Now, I've got some guys telling me that Itachi is a tiny bit OOC. I'm very much aware of this and I understand what you're tryna say, but you have to understand that Itachi is one of the hardest characters to write because of his ridiculous self-control and indifferent nature. It's not really easy to decipher his exact thought patterns, making it very hard to write him based on how he thinks, since we don't know how he thinks. I've never read a story where Itachi is exactly the same as cannon, because, well, it's just impossible to write him exactly the same as cannon. He's an enigma. *This is where Itaweasel-hime nods her head in understanding*.
Another thing, Itachi is very much a man. No matter how strong his self control is, he is still susceptible to fall for a woman, i.e. Sakura, and he is bound to act differently from when he's a lover and when he's a shinobi.
Hope that clears up any misconceptions. Onwards, then.
Mendoukesei 25.
This was borderline insanity.
Yes, I was not in a good mood, and Naruto grumbling on about lazy kage-level shinobi was not helping matters in the least.
"Where the hell are we going anyways, dattebayo?" he yelled, obnoxiously loudly.
"Shut up, dobe. We're going to Oto," Saskuke-kun ground out through gritted teeth. Naruto had absolutely no concept of subtlety. Either that, or his obtuseness had just gotten worse throughout the years, something very many people thought an impossibility.
Clearly, fate was joking around with us again. As usual.
God, my life sucks.
There was an abrupt silence, before Naruto spoke. "Why?"
"Because that's where the traitorous medic is," Kakashi-sensei replied.
"How d'you know that, Kakashi-sensei?"
"He is a genius, Naruto-kun, whereas you're a knuckle-headed brat. His intellect gives him the capacity to understand such simple concepts as to why Orochimaru and Otogakure no Sato would want to kindnap Yamamoto Kita." Itachi said smoothly, a devious smirk forming on his sinful lips.
Tell me you don't wanna tie him on that oak tree he just landed on and ride his cock until he can't walk for a month, my inner said, suddenly bursting forth in my consciousness when she saw that smirk.
Tell me I shouldn't beat you to a pink pulp before packing you in a box and putting you in Naruto's brain, I growled back, not in the mood of having to deal with her inappropriate thoughts at the moment.
My inner promptly snorted. Does he even have a brain?
Come to think about it, Good point. I agreed, for once in a very long time.
"Ne, ne, Itachi Taichou, what d'you mean? I don't get it," Naruto said, face scrunched up in serious thought.
That statement seemed to solidify what my inner just said. Yep, definitely gotten more obtuse over the years.
"You know, Naruto," I begun, in that sweet voice that informed my boys how close I was to beating them up to a wrangled corpse.
"No I don't, Sakura chan. I'm just an idiot that should shut the hell up and wait for instructions from Kakashi-sensei and Itachi-taichou on what to do and when then follow them because that's what awesome ANBU operatives like you do." He rattled on, at a speed that would have made the Uchiha clan proud.
"Ah, I see you are developing a semblance of self preservation now. It seems my beatings have started having the desired effect. I am proud of you," I replied, smiling sweetly at him.
Every other male in the teams except Itachi gulped. I could even see sweat at the sides of their faces. Hana chuckled and came over to give me a high five.
It was very amusing seeing ANBU teams Hatake and Uchiha, revered to be the two most powerful ANBU teams in Konoha's history, and arguably Fire Country's as well, reduced to utterly terrified, trembling and scared little boys.
"How d'you do that? These guys have been in the bingo books since they were chuunin. Everyone is utterly terrified of them, and Iwa shinobi have the 'flee on sight' order against them, yet to manage to reduce them to shaking genins. It's just so awesome." Hana said, still chuckling at the shudders going through Sasuke-kun and Genma.
I smiled good naturedly.
"Even Kakashi-taichou is scared of you. The renown Copy nin is utterly terrified of his five foot three, pink haired student. You're just legendary."
"Hmm," I mused, innocently putting my finger on my chin. "It helps that the Godaime Hokage was my mentor and they know first-hand that if I so chose to do so, I could flatten the Hokage tower with my fists, don't you gentlemen?" I turned to them and again all of them, with the exception of Itachi nodded vigorously, an act that left Hana in a fit of giggles.
"Fuck," Sasuke-kun suddenly muttered from out of nowhere. Before he could continue, I was already on him, running my chakra on his body looking for something wrong.
Sasuke-kun was one of the more formidable shinobi. He was one of the most stubborn males I'd ever had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on how you looked at it) to meet, and it did wonders for his (questionable) mental stability. His stubborn nature is what made him exceptionally resilient and have ridiculously high pain tolerance levels.
This is what made gasp in shock when I realised just how unstable his chakra levels were.
"Your chakra levels are very unstable," I said slowly. I removed my hands from his body. "Tell me where you learnt to summon Manda, Sasuke-kun," I went on.
He looked up at me sharply, sharingan activating. "How did you know?" he hissed.
"I'm a medic, Sasuke-kun, and I can summon as well. You develop a relationship with your summon, and you can know when they are being summoned. You feel something of a tingling sensation when someone else summons them with no problem, but if your chakra is unstable, you know something's up, because there might be a probability your summon is being summoned against your will." I told him, raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms across my chest.
He sighed, sharingan fading from his eyes. He knew I'd caught him.
"After Anko taught me how to summon snakes, I practised on my own until I got used to it. One day I used more chakra that usual, just to see what I could do. He appeared. I summon him sometimes so that we can train together, and as much as he's fucking annoying, he's really helped me," he muttered, going slightly pale when Itachi's eyes narrowed in his direction.
"That is what explains your exhaustion when you claim to come from training," Itachi said, finally connecting the dots when Sasuke-kun nodded.
We travelled on for another few hours at the usual ridiculous ANBU speeds, and when we saw the looming shape of a slithering snake tongue emerging from the big-ass head of a snake, we knew we had arrived at our destination and the mood immediately became sombre again.
We stopped just outside the gate of the village, if you could even call it that. Itachi, Sasuke-kun and Shisui activated their bloodline limits, scanning the place of anyone we needed to go through.
"It is deserted. It seems, however, going by the haphazard nature of the alleys, that it was a hasty escape. The must have known that we would come after them without delay. Contrary to popular belief, Orochaimaru is still a genius, I believe," Itachi muttered.
A very unsettled feeling settled at the pit of my stomach. Something wasn't right.
"Let's go have a look," Kakashi-sensei said, leading the way into the village. Or rather, what was left of it.
We walked through the deserted alleys and streets, looking around. There was practically no living thing around. Meals were left unfinished, tracks were left in the middle of the roads, clothes in baskets, TVs left on...it looked like everyone was herded out of there in a huge rush.
Naruto wondered into what looked like a dark alley and his whimper of distress made us all rush there at blinding speeds.
Naruto is one of the bravest shinobi I know, partly due to his stupidity, and partly due to his iron will of protecting his friends, allies and those of his villages. Naruto never whimpers in distress. Never.
When we got to the end of the ally, however, I could fully understand why he did.
Piled up in mountains, one on top of the other were corpses. Chewed corpses. Chewed human corpses. There was a green sticky liquid dripping from them. Immediately, instinctively, I whipped out a test tube from my kunai pouch. I carefully walked to the corpses and scooped some of it into the tube. The pungent smell was despicable. If I was a lesser kunoichi, I know I'd have blacked out.
It was fucking disgusting.
"Otouto," Itachi called out calmly. His voice was cold, hard as steel. Oh yeah, he was pissed. "Summon him."
We all moved out of the way as Sasuke-kun grimly bit his thumb and did the required seals. He slapped the ground with his palm, the big pattern appearing and a pouf of grey smoke. When the smoke dissipated, Manda, the giant snake summon was there.
He looked down at us, hissing and nodding, acknowledging our presence.
"Sasuke," he greeted, lowering his head for Sasuke-kun to climb on.
"Manda," Sasuke-kun replied, sitting on his nose and facing him. "Who did this?"
Manda sighed, closing his scary, yellow eyes. "I did."
"Why?"
"Orochimaru told me. He blackmailed me. He said he would destroy my younglings if I didn't."
I sighed. "Manda, can't you get Orochimaru off your summoning contract?" I asked slowly.
"No, I cannot, regrettably. It's a contract. I cannot get out of it unless it's a two way agreement. He also has an affinity to snakes. If I get out of it with him, he can find some way to summon my younglings, and Orochimaru is a fucking bastard. I don't trust him with myself. I cannot afford to have him poison my younglings. The most I can do is warn you and Anko that I'm being summoned, and hope that you summon me." He said dully.
There was a tense silence.
"That green, stuff, by the way, is something Kabuto made. I think he wanted to confirm that these humans are dead."
"Thank you, Manda. Do you know Orochimaru's agenda?" Itachi asked, sharingan spinning slowly.
Manda seemed unmoved. He could tell Itachi meant no harm and was probably scanning the place of any life.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke's aniki. I don't know what the bastard is trying. He just told me to get rid of these people because they would slow him down or some shit like that. I think he was running away from Konoha. I could trace him for you, if you like," he offered.
"No thanks. You are right, however. He is running away from us. He captured a traitor we were about to assassinate, and he knew we'd come for him. Fucking asshole," Sasuke-kun growled, still sitting atop his head.
"Can you please take us to his lab? I wanna see what he had in there. Maybe I can try and get his intentions from what he had there," I asked. He nodded, before lowering his head again, and all of us climbed on.
He slithered his way there, going through a maze of streets and alleyways. We finally got to what was the only brick building in the place. We jumped down, and I was the first to walk in.
There were walls and walls and more fucking walls of chemicals, and most of them were for embalming. Decapitated heads stared down at us. There was each and every single human body part.
"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, is this a...a...oh my Kami, that's a dick," Naruto yelled, totally appalled.
Predicatably, Shisui and Genma collapsed to the floor in laughter. Kakashi-sensei smirked. I sighed, Hana grinned, Sasuke-kun sighed and Itachi raised a gorgeous eyebrow.
Naruto was such an idiot.
"No, Naruto. It's a penis, the male sexual organ. I recommend you check and confirm that you still have yours," I replied dryly, looking around at the chemicals on the shelves.
His face went tomato red, and it was Hana's turn to collapse on the floor in laughter.
"Oh God...Oh Kami," Sasuke-kun stuttered, stumbling backwards. We all rushed to the door that he opened, and my voice caught in my throat at what I saw.
"Oh My Kami," I whispered, feeling dizzy. I felt myself drop to my knees, and before I hit the ground, two strong, muscular arms wrapped around me, and held me.
This was total war.
Aaaaahh...don't you just love cliffys? *sadistic smirk*
Again, sorry for the lack of updates. It's called UNIVERSITY. It's sucks major monkey balls.
More randomness: this time I was listening to Hero's comeback, the first beginning credits song for Shippudden. EPICNESS! :D