Okay.. I only put this up because zelda4ever gave me a review! I really hate you readers right now! (People just stopped reading now, didn't they?) You're really torturing me! Well, for those who DO care, I finally put in the long awaited sappy romance stuff. For those who don't like romance.. Why did you click on this?! Okay, okay, just kidding.. I also put some more action in! For the patient poeple, it's paying off. You get to see some quick scuffles. Don't worry, the big battle I'm planning will be way better! Don't get too attached to many of the characters, not that I used a lot of them, but I'm going to do quite a bit of vicious killing. Friends know me for my blood bath stories that they won't let me type. Well, on that NICE note, go ahead and read my useless nonsense!

Chapter Eleven

Clattering Kunai

Itachi stood before the Akatsuki leader. Most of the other members seemed fearful, but his anger gave him courage. Defiantly, he looked the shadow in the eye. The man laughed softly at him. "Power.. Is that what you desire? That is what it seems.. You would be welcome here. You have already killed your closest friend and obtained a power few could ever dream of.. If your kill your family, we might just forget about Sasuke-" Itachi's heart skipped a beat. There was a chance. He would be willing to do anything to save his little brother, even kill his family. They weren't worth anything to him anymore. "You would then become one of us, and have more power than you thought possible." Itachi nodded. "Yes, of course.. I accept your offer." It was ironic that he had offered himself to them in place of his brother and the clan had refused, now they were seeking him. The shallowness of the Akatsuki disgusted him. Orochimaru came out of the shadows behind him. "By default, that makes you mine. Your body will replace Sasuke's.." Itachi half-turned, glaring at him. "Not if you die.." Orochimaru grinned, "What do you think the point of the trade was?" The leader cut in before Itachi could threaten him again. "Orochimaru, watch your step.. If you don't prove more powerful.. You will be the opening we create for Itachi. He is, after all, an Uchiha heir." Orochimaru became defensive. "You already have an opening, it would be unwise of you to get rid of me.." The leader glared at him even more intensely than Itachi. "It would be unwise of you to talk back to me.." Orochimaru gaped for a second before scowling and backing down. "That settles it.." The leader looked over the members of Akatsuki. "We act as a clan, and Itachi Uchiha will be a new addition shortly.. Best hurry and do what needs to be done." Itachi walked away slowly. "Timing is everything.."


Itachi had awoken before dawn. He lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what might have happened if he hadn't pulled away from Aster. An odd sense of excitement twisted in his chest, turning into fear. Could he have really just leaned in a little more and kissed her? If that had happened, what kind of danger would they be in now? He shuddered at the thought, glad he had stopped himself. He was taken from his musings when he heard a rummaging sound in the kitchen.

He snuck out, relieved that he had slept in his clothes. He turned to see Kisame putting dishes back in a cabinet. He felt odd for sneaking out to see his partner do something as normal as clean up after himself. He stepped out of the shadows, still wary of how much Kisame might know about his feelings toward Aster.

"Hn, your little shadow isn't here?" Kisame grinned, now he could verify his assumptions.

"'Little shadow?'" Itachi glared at him. Had things really been that obvious? He felt his body go rigid.

Kisame twisted the handle of the door in the dining room that led outside. He had seen the slight tenseness in Itachi's shoulders. Itachi was always calm and relaxed. The movement was all the information he had needed to know he had hit a nerve. Satisfied, he walked out the door, leaving an anxious and unsure Itachi staring after him.

Itachi was unsettled now. He was almost sure Kisame had figured it out. Now he had to be even more careful around Aster. It wasn't long before Aster came out of her room, still worn out. It wasn't hard to see that she still wasn't sleeping well. Even under the stress, they continued the training with the kage bushins. It was a couple of days before Aster had finally been able to come close to not getting injured.

They had now begun training inside. The skies had become dark, and rain was impending. The weather had been odd for mid-summer.

Itachi followed lazily behind Aster as she raced off to the bare wooden room. "You really want to keep this up?" he was growing tired of her attempts at easily defeating his clones.

"It's a personal thing!" She shot him a dirty look. "C'mon, you can't say that there aren't some things you just have to do!" She jutted out her lower lip. "It's just something I need to do to prove it to myself."

Itachi sighed. "Fine, if it's that important."

Aster gasped. He had never given in to her whining before. Things had changed since they had trained in the forest. She smiled meekly, "Thanks.. a lot."

He ignored her, not wanting to let on to anything. Then he readied the shadow clone. Aster stood opposite it, waiting tensely. The clone appeared, and Aster met it squarely in the eye, unafraid. It came at her with a strike readied. She ducked, trying to punch it in the gut. It dodged expertly, and came up behind her. Trusting her instincts, Aster thrust her foot out behind her. It made a satisfying thud as it met the clone's chest. It disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Aster and Itachi stared, shocked at the quick end. Aster stood for a second, with her foot hanging in midair. Their dumbfounded gazes met and Aster broke into a huge grin. Then losing her balance, she fell face-forward.

"You idiot. Just when I thought you might succeed.." Itachi helped her up.

Aster reddened. Not only had she embarrassed herself, but his arm was around her waist for a split second before she had fully stood.

"I'm ready for the next part now!" she said excitedly. "Let's get started!"

"Okay.." Itachi backed a couple steps away from her. "You get to fight me."

Aster gaped. "But, the clones, they're only a TENTH of your power! There's no way I could ever..!"

"I can control the level I fight at. Stop worrying." Itachi scolded her. "Go ahead and pull out a kunai or something. You're good with weapons, you had a sword at one point."

Aster's jaw dropped even further. "But! Those are dangerous! Couldn't you get hurt? This is just training!"

Itachi pulled one of his own kunais. "Don't flatter yourself. If I thought you'd cut me up, I wouldn't tell you to take one out."

"Um, okay.." Aster murmured as she obediently took out the weapon.

Itachi stepped into a firm stance, holding the kunai in front of him. "Ready?" came the curt question.

"Uh.. yeah." Aster replied, still unsure, and copying Itachi's stance.

"Go." He said it calmly, but was rushing at her with the kunai pointed for her chest. Aster moved to block it with her own, but he side stepped faster than her eyes could see and stabbed at her ribs. She narrowly blocked the blow, and there was a loud clang as the kunais hit at a stale mate. Aster's body shook with the force of the blow and a chip of her kunai flew off in an odd direction.

Despite what he would have normally done, he let her try to twist her weapon to force the kunai knife from his hand. He was surprised when she succeeded. The kunai flew off behind him and he paused for a second, watching it sail away. He turned just in time to see her come down with her own. He caught her hand and pinned it against the wall. Aster gasped, checking behind her to make sure the wall was really there. She hadn't been paying attention to where they went while fighting. Looking back at him, she saw a punch coming in toward her face. By instinct, she caught it and pulled it by her hip, to manipulate the motion of the strike.

They stopped, frozen. Aster flushed. They were so close to each other. How long had she waited for a moment like this? Ever since she had met him, she had been wanting this. Without any real thinking, they leaned in, coming closer. Warmth exploded, flooding her veins as he kissed her. It felt so right, so natural to be like this for both of them. His arm slid around her waist, and hers around his shoulders. The hand that he had used to pin hers to the wall released her and then intertwined itself with her fingers. She dropped the kunai. They sat like that, drifting away into the comfort of one another's touch, until the kunai hit the ground.

The room had become silent, and the clattering of the dropped item broke the spell that had brought them together. Itachi panicked. He had tried so hard not to let this happen.

He pulled back, pushing Aster away and into the wall. Aster slumped against it, shocked, as he took careful steps backwards. She met his eyes, confused at his hesitation. Itachi only back farther away. He felt horrible now. Not only had he revealed something he hadn't even wanted to admit to himself, but he had hurt Aster. He thought he should comfort her, but he was too angry with himself now. He glared at her, not thinking clearly.

Aster used the wall as support, trying not to let her knees buckle. She had been flying, now she was freefalling. She stared at Itachi hoping for help. He only scowled at her. "Wha-?" came her confused and hurt babbling. "Why.. Why did you- ?"

"We're done." He turned and hurried from the room. The little voice in the back of our head is supposed to help us make good choices. Itachi's had always lead him astray, and this was no exception. As he moved down the hall in a trance-like state, it was telling him it was all her fault. Aster had done this to him. Things were falling apart, and she was to blame. He knew better, but it was still hard to fight his conscience. For once in a long time, he wasn't sure what to do next. He locked himself in his room, trying to sort emotion from clear thinking.

Aster watched him go. She hadn't thought for a second, only followed as her body led her to him. The kiss had been the best thing she could remember, but it was also quickly becoming the most painful. It seemed that Itachi now hated her too. She had lost her parents, her brothers, then her precious Sasuke-chan, who had filled a little bit of the hole her brothers had left, and now depended on Itachi. By leaning in to that kiss, she had lost him too. The floor appeared to be disintegrating from beneath her, and the hole in her chest was reopening with an excruciating speed, threatening to swallow her.

She glanced at the kunai she had dropped. It had led the way to the moment, and also destroyed it. If only I hadn't dropped it. The thought resounded through her mind. She had failed. Again, without a single difference in the pattern, she had almost been happy, and then it slipped right through her fingertips. She knew that she should pick it up, but she couldn't bring her self to. Aster decided that she would hide in her room. This was no place to fall to pieces, she needed privacy.

She waited behind the door for quite some time, half hoping for and dreading Itachi's footsteps in the hallway. Finally, when she was sure the corridor was empty, she ran to her room. Her heart was beating wildly as she shut the door. Night had fallen somehow, and the familiar darkness was soothing. She latched the door and slid down the smooth wood, breaking down into tears. She didn't know how long she had been sobbing, but finally her tears ran out. She opened her weary eyes, taking in her surroundings.

The room was exactly as she had left it, except for a small bowl of ramen on her nightstand. It had gone cold while she had been crumpled on the backside of the door. Cautiously, she walked over to it and peered down into the bowl. The way the chopsticks set beside the bowl told her Itachi must have done it while she had been hiding in the empty training room. Why did he do this? It was her only thought. She wasn't hungry, but he had once said that you should eat, even if you don't want to. He had shattered her heart, but he still had her spell bound on his every word. Grudgingly, she nibbled the food.


Sasuke sat in his bare room. He could have put something in here, but he preferred the cold emptiness of the stone room Orochimaru had given him. He had trained all day, and his body was telling him that it had had enough. Despite it all, he couldn't rest. He felt full of pent up energy.

He had run away from Konoha, trying to escape Itachi's shadow and Aster's betrayal. None of it had worked. Everyday Orochimaru sickened him, saying he had more potential than Itachi, and now he had begun to learn the sword. Aster had wielded a katana when she had tutored him as a child. It was the last weapon he wanted to see. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't numb himself to the sting of losing them both. Even though it defied all his common sense, he still wanted them to care for him, to treat him as lovingly as they once had.

He fell back onto the bed, disgusted with himself. He grimaced at the ceiling, holding his head. I can't let them get away with what they did! Maybe I won't have to destroy Aster, but I MUST kill Itachi! No, that's the kind of thinking that will make me weak. I have to kill her too. To let her live would be the actions of a weak fool. He glared at the ceiling mercilessly. A weak fool like Naruto.. Aster and Itachi weren't the only people he missed.


Kisame snuck into Orochimaru's quarters. Orochimaru was waiting in his chair, impatient for Kisame's arrival. They went straight to business.

"How did it go, Kisame?" came the foreboding voice in the dark.

"Just as I thought it would. I planted the poison. She won't be sleeping well." Kisame chuckled.

"So she will come to us, without a doubt?" Orochimaru questioned.

"We don't have to do anything except wait for her." Kisame confidently looked Orochimaru in the eye. The candle light was dim, but Orochimaru's eyes glowed with a sickening light of their own. Most people would have been frightened, but Kisame stared back, with the same disturbing malice.

"Itachi will come with her.. How interesting the effects of a woman on a man can be.." Orochimaru grinned, snake like fangs glinting in the flickering light.


Aster tossed and turned. She hadn't fallen asleep until the early hours of morning, but she couldn't seem to stay asleep. In her dream she wandered down a hallway in the Uchiha household. She was battling snakes and Itachi and Sasuke stood at the end of the hallway in a doorway, waiting for her. They smiled as she struggled to reach them. Things would be perfect it only she could survive and reach their sides. It was all set in place, only she needed to act.

In her dream, her family hadn't died, and Itachi had never massacred the Uchiha clan. Here, everything was alright, except for the writhing serpents, wreaking havoc in their wake.

Aster sat up her bed, breathing hard. Reality hit her, and things crumbled all over again. Despairingly, she laid in bed, lost and unable to find herself. Nothing had ever been alright. Why would it ever be?

People tell you 'All's well that ends well.' What if it doesn't end well?


Yep.. Another way out there chapter of warped nonsense! Another song that makes me think of Sasuke and Itachi is 'Just Like You' by Three Days Grace. I listen to Linkin Park and Three Days Grace a lot while typing this. When I do parts with Sasuke I pull out some of his theme music. Yeah.. I hate him and I have his theme songs.. It IS good music though. My jaw dropped when I saw that he had like three of them. Only Naruto has that many! Crazy.. Itachi's theme song doesn't fit him at all. But then neither does my fan fiction.. poor Itachi. The most fitting song for this chapter in my mind, was 'Wale Up' also by Three Days Grace. I have it on now! Well, If you readers are done tormenting me.. Click the review button and say something to me!! PLEASE!! I really will stop posting, I mean it! -breaks down into tears- C'mon people! I probably won't be updating so quicky again, I'm trying to shorten my chapters.. Sorry, this is kinda a fluke thing!