Chapter Twelve: A Resisting Wind
I pulled away. Sweat rushing down my skin, breath hitched along with my heart beat. It was three years since I joined the Akatsuki. There was a lot of free time, lots of time to train, lots of people wanting to get to know me. My partner was one of them. Not that I really paid attention. Even if it had been three years if felt like an eternity since I had seen the people that I loved. All the people that had been in Akatsuki had their own methods of coping. And somehow I could only find myself going out into the crying village every night. Anything but spend the night in that empty room. I had finally turned 16 that day. I had spent too many birthdays alone without my brother which I hadn't done since he was born. The hollowness was that same as the first birthday I had spent without a clan and without a team two years ago. Before I could dwell on the fact that I was alone I felt the hands of a girl wrap around me and I was pushed back into a foreign mattress. Blonde hair, green eyes. To another guy, I could say that this would have been an amazing birthday if I wasn't completely somewhere else. The girl spoke and I didn't listen. I shook my head realizing that I was below a woman who was speaking to me.
"What?" I said.
"You don't want to be here, so why are you?" She asked. At least she wasn't stupid. I shrugged, not really wanting to answer. "I have an idea…" She whispered leaning closer to me and getting next to my ear, "tell me what she's like. Maybe it'll make you feel better."
I tilted my head. "Her?" I asked.
The girl smirked and nodded. "Yeah sure." She paused. "Wait, you don't have a girl that has caught your eye? That has stolen your heart?" She moved her hips, a shiver rushed up my spin. "Soft lips, and kind eyes?" I closed my eyes. "There we go. She has a great smile doesn't she? Long and soft hair?" My mind brought me to Konaha. I grabbed the girl's hips and pushed her off.
"Just tell me how much I owe you." I said, tired of this. The girl gawked at me. Without thinking my eyes turned red with sharingan. "Now."
"Um… 6,700 yen. You haven't been here long… and it's your birthday." The girl said. I felt like a machine, I got dressed, I paid and I left. There were no emotions and whatever I could have been feeling I suppressed down. I pushed myself into the depths of my head and locked it up. I clenched the key to the door and prayed it wouldn't become strong enough to burst through those iron doors. I walked through the village, the rain drenching me, and ridding me of whatever vile smell was on my skin.
People cleared away from me as I walked in the streets. Probably because of my eyes or maybe the look on my face, I didn't know nor did I care. Only one person stopped me. "Young man." An old lady called out to me in the street. She sat in a chair near her shop. I squinted for a moment thinking that it was the same old lady that had sold me the hair pin that I had gotten Kaeda for her birthday. "Come here, young man." She said and I approached the small shop. "You have very old eyes for a man so young." She said. I nodded, not sure what to tell her, or if tell her was even appropriate. "But… I see a lot of love being sent into your aura, but simultaneously a lot of hate. Two different people with very conflicting feelings for you."
"Yeah… I know." I said. "I feel it constantly."
"You want to see them?" The old lady asked me.
"Every day, even if it has been years, I always want to see them." I said quietly looking down onto the ground.
The old lady smiled. "Perhaps you can see them soon." She said. I scoffed softly, knowing how unlikely that would be. She picked something out of her pocket. A necklace with three metal rings linked together by a black string. "Have this." I smiled, reminiscing. "Perhaps they can still be with you without them being physically there."
Kaeda laid on Itachi's bed as he did work, as usual the room was quiet. Kaeda listened to the rain falling onto the window before she opened her mouth without thinking, "Beyond that mountain, back to her home. As a souvenir from her home, what did you get? A toy drum and a sho flute… Hushabye, hushabye, my good baby, sleep. Where did my…"
Itachi turned his chair towards her and listened to her sing the old lullaby up to the ceiling. He realized her arms were spread out and her palms facing the ceiling. Her whole body was completely relaxed. She looked at ease. She was in the shorts she came in and one of his shirts. Her toes stretched out and touched the edge of the bed. She looked over to Itachi.
His hair wasn't in a ponytail for once, his head rested on one hand as his obsidian eyes bored into her brown ones. She rolled over to the side and she finally closed her eyes as she broke the eye contact. She didn't move but she heard his footsteps approach her. He stood over her at the edge of the bed and watched her, his hand reached down and brushed against her forehead.
"You have a fever." He whispered. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Did you stay out in the rain too long last time?" She shook her head. He reached from her forehead to the back of her neck and sighed. "You're sweating, go take a warm shower and change." He ordered her. She shook her head. Itachi sighed and reached down before picking her up bridal style. It amazed him when Kaeda wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into his neck.
He did not speak and did not move, a marble statue holding this girl. He could feel her getting slightly lighter, she was drifting in and out of sleep. "You smell like… like pine trees and mint. It's nice." She whispered. He didn't say anything. "… You know, they told me that you killed everyone including a lover… Itachi, no one outside your family died, so where did the lover come from?" She asked. "You barely left your office if it wasn't for training, a mission, or Sasuke. So who was she?"
Itachi began to move again. He took her to the couch and placed her on there. He went over to the cabinet and grabbed a towel and a shirt. Kaeda watched him and he came back to her. "Take your shirt off." She sighed and complied, leaving her only in a black bra and a necklace she had come in with. However, Itachi had done what she had asked, he had gotten her clothes. He sat Kaeda up, sat behind her and began to wipe her back of the sweat that she had built up from her fever. "Being out in the rain like that was reckless." He said and tossed the towel aside.
"And it's reckless to lie about your crime to a criminal organization." She replied.
He pulled the clean shirt over her head. She looked shocked by that. "I didn't lie, I thought she was died, she survived." He said. Kaeda looked shocked as he stood.
"Wait, no one survived the attack." Kaeda said, getting dizzy as her head began to pound.
"Two people did."
"You said… that I was your lover?" Kaeda stood. "What?"
"So… you didn't have a massive crush on me like every other girl with a pulse?" He asked, he chuckled under his breath. "Though I've got to hand it to you, out of all the girls in our academy class, you worked the hardest. Graduated early, gave it your all, just a few steps behind me at all times though." Slap. The noise cracked through the air like thunder through the skies.
Kaeda stared into Itachi's eyes upset, and hurt. "What's wrong with you?" She asked. "I admired you… I was the first and only child in my clan, they had high expectations of me, so I worked my ass off year after year but you know what? I could never catch up with the great Uchiha Itachi." She scoffed. "The great Itachi, the boy who could do it all, the perfect little soldier, is that all you ever were? A little soldier with a few loose bolts in his head? Because everyone who ever cared about you are either dead or on the brink of insanity. Well guess where Sasuke and I are? You used to praise peace to the team but all you do is destroy people."
At the last statement his eyes turned red and his hand grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into a nearby wall. "You are really starting to irritate me, Kaeda…"
"What? I wasn't irritating enough before? I wasn't like all the other girls at your beckoned call, waiting to serve your every holy word?" She asked. "Oh, wait… I did do that. That was part of my job, to serve my captain. Right, right, except I forgot, he's a damned traitor!" There was another slap that cracked through the air that reduced Kaeda to tears. "Leave me alone, Itachi. Please, just leave me alone."
"I would, if you had listened to me all those years ago." He marched over to the door, opened it before slamming it shut. Kaeda slid down to the ground and continued to cry. What has this cruel and merciless world done to us?
Itachi had gone off to blow off steam, he had to admit, he wasn't mad with her, he was mad with himself because she was telling the truth. He came back after three days. He had informed Kisame that he would be gone and after he cleared his head he came back to the base. Kisame was the first to see him. "Your pet is waiting." He said. Itachi sighed heavily and began walking towards the stairs. "Not in your room," Itachi froze dead in his tracks and looked back at his partner, "She's in the infirmary with Kakuzu. Phenomena."
Itachi dashed off. He nearly broke down the door the infirmary only to find Kaeda sleeping in one of the beds, a small side table with two different medications waiting there and a glass of warm water. "Rain and wind exposure, that's what got her this ill." Kakuzu said from the corner of the room as he mixed some compounds. "You can take her out if you want. She just needs to take one pill from the blue bottle every day to reduce her fevers and two from the white bottle to clear up her lungs. She'll be fine."
Without a second thought, Itachi had Kaeda in his arms and carrying her out of the room, the two bottles in his hands. The door to his room swung open and Itachi brought the girl in. He set the bottles onto his nightstand and put her on his bed. He grabbed his desk chair and sat in it, watching over her. His red eyes monitored her, he wasn't mad anymore, he wasn't upset, he was… surprisingly worried. Stupid, stupid girl. Stop chasing after me, like you do. Don't you know that… it could kill you. He watched her slowly open her eyes.
"I like onigiri." He said, causing the young female shinobi to chuckle. "I don't know what food you like." He said.
"Sasuke likes onigiri too." She whispered.
"What do you like?" He asked, knowing her mind was hazed by the drugs.
"I like spicy foods… I like… shichimi on udon." She whispered. "It's too rich for Sasuke's stomach though, so we rarely eat something like that. He makes fun of me and says I have Naruto's stomach. You know Naruto right?" She asked. Itachi nodded answering her question. "According to Sasuke, he could eat more than a horse, a bottomless pit for a stomach."
"Looks like Sasuke talks a lot." Itachi remarked, figuring she wouldn't remember much of this conversation but at least it would ease her mind some.
"No, he only spoke about things he disliked. Like Naruto and Sakura. Naruto… more than Sakura. I think he might have a mini-I-haven't-realized-it-yet crush on her." She laughed. "Why did you leave us?"
That question made Itachi do a double take and the sadness in her eyes was enough to stop him from coming up with a quick lie. "You know why I left, Kaeda." She coughed and the sound was atrocious. Kaeda rolled herself to the side and forced herself to sit up. Itachi did not move from his spot to help her, he could tell she was strong enough to do it herself.
"Can you please tell me that everything you did was a lie?" She asked, tears pricking at the edge of her eyes. Itachi's body and mind remained stagnant even if his heart demanded to jump out of his chest. It was painful, painful to see her do such a thing and his mind wondered if Sasuke felt the same way. If Sasuke would have wanted more than anything for Itachi to come to him and say that it was all a lie. He stared at her and kept on staring unable to answer. "Say something damn it!" She snapped, the only reaction was the slightest twitch from Itachi's shoulder, barely revealing his inner struggle.
Kaeda lowered her head as she stayed up. A small laugh escaped her lips. "Sorry, sorry." She whispered. Her hand ran through her hair and simultaneously lifted her head to reveal a new trail of tears and pain. "Sorry, I was hoping that my captain was still in here. I'm sorry for being such a terrible shinobi and showing my emotions like that. I haven't done it though since you left." It would have been easier if someone had just clawed his heart out of his chest. It would have been easier than seeing that.
"Go to bed, Kaeda." He whispered. She nodded and whipped her eyes and face before trying to get up to get to the couch. However she nearly went plummeting down. Itachi caught her by her shoulder and waist. "Lay here tonight." He whispered to her, letting her waist go and stroking her head and realizing that she was sweating out of a new fever. She nodded and slightly turned towards his palm like a cat leaning in. Itachi helped Kaeda into bed and pulled the covers over her. She nearly instantly fell asleep. He pulled back and sighed, not believing this at all. He should have said something to her, the lies he was so used to saying and thought it unbelievable that just one gaze from this girl and he couldn't make himself lie.
This is becoming dangerous. He thought.
The ex-ANBU captain left his room, closing the door behind him. He stood there rubbing the bridge of his nose for a moment before leaving the hall. He made his way down the nearest flight of stairs and down into a lounge area. He passed the area quickly glad that no one was there and kept his descent down the largest building in the village. Once he got half way down he stopped and exited onto one of the balconies. He got to the edge and sat on the railing there looking out into the village.
The view wasn't Pein's pristine view but it was still something amazing. It was where he usually went to think about Sasuke, contemplate his next moves in the ordeal. What was he to do with Kaeda… returning her was out of the question. He could lock up her memories but Kaeda was so emotional that she would break that faster than anything. He could give her to Orochimaru so she could be with Sasuke but that was just put her in harm's way and potential ruin Sasuke's chance for strength. What to do… what to do… His mind raced.
Genius or not, Itachi had come before an infinite wall. Kill her? She was supposed to die anyway. Couldn't stomach that, not with how far everything had gotten. It wouldn't be right. Tell her the truth. A voice in his head told him which he quickly snuffed out. Preposterous, telling her the truth, chaos would ensue and he was sure of that. She would… she would despise Konaha. He knew she had more loyalty to him and Sasuke than to the village. Lie, tell her the usual and that you have changed some in your journey with the Akatsuki. She'd see right through it.
He looked up towards the sky and made an odd request. Shodai Hokage… what would you do?
The usual idiot of the Akatsuki pranced around the halls of the Akatsuki, behind the physical and figurative orange mask however, devilish intentions brewed. Tobi of the Akatsuki, the happy go lucky, yet somehow powerful nonmember was allowed the all access pass through the base. This very much included the rooms of the members. For now, this served his intentions greatly. There was a vermin in his halls, a black dot on white sheet that needed to be cleansed. He was laughing and humming but inside he was boiling. How he wished he could be clenching a kunai at the moment, it would have given him so much joy.
He made his way towards Itachi's room, knowing he was gone. He knocked on the door pretending to be ignorant. "Mister Itachi! Mister Itachi!" He called out with no reply. He opened the door. "Mister Itachi?" He said and noticed the Konaha shinobi sleeping on the bed. He tiptoed towards her and stood over her. "Oh, this must be Itachi's pet." He said, with more false happiness and cheerfulness. He placed his hands on his hips. "You know, this pet, looks a lot like a person…" He said in a singsong voice.
Kaeda groaned, stirring in her sleep, still sweating a little bit. Tobi gasped and covered the place where his mouth would have been if the mask didn't cover it. "Is the pet going to wake up?" He asked to no one but sounded thoroughly excited and he was. He couldn't wait for her to wake up, so he could take her by her neck and suffocate her to death, to cleanse his perfectly white sheet of the black dot. He rubbed his hands together and giggled some.
Fortunately, his parade was stopped abruptly by the thundering height of the fish man at the doorway of the room. "What are you doing here, Tobi?" Kisame asked, grinning, his teeth shining brightly.
The masked man moved hastily backwards, nearly tripping over his own feet. "Ah-… ah, um, Mister Kisame! Tobi was just looking at the pet! Tobi was so excited to see her!"
"And she's in Itachi's room." Tobi nodded dramatically. "You know how he feels about you going into his room, unannounced and uninvited." Tobi made his body look small. "What do you think Itachi will do when he finds out?"
"No! Please, don't! Last time, Mister Itachi hurt Tobi so bad that Tobi couldn't bend backwards at all!"
"Get out." Kisame said and Tobi scrambled out of the room, foiled by the loyal partner of Itachi Uchiha. "Pet!" Kisame barked, loud enough to wake up Kaeda.
"Kisame…" She whispered.
When Itachi returned to his room after three hours, he came up the stairs with Kaeda's dinner so she could take the medicine. His feet halted at his door, amazed to see it ajar and after opening it shocked to see Kisame at the couch with Kaeda sleeping. He did not move, simply cocked an eyebrow at his partner. He wondered if Kaeda had managed to break free from the seals that kept the room harder to break out of that any prison in the world. However when he saw that not a hair was out of place for Kaeda, he retracted his previous thought.
"The moron found his way into your room; he wanted to play with your pet." Kisame explained causing Itachi to scoff. Though he didn't show it, fear grasped his heart and thoughts. If Madara was interested in Kaeda, he had a problem. A severe problem. "It seems like your pet is very popular amongst the base."
"Is she now?" Itachi asked and set the tray of food on the nightstand for when she woke up.
"I forgot; you are the most antisocial being in the face of humanity." Kisame sneakered, Itachi raised an eyebrow in response. "Everyone in the base talks about her. She is this gem that everyone believes you are hogging. But yet again, we know you are selfish."
Itachi shrugged. It didn't concern him and Kisame knew it. Kisame smirked and add, "You better figure out what you are going to do with her soon. Yes you can keep her from going out… but what can you keep from coming in?"
