Chapter 8:
Naruto flinched at the sound of the opening door.
"Go away Tobi," Naruto sat in the corner. The corner was usually where he slept most of the time. The rest of the room was too open, too free and big to be safe.
Too much open space…
Naruto listened as the door closed.
"I said go, I don't wanna talk to you and I'm not gonna eat for you!"
Naruto waited but the room was silent. He turned around and looked up at Itachi.
"You! I thought you were- nevermind, what are you doing here?!"
"I was wondering if you'd eat something, if you want to that is."
Naruto scowled, he didn't like this horrible guy pretending to be nice and caring. Naruto pushed back his surprise and seethed in mutual loathing.
"I'm not hungry," Naruto mumbled. It was an outright lie but he didn't care. Besides, he was always hungry now… Can't remember when he wasn't. Can't remember a lot.
Itachi closes the door and sits down, the bowl of rice sitting in his hands.
"Okay," Itachi sat down on the ground. He put the bowl of rice on the ground beside him and waited.
"W-what are you doing?" Naruto stuttered, shifting farther into the back wall.
"I'm waiting til you're hungry."
Naruto stared at Itachi. What was he doing?? This is the man that murdered his own family…
He was an Akatsuki. What was he doing playing good cop to him??
"Why are you being nice to me?" he asked. Itachi, what was with him?? "What do you want?"
"I want you to eat," Itachi said, not skipping a beat.
He was persistent, Naruto would give him that. He pressed himself into the wall. He turned his head and tried to ignore his belly.
Rice sounded so good. Too good, there had to be a trick, a ploy… there was probably something in the rice…
There wasn't any reason to trust this man.
Yet...he…
He'd never hurt him.
He'd never tried to restrain him or do anything to him. Even when he tried to kidnap him, he'd knocked…
Why was Itachi so confusing??!
Naruto grimaced and sighed. His stomach was ready to eat itself so he didn't have much choice.
He sat up and walked as far as the chains allowed him to go. Itachi handed the bowl over to him. Naruto stopped as just before he touched it and said, "this...this isn't drugged...ya know??"
"No its not drugged."
Naruto took the bowl, he'd have to trust the man who tried to kidnap him.
Tch, how messed up was this?
Naruto took the bowl and tried to pour the rice into his mouth, like he used to do with ramen broth.
Ramen… that sounded so unbelievably good to him now.
Itachi jerked him back to the present as he handed Naruto a pair of chopsticks that had already been spilt apart.
"Oh uh...t-thanks.."
He said thanks to that monster, what's wrong with him?
Naruto looked at the chopsticks and started to use them when he noticed something.
One of the chopsticks had been carved on the side, a small little Kanji that he could barely read.
'Ally'