Scarlet Kunai

By Ginta and Hakakku Fangirl

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of the characters

A/N: Original Character's name is Kyoko, female, only a few months older than Uchiha Sasuke, no Kekki Genkai, ANBU-ranked kinoichi, more info in story.

Rated M for violence, language, lime, maybe IMPLIED lemon

*I may have to "rearrange" some events, in order for this fic to make sense.

*This is the last chapter including Kyoko. For awhile. Well, she'll be mentioned, but you know what I mean…

Chapter Fourteen: Good Morning, Beautiful

"Mmn…" Kyoko moaned and rolled over to see that Itachi had fallen asleep. She giggled, and buried her head in his shoulder; Itachi groaned, trying to push her away. Kyoko giggled louder.

Irritated, Itachi opened his eyes, then softened slightly when he saw Kyoko smiling down at him.

"Good morning, Teichou," she whispered.

"Hn…Morning."

Itachi sat up and arched his back, stretching.

"I have to go back," he muttered.

"What?"

"He'll be looking for me. Pein. He'll have sent out Zetsu by now."

"Zetsu?"

"He's our spy."

"Spy?"

"Hai. Pein doesn't exactly…trust us. Zetsu, he trusts. Konan…Sasori, maybe. Me? No. Deidara? Not particularly…"

"Deidara?" Kyoko sat up with a gasp. "You've seen Dei-kun? Where is he? Is he alright?"

"He is with Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki?" Kyoko stared at Itachi. "And you…?"

"I am a member of Akatsuki as well."

Kyoko bit her lip.

"And…Pein? Your leader? He'll be mad if he knows about…?"

"If he finds out I ran into a Konoha ANBU and didn't kill her, he'll be pissed," Itachi said bluntly, and Kyoko stared at him. She'd never heard him say more than "damn" before. She also didn't bother to tell him she had been removed from ANBU; he didn't need to know. He would only be disappointed.

Itachi gazed at her for a moment, Sharingan spinning, before saying with a slight smirk, "You sleep like you did when you were eight."

Kyoko blushed, remembering…

"Did you see that, Teichou-Sensei!?!" Kyoko cried, turning towards Itachi for approval, who laughed. "I got it on my first try!"

"Very good!" he said, smiling. Kyoko had just thrown a kunai into the throat of a fish, the steam a full fifteen feet below them. Itachi watched as she grabbed the rope she had tied to the throwing knife, dragging the trout up as she did.

Kyoko grinned, then blushed as her stomach growled. Kakashi laughed.

"Sorry," Kyoko muttered.

Kakashi laughed it off.

"What do you think of the Chunin Exams so far?" he asked.

"Easy!" Kyoko said, before performing the necessary hand signs. "Fire Style! Flaming Jet Jutsu!"

Kakashi just laughed. It was day three of the second level of Kyoko's Chunin Exam. As agreed, Kyoko had been able to come to the Village Hidden in the Sand for her Chunin Exam with another team. It had also been agreed that Kakashi and Itachi, as well as two tracker nin from Suna would come to Kyoko as soon as they had been informed that she and her team had completed their task. While they were allowed to speak to each other, Kyoko was to do everything on her own or with her exam team, even though they had already made it to the rendezvous point.

They had already completed the mission assigned to them to complete in the forest at the edge of the Land of Wind. It hadn't been easy. While Itachi and Kakashi had both been able to take their exams in Konoha, where the forest had been much more dangerous, the forest for Kyoko's exam had been riddled with traps, illusions, and shinobi who had been asked to attack the examinees, with Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and even Taijutsu. Watching from a distance, the Sand Ninja and Kakashi, who had never seen Kyoko's temper on the battlefield, and even Itachi, were all shocked to see how Kyoko had taken charge of the two ninja she had been teamed up with for the exam, both over twice her age. Itachi was even shocked to see how well-developed Kyoko's bombing skills had become over the few weeks she had been working on them, as she had engulfed entire trees in smoke, blown huge craters into the ground, and even a bomb that she had kept a secret from Itachi, one that caused tiny lacerations over the entire body of her victim, the sharp, stinging pains enough to distract them long enough for her to snatch up her weapons and leave them behind--and often enough time to snatch up the other teams' weapons as well.

As Kyoko finished eating, Itachi noted that she was nearly asleep sitting up, and scooped her up into his arms. She immediately buried her head into his shoulder, barely hearing Kakashi as he said, "Itachi-kun, you're going to hurt her eventually. She has to know that…"

Kyoko didn't hear the rest. She was already asleep, folded into Itachi's arms.

"I know," Itachi said. "And I've already told her the risks of the preliminary round. She knows that it won't be easy. She's just too cocky."

"She's only looking for your approval. And that's not what I was talking about."

"I know," Itachi sighed.

"She…she does know that she might not become a Chunin, even if she wins in the final exam, right?" Kakashi asked.

"I tried to tell her…but she was so excited…" Itachi sighed. "If you had seen her before I started training her, you'd understand."
"Understand what?"

"How devastating it is to see her looking so defeated."

"What exactly did her parents do?" Kakashi asked. "Why was she always in the hospital?"

"Blood loss," Itachi muttered. "Her parents beat her…and used the blood from her wounds to…"

"To what?"

"They sold her blood to Orochimaru. For his experiments."

"But Orochimaru left when Anko-chan was eight. Kyoko-chan wasn't even three."

"I talked to the medical ninja, and the Hokage after she kept fainting our first two weeks of training. Apparently, Orochimaru did a few 'experiments' on Kyoko as well."

"A curse mark?"

"No…he drained her of most her blood, mixing it with other chemicals. Then…she was forced to drink it."

"What?"

"Apparently, Orochimaru was experimenting with different immortality jutsu. He tried to create an elixir that would create longevity, and tested it on Kyoko. The chemicals are still working themselves out of Kyoko's system." Itachi sighed, before rummaging in his kunai pouch. He threw a small bottle a Kakashi, who caught it, examining the pills through the walls of the plastic. "These are to help stabilize her. If she doesn't take them, the poisons will stop moving and settle in her bloodstream."

"They can't be removed?"

"It would take a miracle poisons expert to even begin to hope for that," Itachi said, sighing. "And they would have to know Orochimaru very well."

Kakashi fell silent. Finally he said, "You know that this can't last forever, right Itachi?"

"What?"'

"She won't be able to stay in your arms forever; as soon as we get her back to the village, chunin or not, she's going to be put to work, studying to be an ANBU. She's going to have to grow up quickly."

"I know."

"I know you know. I know that you understand. You just haven't realized it yet. Itachi, the moment we get back to the Leaf Village, she's going to be taken and honed into an unstoppable killer. We're assassins; ANBU. That's all we are, Itachi. Faceless, nameless. Her entire life will be a secret. No friends outside the Ops. She's going to be forced to grow up, Itachi. That's all there is to it."

"Then…I'm just going to have to keep her happy until that happens," Itachi said, looking down at the girl whose arms were tightly wrapped around him…

"Teichou?" Kyoko asked, peering up at him, confused. "Are you alright?"

"Hai…" Itachi sighed, wrapping his arms around Kyoko again.

"Last night…last night you said that you would explain everything," Kyoko said hesitantly. "Teichou?"

"Hn?"

"I…I thought…They told me that you were dead!" Kyoko said.

Itachi stared at her, stunned.

"They what?"

"Hai…after you left and I was able to leave the hospital…Kakashi-sempai and the Third Hokage…they came to me and asked me if I had known anything about what you had been planning to do…"

Kyoko looked up at Itachi, tears beginning to brim in the corners of her eyes.

"When I couldn't tell them anything, they said that it didn't matter, because you were dead.

"Teichou, what's happened to you?"

XXX

Hours later, Kyoko stumbled through the gates of Suna. Shikamaru ran up to her, concerned.

"What happened?" he asked. "You were right behind us and then--"

"I'm here now, so it doesn't matter," Kyoko coughed. She shook the sand out of her hair. Itachi hadn't told her much, only that he had joined Akatsuki shortly after leaving Konoha. He had then told her to act as though weakened by the sand storm, so that as few questions as possible would be asked.

Later, as she rested in her room, Kyoko glanced out the window and smiled as she saw Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro gathering their students to teach the ninja arts.

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Next chapter, "Sand Sibling Rivalry"!

Review!!!