my brother's path." His eyes were longing and his mouth then closed shut. Sasuke seemed to be lost in a different world, until he snapped out of it. He eyed me and said, "What'll your answer be?"
It almost felt like I was a tool for Sasuke's welfare, but at the time I didn't mind. "I don't know what I can do... Sakura will want to kill me," I meant that in a literal sense. She really would.
Sasuke smirked. "I'll help you in that decision."
He got off his elbow, a little red mark across his cheek developed from the weight onto his hand. Sasuke moved closer to me, and I realised what he was doing. He leaned in closer towards my body, touching my waist delicately, and brushing my hair away from my face. I clumsily looked away from his eyes, but at the same time, allowed him to get closer.
"Nerine," He breathed into my ear.
He moved away from the side of my face, and now faced me. I really could feel his breath on my lips; it was warm, and didn't smell stale either. Sasuke came closer until his lips were barely a centimetre away from mine.
I gasped, feeling air caught in the middle of my throat. I sat up in a panic, taking heed of my environment. Again, I was stuck in the Akatsuki hideout; the tallest tower in the Hidden Village in the Rain. I was in my room again, a small candle keeping light in the dark room with no windows.
"No..." I grimaced.
"You're awake," Itachi's voice sounded as he opened the door.
"You bastard!" I yelled. "Why are you doing this to me!"
I almost felt like crying after experiencing my childhood again in my sleep. It made me wish I hadn't chosen to take up Itachi's offer in the first place.
"You're never going to survive with the amount of concentration you have," Itachi told me. "You have to prioritise what is more important. Being able to save yourself, or attempting to save a foolish boy who deserted you. The choice is yours.
I looked down at the bed sheets, and thought to myself. Not once had I been able to fight for myself. I had never been able to save my comrades, because it was always my comrades saving me. I was useless when in a team, which explained why I was hardly ever sent out on a mission outside of town. I was stuck doing the errands around the town, not because I was good at getting things done quickly, but because I was not skilled enough for the hokage to believe it was safe. It hurt, and Itachi was right. I needed to prioritise my things in life.
"Save me, Itachi."
This is definitely longer than what I'd usually write, so it would be really appreciated if you could all review, and yes, that means you! It doesn't hurt, and only takes a minute. I hope you all enjoyed this longer chapter and please let me know what you think of the story so far. Thank you!
