Don't Walk Away

Chapter 21: And So It Begins...

Sorry for the delay! Both work and school caught up with me... but hopefully you all like this next installment... I know... a little short... but the lengthy chapters are coming, I promise!

Amaya didn't know whether to hold her breath or let it go. She noticed that Kakashi's eyes never strayed far from Itachi's. It has been a long time since she had seen two set of sharingans at this level face off against each other. She kept her eyes trained mostly on Itachi, but the kunoichi made sure to take note of Kakashi's position and movements because if Itachi wanted to, he could best the two of them in a matter of minutes if they weren't prepared or careful. Her body making her decision for her, the blue-haired woman swallowed her breath, making a gulping sound. She wished that her body's noises didn't add to the tension that was in the air around everyone, but it wasn't like she could help it. Amaya was just waiting to see what the two men with red eyes planned on doing because what they did, set the tone of the fight for everyone else.

However, there were key differences between Itachi's and Kakashi's sharingan, even though both looked threatening. Kakashi knew how to use the eye but Amaya was nervous about him going up against a true inheritor of the eye, especially the one coined with the nickname of "the genius of the sharingan." Furthermore, on an emotional level, Kakashi's eyes didn't look as threatening as Itachi's because the white-haired nin's eyes contained a hint of warmth. It was hard to see if one wasn't looking, but it was there. Itachi's red eyes on the other hand, were cold and calculating, just as it was after he slaughtered his whole clan. When Amaya knew Itachi his sharingan was always calculating, however, after he performed the massacre of his own people, it was like he became a shell of his former self.

Coming out of her thoughts, Amaya noticed that Kakashi had furrowed his eyebrows together as if he was trying to calculate the possible outcomes of what was to come. Amaya knew from practice and working with the nin that every thought that was going through his head was the worst-case scenarios. She generally would mind if someone else besides her were having pessimistic thoughts about failure, but considering who they were up against, it was all a part of the strategy—a smart one—to think of everything even if defeat is the worst thing. Granted, there were worse things than defeat, but in this instance, and with most in the shinobi world, defeat meant death.

"Well, this is a surprise… no wonder you were able to copy my jutsu…" Kisame broke the silence between the groups and directed the comment towards Kakashi.

But, in Kakashi's own fashionable way, his eyes never left Itachi and he didn't bother responding to Kisame's words. Kisame pushed his frustration into a snarl that bared all his teeth directing his next words to Itachi.

"There really is someone else besides you who has that eye."

"…"

Kisame placed his sword on his shoulder once more and the blue-haired kunoichi could clearly see that he was getting agitated that no one was humoring him and responding to his questions. Not only that, but without the talk, it was harder to boost his ego and demolish someone else's pride.

"Anyway, your name… Kakashi… I've heard it before… yes… I remember now, you're the copy-nin right? Do you have a clue to who we are?"

"I just saw some strange, unwanted men in a tea house and I was wondering who they were that… Imagine my surprise when I learned that it was both Itachi Uchiha and the mystery man of the hidden mist village, Kisame Hoshigaki" Kakashi said, finally acknowledging Kisame.

"Well, Well, Well… you know my name. It's truly an honor coming from someone so famous as well."

"It's hard not to know who you are when your face is plastered in every bingo book in all villages."

"That may be true. Plus, it helps that Amaya-chan probably has told you a little but about me… especially the last time I saw her…"

Kisame turned to Amaya and a chill went down her spine and she bit the inside of her cheek. She shifted her attention back onto Kisame who enjoyed her distorted facial features, putting two and two together as to why she was so nervous in regards of him bringing up his water clone visiting her.

"It seems as if she didn't tell you or her other comrades the whole story then…"

Amaya bared her teeth at the jab, matching how Kisame was looking at her. She knew she kept some of the personal details of their meeting secret, but it wasn't as if she left main details out of her explanation of what happened. It just pissed her off that Kisame was trying to imply that she was hiding something from Kakashi and the others when she obviously wasn't. But, maybe that was the whole point. Kisame was trying to play with her emotional side so she wouldn't think straight, he was trying to get her off balance and then attack, but besides her recent outburst, she made a pact with herself that she wouldn't let herself show to much emotion that would debilitate her ability to fight. She had to fight smart, not with outbursts of energy. Amaya knew what Kisame's game plan was, but Itachi still seemed to be in the dark. The kunoichi wanted to warn Kakashi about Kisame and how he tried to use people and their emotions against them, that it fueled his own large ego, but Itachi brought her attention back to him when he pressed his body weight more on the blade that was in front of her face. This action caused Amaya to grunt against the exerted pressure on her blade and evidently her hands and arms.

"Humor me… but you're one of the seven ninja swordsmen of the mist, correct?" Kakashi asked Kisame directly.

"Looks like someone did their homework before coming to this fight. But I'm going to do one better for you… I'm also going to answer the next question that I am anticipating you will be asking. I wield Samehada… the most terrifying of the seven mist blades… or so I have been told."

"I guess that I will just have to make up my own opinion of the blade… I've gone up against a few of the infamous mist swords and even though I don't want to, I think my odds of going up against yours won't be worse than some of the others" Kakashi said trying to provoke his own response from Kisame.

Kakashi's words seemed to hit the nail on the head as a vein started to expand and pulse in Kisame's neck, showing that the comment had gotten to him and he took a blow to his ego. The shark-skinned male looked frustrated, but Kakashi's words didn't seem to keep him down long, as a wicked grin grew on his face.

"I heard that that kid Zabuza had it out with you, yeah?"

"Yeah…" Kakashi answered, but one of his clones whipped out a kunai and Kisame answered by thrusting his word back in front of him as if it was a pissing contest to see who had the larger weapon.

"Then, I guess you know who the next person in line is for that blade—"

"Stop it, Kisame" Itachi warned, tilting his head to address his partner.

Amaya wrinkled her nose in curiosity because it seemed as if Itachi was trying to defend something. However, Amaya knew that that was another thought for another day, since she seemed to dodge a bullet thanks to Itachi. She would never outright tell him that anymore, but she could think it in her mind that thanks to him, she didn't have to explain something personal, to people that she didn't completely trust, with information that could potentially get her killed if she wasn't careful. Kisame locked eyes with Itachi, as if they were having a silent conversation with each other.

"We need to make this fast. This is taking up too much time and with enough commotion, it will cause others to come running" Itachi said casually.

"But—"

"Don't lose sight of the goal… you didn't come here to get into a fight and get injured…"

"Let's hear that goal then…" Amaya says, breaking into the partnered Akatsuki's conversation.

Without warning, Kakashi let his clone that was holding the kunai against Kisame's sword fade into a puddle on the ground. The only clone, or person for that matter, was Kakashi himself that stood in front of Amaya, but behind Itachi, but something seemed off about his placement. She knew that he didn't dissolve his clone just for the heck of it, Kakashi was planning something, and hopefully it would place them on the offensive.

"We just came to find something we are looking for…" Itachi answered vaguely.

"Something you are looking for?" Kakashi questioned before Amaya had a chance to.

A sudden silence fell over the group with everyone just taking in the others around them. It was as if there was an elephant in the room that no one wanted to admit to, even though everyone was dying to know the answer to the question.

"The thing that you are looking for… what is it?" Kurenai proposed her own question, breaking the silence.

Without answering, Itachi makes the first move and glanced his kunai off Amaya's front blade, causing her to whip around as his other clone took advantage of this movement. The action made Amaya take a defensive stance before she could slash through Itachi's water clone that was giving her issues. Turning back around to the front position she was once in, she noticed that Itachi had charged Kakashi and was thrusting a kunai at him, just as Kakashi took out his own metal weapon and countered Itachi's attack.

"I'm different from Kisame… I won't take a lot of time—"

Itachi's words got cut off by Kakashi nodded his head at Amaya as the two teamed up to go up against Itachi. Amaya takes Kurenai and moves her away from the scene so Itachi wouldn't be able to use her against the blue-haired woman or Kakashi as they seemed to be the ones that were stuck fighting the genius of the Uchiha. Itachi was about to turn and divert his attention to Amaya removing one of Itachi's playing pieces from the board, but Kakashi wove quick hand signs and Amaya's field of view was diminished when a wall of water protected them and himself from Itachi. However, Itachi was expecting this and lunged forward, dissolving the jutsu. With the hair at the back of her neck rising, Amaya looked down and saw Kakashi pass along a kunai from under the water to Kurenai.

Amaya would have reacted positively to Kakashi's brilliancy, but there was no time right now to do so.

"That's what I expected of you… the power of your analytical eye is great." Itachi stated simply before plunging his kunai into Kakashi.

At first, Amaya held her breath in her lungs, sure that Itachi had struck Kakashi. However, the expression of fear faded quickly as the clone dissolved and turned back into water. She realized that the Kakashi that passed Kurenai the blade was the actual white-haired nin and instead of giving up his position, Amaya started to approach Itachi. But, Itachi had other ideas and used Kakashi's own jutsu against him. As Amaya ran towards him, Itachi constructed a wall of water, right underneath Amaya. The kunoichi saw this coming and quickly jumped into the air to avoid the attack, but as she was coming down, she realized that Itachi had done something to the water. Little sparks started to feather from it and she cursed herself silently. Amaya landed onto the water and took the shock it delivered to her system, trying to keep her mind from going to where she was tortured in the land of snow. She knew Itachi could kill her easily if he wanted, but instead, it was if he was testing her to see how far her abilities went.

As the water wall broke open, rain started to fall around the group, making Amaya realize that she was now on the opposite side of Itachi, away from her comrades. Amaya flicked her wrists and made her water blades dissipate into the air around her, but for whatever reason, the blue-haired kunoichi heard her female friend gasp.

"Don't lower your guard, Kurenai… Itachi didn't become a division chief of the Anbu at 13 for no reason."

Looking back over to Itachi, the blue-haired woman noticed that the Akatsuki member had coughed up a large amount of blood into his hand. That was new Amaya instantly thought. She didn't know what was going on with him, but it seemed as if Itachi was severely sick or something else was going on with him. None of her comrades, including herself, were able to lay a hand on him to the point where he would be coughing up blood. The kunoichi made a note to store that information for later use as it may become important in the future.

"Well, he isn't in the Anbu anymore, now is he?" Asuma chuckled trying to diffuse the own tension within himself.

"You haven't seen his true strength yet…" Kakashi remarked.

"I didn't think that you could have mastered that eye as well as you did… but your body isn't from the Uchiha clan… your body isn't the one that is supposed to go with that eye… There is a reason why the Uchiha Clan is deemed the strongest and was feared…" Itachi started.

The wind started to pick up around the group as clouds blocked the sun overhead. Amaya held her tongue, having a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

"I'll demonstrate the true strength of the sharingan… the true kekkei genkai!" Itachi raised his voice.

It happened almost in slow motion as Itachi closed his eyes and reopened. Amaya could feel her heart stop in her chest as Kakashi's eyes widened.

"It can't be…" Kakashi said in a whisper-like voice, as he gave sound to his personal thoughts, even though everyone could hear what he said.

Amaya forced herself to take a deep breath and this seemed to jump start her heart making it beat erratically. She threw caution and everything else into the wind and out of her head as she used her own kekkei genkai to make her way to her comrades that she was separated from. She willed herself to travel as fast as she could, hoping that she could make it in time. Just as she started to react, mere seconds later, Kakashi yelled at Kurenai and Asuma.

"This is bad! Kurenai, Amaya, Asuma, don't look at his eyes!"

Kakashi never took his eyes from Itachi's but knew that for whatever reason, Amaya was still running towards them, not heading his warning. He would have been angry that she wasn't following his directions but he had bigger things to worry about at the moment. Kurenai and Asuma instantly close their eyes and drop their heads, not taking the risk and following Kakashi's instructions to the "T." Kakashi also closed his eye that wasn't the sharingan and prepared for Itachi's attack.

"What the hell is going on Kakashi?" Asuma barked at him, demanding to know what is going on.

"Only people with a sharingan can have a go with that technique—" Kakashi starts but then gets interrupted by Itachi.

"That is true that you can resist this mangekyo sharingan to a certain extent. However, this special visual justu of the sharingan, a genjustu titled: Tsukuyomi, the nightmare realm, is almost unbreakable… unless someone is using the same kekkei genkai... a true sharingan user… or… her…" Itachi gestured with his head back towards Amaya who was running full speed past him, with neon streamlines coming from the corners of her eyes indicating that she had activated the next level of her kekkei genkai.

Amaya heard what Itachi said about her and knew that the Uchiha would take this momentary talking a distraction for her comrades and use this as an advantage for himself. She also knew that Kakashi would probably have a thousand questions floating through her mind due to the nature of her kekkei genkai. In the future she knew she would have to tell him about it, but even if they got out of this fight alive, she knew for a fact she wouldn't be able to open up to him about it because in order to tell him about it would make her tell him about her past. As Amaya passed Itachi, she saw him widened his eyes briefly, engaging in sending Kakashi to an alternative land. Amaya rushed forward as Kakashi called out from the tremendous amount of pain Itachi was inflicting on him with just a look. Amaya knew that this was just the beginning stage of the genjustu, but in the next few seconds, that's when the genjutsu would officially take place and happen.

It happened in slow motion as Kakashi fell to his knees, trying to relieve some of the pain flooding his system. The blue-haired kunoichi ignored the looks she received from Kisame as she stood just behind Kakashi and bent forward, placing a hand over his sharingan. Amaya knew that it wouldn't get Kakashi out of the situation because the jutsu had already been cast, but she could do something to help ease the pain going through his body. So, now, instead of Kakashi staring down Itachi, it was Itachi and herself, and she wasn't about to let Kakashi be in the nightmare realm alone. No, she was going to go in and be there with him.