Just a clarification. Please note that I use UK grammar as opposed to US grammar. I'm Kenyan, and we're a recent-ish ex-British colony, so the subtle spelling differences you'll notice aren't typos, it's just different. You can stop telling me about my spelling now. As a law student it seriously wounds my pride. :D
Funny Fates 11.
Shisou, Kakashi-sensei, Shisui and Sasori were very amused. Pein, on the other hand, was fuming.
Me? I was infuriated.
This was the reason we were standing about three kilometres north of the Akatsuki base in Amagakure no Sato, in what was a dense forest.
Or perhaps I should say we were standing in a fifteen or so kilometre radius of totally obliterated ground of a dense forest. This was what I did when I was angry. I look for a nice piece of land and go smashy-smashy, or in normal shinobi words, I train.
If I wasn't as angry as I was, I'd have been damn proud of what destruction my monstrous strength could do, but I was infuriated. It was written all over my face, it was in my body language, it was in my chakra. I was fucking angry. Even after two and a half hours of brutal taijutsu and ninjutsu training I was mad. Two and a half hours of turning a forest into broken apart ground, splintered trees, patches of mud, desecrated ground and zero grassland, I was angry.
The only thing that stopped me was Shishou countering a massive crater-creating punch of mine with her own equally massive crater-creating punch. It was the only that could stop me.
"You have vastly improved, Sakura. I'm quite proud of you. Dare I say, you do more destruction that me, though not as wide an area. That can be explained by the fact that you have slightly better control me and I have slightly more raw strength than you. Nonetheless, this is quite fantastic," Shishou praised, the joy clearly evident in her voice.
"Your compliments are appreciated, Shishou," I snapped, rage pouring out of my words.
"What are you doing, Haruno?" Pein snarled, rinnengan'd eyes narrowed into slits.
"Training. Don't you encourage that?" I snarled back, my own eyes equally narrowed. The only reason I never mentioned his name the same spiteful anger he said mine was because this was Nagato Pein. I was good, but he was brilliant. He could kill me in seconds if he chose to.
"Isn't this a bit too much?"
"Is it?"
"Stop snapping back at me, brat."
"You're one to talk, sir."
"How entertaining," Sasori interrupted. At his voice, we both turned our heads in his direction, and at speeds Shisui would be proud of, I blinked right where he was and threw a chakra-infused punch right at the spot where he was standing.
Sasori, however, blinked away at an equally impressive speed, and my punch hit the ground, causing it to cave in and disintegrate into a massive crater. The area around the ground I'd punched split apart, massive fissures spreading out like spider webs. It looked like an earthquake had split the ground apart.
Everyone jumped in the air to avoid the impact of my destruction.
"Oh, that left hook. How many jaws has she smashed with that punch?" Shisui asked Kakashi-sensei.
"Quite a number, I should say. I can assure she's smashed more skulls than jaws in, however. Very similar to Tsunade-sama, really," Kakashi-sensei drawled, his eyes crinkled.
I wondered if I could get to him fast enough to smash his jaw in. Naah, he'd probably escape.
Damn freaky prodigal genius.
"Didn't know you do water jutsu too. You are pretty awesome."
"Shut up. I am not in the mood," I growled through clenched teeth. Really, by the time I was going back to base, I'm sure I'd have lost about three inches of enamel on my teeth.
"How utterly fascinating."
I froze.
That voice, that smooth, lilting, sexy voice froze me in place. I was still crouched, one knee on the ground and my fist at the very centre of a huge crater with massive fissures extending from it. Turning my head slightly to the right, I turned to face him, and only a combination of self-control, determination and rage allowed me not to lose face.
The weakness I felt in my knees and the millions of butterflies in my stomach, however, were another story altogether. Nobody needed to know that, though.
It was a well-established fact that Uchiha Itachi showed almost no emotion. If he did, there was a very high chance that you'd cease to exist within the next few seconds. This instance, however had to be an exception, and I really wasn't sure whether to be terrified or flattered at being one of the exceptional few to see something of emotion on the infamous Uchiha Itachi's face and live.
The fact that it was the wrong emotion did not count.
He had that same look as he did on that night a fortnight ago, that very first night the Fates decided to intervene with Pein's otherwise brilliant mind and convince him it would a fantastic idea for me to temporary accommodate with Itachi in his room as mine was (still is. Soulless, sadistic bastard has refused to repair the infirmary wall, dammit) being used as the temporary infirmary. That hungry, predatory look of pure, unadulterated desire.
Now, lust from males I could deal with. All I had to do was land one right hook on their jaw and promptly smash it faster than they could react. If they were lucky (and smart) enough, they would wake up with their face bandaged in a hospital room, and realise I was the wrong kind of girl to send their unwanted leering to, so from then on, they'd very likely be very careful at what they said or did around me.
What I could not deal with, however, was a man who was so unbelievably handsome, that even my hormones were not sure whether it was lust or genuine attraction.
He was standing on a tree branch, casually leaning against it with absolutely no care in the world. I'd seen him in that stance quite a number of times, the only difference was that this time he was in full ANBU gear, the ultimate kunoichi aphrodisiac.
I felt the moisture pooling between my legs. That had been happening a lot lately, this whole arousal nonsense. I totally blame it on the hormones. Yep, hormones, damn things. Totally.
He leaped from the tree branch and gracefully landed on the ground. I gulped. Why couldn't someone say something, or even do something. Anything.
My face still fixed in an angry expression, I slowly stood up to face him. I noticed his intense, crimson eyes follow every single movement, and I knew he had not missed a single movement I had made with that kekkei genkai of his. His smirk widened.
My inner swooned and promptly fainted. How he could be so effortlessly sexy without even trying was quite beyond me.
Rage, however, kept my hormones in check. "What exactly is so fascinating, taichou?" I hissed, internally very proud that my voice hadn't wavered or cracked or showed any other sign of my lust.
"The fact that those very hands that can bring a dying a comrade back to life can cause such destruction. Quite a contrast of abilities, and that is what makes you such a formidable, unique kunoichi," he replied smoothly, his intense gaze still trained on me.
"Oi," Naruto's obnoxious voice cut in, just what I needed. Thank you, Kami-sama. "It's time we went in ne? We have news for you guys."
I turned around and followed Sasuke, who had also just arrived, toward the base.
How did we get into this particular situation?
Well, let's backtrack to about a fortnight ago, when I found myself in Itachi's arms and a very heated conversation took place. Fast-forward to the next morning and there was Nara forest stag bleeding to death in the sitting room. After healing the stag and being reassured that he'd live, I (in retrospect, it was against my better judgement, but another of the many bad habits I inherited from my Shishou was deliberately pissing off authority) promptly took myself into the room Madara's Konoha spy was being held and begun interrogating.
Now back in Konoha, I was never trained at interrogation (for obvious reasons. Subtlety and patience weren't exactly my strongest points). That was more of Ino's forte. I was strictly the ANBU field medic. My zero skills at dealing with captives combined with my mood at the time caused a little bit more chaos than was necessary and, naturally, Pein decided to come see what was going on. When he saw that I had pushed the bitch so hard into the wall that there was a human-shaped pattern in it, he raised an eyebrow and in his typical blunt way told me I'm totally useless at this kind of thing and I should stick to healing. Before I could retort he sent me away and told me to go get Shisui because he was pro.
My irritation amplified to dangerous levels (Naruto simply took off when he saw me, and Sasuke was looking very apprehensive) I informed Shisui in clipped tones that he was needed for interrogation. For some reason, I followed because I wanted to see how 'skilled people got very important aspects of shinobi information gathering done' as Pein eloquently stated.
Arrogant prick.
Watching Shisui actally d the interrogation showed me why he was way up there with his cousin a powerful shinobi. The amused smirk on his handsome face immediately wiped off, and the trademark blank Uchiha expression took over. His tone was quiet and intimidating, and he never hesitated using his sharingan to read her expressions if he thought she was trying to be evasive.
"Is Madara's administration onto the Nara clan?" he demanded quietly, his voice deadly.
Even from the door I could see the fear in her eyes. "I'm not sure," she whispered.
Shisui's crimson eyes narrowed. He was not Shisui anymore, he was Operative Uchiha, and the inner shinobi had come out. "You're lying. I'm going to ask you again. Is Madara's administration onto the Nara clan?"
Silence. The spy's fear was almost palpable.
"Listen here, you are very fortunate that I'm giving you a choice to talk. I could very easily put you in a genjutsu and read your mind like a book. Your death is inevitable, and just how painful it will be is very dependent on how corporative you are. I have already decided you'll have a slow, painful one, because this has taken much more of my and my allies' time than is acceptable."
I heard her start sobbing, and her shoulders shook as she wept. Suddenly she gasped, and for a moment she looked stunned, as she was in a stupor.
Then the screaming begun.
It was a scream of pure agony, echoing all over the base. What actually scared me, however, was the look on Shisui's face.
He was as stoic as the best of them, his pale face as blank paper. His eyes were a rich crimson, and the tomoe of his sharingan were slowly and deliberately spinning in an anti-clockwise direction.
I knew for a fact that he had applied a genjutsu on her, and it was no doubt a deadly one, but I'd seen both Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei use their sharingan for torture before, and by this time they'd be blood pouring out from all openings on the victim's face. All I could see was buldging eyes and agonising screams, and I could not understand what was going on.
"That's a purely psychological technique," Sasori drawled next to me, and his sudden appearance next to me made me immediately turn to him. "He delves into her mind and twists all her worst memories, nightmares and fears together into one big terrifying semi-reality. It's very similar to Itachi's Tsukiyomi, but the only difference is that Itachi replays your one single fear or nightmare over and over and over, until you either break or die. This is why he's so feared, because he's the only Uchiha that can delve into your very subconscious and control it."
"But Tsukiyomi-"
"-delves into your conscious. Shisui goes right into parts of your mind that you yourself aren't even sure exists. He reads you like a book, he can choose to skim some parts, skip others, or just go through everything, literally like a book."
The screaming suddenly stopped and it was kinda obvious that our spy was dead.
He turned to face us, and deactivated his sharingan, crimson slowly fading into midnight blue, the tomoe forging together to form his pupil. For the first time in a very long time, I was quite genuinely terrified of someone.
Now I could understand how he was able to escape alive from his clan's massacre. He was so powerful.
"Inform Pein and Tsunade-sama that Madara and Danzou sent out a group of shinobi after the Nara clan. They have evidence that they are helping us, and they need to be annihilated as swiftly as possible," he said in that quiet, dealy voice of his.
Without wasting time, we relayed this information to our leaders, and Itachi, Naruto, Sasuke and Kisame had been sent to find and eliminate them. The mission took a fornight, and it was them that interrupted my…training by telling Shihsou to come stop me.
"Okay you brats," Shihsou spoke as she sat on the table in th living room and poured herself a cup of sake. She grabbed Pein's collar to prevent him from jumping on me after I childishly stuck out my tongue at him. "Start talking about this your mission."